Last week, I got some strikeoffs from Kokka, and my husband was nice enough to take a few pics before I had to send them all back.
I'm really happy with this print. And as many of you pointed out on twitter, the design is quite a bit bigger than you might have expected. I had such a nice, wide piece of fabric to work with (62" or so) that I really wanted play with some larger designs.
In case you're curious, the rectangles are the individual colors used in each print, and I've stapled my color corrections right on top.
Also, I really want to wear this fabric as a skirt. Just sayin.
Now, you have to tolerate me posing with my fabrics. This is what happens when the following elements coincide: 1 photographer-hubby, 2 kids with a babysitter, a pleasant spring evening, and a little too much time on our hands.
This is one of my medallion prints. These were inspired by Lisa Congdon's project last year, A Collection a Day (day 91). I just loved those vintage flower motifs on the aged white paper coasters. My husband says my design reminds him of a box of confections.
Here's another colorway of the bee print. And what am I lookin at? Who knows.
As the designer, I secretly find this to be the most gratifying part of the print. It's the fabric designer's equivalent of seeing your name in lights.
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Recently on twitter, Amanda of msmcporkchopquilts asked me about my inspiration for this line. I wanted to answer, but there was no way 140 characters was gonna do. So, Amanda, this one's for you. (p.s. I just realized you're taking an internet break... hope everything's ok!)
Last year, probably no one remembers this, but my line was originally supposed to debut in the spring. When, at the last minute, it was held off until the fall, I felt like I was facing a void, and needed to do something to keep myself busy for the next six months until fall market. One of the things I did was just go ahead and design a spring 2011 line. (To set the record straight, I wasn't officially asked to do a spring line until about 2 months ago, but I was being optimistic).
Some of my designs looked like this:
Little did I know that Echino's fall 2010 collection was full of deer! So, a couple of months ago when Kokka officially asked me to do a spring collection, they said "you know, like the one you sent us last year, except without the deer".
Hm.
Trying to extract a deer and replace it with something else is harder than it looks! I spent WEEKS trying to find a suitable replacement. Here is a sampling of motifs I tried:
There was something wrong with every last one of them. Some of them made no sense at all (a longhorn?! a shoe?!) and others seemed like a good idea until I dropped them in the design where they became an instant rorschach blob.
Anyway, I searched high and low until I started looking at public domain images from really old scientific manuals, and that's where I found the insects I used. Somehow, and weirdly, they fit better than anything I had tried, so I ended up with a moth, a wasp, and a dragonfly:) The pretend-embroidery didn't work out this time around, but I enjoyed playing with the little pixels until they got bigger and bigger.
I can't wait to show you all the rest of the line!
