You've likely seen sneak peeks of Simone Bradford's first collection, On Your Mark, and we're sure you're eager for more.
Today we're officially introducing Simone and her gorgeous fabrics; starting next week we'll be sharing what ten different designers have made using a selected palette of these modern prints. Meet Simone below and learn about her designs.
Here we go!
The brights:
And the low volume prints:
Q. How did you get into
quilting?
SB: A friend of
mine tricked me into it. She invited me to a retreat at her house, and when I
said I didn’t want to come, she suggested I just come for lunch. She showed me
quilting magazines, and I didn’t like any of the design. But then I found an
apple core quilt done in modern fabrics, and that got me started. A year later,
I attended the Road to California show and it opened my eyes to this whole
other world of creativity.
Q. Do you have an art
background?
SB: Since I was
in preschool, I knew I was going to be an artist. I’m a graphic designer. I’ve
done a little big of everything—logos, letterhead, t-shirts, brochures. I
studied graphic design knowing I could do it staying home with my kids.
Q. Do you have a design
philosophy that sets apart your work?
SB: A lot of my design
concepts come from asking “what are the rules and how do we break them?” Quilts
have squares, blocks, borders. How do we break that? Often good design comes
from knowing what the rules are and figuring out how to bend them.
Q. Was designing a fabric
line challenging?
SB: It started
with me banging my head against the wall for three weeks. I was designing on the
computer with Illustrator and nothing I created looked like me. I woke up one
morning and realized that I needed to go back to my life drawing skills. My
philosophy is that the computer should be the tool behind what you want to
create; it’s not the creative force.
Q. How did On Your Mark
begin?
SB: My thought
was to create a wide range of different marks on the paper. The collection
is Modern Sketchbook Mix: a series of
different shape, weight, thickness, color, and energy marks. It’s also a play
on words because “on your mark” is what you say when you begin a race, or start
something new.
Q. What was the first
print you designed?
SB: Exclamations. I started with Sharpie pens and then switched to Micron pens. When you look at
them, I’m not sure you’ll see them as exclamations.
Q. Walk us through the
rest of your designs.
SB: I did more
marks in a similar vein, called Smidgens. It has more Xs and Os in it, as well
as some hidden numbers.
Vowels at Attention: I felt like we needed at least one
design with some type of letter in it. I narrowed it down just to vowels, and
then added the shadows behind them so they’re standing upright. We can’t live
without vowels—there’s no written language without them.
Ink Splats are actually ink splots.I bought India ink and splattered the heck out of some paper. I spent days making splatter marks to get the right shapes, and to get tiny sprays coming off. Then I scanned them and borrowed the scribbled lines from the moons to add interest. It helps this print relate to the others.
Field of Flecks is inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. He had some
really beautiful sketches with so much movement.
Scritch Scratch was originally drawn super tiny. I wanted to
play with size and volume. I blew it up big when I scanned it.
Scribbled Moons: I saw some circles filled in with lines and
liked it. This design has both texture and depth with different colors and
layering.
Scribbled Squares are similar to the moons, but it’s more
flat. The fabrics need to be related, like brother and sister, but not every
design can be the queen mother. You can’t have too many queens living in the
same house.
Stamped Clamshells are made of triangles, circles and Xs.
Q. Do you have a favorite
print?
SB: I have two
favorites: Scribbled Moons and Smidgen.
Thanks Simone!
See the entire collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop.
Ready to sew? Download Simone's free quilt pattern, Gumdrops, here. Watch for more inspiration here on the blog next week!
They are really wonderful fabrics. I've already added a few to my stash. Simone has done a great job on this line and I am looking forward to watching her career in designing fabrics in the future.
ReplyDeleteHave fun sewing with it!
DeleteReally nice fabrics and love her "Gumdrops" quilt! It makes me think of bowls because I can't resist a good bowl-I have hundreds of them!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a great quilt?!
DeleteLove the fun graphics.
ReplyDeleteWe do too!
DeleteVery pretty fabrics! Have a great day!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You too!
DeleteWow,yummiest!!
ReplyDeleteAren't they, though?!
DeleteVery interesting collection of prints!
ReplyDeleteGreat colors and designs. Even the light colors are stand-outs!
ReplyDelete