There comes a time in every young designer’s life when the pin board needs to be revisited. Old things need to be replaced with new things so the trail of inspiration doesn’t go cold or get stale. This is one of my favorite board arrangements and I thought it deserved to be memorialized before I took it all down. I tend to curate my bulletin board. I don’t just throw any old thing up there. It can be as simple as a postcard or a tear sheet from a paint catalog (much like the one on the mid right). These particular pages were liberated from a magazine in the waiting lounge where I get my hair cut.There was a fair amount of coughing and throat clearing that occurred while tearing. They probably thought I had Tuberculosis or something, it went on for ever, I suck at petty crime.

The real gems here are the fabric swatches.  It’s a brief history of fallen soldiers from various fabric lines. On the left you will find the rejected color groupings from Neptune. If I could have made that line 100 pieces I totally would have. There was some really good stuff in there that never got it’s 15 minutes (actually I made a quilt out of them which I will share with y’all as soon as I find my camera again). There is also a little bit of Nest rejects at the top and bottom but my favorite part is in the middle-ish.

These little guys were the original colors for Flutterby. After getting the sample swatches back we decided they were too soft for this line and went completely in the opposite direction. I saved them and they reemerged a couple of years later as Hushabye. So there you have it. Every bulletin board tells a story. I guess I fill mine with the ghosts of lost ideas. What’s on yours?

A while back I showed y’all the process for the feather print in Plume. That was my way of leaking what I was working on. There are rules you know. You can’t sell the cow before it’s been milked… wait that’s not the metaphor. Anywhoo, it’s out now so all secrecy is behind me and I can starting crafting new secrets.

Drawing drawing drawing, la la lala. After I scan the drawing into Adobe Illustrator I start redrawing the “skeleton” of what the final product will look like. Illustrator is the only program I use. I know that there are a lot of programs that structure your repeats for you and have a lot of fancy tools. I guess I am just an elitist or possibly just stubborn or maybe I can’t move past what I know but this is how I like it. I like to draw every line, every step, do all of the math, much like a psychotic control freak (not that I am one, I have documentation on this).

Filling in the skeleton is the first real glimpse of how the fabric will look. At this point I can determine if one section is beginning to look too heavy or if the spacing is weird (in a bad way as opposed to that quirky awkwardness that is so popular these days). By the time I get to color I’m pretty much sitting on the edge of my seat, now I have to start thinking again but it’s still the home stretch. Hmmmm I’ll put green there and blue there, wait, that’s too heavy and I don’t have any lights in this area blah blah blah… That was a sample of my internal dialog.

Once the pinks are dropped in and the background color is established I can take a little break. Then I come back and realize that it all needs to be tweaked.

This is the original color way. In the end I added some golds and turned up the volume a bit on the whole thing. And this is what you get…

Plume is finally in stores! YaY! I have been making tons of stuff. My quilter is pretty much either totally loving me or cursing my name. I’m not sure which. I have a bunch of stuff in the oven and am going to be traveling a bit so if you don’t hear from me as often just know that I am busy making stuff for your benefit. I might also being painting my living room which I have just about had it with.

Once a fabric line ships to stores I feel like I have just released a breath I have been holding for months. I finally have all of my samples made and am now settling into the calm before the creative storm when it all starts up again. I have a bunch of new stuff to show y’all. If only the sun would come out long enough to take a picture. Boo. Who ever thought winter was a good idea anyway? I know I didn’t vote for it.