Fabric of Portland

Last night I attended the monthly meeting of my guild, the Westside Quilt Guild. We were treated to a "trunk show" from Violet Craft, a local designer of children's clothing, quilt patterns, and fabrics. Because she lives in the Portland area, it was especially fun seeing her fabric lines, inspired by the local landscape and items in her personal life.

She is currently a licensed designer for Michael Miller Fabrics and distributes her own line of sewing patterns. She lives in Beaverton, Oregon, with her husband and two daughters.

Violet's journey to fabric design took a circuitous route. Born in Dodge City, Kansas, she holds degrees in business and finance. The start of her career in software development brought her to the Pacific Northwest. Drawn to art, craft and design, the birth of her first daughter compelled her to begin her career designing her children's apparel line, Kung Fu Bambini, that reached boutiques in 2004. Her first fabric collection debuted with Michael Miller Fabrics in Spring 2011 along with the first Violet Craft Distinctive Lifestyle Sewing Patterns.

When the Houston International Quilt Show put out a call for modern quilts, Violet submitted this quilt, which was accepted. Keep in mind that her quilts are from her own line of fabrics.

She also has a line of patterns, and this was her first broken herringbone pattern. The fabrics are inspired by local Portland flowers and landmarks.

She'll be teaching a class for our guild in January 9, 2016, on the curved piecing technique that was used when she designed her quilt pattern, "Breeze Blossoms". Here she's indicating the fabric inspired by the dots on dominoes. 

And here is a better image showing her fabrics inspired by local wildlife, her grandmother's doilies, flying geese, and other local flora and fauna.

Locals will recognize the bridge below as the historic St. John's Bridge. Violet explained that the applique was cut from a single piece of Kona solid using an exacto knife.

The bridges in Portland were the inspiration for her Bridge City fabric.

Here is another image of her broken herringbone pattern done in a different fabric line,




and yet another colorway. These quilts contain her fabric line "Memoir," a text fabric created from a story she wrote about her life and her surroundings.

This next image is her paper-pieced Forest Abstractions pattern, which is available for purchase on her website.

 



Here are some of Violet's fabrics. This one was inspired by the drawn plans for the landscaping at her Beaverton home.

This one was inspired by her two cats. 

She's obviously a woman after my own heart with her many cat inspired fabrics that come in several different colorways.



And this one was inspired by a photograph taken in the fog one day. Look closely, and you'll be able to see that she added cats and deer to the design.

These are only just a few of her fabric designs. You can see more at the Michael Miller website.

You can also follow Violet at her blog, right here.

The guild meeting was the most interesting thing that happened in my day yesterday. I ended up running a few errands in town and doing a little housework. There was no time for quilting. This morning I finished up the unknown submission for the Live, Love, Teach quilt. I knew this one would stitch up fast.

The weather has not been to Smitty's liking, and he's been spending most of his time seeking out marauding mousies in the basement ceiling. Thank goodness for our hard-working cat.

Today is the last pick-up day for this week's CSA, and it's a combined two-week pick-up. We're promised lots of "storage vegetables" and advised to bring extra boxes and bags. Also, I was able to score one last dozen of eggs from the farmers. The chickens aren't laying as much now with the shorter days and colder weather. Hopefully, I'll get some more quilting done today.