Farm Charm by Gingiber for Moda Fabrics
February 18, 2020
Laura Muir describes her first-ever fabric collection as a “floral extravaganza.” She’s known as a watercolour and acrylic artist, but also loves to sew. And for her, fabric and watercolour is truly a match made in heaven.
A contemporary artist from Utah, Laura Muir is inspired by the mountains, valleys and flowers that surround her in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountain Range.
Unlike most of the fabric you’ll see in your favourite quilt shop, her line Brightly Blooming is produced a little differently.
It’s a digitally-printed fabric line, created this way to provide a much wider spectrum of colours in its prints and subtle tonal changes, thereby keeping the designs true to the watercolour medium in which the artist created them.
In the line, you’ll find large florals and watercolour washes. The painter-like quality means you will find it hard to find a repeat in a full yard of watercolour wash fabric.
“This fabric line is textural and vibrant, with all the nuance and flow that you would see in one of my original paintings,” Laura says. “Seeing that concept come to life has been incredible.”
She notes that you also won’t want to miss the two huge sixty-inch panels she’s created to promote positivity and self-value.
Laura: The Artist
Laura has been a full-time artist for three years, painting with either watercolour or acrylic paints. Recently, she says she has also experimented with digital painting.
To her work she says she likes to add textures such as thickened acrylic paints, as well as touches of metallics for a modern highlight.
Colour-wise, her choices tend towards vibrant and contemporary, favouring jewel tones including fuchsia and turquoise.
Within our blog series, we’ve now met a few designers who started their careers in stationery and other printed media—and we’re pleased to note that the Create Joy Project is another of Moda’s National Stationery Show discoveries. Laura observes that her venture into paper goods was intended to make her art more accessible to greater numbers of people.
Laura: The Quilter
Being a painter doesn’t mean that Laura doesn’t also know her way around a sewing machine. “I am a devout fabric lover and have sewn since I was a little girl,” she says. “My mother and grandmother enrolled me in sewing school when I was in elementary school. Designing fabric has always been a dream of mine, and I am thrilled beyond words to have the opportunity to meld my love of fine art and fabric together.”
Laura notes that she had a young start to quilting: she came from a family of quilters and says she made her first quilt back in high school: a queen-sized patchwork design with an Americana theme that she says she still has today.
“I have such fond memories of pulling beautiful fat quarters off the shelves to design my first sewing projects,” Laura remembers. “Then once I got my own sewing machine, there was no stopping the obsession.”
Wanting to design fabric since she was young, Laura says she knew that she’d need to find her artistic voice first. And her dream finally came true this year.
As a person who sews and quilts, Laura knows what quilters need from fabric: particularly in terms of how we quilters cut up and resew the fabrics back together. With this in mind, she has created a fantastic palette for us all to work with.
And shh .. as you keep an eye out for the Create Joy Project Fall 2020 collection, note that it is the perfect compliment to Brightly Blooming!
Brightly Blooming is proving very popular with store owners across Canada, and we are excited to be delivering it in March! There are also three quilt patterns available for download at createjoyproject.co. We encourage you to touch, feel, and experience the fabric you’ll use for your next creative project at your local quilt store.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Laura Muir and The Create Joy Project for Moda Fabrics.
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