Oh, the interesting people I get a chance to meet!

I met Phyllis Dobbs at Quilt Market. Phyllis is an artist who licenses her whimsical art for various products and projects in the marketplace.  She is a quilter and author (and blogger) and most importantly a fabric lover.  (Phyllis and fellow artist, Anna Maria Horner, have been friends for years as they both attended various gift shows with their licensed goods.  Anna Maria told me I must meet Phyllis!) While attending Quilt Market, Phyllis was asked to use her artistic talents and develop a fabric line of Quilting Treasures and a little over a year later her line, “Sweetheart Ballerinas” is debuting and bolts are hitting quilt shops now.

I asked Phyllis to tell us a bit more…

“I am so excited about my Sweetheart Ballerinas fabric line with Quilting Treasures.  It was such a fun line to design and develop.  I painted the ballerinas - a black-spotted cow, a frog and a cat in tutus – because these are some of my favorites in the non-human world. (Although I think my cat would disagree that he is non-human).   They just had to dance, so I knew they would make great ballerinas. As they danced from my paintbrush, I put them in format for fabric designs.  

The fabric line began when I was walking Quilt Market in Houston last year. Due to the crowds in the aisles, I began walking on a random aisle with my portfolio.  As fate had it, Quilting Treasures was on the first row I walked.  As a fabric lover and stash collector, I’ve always loved their fabrics and knew they were the company I wanted to work with.  The result of that meeting is “Sweetheart Ballerinas”, which comes in turquoise and pink color collections.

It’s such fun to design and create quilts, totes, and other types of sewing projects with this fabric. 

I have photos of a tote and a quilt block that I designed. I’ve been designing quilts for 17 years for various publications and books and authored 2 quilt books, Dimensional Quilts and Fun with Flannel. I designed different coordinates that would work together to create interesting quilts. 

I created a quilt with “Sweetheart Ballerinas” for the Autumn 2007 issue of Designers Quarters.  

In addition, I used “Sweetheart Ballerinas” for projects featured 2 segments that I was on for Martha Pullen’s Sewing Room on PBS.  Both segments are airing this winter. 

When I’m not sewing, I’m painting and creating art for licensing on products.  My style of art is whimsical and very colorful.

I hand paint my art and then use the computer to format the art to fit various products in addition to fabrics.  I have a photo of one of the products featuring my art, a Christmas coaster, Merry Cocktails from Thirstystone. I enjoy taking art and rearranging it to fit many styles of products    

I’m just finished my next fabric collection to debut at Spring Quilt Market.  I can’t tell much about it right now, but just a hint – it’s based on something close many hearts, including mine.  I invite you to visit my blog where I discuss quilt projects as well as various other topics.  I plan to post projects that you can create.  I will also post pictures of my next fabric line close to Quilt Market.

Thanks Phyllis.  We look forward to seeing more from you at Spring Market.  Don’t forget to visit Phyllis’s blog and website.   

(Photos thanks to Phyllis and Quilting Treasures.)