It is my pleasure to feature the creative design team of Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson… I have always been a fan of folk art and primitives and these gals are some of the best around.  I had a chance to chat with this sister team bit at last Quilt Market and to see their latest fabric line with Moda, Prairie Paisley.  They also have a line called "Winter" (see Fat Quarter bundle photo.) coming out in July. (Threaded Pear designed a quilt out of the "Winter" line and will be posting it soon.)

Prairie Paisley is literally flying off the shelves at quilt shops. This red, cream and blue line is perfect with an Americana flair…(It has nearly sold out and has been re-ordered and it has just been out a few weeks!)  Plus, here is a sneak peak of their next line, "American Primer" (Shown here) which will debut in a few weeks at Quilt Market. This line will be available in October.

These two authors and artists are certainly busy, but they agreed to tell us more about what they do and how they do it!

Here are Polly and Laurie:

We are pleased to write this for your readers - as we find ourselves involved in a totally "dream" job - we want to share a little about ourselves, what we like, how we do it! I guess we realize first and foremost that being able to design fabric for Moda Fabrics would be a dream job for most everyone, so knowing that is maybe what makes us work so hard.

We are always on the hunt, talking, planning, collecting and trying to stay ahead in this work, as soon as you turn in your collection - bingo you can enjoy it for a day and then back to the drawing board as they say. Yes we LOVE working for Moda and we so enjoy our fellow designers, we only hope that you all get a chance to meet the fabulous staff at Moda that makes this possible and keeps you in the wonderful fabric that you love. We find as we travel we are always asked pretty much the same questions, so we thought we would try and answer them for you and in doing that you will get to know us just a little bit.

The most commonly asked questions:
#1!!! How did YOU get this job! We hope after you read this you will maybe think we do belong!
How do you keep coming up with new designs?
Do you get to pick your colors or are they given to you?
What comes first - the colors or the theme?
How do you do this when you two live so far apart?
Where do you get your inspiration?
How did YOU get to do this when you do not sew!!??!!

OK, let's begin. Keep in mind that we pinch ourselves daily for getting the opportunity to do this, as they always say "find something you really love and figure out a way to do that for your work!" I think that we spend a part of each day on our -job- if you want to call it a job. We are always in search of the next item that will inspire us, discuss colors that will work, and what we can add, a theme that we both like. We may be making a piece in our studio, designing a new pattern, putting colors together, it is always something to make sure your next collection will be well loved!

How do you keep coming up with new designs? Thankfully for me this may be the easiest part, I think when we chat with our fellow designers, we all have something that is easier for us - be it they are a true artist and can paint or draw anything thought they have in their head - or are skillful with their sewing, understand color or are creative - we all have something that is easier for us. For me, it is thinking of new ideas and themes! I guess our minds never stop, we are almost on the next project before we mail in the current one.

Our studios have photos on bulletin boards, photos stacked up, or for me antique items stashed away for the "just the right moment!" For me, it is just to look up from my current rug and look around me. I have been a collector for Americana and folk art for many, many years - and our house is always a house of props - I just see something a little different one day, and bingo it is a thought for a future project. My collections include: vintage patriotic sand pails, game boards, Noah's Arks, early textiles, trade signs, blue sponge ware - so just to look through what you love will give you some inspiration for a future collection. I always tell people - just look around you! Laurie and I are both collectors, not all the same things which is another plus when gathering our wits for the next idea. I may get a call from Laurie as she is walking through a show or flea market and she hits upon something that triggers a good idea, and the same for me - a thought will come to my head and I will jot it down in the back of my checkbook or call Laurie - and we are off and running. This works equally for us and makes that part - maybe the easiest!

 A bit from Laurie:

What inspires us in our designs of quilts, rugs and fabric for Moda?  Well, just about everything as Polly has said.  It certainly helps to bounce ideas off each other.  I know if a topic is brought up by one of us and the conversation moves quickly back and forth - that is a good sign for us.  Often, because we have the same cultural and familial references, we speak in half sentences and single words and the other one totally understands what we mean.  That is certainly one of the perks of designing with your sister.

We love anything old and poking through antique stores has given us more inspiration than you can imagine.  You know when they tell aspiring writers to "write what you know"?  Well, I would tell aspiring designers to work with ideas and motifs that you know well and love.  If you love something, you will be amazed to find you are your very own expert on it!  One thought leads to another and one image leads to another. 

For instance, when we were working on the Airedale quilt and rug for our first book, Folk Art Friends, we of course were working long distance.  Polly asked me what colors was I thinking of?  "Well, we know what color Dixie is" I said. (her Airedale at that time)  "When I think of Dixie it reminds me of the Scotty Dog quilts from the 1930's.  Except, our projects won't be pastels like the 30's quilts, but Dixie's colors make me think of Bakelite - which is certainly from the 1930's.........." (See above photo with Polly and her dog!)

Does that sound like gibberish to you?  Polly knew exactly what I meant and when we pulled fabric swatches for our projects we found we matched perfectly.  Reds, golds, ambers, browns - just like vintage Bakelite jewelry.   We have found we always visualize this way - one thought, then another until the entire project is down on paper.  Works the same way with a fabric collection.

Prairie Paisley was started from a conversation about an antique fabric swatch and within an hour - we had a concept for the entire collection.  Imagine someone collecting fabrics all with a paisley image on them - all from many eras and places and yet they all work because of a common color palette and a love of paisley.  We envisioned a rich, layered grouping of linens and quilt fabrics collected over a period of time.  We are crazy about Prairie Paisley and we hope you are too

More from Polly:
Before I was lucky enough to join Moda - I was a long time contributing editor to Country Home and Coastal Living magazine. I was also a stylist for them and went off on many an assignment to film houses - so my brain has been crammed with many beautiful photos and ideas and I am thankful for that! With all we have going on now, I do not have time to "style" anymore, but I am always writing and sending in thoughts on an item or story they may like - I so appreciated and loved my work with the magazines. I am a self-taught interior designer and so often look at most all I do with a "decorator" eye. I am so thankful for these previous endeavors, as they are a great help to me daily.

What comes first - the color or the theme? Always depends, we may get excited about colors we put together and work from there. But usually I must admit it is the theme that gets us fired up and ready to charge ahead. Certainly we look at everything each day with a thought to a future project and that makes each day fun - we always quickly call the other to see if possibly they may like it as well~ When we did our books together - we would do a hooked rug and quilt that would work together. The same happened while doing the books - maybe I finished a rug that inspired Laurie to get busy and do a quilt -- or maybe I saw a beautiful quilt she was working on and it spoke to me in such a way I could not wait to find a way to design a rug that would work. It always just seems to work out! And do we pick our colors or are we given colors?? No, we are not given colors, we all have a "niche" area and we are free to work within that area!

Continue reading on next page.... 

How do we do this when we live so far apart? Yes that has made us get into the "tech" world and it has served us well. I now live in Naples, Florida and Laurie is still in our hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan (Brrrr*) and we can still do this without much trouble. We email daily, scan photos or fabric swatches, use the cell phone - it just works. We usually only work together once or twice a year for just a couple of days, the rest is long-distance. While at market you can find us in a room working well into the night to take advantage of our time together.

How could you get this assignment when you do NOT sew???? I know that could be very annoying to many of you that make beautiful quilts, but remember I am the one willing to purchase those beautiful quilts. I have long collected quilts - both antique and contemporary, I love everything about them - except having to make one! I don't think I will ever be a quilter, just not enough time. I hook daily and I make 25-30 hooked rugs each year, so you can see I have little time to take on sewing - I will continue to be the customer for you. I started hooking rugs in the 70s and I hook a great deal, and must say I love the art and love to be able to work on a project each day, even take them with me when I travel - I never miss a chance to work on my art. Laurie and I work pretty equally on each collection - and I must say it is Laurie that knows what fabrics quilters like and I trust all that to her - we work together on theme and color. I love the decorator part and am always working on items to go with our collections - so we both have different strong points in our work and that makes it wonderful when we pull a collection together. I am very proud of the Basic Wool Collection that Moda is offering, and check out some of the beautiful wool quilts Laurie has made! If you work with wool for rugs, penny rugs or quilts you will love the quality and variety of our wools - we work on that constantly.

What all this comes to, is that we feel so lucky - we are simply doing something we both love and we hope that comes through with our collections. We listen to you and know that you also love Moda Fabrics, it is our wish that you get a chance to meet the wonderful people behind the scenes at Moda that makes all the wonderful fabric available to you!

Thanks Polly and Laurie.  Looking forward to seeing all of your great stuff.

Photos thanks to Polly, Laurie and Moda.


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