Here’s one of Peg Conley’s watercolor inspirations for her Clothworks fabric line.
Remember our See How We Sew exhibit at Quilting in the Garden last fall? Well, Darra and I had the pleasure that weekend of meeting Peg Conley, a watercolorist who was selling her greeting cards at a nearby booth. Peg shared the exciting news that Clothworks had just tapped her to design a fabric collection based on her very pretty watercolors. Today we have the pleasure of sharing Peg’s new line with our readers. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the giveaway details!
PG: I’m thrilled to announce my first collection of quilting fabric developed with Clothworks available in stores this fall. It’s been a long and winding road to get to this point of “living a creative life” as I call it. My artful life entails “playing” with my watercolors, writing, making connections for licensing my art and, at this point, growing my greeting card line called Words and Watercolors.
My life as an artist began in college when I graduated with a degree in Interior Design, two courses short of a Graphic Design degree as well. I started exploring watercolor illustration back then when we took rendering courses. I loved the medium immediately and have played with my paints ever since. I’ve always been captivated by life’s little pleasures as well as the beauty inherent in nature. That’s what I try to capture with my artwork and what inspired Nature’s Glory, my Clothworks collection.
A swatch of “Nature’s Glory” by Peg Conley
Creating the designs for the collection was great fun as it allowed me to go back to my graphic design roots. I work with another graphic designer, Sarah Stangle, who has been instrumental in helping me define the look of my brand, grow the greeting card line, and develop other products based on my paintings. Sarah is well versed in Photoshop and InDesign, programs I didn’t learn in college because they weren’t available then! Together we designed the patterns and selected the colorways for Nature’s Glory. It was truly a collaboration with my watercolors as the inspiration.
A lovely citrusy print from Peg Conley’s Clothworks collection, “Nature’s Glory”
Joyce Cronkhite and Candice Hoffman of Clothworks saw my work at the stationery wholesale show last year where they were captivated by a poster-sized rendering of one of my citrus fruit illustrations. Joyce loved it immediately and saw its potential for quilting fabric. She actually selected the images that inspired Nature’s Glory.
Another coordinating print from Peg Conley’s Nature’s Glory–a mouthwatering close-up of juicy citrus.
I work either outdoors or at my dining room table. My paintings start as sketches, which can be fairly tight initially, and then loosen up as I add paint while listening to jazz music. As long as I sketch from real life, I can finish with watercolors using a digital photograph for reference. Sketching the actual object is much easier for me than looking at a flat image on a computer screen. I suspect it has to do with the vibrancy of the object or image I’m sketching. I can “see” it in real life and capture that vibrancy on the page.
The artist’s creative life–Peg Conley at work.
More Nature’s Glory Coordinates–Three Colorways Available
I’m happy to report that Sarah and I are busy working on our second collection for Clothworks!
Giveaway Details With Another Quick Turnaround!
Both Peg and Clothworks are contributing to the giveaway(s) today–so two lucky visitors will win a box of Peg’s beautiful Words and Watercolors stationery plus a fat quarter sampler of Nature’s Glory from Clothworks! What better way to experience Peg Conley’s artistry? So, what commenting challenge can I pose for our readers? Simple. Share your favorite quilting word(s). Leave me a comment by Thursday, July 11 and I’ll announce a winner on Friday, July 12. Apparently, I’m also announcing the winner of the mega giveaway on Friday as well so there’ll be all sorts of excitement here at See How We Sew. (And I thought the French wedding was exciting . . . details to follow soon!)
Jennifer’s favorite quilting word: F-A-B-R-I-C!
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