Amy Butler Lecture - Quilt Con 2013

When I first started getting back into sewing in 2006-2007ish - I came across Amy Butler's website and was blown away by all of her handbags and designs! I was bitten by the AB fabric bug and have never looked back! I mean come on, who doesn't love a great handbag?? ;) So, needless to say, I was looking forward to actually seeing Amy Butler in person at her lecture at Quilt Con this past Saturday! The title of her lecture was "Creating Your Unique Color Story." I was already really excited to hear about her fabric design "process," but I certainly never expected her to "speak to my soul." I know that sounds, as she says, "a little dodgey" but that's exactly what she did! Amidst her beautiful photos from her recent trip to Egypt in December 2012, she spoke about recently attending the "Ignite" conference in New York. It was a weekend full of inspirational speakers on how to live life intentionally and authentically. Doesn't that sound awesome? She shared her personal vulnerabilities in expanding her work to include a new online magazine, Blossom which recently debuted. She said "when fear knocks, you're meant to go through it anyway." Isn't that so true? Scary for sure, but exhilarating and inspirational on the other side:) Who can't relate to that whether it be your creative process, personal or professional life? I don't know about you, but a healthy sense of fear/hesitation can be the exact thing that makes you try something new, keep you on your toes and expand your horizons! It can be so freeing! I know I have personally done that recently regarding my professional life and it has really felt good to do some new things and get out of the "safe and comfortable" zone. The key message of her talk was this:
 She displayed these absolutely drop dead gorgeous photos of her trips. She said what she does is groups the photos that really speak to her (maybe they're just plain beautiful or they evoke a certain feeling) and looks for colour themes. She said she then puts collages together and colour matches them with paint chips(she said she gets hers usually from Lowes). How cool is that? I'm definitely going to try this sometime. Next, she starts to draw images pencil/pen and then her assistant will match up the paint chips and produce something digital for her. And voila....this is where she starts with her fabric collection. This is obviously a simplistic paring down of the process and I hope I've remembered everything she said, but hopefully you get the idea:)


 

Amy is so awesome!

 I loved her message in that whether you're new to sewing/designing, no one sees colour like you do. We are each unique and there can only be one of us. So go out and try something, be authentic and see what you come up with! Trust your instinct and intuition. Okay, I couldn't resist, I'm not usually a groupie but after such an awesome lecture, I had to meet her in person and tell her so - so she was doing a book signing and I got this picture taken. How funny do we look! Amy is so tall and I'm so short so she sat on a stool when this picture was taken:)
 Not only is she beautiful on the outside but it's obvious she's beautiful on the inside as well! Okay, by the way, isn't Craftsy cool! Well, they're extra cool now because they've put all of the Quilt Con Lectures on their website for FREE.....check them out! Here's Amy's lecture (courtesy of Craftsy) Oh yeah, and by the way, I said I would never really get in to sewing clothes...maybe baby ones but never adult size....well, now I have to take back those words! I'm going to try her pattern, Liverpool, in tunic size. So cute! I think it was seeing everyone in Texas wearing cool boots and thinking this tunic would look so good with them! Now, off to shop for some boots!