Homespun E12 | Janet Wecker Frisch

hello everyone welcome to home buun where creativity and Community come together I am your host Misty Don and I'm excited to introduce you to Janet Wecker frish today she is a designer for Riley Blake designs and an incredible artist and you're going to love her story Janet thank you so much for being with me today I really really appreciate it so will you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and what you do yes thank you Misty um so I'm Janet Wacker frish and I designed fabric for Riley Blake designs and um I have uh been doing it for about 23 years amazing the first time I came here was after a quilt Market in Minnesota okay that's about the time I would have been coming by here we took a side road and my friend and I and she introduced me to this town oh how fun and um I went to the main shop and she she said Janet maybe someday you'll have your patterns at at this shop oh how fun that's that's how far back I remember um this company and um the first time I met you though was when my granddaughter Sydney and I came for the birthday bash I think it was six years ago because I had just started with Riley Blake okay and you and M I don't know who with but you were filming uhhuh around the shops yes and you came by and said okay Janet now we're going to film that's right that that would have been me for sure that's that's the first time I met you oh good well it's it's it's pretty amazing how quickly time goes and yes I'm so you started 23 years ago yes that's incredible and were you always designing Fabric or was it mostly your art initially I was actually trying to I was doing watercolor and I was trying to um break into the gift Market okay and I did a little bit but not not very much okay and I had an agent at the time and she connected with me uh with a fabric company and introduced me at that time to the quilt industry uh my first um collection was hungry animal alphabet and it made a big splash yeah at Market it was in Pittsburgh and um I've been doing it ever since ever since wow so but I always Drew I always did um drawings as a kid and um in fact I when I first started doing watercolor um it was uh it was late late in life really and I ended up going to school at 40 okay I finally went to uh college and that's where I learned all the commercial art programs at that time and just wanted it was a childhood dream to be a professional artist how amazing is that and it's it's just it's it's been amazing yes it's amazing it's been hard um but it's been very rewarding it's uh it's it's been great oh I'm I'm sure so so you had a whole previous career and and life before you were an artist then stay at home mom it's the best job so I I think so too I loved it when I got to stay home with my little right so stay-at home mom most of my young adulthood and but I always wanted to be a an artist and so I I tried to break in again like I say to the paper crafting world yeah couldn't do it it wasn't meant to be um finally I did L calendars the shius so's calendars but um yeah the fabric took off and it's just been it's just been great because you print a lot more art on fabric by the yard oh I'm sure that's so we're we're past a couple million of yards of my design so it's been it's been very fun is that a little surreal yes I can imagine how cool is that it's been great well let's talk how you got started and maybe how you found your style because you have such a really fun unique vintage style that is very identifiable to you um so how did you develop that that was hard that was so hard when my dad was still still alive he he was my mentor he did teach me from early on and um I brought with me these these books of kids so cool and um they're mostly from the 30s but these were the books that were around our house when I was a kid and they are as you can see old Fairy St fairy tale style yeah um story books and even this one I just can't believe this a patchwork quilt of favorite Tales how like I know I want to make this qu Ah that's so sweet anybody knows how to do this PL oh we could do that let's do that let's do it and it was these two the tall tale of fairy tales and this one has lost its I going to say you can tell it's been well loved yes oh elves and fairies elves and fairies I always thought this was me when I was a little girl I love that so I just poured over pictures I was not a strong reader but the illustrations were just something I just I just studied from early childhood how fun and so I would try to emulate those when I when I would draw and I just couldn't I never thought I could get that capture that very style I still don't think I have but I'm not I'm not objective but um that's what I that's what I try to do because that's what I love I love vintage illustration antique illustration and so that's what I love and um so anyway those that was my inspiration as as a kid and I love that if everybody thinks that I've accomplished that maybe but they do see the Vintage Vibe oh absolutely I I think you've absolutely accomplished it and the thing that I love is like there's always a little personality and Whimsy and fun that's you know sprinkled in all of your designs which is just really apparent in in in your style and that you love what you do I think that is very obvious and yes I do love what I do I know and and you and people I think when they see your work it's it's obvious it is to me I'm like man she's having fun I am having fun I and it's very illustrative style is what I do um children's book illustrators is what I also tried to do could not could not break into that market either but so so it's on the it's on the fabric and it's um very storytelling um look yeah especially with this pumpkin patch yes it's so cute so this pump pumpkin patch line is just so fun look at these little carrots they're hilarious and I will say that I do some hand workk okay used to do all hand workk um as far as your drawing okay uh ink and watercolor but as we got into the computer age and um antique illustration was going in public domain and uh copyrights were Freer yeah um you do have to be very careful what you use but some of this uh border stripe is from a public domain book really and then I am able to put some hand work workk in with them to manipulate it change colors and um put my own your spin I do I would call it my own spin but what I really try to do Misty I try to make it better yeah oh absolutely yes like if I don't quite like the colors that that artist look used I will I will change it and um anyway so this is the result and I just I just love it so cute I cannot get over these little carrots and these little onions they're so fun just their little faces and personality this this guy here looks like he's going to fight I don't know why but well there's a book there's a story about those vegetables I think it's called revenge of the Revenge of the veggie people maybe gosh like that I love that um anyway and then other illustrations in the line such as this quilt yeah um this one here that one that main panel I did watercolor and it was one of my very first watercolors oh my gosh this guy is I think I simply called him boo but I I did a water did this in watercolor it was one of my first and um when I sent it off to my agent it actually the painting got damaged in the mail oh but anyway this is the first time it got to be um published on fabric and this is fairly current right this is uh my new your new collection my new Halloween collection it is in shops now awesome um delivered in April okay so that's my that is so fun I love that oops yep we got an extra one in there and so that is um pumpkin patch and it has um large p patch panel there's that panel yeah um large patch panel these are very funny seed packets and um they are another case of I used vintage um a vintage ephemera it was vintage seed packs and these seed packs all were um human form only their vegetables really and I thought they looked creepy enough to Warrant um a Halloween line yeah absolutely but they're very fun um and I changed their names and uh gave them a little more of a Halloween take yeah but they're really interesting illustrations that's so fun 100y old they're very neat anyway so so do you do you collect some of these old illustrations do you okay I do oh okay I have been collecting antique illustration since I was a young girl really I love advertising and I've never dreamt that it would be such a trend in modern you know right uh marketable um product but I I do I have a lot I love it I have bought more I confess I have bought more well hey that's okay I've always collected it and yeah I I do have a lot well and I think it's it must be a great reminder too that like the things that you love can carry through all this time can connect to you know your career and this art that you're sharing I mean that's really special yeah and I think um I think a lot of people uh relate to it because especially in the quilt industry I think that's why my style took off so well in the for initially because my peers were the majority of the of the quilt buying public and they had seen some of what I do yeah in their childhood and they just identified with it so well and even me I you know I spent so many days at you know antique stores with my mom and my grandma and you know it still feels familiar to me even though it wasn't my childhood we were taking the kids through the antique stores exactly it's true and so thought of it but but and I think it's it it is like so beautiful and nostalgic and you can see the the human hand I guess in those early illustrations which maybe that's why people are so drawn to them yes yeah it's really amazing anyway so that's that's my uh pumpkin patch line awesome we also have done an old school line I have to say this is one of my favorites oh good I love old school and this is the main panel yep which I took a photograph that she looked like a teacher it's an old photograph the kids are it was a um um School photo of my grandma's oh my gosh I had two of them that my aunt let me scan and use so is your grandma in there she is but don't ask me which one you don't know I do okay I do know but she's got a little bit of a scow oh okay okay so I'll tell you later all right sounds good I love that anyway um and I always incorporate scripture also in my fabrics and so you can see the uh Proverbs 226 behind on this panel the photographs came out of my dad's sister's 1920s um friendship scrapbook oh how fun and all of their names the girls names their real names because it was a sign they had their sign so they would sign and so I included those two um so it was just real heartfelt project to do um anyway so that line um we also did a it's no it's um vintage vintage school yeah the projects are are vintage the globe the map um uh the map is a panel and this one is uh it's a free free project from Riley Blake designs and it's just bordered with one fabric oh my gosh the Hopscotch it's so cute I think that Hopscotch is such a cute it's perfect I think both of these are free projects too the P main panel and and the Hopscotch that's really fun I love the school houses I know they're so darling and um anyway so this consists of like I say the repeating stripe is the photographs yeah and then the rest of the school line is pretty much the typical school things you find yeah books letters all of those fun things penmanship yep I love this I'm a library lover so this I do like that too my heart yeah and this panel this is the size it's pretty large scale this is um I don't think this is the whole panel another picture of my grandma little bit cuter in this one sorry Grandma no that's sweet but um some of my dad's things are in here and just things I had from my family it uh family items I love that well I'm I love vintage photographs anyway and so maybe that's why I'm so drawn to this one cuz when I saw you incorporate all those you know those fun pictures of the girls I was like I love it it's so cute and everybody has some of those things around the house so yeah I have a photo of my great grandma that I mean it had to have been the same time period cuz it would fit right in with all of these ladies so pretty fun and then this one is the um it's a panel and it is a school books I'd have to put my glasses on we called school books yeah there you go see you got it right um anyway so I have a lot of old books old uh children's books from the uh 20s and 30s and so I did scan them in but I recolored them all so that they would be more trendy and um pretty yeah and fit with your palette but I love those books oh that's so fun and I think that's the majority of this collection here is the uh so one of the product that I came up with was this so this is the mat panel I'll take this out yeah you want me to open this one up I could open it a little bit okay these are the three colorways that the states come in so I designed the map and the um tossed stapes to be the same size oh nice thinking that you could so I have um fused prints on the back of cute and you could um good tool for a child to learn the states absolutely I love that so much I thought that was a cute that's a great idea cute thing to do with this group if my kids were still younger I'd be making one of these cuz I homeschool now you know so oh yes great project for homeschoolers perfect for homeschoolers I love that that is so fun Janet thank you and then press on oh press on of course such a special collection especially for us here you know yeah you want to say why well because it's based on Jenny's iron collection which is so fun and you know those are around Jenny and Natalie and I all the time obviously because she displays them in our studio and so then to see them you know merged into this beautiful collection is really fun cuz they Inspire us all the time so I love it yeah she has a wonderful collection she really does great I Incorporated some she who sews figures with that and some um mostly her her irons and anything that had to do with iron yeah so these are Jenny's irons only a fraction of them as you know mm there's so many she has you might have to do a second collection down the road many um but anyway so so then I thought and we worked on this before Co is when we first started and then we it got interrupted by that um they're but we got back to it and it turned out great all of her irons I found some patents that were ironing oh my gosh um all the text behind is uh clothing care and history of irons everything irons I love that so much plates are even her those were hers also so how did you capture you know the physical iron to then turn into your designs so when I and and I again did not know Jenny very well but she uh invited me on one of the retreat trips to come see her studio and it was the new studio yes which I just love CU it's the old library it's a great space we're very lucky oh my gosh and when I came in the front doors that's where I saw the irons cuz they're on both sides and I just couldn't stop looking at him yeah and so I asked her could I photograph mhm and her and Ron were in the back of the studio they were working on Campers or some kind of a project they just let me let me stay there and photograph away oh awesome and so these are actually it's a it's a little bit of a trade secret but these are actually the photographs that I manipulated and I did not I started I took them with the thought of hand drawing and painting them and as soon as I started you decided maybe not correct correct so I just wanted it to have a painterly look I think I accomplished it you definitely did but it took some it took some doing but they came out they came out really great so really like them well and I would have had no idea if I hadn't seen Jenny's collection what an incredible variety of irons there are yes like amazing and some of them really are like works of art they're so fun they are they they are yeah really fun and so I had uh found those patents and the care the and even the cords that's so fun Jenny's one of her favorites yeah the cloth cords and in fact that's something she collaborated with me on we started off thinking we would collaborate but Co came we couldn't yeah and then once I showed her everything or Riley Blake designs they showed her she had some things to say and so I had some edits to make oh that's awesome and the electric were were one of them that's really fun she wanted a stripe and she wanted it to read more like a stripe so it was really fun uh to work with her um if we lived closer or had more time which neither one of us do right um we'd love to do more yeah amazing um but these are some of the prints and colors the colors were based on her um other collection which is toy sewing machines she has a lot of yeah and so that's where the color palette came from overall and I ended up I photographed her her sewing machines toy toy sewing machines yes also and these are we did a fused applique oh awesome based on those that's really yeah and that's a that's just a patch um panel free project from Riley Blake and we have that one hanging behind me that's true it's beautiful and then of course your your girl is is over there the main yep main pant qu yep that's awesome so pretty and so those are my new lines out right now okay awesome these are sneak peeks o people will love sneak peeks if you do I tell if you want to that's up to you I think I can tell because they're on the story board on Riley Riley blak designs.com so you can see them there perfect um but I have this collection coming out uh sewing seeds three I did one and two years ago and so this comes out in February 2025 okay I think this just hit their site okay so I brought it and it's costume makers act two cute another Halloween for um April next April deliver oh my gosh beautiful quilts I don't know how much those are so fun anyway these are these are just really pretty beautiful pretty collection of vintage uh yeah that's so fun Vint and I brought the journals because the last time you and I together was last October and that was so much fun we had a retreat here in town that Janet was hosting and she taught us all how to make these junk journals using her panels which we I believe we still have in stock y um and so I think it's so fun you know to do this I just had a blast and every time I look at my junk Journal I cannot believe I made it it's so much fun you you guys were the best students you all finished your projects Yes mine still are not finished just my covers well you had covers but um but yeah I love these big covers now I did do so uh Journal a little later with smaller covers but I like these big covers I think you guys had in fact it was a so Journal Retreat you did a smaller one mine's smaller yeah and you did a great job all of you did it's so fun I should have brought it with me but maybe I'll share on Instagram so people can see it but yeah these These are so fun and um yeah they're still around they're still available that's really cool here at Missouri Star and so if you're not familiar on the junk journals we made fabric pages that we put inside so once she put together these covers and then we just embellished it with different fabrics and papers and photos and she had these really cool stamps um and we just we just junked whatever with whatever we had with whatever feels right to you it was so fun Jenny really yeah she had so many Treasures in hers yeah she really did yeah it's amazing well I just really appreciate you coming and sharing all of your wonderful talents with us and I just thought maybe we could send the last little bit of this conversation maybe talking about um what you would say to encourage others on their creative Journeys or maybe to um follow their heart you know you really jumped in at 40 and and and went with what you love true and and um you know now that you mentioned that I you know I've always been so well raised my kids once I went into this it grabs hold of you so much if it's your passion and it's my passion and it's my you know god-given ability and it's just I just naturally um I get kind of uh wrapped up in it a little too much no everything else goes by the wayside but I never had ever um thought about teaching or um helping others get started to do this because I've just been too busy doing it however I just am about to um embark on a new a new um Endeavor in my entrepreneurship awesome and it is it is I B I purchased a building I saw that I've been following you on yeah and um we I was planning on just using it for my office and um fabric storage and workshops okay we did uh four this past year well we have one more in October just a workshop space but then um and we're renovating this little old farmhouse old purple farm house I know that I'm thinking about painting but that's okay it's a mini it's it's like what you all your family has done to Hamilton on a large Grand scale I can't imagine well because I just one step at a time that's all boy one building at a time that's right so this is just as much as I can handle but um since we've been so so then I opened hours from uh Thursday to Friday just three hours a day okay to try to build up a a creative Community a creative yeah Community within I town and already just people have been coming in with all kinds of different stories and their creative Journeys and it's just been it's just been incredible um and I'm sure that's what you all have been experiencing here in Hamilton because um makers just they just gravitate toward each other and um so I'm going to get my opportunity I think I have a young homeschooler oh awesome she's just 15 that has started working with me and um I was contacted by a home School Association in that community and so we'll see what God has for us I'm not sure oh I love that but it it's just so fun and it's good to remain open to those new possibilities which I think you definitely have so but uh as far as anyone trying to get into this industry you know I was not a quilter or a sewer at all when I got into the industry I was an artist watercolorist yeah and um I just got thrown into it and I just started watching videos you could watch Jenny's videos that's true until I learned everything I could about it and um went from there I love that yeah just one step at a time just yeah and and I I think it's really interesting that you have really kept your style and you've you've stuck true to who you are and I think that probably has helped along the way would you say that yeah it has somebody told me once a long time ago cuz I wanted to do um primitive folk art but it's not my style yeah I uh somebody once told me you can't escape an artist can't escape their style it's kind of built in I think that's kind of true to some degree um so I I'm going to keep going and uh keep trying to see well that's good what images I can come up with I love imagery yeah I love it well and and you're so talented and I know I can speak for all of us that we appreciate all of the effort that you put in to your incredible work so thank you so much for being here and for sharing all of this oh you're welcome and can you let everyone know where they can find you if they want to follow along with what you're up to yes I am um on in stagram and Facebook Instagram is uh Jay Wacker FR M um I think uh on Facebook it is uh great joy Studio okay Joy studio-h Tidings of great joy actually okay and um and we can link in the description to that we Tidings of or we are great we are doing business as great jooy studio.com and that's my website everything is there um perfect so awesome well thank you again I really appreciate it and hopefully I'll see you again soon so okay thanks Miss you're welcome bye-bye all right bye