Homespun E1 | Heather Bailey

welcome to Homespun where creativity Finds Its voice I'm your host Misty Don and today I'm joined by Heather Bailey a designer for Figo Fabrics who shares her journey from a childhood love of sewing to designing quilting fabrics for generations and sharing love through [Music] creativity hi everyone welcome to Homespun I am your host Misty D and today I am joined by Heather Bailey Heather thank you so much for being here can you tell everyone just a little bit about you um I'm a fabric designer for Figo Fabrics I've been working in the industry for almost 20 years at this point before that I worked for a free spirit fabric amazing that's that's so great I have to say you were one of my first fabric loves when we started the company I can remember NY Jane coming out and being like this is it there's fabric that I connect with and love so I'm glad that you are still at it and still making absolutely beautiful fabric so thank you thank you absolutely so did you start knowing that you wanted to design fabric specifically or was it just a love of art I began sewing when I was about 8 years old my family went on a road trip from Ohio to California and my mother had brought with her a dresed and plate project where she was sewing the little fans onto blocks but she wasn't working on it and I was bored so I had her teach me how and so I sat there that whole trip which was several days long and made her dressed in quilt blocks for her oh my gosh how fun and then at some point within the next year or two I snuck her sewing machine down to my room and made myself a pair of terry cloth flip-flops that was my first sewing machine project that's like a big leap I feel like you're like I'm just going to make a pair of shoes I don't think I knew enough about sewing to know what I could do and what I couldn't do or what I should do that's kind of the best part right you're like when you're first learning you're just was like well I want to make this let's do it yes but I think I knew it was naughty to some degree because I made sure the door was shut I love that it involved cardboard so um anyway that was my first like sewing machine project yes and then um and then I began to quilt more probably around age 12 okay uh my first my first quilt was actually pretty cool looking in fact I should have brought it maybe next time I bring you still have oh yes I wish you had you know it's you can tell the you can tell the date of the fabric choices but it was pretty cool to that's part of the history though actually had a half inch dark border around every block which involved having to sew it really well yes that's amazing so that was my first like quilt where I did it start to finish I had pulled that dresen plate oh yeah the dresen plate project around that same time I had realized it was still in my mother's closet in the same condition oh gosh and I think that's actually what triggered me to quilt was pulled that out and started putting sashing on it and then Midway through that made my own self a quilt which was my first official finished quilt I love that um but yeah it all kind of came back to this road trip um so anyway all through High School my closest friends got quilts as present my boyfriend's got dolls Oh My Gosh which is so silly but um so I sewed but I never really knew anyone else who did it was Something That Made Me Odd and unique uh and then in college I I left high school early to uh go to Premed because I wanted to be a doctor and I was concerned about how long it was going to take yes um and I took fashion design classes on the side as my stress relief okay so costuming pattern design textiles textiles didn't end up being that fun it was all um microscopes and you know we had a test once where we had to identify 80 swatches of fabric and all we had was water matches and a microscope wow I would have never thought and so that was the textile class really you're learning the like actual makeup of these fibers that's pretty cool yeah it was pretty intense and it wasn't it wasn't the fun class I thought it was going to be yeah anyway um I took those on the side for fun and uh anyway I won't tell you how I ended up switching my major but I switched it had to do with I realized I wasn't going to be the provider in my home and that it was just going to be this crazy amount of debt and I probably wasn't going to deploy my education in medicine so um I ended up switching my major to Apparel Design okay and uh that felt kind of light and fluffy at the time I I figured it was a move toward not having any particular career so I was taking my fun classes and just turning them into a major well in a connection to graduate to something that you enjoyed obviously it was something I enjoyed I think in at the time I was deciding career medicine no career okay pursue what you love okay I wasn't seeing them as um combinable yeah you didn't see how they could merge yeah that makes sense wow so it's a little ironic Looking Back Now that I have a full-on business in textiles absolutely so anyway um even in the fashion design program with other people who are sewing side by side with me I was still odd in my Approach because I love to make things I was there because I love to make things and a lot of them were there because they loved fashion they loved maybe more to express themselves or say something really unique with clothing sure and I was more coming from a technical perspective like I wanted to know how things were done wanted to be able to assemble things um and so outside of college so graduated with a degree in Apparel Design and and um outside of college I started a children's hat business called Noggin when my first son was born I had a rep in San Francisco that was selling to high-end boutiques and all the hats looked like fruit and vegetables oh my gosh so I had one that looked like a peeled banana um and then that morphed into a women's accessory business called trash ties I remember do I remember trash ties yes oh that's wonderful I followed your blog so I I absolutely remember that so I invented this hair accessory called trash ties it's inspired by the little twisty tie that we used to put around garbage bags before the Cinch yes the cability um and so it's a little twisty tie thing that you put in your hair it looks like little ribbons it's very cute they cute and it's actually like sewing your hair so it's like stitching your hair together or or stitching it up into cute updos yeah so um my children's hat business morphed into a women's accessory business when I pursued the patent for that product okay okay so then that business started to take off like wildfire it was in InStyle magazine glamour Mademoiselle it was in Neiman Marcus Henry bendle's yeah Bloomingdale it everywhere and then all the little boutiques that were big at the time I think the Kardashians own one of the boutiques boutiques that they were in this is before everyone knew who they were um anyway they were in all the like super cool stores yeah but that uh ended end up catching attention of big companies that then knocked off the product and the patent wasn't issued yet it was patent pending which means they legally could do that so I decided that I would pack that business in until the patent issued and I had this strange like twoyear one and a half twoyear period where I had money coming in from the hair accessory sales and no pressing business demands because I was waiting for my patent yeah and I started exploring art during that okay brief period and we're getting we're getting to the fabric I love it no this is amazing so I I started exploring like painting and drawing I wanted to illustrate a children's book so I was learning to paint for that um and as the patent was about to issue or barely issued I I had a summer I had just had a baby so my second child was born in 2005 at the beginning of 2005 that following summer um her dad had created some business that cost a lot of money to set it all up and I just thought you know I need to I all these little businesses I had done weren't really ever intended to be a long-term plan for our family they were just some little flash in the pan thing that my attention and I then it ended up being big and then I you know like it was never intentional yeah and that summer I had a realization that I needed to do something intentional and consistent for my family to be part of the the um to to to level the boat because because he was you know exploring big things and new things too and I felt like that would be the best thing for us is if I had like aist yeah a side business oh that little side business has turned into something has it yeah again all my little side businesses kind of so um I was in this Frame of Mind and I remember it was September 26th of 2005 um I was on the computer which was rare in those days I would touch a computer once every two weeks yeah um I was on the computer and I had come across this blogger who was making dolls and I was like oh my gosh like a doll friend she's probably younger than I was she was probably five or seven years younger than I was but she was online making quirky weird dolls that like nobody would buy it was clear was making them because she Lov it yeah and it triggered this introspective cloud of thoughts that resulted in my aha moment um I just thought wait a minute you know here's somebody somewhere else in the world and and and why have I not come across people like this in my personal life yeah why why is this so rare exactly because I have a degree in Apparel Design I've I've pulled all nighters with 20 or 30 other um makers mostly women but there were some men in the program too um trying to put together fashion shows and stuff we're all sewing but we still didn't connect on on they didn't quilt they didn't make dolls they didn't do anything that was more like home spun or or I don't know how would you explain the difference between quilting and doll making versus fashion there's something more it's almost an in an heirloom too right like it it's something that's going to be treasured and honored whereas clothing whether you make it yourself at least in my experience whether you make it yourself or buy it it it has a life cycle right like those Fashions come and go whereas handmade items hand like I think of the things that my grandma made me when I was young she made me dolls she made me quilts and even little dresses and because I knew that she made them with her own hands they're special to me and I think that's the differentiator between um maybe fashion and and what what quilting brings to the world I think you're right I think it has something to do with like loving somebody yeah through SE through through your creativity because almost everything I ever made was for somebody else except for that first quilt yeah like I don't have any evidence of all the quiles I made because they they go away they were an act of Love yeah absolutely and and that's the same for me if I'm creating for outside of my work like I I design a lot for work but if I make at home it's always for a purpose for someone like that that's why I do it and so I I I think that's the magical piece thank you helping me you bet um so yeah I I just thought there I've been around other seers but I've never found that connection with people who understand why I so and I had this Epiphany that I could go my M my mother was a quilter I could go to a quilt store and if the Fabrics happen to be on the dowy side like let's think of the most drab fabric you've seen like something really and it has its own appeal but something really dusty maybe sure and and for some people that's what they love but not everyone yes exactly and I um but I was thinking about my generation like why did I not have friends doing this and I realized that I could go to a quilt store and it didn't phase me what was there because I could create the pattern the design add the Pizzaz whatever I needed to do to um make the statement I wanted to to make but my peers didn't necessarily have those skills they didn't they didn't know where to start if they walked into a quilt store they might just assume it wasn't for them turn around and leave MH um whereas I would go there and say okay this is a creative problem to solve what's here that I can work with what can I do um and so in that moment honestly it was in within a 30 minute window I thought they don't come they don't sew because they don't know yeah right they don't know they don't know yeah and um it just dawned on me that I because I I had those skills I had the exact skills needed to evangelize sewing to them yeah I love that and I just thought that there's no products for them they can't walk in the quilt store and know that they will love this and because I had just discovered blogging in that same 30 minute window I was like I don't need the quilt stores to even understand it I just need to get the product that the people will love and I need to get online and show them why they should sew and it was just I just knew I was like okay I have to do this this is what I'm doing absolutely and uh with I think within a day I booked a flight to Quilt Market which was one month later oh my gosh and the goal was to go talk to the president of my favorite company with a portfolio yeah and I'd never designed fabric I didn't know how to do a repeat there were no online tutorials there were no books no there's nothing at the library there like there nothing anywhere about it Heather this is amazing I had no idea I mean we've talked many times I've met you before but I just had no idea that you really leapt in with both feet like I just knew I had to do it and that the time was now or i' be stuck waiting a whole year yeah that's true and I I just I don't know how to explain it I've only I've had that experience maybe twice in my life yeah where the hair accessory actually came in a giant flash yeah and I don't know where that came from but um I'm super grateful for it yeah absolutely um yeah it was just it was a Monumental moment in my life that I knew I had to do it and and I knew I was right um and I booked a flight and you know it wasn't like I was certain I'd have a good portfolio by then I was certain I was going to do my best to try yeah and that worst case scenario maybe I'd get a handshake and 30 seconds of someone's attention sure and best case scenario maybe somebody would Mentor me or maybe I'd even get a contract yeah so I went to coot market Fall of 2005 um met with Donna Wilder who is amazing industry changer she's retired now but she was a Visionary early in our community and uh she was willing to take risks on things that were new in fact she was excited things that were new yeah I love that and I met with her and and she just she just said yeah I want to work with you can you turn a fabric line in I think it was due January or February wow and you know fortunately she liked my portfolio I did not like my portfolio really well no I was willing to show her but I was like oh shoot it was turn that in yeah that makes sense um so you know I still felt like I had to go home and and still learn how to heck how I'm sorry how the heck to do um what I had just committed yeah that's that's what I was just going to ask so how did you make that leap how did you learn the repeats and and did do you design digitally or you design uh do you draw all your designs how like how did you make that leap then to okay well that first fabric collection is called fresh cut yes um I tried a few different things one of those designs was a mum print a very um three-dimensional print with mums okay I painted that one with with gouache okay um but then when I found that it was time to color it it was very hard to figure out what I wanted to do with color really important to fabric absolutely and uh once I had the design painted I was like okay how do I convey what colors I need this to be in I didn't want to just take a gamble on swatches so I reillustrated it in the computer wow um and I used a bitmap program for that one so that was like Photoshop anyway really hard to get that program to work with the printer I had at the time so then I also had another painted design that was actually a a a painting of Marie an toinette oh my gosh and that I didn't put it in the collection because I didn't work out the repeat but I I still have the painting oh how cool so I don't think anybody knows that fresh cut originally had a mar antonet print in it that's really cool but I should probably pull that painting out I would love to see it yeah that's so cool um and part of that was she had gotten complicated as you would imagine having a human in in the fabric um and I I was still stuck with okay what's my process so I didn't know how I was going to reillustrated her in time to make it to make her fit well maybe you need to bring her back in a future a future project or a future collection yeah so when when Tula came out with Maran tet print I was like didn't she did one that was similar similar yeah and I was like Maran tette yeah anyway um the short version of that is I ended up preferring to work with pencil okay and uh working everything out by hand because there's I really care about the Lil like the sway of a line sure the way that it flows I want the shapes to feel like they're dancing and now that could be some prints might have a dancing movement but some might have more of a rhythm sure um but if they're if they're flowing I care a lot about the curve um and I find that pencil has enough drag if we want to get technical get the curves the curves just right so I do my my drawings by hand with a pencil and then I scan them and reillustrated them in uh illustrator which is a vector based program sure yeah oh my gosh I love that I had no no idea I'm so excited to know that like you came from uh Apparel Design and then made this Amazing Leap that's like this full circle moment from your childhood love like I just feel like what a beautiful Kismet thing it's so great so then once you designed this this first collection and sent it off um how did did you know that this this was the right thing for you like did you know right away I knew in that first aha moment um looking back it's kind of funny how bold I was about it because my first Quilt Market the following year with a fabric collection to promote um I did a 30 minute class called Schoolhouse where uh industry people can present to store owners what maybe what they have coming out like new products or how to how to work with those new products and I hadn't been to a Schoolhouse before so I was imagining that they really needed like really valuable information uh like educational so that it'd be worth their time yeah I didn't realize you could come and just show them your new product just show your Fabrics yeah so I created a whole um a flyer it was a multi-page flyer about the internet oh how funny and it had a glossery on it that I was explaining like um and it's funny looking back cuz it's so silly there such basic words but I did ask them when I got there I said who's heard of a Blog and I think there were about was a full room of maybe 100 or 150 people mostly store owners yeah I think two people raised their hands wow and and it was confirming because it was like okay okay okay okay this is going to work and they don't know it now the really big thing to know back in 2005 is the quilt industry was a sad place it they thought they were dying yeah and statistically they were there's a analysis that's done every year on like industry statistics yes and the average age of the quilter was aging one year every year wow which means no new people right and so it was it was kind of a a sad place and I was so certain um actually by that point by the by the point that I showed up at Market thinking nobody would know who I was um and that this was my chance to meet people um I had already started my blog and I had all kinds of people excited to meet me but I had already been approached at that point by maybe 12 Publishers to write books wow because of my blog right and so I knew that the other bloggers were getting similar opportunities and so when I came to the quilt quilt world I was like you don't understand there's this new wave of excitement that's coming it's coming you you haven't seen it yet it's coming because you guys don't know a Blog is yes you're not online so you don't understand you're not connecting but if you get online or find those of us like like me who are online and getting these opportunities and you connect with them then all the people who are coming on the internet and getting excited about quilting are going to show up in your shop yeah right absolutely well it reminds me of early on when we started the company Jenny tells this story often but Al came to her and was like Mom I need you to to film tutorials and she's like sure what's a tutorial and um and he's like I want to put you on YouTube I want you to teach quilt blocks YouTube is going to be our Center for Learning and I just think that's such a like for him to have that Insight early on because when we started YouTube is just one year older than Missouri Star and so it was all just like prank and fail videos and funny funny things at the time but now if we want to learn anything we we search it up online and we have either blogs or YouTube or something out there it's such a valuable resource that so many people were underestimating at that time and I think continue to underestimate even now isn't part of it though that YouTube didn't allow you to upload very long videos back then I honestly can't even remember anymore I did a pilot video um I filmed it and uh actually took it to some companies that wanted to sponsor it and I got stuck with a well first of all I wasn't ready to run a huge film operation but um a lot of it was technical like where do you put this online yeah I'm not sure smart to be there right in the beginning well and in in many ways it was just uh just just luck it was it was good luck and and just trying things being willing to try things and I think obviously that's been um present in your your career as well like being willing to try and put yourself out there I think that is such a man so bold of you to just be like I'm going to do it I feel called to do this thing I'm going to put myself out there and try it and uh now you've been at it for almost 20 years and continue to create in incredible collections like I love every single one that you put out they're so beautiful so thank you for sharing your gift with us and being willing to to make that leap and say I'm gonna go present this portfolio in what was it a month yeah it was a month it was a month it was either a month or it was going to be 13 months right so if IID had a six-month option I would have gone for it that I love that's true right you're like somewhere in the middle would have been great yeah would have been better oh that's so funny so if you had advice for anyone else who who maybe felt or or continues to feel like odd like they don't fit in um but they are looking for that Community what would you say to them that's interesting because um I think a lot of times when someone feels that they're not fitting in uh they're waiting for someone else to be the connector and maybe they need to get to to be the leader you know get at least get themselves seen be seen be known so that there's some opportunity for you to connect with other like-minded people yeah I think uh I I was really shy growing up which surprises a lot of people now because of what I do but um I found it really really hard to connect with people in my youth like I I I often felt misunderstood or alone or just afraid to put myself out there and I think one of the things that I've learned over time is just that when I when I am brave and I stand up and I put myself up there and I talk about the things that I I love and I tell even little Snippets of my story um people come and they do connect and there's always people who are who are looking for someone to stand up and be brave enough to say you know what today was a bad day or you know just just being honest in our um our journey and that's part of why I want to have these conversations because so much of what we see is this beautiful finished process you know they they see the fabric they see the quilts they see the tutorials you know and all of those things have gone through a lot of work to get to a point where they look good and there's a lot of mess and and uh travel that happens in between to get to that point and and I just think if we're willing to share that with people hopefully it will um Inspire more people to open up and explore their creative passions and share them with the world and so I'm just so grateful for you being so vulnerable and honest and sharing that that story I mean it's truly inspiring thank you heather you're welcome so is there anything you have coming up that you're super excited about that you want to share with us um I have actually been creating more fabric than I typically put out a collection every year and a half two years yeah um I I put a lot into a collection so it takes me many months to do it um and often there's maybe 50% more Fabrics that were created that didn't end up in the final can imagine yeah so there's a lot of work that doesn't ever even get seen um I have been creating more fabric lately than I have in the in my career so I have a collection coming out uh this month this month oh awesome yeah like right now wonderful um in fact I think my sample yardage is arriving at my house today I have to send someone over there like please put that inside yeah so um that collection is called wild abandon um it's it's a richer more deep Jewel tone collection than I you know I like lie hearted happy colors it's still has that but it has a little bit more of a soulfulness to the color palette oh awesome and it has PE in it oh fun I love that that's so great well thank you so much for being here today can you just let everyone know uh where they can follow you or find out more about you if they want to keep up with what you're working on yeah um I'm at um my website is Heather bailey.com okay on Instagram I'm Heather Bailey um spelled as you would imagine yes um I'm on Facebook too and then I also do fine art painting and I coach people who want to learn how to do fine artart painting so like portraiture and stuff like that well I need you to I I need that and I have a I have a little itty bitty Instagram for that called Heather Bailey art okay um but for anyone who's curious about that I don't post there very often that's amazing it's kind of a quirky fun little thing side thing so well we're gonna talk about that more for sure because I would love to to learn more about that so maybe I need you to be my coach Heather oh that' be fun awesome well thank you again for being here I really appreciate it and I will talk to you later so bye hi everyone [Music]