Cotton + Steel Collection: Mustang by Melody Miller

Hello happy quilters! Our Jolly Jabber special guest today is Melody Miller. She's the creative director and founding designer of Cotton + Steel. With her pink locks and dazzling smile, Melody is not new to the design world. She previously designed the Ruby Star fabric lines for Kokka. We got a chance to talk to her about her new venture, Cotton + Steel and her Mustang Collection.

 

Q: Tell us about your collection. What were you inspired by?

A: My collection Mustang was inspired by a wide variety of things. 2014 is the year of the horse, and the horse prints are the first time I've ever put animals in my fabric designs. I was very inspired by the look of vintage 3D photographs, and wanted to borrow a little of double-image overlapping color for the horses.  Many of the other motifs were nods to my previous collections, although re-scaled and re-imagined for my first collection on quilting cotton. 

Q: What is your background in design?

A: My background is in Fine Arts. Through a long and winding road, I had an idea to manufacture a line of baby bedding at one point, and hoped to use some of my favorite Japanese fabrics in those designs. However, I wasn't sure of the rules about using other designer's fabric in small-scale manufacturing, so I decided to play it safe and make up my own fabric designs. After a few months, I had an entire fabric portfolio, and decided to shop it around Quilt Market in Fall of 2009. My work was picked up by a Japanese company, and my first collection came out in Fall of 2010. (I quickly dropped the manufacturing idea once I realized how much I loved designing fabric.)

Q: What projects do hope to see made with your collection?

A: When we designed our collections for Cotton+Steel, we knew people would be quilting with them, but we also wanted to create fabric for people who make garments, handbags, home accessories, and other projects.  I hope Mustang is used for all of those things! 

Q:  How do you describe your style?

A: My style is vintage-inspired, sometimes nostalgic, with an occasional nod to artists in the pop art movement like Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol.

Q: What does Cotton + Steel mean to you?

A: Cotton+Steel is a culmination of all of the things I've been working toward for many, many years. I work in a collaborative environment with wonderful people who are my dear friends, I have positive and inspiring relationships, I am creatively challenged, and I'm able to work harder than I've ever worked for a project that means the world to me.

SURPRISE! RJR and Cotton+Steel have graciously donated fat quarter bundles for us to give away! Today, we are giving away Melody Miller's Mustang Fat Quarter Bundle to one lucky winner. Just enter the giveaway through Rafflecopter below! The more entries you complete, the more chances you have to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway