http://www.quiltnow.co.uk 27INTERVIEWINTERVIEW
Discover more about
Art Gallery Fabrics at
http://www.artgalleryfabrics.com
and see the latest posts on
Instagram at artgalleryfabricsFI D U M E
Naomi is a PhD student who loves
English paper piecing. She always
has a little bag with her containing
fabric, thread and templates so that
she can sew on the go! Find her
on Instagram at naomialicec and
online at http://www.naomialice.co.ukDesigner:NA I
CARNaomi Clarke’s Bohème Paint Palette
quilt from Quilt Now issue 51
used Pat’s Indie Bohème collectionQuilts, creating eight collections per
year. In 2006–2007 the company became
Art Gallery Fabrics and in 2010 the fi rst
Art Gallery Fabrics designer joined the
team, Bari J.
I asked Pat if there is a fabric collection
that she is particularly proud of? Pat gave
this some thought before telling me that
the Indie trilogy (comprising Indie, Indie
Bohème and Indie Folk) were pivotal in
her career, “The Indie trilogy shows a point
in my career as an artist. It is about self-
confi dence and it’s about portraying how
important it is to be authentic as a fabric
designer and to show what you have inside.
All my collections come from my heart but
the fi rst Indie collection, especially with
the intensity of the colours, showed the
self-confi dence I perhaps didn’t have much
of before and then I started to have. People
responded to the way I intended to portray
it... they welcomed it with all their heart
and it was so successful, people really loved
it. The whole Indie trilogy is very special to
me, it comes from the soul, it changed my
whole way of designing and people need
to design from the heart... Indie built a lot
of confi dence in me to actually try to bring
something that is not commercial.”
To date, Pat has designed 43 collections
and the common thread running
throughout all of Pat’s collections, as
she explained, lies with a love of pink. “If
it’s a Pat Bravo collection it has to have
pink in it. Pink is my staple; it is me”,
she says. For the fi rst time, however, Pat
included a colour in her latest collection
that she hasn’t previously used – red.
Nuncia is a fabric collection that pays
tribute to Pat’s mother who recently
passed away. She says, “I remember she
was in bed and I had the opportunity to
ask her, ‘Why red?’ and she said, ‘Red is
the colour of passion, of love, it gives you
energy’...she justifi ed everything about
red. I see red and I see my mother... so I
learned to start working with red”.Despite designing a multitude of fabric
collections, and being the designing
superstar that she is, Pat told me she still
feels nervous before releasing a new fabric
collection. “As a designer I always feel like I
am releasing the fi rst collection, you know
I still feel the same stomach pain when I
show my collection to the fi rst person. If
I do something very special or diff erent
then I want to see what the reaction of
people will be. If people tell me they love it
then I can breathe. If I’m not nervous then
I have stopped caring about what people
think and I do care about what people
think. It is a conscious decision to prioritise
the customer and their needs because
I want the end result to be something
that we know the people will love.” Sheexplains. Upon meeting her, she positively
shone with creativity, enthusiasm, talent, care
and also resilience having had to work hard
and go through so much to be where she is.Pat Bravo has always sought to design and
create fabric that is the gold standard for people
who sew and I think that comes from being a
sewist herself. She demonstrates how important
her customers are by saying, “There are three
things that are key to me in what I do: innovative
design, quality, and customer service. These are
the foundations of what I do. We, as a company,
want to be the Rolls Royce of the fabric industry
and everything we do is for our customers,
quilters, and makers. We are nothing without
them, they are the queens and kings.”Download Quilt Now 51 from
http://www.pocketmags.com