calypso

calypso
calypso by maude asbury

August 29, 2012

Designer Josephine Kimberling


Hi Everyone!  I'm Josephine Kimberling, one of the designers thrilled to be working with Blend Fabrics, stopping by to let you know a bit about myself as well as my new fabric collection Hope Chest.

I am a licensing artist who specializes in creating surface patterns and design solutions for a variety of companies.  About a year and a half ago I left the corporate world of 12 years to work for myself.  I grew up in Stockton, CA and moved to Seattle, WA to attend the Art Institute of Seattle where I earned a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration.


In addition to fabric, my artwork can be found on a growing list of products such as stationery, life organization, magnets, rubber stamps and even cake decorations!  I'm still coming down off of all the work that follows Surtex, and have some exciting, but still secret, things to come down the pike.

You can find me on my website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr and Linked In.

When creating my Hope Chest collection, the novels of Jane Austin and the beauties surrounding 19th-century England inspired me.  I consider myself one of the lucky girls since my husband enjoys watching movies like Pride and Prejudice and other British drama's with me.  We seem to watch so many and each time I see them, the colors, the textures and the collective types of fabric designs really strike me.  With Hope Chest, my aim was to create a fabric collection that captures my love of this period and that combines a modern and handcrafted take on a romantic sensibility.  Uniting the hopeless romantic with a dash of modern style and delicious color.
I just wrapped up my Hope Chest photo shoot a few weeks ago, received the pictures and am thrilled to share some of them with you today.  You can see more of them on my website, Facebook and Flickr.  If you are interested in knowing which sewing pattern I used, please swing by the inspiration page on my website for details.


With my background in fashion as a textile designer, my focus for my everyday fabric collections is to create a line of prints that women can see themselves wearing.  While I'm pulling everything together to make my vision a reality in my photo shoots, I focus on using sewing patterns that are relevant to the fashions going on now, and strive to mix my prints in a way that would inspire the wearer to feel very put together and pretty.

Like many artists, art and drawing have been a lifelong thread throughout my life.  Believe or not, I started out drawing realistically with pencil - things such as people, landscapes and horses.  However, my first job was working as a Textile Designer for Nordstrom and something just clicked.  It was where my style, aesthetic and cumulative art knowledge truly started to develop a life of it's own.  I also stopped drawing in shades of grey and my love for creating unique color combinations took over and flourished.
Now that I'm working for myself, I feel like each day is full of things I love to do - like it's just an extension of me so it doesn't really feel like work at all.  I absolutely love it!  So, when I'm not 'working' I enjoy spending time watching Downtown Abbey on rerun or Pixar and Disney flicks, visiting Barnes and Noble for a few hours to stock up on magazines while drinking a chai tea latte, shopping for the latest fashions to update my closet or my home and exercising such as running, hiking, weightlifting and Pilate's.  My husband is my absolute best friend who I'm lucky loves everything I've listed above, except for the shopping bit and choice of drink.  We've been married for 11 years this year and time sure flies when you are having fun!

Working with Blend has been an absolute wonderful experience {Thanks Anna, Joe and Kate for absolutely everything!}  I also attended my first Quilt Market this year with Blend, which was absolutely awesome!  It was so fun to experience Quilt Market and to meet so many people.

I can't wait to share with you my next collection, which offers something completely different than Hope Chest.  Think vibrant and global... and shipping in January 2013!
Global Bazaar by Josephine Kimberling

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1 comment:

  1. I love this kind of fabric! I've been looking into getting some to make pillow cases out of. Hopefully I'll be able to do this project soon. http://discoverfabric.com/3m5/fabric/by-collection/blown-away-by-josephine-kimberling.html

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