The process of creating fabric told by a fabric hoarder

Hi, my name is Joey and I am a fabric hoarder.  I have two full dressers, an armoire and 15 cubbies full of fabric.  One can never be too sure when a fabric life emergency may come up.   I feel as an artist/designer, I have the gift of making the best excuses for why I just had to have the fabric and when someone is asking, "What are you making?" I can reply...."I don't know", with a surprised look of, "Do I need to know, it's fabric dah!"

 So, when QT Fabrics contacted me about designing fabric for them, I did a happy dance because dreams do come true. I started by pulling dolly images that I would love to see made into fabric.  Originally waaaaaaaaaay back when, I stored all my original hand-drawn dolly mamas in binders.  Now everything is in files on my computer.  I scan them into Photoshop so I can fix all the mistakes.  (Mostly coffee stains that I spilled or when I got a little rambunctious and colored outside the lines.)   Once everything is in Photoshop, I can start to put together the whole design.  Sometimes it works and other times I feel I should just get a job at Starbucks and call it a day.  But the creative fairies calm me down and in the end, it always works out...it always does....maybe not the way I planned it to.  (Yes, I am working on the control thing!

 Before I send my designs off into the manufacturing world, I will give them a 24-hour break.  There are many times I come back to a design and think, "Was I smoking crack?"  I tweak everything and off it goes.  Then I wait until I receive a mock-up of my work.  Once it's approved, my job is done and I'm off to create something else or go junk shopping.  Months and months later, when I completely forgot about it, a box of fabric will show up at my door, I will explode with happiness and add it to my collection.

PS...I would like to send a big shout-out to Janet Anderson and her crew for fixing any misspelled words and mistakes on my layouts and to Cranston Quilting Fabrics for giving me this wonderful opportunity. PS, PS....the Dolly Mama quilting fabrics will be in stores early fall 2018.