THE COLOR OF THINGS...

My first memory is of crawling, in my pale pink snowsuit, to my mother and the hem of her long grey coat which I pulled myself up on. 
My memories have always included the color of things.

 

I had a childhood filled with crayons, pencils, and paint brushes, along with fabric, needles, and thread. I was born to play with color.

I worked my way through college as a production seamstress in a traditional factory – a sweatshop. My job was stitching shoulder seams. I stitched one seam after another - day after day – month after month - on a super fast Merrow machine.  I loved it. I challenged myself to hone every micro-movement of my body until I was a smooth running machine – in the flow. It was a meditation - peaceful and mentally freeing. 

After design school I made traditional quilts for fun. I was a purist - using only fabric, a needle, and thread. But only one quilt a year was too slow, so I reved-up my sewing machine and, with my art and design background, started designing one-of-a-kind modern wall quilts, and commissioned wall hangings.

My art was slow going for a couple of decades while I raised four children. When my youngest turned thirteen I rented a studio - a third floor walk-up. 

I mixed my love of fabric with my oil-painting-artist-self and, using fabric as my paint, began stitching works of art which I framed and, gosh-forbid, placed behind glass.  Soon I was at street level where I opened a small storefront gallery/studio on the main drag through town.  After a couple of years I made a baby quilt, just because I like making stuff for babies, and put it in the window. I quickly learned that “things” sell better than art. I opened a shop on Etsy and began selling to the world.

I currently am a surface pattern designer for fabric, wallpaper, and giftwrap and run two Etsy shops - Fern Leslie Baby where I sell modern baby quilts, and Fern Leslie Studio, where I sell quilted Christmas stockings made from fabrics of my own design.

I am now on the third floor again where I work in a large, two room studio under the jutting roofline of a downtown professional building. It’s a space of efficiency, peace, and beauty . . . set up for a smooth work flow, where I'm surrounded by quality fabrics, good music and vibrant colors – pure heaven. I send the good vibes out to you with each of my items.