Designer Profile

Hello,

This month we are celebrating the creativity of New Zealand designer Désirée Simpson.

Read on to learn more about this talented lady and to share her love for all things creative. We have included some stunning photos of Désirée's work from her personal collection, there is a free pattern sheet to download of six flower appliqués to add to your pattern stash, and everyone who purchases one or more of Désirée's patterns before the end of August goes in a prize draw to win a free Désirée Simpson pattern of their choice.

Questions and Answers

Where do you live?

I live in Dunedin on the edge of a forestry reserve with half an acre of garden. It's a five minute drive to the centre of town but it feels like living in the country. I have always lived in Otago apart from a year at Teacher's College in Christchurch. I was raised on a dairy farm and then my parents managed the Lowburn Ferry Hotel in Central Otago. You can see some of my memories of these times in my New Zealand quilt designs.

When and how did you start designing patterns to sell?

I started sewing and crafting at an early age. I remember building little fairy houses in hollowed out tree trunks when I was five and still enjoy making little things like doll clothes and miniature embroidered fairy shoes. My first attempt at sewing on the machine was my school rompers when I was ten. Mum tells me they were wearable!

I taught for a while at secondary schools around Otago and then was a stay- at-home Mum until I was persuaded to work in a craft and sewing store (it didn't take much persuasion). At Jan's Patch I was asked by the Elna educator to design a doll pattern to showcase the Elna machines. My first pattern produced in 1999 was a cloth doll with lots of machine embellished clothing and I taught this to machine dealers around New Zealand. I followed this with a small wall hanging featuring lots of dimensional appliqué and machine embroidery. The owner of Jan's Patch, Shirley Wright, had the patterns printed to a very high standard and she continues to do this. No photocopying and (we hope) no inaccuracies for us!

Is designing your full time job? Designing was and is very much an "in my spare time" occupation (although my husband might disagree with this when I am in the middle of something!)   What influences your designs? My design ideas come from various sources. Often it is a suggestion from retailers passing on customer requests - for example, "make a fairy quilt" (Enchanted Garden Fairies) or "make one for blokes" (Memories of a Country Life). Shirley has lots of suggestions from traveling around craft shows and listening to what people want. When I am designing a quilt purely for my own pleasure, I like to turn to antique textiles. Hardwick Hall was based on a tapestry by an English noblewoman in the 16th century and Field of Flowers is based on tapestries by medieval and pre-Raphaelite artists.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a design from an antique Chinese rug of two fighting dragons.

Once I decide on the theme of a quilt I go to the library and saturate myself with pictures on the subject and then let it all percolate until some original ideas pop up. Fairies had me stumped for a while until I came up with the idea of using photos of my children. That cute little baby in the water lily is how my son slept in his cot and the little girls are my daughter! I find the computer a useful tool as I am not much of an artist. Scanning a photo, making it black and white and removing most of the mid tones gives a good outline guide. If you are lucky enough to have Photoshop or a similar programme, you can then find the outlines or use Threshold (Image>Adjust>Threshold) to get a strong black and white image to trace. If I don't have a suitable photo, I start off with a stick figure and fatten it up until it looks right.

What is your favourite style of patchwork quilting and what technique do you prefer?

My favourite style of Patchwork is machine appliqué. I love the freedom it gives to include tiny detail and to recreate realistic flowers, landscapes, people etc. I love to drop those feed dogs and use the thread like a pen. For this, my trusty Elna Quilter's Dream sewing machine is ideal with its large sewing table, knee lifter, twin lights and built in scissors.

How else do you enjoy spending your time?

I am a real craft junky and when I am not working on a design, I will be doing something else with my hands.

I love embellishment - beads, button, lace, ribbon embroidery, hand-dyeing threads etc and of course I love crazy patchwork. I make cloth dolls and it was a real thrill for me to be asked by Patti Medaris Culea to make one for her book Creative Cloth Doll Couture.

I have dabbled in many crafts, but keep coming back to fabric and fibres. My present interest is fibre art books - it is like making a book of miniature embellished quilts. You can work through ideas without having to commit to a major project.

I also confess to being a fabric junky with unfussy taste. I love the soft, old fashioned prints like early Robyn Pandolph designs, the retro appeal of Amy Butler, those rich Japanese prints, the hand-dyed Bali batiks ... the list could go on!

Everyone who buys one or more of Désirée's patterns before the end of August 2009 goes in a prize draw to win another Désirée Simpson pattern of their choice. We have two patterns to give away. Désirée's Free Flower Applique patterns These gorgeous flower appliqué patterns can now be downloaded from the fionamarie.com free pattern page. Use them on a cushion, the front of a bag, to pretty up a plain quilt border, together in a wall hanging ... the possibilities are endless! - Go to our free patterns page -

Recipe from Désirée's Kitchen When I am not stitching, I enjoy gardening, reading and cooking. I am known in my family as the Pudding Queen (you can tell by my "cuddly" figure!) and one of the family favourites is a Tiramasu type dessert. It makes plenty for a family gathering. 1 cup of very strong coffee ¼ cup of rum or brandy or whatever you have in the cupboard ½ cup of caster sugar 4 egg yolks 250 gm cream cheese 2 ½ cups cream 1 ½ packets digestive (or similar) biscuits ¼ cup cocoa Beat sugar and eggs until light and creamy. Beat in cream cheese at room temperature until very smooth. Beat cream until thick pouring consistency then add to cream cheese mixture and beat until mixture is thick and spreadable. Layer mixture and biscuits dipped in coffee/rum sprinkling each layer with sifted cocoa. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Désirée's Handy Tip:

If you spill your beads on the carpet put some pantyhose over the vacuum cleaner nozzle, secure with a rubber band and suck them up. They stick to the pantyhose until you turn off the machine - from one who has had some major spills.

Coming Soon!

The next Thread newsletter will be sent on Thursday, September 3. New designer Teddleywinks will be joining the BOM pages along with a Christmas BOM pattern set from Hugs n' Kisses and more patterns by House on the Hill and Natalie Ross of In Stitches.

Christmas Swap Update

Pre-registrations are now open for The 2009 Great Global Christmas Swap. Stitchers from the following locations are now on board and waiting to be allocated their swap partners in mid September:

Atlanta, United States Las Vegas, United States Birkenau, Germany Esbjerg, Denmark Hikurangi, New Zealand Lincolnshire, United Kingdom Barry, South Wales Upper Hutt, New Zealand Te Aroha, New Zealand

Otorohanga, New Zealand Clapham, Australia Christchurch, New Zealand Wellington, New Zealand Texas, United Sates Katikati, New Zealand Mosman, Australia Te Kuiti, New Zealand Lancashire, United Kingdom

Join the fun today! Visit the swap page to find out about this novel experience and read what past participants have to say in the Guestbook.

We need all the stitchers we can find to register now and make this the best swap ever.

Have a fantastic week!

Fiona Marie Clark