Art Journal by Bari J for Windham Fabrics - The Jolly Jabber Quilting Blog

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Art Journal by Bari J for Windham Fabrics

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Have you missed our regular fabric posts?? Back to our regular programming…Bari J has been a busy girl (read below for the details). We are so glad to see her newest line for Windham! She’s with us today to talk about Art Journal, a collection that is both whimsical and elegant, painterly and feminine. The colors are fantastic — saturated, but not too bright pastels that flow together; lavender, teal, goldenrod, spring green, pink and fuchsia. Thanks to Bari for being our guest today, and let us know what you think of Art Journal!

Catch us up on the Bari J studio… in the past year you’ve launched a line of beautiful sewing patterns, new products, and now a new line of fabric, have been featured in several great craft publications, on top of running your store, your design business, and moving. How do you divide your time and what have you learned from juggling all of these ventures?

Wow. When you say it all at once it sounds scary. And you forgot writing a book! LOL! It seems like I’m working all of the time. I’m lucky to have a husband and kids who are really supportive. They all bagged the patterns for instance. But I’ll admit it’s really, really difficult. I work a lot. But I love what I do. I learned a lot from the process of creating patterns. The illustrating and diagrams alone were a huge undertaking. And we aren’t moving until mid-summer, so that’s been low on the radar.

How long did Art Journal take to design?

I want to say it took several months, but ideas were brewing here and there for years.

What is the inspiration and how is it a departure from Full Bloom?

The inspiration was mixed media art journaling and collage art. You can see that especially in the alphabet print and the bird print, I think. It is a departure from Full Bloom in that it has less all over florals. But it does still have the painted look that I love.

What do you hope to see your fans create from Art Journal?

I think it makes a great baby and kids line. I also see it on handbags (in particular with the florals), aprons, quilts and more.

What’s out next for you?

My newest line is scheduled to deliver to stores in October. It’s called Country Lane, and I feel it’s my best work so far. It will have a really wide appeal both to people looking for vintage/country and those that are looking for more modern style. I also love that although you can mix all of the pieces together the way you can with Full Bloom and Art Journal, you can also separate them into darks and lights. Really, I just love it. And I’ll be teaching at Quilter’s Affair in Sisters, Oregon July 5 through the 9th.

Bari J. Ackerman
Bari J Blog
Bari J Website

3 comments

  2. Hi, I just wanted to tell you and Bari J both that I really LOVE Art Journal. I was the lucky winner of a designer roll of it from Hawthorne Threads. I was virtually jumping down when I found out. I really love her prints.

  3. I just love Bari J! Her latest collection is my list to purchase. I just have finish with collecting Leanika and Hope Valley, then its on to purchasing more Bari J! I saw her next collection on her blog! Just utterly beautiful! SO much fabric to budget for…