ABOUT FOCUS ON FABRIC

My name is Nancy Fuller and Focus on Fabric is my attempt to blend together my love of photography, sewing and creativity. I live in Arizona most of the time with a bit of time spent in Southwestern Colorado and the Central Coast of California. I retired from a series of marketing jobs in high tech, publishing and events over 10 years ago. Soon after moving to Arizona from the Bay Area of California I realized I couldn’t play golf every day and was very conscious of keeping my mind active as both of my parents had some form of dementia. Between the design work in Photoshop and Topaz and the sewing, that is no longer a problem or concern!

My mother was a very good seamstress, making most of our clothes and all our doll clothes, including those intricate Barbie formals! She was also a quilter as were all of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers.  At the time she had to leave her home, my mother still had nearly 40 quilts, most of which were hand pieced and quilted by one of her or my dad’s grandmothers.

I started sewing around the age of 8 – learning from my mother at home and through 4-H where she was the sewing leader.  After 5 years of sewing in Home Economics class at school, I majored in Textiles and Clothing in college.  There are three important lessons I learned from my mother in terms of sewing: 1. The importance of attention to detail and precision; 2. The tactile feel of good quality fabric — High thread counts never lie!  3. Love of color and how to blend, match and coordinate colors in sewing.

She also loved to take photographs, something else she definitely passed on to me.  I’ve taken that a bit further in that I seldom take photos with people in them, whereas she was all about documenting trips, family gatherings, etc.  This effort – Focus on Fabric – is my way of blending two of my favorite things together – my photography and my love of sewing and creating things.

I also like to think this effort provides an entry to the joys of sewing and quilting for the large group of people who may be intimidated by the advanced and artistic quilting ‘works of art’ we see today. With these printed block sets, you are halfway to a very nice finished piece before you even start!  With the whole cloth panels, you are more than half way – they can be quilted as is or cut apart and pieced back together to create something entirely different.

My husband has dementia so my opportunities to travel are limited but I have started teaching classes on thread painting and the methods I use to create my panels. If you are part of a guild that would be interested in either of those, please have the Programs person contact me.