August 26, 2021 Kelp Forest Commerce

Prairie Meadow, Natural Born Quilters newest fabric collection by Brett Lewis

Prairie Meadow is the newest fabric collection from Natural Born Quilter, available September 2021. Prairie Meadow is the second fabric collection by Natural Born Quilter, and it is like a long country drive through the colorful flora and fauna of the Alberta prairies.

Natural Born Quilter founder, Brett Lewis, said “Prairie Meadow was really inspired from my time living in Alberta the past 18 years and the numerous country drives I’ve taken through the beautiful prairies.” The collection includes many elements of the Alberta local flora and fauna, including the Swift Pronghorn Antelope, which Brett has been fascinated with since childhood, and the Red Tailed Hawk, his favourite bird of prey that is featured in the focal fabric ‘Prairie Princes.’

Brett incorporates many personal elements into each fabric design that he creates.

In Prairie Meadow for example, the fabric ‘Country Corsage’ was based on a handmade corsage from his sister’s wedding and the colours of the collection were based on a bolo tie from his childhood.

Throughout the collection you can find elements from a memento box of his late Father that holds some of his lifelong keepsakes. “It became apparent to me that the collection had paid some homage to my father who loved the Prairies and nature, even though this was not my intention initially.”

Prairie Meadow is Brett’s second fabric line after Stag and Thistle. He said he wanted to play with more natural colours for this collection, a blend of modern and traditional that uses more traditional fabrics with a contemporary or modern pattern. Brett said he is “not reinventing the wheel when it comes to fabric and pattern design, but designing fabrics and quilts I love that have an NBQ twist on them.”

An appreciation of nature, plants and animals is prevalent in all of Brett’s fabric designs.

This is something that Brett says was cemented at a young age while growing up in Summerland, BC. He helped raise animals on his family hobby farm and loved exploring nature in the surrounding hills and mountains on horseback. His love for colour and artistic inspiration he attributes to his mom and sister who were very involved in interior design and art.

Brett lives in Edmonton now, and stays in touch with nature by going for walks in the river valley, and going for drives out to the country with his family, for fun or for photoshoots. His day job includes a lot of driving on rural range roads throughout Alberta where he spots great locations for quilt photos. “I absolutely love old abandoned barns,” he said, “so when I see a stellar one on a drive I pin it in google maps, and plan a quilty photoshoot.”

The ups and downs of designing a new fabric collection

Brett said the hardest part is narrowing down his fabric print ideas into a concrete theme. He said there is a challenge involved in being vulnerable as well, he has a lot of meaningful inspiration and personal design elements in each fabric design and collection.

On the contrary, he added that one of the best parts of designing a fabric collection is having new fabrics to work with and seeing others work with and enjoy the collection. “I think my favorite thing is seeing what other makers create with my new collection, or seeing quilts and projects designed from industry friends.”

A Kingfisher Craft Collaboration Quilt

A team of designers, including Kingfisher Craft Company’s own Jason Bieber were invited to play and create with the collection before it’s official release date. Jason grew up in the prairies of Saskatchewan and said that the collection really hit home for him, reminding him of fond memories running through fields and playing on relatives' acreages out in the country as a child.

The Prairie Wildflower Quilt Kit was designed by Jason using the new Prairie Meadow fabric collection, a meaningful piece inspired by Jason’s connection with nature, meaningful memories, and local history. Jason used a style of quilting born out of the prairies that emulates the way that the land is often divided on the prairies, with four quadrants broken up with criss-crossing roads in north-south and east-west directions.

Another key inspiration for the Prairie Meadow Quilt was the Wanuskewin Heritage Park near Jason’s childhood home that was a "gathering place" used by indigenous peoples of the Great Plains for thousands of years. He used foundation paper-pieced New York beauty blocks forming a central flower radiating outwards and back inwards in all four directions with the plants and animals found in the Great Plains. Jason said “the fabric lent itself wonderfully to fussy-cut the center of the NYB blocks which gave rise to secondary design elements.”

On the horizon for Natural Born Quilter

Brett plans to continue to create fabric collections for Natural Born Quilter that are personable to him as an artist and he hopes to inspire other aspiring fabric or pattern designers to take the plunge. He believes there is room for everyone in the industry, “I’ve only been sewing and quilting for just over 5 years, you have to start somewhere.” He hinted that his next collection will have similar themes of nature, plants and animals, but more of a whimsical theme for colors inspired by a particular time in his childhood.

You can follow Brett on Instagram and Facebook to stay in touch, he loves to see what people are creating with his fabrics and patterns so make sure you tag him with @naturalbornquilter

You can also connect with Brett through his website www.naturalbornquilter.com and see all of the Natural Born Quilter fabrics and patterns.

Pre-order and win!

Kingfisher Craft has 6 different quilt and bag projects available now for Pre Order and each Pre Order will be entered to win a Stag and Thistle FQ Bundle!