Picture a small town nestled in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. In this town there is a little girl. This girl is sitting at a sewing machine in a small back room of her 4-H teachers home night after night. Making dresses with some too-loud floral print. Using the seam ripper too much. Sewing, sewing, ripping, sewing. Brown hands on blue thread. Pushing her thick curly hair out of her eyes, squinting to see the needle's eye.
So much time spent learning how to sew, how to be an artist, and blazing a path for herself in that small town.
My journey as a maker started as that little girl.
That's me. I'm Christine. I sew, and draw, and paint, and cook, and bake, and laugh loud, and make things beautiful. I now live in a city, and teach other young girls to find their artistic voice.
I have been taught by, and studied under many creatives with various disciplines, and attended Fitchburg State University to study art education. Fawn started because I was selling my fine artwork (drawings and paintings) at local craft shows and not doing as well as I thought I should be. My mother (who is a phenomenal photographer) encouraged me to keep trying, and maybe change my medium. I brought bibs to one spring show, and to my surprise, they sold out. Out of a failure Fawn was born. I now use textiles to tell my story. I use fabric in utilitarian, practical, but also beautiful ways. Babies have necessities. I thought: why not create little canvases? Why not incorporate ways to teach children about form, shapes, colors, animals? So I did. Fawn quilts are teaching tools. Designed to be a functional soft addition to a nursery, then its use can be extended and expanded into lessons about the images on the quilt. I cant escape my educational training if I wanted too. My great grandmother was a kindergarten teacher. I still have her college textbooks from the 1800's. My mother is an educator, and my sister home schools. I am surrounded by women who seek out knowledge.
I spend a lot of time searching for fabrics, and incorporating a little humor or vintage nod into my designs. I blend organics with fabric that I found at a yardsale, or thrift shops. I piece and rearrange a lot on a design wall with very 1970's wall paper behind it (think orange, green, brown and yellow flowers, yikes!). I am the happiest in this studio space(aka spare bedroom) of my home. I am planning and plotting for the moment when I can leave my day job and pursue a fully creative life and continue to stay (happily) married to my budget conscious husband.
Fawn is an opportunity for me to share my love of fabric and design with you. I work in small batches and personally hand cut each fabric square, each bunny ear and each applique. Babies are only babies for a flash of a second. Lets surround them in hand made, quality textiles, soft to touch and pleasing to the eye. A seed for Fawn was planted when I was a little girl, who knows what your baby is going to grow to be? By placing your baby in Fawn bib, or wrapped in a quilt, you are including them in my story as an artist. You are getting a piece of that little girl in a back room in New Hampshire sewing her heart out. Thank you for reading my story, and I hope to extend you my creative hand in your precious baby's life.
xoxoxo,
Christine