From Craft to Career Series: Corinne Wells

From Craft to Career with Corinne Wells

From Craft to Career

Welcome to a new blog series (and soon to be podcast) ‘From Craft to Career’, today featuring Corinne Wells.  This new series of blog posts will feature different crafters who turned their craft into a career.

For my first ever blog in the Craft to Career series I am excited to introduce Corinne Wells.

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Introducing Corinne Wells of Riley Blake Designs

Hi! I’m Corinne Wells and I am a fabric designer for Riley Blake Designs and a Quilt Pattern designer.

How Corinne Wells Became a Fabric Designer

• MEDICAL SCHOOL?
  In college I studied biology with plans to go to medical school.   I always loved art but I didn’t think the career path of “Starving Artist” would be accepted by my high achieving family.  So I followed in my parent’s footsteps and set my sights high.  I graduated college with my research published in several medical journals and I had a glowing letter of recommendation from one of the leading medical researchers in the nation.  Science is a great love of mine, but as a career my heart just wasn’t in it.  In my heart I am an artist and I always have been.  I chose to stay home with my kids while they were young and thought I would figure out the future someday when they were a little bit older.  

• CORINNE & QUILTING
  In the meantime I kept my mind busy learning to quilt.  I followed online tutorials and checked out quilting books from the library.  Little did I know my hobby would turn into a dream career.  I had no formal art education, but within a few years I was designing fabric for apparel, then small apparel brands, then large apparel brands.  This past year was exciting to combine my art and quilting when I signed a contract with Riley Blake Designs.  Releasing my first fabric line, Rocky Mountain Wild, was a dream.

FABRIC COLLECTION, ‘ROCKY MOUNTAIN WILD’I got the inspiration for my first fabric collection a few years ago while I was hiking in the mountains.  I imagined a fabric collection inspired by the rocky mountains.  I wanted to capture the golden fields of late summer, the blue sky, and the wildflowers. 

I went home and got to work sketching, drawing, painting and designing. The collection didn’t come together as easily as I had hoped it would. I put it away and got it back out several times, each time getting a bit closer.  Months later my dream came true!  I signed with Riley Blake and pulled my Mountain artwork back out.  With a lot of work, it finally looked exactly as I imagined. 

CORINNE THE QUILT PATTERN DESIGNER

I’m going to get a little personal here.  Last year I was really sick and bedridden for half of 2020.  However, I tried to make the best of it.  It was HARD with four kids and a new business.  Then during all of this my strike-offs for my Rocky Mountain Wild fabric collection arrived.  Although life was crazy I started imagining a quilt design that went with my fabric collection. The mountains have always been a place of healing for me.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to the mountains because I was sick, but I was able to imagine the mountains and it brought me peace.  Eventually I sewed the first draft of The Peaks Quilt, and then I wrote the quilt pattern.  The mountains are my happy place and I hope this quilt pattern spreads joy and healing as it did for me.

CORINNE’S THOUGHTS ON BEING AN ARTIST

I thought art careers were only for special people and gifted artists.  I found that with enough passion and dedication we really can make our dreams come true no matter what our background is.  All you need is passion, dedication, an internet connection, and a little free time.

A FREEE GIFT FOR YOUI’ve am sharing my Peaks Quilt Pattern for FREE for one month. You can get thee PDF download from my site on the home page.  I’ll email you a coupon code to download the pattern for free.  Visit my website, Franniebquiltco, and wait for the pop-up where you can sign up to get the free pattern.

A GIVEAWAY

I am giving away one fat quarter bundle of my Rocky Mountain Wild collection.To enter:

1. Make a Peaks Quilt Top by the end of April.
2. Post a photo of your quilt top on Instagram with the hashtag #franniebpeaksquilt.
3. Follow me on instagram at @franniebquiltco

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FROM CRAFT TO CAREER

Are you interested in turning your craft into a career? Be sure to learn about my craft-to-career course and discover how to transform your passion into a money-generating career. Want an intro on how to write your own quilt patterns? Explore the quilt pattern tutorial. You can also join the waitlist for my Quilt Pattern Writing course to stay updated.