Aurifil for AGF: Bari J & Pat Bravo

It’s our final day for our Aurifil for AGF blog series! We’ve so enjoyed introducing you to all of the amazingly talented designers of Art Gallery Fabrics. We have two more to share with you today and we’re pretty darn excited!

Back in 2015, we launched Aurifil thread boxes to match with the identity of each Art Gallery Fabrics designer. The best thing about this is that the threads aren’t specific to one fabric collection but rather were selected to match a designer’s signature palette. With that in mind, these collections work just as well with the brand new fabric collections as they did with those that released back in 2015. Pretty amazing, right? We hope you enjoy hearing more about these fabulous women AND don’t miss our super sweet giveaway! It will stay open for 1 more week!

Today, we meet Bari J and the heart and soul of Art Gallery Fabrics, Pat Bravo!

Bari J’s Maximalist Style collections are available as a Large box of 50wt thread and a small box of 50wt and Aurifloss. The colors were selected to coordinate with all 9 of her Art Gallery fabric collections, including Sage, Joie de Vivre, Millie Fleur, and Anna Elise. The inclusion of a variety of Aurifil variegated threads is perfect for Bari’s painterly style. Bari’s Instagram feed is absolutely captivating, showcasing her stunning paintings, hinting at her magnificent home decor, and sharing bits and pieces of her creative life. Don’t miss her website for all sorts of fabulous inspiration!

Maximalist Style, LARGE
12 Large Spools  (50wt, 1422yds/spool), 100% Aurifil Cotton
4651 – 1231 – 2132 – 2410 – 1148 – 2150
2479 – 4654 – 5004 – 4660 – 4182 – 4670

Maximalist Style, SMALL
10 Small Spools, 100% Aurifil Cotton
4654 – 4670 – 4651 – 1148 – 5004 (50wt, 220yds/spool)
4670 – 4654 – 5004 – 4651 – 1148 (floss, 18yds/spool)

ABOUT BARI J
Website – Facebook – Instagram – Pinterest – YouTube – Tumblr

Bari J was born and raised in Chicago, but decided to move to Scottsdale, Arizona with her two teenage daughters: Anna and Emily, and her husband Kevin to stay closer to her family. She havs been passionate about design for as long as she can remember. As a child, her mother would paint and craft, so it was only a natural progression that she would inherit her love of crafting. Bari began crafting and creating jewelry, but when she first learned to sew she knew she had found her passion. She was hooked! That obsession is what inspired her own handmade handbag business and her first book: Inspired to Sew.

Bari’s style is rather eclectic and has grown over the years into what you see today. While she loves vintage and soft designs, she is constantly drawn to color and bold prints which are very modern, as well as mixing the two for surprising combinations. She doesn’t don’t hold back when it comes to mixing fabric prints and colors. The world around her inspires her… She looks at photos and imagines faraway places. She sees a color and that inspires a whole collection. She is a color junkie.

It was her love for fabric that got her back into graphic design and specifically textile design. In 2009, she created her first fabric line, Full Bloom. Since then, she moved on to design with Art Gallery Fabrics and has released nine fabric collections!

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Pat Bravo has two small collections to coordinate with her Art Gallery fabrics to capture two distinct colorways. Rustic Vive features 50wt threads in 10 warm tones. Intense Glow positions the 50wt in 10 bright and vibrant colors. These two threads set are all you’ll need to create beauty with Pat’s fabrics including everything from Indie Boheme to Heartland to Essentials II and more! Pat is the heart & soul of Art Gallery Fabrics… the fearless leader, serving as a mentor and guide for so many other designers. She is endlessly inspiring and we love keeping up with her Instagram account to see what’s next and what’s new!

Rustic Vive, SMALL
10 Small Spools (220yds/spool), 100% Aurifil Cotton
2215 – 2311 – 2335 – 2326 – 5022
6730 – 1310 – 5008 – 2220 – 2230

Intense Glow, SMALL
10 Small Spools (220yds/spool), 100% Aurifil Cotton
4093 – 2830 – 2130 – 4020 – 2530
5005 – 2309 – 2425 – 2730 – 2225

ABOUT PAT
Website – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter – Pinterest — YouTube — Flickr

Pat’s passion for sewing materialized at the age of 9, when she sat down at her mother’s sewing machine for the first time. At the age of 13, she joined a sewing school in her native Buenos Aires, learning everything about fabrics, dressmaking, and patterns. For many years she lived in that wonderful world, until it was time to go to college. She decided to study law and sew on the side, but soon realized that it was not her dream. She dropped out and took three years of painting classes.  Around that time, met the love of her life, Walter Bravo. Twenty-seven years later, they’re still married and have a beautiful son together.

In 1989, Pat and Walter moved to the United States and Pat became pregnant with their son, Alex. Her life changed radically after the move. Everything was completely new for her: the people, the culture, the food, the city. It was such an intense period of change, that for a good amount of time, she had no energy to do the things that she loved and cherished. That all changed when Walter got her her first sewing machine! With that, she immediately came back to life!

Pat fell in love with quilting, sewing triangles and squares together, eventually teaching herself everything that could be achieved using traditional quilting techniques. Throughout the years, her taste started evolving and she began to cross the bridge towards art quilts. First, she started with landscapes and with time her style became more abstract. She had a hard time finding color variations in batiks and that’s when she decided to paint her own fabrics. She began to see that quilters loved them, and not too long after that, Pat and Walter founded Art Gallery Fabrics.

Pat is convinced that everybody is born to do something in life. This is what she was born to do and she is sure that this is what she will do for the rest of her life.

AURIFIL FOR AGF GIVEAWAY

Today’s post marks the launch of a super fab giveaway featuring both Aurifil threads and Art Gallery Fabrics. One lucky Grand Prize winner will take home 1 LG Art Gallery thread collection of his or her choosing + 1 SM Art Gallery thread collection + a bundle of Art Gallery Fabrics. Two runners up will take home 2 SM Art Gallery thread collections each. All in all, SO much fabulous fabric & thread, so many fun new projects to plan! The giveaway is open from now through 11:59pm on Friday, June 30th, at which point we’ll select 3 random winners. We’ll email winners directly and will also announce on every post in the series. This giveaway is open to our International friends as well! Simply follow the link below or click on the image above!

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Allison Evrard, our Grand Prize Winner!! Congratulations also to Sarah Jasinski and Lynn Brown, our runners up! We had so much fun with this one — thanks to all who entered and followed along with us!

SCHEDULE
Sunday, June 11 — Intro
Tuesday, June 13 — Sharon Holland
Wednesday, June 14 — Katarina Roccella 
Thursday, June 15 — Jeni Baker
Friday, June 16 — Bonnie Forkner
Tuesday, June 20 — Caroline Hulse
Wednesday, June 21 — Maureen Cracknell
Thursday, June 22 — April Rhodes & Amy Sinibaldi
Friday, June 23 — Pat Bravo & Bari J (you are here!)

LOOKBOOK
Click on the image below to take a look at our Aurifil for Art Gallery collection Lookbook!

ABOUT ART GALLERY
Website – Blog – Instagram – Pinterest – Facebook – Twitter – YouTube
Art Gallery Fabrics is a leading Manufacturer of Quilting & Sewing Textiles, and a Wholesale Supplier to Quilting, Home Decor, Sewing, and Apparel Industries. Many describe their style as “Contemporary Elegant” and it fits! They love to design fabrics that fit today’s modern lifestyle while adding a chic, sophisticated touch. Art Gallery works with a talented design team whose enticing color palettes & artful, intricate prints make the collections one of a kind.

[Photos  and biographical text courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics]