Interview with Brigitte Heitland, owner/desgner of the brand: Zen Chic
Sewn:
How did you get involved in the quilt World?
Brigitte:
When I was young, I studied interior and textile design. Being German, I learned about quilting much later. I used to sew my own clothes and so have unique things to wear. One day, in 2003, while browsing in a bookstore, I found a book with wonderful quilt pictures. I was hooked at once. I had to try it myself and since then got hopelessly addicted to patchwork.
I didn’t take long before I started my own little online quilting shop. Besides I’m also running my own longarm quilting business, teaching, blogging about modern quilting, and making quilts for American and European magazines. It was inevitable: as a trained textile designer I had to create my own line of fabrics sooner or later and so did I, which led me back to my beginnings as an interior designer.
Sewn:
Do you have your own style?
Brigitte:
My style is influenced as well by the fact that I'm German as that I'm a trained interior and textile designer: to be German means not to have naturally a tradition of quilting: indeed, I don't have a grandma, aunt, or sister in law who knows anything about quilting neither can transfer her knowledge, experience or background to me- which means: there is no background to help me.
I start normally by thinking outside any boundaries. I don't see quilts so much as a combination of traditional blocks - I approach them the same way as I would create a huge painting for a room, as I would design a carpet or a cabinet - just a piece of design, and that's all. My style is contemporary, simple, but elegant and generous. It represents a lifestyle - a way of living in simplicity, seeking for quality, beauty, harmony and pureness. A way of life which is often called ZEN: calmness, clarity, peace of mind. The combination of this simplicity with high quality, elegance and beauty created the name of my brand, ZEN CHIC.
Sewn:
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Brigitte:
I love strolling through interior design magazines. And each magazine is full of inspiration: color schemes or glimpses of patterns - I gather all these ideas and then I start developing a quilt pattern: to be trained as an interior designer means having always the complete scenery of a room in mind: I plan a quilt for a room. I visualize the room, its colors, its style, I interpret the language of existing shapes - and this determines the colors, the style and the shapes of the quilt pattern I develop.
Often it is the quilt that requires certain fabrics and leads to the design of fabrics.
Sewn:
Who inspires you?
Brigitte:
There are a lot of talented people out there sharing inspirational ideas at Flickr, Pinterest and at “blogland”. I'm very often impressed by their creative work and learn a lot from them.
Sewn:
What are you working at actually?
Brigitte:
I prepared new sample quilts for Spring Market in Kansas City, to introduce my current line for Moda, "Juggling Summer". It's a line of intricate patterns - overlapping lace balls, that are juggling. My quilt patterns are modern "interior design quilts", giving a room an eye catcher which fits perfectly in its environment, allowing your eyes to rest and find a bit of peace and harmony by the calm, minimalist, clean look.
I attended the Market in May and now I am working on my second collection with Moda, which is also fresh, contemporary and elegant - a graphic style - scheduled to be introduced by Moda at Fall Market. It has some classic looks: fine lined geometrics in it splashed up by color ways of a large scale avant-garde print. Not only will the modern quilter love it, but also all the basic fabrics in the group will be perfect companions for any kind of quilt.
