We are starting a new feature on our blog, Meet the Designer. I’m super excited to feature our first designer, an immense talent that is quickly becoming a valued friend.
Billy Reue is an architect, artist, and quilter whose creative pursuits explore the intersection between abstraction and the built environment. He is a FreeSpirit Fabrics designer and also maintains an award-winning architecture practice in New York City. Billy is known for his thoughtful projects that marry creativity with pragmatism. And, he has an awesome new fabric collection, Mosaic, out for FreeSpirit in July.
Harvey and I met Billy for lunch last week at the fabulous DelPrimo in Brookfield and had a lovely chat. The first thing that struck me is that Billy is not an accidental quilter. With five sisters and a crafty mom, Billy has been going to quilty events for a long time. He says, “it is very common for us to hit the local county fair together or jump on a plane and go to QuiltCon. We enjoy quilting events as a family.”
Billy is involved in multiple creative pursuits including photography, painting, sculpture and drawing. It was a natural transition about seven years ago to becoming a quilter.
Billy had gone to visit his sister Yvonne in her hometown in Victoria, Texas and Billy accompanied her at a quilting workshop at her local library. Billy loved the class so much, that he ordered a sewing machine online before the end of the day, and had it shipped to his office in NYC.
His first quilt was a gazillion half square triangles in shades of navy and camel. This quilt has special meaning as it was a gift for his ailing uncle who has since passed away. Billy expressed that he loves quilting because, “quilters are always doing something good or kind or generous with their talent.” His uncle got to use this quilt for a year before he passed.
Billy has already gone through many phases in his quilting. He spoke of treating solids like a box of crayons. He went through a period where he was mildly obsessed with combining fabrics of different textures —- silk, canvas, etc. A big inspiration for Billy was the artist, Agnes Martin. He says, “her work is my North Star.” He even started experimenting with ways to weave glass with fabric using tiny light bulbs, test tubes, etc!
During his first two years of quilting his office became his laboratory. His colleagues came to know that he was quilting at night and he was asked to design a carpet for DIFFA that year. ObeeTee Carpets had sponsored the program that year and his design was based on one of his quilts. This was when the quilt world started to bleed into his architecture practice.
I asked Billy the question we all want to know! How does one go from being an architect who quilts for fun to a fabric designer? In Billy’s case it was clearly meant to be. He sent a FreeSpirit Fabrics designer whose work he admired an email asking that very question along with a portfolio creative work. That designer liked his work enough to share it more broadly, and it made its way someone at FreeSpirit Fabrics who gave him a shot at designing his first collection. He has now designed four collections for FreeSpirit: Madison One, Log Tavern Road, and Architecture School which were previously released, and Mosaic which is due later this summer.
Billy’s first collection, Madison One (larger image above), was inspired by the building of the same name in New York City. Billy had photographed and painted the building multiple times and the Madison One collection is derived of this painting, bringing the color and light on the building to life.
Billy explains, “All of my collections have to have something that binds all the pieces together; fabric needs a story or narrative for me.”
As gorgeous as his first three collections are, I think Mosaic is his best one yet. I asked Billy about how his aesthetic has changed through four collections and he spoke of becoming less rigid with the shapes and geometries. Billy shared, “when I started designing fabric I thought I had to mimic a screen printing process. I’ve learned to celebrate what I am drawn to which is abstracted blurs. They are almost ghosts or memories or a suggestion of what something might be. It allows people to fill in the blank with their own mind of what it could be or where it could go.”
I asked Billy why quilters should be excited about Mosaic. He said, “the collection represents something you wouldn’t normally find in a fabric store. It is a collection of colors that may be surprising and unusually put together. It is a curated collection of curious tones that you wouldn’t normally see. Quilters can have confidence they are going to magically come together in fun way with harmonious color.” Sounds good to me!
Honestly, I could go on and on. Billy is so interesting to talk to, and some of the quilts he and his sister are working on for Mosaic are FANTASTIC! If you’d like to know more, we are hosting a Meet and Greet with Billy on August 1 at 6pm in our store and via Zoom. He’ll show quilts and other projects made with Mosaic, answer questions, and we’ll have a jolly chat. The event is free, but advance registration is required. I’d also suggest you follow Billy on Instagram. His feed is new, but the images are inspiring.
Welcome to the Cotton Candy Fabrics Blog 
Just signed up! It’s also the same night as the quilt guild meeting — wondering if it’s possible to have a screen at the meeting to have him attend for a bit via zoom.
Unfortunately it is the same night as guild. There is no program at the August meeting, and I believe last year they held it outside due to the heat. Certainly if the weather allows the meeting to be held inside we can have Billy projected via zoom. I would also imagine the show and tell will be closer to six and done by 7 so you could potentially do both. 🙂