heather ross answers your questions

Today we bid farewell to Heather Ross. But we can follow her as she skips around the Internet on her blog-to-blog tour. Find details here and tag along – she’s headed to some fantastic blogs and plans to cover topics ranging from a day in the life, to proper fit, and much more.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and making Heather feel so welcome. Now, onto your great questions:

What was your first big splurge after you made some spending money? What's on your iPod? What songs were in your head when you made the new line?

HR: I will let you know as soon as that happens.

What, if any, magazines to you subscribe to?

HR: Cooking Light, Domino (which is now gone, how sad is that?), Selvedge, and I pick up the occasional Vogue or Vanity Fair at the airport. I am also a daily NPR listener and overly fond of This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and the lovable foodie Mark Bittman from the New York Times

As someone who yearns to be crafty and wants to carve a little time out of each day to create something by hand.... but with 2 little kids running circles around me, how would you recommend doing that? Are there fun little projects that don't take a lot of time that are super fun and rewarding? Or better yet, projects I can do with the little ones?

HR: Luckily, creating things is my job! I have learned that if you wake up early enough to make a smoothie, the whole day belongs to you. I do wonder what having kids would do to that theory though. I'm guessing it would be blown out of the water.

Being as creative as you are in many areas, how did you eventually focus your time and energy on fabrics and sewing projects? I'm so scattered creatively, it's no wonder my brain and my barn are full of "stuff"... not all of it pretty.

HR: I am quite scattered, but have found that deadlines are a marvelous motivator.

When I was trying to run a manufacturing company I was always apologizing for my lack of attention span, which I think was a good sign that I was doing the wrong job. At the time, I was seeing an analyst who was trying to help me figure out how to get out of the situation I was in, ie, doing a job that I wasn't very good at and trying to keep my company afloat. I told her that I thought that with enough discipline and exercise I could eventually build up the attention span to effectively manage my ridiculously stressful life. She asked me what I was doing for exercise and I explained that I would leave work on my lunch break and go to the river, where I would swim against the current as hard as I could for 40 minutes or so, trying as hard as I could to stay in exactly the same spot as the water rushed past me. She just looked at me and said" Heather, maybe you should try to find an exercise program that is not a metaphor for your life." Now I work even harder, but I work at becoming better at what I am best suited for.

I do have a bit of a mantra when I am finding myself trying to procrastinate or subconsciously avoiding work. I tell myself to "just do it without thinking about how much you don't want to do it". This works for laundry as well, BTW.

Did you go to college or design school? Did you study art/design? Have you always known that you would be an artist?

HR: No, in fact I never really believed that I could support myself as an artist.... which is probably why I never could. I did study art after college in mexico,which was a wonderful experience, very classic and hands on and non-technical. I wish that I had known early on what I know now, which is that it is possible to live very simply if you are very fulfilled. I would have made decisions differently, in terms of an education.

I would also like to know how Heather got into the textile design industry and how difficult/easy it is.

HR: I wanted to design fabric because I loved to sew, and since my designs were very juvenile it made a lot of sense to design kids clothing. I can't say for certain how easy or hard it is, I know that there are a lot more of us than there were a few years ago, and a lot of fresh talent popping up all the time! I had my own fabrics printed by a small studio in San Francisco, but I think its easier now with Spoonflower and digital printing. My path was pretty tangential and unconventional, I would have ended up in the same place had I gone to art school, but maybe a lot more quickly!

Have you thought of creating a line of sewing patterns, separate to your book?

HR: I have, but I like the book format. I like that it is more of an opportunity to tell a story or to inspire, and that it makes more sense economically for a lot people, and that it can include a lot of other things like recipes and beautiful photography. I wanted Weekend Sewing to inspire people to find a personal style that felt easy and relaxed, I am not sure I could do that with a line of patterns. Maybe I just love to prattle on so much that I would never fit into a pattern envelope!

Possibly a children's book? With your drawings and stories, a children's book would be oh so much fun to experience!

HR: Oh hey, who let the lady from Psychic Friends Network into the chat room?

As someone who is very new to the blogging world, I'm wondering how blogging has changed your career? And do you think it will create way too many entrepreneurs or is it just the thing to motivate people to their real calling?

HR: Apart from making my mother extremely angry with me, its been tremendous fun. Why can't we all be entrepreneurs? Recently someone said to me, Oh, you want to be the Next (insert famus fabric designer here), and I said, nope, I just want to be the next Heather Ross. I managed it by the end of the day yesterday, so fingers crossed.....

Do you think it takes a childhood full of some degree of "unsupervised time" like you said to create slightly offbeat, creative kids?

HR: No. My sister is raising her three kids in a lovely California suburb full of people who work full time jobs and coach soccer, and her kids are just as adventurous, creative, and imaginative as we were. They spend a lot of time at the ER, but they are seriously happy kids. I would not want to pretend to have real advice here, because I have no idea, but it seems like whatever you value, your kids will value. My sister values bravery and imagination and independence, and so do her kids.

Thanks Heather, for being so generous. Congratulations on a wonderful book and best of luck with the book and blog tour! And Thea, you’re the lucky winner! Send me an email: kelly (at) makegrowgather (dot) com, and I’ll get your details.

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