In December of 2014 my husband and I went to Portugal and Spain. We saw tiles everywhere. The blue and white tiles are called Azulejos. 
We saw tiles on walls.
on benches
on signs
and on the ground.
We saw tiles with animals and birds on them.
and tiles that were pure pattern.
When I came home I did some paintings that were inspired by the tiles and other things I saw on that trip. Many of those paintings were used to make a new line of fabric for In the Beginning Fabrics. The new line is called Azuli. The word sounds like Azulejos and the word azul which means blue in Spanish. It is fun to say, but doesn’t have a true meaning.
Here are some of the paintings that didn’t become fabric.
And here are some paintings that did become fabric!
This pomegranate pattern became an allover repeat (and I added a few seeds).
This allover pomegranate pattern was printed in a blue or burgundy color way.
Here are peacocks we saw in Portugal.
and fabric inspired by their feathers.
A rooster from the trip…
and a rooster that flew into the fabric line..
Azuli is available now at fabric stores such as Gathering Fabric in Woodinville, Washington, Pacific Fabrics or online at Winter Creek Cloth.
Putting together this blog post has made me remember the trip so clearly. I think I might need to go back and get inspired all over again.
