Alexia Abegg is one of those people with creativity in her genes; her mother is a seamstress and designer, her father, a musician and painter. “It was a very bohemian upbringing,” she recalls. “There was always kind of a bent toward the arts in our house, and it definitely influenced my meandering path toward fabric design.”

That path included photography, custom tailoring and even a stint doing wardrobe on film sets. But it was the sewing pattern company she began with her mom (Green Bee Patterns), that would become her entry into the quilt market world, and eventually fabric design. “I love textiles and the way that art changes once it gets printed onto fabric,” the Nashville-based designer says. “It’s fascinating how things look on paper as compared to cloth.”

Fabric design seems the perfect outlet for Alexia – a tidy mash-up of her interests in sewing and illustration. But when she talks about her love of the craft and the community surrounding it, there’s a deeper level of appreciation that shines through: “I love that it is really, truly collaborative in almost every sense of that word. Not just with the other designers, but with the people that are buying my fabric... We’re creating the raw material. It is a product, but then it’s ready to take on a new life with whoever uses it.”