Tara Reed

Meet Tara

Pellon®: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Tara: Inspiration can come from many places – sometimes it’s a deadline, sometimes it’s to play and try something new and sometimes it’s from a conversation with a friend. This is a surprisingly hard question for me to answer because inspiration comes from so many places for me. There are times something I see inspires an idea and other times inspiration seems to pop into my head in quiet moments.

P: What does your creative process entail?
T: When I’m working on art for fabric or other consumer products I always start with a theme, like “Christmas” or “Flowers” and then come up with a color palette. From there I decide on a style – do I want to create something painterly and traditional, bright and whimsical or something in between. Then I do some sketching and play with paint to see how I like it. When I’m working on sewing or craft projects I start with an idea of what I want to make. Who is it for? What is its purpose – is it functional, sentimental, maybe both? Then I consider colors, textures and materials that will create the look and feel I want for my end result.

P: Why do you enjoy sewing/crafting/quilting?
T: I love the challenge of figuring out how I want to do a project and the joy I feel in the making of it. When things get stressful or crazy I can always find refuge in the creative process. I always have way more ideas than I have time which isn’t a bad problem to have!

P: Do you create mainly for satisfaction, gifts, art or another reason?
T: I create because I can’t help myself! Even when I had more traditional jobs – I sold college textbooks before I had my son – I always found a way to add a creative angle to it. Creativity is both my job and my passion. I have a degree in marketing so the art licensing industry has been a great fit for me – I get to learn about the businesses and what kind of art & design they need to sell their products and then solve the puzzle of creating the art for them. Designing fabric involves thinking about the subjects, projects and colors that will appeal to sewists and quilters. Designing flags means thinking about the sentiments and imagery people want to have in front of their homes, etc. I also love to sew and craft for gifting – making personalized items or choosing fabrics and projects that I know will be appreciated and relatable to the receiver.

P: What tips or tricks learned through experience can you share?
T: Mistakes happen & don’t take it all too seriously. There are times when I’m too hard on myself with how a project turned out but that’s part of the process – it doesn’t all work, but it all teaches us something. Sometimes the lesson might be to be gentle with ourselves or it might spark a new way of looking at how to do something. I’ve also learned to not shine a light on mistakes if someone is admiring your handiwork! It can be hard at times but just say, “Thank you!” and not “Thanks, but this, this and this aren’t how I intended them to be”.

P: When and why did you start sewing/quilting/crafting?
T: My mom says I’ve been a crafter since I could hold a crayon – always wanting to make things, no matter the medium. I learned to sew in 7th grade (in the 80s!!) when my friend’s mom taught us to make wrap-around skirts. From there we moved onto Bermuda Bag covers – button holes were a lot harder back then! My motto is “Why buy something if you can make it?” Interestingly my sister’s is, “Why make something if Tara will do it for you?” lol!

P: What inspires you to start a project?
T: Project inspiration comes from lots of places – it might be something I see in a store or on tv and wonder if I could make my own version of it. Other times I start projects to give people ideas of things they can make with my fabric lines. I also love to make gifts, things for my home and seasonal projects. Basically waking up is often inspiration enough to start something!