In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Riley Blake Designs applauds and recognizes the amazing talent of Hispanic and Hispanic American designers who have inspired quilters, sewists and makers worldwide.
We celebrate RBD designers who have imbued their collections with the beauty of their culture, as well as family traditions and memories.
Kathy Cano-Murillo, The Crafty Chica
Kathy Cano-Murillo, The Crafty Chica, is former syndicated newspaper columnist and now a full-time creativepreneur which has led to multiple product lines, and collabs with national brands. She has authored several craft books and novels, recently, Forever Frida: A Celebration of the Life, Art, Loves, Words, and Style of Frida Kahlo. Kathy has a new book releasing in December, and has new products lines debuting this year for HSN, Bisque Imports, Madison Park Greetings, and Riley Blake Fabrics. She has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, Buzzfeed+ more. Visit Kathy at the Phoenix art boutique she co-owns, Mucho Mas Art Studio!
Kathy’s upcoming collections:
https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/kathy-cano-murillo
Mimi G Style
Mimi G Style is an award-winning popular fashion, lifestyle, and DIY blog. What started off as a hobby in Mimi’s Los Angeles home in 2012, blossomed into an international brand with a daily engagement of more than 2.6 million followers across all social media platforms and 12 million page views annually and 575k unique visitors per month on her blog.
Mimi G Style empowers and motivates people of all ages and walks of life. Her videos on DIY sewing, self-empowerment, and lifestyle have propelled Mimi G from blogger to internet sensation.
Since 2014, Mimi G Style, Inc. has partnered with Simplicity Creative Group to license, design and market commercial sewing patterns. In 2016 Mimi G founded Sew It! Academy, an online sewing school, designed to be accessible and affordable for anyone interested in learning to sew and design.
Mimi G Style has collaborated with over 350 brands including Target, Google, Macy’s, ULTA, The Home Depot, The Recording Academy, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Kellogg, Revlon, Steve Madden and more. She has been featured on Essence.com, InStyle Magazine, Vanity Fair, Rolling Out Magazine, and was awarded “Best Latina Blogger” by Hispanicize 2015. Mimi also made her television debut on Lifetime TV’s Project Runway Junior as a mentor and design consultant for the young designers.
Mimi G is a sought-after speaker and consultant and has interviewed celebrities such as Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Aniston along with other highly popular influencers. She was recently featured in Gary Vaynerchuck’s most recent book, Crushing It and has begun developing several web series as part of Mimi G studios.
Mimi G’s current collection:
https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/mimi-g-style
Natàlia Juan Abelló
Natàlia grew up in Barcelona; she was a quiet and imaginative child, always drawing and creating one thing or another. Her nature and creative pursuits haven’t changed much since then. She graduated as a fashion and textiles designer in 2012, but since then has steered her career towards her true passion: surface design and illustration.
For the last few years, she’s been living in England, surrounded by the lovely green countryside. Nature inspires her to create bright, playful patterns and illustrations, particularly animals, creating cute characters with plenty of expression and color. Drawing is her favorite part of the creative process, followed by hand painting, and digital finishing touches.
In her spare time, Natàlia loves to read, watch cinema, and go on hikes with her partner and her little dog “Diesel.”
You can see some of her work at nataliajuanabello.com.
Natàlia’s current and upcoming collections:
https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/natalia-juan-abello
Patty Young of Modkid
Patty Young grew up in San Jose, Costa Rica, in an environment where she was encouraged to express her creativity freely. Both of her parents dabbled in the arts so it was only natural that she would inherit their creative genes. They moved to the United States in 1987 and Patty attended The University of Central Florida from ‘89 to ‘93, where she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and Photography.
Over the next 12 years, Patty honed her graphic design skills at a number of marketing agencies before deciding to leave her corporate job in 2005 to stay home with her children and pursue her own creative endeavors.
Today, Patty owns and operates MODKID LLC and serves in the role of Lead Designer. MODKID specializes in high quality boutique-style sewing patterns which include children’s clothes, doll outfits, purses and other assorted accessories and home furnishings. Patty also designs textiles, ribbons, scrapbooking papers, die cutting shapes, and is a published author of several sewing books.
To learn more about Patty and what she’s cooking up next, please visit her blog.
Patty’s collections:
