Jessica Swift

Jessica has been obsessed with patterns and color since she was a small child. Her grandmother, who was a painter, a quilter, and a fabric-lover, once told her as she sat drawing at her kitchen table that she should be a fabric designer. It wasn’t until she became a surface pattern designer many years later that she remembered her grandmother's remark and marveled at the fact that she was able to see her future so clearly. Jessica's mom taught her how to sew at a young age – she was a self-taught doll maker and is still to this day whipping up impressive projects on a whim and without a plan! – and Jessica grew up surrounded by fabric.

Jessica's childhood and teen years were spent in her hometown of Boulder, Colorado. She then went to college in Ithaca, New York and moved back to Boulder for another 5 years after graduating; she also lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 5 years while her husband was in medical school and she now lives in beautiful Portland, Oregon with a baby, a toddler and their two sweet cats. She works in a beautiful, sun-filled studio in her backyard, where she paints, designs, and teaches other creative people how to make their own repeating patterns through her online course and community, Pattern Camp. 

Jessica is endlessly inspired by the natural world and its stunning variety of shapes and colors and textures; our man-made world inspires her, too, through, and travel (even if it’s just in her imagination!) is a go-to source of creative juju for her as well. Jessica's view is that there’s inspiration everywhere if you’re willing to look at the world that way!