Preview | Maman

Today I am particularly pleased to introduce a collection on which I've long been working. The artist is very near and dear to my heart and has been the influence for me and other women in my family for our entire lives. As such, I've wanted to make it just right.

Cloud9 Fabrics presents Maman.

Co-founder of Cloud9 Fabrics, Michelle Engel Bencsko comes from a long line of talented women. In Maman, we celebrate her beloved grandmother, Anne-Marie Murphy, née Anne-Marie Bossaert, of Belgian-French decent, whose many talents include illustrating a charming and extensive array of images depicting infants, children, religious themes and fairy tales around the time of WWII in Belgium and France. It is Michelle's pleasure to work with her Bonne-Maman, as her grandchildren call her, who recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Michelle and her mother, Arlette, utilized their own inherited talents to create and refine a nursery collection which will undoubtedly renew the interest in Anne-Marie's work through the medium of fabric.

Anne-Marie recalls: "As far back as I can remember I loved to draw! Eventually, I started using my art as presents to family and friends. This led to selling them framed to gift shops in Belgium. In searching for fine paper, which was getting scarce due to it being wartime, my mother brought my work to a local publisher to see if they could supply me. His response was "I cannot supply the paper, but I can offer her a job". And so my career began.

My family and I eventually moved to Paris, which is where my mother is from, and there I approached three more publishers and continued o specialize in children's subjects and religious themes. Later, I met and married my husband Vincent, who was with the US Army. After several months, when the War Brides were allowed passage, I moved to the States.

Once in the States, I am sorry to say I did not continue to use my talents as I was busy raising three children. I also found it daunting because I was told I needed an agent and that I would have to limit myself in number of colors used. But the torch got passed! My two daughters are artists (and teachers) as are my two grand-daughters, Michelle and Sara, all of them more talented than I."

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Well, Bonne-Maman, we might not agree with that last statement entirely... we're just "different flavors"! You inspire us all. It's been an honor to work with your imagery and I tell you, it was no small feat trying to narrow it down to only a small handful from the hundreds of images you managed to preserve all these decades and we will all treasure them for years to come.

Much love and thanks,

Your first grandchild, Michelle

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Maman will debut at the Spring Quilt Market in May. This will be a Premium collection of goods on luxurious 200 thread count base cloth. We will run this collection concurrently with a new range of coordinating Nursery Basics, which will include solids. Watch this site after market for the full reveal!