Sue Penn: Painting Joy Into Fabric

For fabric designer Sue Penn, the path to a life in color didn’t begin with a grand plan, it started with a love of art, a supportive grandmother, and a bold conversation at Quilt Market that changed everything.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Sue was drawn to creativity from an early age. Her grandmother recognized that spark, investing in years of drawing and painting lessons that would quietly shape Sue’s future. Though she considered studying art in college, practicality nudged her toward sociology instead. Still, creativity had a way of finding her.

It wasn’t until later, after marriage, that Sue discovered sewing and joined a local guild. There, a guest speaker planted a seed. Watching a fabric designer speak about her work, Sue saw a possibility she hadn’t fully allowed herself to imagine. “I would love to do that someday,” she remembers thinking.

That “someday” came sooner than expected.

While building a small business through craft shows and eventually wholesaling patterns to quilt shops, Sue attended Quilt Market, an experience that would alter her path. A casual conversation at a booth turned into an opportunity, sparked by a bold, instinctive moment: "I can do that!" Nearly 30 years later, she’s still doing it, designing fabric. Sue is now a designer with Free Spirit Fabrics, known for her unmistakable use of color, texture, and joy.

Sue describes her artistic style simply: bright and happy. But behind that simplicity is a richly layered process. Her designs often begin with hand-painted papers, created using acrylic paints, inks, stencils, stamping, and embossing. She then cuts those papers into shapes like flowers, birds, and leaves, and collages them into imaginative compositions. The result is artwork that feels both playful and deeply textured.

Nature plays a role in her work, but not in a traditional sense. Rather than painting what she sees, Sue paints from memory and imagination. Her florals are abstract and expressive, while her tulips are reduced to bold shapes and the daisies are simplified into joyful forms. It’s less about realism and more about feeling.

Each fabric collection begins with a focal piece—a central story from which everything else grows. From there, Sue builds a supporting cast of coordinates, carefully balancing light, medium, and dark tones, along with a variety of scales. “A line feels finished when it all plays nicely together,” she says. “It’s like building a story.”

Even then, the process isn’t always linear. Sue embraces experimentation, and revision. She’s known for her “paint-over policy,” layering and reworking pieces until they feel right. Some designs hold multiple versions beneath the surface, hidden layers that speak to her willingness to keep pushing until the work truly sings.

Once her artwork is complete, it moves into a digital phase, where it’s scanned and refined before being transformed into repeatable fabric patterns. But even here, her painterly touch remains at the heart of everything.

Beyond designing, Sue has found another passion: teaching. Through her workshops, she invites others into her creative world, sharing the tools and techniques that define her work, especially her use of stencils and layered surfaces. What she loves most isn’t just teaching the process, but watching the moment it clicks.
“It’s so much fun to see someone realize they can create their own designs,” she says. “And then to see that design show up in a quilt or a tote, it’s incredibly rewarding.”

This spirit of encouragement carries through everything she does. For Sue, fabric design isn’t about showcasing her own work, it’s about passing along the joy of creating. “I don’t want to say, ‘Look at what I’ve done,’” she explains. “I want to say, ‘Take this and make something beautiful that makes you happy.’”
With more than two decades in the industry, a signature style rooted in color and imagination, and a continued passion for teaching and sharing, Sue Penn has created more than just fabric collections, she’s created an invitation.

An invitation to play. To explore. And most of all, to create with joy.

Sue’s current collection, Wings of Wonder, now in quilt shops, captures the beauty and transformation of butterflies through vibrant color and intricate design. With a stunning feature panel and a range of playful, coordinating prints, the collection reflects Sue’s signature style: joyful, imaginative, and full of life. It’s a reminder of how far a simple “I can do that” can carry you.