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Diana Leone and Lion Studios
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 If you know Diana Leone, you can bet she's keeping busy with all kinds of new projects. Since selling the Quilting Bee to Eddie, she's been busy with fabric design, book authoring, and, of course, quilting!
Diana Leone - if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, perhaps the best description is that she is a bundle of creativity, ready to dream up a new concept, quilt or project at any moment. Author, quilter, fine artist, publisher, store owner - all part of Diana's life, but not quite the whole story. Click here to read about Diana's history! Or keep reading to find out what she's up to now that she's "retired" from the Quilting Bee!
A trip to Diana's new home tells the visitor a lot about Diana's story. The new home, nestled near a persimmon tree and a creek in South San Jose, was two years in the building, and is now lovingly decorated with Diana's quilts, not only ones she has made, but also antique quilts she has collected and quilts made for her. An upstairs loft and sewing room enable Diana the space to create new quilt designs, most recently including the Winter Attic Window and the America Quilts Our Flag designs. A balcony houses Diana's painting materials and enables her to create her paintings outdoors.
Yet, Diana's life is not just about quilting. An accomplished fabric designer, she spends much of her time developing the paintings that ultimately become the latest fabric trends. As Diana describes it, as much as two-and-a-half to three years can go into the development of a new fabric line, with almost a year spent on concept development, another on selling the concept, and another on manufacturing. Diana's fabric concepts begin their lives as watercolor paintings. The paintings are carefully designed to allow for fabric "repeats" - that is, the repeated nature of the designs on the fabric. Designs are then provided to the fabric manufacturer, and work begins to determine the various color ways for each fabric line.
 As an example, Diana's latest line of fabrics, the "Quilt for All Seasons" design manufactured by Fabri-Quilt USA, will ultimately offer from 10 to 25 different color ways in each fabric. Currently, the "winter" color ways are available, and the summer set is expected to be available by mid-2002. "It's a huge commitment on the part of the fabric company," Diana noted, "to prepare all the different color ways in a line of fabrics." Currently, Diana's major emphasis is finishing all the design work for the summer line in anticipation of its launch in 2002.
The "Quilt for All Seasons" focuses on rich, deep tones, and provides views of mountains, clouds, pine boughs, lightning and clouds. Several coordinating pieces are also available with designs of random etch work and tracings and distinctive color variations fabrics.
While the "Quilt for All Seasons" design focuses on nature, landscape and sky designs, Diana's other recent fabric line offers a look into the comfortable favorite haunts of the quilter - "The Sewing Room", manufactured by General Fabrics Company. "I wanted to give ladies a set of fabrics that would be something special to them," said Diana. "So many fabrics are designed with means motifs in mind - ducks, hunting, etc., and I wanted ladies to have something they could enjoy."
 "The Sewing Room" (NOTE: out of print and sold out at EQB) is centered around a panel that shows an older sewing machine nestled amidst the happy atmosphere of a sewing room. Patterned after Diana's own original sewing room, the panel shows her books, her fiesta ware and even her white Persian cat, contentedly awaiting a new quilt to sit on!
Coordinating pieces for "The Sewing Room" include a fabric displaying antique vintage sewing utensils and a stippled quilting design. Both are available in several pastel color ways.
You'd imagine, wouldn't you, that creating fabrics would be enough to keep Diana busy? Not really! Diana's home studio design and decorating style may soon be the topic of a book by Krause Publications. She is also busy creating new quilting designs, as mentioned above.
Most importantly, with her Masters degree in Art, Diana is now engaged in satisfying her creative urge through fine art. Her watercolors are generating sufficient interest that a gallery presentation is in the planning stage.
Diana has also worked to ensure that the art of quilting is available to others. She developed the traveling exhibition "Double Visions", which is currently touring. A book celebrating this exhibition is available at Eddie's Quilting Bee.
Diana is also preparing to work on condensed versions of several of her popular books, which will be made available through publishers to the mass markets. She is also considering developing a book on the dating of antique quilts.
Diana, retired? Not hardly! She's just transferred her talents, energies and passion to a new venue. Keep your eye on this site for more information about her work and announcements of upcoming news and events.
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