Riley Blake Designs

Cindy Cloward's wedding dress was sewn from fabric out of her in-laws' store, and so was every dress in her wedding party. That family business later turned into Riley Blake Designs, which now designs quilting cotton from Lehi and sells it in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia.

The stores belonged to Bret Cloward's parents, Blake and Kathy, who ran fabric shops along the Wasatch Front for more than 30 years. The family also owned Christensen Wholesale, a fabric wholesaler with 80 years behind it. Bret spent more than 15 years in telecom and other work while living in three other states. After his father died, he and Cindy moved back to Utah to run the business.

They did not rush it. The Lehi Free Press reported that the couple spent four years learning the fabric and quilt trade before putting their own take on it. In the meantime the family had started making its own branded flannels in 2005, under the name Alpine Fabrics.

Cindy came to it from a hospital. She worked as a high risk labor and delivery nurse for ten years, two of them as a flight nurse, and Women Create reports she became an avid quilter during the company's early days. Riley Blake's own account says she was convinced the market was short on colorful, fresh prints, so she brought in local designers to draw them.

The first Riley Blake line, Just Dreamy, debuted at the spring 2009 Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, and the company calls it an instant hit. The Lehi Free Press traced the brand's look to a chevron print, which the paper called very popular.

Bret's sister Kim came up with the name. Riley is Bret and Cindy's daughter, and Blake was Bret's father. That puts two family names on the label, chosen by a third.

Riley Blake runs from Utah and has its fabric made overseas. Its FAQ says the majority is produced in South Korea, and that the factories go through ethical audits every year. One licensing partner, Crayola, bars certain countries from producing the fabric at all. The company also says it does not use AI-generated artwork and has no plans to.

The licensing list is long. It runs from Barbie to a NASA collection printed with constellations, and in 2019 the Lehi Free Press called Riley Blake the exclusive U.S. distributor of Liberty of London fabrics. Confetti Cotton solids alone come in 410 colors. The list opens on pinks, with one called Frosting and another called Bubblegum.

You cannot buy any of it on the company's website. Each product page shows a stock count and then asks you to log in before it will show a price, because the site is built for shops placing wholesale orders. Those pre-orders set how much of each print gets made, and the last call for them goes out about 180 days before a line is released.

Cindy, now the creative director, has also put her name on a product. Cindy's Seam Ripper is a patented tool about one inch by two that the company says was years in the making. For a business that sells everything people need to sew a quilt together, the invention with its creative director's name on it takes stitches out.