Mollie Makes Birds

 

So my family and I made it through Hurrican Sandy OK, we didn't lose power or anything.

Being stuck inside all day gives you time to work on projects.  One of my projects is to design a bird fabric for Spoonflower's fabric of the week.  The theme is birds or flight and the winner gets their fabric on Mollie Makes a cool British blog/magazine. 

 

 

Rough sketches of whimsical birds.

 

The contest is palette restricted which means my design can only use these four colors chosen by Spoonflower or Mollie Makes or both.  I like these choices, they're cheerful and soft.

 

 

 

From Design to Fabric!

I got my swatches from Spoonflower today!   What I have learned is that in printing fabric, blue is pretty much a crapshoot.  My royal blues and periwinkles came out purple (and not the blue side of purple either) and the pinks and reds that I had thought were on the bluer side came out printed more orangey--but still pretty close.  Interestingly, the group of designs that came out best were the ones that were direct scans of original artwork that had minimal photoshopping (meaning I didn't fool with the color at all, just the design.)

This bunch came out perfect!

These were disappointingly purple but wouldn't you know, dang it, that they look BLUE again on my monitor, 'cept the Eggplants, they're straight up purple and not giving it up.  I am going to have to make a conversion chart.


 

Patriotic Super Stars

My entry into the Spoonflower's Stars and Stripes Contest.  There are lots of vote-worthy designs this week.  Take a look and choose your faves.

Subtle Design

When I make a design sure I want it to catch people's attention.  It should jump out and say "YO!  HERE I AM!!" (especially if it's part of a Spoonflower contest) shouldn't it?  But sometimes you just want a fabric with a bit of design to make things visually interesting but not so much that it dominates the whole room or outfit or quilt it's going to be a part of.  When you consider what you personally might do with a fabric would you want such a bold design? The above design, called "Circle Star" I think works best as a tone on tone but it can carry a two color scheme as well.  If you are a Spoonflower contest voter and you feel this design is worthy, give it a click in this week's limited palette contest.  The palette is the purple and green and the theme is 'geometric.'  There are a lot of great In-Your-Face designs in the contest this week and I voted for a lot of them, but I didn't discount some of the more subtle designs.  You shouldn't either (and I'm not just saying that because I want your vote.)

Which Star?

One of these four designs is going to be entered into Spoonflowers Stars and Stripes Fabric of the Week contest but I need help deciding which color scheme to submit.  Leave a comment to tell me which star design is your fave!

Pick Me!

I haven't submitted a design to a Spoonflower contest in a while,  but I liked the theme of this contest: Summer Flowers.  It had a limited palette which I like the challange of using and the colors they chose this time weren't too difficult to like.  Purple -n- Blue are always fine with me!  Anyway, if you have a minute to go and vote, I'd greatly appreciate it!  I know that I've not done a Paisley of the Week! this week.  Maybe I ought to change the name to Paisley of the Weak instead?  Next Monday for sure!

Daffodils

Spring is almost here!  To celebrate, Spoonflower has made Daffodils this week's Fabric of the Week Theme.  This is my entry, an ogee with an art nouveau/zen flavor.  Well, if that sounds a bit pretentious, it's still an ogee.  It's amazing (and intimidating) how many talented designers enter Spoonflower's contests.  If you get a sec, go and vote for my daffodils :)

Tangerine Tango

PLUSPLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

And that's how you do the Tangerine Tango--Ole!

Spoonflower Dolls - Update

Well I did not make the top 10 of the contest, not for lack of support though.  I am grateful to everyone who went to Spoonflower and voted for my dolls.  I was up against some very good designs.  Perhaps the next contest I'll be luckier.

*The polls are open! Please vote for my entry. You can vote for one entry on each page, my entry is on page 4, the last page. Thank you in advance ;D

This week begins the doll-panel contest at Spoonflower. These 3 lovely ladies are my entry into this contest. Their bodies are made from other fabric designs that I've done. My last Spoonflower contest entry was done last minute and half-hearted. This entry is very much whole hearted. I want very much to reach the top ten.

Repeated Woes

For the past 2 days, Spoonflower and I have been having a fight. Above is my favorite design to date. I would love love love to have fabric that looks like this (wouldn't you?!) But it will NOT line up properly in the repeat when I upload it to Spoonflower. Those veins in the leaves, which I feel are necessary to the overall design, are always skewed. I want my Chocolate Raspberry Truffle fabric!

UPDATE:  I  learned how to make a seamless repeat ,wrote a tutorial about it and I decided it wasn't Spoonflower's fault after all.