German artist Susanne Bochem won the most votes in our most recent contest with her "Alle Autos" design, (which would make an outstanding pillow case in my humble opinion). Thus you can buy her fabric as a limited edition for the next six days or so in the Spoonflower Etsy store.

Be sure to check out Susanne's artwork in her Etsy shop and on her web site: www.susalabim.de.

Final tallies from last week were:

Line Formations by Ruth Palmer 20.6% 352
blockyroses_on_grey by Rebecca Donald  14.9% 255
fabricTwo by Steve Skemp  8.7% 149
alle_autos_1 by Susanne Bochem 36.6% 626
lazertran_027 by Peggy Gatto 4.6% 79
Full_moon_design by Margaret Baxter 14.5% 248

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New Designs for Voting

We have six amazing new designs this week from another batch of as-yet-unfeatured designers. They are (left to right starting at the top):

• hearts by Becky Ray, Johnson City, Tennessee
• cameos and pearls by Janice Wray
• orange_leaves by sarah salzberg
• spring time by Image Capsule, Waterloo, Ontario
• purple_flower_repeat by Lisa Marie Grillos, San Francisco
• quasi-pucci by David Lincoln Brooks, Boerne, Texas

Click here to let us know which design you like best. Voting closes next week on Wednesday.

You're welcome to follow the current vote count in real time.

If you're looking for the contest rules and entry form, they are here.

Spoonflower site trouble...

Fixed! Possibly as a result of traffic from the NPR story today, www.Spoonflower.com appears to be down at the moment. Working on it.

The Spoonflower story on American Public Media's "The Story"

The National Public Radio American Public Media program The Story airs an interview today with yours truly about how we came to create Spoonflower. The host, Dick Gordon (pictured left), pieces together the tale of my improbable transformation from marketing geek to textile entrepreneur, a journey prompted by Kim's longing for a particular set of curtains and fortified by the steely nerves of my business partner, friend and former boss, Gart. If the show is not carried on your local station, you can still catch the podcast version on the web.

Another talented crafter from Portland (yawn) - Devyn Larson Wins

Congratulations to Devyn Larson of Portland! Her Happy Flower Vines won the most votes in our most recent contest and so... you can buy her fabric as a limited edition for the next six days or so in our . [Be warned that for some reason our photos this week look a bit greenish, but the fabric is more blue than green. Just bad light, I guess.]

Final voting was:

• peace bug by Lily Moore     7.3%    130
• Sweet Charity by Nancy Minsky  12.1%    216
• Happy_Flower_Vines by Devyn Larson    48.9%    874
• Rose3 by Anika 13.1%    235
• flower_repeat_sqaures_1-22 by Katherine    18.6%    333

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New Designs for Voting

We have six new designs this week from folks who have never been featured in the contest before (a level of novelty we try to maintain each week). They are:

Line Formations by Ruth Palmer, Calgary, Alberta
blockyroses_on_grey by Rebecca Donald
fabricTwo by Steve Skemp, Dubuque, Iowa
alle_autos_1 by Susanne Bochem, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
lazertran_027 by Peggy Gatto, Alamo, CA
Full_moon_design by Margaret Baxter, North Carolina

Click here to let us know which design you like best. Voting closes next week on Wednesday. You're welcome to follow the current vote count in real time.

Child at Art garden fabric

In my other life I'm a gardener.  The various domestic arts have always appealed to me, whether I pursued them at the sewing machine, in the kitchen, or in the dirt.  I don't think this makes me unusual, at least among Spoonflower folks.  Child at Art is another domestic tribe-member, I think, or at least that's how I interpret the photos of her lawnmower and grass circles fabric draped in her beautiful garden.  Spoonflower staff all loved this design when we saw it being printed on our linen/cotton last week, and I'm so glad this talented designer has seen fit to share the fabric love in our Flickr pool and on her blog!

PaperPie fabric love

Sorry for the long silence here on the blog and on Twitter, y'all, but can you believe that Stephen and I have been (gasp!) on vacation this week?  We certainly needed the break, though it's arguable how much of a break we're getting in a big lake house where the kids outnumber the adults.  (Eleven of them versus nine of us, in case you're wondering.)  But we're managing the occasional nap, and it's lovely to focus on teaching our oldest daughter to water-ski for a change instead of focusing on cranking through the usual routine.

That said, I've still been peeking in on work email and our Flickr pool.  In case you haven't seen them, I wanted to point out PaperPie's absolutely gorgeous Spoonflower printed fabrics in our pool.  I'm a sucker for all things aqua blue, even when I'm not on a watery vacation, but her designs do strike me as particularly summery and fresh.  If you're as in love with them as I am, you can find them (beautifully packaged!) in her WonderFluffShop on Etsy.

I screen, you screen, we all screen for screen_pattern

Even though I'm about a week late in announcing it, congratulations are due to the talented Bradley Leach of Savannah, Georgia. His "Screen Pattern" design won the majority in our most recent fabric-of-the-week contest. You can get quilting-weight cotton bearing this cool design from the Spoonflower Etsy store for the next five days or so. After that you'll have to go pester Bradley himself for some in his Etsy store.

The final vote tally was:

• Bohemian_Swiss Repeat by Mary Mitchell   7.4%    128
• Print100 by Carol Waugh, Denver, CO   9.0%    155
• Aimee2 by aimless    11.4%    196
• gold1_150 by Lisa Wray   8.6%    149
• Labcolorfabric by Jessica Flores     30.6%    528
• screen_pattern by Bradley Leach  33.0%    569

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Six, er... Five New Designs for Voting

And now we're on to another week of voting, although due to an odd set of circumstances we're only posting five designs this week. Next week we'll bump it back up to six as we continue to work our way through the long list of entrants. They are:

• peace bug by Lily Moore
• Sweet Charity by Nancy Minsky
• Happy_Flower_Vines by Devyn Larson, Portland, Oregon
• Rose3 by Anika
• flower_repeat_sqaures_1-22 by Katherine

Click here to let us know which design you like best. Voting closes next week on Wednesday. You're welcome to follow the current vote count in real time.

Organic Cotton Comes to Spoonflower

You've asked and asked and asked again. So we are very, very pleased to finally be able to offer organic cotton as an option for Spoonflower printing. Its virtues are not purely ecological, either -- this apparel-weight cotton sateen is truly lovely stuff. See details below. Now live on the site as an option along with quilting-weight broadcloth and upholstery-weight cotton sateen.


Spoonflower's organic sateen is a creamy cotton fabric perfect for making clothes and pillows. Certified organic by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard).

• 4.5 oz p/yd
• 58-inch printable width (147 cm) natural finish
• glossy, cream-colored finish
• extremely soft hand
• $27 pr/yd