Fabric Of the Week: 2010 Fabric Calendars - Vote now!

We have another amazing batch of entries this week. Voting is now open and the rules are the same as last week: you can vote (by clicking and 'selecting' with a check mark the images on the polling page) for as many designs as you like, but you can only go to the polling page once. Submit your ballot by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. We'll keep the results of the voting under wraps until next week. 

VOTE here.

Please note: we won't be sending out an email next week (Thanksgiving), but we will Tweet and blog the winner. We've also got some cool giveaways planned, so stay tuned.

This week's entries are:

• 2010 Poster Calendar by michellebrusegaard
• yellow wheat 2010 calendar by deniselevy
• Calendar2010 by karidesign
• Calendar 2010 - The Spirit by quiltsmith
• Ivy Mae Calendar by edubgraphicart
• 2010 Calendar by joybucket
• 2010 shining in by darcibeth
• Pepys by jasmo
• diamond-calendar by audreyclayton
• Happily Ever After 2010 by applesandorange
• 2010 Hanging Calendar by jesseesuem
• A Story in the Moon Calendar by karenharveycox
• 2010 Lace Calendar in Berry by strive
• bird_calendar by daniellehanson
• Ahoy 2010! by nadjagirod
• peace pixie 2010 calendar by indi
• Flower pattern calender by antonybriggs
• Gem Calendar by kristopherk
• Woodlanders Calendar by wildolive
• calendar by vo
• 2010 by whatkatesaw
• Loose Leaf Calendar by wickedmint
• 2010 Seasonal Calendar by leoraeffinger
• CandyCityCalendar2010 by puncezilla
• 2010 Herb of the Year Calendar by pixeldust
• Sew Fun! 2010 Calendar by smilerecipe
• Monster Calendar 2010 by musterartig
• Sea Life Calendar by mochistudios
• Cottage Industrialist Calendar by cottageindustrialist
• Weather or not 2010 calendar by snuss
• Minimalist Edge 2010 Calendar by aimeeelisabeth

Weird Fish Win! Spoonflower Fabric Of the Week Winner for Nov. 19

The votes are in! Congratulations go to Leigh R, whose Weird Fishes took the top spot out of all 72 of the designs submitted. [You can review the rules of the competition here.]  I think our new polling system -- in which individuals could vote for as many designs as they liked, but no more than once for each -- was a success. Final results are:

• Weird Fishes by Leigh 622
• Swim against the stream by Yvonne Herbst 474
• FishSpoonflower by edubgraphicart 377
• Tiger_Fish by Alex Morgan 358
• Aqua School by gottacre8! 356
• Fish Are Nice by Mary Brewer 354
• fishtails2 by elizabeth Mckenzie 330
• fishsoup by Stefanie von Hoesslin 327
• Swimmin' with the fishes by Vanessa 327
• Koi_bw by Daniela Caine 325
• Matryoshka Fish Kaleidoscope by Wee Folk Art 307
• Koi Blossom by Julie Shaw 277
• 'Koi + Lotus' by monkeybutt 271
• fish-napkin-design by katy keuter 200
• Octopus Black by Laura Wilson 199
• Goldfish_Bubbles by outofthebox 195
• fish_pattern by Connie Lim 166
• coralfish by hadley hutton 157
• mermaid10 by connielou 149
• Fish Mirrored Circles by Susan Mentrak 146
• Ocean View by Patty McNally 144
• fishiesunderthesea by carey_perez 138
• betabowls4color by elisabeth 131
• trio_fish by Samantha Cheung 131
• FishFishFish by Annelie Hervi 128
• CoralWaterTurquoiseFish by Michele Ouellet 128
• fishies - contest by Monica Meehan 127
• Fish Fry by Adriana Hernandez 117
• cocofish by corentine 115
• Jellyfish Peek-a-boo by Marilyn Patrizio 111
• swimmy by Kate Austin 108
• fish by Tina Rose 106
• Blinking Outside The Bag by Kim Niles 104
• blue fish by Laura L. Greaves 104
• whimsical_fish_1d by vicki jenkins 102
• Fish Scales by halahblue 93
• 4-color-bloop-a-rama by Joan De Lurio 93
• koi joy by Star Primm 93
• ed fish, blue fish, yellow...' by Lori Howe 88
• Fish Town by Jolene Forcier 80
• spoonflowerfishcarmen by ohcarmie 77
• Paisley Fish by beckarahn 73
• SHARKS__6X10 by eliza 73
• Goldfish a la William Morris by Gretchen Little 72
• HalibuTartan by b_mac_b 68
• fish shoal by Tanja Loeser 67
• fourfishes_2_2 by Linn Bodur 61
• fish with hands and feet 2 by humpty 58
• fish fabric by James McCullough 54
• jpk_fishy by Melissa Ditalo 51
• sf-frilly-fish-w-black by beena_singhal 47
• Fun Fish Circles and Stars ... by Kris K 45
• fish by Lara 42
• Ocean View by Noah 39
• Disgruntled Fish Pattern by Linda Tieu 39
• fish by moonbeam 37
• SF_FishContest_B_11-2-09 by Sarah Nussbaumer 36
• FishBones by Lisa Dawson 35
• Hello_Fishy by Cathy McLeod 35
• here_fishy_fishy by Joy Lamphere 35
• gonefishin by bandanna gonefishin by bandanna 34
• Psychedelic Fish by Norman Sherfield 30
• reef_fish by Angela McGrew 27
• fishsoup by Jane Crowe 26
• FishFuillard by edzellinni 22
• fishes by Debec 20
• Funky_80s_Fish by Sandra Stewart 20
• Fishy_Wishes by Lisa Rene Anderson 16
• JellyFish by Tamara Hensley 15
• Fishies by Aimee Elisabeth 11
• vll_fish_2-ch by victorialasher 10
• fish bone plate by Kweli Kitwana 7

Thank you to everyone who participated! Your creativity astounds and inspires.

Notes and Reminder About Calendar-Themed Fabric Of the Week Contest

Reminder: the deadline for our 2010 calendar contest is Monday, November 16th at noon, EST. The entry form and rules for it -- and the other contests that have been announced so far -- is here.

• Keep in mind that the hanging fabric calendar has to fit on a fat quarter of fabric which is, in the case of our quilting cotton, 21 x 18 inches (45.7 cm x 53.3cm), A couple of people have written to ask if their design they upload to Spoonflower is oriented horizontally, will it show up in the voting lying on its side? Answer: We'll all display all the calendars in the voting right-side up.
• Also, please be sure to take advantage of the tagging field on your fabric details page to tag your calendar design with the word calendar.
•  We will preview every design as a fat quarter of fabric. It's fine if there is white space around the design, but any white space will show up in the preview. A piece of fabric that is 21"x18"  previewed at 150 dpi will require starting with a digital image that is 3150 pixels by 2700 pixels. If necessary, you can use the 'change size' option on the fabric layout page to reduce the size of the design to fit in the fat quarter.
• Unless your calendar design fits exactly into the fat quarter area, you'll want to choose the center option for layout.

If you have any other last minute questions, please post them in the comment field for this post. As of this writing, we have only nine entries for the calendar contest (not that I'm complaining -- nine will be easy to set up for voting!).

72 colorful fish on the wall... Vote for the fishy fabric of the week!

As you may remember, our Fish & Colors Fabric Of the Week contest had two guidelines: use fish as a motif and employ the restricted palette of colors described here. Well, seventy-two designers took up the challenge and we are -- in a novel twist on our usual contest procedures -- offering up ALL of the fabrics in a mega-vote-apalooza this week. You can vote for as many or as few fabrics as you like. At the end of voting (on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 6pm EST), the design with the most votes will win. Just to make it even more of a free-for-all, we won't be showing results for the contest as they come in. So you'll have to wait  until next week to find out the winner.

Also of note, the poll consists of three pages this week that are served up in random order from visitor to visitor. The designs on each page are also randomized per visitor. That will keep any single group of designs from being hobbled due to bad placement.

You can only vote once, and you can do it here.

The contestants this week are:

1. Psychedelic Fish by Norman Sherfield
2. Fish Fry by Adriana Hernandez
3. Fishies by Aimee Elisabeth
4. gonefishin by bandanna
5. Paisley Fish by beckarahn
6. HalibuTartan by b_mac_b
7. sf-frilly-fish-w-black by beena_singhal
8. spoonflowerfishcarmen by ohcarmie
9. fishiesunderthesea by carey_perez
10. 'Koi + Lotus' by monkeybutt
11. Aqua School by gottacre8!
12. mermaid10 by connielou
13. fish with hands and feet 2 by humpty
14. cocofish by corentine
15. Goldfish_Bubbles by outofthebox
16. Fish Scales by halahblue
17. vll_fish_2-ch by victorialasher
18. FishSpoonflower by edubgraphicart
19. FishFuillard by edzellinni
20. fish by moonbeam
21. Fishy_Wishes by Lisa Rene Anderson
22. betabowls4color by elisabeth
23. SHARKS__6X10 by eliza
24. Koi Blossom by Julie Shaw
25. Swim against the stream by Yvonne Herbst
26. FishBones by Lisa Dawson
27. 4-color-bloop-a-rama by Joan De Lurio
28. coralfish by hadley hutton
29. Goldfish a la William Morris by Gretchen Little
30. fishes by Debec
31. fishtails2 by elizabeth Mckenzie
32. whimsical_fish_1d by vicki jenkins
33. fishsoup by Stefanie von Hoesslin
34. fourfishes_2_2 by Linn Bodur
35. fish fabric by James McCullough
36. fishsoup by Jane Crowe
37. Fish Mirrored Circles by Susan Mentrak
38. swimmy by Kate Austin
39. Blinking Outside The Bag by Kim Niles
40. fish-napkin-design by katy keuter
41. fish bone plate by Kweli Kitwana
42. Fun Fish Circles and Stars ... by Kris K
43. ed fish, blue fish, yellow...' by Lori Howe
44. blue fish by Laura L. Greaves
45. Weird Fishes by Leigh
46. Funky_80s_Fish by Sandra Stewart
47. Jellyfish Peek-a-boo by Marilyn Patrizio
48. fishies - contest by Monica Meehan
49. Hello_Fishy by Cathy McLeod
50. Ocean View by Patty McNally
51. Ocean View by Noah
52. Matryoshka Fish Kaleidoscope by Wee Folk Art
53. FishFishFish by Annelie Hervi
54. koi joy by Star Primm
55. CoralWaterTurquoiseFish by Michele Ouellet
56. fish by Lara
57. Fish Are Nice by Mary Brewer
58. trio_fish by Samantha Cheung
59. SF_FishContest_B_11-2-09 by Sarah Nussbaumer
60. here_fishy_fishy by Joy Lamphere
61. jpk_fishy by Melissa Ditalo
62. Tiger_Fish by Alex Morgan
63. JellyFish by Tamara Hensley
64. Koi_bw by Daniela Caine
65. fish shoal by Tanja Loeser
66. fish by Tina Rose
67. fish_pattern by Connie Lim
68. Fish Town by Jolene Forcier
69. Disgruntled Fish Pattern by Linda Tieu
70. Swimmin' with the fishes by Vanessa
71. Octopus Black by Laura Wilson
72. reef_fish by Angela McGrew

Go vote.

Doll Panels Fabric of the week winner: Jazzy Jasmine

Rosanna Bernstein of Miami Beach rounded up the most votes in the finals of our doll panels contest. She's a grandmother and this is the first time she's ever entered her work into a contest, so she tells us it's especially exciting for her to see Jazzy win. You can find more of Rosanna's work in her Etsy shop, and you can buy your own Jazzy doll kit here.

Final doll panel voting results:

1. Jazzy Jasmine Dolly from Japan by Rosanna Bernstein    385    20.25%
2. 'Robot Dolls' by Jessee Maloney    291    15.31%
3. stuffed vegetables: roots by Joan De Lurio    241    12.68%
4. Little Geisha Girls by kismutt   233    12.26%
5. 4 little gnomes by apoo    181    9.52%
6. Ninja Beans Panel by Mochi Studios      167    8.78%
7. bright owl by Mel Latthitham    130    6.84%
8. Humpty_Shelf_Sitter by Sylvia Ion    107    5.63%
9. 'Dollpanel_triorio1' by Renule    99    5.21%
10. 14"/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls by Gila von Meissner   67    3.52%

Thanks to all the designers who participated and to all of you who voted!

You can check out the schedule of our upcoming themed contests here.

Last few hours for voting in the doll panel finals!

If you haven't voted yet, please make sure to let us know which of the doll panel finalists is your favorite! The poll closes today at 6pm EST.

Later this week you'll get a chance to vote on our Fish and Colors Fabric of the Week participants. Should be fun.

Doll Panel Finals! Help Choose the Winner

Ok, we've chosen the top five designs from last week, printed them along with the top five designs from the week before, and it now gives us great pleasure to present the top ten finalists from our doll panel design Fabric Of the Week contest. They are:

• 'Robot Dolls' by Jessee Maloney
• 4 little gnomes by apoo
• 'Dollpanel_triorio1' by Renule 
• Humpty_Shelf_Sitter by Sylvia Ion
• 14"/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls by Gila von Meissner
• stuffed vegetables: roots by Joan De Lurio  
• Little Geisha Girls by kismutt 
• bright owl by Mel Latthitham  
• Jazzy Jasmine Dolly from Japan by Rosanna Bernstein    
• Ninja Beans Panel by Mochi Studios  

You can vote (once) here, and follow the results -- with a one hour delay -- here.

Thanks to everyone who participated. It's too bad we couldn't run the contest using photos of the completed dolls themselves, which were just fantastic. Do take a minute to check some of the great doll photos in the Spoonflower Flickr pool for examples (like Audry & Pippin here from MyTinyStar). See the previous blog entry for upcoming contests!

Fall Craft Project: Create your own fabric using leaves - no Photoshop required

People who are not familiar with design tools like Photoshop and Illustrator often ask me how they can go about creating fabric designs to print using Spoonflower. There are many approaches you can take, of course, but just for fun I threw together this very short how-to video on making your own fabric design using a handful of colorful, fall leaves and a simple home office scanner.

More Themed Fabric Of the Week Contests: Calendars, Celestial Designs By Hand & Children's Clothing Patterns

Entries for the Fish and Colors contest closed on Monday with -- whew -- just under 80 entries. We plan to post all of those fabrics for voting next week, but in the meantime below is a short list of upcoming themed Fabric of the Week contests, along with entry forms and deadlines. This will allow the ambitious among you to get started early. Please do keep in mind that we reserve the right to modify or clarify these guidelines as needed as the actual deadlines approach, so check the blog now and then for new notes. We'll probably also post one or two additional themes over the next weeks to fill in the gaps in our contest calendar.

Contest rules and Q&A can be found here.

Calendars: Using no more than a fat quarter of quilting-weight fabric, design a hanging wall calendar for 2010. A fat quarter is 21 inches by 18 inches (53.3 cm x 45.7cm). Deadline is Monday, November 16, 2009 at noon EST. For inspiration, see these lovely calendars from the brilliant Michelle of Cicada Studio. [pls note that she did not print her calendars through Spoonflower, but used her own process] Entry form for calendars is HERE.

Celestial: Starting from a non-digital piece of art -- collage, painting or drawing -- create a fabric design with a celestial theme (stars, moon, sun, planets, clouds, winds, heavens). You can manipulate the design digitally in order to create the file you upload to Spoonflower, but the more non-digital the art, the better. We'll post an example on the blog soon for inspiration. Deadline is Monday, November 23, 2009, at noon EST. Entry form for Celestial is HERE.

Children's Clothing: Create a sewing pattern and design for an article of children's clothing that includes -- in one yard -- all the pieces, cut lines, seam allowances and short instructions printed directly on the fabric. This is obviously a tough one, but we know some of you are up to it. [Probably not a good one for folks not familiar with using vector art programs.] Deadline is Monday, December 14, 2009, at noon EST. Entry form for Children's Clothing theme is HERE.

Post your ideas for upcoming Fabric Of the Week contest themes!

Last time we solicited ideas for themes to use in our Fabric Of the Week contest, lots of folks weighed in with great suggestions. For the next couple of days, I'd love to open up the comment thread one more time to see if we can gather even more good ideas. What do you think? What should our next contest theme consist of?