Everything you ever wanted to know about Spoonflower staff...

  ...but don't be afraid to ask!  Starting next week, I'll be profiling Spoonflower staffers here on the blog, including the angelic Stephanie and Danielle at left.   If you have any questions you'd like to see me ask our printing, shipping, engineering or office staff--or any strong opinions about who should be first--please let me know in the comments.  Then check back next week for the first of the Spoonflower staff interviews!

Stormy weather

Like most of our fellow US East Coast residents, we had weather on the brain this weekend as Hurricane Irene came and went.  I don't know how you all spent your inside time, but between glances out the window to check for wayward tree branches and contemplating our non-perishable food supplies, I discovered that bad weather can at least make for good fabric design.

Hope all of you to the east and north of us pulled through ok!

A Plethora Of Plushies: Choose your favorite stuffed toy patterns in this week's design contest

The challenge in this week's contest was to create a cut & sew kit for a plushie toy that fits on a fat quarter of fabric. As a result you now have 130 entries -- and a lot of cuteness -- to wade through as you select your favorites. Have fun!

Vote For Plushie Patterns

1. The Ball Monster by mariao 
2. "Kuddle me!" Koala Plushie Pattern by delsie 
3. 3 Amigas - cut, sew, paint! by kayajoy 
4. A dolly to love by shiny 
5. A enchanted fellow by paragon_studios_one 
6. airplane_plushie by tante_lein 
7. Amiee, A Jointed Rag Doll Kit by eppiepeppercorn 
8. Appliqué Patch Owl Plushies by scrummy 
9. Arnold the Jellyfish - Plushie by giddystuff 
10. A_Wow_Pow_Pig_Stuffy_and_Mini_Bunting by feathered_nest_studio 
    

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11. Baby panda plushie pattern by fantazya 
12. Beat-Beat music note toy by liz-adams 
13. Beaux doll pattern by thesummercountry 
14. BedBug x by spellstone 
15. Big Blue - The Blue Whale Plushie by katieschrader 
16. bird_plushie_pattern by primenumbergirl 
17. Blue Bird of Happiness Bean Bag Toy by salzanos 
18. Boston Terrier Pal by missyq 
19. Brandy's Simple Plushie by brandymiller 
20. Buddy Bear Stuffed Friend by mytinystar 
21. Buggie Love by collectivesurfacellc 
22. Build A Saiga Antelope by drizzlydaydesignco 
23. Bunny or Duck? What do you see? (cut & sew plushies or cherry pit pillows) by annosch 
24. Business Suit Bunny by monmeehan 
25. butterfly_beauty_fat by rquill 
26. caballo_ganador by vegasogarcia 
27. cameraplushies by jnifr 
28. Campervan and the Surfies by woo 
29. Camping_makes_me_siiing by mrshervi 
30. Chibi Baby Dragon Plushie by verdigrisdye 
31. CoffeeBeanMeanie-Contest by kimnb 
32. Cool Cat Plushies by jennartdesigns 
33. Crazy Rain! by my_zoetrope 
34. Cut and sew plush Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy ©2011 by rusticcorgi 
35. Cute Kits Color Kittens Plushies by kdl 
36. Cute Little Owl Toy by nezumiworld 
37. Cute Zebra with Zipper Plushie Pattern by artist4god 
38. CutSewTreasureOwl2011 by nikky 
39. Cutycat plushie by chameleonfire 
40. C_theBEAR_plushie2 by sinelinea 
41. D6 SAN loss by sef 
42. Dad's First Book by glimmericks 
43. Darling Robot by alison-berry 
44. Dasher the Daschund dog_plushie by daniellehanson 
45. Debs_Dolls_with_backs by worldwidedeb 
46. Deer Love by purplegoat 
47. Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) by trublufabric 
48. Dragon Plushie by witchylana 
49. Dreamy Ellie (Plushie + 2 Keychains) by catru 
50. Eagle by corinnevail 
51. Easy Matryoshka by maeli 
52. Eggplant Baby Rattle & Friend by lulakiti 
53. elephant plushie mobile by amel24 
54. Exotic Bird Stuffed Animals by heartfullofbirds 
55. FAB FOX (click to see photo of sewn sample) by happysewlucky 
56. Fenton Goes to Paris by leora_the_sane 
57. Gnome Knockdown by amywtsn 
58. Good Morning Dinosaurs: Soft Book by ghennah 
59. Grimmy by freedom_fernandez 
60. Groovy Iguana by owlandchickadee 
61. happy family by tgsn 
62. Haruka DIY Plushie Doll Kit by oksancia 
63. HEDGIE AND FROGGY CLOTH DOLL PATTERN by fantastictoys 
64. henna heart monster plushie by jaja 
65. Honey Badger Don't Give a $%*! by virginiao*aka*vo 
66. I Love my Sushi, Plushi Cat - © Lucinda Wei by simboko 
67. Idunno and Notmee Plushies by fabgirl42 
68. Incredible Super Pig by verycherry 
69. Jasper Q. Piddlebottom - Plush Monkey toy by shannonmac 
70. Kawaii Kitchen - plushie toy set by bora 
71. kittysuit by annaboo 
72. Kokeshi and Panda Cut and Sew Pattern- see description for directions. by mayabella 
73. little red riding hood plush pattern set by bubbledog 
74. little_skelly_with_instructions-ed by messy 
75. love birds toy by sary 
76. Love Monster (Love and Happiness) by andibird 
77. Macaroni the Cockatiel by supercoop 
78. Madame Butterfly falling in love by lita_blanc 
79. Make Your Own Bear by frankandgertrude 
80. Matryoshka by melissamelissa 
81. Mix 'n' Match Rag Dolly by yemiliee 
82. Mr and Mrs Cupcake - Plushie Pattern by monda 
83. Mr. ZOMBIE Plush Doll by candyjoyce 
84. My Little Friends - Dress Up Doll by jmckinniss 
85. nativity_scene by susalabim 
86. Nesting Doll by signora_aurora 
87. Not a dragon, not a fly. A delicate, friendly dragonfly by sol 
88. One Bad Apple by qdpatooties 
89. owlplushie by creativebrenda 
90. Paisley Princess Plushie Redhead by jillian_morris 
91. Pedo Bear Plushie by terridee 
92. piggy_pillow_stuffed_toy by tewalt 
93. Plushie Pattern Chickie by jbhorsewriter7 
94. polarity bear by aperiodic 
95. Pop Idol Meru by shouyume 
96. PugPlushie by loki_and_lamb 
97. Renarde by LapinGiraffe by thelazygiraffe 
98. Ridinghood_plushie_pattern_COLOR by sawabona 
99. Robot Softie Cut-n-Sew by seidabacon 
100. robot_love_plushie by art_is_hard 
101. Rock Plushie Basic by verity_brown 
102. Rosie Plushie by calydreams 
103. Sea Turtle Plushie w/ Removable Shell by ttoz 
104. Sew Easy Panda Plushie by forgotten_fortune 
105. Sloth & Symbiotes cut and sew pattern by theboerwar 
106. Small fabric doll pattern and parts by edsel2084 
107. Snow Buddies by connielou 
108. spoonflower by suziwollman 
109. Squake by made_in_shina 
110. Squatch-Mo! by ceanirminger 
111. Stuffed full of Love by rhysotronic 
112. Super Penguin Plushie! by modgeek 
113. Sweet Seahorse Family by strive 
114. Tea Party Plush by irrimiri 
115. Teddy Bear plushie family by katarina 
116. The Colorful State of the States (applique a heart somewhere special) by sew-me-a-garden 
117. The Magnificent Bearded Lady by kahoxworth 
118. The Owl, an Elegant Fowl by victorialasher 
119. The UnTouchables! by ravenous 
120. The Viking by pond_ripple 
121. The_Tuxedo_Cat by topfrog56 
122. Tiny Rag Dolls by jadegordon 
123. Toothy the Tooth Fairy (Cut n' Sew Plushie) by sammyk 
124. Tree Hugger by rabble 
125. Tubby Teddy Bear 'Plushie' by eclectic_house 
126. Turnaround doll by celebrindal 
127. Wilbur the Basset Hound Stuffie by robyriker 
128. Wilson by kiwiandsteve 
129. Woodland Families by leighr 
130. wooooof! No No No! bad dog! by joybucket 
131. Young Man in Frock Coat by natashad 

Hawaiian Cheater Quilt Contest Tie: Congrats to both winners!

For the second time in the history of our Fabric Of the Week contest we have a tie for first place between two terrific fabrics: "Hawaiian Quilt Circle of Akahai Quilt" by JennArtDesigns (left) and "Hawaiian Quilt Circle of Flora" by first-time competitor Jessica Greenwalt (right). Both designers have been awarded $100 in Spoondollar credit and, despite the fact that our contest page shows ten designs rather than eleven, we've made the next nine fabrics in the voting results available for sale. (The contest page is also limited in that it can only show one design as winner, which is a shame.) 

See the Top Ten Hawaiian Cheater Quilts

The final votes:

1. 584 votes for Hawaiian Quilt Circle of Flora by jgreenwalt and Akahai Quilt by jennartdesigns 

3. 559 votes for AlohaHawaiianCheaterQuilt_designmagi by designmagi 
4. 554 votes for Kauai Turtle by coloroncloth 
5. 537 votes for hawaiian quilt - teal by endemic 
6. 491 votes for Blue Hawaii by pattysloniger 
7. 437 votes for Hawaiian Sea Turtles Cheater Quilt, Sea Foam - © Lucinda Wei by simboko 
8. 398 votes for Little Gecko In Paradise by annosch 
9. 374 votes for Aloha Quilt by resdesigns 
10. 369 votes for Tropical Crafters' Delight by sammyk 
11. 361 votes for Retro Hawaiian Cheater Quilt by cynthiafrenette 

Changing of the customer service guard

For those of you who email Spoonflower help a lot, you may have noticed that I haven't been answering lately. That is, someone has answered you--most likely Stephen B. or Beth, our wonderfully helpful help staffers--but not me.  After three years of answering Spoonflower help emails, I've stepped down from this role and will be going back to a bit of Spoonflower blogging instead.  It's been quite awhile since I blogged regularly.  I feel rusty.

My Stephen asked me to start with a post on what I've learned doing customer service which seems a tad self-indulgent to me given how much Spoonflower has grown.  It's definitely not just ours and Gart's families doing the printing, cutting, and shipping of your fabric orders anymore.  Spoonflower includes some 20 employees now, all of whom are awesome, work their tails off, and contribute so much to the running of the business.  But I've gotta start this blogging somewhere so in the spirit of the "What I Did This Summer" back-to-school essay, here are a few things I've learned over the last three years, in no particular order.

1. Spoonflower customers are nice people.  I don't say this just to butter y'all up.  It's truly amazing to me how nicely you all point out when we've made mistakes--which has been often!--forgive us for them, and come back again.  You offer useful feedback which we always read and consider, even if takes us longer than you might want to implement.  And you're nice to each other, too, writing thank-you notes to people who have bought your fabrics, and saying appreciative things about each other's designs and photos.  Which brings me to....

2. Online communities really are communities.  A couple of years ago, I scoffed at the use of "community" to describe groups interacting online.  A "community" is a real place, I thought.  You could walk, bike, or drive there and have real interactions with real people, and anything online couldn't possibly be a community.  But I get it now.  You certainly could walk, bike, drive to Spoonflower if you wanted to, and would probably enjoy pleasant interactions with good people while you were here.  But we here in the office are part of a larger and very real Spoonflower community that includes all of you.  There are some real interactions and real relationships going on out there, and you all support each other in a very real way.  Spoonflower is a community.  And I think it's a pretty nice place to be.

3. Starting your own business is hard and scary.  Stephen tells me that I am brave and have a high risk tolerance which is his way of saying, "I can't believe you were ok with us putting everything we had (and some that we didn't) into Spoonflower when we had no idea whether it would work!"  It probably helped that Spoonflower happens to be all about things I myself love--fabric and sewing--but we've had many  sleepless nights and knotted up stomachs over the last three years.  Those have gone away, thank goodness.  Mostly.

4. Anything is fodder for fabric design.  I used to worry that people's creativity or their interest in creating custom fabric designs would somehow dry up, but nope.  We see so many designs uploaded to the site and rendered by the printers every day at this point that a workday here is never, ever dull.  Name it, and I'll bet we've printed it!

5. People use fabric for WAY more things than I thought they used fabric for.  I knew about quilts, clothing, and home-dec sorts of projects, of course, since that's what I usually use fabric for.  But I didn't anticipate wedding invitation handkerchiefs, custom drum covers, or sports car upholstery, among other projects.  I can't tell you how much it thrills me to see how the fabrics we print get used.  Upload to our Flickr pool, please!

6. When you run a fabric- and sewing-related business, you don't have time to do anything fabric- or sewing-related for yourself.  Which is a huge bummer.  Since I've stopped doing customer service over the last couple of weeks, though, I've been on a curtain-making spree at home.  With Spoonflower fabric, of course.  Three rooms down and one bathroom to go!

 

Home or office decorating idea for under $15: Making a fabric canvas

Having just snapped a photo of one of the fabric frames Spoonflower team member Caitlin has in the window by her desk, I decided that rather than sharing it by itself it might be a better idea to post the photo in the context of a short, very simple (very) tutorial:

Creating a beautiful frame to hang on your wall -- or place in your office window -- using Spoonflower fabric is an easy and inexpensive decorating idea that costs less than $15. A fabric frame also makes an affordable and original gift!

Materials:
Fat quarter of Bluebird fabric from Golly Bard's Woodland collection: $11
Masterpiece 8" x 8" wood stretcher frame (from Amazon): $1.96

Tools: staple gun

Time: 5 min.

Quilting-weight cotton works fine for canvas stretcher frames, but for a more sturdy fabric that holds slightly denser color from the inks you might choose linen-cotton (see available fabrics). We used Gollybard's fabric for the frame pictured above, but Spoonflower is full of unique fabrics that would work just as well!

Browse Spoonflower fabric designs

Free Swatch Day Wrap-Up: 2 heifers, 4 water buffalo, 2 llamas and 5 flocks of ducks

Thanks so much to all of you who participated in Spoonflower's 3rd annual Free Swatch Day! It's all over now but the mad printing, cutting, packing and shipping. We gave away 7,300 swatches of fabric and raised a total of $2500 for Heifer International! Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone!

Don't forget to join us on our Facebook page!

Hana Hou! Vote for your favorite Hawaiian cheater quilt designs in this week's contest

This week's contest is for cheater quilts that mimic the traditional style of Hawaiian quilts, which generally consist of a design in a single color appliqued on top of a background with some sort of border. For examples, of course, you can always check Google images. I had never heard of Hawaiian quilts until Spoonflower team member Holiday stopped by my desk a few weeks ago to show me a little book she'd been reading called "Hawaiian Quilting Made Easy." It really seemed like a perfect fit for a cheater quilt contest. A "cheater quilt," as you probably know, is one in which the design is printed onto the fabric rather than pieced. The entries this week look amazing. I can't wait to see some of the contest fabrics from this week quilted and finished. Please, please, please post photos in the Flickr group!

Vote For Hawaiian Cheater Quilts

The participants this week are:

1. Seaweeds and hibiscus flowers cheater quilt by mariao
2. 3 by keskha
3. 8 Bit Crab - Hawaiian Style Cheater Quilt by jesseesuem
4. A Flowery Sugar Skull by my_zoetrope
5. A hawaiian queen's quilt by paragon_studios_one
6. a Hawaiian Quilt by shiny
7. AAaaaaaloha Cheater Quilt by leeleeandthebee
8. After the Rain by kayajoy
9. Akahai Quilt by jennartdesigns
10. Aloha Quilt by resdesigns

Forget Free Swatch Day for a minute, how about those elephants? Circus fabric winner

In all the excitement over Free Swatch Day, let's not lose sight of the terrific top ten from the circus-themed Fabric Of the Week contest we just finished. This week's winner is Cody Scarborough of Brooklyn, New York, whose marching elephants carried the day in a competition full of lovely, quirky fabrics. Way to go, Cody! You can now purchase any of the top ten fabrics from this week's contest, which are accessible via the convenient link below.

See the Top Ten Circus Fabrics

The final results were:

1. 842 votes for elephant march by endemic
2. 791 votes for Circus Parade by irrimiri
3. 742 votes for At the Circus by pennycandy
4. 616 votes for The Birdman Takes the Show by kayajoy
5. 507 votes for Elephants Having A Ball by tracy_scott
6. 479 votes for Teddy Bear Circus by melisza
7. 476 votes for Fun Circus! by catru
8. 465 votes for Their Circus by jshin
9. 430 votes for the stars of the circus in blues & yellows by bubbledog
10. 399 votes for Retro Circus by demigoutte

August 18th Is Free Swatch Day!

Spoonflower's Third Annual Free Swatch Day Starts Thursday, Aug. 18th, 2011

Get a single free, custom fabric swatch for 24 hours between 
noon EST on Thursday, August 18, and noon EST on Friday, August 19

Start: 12:00 PM Eastern Time, August 18, 2011
End: 11:59 AM Eastern Time, August 19, 2011 

HOW DOES IT WORK? This offer is limited to one swatch per customer. To activate the discount, add a swatch-sized piece of fabric to your shopping cart between noon EST on Thursday, August 18 and noon EST on Friday, August 19, then proceed to checkout. The discount will be subtracted from your cart total automatically. Note that in order to receive your swatches, you need to follow the transaction through to the order confirmation page. [And yes, shipping is free, too.] This offer works for your own designs or for any of the designs available for sale in the Spoonflower marketplace.

READ MORE ABOUT FREE SWATCH DAY

A parade of circus fabrics: vote for your favorites in this week's contest!

We'll need a big tent for all the circus fabric contest entries this week. You'll have 175 entries to peruse as you choose all your festive favorites. Many of these fabrics would make spectacular starting points for baby quilts & the like. Have fun voting, then tune in next week for the winner.

  Vote For Circus Fabrics  

Here are this week's participants:

1. A Circus for Dogs: Agilty fabric by dogdaze_ 
2. Circus Ladies (click for detail and clear view) by mariao 
3. A Circus Sideshow Act by my_zoetrope 
4. Acrobat Dreams (edge pattern) by leeleeandthebee 
5. Acrobats and Trapeze Artists - LARGE REPEAT border panel! by sev 
6. advertisements - the freak show by cleverviolet 
7. african animal clowns on yellow by barakatblessings 
8. Animaltastic Circus by gsonge 
9. At the Circus by brandymiller 
10. At the Circus by pennycandy 
11. At the Circus | Tiles (ZOOM for lotsa detail!) by potbellybears 

Announcing the gentle winner of our shark fabric contest!

While sharks elsewhere may be full of menace, our contest winner this week is well suited to the gentle medium of fabric. The winning design from our shark competition is "Deep Sea Beauty Contest" by Kayajoy, which makes the third win by designer Tamara Serrao of Montreal. Her previous wins came in the Imaginary Animals (which was actually a tie) and Rain contests. Lovely work, Tamara!

See the Top Ten Shark Fabrics

The full results:

1. 767 votes for Deep Sea Beauty Contest by kayajoy 
2. 517 votes for shark_attack by momshoo 
3. 493 votes for shark dance in diamond formation (medium) by sef 
4. 473 votes for Batik Shark Panel by cjldesigns 
5. 463 votes for There once was a shark that swallowed a cephalopod by theboerwar 
6. 460 votes for Sharks by fattcheese 
7. 404 votes for sharks_in_love by cassiopee 
8. 389 votes for Sharks by loki_and_lamb 
9. 387 votes for sharks by beebumble 
10. 376 votes for Sharks on a school trip (please zoom in for detail ^^ ) by irrimiri 

Shark fabrics attack! [Try not to splash while voting.]

What, you may ask, is the ideal use for shark fabric? Perhaps as a laminated fabric overlay for a surfboard? Boxer shorts? Power tie? If you figure it out and make something, by all means please post a photo of the project in the Spoonflower Flickr group. But before you get to that point, you'll have to swim with the shark fabrics and do some voting. While you're voting, try not to splash too much.

 * Vote For Shark Fabrics * 

1. Field Guide to Sharks by glimmericks 
2. Kawai sharks in pink waves (exercise in style) by mariao 
3. Peril at Poker Point ( viewing issue, click to see true image) by ceanirminger 
4. A Real Nail Biter by sammyk 
5. A Shark Needs a Bicycle by tazmeraz 
6. A Sharky You Can LOVE! - © PinkSodaPop 4ComputerHeaven.com by pinksodapop 
7. against_the_stream-ch by wednesday'sgirl 
8. Aloha! Shark by brandymiller 
9. Along came a Shark! by jmckinniss 
10. Aquarium Sharks though the Window by nezumiworld 
11. Attack of the 80s Sharks by acbeilke 

Serial designers win coffee fabric contest!

This week's contest winner TheBoerWar is actually a married couple in Toronto who decided to make 2011 the year they undertook the challenge of creating a new fabric design for every single Spoonflower Fabric Of the Week contest. You remember that we do these every week, right? So it really is a special pleasure to be able to announce that TheBoerWar's efforts have paid off in the form of a win in our coffee-themed design contest, which was full of brilliant work. So you can have one more coffee fabric for the road, or you can check out the top ten, all of which are now available for sale!

 * See the Top Ten Coffee Fabrics * 

The final votes:

1. 674 votes for Coffee paraphernalia by theboerwar 
2. 616 votes for Retro Coffee by kayajoy 
3. 491 votes for Coffee Rings by tracy_scott 
4. 489 votes for My true love, coffee! by verycherry 
5. 441 votes for cafe au lait aqua by amel24 
6. 421 votes for Coffee rings can be fun!!! by bora 
7. 411 votes for Mornin' Sunshine! by sammyk 
8. 387 votes for Retro Coffee by valentinaramos 
9. 379 votes for cappuccino night owls by scrummy 
10. 375 votes for COFFEE_2_WAYS__red_ by pavlova_is