Spoonflower Free Shipping Day Coming On Nov. 17th

Get a jump on your holiday shopping! Once again this year Spoonflower plans to offer free standard shipping on all domestic AND international orders (of any size) for 24 hours.

The promotion will last from:

Thursday, Nov.17th, 2011 at 8am EST
to
Friday, Nov.18th, 2011 at 8am EST 

Time zone references for Free Shipping Day:

• Los Angeles: Thu, Nov 17 5:00 AM - Fri 5:00 AM
• Chicago: Thu, Nov 17 7:00 AM - Fri 7:00 AM
• New York: Thu, Nov 17 8:00 AM - Fri 8:00 AM
• London: Thu, Nov 17 1:00 PM - Fri 1:00 PM
• Paris:  Thu, Nov 17 2:00 PM - Fri 2:00 PM
• Tokyo:  Thu, Nov 17 10:00 PM- Fri 10:00 PM
• Sydney:  Thu, Nov 17 12:00 Midn - Fri 12:00 Midn
• Auckland:  Fri, Nov 18 2:00 AM - Sat 2:00 AM

The offer does not include rush or guaranteed delivery date shipping.

Please note that in the case of US orders, anything ordered using standard shipping should arrive well before December 25th. In the case of International orders using the free shipping promotion, however, we cannot guarantee delivery by Christmas (although we will do our best).

Those of you with an absolute deadline will do best to order using the guaranteed or rush delivery options (neither of them eligible for the free shipping promotion). Our current turnaround for shipping fabric is about 7 days.

The free shipping discount will be applied automatically in your Spoonflower shopping cart.

***Please NOTE: If you have items in your cart before 8am on Thursday, Nov. 17th, in order to get free shipping you may need to refresh the cart total page before going on to the payment page. The shipping total should show $0.00 before you pay.***

The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook + Sewing in a Straight Line Book Giveaways

Last week at the International Quilt Market (see our report and the Project Selvage winning fabric collections!) we met up with our friends from the online sewing community BurdaStyle. Their newly released The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook takes five basic patterns for a skirt, blouse, skirt, dress, bag, and jacket and turns them into fifteen distinct projects, then includes dozens of user-submitted customizations for extra inspiration. The book was authored by BurdaStyle co-founder Nora Abousteit and Alison Kelly, BurdaStyle's creative director, who is also a Project Runway Season 3 contestant and designer for the Dahl label.

At Quilt Market we also met the lovely Brett Bara, who among her many crafty missions hosts Knit and Crochet Now, writes the Sewing 101 column on Design*Sponge, and is part of the Jello mold revival! Brett's new book, Sewing in a Straight Line, is beautifully done with simple and elegant projects from dresses to quilts and handmade toys, all of which are patterned to use only straight-line stitching. Brilliant, for both beginning sewers and anyone looking to make an easy project with the lovely fabric in their stash.

We'll choose two winners and give away one copy of each book next week. Sign up using the form below for a chance to win through noon EST on Wednesday, November 9, 2011.

ENTER TO WIN A COPY OF THE BURDASTYLE SEWING HANDBOOK

 

Meet Spoonflower: Introducing Janet Talus, a printer with an appetite for destruction!

I remember that you came to Spoonflower from a screenprinting shop. What differences between the screenprinting shop and our digital printing shop jump out at you? 

Well, it’s a lot cleaner at Spoonflower and a bit less smelly. I can actually wear a skirt to work here--not that I ever do, but I could! Of course there is still the same potential for getting ink stains on the shoes. In both places I have found that an apron, a roll of masking tape, and assorted Sharpies are absolute necessities.

It’s the production side of Spoonflower that I was really drawn to. I really love working in a production environment where you are making something new every day, and you are starting with these really basic elements--ink & fabric--that you know will be transformed into something really amazing.

Where did you go to school?

I have a BFA in Fine Art from UNC Chapel Hill and a Masters in Textile Craft from HDK, the School of Design and Craft in Göteborg, Sweden. At HDK I was constantly surrounded by people doing creative things with fabric. I worked with pattern design and I was able to experiment with a lot of different printing techniques, but I was never able to try digital printing on fabric until I came to Spoonflower. Before, it could take me two days to hand-print one yard of fabric with multiple colors, and now I can print 200 yards in a day. It’s like wizardry!

What other jobs have you had in the past?

I’ve been screenprinting since 2005, but I’ve also worked as a costumer, photo lab technician, and dance teacher. One of the coolest freelance projects I ever worked on was designing and making the costumes for a production of “Hans och Greta” performed by a local opera school in Göteborg, Sweden.

What’s your favorite way to get creative these days?  You bought a house recently, so are you busy making stuff to cozy up your new digs?

Currently I’m still in the manual labor stage of new home ownership, so I’ve been doing lots of drilling, hammering, painting, hauling rocks, ripping up carpet, and sanding anything that doesn’t move. I have managed to sew a few curtains, but I still have a lot of curtain-less windows that need Spoonflower fabric. There are swatches hanging up all over the house but it’s just so hard to choose between them. Now that the weather is getting cooler I would really like to start on another quilt.  Maybe that’s where all the swatches will go!

What other things do you like to do when you’re not working?

The best part about Spoonflower being in Durham is the local music scene here. If I’m not working, sewing, or sanding something I love to go see local bands play, and there's no shortage of great shows to see. However, I’m also one of the “Weekend Warriors” who print over the weekends here at Spoonflower so if the show is on a Saturday night, I have to remember my “curfew.”

What did you dress up as for Halloween?  

Axl Rose, cause I have an appetite for destruction. And candy corn.  

Do you have a favorite design or designer on Spoonflower?

My favorite designer on Spoonflower is Golly Bard, and I absolutely love her Etsy shop. Watercolor and quirky macabre nature subjects? I’m there!

How about a favorite base fabric?

I love the way colors print on sateen, but the texture of the linen/cotton wins me over every time. The linen is really nice and sturdy for sewing but becomes softer over time with use.

Fill in the blanks:  If I could only ______ at Spoonflower, ______ would be much ________.

If I could only turn the volume up to 11 on the print room speakers at Spoonflower, AC/DC would be much louder. (I’ve found that playing AC/DC to the printers makes them print faster. True story.)

Is there anything else you think we should know about you?

I think the best thing about working at Spoonflower is the people that I get to work with.  The second best thing about working at Spoonflower is the cupcakes.