Tidy '12

Does anyone else besides me enjoy taking the holiday decorations down almost as much as putting them up?  It's probably pretty grinchy of me to admit, but I've always enjoyed a good de-cluttering session, and the post-holiday one is the grandaddy of them all.  After hauling the tree to the curb, individually wrapping all the ornaments which seem to have been breeding on the tree over the last few weeks, and vacuuming up the bajillion fallen pine needles, I usually keep going and end up purging and organizing the whole house. 

First up is my sewing room which has gotten pretty out of hand over the last two months.  There are clothing patterns to file, a mending basket stacked high with items needing repair, and stacks of fabric to put away (and probably to re-categorize, as my color sorting system isn't really working anymore).  Are you similarly inspired to clean up and start fresh?  If so, check out Spoonflower's extremely tidy Sewing Studios Pinterest board.  And then enter yourself into a drawing for Sew and Stow, Betty Oppenheimer's book on sewing projects to help you get organized.  Just comment on this post or on the corresponding Facebook post to enter this drawing, and include your Spoonflower screen name so we can find you easily.  Entries close at 7 pm EST on Tuesday, 1/10, and we'll announce a winner here on the blog on 1/11.  Good luck, everyone--and best wishes for a tidy 2012!  This giveaway is now closed.  We'll be announcing a winner on the blog tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who entered last week's drawing for Heather Ross' book, Weekend Sewing.  The winner was Raven Jumpo (aka Ravenous) of Malaysia--congratulations, Raven!

Year In Review: Top 10 Indie Fabric Designers & Top 50 Fabric Designs of 2011

Top Ten Indie Fabric Designers of 2011

Continuing with the year-end reflections we began with yesterday's post, today we'd like to present the top ten indie fabric designers in the Spoonflower marketplace for 2011. They are:

1. holli_zollinger - Holli Zollinger is an artist and designer whose deceptively simple designs simply work for all kinds of projects. The Spoonflower office is full of her work!

2. studiofibonacci - Part-time designer and "life-long geek" Studio Fibonacci always seems to have her finger on the pulse of the subcultures that thrive on the Internet.

3. heatherross - Heather Ross is a bit of a celebrity, having written a popular sewing book as well as produced bestselling fabric designs and illustrations for a number of well-known companies. While she doesn't have any fabric available at the moment on Spoonflower, now and then she'll offer limited edition versions of her fabric designs, which are always hot-sellers!

4. heatherdutton - Heather Dutton Hang Tight Studio does amazing, colorful work from a lime green studion in Maine.

5. ceanirminger - Another perennial favorite in our Fabric of the Week contests, Cean Irminger spends her days designing mosaics and her evenings devising lovely, distinctive fabric designs.

6. domesticate - Andrea Whalen of Marysville, Ohio, is an interior design-lover and fan of "natural glam."

7. bora - Dutch illustrator Deborah van de Leijgraaf is one of our favorites, and she's won more Fabric of the Week contests than I can count at this point. Find her on her blog!  

8. pattysloniger - You may remember Patty Sloniger as the winner of the Project Selvage contest we put together with Michael Miller Fabrics. Her new fabric collections for MMF will be available in quilt shops this year!

9. cynthiafrenette - Our favorite designer from British Columbia, Canada, who was also a finalist in the Project Selvage contest last spring.

10. thebline - Amy, of the B-Line, teaches chemistry by day and makes fabulous things by night.

Although all the thumbnails are broken on the post, it's fun to compare this year's list to a similar list we put together a year ago for the top indie designers of 2010.

Top Fifty Indie Fabric Designs

Before you ask, let us follow up the first list with an answer to the natural corollary question: "What were the most popular individual fabric designs on Spoonflower in 2011?" In order to dig a little deeper into all the amazing original designs on the site, on this list we're offering the top 50. (note that the images should all act as links. The top-selling fabrics on Spoonflower in 2011 were:

1.  Madman in a Blue Box fabric by studiofibonacci

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2.  Spoonflower Color Map fabric by spoonflower [doesn't really count but we left it in anyway]

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3.  playhorsespink2 fabric by heatherross

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4.  (Small) Eleven Traveling Doctors and Blue Phone Boxes fabric by greencouchstudio

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5.  chevrons fabric by holli_zollinger

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6.  (Large) Eleven Traveling Doctors and Blue Phone Boxes fabric by greencouchstudio

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7.  Mock Pacman 2.0 fabric by pixeldust

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8.  playhorsespink fabric by heatherross [not currently for sale]

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9.  cricketfabric fabric by heatherross [not currently for sale]

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10.  Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, Feorlen, and Bacon fabric by vo_aka_virginiao

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11.  equations and equations fabric by primenumbergirl

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12.  T.A.R.D.I.S. fabric by theunicornandthewasp

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13.  Tea Towel Calendar fabric by pennycandy

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14.  mustache gallery fabric by avelis

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15.  Political Dalek fabric by studiofibonacci

2011 In Review: Top Ten Fabric Design Contests of the Year

As we here at Spoonflower head into the new year with a spring in our steps, we've decided to spend a little bit of time gazing into the rearview mirror at some of the memorable fabric-related statistics from 2011. It's been a great year for our little startup (which isn't nearly as little as it used to be) and an even better year for fabric design!

Check out our board on Pinterest for visuals on all the great fabrics listed below

Top 10 Fabric of the Week Contest Winning Designs

As regular readers know, Spoonflower holds a weekly fabric design contest. Below are the top ten winners from the 2011 contests based on the percentages they earned of the overall vote total in each contest.

1. Festive Forest Tree Decorating - Advent Calendar by kayajoy from our Advent Calendar contest at the end of November.

2. Bowling is Fun for Everyone by jennartdesigns from our Bowling contest in early September.

3. Queeny Brass by daniellerenee from our Spoonflower staff contest at the beginning of February.

4. Crayon Garden by beebumble from our June contest to design an 18" cloth napkin pattern using only crayons.

5. Sure and Begorrah, it's leprechaun laundry day by vo_aka_virginiao from our Leprechaun contest in March.

6. To the Circus!!! by bora from our contest to create a cut & sew pattern for a cloth baby book in December.

7. Teach Your Children Well: A Toile for Tots by sammyk from our (memorable) challenge to draw a toile inspired by the Civil Rights movement last January.

8. Little red riding hood by ninacuneo from the Folk tale fabric contest in May.

9. jingledecorations by sonny&bee from the Bell contest we just finished up last week.

10. Mariposa Magnifico by sammyk from the Lucha Libre mask contest in October (note that SammyK is the only designer to end op on this list twice!)

Top 10 Fabric of the Week Contests of 2011

We thought we'd also add the top ten contests based on the total number of people who voted in each one. In some cases the number of voters is an indication of the grooviness of the theme itself, but in some cases it's also a byproduct of our general site popularity on any given week. The top ten fabric contests this year were:

1. Project Selvage: Final Round, 5/4/11 
2. Alphabet, 4/20/11
3. Breakfast, 3/2/11
4. Kids' Contest, 6/29/11 (open to kids 12 and under only)
5. Leprechauns, 3/16/11 
6. Maps, 3/30/11 
7. Plushie Pattern,  8/31/11 
8. Folk Tales, 5/25/11 
9. Rain, 4/13/11 
10. Ice Cream, 5/18/11 

Happy New Year, everyone! We'll post a few 2011 top ten lists more lists this week, so stay tuned.