Coats Of Arms Of Many Colors

For this week's challenge we asked designers to create an original family crest, or coat of arms, for their own family and to turn that into a fabric design. As is the case with many of our more outlandish challenges, this one drew somewhat fewer entries than usual, which means that voting should be pretty quick. Perhaps everyone is still recovering from the mob of entries in hand-drawn contest a couple of weeks ago!

 

This week's participants are:

1) "R is for Rudolph"... by retrorudolph's 
2) 8 bit Family Crest by leighr 
3) a crest pro victoriam by paragonstudios 
4) A Rossi Family Crest by thatrossiart 
5) Air, Earth, Water, Fire: Growth and Perserverance by vo_aka_virginiao 
6) amazing orchid by arnie 
7) AmericanWoman by american_women 
8) Armorial Ant by spellstone 
9) atelier des cinq chats by cinqchats 
10) bear crest by annaboo 

Scooters Win Motorcycle Fabric Contest

Not surprisingly, it turns out that the Spoonflower crowd would rather be stylish than speedy, choosing a set of dainty scooters as the winning fabric in our motorcycle-themed contest. Congratulations to Eloisa D., a designer from Crystal River, Florida, and the winner of this week's competition! (You might remember her previous win in the Robot Cheater Quilt contest.) If you're looking for a little more power, be sure to check out the top ten. 

 

The voting results were:

1. 376 votes for Scooters by natitys 
2. 311 votes for vroom - vroom... by jumping_birds 
3. 304 votes for Biker_Birds by lien_geeroms 
4. 290 votes for Easy Rider summer by amel24 
5. 285 votes for Me and my bikers by verycherry 
6. 284 votes for MotorCycles Tires by cassiopee 
7. 281 votes for Good old time! by bora 
8. 233 votes for Cycle craze by orangeblossomstudio 
9. 220 votes for MoooCycles - Hogs & Kisses by bzbdesigner 
10. 213 votes for Mods Forever ! by demigoutte 

Crafty Photography Book Giveaway and Drawing Set Giveaway Winner

Photography has never been my strong suit so I'm often stopped in my tracks whenever I'm cruising around Etsy. How did all these people who are clearly so talented at making stuff--purses, knitted shrugs, pendant necklaces, paintings, or what have you--also get blessed with crazy photography skills?  And will my life suddenly look all perfectly lit, immaculately composed, and clean if I buy that purse/knitted shrug/pendant necklace/painting/what-have-you?  A beautiful photo suggests to me that yes, it just might.

If you need to upgrade your product photography skills, enter this week's giveaway of a copy of The Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos.  Just leave a comment on this post or on the corresponding Facebook post and do include your Spoonflower screen name or other means of tracking you down easily if you're our winner.  Entries close next Tuesday, 6/5 and we'll announce a winner on Wednesday, 6/6.  Good luck, would-be shutterbugs!  This giveaway is now closed and a winner has been announced.

Last week's winner of a set of Lyra drawing pencils and some good drawing paper was Jeannie Rowan in the UK--congratulations, Jeannie!

Turn a family treasure into a fabric design: Make a silk scarf from old newspaper clippings

This week guest author Emma Jeffery from the blog Hello Beautiful shows us how she turned a family keepsake into a beautiful silk scarf.

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I have never really been the kind of person who collects trinkets, hoards keepsakes or has many treasured family heirlooms tucked away in the attic, but now that I have children of my own, I am increasingly aware of the importance of keeping items that will one day tell our family’s story. Our family history is no more, or less, remarkable than that of the next, but it is unique in its detail and its narrative is a gift for future generations to treasure.

That said, I am not naturally predisposed to keeping things that do not serve a practical purpose so I’m trying to think of ways to preserve the memories of events and people without cluttering up my house with boxes that are never opened or with figurines that sit on a shelf and gather dust.

When my mum told me she was in possession of a newspaper published on the day she was born I was immediately inspired to think of ways to release it from its captive state at the bottom of a dusty drawer and to bring the printed material to life once more. After all, what good are treasures or keepsakes if we don’t stop to reflect upon them once in awhile?

My mum was born in England in June 1944, the day after the Normandy Landings when the allied troops invaded northern France, resulting in the decisive allied victory that marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War. The newspaper is only 8 pages long (presumably because of the shortages at the time) but despite this, I felt there was a wealth of material: adverts, news columns, satirical cartoons, movie theater announcements, letters, crosswords...

I decided to take photos of different parts of the paper that caught my eye and although there was no ignoring the obvious war reports and political references, I found I was drawn to aspects of the paper that highlighted regular humanity during wartime. For example, there was an advert for soap which asked the readers to consider, ‘Will he find you as young and lovely when he comes home again?” I also took photos of the date printed on the paper (my mum’s birthday!)

With roughly 100 photos of different parts of the newspaper, I transferred them onto my computer and used Picasa to create a collage of my favorite images. In the collage option in Picasa, you are able to set a custom size so I put in 36” x 36” as I intended on making a silk scarf of these dimensions printed on to one yard of Spoonflower’s beautiful silk crepe de chine.

I then positioned and repositioned the photos I had taken until I was happy with the design. At this point the colors were still their original yellowing newspaper with black text, but using Picasa’s Duo-Tone option under the image processing tab, I was able to select two colors for my print.

Though I tried a few test swatches before printing my yardage, all the color options I chose were within shades of my mum’s favorite colors, to make this scarf really personal for her.

When I received my yardage, I trimmed the edges and sewed a hand rolled hem around all four sides to complete the scarf.

This is beautiful fabric with such a special print that I know the scarf will become a family heirloom. And whilst the original newspaper may soon be returned to the bottom of the drawer and forgotten once more, the scarf will be worn and enjoyed, and will help tell part of our story for generations to come.

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About Our Guest Blogger

Hi! I'm Emma, and as well as working on the Fiskars Design Team, I blog over at hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/

I'm an obsessive sewer, often leaping into projects with more enthusiasm than talent, more bravado than skill and more good luck than anything else. This technique has worked well for me so far and more often than not, I make things I love, even if they're not absolutely perfect. And though I'm no expert, I have a passion for fabric, color and design. I know what I like and what I like makes me smile.

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Linda Mahoney

This is the seventh and penultimate in our series of profiles of the eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Today we're featuring artist and designer Linda Mahoney. Enjoy, and look for our final interview post at the end of the week!

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Butterflygarden by Mahoneybee, Linda Mahoney

I was born in Texas, USA, and now I split my time between Texas and New Mexico. I spend a lot of my time doing different types of artwork and taking photos. You can see an online art gallery of my work here. Spending time with my husband, family and our miniature schnauzer gives me utmost joy. Sneaking in a little time to read or listen to audio books while painting fills in the cracks.

I’ve always admired fabric and wallpaper designs and thought I would love to try my hand at it. I got a BFA in commercial art, but that was in the era BC (before computers). I am self-taught on the computer and am always looking for different challenges and opportunities to expand my artwork. I first found Spoonflower through a search engine about a year ago, and tried coming up with a few ideas, but the repeats were (and still are) somewhat of a problem for me. I didn’t get brave enough to put something out there until now.

I don’t sew and have decided to leave that to my friends who amaze me with those skills. My arts and crafts room threatens to consume me, so I keep trying to limit myself. I’m a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and do free-lance artwork.

It’s so hard to narrow the field, but I loved reading The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene as an all-time favorite and more recently Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Temple Grandin and Crosscreek are two of my favorite movies.  I like way too many different types of music to pick just a few favorites and the same with artists, but when it comes to fabric design, I'm inspired by William Morris and Kaffe Fassett and like to review the work of Klimt, Monet and the living artist, Joseph Raffael, from time to time.

My reaction to being in the Fabric8 top 100 was shock, and then becoming one of the 8 finalists was beyond shocking as well as humbling. I saw some beautiful, amazing work by incredibly talented designers in the top 100. Honestly, I have always been leery of contests that involve voting because I assumed you only had a chance if you had a giant and loyal social network. (A lot of my friends don’t have a clue how to navigate the Internet to even vote!) I was at home doing a quick check of email before 5:00 a.m. before I joined a friend to walk and I read it then.  It jolted me right awake and I’m still smiling about it!

 

Linda's winning fabric design is in the middle, between two photos
she used as inspiration for the painting.

When I saw the theme of watercolor, pen and ink, I thought I wanted to create something a little loose to convey the feel of watercolor and include just a bit of pen and ink. I’m usually very technical with my artwork, so that was a stretch for me. I tried drawing out the elements first, but that felt too constrained, so I just did free hand work. I wanted to keep the colors bright and clear, too. I love flowers and thought of the light airy petals of poppies.

 

I have some ideas to develop for the rest of the collection but am not committed to them yet. I’ve been putting different colors together and am not sure which direction I will ultimately go with it.  I especially like paisleys and plaids and will probably include at least one of those in my final collection.

 

Butterfly Garden by mahoneybee, Fabric8 finalist

 

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Tamara Serrao

This is the sixth in our series of profiles of the eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Today we're profiling Canadian designer Tamara Serrao. Look for our penultimate Fabric8 designer profile tomorrow!

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Dappled Migration by Kayajoy, Tamara Serrao

I was born in northern Ontario but when I was 4, my family sailed to Trinidad to live. There I grew up exploring the outdoors in a sunny and colourful environment. I left Trinidad to come back to Canada at age 17 but tropical birds, insects, fish, and flora were an enormous part of my younger years and remain ever present in my memories and imagination. Today I live in Montreal, where I long for the colour and warmth of summer for far too many months of the year.

I have a bachelors degree in art, with a major in textiles and a minor in art history. While in school, however, my main focus was in weaving. It wasn’t until last year, after many years of not being involved in textiles to any great degree, that my sister introduced me to Spoonflower and I quickly became addicted to the design process. I set myself the goal of entering as many of the weekly contests as I could manage so as to push my boundaries aesthetically and technically. I have learned so much through this exercise.

When I’m not designing fabric, I'm either at work designing packaging and labels, trying to cook an interesting meal (I stress “trying”), or being creative with my kids. In the summer I love being on our rooftop deck, planting beautifully coloured flowers in every available spot and enjoying the fresh air and sky.

I grew up with a mom who sewed most of our clothes. Delving into fabric shops, bags of ribbons, boxes of buttons, and stacks of patterns are some of my earliest distinct memories. I learned to sew at a very young age and have gone through phases of fervent stitching, embroidery, quilting or knitting when the inspiration has hit.

My favorite period has been the anticipation of and first years of my children’s lives. I still have the quilt my grandmother made for me when I was a baby and I wanted my kids to each have that tactile keepsake of their own. In typical parenting fashion, my firstborn’s was pretty much finished before she was born.

But my son’s quilt was only finished a couple of months ago. (He is now 4.)

I also enjoy making baby clothes because the scale is perfect for me. I get a great sense of accomplishment from such adorable, small, quickly finished projects.

Having two young children, I read a lot of kids’ books. Some of my favorites are Where the Wild Things Are, Iggy Peck Architect, Grandpa Green, and The Red Shoes. I derive so much inspiration from ideas and styles of illustration in our younger home library. My favorite musician at the moment is Michael Kiwanuka. His voice is spellbinding. As for fabric designers, that’s a tough one to narrow down. There is quite a range for me, from Amy Butler to Kate Spain to Lizzie House to Skinny Laminx.  My list of favorites goes on and on.  Probably due to the fact that my own work is usually quite detailed & controlled, I'm really enjoying the paintings of Lulie Wallace and Michelle Armas right now.

I was completely ecstatic when I learned that I was one of the Fabric8 finalists. I had just flown into Halifax in the late morning to spend some time with my mom and dad. Not being one of the most technologically advanced individuals around, it took me a good hour to get wi-fi running on my laptop. My email was the first thing I checked and there at the top was a message from Stephen saying I was in. I literally squealed with delight!

I would say that 95% of my fabric design work thus far has been created using Illustrator. I am a self-taught computer graphist and have been learning as I go. I have, however, been wanting to get back to drawing and painting for some time now, so the Fabric8 contest was just what I’ve been waiting for. It hasn’t been as easy as I'd thought it would be, though. It's literally been half a lifetime since I’ve used watercolours, so I've gone through whole days of sketching, drawing with technical pens, experimenting with paint, scanning, manipulating with Photoshop, and then starting all over again from scratch the following day. I think I'm finally on track, and I'm creating a collection based on sunlight and wind with fantastical patterned butterflies being the main characters. As always, colour and pattern are driving me.

Dappled Migration by Kayajoy, Fabric8 finalist

Spoonflower Picks for Pretty Skirts

I'm so pleased that Susan and Adrianna at Crafterhours invited us to participate in their annual Skirt Week series this year.  From the many times I was teased as a girl for preferring long prairie skirts over jeans, til today when moms at my daughters' schools frequently ask me why I'm "so dressed up," I just love skirts.  It's been really fun this week to have an excuse to think about them so much! 

Susan asked me to share some of my favorite Spoonflower fabric designs that work well for skirts and I certainly have my own opinions and preferences. But since the Spoonflower office is jam-packed with sewing enthusiasts, it seemed a shame not to ask them, too, and they didn't disappoint. Offering their favorite design picks are Holly, our operations manager, Melodie and Allie, both printer operators, and Caroline, our graphic designer. We were all in pretty close agreement about our favorite types of fabric for skirts--more about that later--but we all chose very different designs.  Some of their favorites were designs that even I hadn't run across before on Spoonflower, and I hope you enjoy them, too. Let's get started with some pretty designs!

Holly standing at left is modeling a pretty summery skirt made up in linen/cotton canvas printed with Spoonflower designer Holli Zollinger's design, "Diamond Circles." (That's the aqua colorway shown on Holly's skirt above.)  Holli uses a lot of geometric shapes and stylized motifs in her designs and she's a Spoonflower staff--and Spoonflower customer!--favorite designer.  Chevrons, large-scale plus signs, and highly stylized natural motifs like flowers and raindrops are all featured in Holli Zollinger's designs and make up into really striking, sophisticated skirts. 

Pictured next to Holly on the right, Melodie is wearing a skirt made from organic cotton sateen printed with a design by KristopherK called "French Stripe." KristopherK is another popular designer on Spoonflower with a more subdued and romantic design style. Personally, I love KristopherK's lovely "Magnolia Little Gem" series which features white flowers falling across the width of their solid-colored backgrounds.  

The "Arctic" colorway in this series is shown above. You could cut simple A-line skirt panels on the crosswise grain of any of these fabrics and end up with an incredible skirt!

Caroline, shown here standing outside the Spoonflower office front door, is wearing an A-line skirt she made from organic cotton sateen printed up with her own design, "Red Eyed Susan."  Caroline actually has quite a few designs she's worked up in her Spoonflower shop, and has been giving her new sewing machine a workout using lots of prints of her self-designed, yoga-inspired favorites.  When it comes to the types of prints she tends to like, she says, "The bolder, the better!"  Her skirt pick from the Spoonflower marketplace is a kawaii style print by Zesti.  Tiny deer printed onto an electric yellow skirt, anyone?

Allie is shown here wearing a cute skirt she made out of Pennycandy's "Mix Tapes" design printed onto organic cotton sateen.

Amy Peppler Adams is the Seattle based designer behind the Pennycandy front, and her style is circus- and retro-culture inspired with bold type fonts, jukebox song labels and 1960's coffee cups rendered in primary colors.  These are bold choices for clothing items, but I think summer is a great time for playing around with novelty prints for clothing. Novelty prints are also known as "conversational prints" in the fabric world.  Don't you imagine conversations about your colorful skirts at the farmer's market, neighborhood cook-outs, and ice cream shops?

Allie says her next project will likely be a skirt made up in one of Domesticate's "Jumbo Dots" prints.  That's the mint/neon colorway shown here.  The dots are a hefty 2-inches in diameter!

Next up is me wearing a wrap skirt made from organic cotton sateen (care to guess one of the Spoonflower staff's favorite fabric types for skirts?) printed with Thebline's "ABP Chandelier" design.  I love its simple blue on white palette, but now feel like a complete dork for being the fourth person in this post to be wearing a black shirt with their Spoonflower skirts.  That was definitely NOT planned!

My next skirt will be made up in another Thebline design called "ABP par avion" which looks just like the pattern trimming air mail envelopes, don't you think?  I've got two yards of this design printed on organic cotton sateen sitting on my dining room table right now, suggesting that it will figure prominently in my upcoming long weekend.

And all these mentions of organic cotton sateen bring me to the subject of fabric types that we like to use for our skirt projects around here. When Spoonflower first started, we printed only onto quilting-weight cotton. This fabric is most commonly recommended for lightweight home-dec projects including, of course, quilts but I think that quilting cotton has its place in the skirt fabric pantheon, too.  I have a few quilting-cotton skirts that I think of as everyday skirts because they're hard-wearing, extremely washable, cheaper to make up, and I don't mind if they get dirty.  If I'm wearing a quilting-cotton skirt, it doesn't bother me so much when one of my girls sidles up to me to sneakily wipe off her dirty hand or runny nose.  (Ok, actually I do kind of mind about the noses. That's gross however washable my skirt is.)

But sturdiness isn't all that's needed in a skirt. I find that quilting-weight cotton tends to produce a stiffer skirt that doesn't drape as well as other fabric types.  It stands out from the body a bit rather than hanging in nice folds or swirling about my legs.  Most of us skirt sewers at Spoonflower tend to use our organic cotton sateen or linen/cotton canvas for skirt projects instead. The organic cotton sateen drapes just beautifully, has a lovely, subtle sheen, and measures a nice, wide 56-inches across. The linen/cotton canvas is also a nice choice for more structured types of skirts; it holds pleats and crisp edges beautifully and is a generous 54-inches wide. If you really want a flowy, feminine look, cotton/silk, cotton voile (with a lining), or silk crepe de chine are luxurious choices.  Just tell your kiddos there is to be no nose-wiping, please.

I hope you all enjoy the Spoonflower staff picks for skirts.  Now on to some pretty weekend skirt-sewing projects!

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Julie Lynch

This is the fifth in our series of profiles of the eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Today we're featuring Australian designer Julie Lynch. Enjoy, and look for our sixth interview post on Monday!

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The Scented Garden by CJLDesigns, Julie Lynch

I've always lived in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia.  I grew up in the town of Lobethal which is known for its German heritage and wonderful bakery, and also as the home for many years of the Onkaparinga Woollen Mill. I currently live with my husband and our two boys ages 6 and 7 in a little house in Littlehampton.

I work as a graphic designer in children’s wear and, apart from designing prints and embroideries and doing technical illustrations and croquis, I also design some yardage prints. I was so happy to find Spoonflower because I love patterns and putting things into repeat.  I do enjoy my work but it's also great to have the freedom to work on designs that are all my own. I've been at Spoonflower for just over a year now and was very excited to hear about Fabric8.

When I'm not working on fabric designs, I love to go driving.  Actually my husband does the driving as I haven't got my license yet. (I've been putting that off for many years now.) We like exploring places we've never been before with the kids or going to favourite places we have been, and doing a lot of photography along the way. I also enjoy going to lots of little markets in search of interesting bits and pieces for our many collections.

I don't sew on a machine so unfortunatley the only sewing I do at the moment is hand-sewing costumes for the kids or attempting to mend clothes (which often need mending after I've finished with them). I would love to make a quilt or two and learn to crochet properly. Before I had children, I made lots of handmade bears from mohair and old coats and I enjoyed making my own sewing patterns.

I also really enjoy printmaking.  I enjoyed a lino-printing workshop I took recently and have also done etching and screen-printing.

I'm really drawn to illustration and have many favourite illustrators, some of whom are also talented designers on Spoonflower. A few of my favourite children’s book illustrators include Graeme Base and Pamela Allen, and I love the beautiful work of Christopher Wormell.

I have to say that watercolour does not come naturally to me so when working on my design for this contest, I wanted to do something that had strong line work with the texture of water colour. I love working with natural motifs like flowers and birds and I'm looking forward to expanding on this theme for the collection. 

Living in Australia, the time difference means that the contest winners normally go up around 1:00 a.m. Friday morning. I was feeling a little nervous before the finalists were announced so I thought I'd just go to sleep and check when I woke in the morning. After finally dropping off around 12:30 a.m., I woke up again about an hour later, checked the finalist results, and was so excited to find my design in the finals that I couldn’t go back to sleep until around 4 a.m.!

Get Your Bobbin Running... and Vote for Motorcycle Fabrics!

 

It's almost summer, when the lure of the open road is at its most powerful. While most of us are probably not in a position to throw away everything and hit the highway à la Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider, we can at least have our pick of motorcycle fabrics. Vote for your favorites and we'll unleash the top ten next week.

Vote for Motorcyle Fabrics

 

This week's participants are:

1. 6 coloured scooters by rocket_and_bear 
2. 6 little Indian bikes no logo by karisplace_com 
3. A Part Here, A Part There... by shelleymade 
4. American Motorcycle by glimmericks 
5. An American Classic-Indian Motorcycles by mammajamma 
6. At the Finish Line - Motocycle Race Pennants by owlandchickadee 
7. BIKE (natural) by scrummy 
8. Biker Bliss by droyal 
9. Biker Chick Fashions by ★lucy★santana★ 
10. Biker Chicks on the Open Road by sammyk 

Announcing the Top 10 Hand-Drawn Fabrics

With a field of 500 entries, it's a special treat to announce the top ten in our contest for fabric designs created from handmade art. This week's winner is quilter and graphic designer Diane Frazier, whose "Henna Birds" fabric was created using Sharpies.

See the Top 10 Hand-Drawn Fabrics

Ok, so we're posting all of the (lengthy) results below:

1. 489 votes for Henna Birds by dianef 
2. 465 votes for Big Blooms by pattysloniger 
3. 429 votes for Sweet Paradise by demigoutte 
4. 390 votes for branches on lacy beige background by katarina 
5. 387 votes for Giraffe Line-Up (Color Pencil) by ttoz 
6. 381 votes for Tree of life by dinorahdesign 
7. 376 votes for Bukhara by chulabird 
8. 351 votes for I love Maija! by ravenous 
9. 317 votes for botanical hand drawn by sonny&bee 
10. 313 votes for Jasmine by puimun 

Announcing the Urban Sightings Contest Grand Prize Winner

Remember the Urban Sightings contest we ran a few weeks ago? As you may remember, the co-sponsor for that contest was the Textile Center in Minneapolis, which turned the top ten designs into a terrific exhibit in the Center's gallery:

The final piece of the contest consists of awarding the grand prize, selected by jurors at the Textile Center from the top ten: a full copy of Adobe's Photoshop software, an indispensible tool for the digital textile designer.

Well, we're pleased to announce that the grand prize goes to St. Augustine by Tricia Coulson, a part-time textile artist from LeClaire, Iowa.  She creates art quilts but tells us that she's just started designing textiles. Congratulations, Tricia!

See the Urban Sightings Contest page

St Augustine fabric by Tricia Colson

 

Drawing Set giveaway and Handmade Weddings book winner

Browsing all the amazing hand-drawn fabric designs for this week's contest--not to mention the pen, ink, and watercolor renderings for the Fabric8 contest--has gotten us pretty excited lately about designs created by hand. To my eye, there's something so organic, approachable, and just plain human about designs that are drawn and painted by hand, even after they've been turned into a digital file. The little line variations and imperfections of designs created in this way are just so compelling to me. 

If your interest has been piqued by this approach to designing, too, why not enter this week's giveaway of a swank new set of Lyra Aquarelle colored pencils and a giant pad of high-quality drawing paper and get started!  As always, to enter our giveaway please just leave your comment below or on the relevant Facebook post, and do include your Spoonflower screen name or other means of tracking you down easily.

Entries close next Tuesday, 5/29 at 7 pm EST, and we'll announce a winner on Wednesday, 5/30.  Good luck, everyone!  And while you're brushing up on your drawing skills, you might want to check out Julia Rothman's tutorial put up on Design*Sponge awhile back that shows how to turn a hand-drawn image into a repeating fabric design with just a pair of scissors and some tape.  I've been sending people to this one for a couple of years now which makes it an internet oldie, I guess, but it's a very goodie.

The winner of last week's giveaway of $50 of Spoondollar credit and a copy of Handmade Weddings is Irina Elenskaya in Ukraine--congratulations, Irina!

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Mandy Kippax

This is the fourth in our series of profiles of the eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Today we're introducing UK-based designer Mandy Kippax.  More interviews will be up next week, so please stay tuned!

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Finalist: Red Poppies by Valley_Designs, Mandy Kippax

I live in Stocksbridge, a steel town in North Sheffield and have lived here all my life. Stocksbridge is in a valley near the Peak District National Park and is surrounded by countryside.

I completed my BA in surface design at the University of Huddersfield in 2010. Since then I've been creating patterns that would be suitable for fabrics and stationery. I was quite focused on designing for paper products but earlier this year, I thought I'd try some textile designs for a change and a challenge. I heard about the Fabric8 competition when I was just browsing on Spoonflower and decided to give it a try.

When I'm not designing patterns, I enjoy walking in the countryside, especially during spring and summer because I find all the different flowers and colors very inspirational. I like to paint or draw flowers from photographs that I have taken. I try to be creative with my camera too and enjoy trying to take pictures from unusual angles and capturing interesting textures.

I don't do a lot of sewing or crafting since I'd usually prefer to spend time designing. I attended a ceramics class awhile ago, though, which was great. I made a few practical pieces like a vase and two plant holders. I love to do anything fun and creative.

My favorite film is Moulin Rouge because of all the amazing sets, vibrant colors, and interesting costumes. The final scene is excellent!  A few of my favorite songs are "Pencil Full of Lead: by Paolo Nutini, "Are You Going to Be My Girl" by Jet, "Mondo Bongo" by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, "No One" by Maverick Sabre, and "A Night Like This" by Caro Emerald.

I like a lot of the designers and illustrators mentioned on the Print & Pattern blog. This isn't a complete list but a few fabric designers that I find inspirational or quirky include Louise Cunningham, Fiona Howard, Hennie Haworth, and Brie Harrison.

I was sitting in my living room reading emails on my laptop when I got the news that I was one of the Fabric8 finalists.  My first reaction when I heard was "Wow, me?!" I had to read the message several times for it to sink in. I was surprised just to be in the top 100 so to be in the final 8 was a massive surprise! It is so exciting to be a finalist!

I created my red poppies design using colored inks, then I sprinkled rock salt onto the wet ink to create some texture. I continued to develop the design by adding more poppies, Ieaves, and stalks. Once I was happy with the painting, I made it into a repeat pattern using Photoshop and added a linen-style fabric texture. For my collection, I've been thinking about floral designs and what colors I may use. I haven't put anything on paper yet but when I see an image that inspires me I keep it in mind. I think I'll have to visit the botanical gardens and watch the Chelsea Flower Show on t.v.!

Red Poppies by Valley Designs www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1130463

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Sara Berrenson

This is the third in our series of profiles of the eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Today you can read all about designer Sara Berrenson. Look for our fourth designer profile soon!

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Watercolor Blooms by Sberrens, Sara Berrenson

I was born and raised in LA, and currently live in Santa Monica. I attended college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where I majored in art and design. Getting out of LA for a bit to go to school was one of the best decisions I ever made. Not that I don’t love LA, but it was so nice to live in a quaint little town where you always run into people you know! And it was so beautiful too, surrounded by rolling green hills and wineries.

I've always loved fabric and I started sewing around age 8. First it was doll clothes, then it progressed into clothes for myself. I made a lot of really cool vests - it was the early 90’s after all! - leopard print, neon floral, a print of little tiny buttons, with buttons. (Who doesn’t want to wear buttons on buttons?) Then I started sewing pillows for the bed, curtains, you name it. I loved going to the fabric store with my mom - still do! - and can spend hours looking at all the cute prints. At this point, I have so much fabric I could be considered a borderline hoarder. But that’s ok.  Thanks to Ikea it is now organized chaos.

For as long as I can remember I've also loved art, so it seemed like a natural progression to combine my two loves of fabric and art.  That's how I got started designing fabrics. I heard about Fabric8 through the Spoonflower website, and am so excited to be a part of this contest!

When I'm not designing fabrics, I love traveling, being outdoors, and doing crafty projects. I have a huge love of interior decorating. Every second Sunday of the month you can find me at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, hunting for cute furniture to refurbish or knick-knacks for my apartment. The rest of the time, I’m hiking in the Santa Monica mountains, bike riding, running on the beach, drinking a mocha at a coffee shop, going to wine tastings, watching American Idol, horseback riding, reading, sewing, painting, drawing, and obsessively swapping out the fabrics on my couch pillows.

I do a lot of sewing and crafting, maybe too much! I need to cut back because the crafts are taking over my living room and kitchen. Since I live in a one bedroom apartment, there’s not really enough room to have a designated workspace. So I have to decide whether I’d rather have my couch or kitchen for the day. Usually the couch wins, which means a lot of eating out! 

Whenever I see something, I think “Oh, I can make that!” Then after several failed attempts, I realize I definitely cannot make that, and it's best to buy it from the crafters who do it best. The project that I am probably most proud of is a Halloween doll created for the Aids Foundation charity auction. I called her Creepy Cute because she had a gigantic pumpkin head and wore a sweet little pinafore dress. It was my first (and last) time creating a doll. It was a lot of work, but it was for a great cause!

I don’t watch a lot of tv, but I’m always reading a book. Some of my recent favorites are Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and Await your Reply by Dan Chaon. I pretty much love all kinds of music, but lately have been listening to a lot of upbeat poppy stuff when I design. Some favorites are Lenka, Miss Li, Florence and the Machine, April Smith and the Great Picture Show, The Sounds, and my boyfriend’s band, Capital Cities.

I am constantly inspired by other artists and fabric designers. I spend way too much time on Pinterest, but that's how I’ve discovered a lot of great artists. One of my favorite Etsy artists is Ashley Percival who does adorable illustrations of owls in glasses. Also BerkelyIllustration, who does all sorts of animals in suits and ties. (Can you tell I love animals?) I’m also super inspired by the fabric designs of Luli Sanchez, Imogen Heath, Amy Sia, Tanya Brown, Lilly Pulitzer, and I have a few Florence Broadhurst patterns framed around my house.

When I heard I was one of the Fabric8 finalists, I was shocked! And super excited! Then I had to reread it to make sure that I read it right the first time! I was actually in the Starbucks drive-through at the time. They must have thought I was really, really excited to get my caramel macchiato.
After reading the theme for the contest, I was so excited because I love the look of watercolor, especially on fabric. I debated on what to draw for about 2 seconds, then I knew I was going to do a floral print. Figuring a lot of people would enter flowers, I thought perhaps I should consider a different subject but I absolutely love floral prints--in clothing, in my living room, in my fabric hoarding collection--so I couldn’t resist! After narrowing that down, I just started painting. I wanted something cheerful with a sporadic placement of the flowers, as if they had been tossed up in the air, and it just evolved from there. 

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Heather Dutton

This is the second in our series of profiles of the eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Today we're offering a lovely interview with Heather Dutton. Look for more profiles next week!

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Afternoon Tea by Heatherdutton, Heather Dutton

I was born in Maine but we moved around a lot when I was really little. We eventually settled back in Maine when I was about 8 years old and I grew up in the small college town of Orono.

After I graduated from art school at the Savannah College of Art & Design, I lived and worked out in San Francisco for a number of years. I later moved back to Maine, bought a great old farmhouse and now I live in the adorable seaside town of Kennebunk. 

I got started designing fabrics when I was working as a fashion designer in San Francisco. I’d always had a passion for fabrics and part of my job at the time was to work with the in-house textile designers and a handful of print studios to develop and pick prints for the clothes I was designing. I’d always loved drawing and doodling different ideas that popped into my head and after watching the textile designers, I started to get drawn more and more into the world of surface design. Eventually I was lucky enough to find a job that combined fashion design with a little bit of surface design and from that moment on I was hooked. I do think it's funny that I design patterns for a living but 95% of my clothes don’t have a single decorative pattern or design on them. I think I own 2 or 3 things with a print and I hardly ever wear them. What’s that all about?

About a year and a half later I branched out on my own and started Hang Tight Studio. I heard about Fabric8 on the Spoonflower blog and I was crazy excited when I saw that you guys had teamed up with Robert Kaufman for another big competition! I was a little intimidated by the theme of “pen & ink” since I’m seriously watercolor challenged and it’s not a style that I’m used to designing in. To be totally honest, I almost didn’t even enter. A few days before the deadline to enter I got completely inspired and I decided that it was crazy not to at least give it a try. I’m ridiculously happy that I did now and it was really fun to branch out and do something a wee bit different. 
When I’m not designing fabrics I love working on new goodies for my Etsy shop, hunting down cool vintage treasures at local flea markets, and going on fun adventures with my sweet Sussex spaniel, Emma Jean. We both love walking on the beach or being out in the woods.  Living in Maine, there are tons of cool places to discover.

I love to sew and make little goodies for around my house or for friends and family. I recently made my very first handbag using my Chillout fabric and it makes me giddy every time I use it! Sometimes I have to pinch myself that it’s so easy and affordable to have my designs printed onto fabric thanks to Spoonflower. Sewing has always been fun but it’s kicked up a notch when you’re sewing something using fabric that you designed!

The list of fabric designers that I admire is a mile long but some of my absolute faves are Amy Butler, Heather Moore (Skinny Laminx), Khristian Howell, Joel Dewberry and the brilliant husband and wife team Brejer (Breanne and Jeremiah Simpson). I’m a bit of a movie freak and I honestly don’t know if I could pick a favorite but one of my favorite books would have to be The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. My fingers are crossed that someday it will be made into a movie.

My first reaction when I found out that I was one of the Fabric8 finalists was a seriously stunned “WHAT???!!!!” That was quickly followed by a racing heart and complete giddiness! There were so many incredible designs in the semi-finals round and even though I had my fingers crossed that I’d make it through, the other designers had set the bar pretty high. I was in my studio getting ready to start my day when I found out. I was so excited by the news that I didn’t get very much work done that day. It’s a huge honor to have been selected out of so many amazing designs and I can’t thank everyone enough for all the votes and support!

It sounds kind of silly but my creative process for this design started when I was doing dishes. My favorite coffee cup looks like a deep tea cup and as I was washing it I got a visual flash of all the different elements that ultimately ended up becoming a part of my design. Doilies, birdies, biscuits, tea cups and a swirly-edged pocket watch. It seriously was a burst of inspiration and it was actually “THE” moment that I decided I was going to enter to the competition. The next morning I couldn’t wait to start sketching all of the elements that had popped into my head. I didn’t know exactly how the design was going to take shape but once I scanned my sketches into the computer, turned them into vector art and started moving them around, the design just sort of fell into place.


Since I’m watercolor challenged I did the next best thing and finished the design by faux painting it in Photoshop. My hat goes off to the other designers who actually painted their designs! I don’t have my whole collection planned out yet but I’ve been playing around with a couple of coordinate designs already. There will definitely be more doilies & birdies popping up, some fun tea tins and a vintage inspired floral. My mind’s racing with ideas and I’m excited to dig in and finish the rest of the collection! 

Hand Drawn Goodness: A contest for fabric designs created by hand

Just to prove that creating a fabric design doesn't require you to be an expert in Photoshop or Illustrator, this week's contest includes over 500 entries that started out as handmade art. Be warned that voting may take quite a while, but rest assured that you'll have the pleasure of choosing your favorites from a pool of many, many lovely designs. (Voting this week is not, I fear, recommended for those still using dial-up Internet connections.)

Vote for Hand Drawn Fabrics

Announcing the Top Ten Retro Kitchen Fabrics

We had 280 entries in the retro-kitchen fabric design contest, which required participants to use a restricted palette of colors. The top ten are a coordinated bundle of awesome, but the top vote-getter is the amazing "Spoons" by UK designer Alex Morgan. The entire field this week was lovely. Congratulations to the top ten!

See the Top 10 Retro-Kitchen Fabrics

The voting results:

1. 531 votes for Spoons by spellstone 
2. 470 votes for Mum's Kitchen by irrimiri 
3. 456 votes for Retro Mixing Bowls by lonih 
4. 405 votes for RETRO KITCHEN (ADVERTISING) by retrorudolph's 
5. 387 votes for Retro bliss by cjldesigns 
6. 352 votes for Everything but the Sink by forest&sea 
7. 345 votes for PYREX LOVE by jumping_birds 
8. 342 votes for Vintage Pyrex by ruthiepearl 
9. 319 votes for How about a cup of retro ? by made_in_shina 
10. 312 votes for Kitchen Wheels by elarnia 

Handmade Weddings book giveaway and Oliver + S pattern winner

People get married anytime of year of course, but it sure seems like I can hardly visit my favorite crafting and design sites lately without reading a new wedding project idea or wedding photo slideshow from someone's lovely nuptials.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you. My wedding day came and went some time ago but pretty projects and dresses are pretty projects and dresses, and I'm happy to take my inspiration wherever it comes.

If your blissful union is officially nigh -- or if you're like me and also just like pretty projects to ogle -- you can win a copy of Handmade Weddings: More Than 50 Crafts to Personalize Your Big Day.  With projects organized by aesthetic style ("Happy Graphic," "Organic Minimal," "Girly Romantic," etc), this book offers instruction on creating unique invitations, party favors, veils, accessories, party decorations, and more.   Even a DIY wedding can be expensive, so we'll also throw in $50 worth of Spoondollar credit to use on some Spoonflower yardage.  Ties and invitations, printed fabric menus, handkerchief party favors, there are a ton of ways to use custom fabric on your wedding day.  (Check out our Wedding and Party Ideas board for even more options.)

If you'd like to be entered into this drawing, please just leave your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, and please do include your Spoonflower screen name or other means of tracking you down easily.  Entries close next Tuesday, 5/22 at 7pm EST, and we'll announce a winner on 5/23.  Good luck to you all!

Last week's winner of her choice of one of Oliver + S's new patterns plus three yards of Spoonflower fabric was Pippa Gore.  Congratulations, Pippa!

Fabric8 Finalist Profile - Lucie Duclos

As regular readers know, we're down to eight finalists in the Fabric8 contest, a competition from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics to discover a handful of the world's best amateur textile designers. Below is the first in our series of Fabric8 finalist profiles, an interview with Lucie Duclos, Snowflower on Spoonflower. Between now and June 7, the day the final voting starts, we'll publish a profile of each of the final eight.

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Water Flowers by Snowflower, Lucie Duclos

I am originally from Montreal, Canada but I just moved to Port Townsend, Washington from the San Francisco, Bay Area.  We have an amazing view outside our new house.

I love to paint with acrylics and I also do beeswax collage and altered books. I'll really try just about anything!  One of my favorite projects was these little paper purses I created for a friend’s birthday party as party favors. I used paper I had around the house so they were all different -- vintage clip-on earrings for the clasps, and ribbon or trim for the handle. Those were a hit! (Now you know what to do with those old mismatched earrings!)


I love to take art classes, whether online or at art retreats, to learn new techniques and to be surrounded by creative people (as in the Spoonflower community). I am the happiest when I do art -- any kind of art. I love to travel which is where I get a lot of my inspiration. I also really like to sew and I just discovered that I can draw with my sewing machine using the darning foot. That is so much fun to do!

I've always loved fabric as a medium. I love the texture and feel of it and I can spend hours in a fabric store. I took a fabric design class awhile ago where we learned how to design fabric using gouache on paper. That was really fun but very time consuming and hard to do color changes. I really got into fabric design when I joined Spoonflower a few years ago and started entering the contests here and there. I love the themes and the deadlines.

I saw the Fabric8 contest on the Spoonflower site but wasn’t planning to enter because I'd previously been a little afraid of watercolor.  But I just took an online art class where we had to use watercolor and draw imaginary flowers and I really enjoyed it. I hadn’t realized before that watercolors could be so playful. Somebody on the Flickr group saw one of the watercolor exercises I posted for the class and said I really should enter the contest, and that’s kind of why I did it.

When I first heard the news that I'd been chosen as a Fabric8 finalist, my husband and I were driving across the country from Port Townsend, Washington to Montreal, Canada, and stopping along the way in little towns and national parks. We were in a little motel in Cody, Wyoming when I got the email from Stephen and I screamed, "NO WAY! NO WAY!" My husband was worried that something went terribly wrong because I was in shock.  I just couldn’t believe it.  I still can’t believe it! I am floating on air. We had to ask for a late check-out that morning because I was so excited I couldn’t do anything!

I wanted my design to be modern, playful and almost abstract, so I painted a whole bunch of imaginary flowers, scanned them, and used the best ones to create my design. I'm not sure what I want to do for my collection yet but I think I want to explore the water theme a little further.

When I'm not doing creative projects, I really enjoy reading Barbara Kingsolver, especially her early books like The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven.  My favorite movie is still the French movie Amelie. There is an amazing attention to detail and color in that movie, it’s like a piece of art to me.  I also enjoy listening to world music especially Brazilian and Gypsy music. There is something about those rhythms that I find very engaging and inspiring.

I love the quirky style of fabric designer, Rachael Taylor. I also admire Lucienne Day and Kim Parker. I love the luscious color palette of painter Flora Bowley, she is definitely on of my favorite artist. I also love glass artist Dale Chihuly. I love his vibrant colors. If you haven’t seen his Bridge of Glass display in Tacoma, Washington, it’s really worth the detour.

I'm also pretty good at playing the spoons.  I guess it’s part of my French Canadian heritage.

Heather Ross Weekend Sewing Workshop NYC

Heather Ross sewing workshoppers busy at their projects in the Sewing Studio

I don't usually start my Mondays feeling inspired and cheerful but this Monday is different.  Coming off a weekend spent at a sewing workshop in one of the world's greatest cities will do that to a girl.  My dear spouse recently surprised me with a spot in a Heather Ross Weekend Sewing Workshop in NYC (bless him), and if you've never spent a weekend away, sewing and fabric shopping with other sewing geeks, I can't recommend it highly enough. 

Heather Ross teaches sewing and fabric design workshops throughout the year, and this particular one also included sewing rock stars Liesl Gibson, designer of Oliver + S children's sewing patterns, and Gretchen Hirsch, author of Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing and Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing, as instructors.  We kicked off our weekend on Friday night with a private shopping and socializing event at PurlSoho, followed by a lively dinner at nearby pan-Asian restaurant.  The next morning, we got down to sewing business in the airy work rooms of The Sewing Studio.  Each workshopper worked on projects they'd brought with them while our three lovely instructors circulated around, making themselves available for help with fitting, pattern interpretations, and expert answers to all manner of sewing questions.  Most of the sewing I do is in complete isolation and I can't tell you how handy it is to have an expert fitting buddy to help!

Between working on our own projects, Heather and Liesl treated us to some sneak peeks of their new fabric lines.  Heather's sweet nursery-rhyme inspired Nursery-Versery will be released by Kokka in June, while Liesl's lusciously colorful Ladies' Stitching Club is coming out through Moda in July.  We got the early news that both Liesl and Heather, along with other talented sewers and crafters, will be offering instructional videos via a new, online sewing and crafting class venue set to launch soon. (You can sign up for news of CreativeBug's launch on their home page.) 

Heather also let us browse a working copy of her new book, Heather Ross Prints, which is being released sometime this fall.  Do you all know about this book?  I was kind of blown away by what Heather's doing with it.  Along with the book which contains lots of pretty and inspiring projects that I haven't seen elsewhere and which I'd buy all on its own, Heather is including a disk containing 50+ of her own fabric designs that you can use for whatever you want--printing fabric, wallpaper, stationery, rice paper lanterns, anything!  Is that not crazy generous?  It's such a different approach to designing and to copyright and ownership.  We've pre-ordered a signed giveaway copy but if you're a Heather Ross fan, I might not wait to see if you win our giveaway if I were you.  I suspect it'll go fast!

One of my very favorite things about the workshop was being able to talk freely about sewing and garment-fitting without anyone's eyes glazing over, feeling confident that if I said "Liberty" or "ball-point needle" or "Marimekko" or "serger" I wouldn't have to explain a thing.  Hanging out with your tribe is just the best, don't you think?