Friday Photo: Gift Wrap For Zombies

Photo includes a glimpse of Neon Pink Brains gift wrap by sufficiency

Among the rolls of wrapping paper getting ready to go out the door, we've spotted some amazing and unique designs. Among our favorites? This brain wrapping paper, which might be just the thing to use on gifts for your little zombies.

One-Yard Wonders From Under the Sea

We're big fans of the One-Yard Wonders books from Storey publishing, which offer readers an array of projects that require just a single yard of fabric. For this contest one of the authors, Rebecca Yaker, offered a pattern for the Riviera Tee, a kid's shirt. Spoonflower designers were invited to customize the pattern using their own designs and an Under-the-Sea theme. The result is a gallery of shirt patterns that would be a blast to sew. The winner will be featured in the next book in the series. Vote for your favorites and we'll report back next week!

1.  *Colors under the sea* by akwaflorell
2.  A Jellyfish Ballet by seasparkles
3.  1 yard wonders childs t-shirt pattern by delsie
4.  1,2,3....Walruses Are We....Under the Sea by joojoostrees
5.  A Colourful Green Sea with little fish by nezumiworld
6.  An octopus under the sea by fantazya
7.  Anchor's Away *Complex* by dylanfd
8.  Anna Nemonee by resdesigns
9.  beach huts by the sea by valley_designs
10.  Blondfish forever by blondfish

Announcing the Winner Of Our Nasher-Matisse Contest

For this contest we asked competitors to create textiles that might look at home in the Matisse paintings currently on exhibit at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Entries had to use a specified color palette. Our winner turned out to be Ewa Bursztyka, a very talented designer from Poland. Congratulations to her and to the rest of the top ten!!

The final voting results were:

1. 347 votes for matisse inspired by ravynka 
2. 336 votes for pattern_matiss-1 by smalty 
3. 329 votes for Rose Garden by acbeilke 
4. 314 votes for Matisse_Final3 by ridley 
5. 288 votes for paperflowers by sydama 
6. 287 votes for Matisse_Pomegranate by yvonne_herbst 
7. 274 votes for jungle birds by dennisthebadger 
8. 249 votes for HenriM2 by antoniamanda 
9. 239 votes for jolies fleurs no. 1 ~ Matisse citron by retrorudolphs 
10. 236 votes for Les Cerises au Matin by cynthiafrenette 

A Whiter Shade Of Pale Kona

Pictured here is Elephant March fabric by endemic on Retired Kona (left)
and the Kona® cotton we will begin using on December 4, 2012 (right).

Regular Spoonflowerers are probably very familiar with the Kona® cotton we purchase from Robert Kaufman. It is, in fact, our most popular fabric. That's why we want to bring your attention to a small change to Kona starting on Tuesday, December 4, 2012. Orders for Kona placed on or after Tuesday morning will be printed using a slightly brighter shade of white Kona cotton. The difference is fairly subtle (see the photo above), but will be important for anyone who is trying to match a previous order on Kona with great exactness. While we'll be retiring the old Kona cotton, we will continue to make it available for a period of time to customers who have ordered it previously. For those existing Kona purchasers, that option will show up in your fabric choices as "Retired Kona®". If you have questions about the switch, please feel free to write to our help team.

Tutorial: Bolster cushion cover

Guest author Emma Jeffery from the blog Hello Beautiful shows us how to sew a reversible bolster cushion cover.

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Oversize pillows can make a bold design statement whether they are placed on the bed, a wooden bench by the front door or across the back of a sleek, modern couch. Large pillow inserts (or body pillows) are readily available and are pretty inexpensive (I think mine was around $20) but finding the perfect cover can be much more challenging, which is where making your own wins out!

This one has the opposite fabrics on the back, which is a great way to switch out the look of this pillow.

My pillow measures 54” x 20” and this tutorial will show you how to make a cover using one yard each of two co-ordinating fabrics. I used one yard of Grey and White Diamond Linen and one yard of CrossCriss by Holli Zollinger in Kona Cotton. You will also need a 14” zipper and 42” of contrasting piping.

To start, we are going to name your fabrics A and B. It doesn’t matter which is which, but it will make the instructions clearer.

1. First, we are going to start cutting Fabric A. Cutting across the yard, cut 1 piece of fabric 42” x 20”. Make sure to remove the unprinted, excess borders around the edge of the fabric. Turn the fabric 90 degrees and cut one piece of fabric 12” x 20”.

2. Repeat step 1 for Fabric B.

3. To make the cushion front, cut one piece of piping measuring 21”.

4. Lay out the larger piece of fabric A. Pin then baste the piping to one short end of Fabric A.

5. Place the smaller cut of Fabric B on top the edge with the piping. Pin and stitch through all layers.

6. Press the piping to one side and top stitch.

7. To make the cushion back, repeat steps 3 through 6 with the opposite fabric cuts.

8. Lay the cushion front on top of the cushion back, with right sides facing. Pin, then stitch all the way around leaving a 14” hole for turning and for inserting your zipper.

9. Clip all 4 corners and turn the cover the right way out.

10. Pin the zipper into the folded edges of the turning hole and sew all the way around. To finish, insert the pillow form.

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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.

We Make Dolls book and fabric giveaway

Things are really hopping in the Spoonflower shop these days!  The printing and shipping crews are working almost non-stop to get orders out the door before our shipping deadlines. Then it's home to work on hand-made gifts with the whirr of sewing machines and the click of knitting needles replacing the sounds of printers, fabric rollers, humidifiers, and packing tape dispensers.  This time of year is busy--and for us, noisy!

Continuing on last week's giveaway theme of whipping up beautiful hand-sewn holiday gifts, this week we're giving away a copy of Jenny Doh's wonderful We Make Dolls book plus two yards of your choice of Spoonflower fabric with which you can make up a doll or two.  My personal favorite doll in this book is Mimi Kirchner's Tattooed Man which uses a toile fabric to replicate the look of a tattooed torso--brilliant!

If you've got a special little person in your life--or even a not-so-little one--who would appreciate a lovingly sewn doll, just leave your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, and do include your Spoonflower screen name so we can track you down if you're our winner.  Entries will close next Wednesday, 12/5 and we'll announce the winner on 12/6.  Good luck to everyone, and please note that our regularly scheduled Wednesday giveaway will not be happening next week.  Instead, stay tuned on the blog for the kick-off of our 12 Days of Giveaways beginning 12/7!

Last week, we gave away the winner's choice of a downloadable Noodlehead bag pattern plus two yards of Spoonflower fabric to make it up in.  The winner was Alfa García.  Congratulations, Alfa!  We hope you make something amazing and much-loved with your prize.

Introducing the Spoonflower Gift Certificate + Welcome Pack

The Spoonflower Welcome Pack is the perfect way to share your love of Spoonflower with other crafty, creative people in your life. Each Welcome Pack includes a $35 gift certificate that can be used for anything on Spoonflower -- including fabrics, wallpaper, wall decals or gift wrap -- a book full of inspirational projects by one of our favorite artists called Heather Ross Prints: 50+ Designs and 20 Projects to Get You Started, a sample pack of all our base fabrics, and a lovely package that includes free shipping anywhere in the world. For $60, it's a great introduction to the world of Spoonflower fun.

2012 Christmas Shipping Deadlines

We know that for many of you, getting presents to loved ones by Christmas is important. To make sure that anything you order from Spoonflower for delivery before December 25th arrives in time, we've put together a table with our holiday ordering cut-offs for each of our shipping options, standard, guaranteed delivery, and rush.

Here are our 2012 Christmas ordering deadlines. Orders placed using the listed shipping methods by these dates are expected to arrive before December 25, 2012.

Important Note: The last day our special, limited-edition gift wrap will be available will be December 20th!

Fabric, Wallpaper, Decals, Gift Wrap	Non-U.S.	United States
Rush	Dec 14	Dec 20
Guaranteed	Dec 12	Dec 17
Standard Shipping	Nov 26	Dec 10

Spoonflower Welcome Packs	Non-U.S.	United States
Guaranteed delivery before Dec. 25th using standard shipping (which is free!)	Dec 17	Dec 21

Fabric Fit For A Matisse?

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University is in the middle of a Matisse exhibition based on the art collection of the Cone sisters of Baltimore. These two women, apart from having been friends with Gertrude Stein, also had an interesting connection with North Carolina and our state's textile history. In honor of the exhibition, and in partnership with the museum, this  week we challenged designers to create fabrics that would look at home in a Matisse painting using a restricted palette of colors. Vote for your favorites, and we'll announce the results next week!

The participants this week are:

1. Fabrics trader by milenagaytandzhieva
2. "there are always flowers... by artgarage
3. 'A Bouquet for Henri' by tscho
4. 'Conversations' inspired by Matisse's Pasiphae by licoricelove
5. *Flowers for Matisse* by akwaflorell
6. 3Untitled-10 by lexyeb1
7. A Fauvist's Garden - on Green Lattice by rhondadesigns
8. a floral tapestry by kerryn
9. A la Matisse by yellowstudio
10. a room by kociara

Announcing Our Flights of Fancy Contest Winner!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our peeps in the US! The theme of our contest this week was Flights Of Fancy, which produced both the expected -- lots of bird fabrics, for example -- but also the unexpected: the winner, Roz Robinson, based her design on the wistful flight of dandelion seeds. Designers were also asked to restrict their use of color to a particular palette. Roz's winning fabric will appear in a photo on the cover of an upcoming issue of the UK craft magazine Mollie Makes. Congratulations to all who participated!

The full results, for those of you who follow such things, were as follows:

1. 472 votes for fanciful flight - make a dandelion wish! by coggon 
2. 422 votes for singing_forest_for_spoonflower_final by celandine 
3. 362 votes for You are my Flight of Fancy by cynthiafrenette 
4. 358 votes for Roly-Poly Polka by spellstone 
5. 305 votes for Fancy Birds by sketchcreative 
6. 293 votes for Between Flowers by valentinaramos 
7. 290 votes for Flight of the Peacock - blue version by irrimiri 
8. 287 votes for birds&clouds by dennisthebadger 
9. 278 votes for WITH ALL MY SOUL by bzbdesigner 
10. 276 votes for peacock plumes palette limited by katarina 

Noodlehead bag pattern giveaway

Just this morning, I was making out a list of gifts I wanted to give to friends and realized that I'll need to get cracking at this point if I hope to hand-make presents.  If you find that you've been similarly sluggish about your hand-making thus far and need some ideas, you may be pleased to learn about the Noodlehead line of bag patterns.  Created by Wisconsin based Anna Graham, these bag patterns aren't your run-of-the-mill bags.  My favorites are the 241 Tote pattern which uses 2-3 contrasting exterior fabrics and features interesting side pockets and, now that my diaper bag days are behind me, the sweet Gathered Clutch.  Since these patterns are emailed as pdf files, you'll be able to begin your project nearly instantly and (hopefully!) in time for holiday gift-giving.

If you'd like to be entered into a drawing for your choice of Noodlehead bag pattern, just leave your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post.  We'll also throw in two yards of your choice of Spoonflower fabrics to make up a bag or two.  As always, please leave your Spoonflower screen name or some other means of tracking you down in your comment in case you're our winner.  Entries close next Tuesday, 11/27 and we'll announce a winner on 11/28.  Good luck, all!

Last week, we gave away a signed copy of Melody Miller's new book Ruby Star Wrapping, and the winner was Steffany Carrabino.  Congrats, Steffany, and I hope Melody's book provides you with lots of wrapping inspiration!

To all our American peeps at home and abroad, we hope you enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow!

Doll's House Wallpaper Makeover

Guest author Emma Jeffery from the blog Hello Beautiful makes over her daughter's dollhouse with custom wallpaper.

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Have you indulged by ordering Spoonflower’s lovely new wallpaper yet? Perhaps you have a few 12” x 24” wallpaper samples hanging around from a recent order that are too pretty not to be used for something wonderful? Or perhaps you feel you need a bit of practice hanging wallpaper before you tackle your own living room wall?

I’ve never hung wallpaper before, but from growing up and watching my dad do it, I assumed it was all about long trestle tables, wide brushes and overflowing buckets of cold, sloppy glue. So I was happily surprised to learn that Spoonflower’s wallpaper already has an adhesive backing, that simply needs to be immersed in water to activate. No mess, easy clean-up and overalls are probably surplus to requirements (always a bonus in my book!) Still, I did decide to start off small-scale and ease myself slowly into this exciting and colorful new adventure of wall coverings.

A few months ago my daughter was given this beautiful 3 story home (sigh, if only it was adult-sized) that was rescued from an abandoned and unloved situation. I knew that with a little love and TLC, it could shake off its dusty coverings and peeling paint, to be beautiful once more.

Of course, it may have been better to survey for any structural damage, assess the age of the shake shingle roof and at the very least, order a termite inspection, but in keeping with the crazy world of home-ownership, my daughter and I were determined to start work on making it beautiful above all else.

I started by removing the original wallpaper, which was easy to do because of its age. It was pretty cool to discover some hidden, handwritten notes on the bare wood from the original construction.

I then measured the walls and spaces under the windows and cut the wallpaper to the appropriate size. I preferred to use a standard paper cutter for cutting.

Next, I followed Spoonflower’s application instructions by submerging the wallpaper in water. Because of the scale of my project I was able to use a large dish, but for a larger project Spoonflower recommends you use a trough or the bathtub.

I then simply hung the wallpaper, using a sponge to squeeze out the excess glue and air bubbles. After allowing it to dry, I trimmed any excess with a small craft knife.

The walls look lovely and my daughter’s enthusiasm for playing with the house has suddenly and instantly been reignited. It helps that I let her pick and choose the wallpaper from Spoonflower’s marketplace of wallpaper designs. She picked designs by PaperSparrow and Kayajoy.

I’m now feeling pretty confident about scaling up and wallpapering something adult-sized. But Mr Rabbit’s not feeling as good about having to lay new carpet in his house.

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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.

QuiltCon Sweepstakes Winner Chosen!

See the beaming face above?  It belongs to the happy grand prize winner of our QuiltCon sweepstakes contest, Lisa Higdon of New York.  Spoonflower will be flying Lisa and one very lucky quilting buddy to Austin, TX for QuiltCon on February 20, 2013 where they'll enjoy three days of workshops, unlimited lectures and access to the quilt show floor, an '80's dance party, and a cozy hotel room in downtown Austin within walking distance of all the action.  

Lisa is a professional organizer and family and consumer sciences educator and tells us that her students have been thrilled to design their own fabrics and actually have them printed with Spoonflower.  I'm sure that they'll be as excited about Lisa's win as we are!

We also selected three second prize winners of $150 worth of Spoonflower credit, and those folks were Karmen Wai of California, Michelle Melvern in Maryland, and Michael Sue BrownKorbel of California.  Congratulations to you all!

Vote For Flights Of Fancy

This week we're teaming up with the brilliant UK craft magazine Mollie Makes for a fabric contest with the theme Flights Of Fancy. Designers were asked to adhere to a restricted palette of colors for this contest and the magazine plans to use the winning fabric in a photo for an upcoming cover. Vote for all your favorites and we'll announce the winner next week!

The participants in this week's contest are:

1. birds striped _1 by flying_pigs 
2. flying dragonflies by mariao 
3. 'Adorn yourself with borrowed plumes' by tscho 
4. *Fly like butterfly* by akwaflorell 
5. 4 COLORS Flights of Fancy by natitys 
6. 4birdscircle_2 by melissssaf 
7. a birdie by marimuc 
8. A Fancy Feathery Flock! by pattyryboltdesigns 
9. after the storm by fallingladies 
10. Air Special Delivery - flights of fancy by paragonstudios 

Holiday Cocktail Napkins, Anyone? Happy Free Shipping Day!

We had some lovely entries for our latest contest, in which we challenged designers to create cut & sew patterns for a set of holiday-themed cocktail napkins. Our winner turned out to be Australian designer Julie Lynch, who asked us to take the $100 in Spooondollar credit she would normally have won and to donate it instead to the Red Cross. We owe a special thanks to Julie for introducing the holiday season on such a lovely note. With today's free shipping promotion in mind, now is a perfect time to order a set of cocktail napkin designs to add an extra layer of festivity to your next party.

The final votes:

1. 497 votes for Christmas birds napkins by cjldesigns 
2. 423 votes for linen look cocktail napkins by glindabunny 
3. 412 votes for Tis the season by amel24 
4. 355 votes for Cocktail napkins - vintage christmas balls by bora 
5. 302 votes for 12 days of Christmas Cocktail Napkins by kfay 
6. 300 votes for Holiday Trees/Starry Nights Cocktail Napkins by snuss 
7. 269 votes for Starflakes - Pointsetta-Ice-Linen by owlandchickadee 
8. 257 votes for Simple Holidays by bethanysdesigns 
9. 254 votes for Holiday Cocktail Napkins by pennycandy 
10. 250 votes for Holiday Cheer by bzbdesigner 

Ruby Star Wrapping Book Giveaway

With the limited-release launch of Spoonflower gift wrap last week, we officially have gift-giving on the brain here at Spoonflower HQ! So what better to give away this week than a signed copy of Melody Miller's new book, Ruby Star Wrapping?  Melody Miller is the designer of the popular "Ruby Star" fabric collections released by Japanese fabric company Kokka, and her quirky, vintage-inspired aesthetic comes through on the many projects in this new book co-authored with Allison Tannery.  Gift-wrapping projects are organized according to the size, shape, and squishiness (or lack thereof) of the gift being given, and you'll find many creative ways of presenting your gifts using fabric, paper, ribbons, and other materials that are lovely, re-usable, and don't result in bag after bag of paper and refuse being dragged to the curb for disposal.

If you'd like a chance to win a copy of this book dedicated completely to the wrapping and presenting of gifts, just comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, and include your Spoonflower screen name so we can track you down easily if you're our winner. Entries close next Tuesday, 11/20 and we'll announce a winner on 11/21.  Good luck, to you all!

Last week, we gave away a roll of gift wrap to each of three winners, and those lucky folks were Christy Stephens, Tawny Regan, and Vickie Harmon.  Congrats to the three of you, and we'll be in touch soon with details on how to collect your gift wrap!

Road to Quilt Market: Wrap-up!

Designer, blogger, and author Rashida Coleman-Hale joins us once more for the final wrap-up of her Quilt Market 2012 adventures.  Grab a cozy beverage and feast your eyes on her favorites from Cloud 9 and the Quilt Market floor!

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Quilt Market!!! I went, I saw, I took pictures, I was INSPIRED, I socialized, I did some business...I'm still recovering.

The show was amazing, but these things never seem to happen without incident.  First off, my travels, as you may know, were quite an adventure.   Michelle was missing a box from UPS that had ALL of her sales sheets, cards, etc. in it.  Her Mom so graciously sent a new batch overnight. Yay, Michelle's Mom!  Gina's schoolhouse presentation was great, but her projector showed her slideshow upside-down the whole time. Boo. The samples we had of Tsuru weren't big enough, so I had to run to my hotel room and cut new ones. And those buttons I made?  Those were gone within the first two days. Hot commodity they were! ^_~  My posts were supposed to be happening during the show, but silly me only brought an iPad.  I had no idea that Typepad doesn't let you post via richtext on an iPad, and I know nothing about HTML.  Boo. 

Other than that the show was FANTASTIC! 

Cloud 9 Fabrics booth was oh-so-cute as expected.  The panels on the back of the booth were printed via Spoonflower, of course!  Michelle and Gina did such a great job pulling it together and they were busy, busy, busy the entire show!  

(Please forgive some of my photos. I used my iPhone for these and I won't be making that mistake again. :P) 

Tsuru by yours truly

It got such a fantastic response and I'm beyond over the moon thrilled about it! Yaaay!  

Mixteca by Eleanor Grosch, Micromod by Rob Bancroft, In the Forest by Steffie Brocoli 

iHAUS by Michelle Engel Bencsko 

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

And some sneak peeks of what's coming in the future!  (Pssst....voile!!!!!!)

Here are some of my ABSOLUTE favorites from the show below.

  

First up is my Cloud 9 cousin Alexia Abegg's Green Bee Designs booth.  Her husband Rob Bancroft's line with Cloud 9 is Micromod.  Let me tell you, the photos and the graphic images on the site DO NOT do this collection justice!  You truly have to see these fabrics in person to appreciate their colors and the design.  It appears very masculine online, but in person...*swoooon*. It's a fantastic collection for either gender.  Rob really nailed this one!

Ellen Luckett Baker, you have officially outdone yourself!  I am SO in love with her new collection Stamped with Kokka!!  I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on some of this.  I think I went by this booth at least 6 times to just soak it all in.  Such a fantastic collection! Nice work, Ellen!

 

The sweet Kokka print on this dress below was calling to me.  

And these cute pouches.

The Echino colors are always so vibrant and fun. 

That's Ruby Star Sparkle by Melody Miller below. Yes. Sparkle. Melody's booth was a dreamy, vintage-y, Christmas-y wonderland and it was marvelous.  Melody was there promoting her new book, Ruby Star Wrapping, as well as her fabric.

 

Did you know Melody has her own line of crochet trim coming soon from Kokka??? *faints* Ruby Star Trim!!

 

Below is Comma by Zen Chic for Moda. Love, love, LOVE this group.  The quilt patterns are to die for!

From Art Gallery Fabrics, I saw Luxe in Bloom and Indian Summer by Sarah Watson.  Sarah's booth was BY FAR my favorite of the show.  Her collections are gorgeous, but what struck me most was how imspired I was by her booth.  It was like a giant, fantastic mood board and I wanted to take it home with me!  I really love her design style and I was so drawn to it.  I've been trying a more hand-drawn look for my next collections and her work just spoke to me.  *swoon*  Can I be Sarah when I grow up??? :)  

 

Splendor 1920 by BariJ is below.  Bari, Bari, Bari.....*sigh*...I heart you.  The colors.  The patterns.  The bed with ruffles!!!  I wanted to chill out on that bed with a sketch book and some hot cocoa.  Her booth always dazzles and amazes. Just so lovely. 

She cross stitched on her cross stitch! Love! 

How cute is this coat???

Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman was a showstopper.  Carolyn is a force to be reckoned with and I would keep my eye on her.  Her work is fantastic!  AND she's from Lake Wales, Florida.  Why does this matter?  I graduated from high school in the same county!  Polk County in the house!!  She's my new homegirl.  Well, in my head at least. :P

Monaluna below is Jennifer Moore's new collection.  Jennifer's designs are always so fresh and modern, but I was especially drawn to this new collection.

 The llamas!!!  I can see a lot of fun garments for my littles in these prints!

 The llama in the window is my new homie, too. 

 

Sou Sou by Tamurakoma & Co was my favorite little discovery and I wish I had taken better shots of this booth.  I've really been into a more organic, modern, handmade look to prints lately and this Japanese company didn't disappoint in that area.  I had so many questions, but decided not to embarrass myself or my pal Jemellia with my crappy Japanese.  Then I saw this lovely book sitting on the table...

From the SouSou site:

"Are you familiar with the talented Japanese textile designer, who was formerly of the esteemed Finish design firm Marimekko? His name is Katsuji Wakisaka, and in the 1960′s he gained much fame in Finland for his signature “Bo Boo” print designs. After his time at Marimekko, Mr. Wakisaka continued on to New York to work for Larsen Design Studio, then back to Japan to work for Wacoal Interior Fabric in Kyoto, and then finally ended up designing textiles and graphic prints here at SOU SOU.

"The book, Katsuji Wakisaka- Marimekko, SOU・SOU and 10000 post cards to his wife, introduces Mr. Wakisaka’s remarkable 44-year long artistic practice, during which he has produced around 10,000 design concepts in addition to a beautiful glimpse at Mr. Wakisaka’s companionship with his wife."

After learning that I HAD to have a copy of the book!!! I bought it as soon as I was back in Atlanta. :P 

Quilt Market is always such an amazing trip for me.  To be in a convention center filled with like-minded people is such a creative charge and I enjoy every minute of it. I had such a good time, loved seeing all of my friends and meeting new crafty peeps and I cannot wait for the next show.  Portland, baby!!!!  See you there? ^_^

(Yes, I dorked out on one of the long arm machines that was on display. :P)

How To Make (or Fake) a Seamless Basic Repeat Using PicMonkey

The Spoonflower help desk gets frequent emails from folks who want to try their hand at creating seamlessly repeating designs without spending a small fortune on Photoshop or Illustrator right off the bat. Fortunately, there are ways of getting around that $600-$700 price tag! Today Sally Harmon, aka Boris Thumbkin, offers a tutorial on how to use Picmonkey to create a seamlessly repeating design below. Read on for the details, and never be afraid of seamless repeats again!

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Years ago,whenever I was on the phone or watching TV, I would doodle with a fine-line Sharpie in an 18" x 24" sketchbook.

These were drawn without plan or preliminary sketch so while there are parts that don't work for me, there are sections that I think could serve well as fabric. The challenge will be to transform these busy line drawings into satisfactory repeating designs.

Step 1: Because these 18 X 24-inch doodles are way too big for my scanner, I photograph them to turn them into digital files. Then I do as much editing of the photos as possible in iPhoto (the basic photo management program that ships with Macs). I crop, straighten, de-saturate, and increase the exposure and definition.

I've chosen this section because it includes text and drawing

Then I upload this image file to Spoonflower.

Step 2: After uploading, I try out the mirror repeat option on Spoonflower because it's the easiest way to make a design repeat seamlessly. Mirror repeat reflects an image along both the x- and y-axes and for certain small sections of my drawings, I like the way mirror repeat looks.

1.Dragon-Candy Stripes 2.Interlocking Doodle Noodles 3.Teatime at the Palace
4.Swiss Edelweiss 5.Lace 6. Loom 7.Feedsack-esque 8.Red Texture

But for many sections it's not the best solution. Part of the appeal of these drawings is their interocking density which is lost here.

I also don't like the reversed text.

I will need the basic, half-brick, or half-drop option. However, because my drawings go all the way to the edge of the paper, there will be discontinuities where the design sides come together.

Luckily, there's a way to create a seamless basic repeat using PicMonkey's "DIY Sticker" feature. It's a bit fiddly and involves a fair amount of to-ing and fro-ing, but it works!

Step 3: First, I'll need to create my stickers in Picmonkey. I'll be making two kinds of overlays--"bridging motifs" and "precise quadrants." Let's talk about bridging motifs first. Bridging motifs are small elements within my design that may prove useful to bridge gaps between design edges. In this example below, I'm going to select a flower as a bridging motif.

I go to "Edit with PicMonkey" and I crop around a flower I want to use.

I clean stray marks around the flower using "Draw."

I save this little flower to my Spoonflower account, then download it to my desktop.

Now let's talk about "precise quadrants." To demonstrate these, I've put colored dots on each quadrant of the design below. I start like this:

red=top left

yellow=top right

blue=bottom left

green=bottom right

I take the full design from Spoonflower to PicMonkey. I go to "Basic Edits," then "Resize" until the numbers in each box are even. Then I jot down these dimensions and save the image to Spoonflower. This particular image measures 3648 x 2736 pixels.

I then return to PicMonkey--yes,again!--and I crop the red quadrant. Sometimes I find I need to check the "Scale Photo" box to get the numbers precise. My cropped height is exactly half of my original image's height; my cropped width is exactly half of my original image's width. In this case, that's 1824 x 1368 pixels.

I save this cropped red quadrant file to my Spoonflower account, then I download it to my desktop.

I repeat these steps with the remaining three quadrants. On my desktop I now have all four quadrants (red, yellow, blue, and green) plus the bridging motif (a flower).

Step 4: To lay it all out, I return to Spoonflower. I click on "Custom fabric" from the "Create" tab. Under "Other Design Options" I click "Fat Quarter." [Please note that you must be logged in to Spoonflower to see the "other design options" feature.]

This takes me to PicMonkey again where I have a blank fat quarter.

I go to "Overlays," then "Make Your Own."

I upload all four quadrants from my desktop and I re-arrange them like so:

green=top left
blue=top right

yellow=bottom left
red=bottom right

 

In this way I've brought the image motifs from the outside edges to the inside edges, essentially turning the image inside-out.

I do not completely fill the blank fat quarter. I keep the quadrants congruent and leave a narrow white cross between them (like the mullion and transverse elements of a window).

Next, I crop the image all around. I'm careful here to be as precise as possible, zooming and measuring to make sure that I will not have discontinuities or white lines in my final product.

Here, before my final crop, I've used a light pink geometric rectangular sticker stretched between the edges to check my precision:

(I delete the pink rectangle after using it to check my alignment.)

Oops! The red arrows show where I'm ever so slightly off. I adjust the red quadrant so that the tops of the indicated circle will line up better.

When I'm satisfied, I merge all the elements.

Step 5: Now I want to bridge the gap created by the blank cross. There are several ways I can do this.

I can draw lines (using "draw") between different elements:

I don't worry if the line quality is a little off. I'll take care of that later.

I can also erase elements that don't want to connect (again using "Draw"):

Here I've erased some stray marks.

Another option is to add geometric stickers:

Here I've added a circle sticker. I'll add another white circle inside it.

Or I can use my own "bridging motif" stickers:

Here's my flower again.

When I'm done bridging those blank cross areas, I save my design to Spoonflower.

Step 6: I check my image in different views to be sure that it repeats seamlessly. If I want to add some color, I run my design through the Spoonflower color changer. Then I return the design to PicMonkey for any final editing.

Almost Rhymes

Prior to proofing, I like to try reducing the size of my image by increasing its DPI sufficiently so that I can check the repeat in the Spoonflower preview window.

A Few Notes About Repeats:

What I'm doing here is very similar to the offset filter plug-in available on Photoshop and elsewhere. Dr. Andy Mathis explains how to create a seamless repeat in Photoshop using the offset filter on YouTube.

My technique is also very similar to the technique Julia Rothman explains in a Design*Sponge tutorial on how to create a seamless repeat the old-fashioned way, using paper, scissors, and tape.

Making This Simpler:

Lest you feel intimdated by all the steps I've outlined above, please note that only rarely is it neccessary to go through the whole process above.

If my image "falls off the edge" in only a few places and if these are straight lines, I can simply match the lines up using geometric stickers.

Using geometric stickers to ensure that the image connects

The final fabric

Checkerboard

 

Sometimes I just need a little more space to "tie up loose ends." In this case, I just turn my whole image into a sticker, float it on a fat quarter, merge, and draw in anything missing.

The arrow shows where I'm starting to draw off the edge

The final fabric

Sometimes I can suggest continuity by simply matching color from edge to edge.

The arrows show areas where the hex codes are matched from edge to edge

The final fabric

Sometimes only one axis is problematic. If that's the case, I work with halves rather than quadrants.

I match the background by using the eyedropper feature in "draw" prior to merging the stickers.

The final fabric

Certain motifs--like stairs, ladders, roofs, stems, and signs--are particularly helpful when connecting edges.

The arrows show where parts of the staircase go from edge to edge. This is easier when I take a reference screen shot of my design in repeat.

The final fabric

Making This Trickier:

Now for some extra-credit questions!

What if I wanted my design to be in half-drop or half-brick repeat?

What if my axes were off-center (i.e. my quadrants were not congruent)?

What if my axes were angled? Or curved?

What if I were to use mirror-image along one axis and basic, half-drop, or half-brick along the other?

What if i laid one kind of repeat over another?

1.Valentine Swags 2.Portholes 3.Springtime 4.El Rey 5.Urban Reflections

Most of us study repeats only as a means to an end. However, if you're interested in learning more about the mathematics involved you might want to check out the seventeen wallpaper groups and orbifold notation or a great book called Symmetry, Shape, and Space: an Introduction to Mathermatics Through Geometry, particularly chapter 5.

Hope you all found this a useful technique for designing seamless repeats!

Last Days of QuiltCon Sweepstakes Entry

Dear Spoonflower-ers, we're entering the last few days of open entry for Spoonflower's QuiltCon Sweepstakes, an all-expenses paid trip for two to QuiltCon in Austin, TX from February 21-24, 2013.  For those of you who haven't heard about QuiltCon, this is the first-ever conference and show put on by the Modern Quilt Guild folks, and they've put together a positively dreamy list of workshops, lectures and panel discussions presented by some very talented quilters and designers.  Registration for workshops opened awhile ago on August 30 and given how awesome the options are, most of them are already sold out.  But Spoonflower has the winner covered!

As part of this all-expenses paid trip, we're including enrollment for you and your buddy to three of our very favorite workshops.  If you're our winner, you'll get to attend "Modern Block Improv" by Sherri Lynn Wood on Thursday.  Sherri is an improv master and just an all-around lovely person. (I met her once at a yard sale!) Prepare to be blown away when you check out her improvisationally pieced series of "Color Study Quilts."

Next up will be "Mini Quilts" taught by Lizzy House on Friday.  Many of you have probably heard of Lizzy as the designer of multiple popular quilting fabric collections released through Andover Fabrics, but Lizzy is also a quilter, print-maker, and author of an e-book called How to Enter the World of Textile Design.

On Saturday, you and your buddy will attend a half-day workshop on "Textile Printing" taught by none other than Swedish print-maker and designer Lotta Jansdotter.  Lotta has also recently put out a couple of fabric collections through Windham Fabrics that are based on her hand-printed designs.

In addition to these three workshops, we're including two show passes which gain you and your buddy entrance to the quilt show hall and any lecture or panel discussion you care to attend, plus entrance into Friday night's '80's dance party.  

Sound like an amazing trip?  We think so, too!  Put your name into the hat before entries close next Wednesday, 11/14, and we'll hope to see you there! Please note that while this is a Facebook-based sweepstakes, we've included an alternate link for those of you who prefer to avoid FB.

ENTER TO WIN

[alternate entry link for people who don't like Facebook]

 

Holiday-Themed Cocktail Napkin Sets

This week's competition will wrap up just in time for the entertaining season. We asked designers to create cut & sew kits for holiday-themed cocktail napkin sets. Vote for the ones you'd most like to have handy for your next swank party.

Our participants this week are:

1.  Snow Doves in Cranberry by forest&sea
2.  "Holiday Spirits" cocktail napkin by eyecontact
3.  *Gold for Christmas* by akwaflorell
4.  12 Christmas New Year Cocktail Napkins by tscho
5.  12 days of Christmas Cocktail Napkins by kfay
6.  5" squares North Christmas by mariao
7.  A Tropical Holiday - cocktail napkins by inscribed_here
8.  All you need is love, love, love! by wendyg
9.  and a partridge in a pear tree by woodle_doo
10.  Angels napkins by dinorahdesign