Enter the First of Our 12 Days of Giveaways!

Today we’re kicking off Spoonflower’s second annual 12 Days of Giveaways and we’re so excited to be bringing you all the chance to win lots of special prizes!  Check back with us each day from now until 12/18 for your shot at them all.  Giveaways will be open for entering at 8:00 am EST for each of those 12 days and will close at 8:00 am the following morning.  We’ll announce a winner the morning after each day’s giveaway.  Good luck to you all, and please know that every one of us at Spoonflower are very, very grateful that you’re here.

Today is day one, and we’ll be drawing three winners for a Spoonflower Welcome Pack/Gift Certificate, along with a roll of custom-printed gift wrap. Launched just a few weeks ago, Spoonflower Welcome Packs are the perfect gift for a fabric- and design-loving friend or loved one.  (Or you can keep it for yourself for that matter!) The Spoonflower Welcome Pack contains a copy of Heather Ross’ new book, Heather Ross Prints, $35 worth of credit to spend on Spoonflower, a sample book containing all the fabrics and wall media that Spoonflower prints, and a handy little notebook and pencil for jotting down your ideas.  All these goodies are prettily packaged together for gift-giving, and we think you or your deserving loved one will be thrilled to lay eyes on it.  Good luck, everyone, and please stay tuned for the announcement of our three winners tomorrow along with day two of the 12 Days!

ENTER DAY ONE'S GIVEAWAY

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

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

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-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

Vote In the Be My Hero Contest!

We've very excited this week to give you a chance to help another Spoonflower artist join the ranks of professional textile designers. We've partnered with Timeless Treasures Fabrics, a leading supplier of innovative fabrics to the quilting and crafting markets, to bring you the Be My Hero contest. The theme of the competition, which includes special guest judge Samarra Khaja (SammyK), is heroes, and the goal is to find a novelty print for boys that Timeless Treasures will license, then  mass-produce and distribute through fabric shops everywhere. On a side note, we know that the Timeless Treasures offices in New York City remain closed dued to conditions created by Hurricane Sandy. They, and all the other people suffering as a result of the storm, are in our thoughts!

The participants this week are:

1. Super Dog by jenniferdenty 
2. (How to) be my hero! by irrimiri 
3. *An ordinary day* by akwaflorell 
4. 360MAN is Off the Hook by dnbmama 
5. A Hero in Our Midst by owlandchickadee 
6. A hero life for me by grafiketgrafok 
7. A hero the world over by ebygomm 
8. A Hero's Tale by amy_g 
9. A Misfit of Superheroes! by my_zoetrope 
10. Adopt me, and be my hero by fantazya 

Arrow Fabrics Aplenty -- Plus A Prize From Adobe

Our contest this week for arrow fabric has a special prize, presented in partnership with Adobe. To celebrate the new seamless repeat tool in Adobe® Illustrator® CS6 (check out the video on how it works if you missed it), the winner of this week's contest will win a one-year membership to Adobe Creative Cloud™ as a prize. While it's too late to enter, it's not too late to vote for your favorite arrow designs! We'll let you know who won next week.

The participants this week are:

1.  Endless Op Art Arrows by paintedstudio
2.  15 Minutes of Moxie by meduzy
3.  5 by going_home_to_roost
4.  A Boy's Own Archery Set. by rhondadesigns
5.  A Little to the Left - Blues in Linen by shelleymade
6.  aarows by rar1013
7.  Abstract Arrows by saenzdesign
8.  Airport Arrows by candytree
9.  akhaskett_waikiki by ak_haskett
10.  Akkerman_Arrows by holly_akkerman

Our Annual Tea Towel Calendar Contest + A Two for One Fat Quarter Sale Coming Up

Every year we look forward to our tea towel calendar contest, partly because the designs are always terrific, and partly because we really love tea towels. The crop of tea towel calendars for 2013 is no exception, and voting for your favorites is fun despite the difficulty of admiring all the designs sideways (a limitation of our prevew system is that the fabric is shown how it will be printed, with no way to rotate a preview for a cut & sew item like a tea towel).

Along with the good news about the contest is that next week, as we announce the winners of the contest, we're also going to launch a fat quarter sale that will allow you to get two tea towels for the price of one. The sale will actually apply to all fat quarters, but around here we're planning to use it to stock up on holiday gifts. The sale will run from Thursday, October 25th, 2013 (at 8am EST) to Wednesday, October 31st (at 10 pm EST). Until then, have fun voting!

Our intrepid designers are:

1. Woodland Calendar by forest&sea 
2. 13 snakes for 2013 by hakuai 
3. 18x21_2013CalendarTeaTowel by curlywillowcollections 
4. 2013 by lerhyan 
5. 2013 "Stop and smell the flowers" calendar by victorialasher 
6. 2013 - what I wish for you (US) by greennote 
7. 2013 A Walk in the Woods by violet's_pet_spider 
8. 2013 actual vintage by fantazya 
9. 2013 American Almanac by bzbdesigner 
10. 2013 Bolts of Fabric Tea Towel for Spoonflower, by Kristie Hubler by fabricatedframes 

Creepy Creepy Crawly Crawly Fabrics

Continuing our seasonal contest themes, this week we're asking you to vote for your favorite creepy crawly fabric designs. Most are more cuddly than creepy, but there's still plenty of great material here for Halloween decorating ideas. 

The participating designers this week are:

1. A Bug's (After)Life by violet's_pet_spider
2. A Spider In Disguise by holladay
3. A Sting in the Tail - The Scorpion Creeps Across the Night Sky by inscribed_here
4. AA Allens Ugly Buglies by candyjoyce
5. angry_spider by d'lee-d'laa
6. Ant Calligram by blue_jacaranda
7. ants by tat1
8. antspurple by julienbuxton
9. Arachnoscope by the_fretful_porpentine
10. arise by jasminecagle

Zombie Plushie Giveaway

I had the odd experience a few days ago of trying to eat my breakfast while casting my votes in this week's zombie plushie contest. I don't think of myself as very squeamish, but that particular multi-tasking combo put me off my toast. Consider yourself warned then that zombie dolls may not be for those with delicate sensibilities, or those with breakfasts to finish!

If you are in possession of a strong stomach -- or you just need a little Halloween decor to spruce up your desk at work or your sofa at home -- then enter this week's drawing for your choice of the top ten zombie plushie patterns! As always, to enter one of our weekly drawings we'll just need your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, and please do include your Spoonflower screen name or some other means of finding you in case you're our winner. We'll choose 3 winners this week, so your chances are better than usual!  Entries close next Tuesday, 10/16 and we'll announce a winner on 10/17. Good luck, zombie fans!

Last week, we gave away a copy of a beautiful book all about the link between color and commerce, Regina Lee Blaszczyk's The Color Revolution. The winner was UK-based Emma Blight. Congrats, Emma!

Win A Quilter's Dream Vacation

Today we are very excited to announce our Win A Trip To QuiltCon Sweepstakes!

We'd love to send you and a quilt-loving friend on an all-expense paid trip to the first annual QuiltCon, being held by the Modern Quilt Guild, in Austin, Texas, February 21-24, 2014.

The grand prize winner from our sweepstakes will receive airfare for two from any major US airport, accommodations & meals, admission and registration for four days of amazing lectures and selected workshops. Spoonflower folks are planning to be there, too, and are looking forward to a chance to hang out with the winner!

Three second place winners will each receive $150 in Spoonflower credit to create or choose their own custom fabric or wallpaper.

With huge apologies to the many members of the Spoonflower community who do not reside in the US, this contest is open only to people residing in United States (who are at least 18 years of age). Sweepstakes ends November 14, 2012 @ 08:00 pm (EST).

Attack Of the Zombie Softies

Halloween is one of our favorite Spoonflower holidays, and -- as regular voters know -- plush toy patterns are one of our favorite contest challenges. So this week it gives us special pleasure to bring together softies and zombies for a zombie plush toy contest. Vote. Vote for your lives. 

The participants this week are:

1. Abe Lincoln as the Zombie and Vampire Killer by vo_aka_virginiao 
2. Adorable tattooed zombie little boy by fantazya 
3. Attack of the Zombie by tailorjane 
4. Autopsied Zombie Doll by onestitchdesigns 
5. Bon Appetit my Love by paragonstudios 
6. bunny_blue2 by stella12 
7. Chubby Zombie Shark (cut & sew) by leighr 
8. Contagiously Cute by saartje 
9. corporate zombie by sef 
10. Creepy, but yet sweet zombie doll by katarina 

Upcoming Contest: Win A One-Year Membership to Adobe Creative Cloud

If you haven't checked our upcoming contests page lately, you should know that we've got a couple of amazing prizes around the corner. Our most recent contest partnership is with Adobe, a company whose products have touched all our creative lives, which has introduced a feature specifically for creating repeat patterns as part of their new Adobe® Illustrator® CS6 software. Check out a video on how it works:

The theme of this very special contest will be fabric designs using arrows as a design motif. The amazing piece of all this is that the nice folks at Adobe have agreed to put up a one-year membership to Adobe Creative Cloud™ as a prize. The membership gives you access to all of Adobe's creative products and services, including Illustrator. Apart from the necessity of submitting a seamlessly repeating design (no centered designs, please), this one is wide open for your creative interpretation. You can even explore the new pattern tools in Illustrator CS6 to create your design; a free 30-day trial is available. Entries will be previewed at the scale of a fat quarter (21" x 18"). Deadline for entry is Tuesday, October 23, 2012. See our Upcoming Contests page for details on how to enter:

    LEARN MORE

The Color Revolution Book Giveaway

Each year, with the announcement of Pantone's Color of the Year, I wonder, "How in the world do they decide?" and harumph, "Who made them the color boss?" According to The Color Revolution by historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk, such announcements aren't, as I cynically half-suspected, decreed by a "secretive cabal" of fashion, home-dec, and consumer product executives but rather, the result of a "careful reading of cultural trends and consumer taste," and a sort of organic next step in an unfolding history of consumer color choices and preferences. I've got to admit that I never thought about it that way!

If you're curious to read more about the fascinating history of color and consumer trends, you'll want to enter our drawing for a copy of The Color Revolution. Engagingly written and beautifully illustrated, this book is certain to deepen your appreciation for the role of color in the things that you see, buy, and use every day.  To enter our drawing, just enter your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post and do include your Spoonflower screen name or some other means of contacting you in case you're our winner.  Entries will close next Tuesday, 10/9 at 7pm EST and we'll announce a winner on 10/10.  Good luck to you all!

Last week, we gave away no fewer than five prizes to celebrate the launch of Spoonflower's new wallpaper and wall decals.  The five winners of a large-size wall decal were Kirablossoms in Colorado, SEF in the UK, Voxwoman in New Jersey, Tara McGowan/Art Tree Designs in Texas, and Hanahula in (presumably) Hawaii.  Congratulations to you all, and we'll be in touch shortly!

A New Contest From Spoonflower and Timeless Treasures

Have you ever dreamed of seeing one of your fabric designs mass produced and distributed through independent fabric shops all over? Now's your chance to compete for a shot at licensing a fabric design to Timeless Treasures, one of the leading producers of innovative fabrics for the quilting and crafting markets.

 The Be My Hero contest theme is novelty prints for boys 6-12 years old. You can find a full list of the rules and guidelines for entering on our Be My Hero contest page, but the most important thing to know is that the deadline for entering is October 30, 2012!

LEARN MORE

The Geekiest Fabrics On Earth

Spoonflower fans probably know what pride we take in offering the world's largest selection of geeky fabrics, in particular our science and math categories. This week we decided to take that to the next level with a contest for earth science fabrics. Please note that the earth sciences -- as distinct from the biological sciences -- include geology, meteorology and oceanography, but that distinction was probably lost on a fair number of designers. No matter! This contest, like all our others, is intended to provide an exercise in creativity over precision. Vote for the fabrics you think capture our theme the best and we'll share the winner next week.

The participants are:

1. Burma Rubies by paragonstudios
2. OCEANOGRAPHY by bluevelvet
3. 14 billion years ago, it all started with a BIG BANG!!!! by coggon
4. A Journey Underneath (border) by murex_textile_designs
5. A Meteorite Plaid by de-ann_black
6. A million Little Pieces by whimzwhirled
7. abstract from riverbed by wordfabric
8. Abundant Fossils by mag-o
9. agate mosaic by kociara
10. agatechunkcrop by cathymcg

Take A Break From Politics & Vote!

If you're like most people, the partisanship on display during the US election season can get, well, a bit tiring. What better way to take a break from politics than to throw a bunch of donkeys and elephants together on fabric for another cheerful Spoonflower design contest? Whatever you're planning to do in November, now's your chance to cast one vote that is sure to count.

The participants are:

1.  0ots versus Heehaws by nerida_jeannie
2.  2012 US Elections by woodmouse&bobbit
3.  A time out by paragonstudios
4.  A United Nation by forgotten_fortune
5.  a-dotti donkey by cousaspequenas
6.  Adventures in Washingtonland by scrummy
7.  American Parade by susanpolston
8.  Animal Trails by designedtoat
9.  animal_artists by roxiespeople
10.  animal_politics 2012 by mejo

Vote for Typewriter Fabrics!

Despite the fact that Spoonflower is a digitally dependent business, around here we really love non-digital machines. Amid the many decorations in our office you'll find an antique sewing machine and record player, along with lots of other vintage odds and ends. One of our favorite old machines is a typewriter. For this week's contest we asked designers to create black & white designs celebrating those clunky things we used to use to create text.

The participants this week are:

1.  (Q)WERTY by mbsmith 
2.  A B C D ... by moirarae 
3.  A QWERTY CHEVRON by paragonstudios 
4.  All Keyed Up by lauriebaars 
5.  ampersand-typewriter b/w by tagkari 
6.  Angry TypeWriter by miztaworldz 
7.  Antique Typewriters and Keys on Black by datawolf 
8.  Art By Typewriter (zoom in for detail) by shelleymade 
9.  ASCII Typewriter by schizoclectic 
10.  AsDf JkL; by belindabilly 

Vote for zig-zag cheater quilts

As longtime contest voters already know, we're big fans of cheater quilts. A cheater quilt, for the uninitiated, is a piece of fabric designed and printed to look like patchwork or applique so that would-be quilters can skip the piecework and just quilt and bind the fabric to make a finished quilt. All of the entries this week are designed to fill a single yard of Kona cotton, which might make for slow page-loading while you're voting, but should make for an exciting round of choices!

The participants this week are:

1.  2_cheater quilt in the style of a zig-zag by isabella_asratyan 
2.  70's Glass Zig Zag Cheater by glanoramay 
3.  A Desert Mirage - quilt by rhondadesigns 
4.  A happy gnome zig zag / cheater quilt by paragonstudios 
5.  A Prince's Quilt by susanpolston 
6.  abstract seamless lines by anastasiia-ku 
7.  African_Safari by art_on_fabric 
8.  Alexandrite Zig-Zag cheater quilt by katarra 
9.  aloha love by shellyaloha 
10.  Amazing by whimzwhirled 

Time To Vote For Back-to-School Fabrics

In at least one Spoonflower house this week, we've been busy stocking up on notebooks, pens & pencils, new lunchboxes and other sundry items we need to send three girls back to school. In honor of the excitement that goes with this annual tradition, we asked designers to come up with fabric designs celebrating school supplies. We've got 172 entries awaiting your votes!

And who are the intrepid designers in this week's contest?

1. #2 pencils by katherinecodega
2. A Back To School Fabric by de-ann_black
3. a back to school mix by orangeblossomstudio
4. A Geometry Lesson by demigoutte
5. a la rentree by minimiel
6. A New Set of Hand-Colored Pencils by amy_lou_who
7. A Supply Stripe by littlerhodydesign
8. Accidents happen! ~ Brown by retrorudolphs
9. An apple for the teacher by moirarae
10. Angry Monster Erasers by millyish