Hungry for crafty goodness, anyone?

Mmm, doughnut pillows.  I had an inkling that I might someday see Strange Little Bear's  doughnut fabric in stuffed form.  Now where's my plushy cup of coffee...? 

On a completely different subject, back in May I posted a link to an article written by Patricia Crews, a professor of textiles at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  The article discussed a study done by Professor Crews and her colleague, Janet Evenson, on the long-term effects of various adhesive products used in quilts and other textiles.  In brief, many supposedly harmless, supposedly water-soluble adhesives we're probably all familiar with--fusible web, fusible interfacing, quilt basting spray, etc--will likely cause your painstakingly sewn quilts and other textile projects to yellow and stiffen over time.  (One exception was noted.  Fusible batting did not cause items to yellow any more over time than the control items in the study.)

Professor Crews recently (and apologetically) responded to an email I sent back then on behalf of a blog reader who questioned whether laundering had been included in this study.  Professor Crews' answer was that no, laundering had not been included in the initial study but had been included in a subsequent (and unpublished) study.  The results will be bad news for users of these time-saving products.  Apparently, even laundering doesn't completely remove yucky chemicals from your lovely works, and over (simulated) time, yellowing was still observed in textile items that had been made up with various adhesive products and then laundered.

I personally will likely continue using my friend, fusible web, for things like handbags, tote bags, and in the facings on little girl clothes.  Basically, in projects that I wouldn't expect to hold up for more than 5 or 10 years anyway.  But the next time I start on a quilt I'll steer clear of the temptation of basting spray and use all those safety pins to baste.  (See?  Still too lazy to stitch my basting...) 

Little girl clothes

Along with the many lovely birthday wishes I received from y'all yesterday--thanks so much!--I also received a note from Sarah Dyer alerting me to her daughter's new adorable tiered twirl skirt made from monster fabric printed on Spoonflower.  So cute!  My girls loved her monster fabric when they saw it in our pile some weeks ago so I know they'd be so psyched to have such a skirt if I were to get up the energy (and time and cute design...).

Sarah also asked me when I'd be posting my own fabric designs and creations to our Flickr pool. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of running a craft-related business is that I don't have all that much time to do much sewing myself!  Kinda ironic, I know.  I did have time to make a cute little shirty for the baby awhile back from Petchy's free pattern.  It's a bit mussed on our little darling in this photo because she tends not to stay very tidy looking for very long.  But I was still pleased with how quickly it came together, and also that I was just able to make it from the first fat quarter I printed for myself (lo, these many months ago...).

Psssst...

[speaking softly] Hey, today happens to be Kim's birthday. If you feel like wishing her happy birthday, her email is kim at spoonflower dot com.

In other news, we are a single order away from being caught up with June and 1st-week-of-July orders. This week we'll be printing all of the orders that came in last week. By the end of the first week in August, however, our plan is to turn all orders around within a day or so, which will make swatch ordering quite a bit more practical if you're using it to test colors for a design.

Also, a few people have initiated a good discussion of fabric color management in the Flickr group. If you've already ordered and received fabric, please weigh in with anything you've learned about file preparation from your Spoonflower experience so far.

More projects!

Sarah Dyer at Jinjur made up these super cute zip pencil cases and notebook covers with her Spoonflower fabrics recently.  She and husband Evan Dorkin took these a few weeks ago to HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC, our neck of the woods, where they went home with many thrilled buyers.  (Um, the merchandise, not the artists!) 

John W. Golden

Woo-hoo!  More great projects with Spoonflower fabric!  Check out one of John Golden's new "Fabribots."  I LOVED his fabric so much when I saw it printed up and am so happy to see that he's made something out of it!  Incidentally, John is both a fellow North Carolinian AND someone whose Etsy shop was already on my favorites list.  It's a small design world, no?

Happy return

Boy, y'all have been busy while we've been gone!  Stephen's bringing home a huge stack of orders tonight for us to package and ship with more to come over the next few days.  I see several late nights in our future, but it's a nice position to be in.  Thanks for bearing with us last week while we caught up with family we haven't seen since last year.  This week we're going to spend time getting caught up with you!

Once I was able--at last!--to get back on-line this morning, I headed right for our Flickr pool to see what's been going on there.  SewBettie has some of her recent Spoonflower-based projects put up for our viewing pleasure which, since I remember her fun designs very well, is especially thrilling to me.  A bulldog tea towel!  Love it.  Check out her blog for a great tutorial on how to add beading to fabric.  You can see the result of her beading on another of her Spoonflower fabrics here.

How about the rest of you?  Any projects in the works with your Spoonflower fabric?

Speech balloon-i-ness

One of my favorite bloggers, Erin from A Dress A Day received her first Spoonflower fabric order and sounds happy. She seems to have used some lovely free-range drawings of speech balloons as the base for the design and then  added her own color sense and whimsy to make something cool. [Note to self: more tutorials] Check our all Erin's photos and remarks here.

While I'm on the topic of fabulous bloggers (who set out to do one thing a day), I just want to draw attention for a moment to the incredible surface designs posted by a print a day, many of which she is kind enough to add to the Spoonflower pool on Flickr so they show up in the colorful badge in the right column of this blog. I've said it before, but it's worth saying again - wow.

Quickies

These days it seems like the only free crating time I have left is late in the evenings, when we've (finally!) gotten all the girls settled quietly into bed.  This time also happens to be the only kid-free time I have in the day to talk to my dear spouse, and I don't want to just disappear into the room that passes for my studio but which is in fact our fireplace-Christmas tree-family dance party-other living room.  (After 2 years in this house, I still haven't settled on a name for this room, though I do so wish it could just be a family crafting studio...)

So given that I don't want to completely ignore Stephen, I like small projects that I can do from the sofa while we chat and watch the news and just unwind together.  Brushing up on my rusty drawing skills lately is an activity that works, as is cutting out fabric printing stencils for the girls and I to play around  with.  I've also run across a couple other small projects that look coffee table-sized, cute, and fun.  By way of Craftzine, verybigjen has an eyeball pincushion tutorial on Flickr.   (Do I need to explain how psyched my two bigger girls will be when I finish one?)

The Purl Bee is always good for lovely little projects, and I've been thinking about making up some sweet hankies ever since I saw their tutorial.

Meggiecat's going to think I'm stalking her, but I've gotta give her credit for finding mollychicken's adorable fabric house tutorial.   Another project my girls are going to go crazy for, I'm sure.  I should be set for the weekend, I think!

Mama and girl prints

  Mama and girl prints 
  Originally uploaded by Secretsugar

Woo-hoo!  As I mentioned the last time I posted, I've been very inspired...hmmm, make that obsessed now, by Lotta Jandsdotter's Lotta Prints.  Finally, finally, over the weekend I managed to get some potatoes carved so that my 3-year old daughter and I could do some printing together.  Success!  Permanent fabric paint is a little scary around a toddler, but on the other hand it's just clothes she'd be ruining, right?  And I'm trying to be better about letting my kids have access to "the good stuff," as Soulemama talks about in The Creative Family.  Yeah, another book I'm obsessed with.

The large navy blue starry shapes are actually made from quilter's template plastic I had lying around, but the rest are spud-based.  I kinda like the two ovals stamped on top of one another best, I think.  It should take me only a mere five more days to hem them all into tea towels!

Jamtartbaby

I really don't know if my liking for fabric designs that don't look "digital"--while still being digitally printed--is more because I do not myself know how to maneuver in Photoshop and the like, or if I am just genuinely drawn to designs that look...well, drawn.  One way or another, I sure like these little pillows from Jamtartbaby. I keep wondering how I can inspire my daughters to work up their own fabric designs to print on Spoonflower once we're live, and simple designs like these might be something they could appreciate and relate to.

PataPri

I was feeling a bit groggy this morning after a night alone caring for our three daughters.  (Stephen's gone fishing with friends this weekend.)  But I got a nice little jolt of excitement along with my Earl Grey when I stumbled on PataPri.  A resident of Chicago by way of Japan, Yuko Uemura has just recently begun selling her own fabric designs in honor of her shop's one-year anniversary.  Her fruit, animal, and other nature-inspired designs are silk-screened onto 100% linen and are fresh and simple in colors like aqua, orange, olive, and gold.  You can buy these little treasures for projects of your own--Yuko generously allows others to sell items made from her fabrics--or you can purchase her tea towels, accent pillow covers, and tablecloths.  Get the yardage while it lasts!  According to her blog, these fabrics will only be available for a limited time.

Swatch portraits

Am I the last person in the crafting world to catch wind of this project? Thanks to the folks at the Purl Bee for the tutorial on this one.  I've been so bogged down lately in complicated projects for which I can't seem to find the time that I kinda need some instant crafting gratification this week.  There's also a Flickr photo pool here if you want to view even more fabric loveliness.

Sugar City Journal

Did you ever run across someone so talented that it boggles your mind to think they're the same species as you?  This is how I feel about Lynne and Melissa at Sugar City Journal.  Check out this absolutely stunning little girl's dress made out of turquoise linen.  And then check out all the posts on their blog labeled sewing.  Do you think if we all begged them long enough they would publish the patterns that they're making up themselves? I'm totally blown away.

Designing fabric without a computer

So I have to admit here that I'm not the most tech savvy girl around.  As a sewist--not to be confused with a sewer, right?--I love the idea of designing my own fabric but am intimidated by the prospect of learning my way around Photoshop and Illustrator software.  This is why I was intrigued when Marcy at Oonaballoona sent me a photo and told me about her method of creating the fabric she wanted.    Here is her canvas, along with an explanation of her process:

The canvas (which is huge... 5 by 5 feet) had been painted over many, many times in a vain attempt to come up with something I liked.  My husband liked the 10th attempt so much he wouldn't let me paint over it, but as I couldn't stand to look at it, I decided covering it in fabric would keep us both happy.  I actually wanted a specific piece of Ikea fabric with a sort of organic cityscape on it, but when I got there I found it had been discontinued.  I couldn't find another ready made scene that I liked, so I decided to create my own. I picked a few patterns I liked (one form Ikea, one from Urban Outfitters) dug through the scrap bin and came up with my treehouse scene.  I started by putting the background together, then did a freehand of the birds & branches on velvet & leather.  I quilted the freehand shapes onto the background with my trusty featherweight 221 (handled the entire job with just a regular foot, LOVE that machine), and with my heavy duty staple gun secured it to the canvas.

Marcy says she'd like to do more of these and condense them down into a smaller repeating pattern--with copyright-free background fabrics, of course!

Cool Bunny

Just posted a fish print in the Spoonflower Flickr pool and ran across this cool bunny from Giant Dwarf Design [her blog is pillow vs. pin cushion].

And in Spoonflower news:
We ran our first sample fabric yesterday using a dear reader's design. I'll post photos soon. It looks fabulous. Over the next few weeks we'll be running more samples, so if you have requests please email me.

Play pod

Okay, I know this is utterly unrelated to surface design, but how cool is this fabric play pod? And as the mother of three girls who can spend a whole happy day playing with a large box, why didn't I think of it first?  According to Small magazine, this pod--actually called Squareplay by it's designers at Slovenian Oloop Design--will be available later this year for purchase.  I, for one, can't wait!

All Over Print

It's an overcast day in Chapel Hill today and the ground is soggy from the past 24 hours of steady rain.  This makes me sluggish and lazy.  So here I am on the floor, sipping tea in my pajamas and cruising around online and I find All Over Print, which perfectly suits my mood.   Ayelet Iontef is a fabric designer and her blog is a visual feast, just loaded with photos of luscious textiles and faraway places.

Ayelet has posted today about the traditional Indian art of block-printing fabric.  I have seen these intricately hand-carved blocks in--of all places--our local gourmet foods market lately where they're used to adorn a high-end tea counter.  (Wonder if they'd sell them....)  Click here to view a slide show of the entire block-printing process, starting with a chunk of wood and a roll of plain cotton. 

Ribbon Aficionado

While Stephen and I were gone to Atlanta last week, I resolved to get going with this whole craft blogging thing.  I've got to admit here that I've been reluctant to post photos of my own sewing projects because the creative talent out there is just flat out intimidating.  Really.  And then subjecting my prose to my dear spouse's daily scrutiny when he himself is such a gifted writer...well, can you blame me from feeling daunted?

Serendipitously, I found a note from Andre'a at Ribbon Aficionado in my inbox today.  She makes little girls' hair do-dads that are totally adorable AND has given me a great excuse to postpone putting my own self out there.  Seeing her cute clips makes me wish I hadn't cut off my own hair a few months ago in a fit of how-can-I-make-life-simpler brainstorming.  See what I mean?

Cicada Studio

Michelle--who has not one, not two, but three fabulous Etsy shops--allowed us to post a photo of a one-of-a-kind pillow made from fabric she designed and printed herself.  Check out her blog for a glimpse of her sophisticated dogwood inspired fabric designs.  It's so exciting to get a taste of the creative talent out there in the sewing and crafting world!