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Design, Sell, & Shop Fabric, Wallpaper, & Gift Wrap

Summer scraps


Scrappy placemats
Originally uploaded by Secretsugar

More sewing projects lately as I try to think up reasons to stay inside where the air-conditioning is. 100 degrees in NC today–ack!

Stephen and I have been in sore need of placemats for some time now seeing as how our two younger daughters' dinners end up mostly on the table rather than in their mouths. I'm nearly through with this set that I made mostly out of scraps I had on hand. The green floral scraps and backing are a reworked vintage floral that I printed up on the linen/cotton, though, and I'm thrilled to find an everyday use for it. It's a bit tight getting my perle cotton running stitches through the close weave, but sore fingers notwithstanding, I'm pleased with how this project is turning out so far. I may add more machine-stitched circles and more running stitched circles in green–especially if we keep having more 100 degree days around here!

True Up’s ideas for digital printing

The ever-resourceful Kim Kight of True Up posted an excellent brainstormed list today of 20 ideas for digital textile printing.  I'm delighted to see that she included printing up embroidery designs onto fabric because I've been trying to do just this sort of thing myself lately.  Editing my image in Picnik and dorking around with the pencil sketch and duo-tone functions (light gray and white) just about does it, but some of you actual design pros can probably think of a better way.  Spoonflower tutorial anyone?  There could be some free fabric in it for anyone who wants to take this on….

Kim's list is pretty darn comprehensive, but comment away if you have anything else to add!

Here we go again… Portland’s Meghan Jean wins Fabric Of the Week

Fabric of the Week for 8-05-2009

Now vying for the title of 'world's craftiest city', Portland gives us yet another Spoonflower fabric of the week winner in the person of illustrator Meghan Jean, whose accomplishments include work for Dark Horse Comics. Meghan's 'Beta Clouds' won the most votes last week, which means that a lucky few can buy her limited edition fabric for the next six days from the Spoonflower Etsy shop. Congratulations, Meghan!

Final vote tally:

Thanks to all for participating!
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Up this week for voting…

One-line-contest-fabrics
Six new designs from six new designers:

Click here to let us know which design you like best. Voting closes next week on Tuesday.

Follow the current vote count in real time.

If you're looking for the contest rules and entry form, they are here.

Coming next week: New Fabrics + Free Swatch Day

Kanzashi crafting


Crafty young'uns
Originally uploaded by Secretsugar

I think of summer as my "indoor season." In mid-summer NC, it's just too darn hot to do anything but sit inside and sew. Apparently, my oldest daughter and her friend thought so too, it being a scorching 95 degrees even before lunch today. These two accompanied me to the Spoonflower office this morning and looked very cozy and crafty indeed, sitting on our sofa, checking out Diane Gilleland's new book, Kanzashi in Bloom, and sorting through pretty fabric bits.

Naturally, we have no shortage of fabric scraps lying around the house and the office, so it was a simple matter for my 11-year old to put together a cute little flower, following all Diane's excellent instructions on her own and wrangling the hot glue gun like a pro. No word on what the flower is going to be used for but it's cute, huh? New necklaces are next on our craft list, I think!

Belated good-bye


Spoonflower staff
Originally uploaded by Secretsugar

It's a little quiet around here this week in the shop. Of course, the printers are going full-blast on a healthy queue of designs, but Spoonflower is down a couple of awesome employees as of last Friday.

Rachel, pictured center front, has gone off to try her hand at law school after cracking the whip over Spoonflower finances for the past few months. We'll miss Rachel's organizational gifts, but I hope it won't offend her if I say that I'll really miss her sense of style and unbelievable shoe collection. It was always a treat for me to see what she had on her feet when she arrived for work–a different pair every day, though a particular pair of purple leather flats with leopard buckles stands out in my memory.

Allie, pictured at the far right front, was a summer intern with us who has left us to finish her degree in fashion and textile merchandising at N.C. State. Allie had the most solid work ethic of any person her age I think I've ever met–or perhaps of anyone I've ever met! Allie ran the printers from the wee hours of the morning til the late morning crew showed up. Then she'd move over to the cutting table and bust out bin after bin full of packaged fabric–all without a single complaint. Ever.

We've been very lucky to have attracted good folks to Spoonflower, and are very sorry to see these two go! Good luck, y'all!

Delicious Golden Apples For Fabric Of the Week + Six New Designs

Golden Delicious fabric by Rachel Moorman

Doesn't this week's winner — golden delicious by Rachel Moorman — remind you a bit of Lolly's Pear fabric from last April? Fruit and fabric just seem to be an appealing combination. Lovely as they are, Rachel's apples narrowly beat one another design from last week, Megan Roberts' birdcage fabric. The amount of talent out there never ceases to amaze. Rachel, by the way, is a fan of vintage fabrics who lives in Indiana. You, however, can find her on Etsy at vintagesongbird.etsy.com, or you can buy the winning fabric as a special, limited edition from the Spoonflower Etsy shop for the next six days only!

Final tally was:

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Six New Designs and Six New Designers

As always, for this week's contest we've selected a fresh batch of faces from our (still lengthy) pool of entrants. Cast your vote carefully!

Picnik collage

The entrants are (left to right from the top):

Click here to let us know which design you like best. Voting closes next week on Wednesday.

It's fun to follow the current vote count in real time.

If you're looking for the contest rules and entry form, they are here.

Sweet



Originally uploaded by Lisa Rupp

I love Lisa Rupp's sweet blanket for her daughter, shown right. Lisa printed her design with Spoonflower, then had her mom sew it up into a blanket that's appropriate for a little girl, but not at all girly. Her little angel looks so pleased to be sitting there, don't you think?

If your little one would be pleased to have a similar blanket, Lisa says on her blog that she'd be willing to hook you up with a design for either a boy or a girl. You can email her here, but don't skip browsing her site for more gorgeous design work and her blog for other beautiful photos of this project and others.  My favorite is an arrangement of real flowers that she turned into a pattern. (We might need to add a new "Dang, why didn't I think of that?" category to the blog now….)

Last days to order linen-cotton + updated shipping rates

We posted this in the weekly email on Thursday, but for those of you who prefer RSS…

linen-cotton blendSunday, July 26, 2009, is the last day you will be able to order your designs printed on the current linen-cotton blend. We will be introducing new, permanent fabric options soon, but we'll be retiring the limited edition linen-cotton at the end of this week. If you've ordered some already and would like to get more just like it, this is your last chance.

Also, I have finally updated the shipping rates in our FAQ, a long overdue exercise. These rates have been live on our site for some time, but the FAQ has remained out of date. Sorry about that. You will note that our rates are by and large very reasonable. Keeping shipping as affordable as possible is important to us.

Have a lovely weekend!

Congratulations to Marieke! + A terrific new fabric of the week contest

Marieke is the designer behind Branch New by Mo Marieke Ooms of The Netherlands is the designer behind our most recent fabric of the week winner, Patroondik. [That's her to the left.] The official name of Marieke's design is 'Branch New', and it is the first in what she envisions as a line of fabrics called Branch New by Mo. You can see more of her work on her blog, Work-and-Progress.

Best of all, however, you can buy the design as a limited edition for the next six days in the Spoonflower Etsy shop.

Final vote count last week was:Buy Patroondik fabric in our Etsy store

Thanks to everyone who entered, with a special shout-out to the nice folks at the Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica who put together the Blue Monday design. To refresh your memory about the fabrics that competed last week, see our Flickr stream.
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New Designs for Voting

Help choose this week's winning fabric design:

Spoonflower Weekly Contest 7-20-2009

The designers are (left to right):

Click here to let us know which design you like best. Voting closes next week on Tuesday.

It's fun to follow the current vote count in real time.

If you're looking for the contest rules and entry form, they are here.