denyse schmidt

Are you a budding textile designer looking for tips and tricks for creating a fabric collection? Perhaps you’ve mastered the art of surface design, but still struggle with crafting a cohesive set of patterns.

WHAT: We’re thrilled to announce a new SpoonChallenge together with our friend Bonnie Christine–Creating a Fabric Collection! For four weeks starting July 6th we’ll be sharing everything you need to know to design the most beautiful fabric collection.

HOW: All you have to do is follow along each week to learn a new skill or technique! Sign up for a weekly email full of everything you need to know to get started, or follow along on the blog. Snap a picture of your progress and use the #SpoonChallenge hashtag each week to share what you’re learning. You can use this hashtag on any social media site (or just hashtag in your heart and keep your creations to yourself!).

Are you ready?

Create your first collection!

Show off your new skills by entering our upcoming Butterfly Coordinates Design Challenge. The winner by popular vote will take home $100 in Spoonflower credit and a special surface design prize pack! Deadline for entries is August 11th, 2015. For more information visit our upcoming contests page.

GET STARTED:

Gathering Inspiration for a Pattern Collection

A Chat with Elizabeth Olwen

Spoonflower Bootcamp: Checking Your Image Size

Designing a Focal Print for a Collection

A Chat with Denyse Schmidt

Spoonflower Bootcamp: Free Design Tools You’ve got to Try

Designing Coordinates for a Pattern Collection

Interview with Sarah Watson: An Imaginative Illustrator

Spoonflower Bootcamp: Creating a Collection

Completing Collections and Building a Portfolio

Hanging Out with Lizzy House

Denyse Schmidt provided one of my earliest introductions to the modern quilting movement. I love that she derives inspiration from vintage quilts and designs since these are dear to me already, but she cleans them up for the current quilter so that things look both familiar and fresh. I've given away some of the craft and sewing books that I've accumulated over the years but Denyse's first book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts, is still on my craft bookshelf and is still one that I consult for design inspiration when I'm coming up empty.

Denyse has a new book out now titled, Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration, and I'm finding it equally inspiring. In this book, she shows off a new gamut of wonderful quilts and goes into more detail about her personal background and how she came to quilting and fabric design. She writes in such a quiet and contemplative way, reminding me that quilting at its best isn't meant to be down in a hurry to crank something out. I do need reminding of that sometimes.

If you'd like to win a copy of this lovely new book, please just leave your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post. Entries will close next Tuesday, 5/1 and we'll announce a winner on Wednesday. Good luck, quilters!

The winner of last week's giveaway of our advance copy of Hat Shop was Maureen Betita–congratulations, Maureen!