Thursday, November 29, 2012

Fabric Recap: Creepy Crawlies to Flights of Fancy

I've been working on some new fabric designs lately, with some recent contest entries. I'm working on some more new fabric designs, and some sewing projects that need to be finished and photographed. I'll do a fabric recap in this post, and will post a sewing project this weekend. Onto the fabric designs!


My entry for the "Creepy Crawlies" Spoonflower Fabric of the Week Contest was "Scrollwork Creepy Crawlies Iron":

Scrollwork Creepy Crawlies Iron
Scrollwork Creepy Crawlies Iron, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

Scrollwork Creepy Crawlies Iron placed 31st out of 224 entries. Both it and the Leather (brown) colorways are available for sale.

My next entry was also a new kit. For the "2013 Tea Towel Calendar" contest, I entered "Geometric Citrus 2013 Calendar":

Geometric Citrus 2013 Calendar
Geometric Citrus 2013 Calendar, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click to see its fabric page.
This was my first calendar design. I wanted something bright, fun, and modern. I also wanted to keep it geometric and not cutesy. Geometric Citrus 2013 Calendar placed 177th out of 186 entries. Eh.

I created several different arrow themed designs for the "Arrows" Fabric of the Week Contest before settling on my entry. "Bias Arrows" was my entry for that contest:

Bias Arrows
Bias Arrows, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

This design got me started on a bit of a diagonal design kick. These arrows are rotated on the true bias, and the arrow head colors form a zigzag pattern. I think this design would be great to use both on the straight grain and bias. "Bias Arrows" placed 149th out of 221 entries.

The other arrow designs I created are "Geo Arrows" and "Arrow Grid", both shown below. I may do some variations on these designs, and upload them later.

Geo Arrows
Geo Arrows, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

Arrow Grid
Arrow Grid, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

For the "Flights of Fancy" Fabric of the Week Contest, I went with a whimsical (ahem, whimsicle) entry that was a bit odd. The contest called for fabrics with a bird or flight theme. I chose to go with a flight theme for a few designs. I couldn't get my first idea for the contest to look right, so I went with my second idea. My entry was "Peculiar Fancy Flights":

Peculiar Fancy Flights
Peculiar Fancy Flights, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

Various accessories have taken flight to the next party in unconventional methods. A top hat air balloon, mask with pretty wings, blimp carrying a monocle, and wings attached to a handbag float and fly against a sky background. This contest required a limited palette of the colors shown. "Peculiar Fancy Flights" placed 216th out of 323 entries.

I also created a brown colorway of this design, shown below:

Peculiar Steamy Fancy Flights
Peculiar Steamy Fancy Flights, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

I really like how this colorway looks. It fits perfectly with the accessories and modes of transport.

I have another contest entry ready to go, but will wait to post it until the contest. I am working on several coordinating prints for it too. I will work on a sewing post for this weekend. Maybe I'll be able to catch up before decorating for the holidays. And yes, there will be posts for the decorations too. Hmm, I need to get out my Cookie Advent Calendar.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Squiggle Stripe Design

I meant to write more blog posts for recent designs and projects, but was so busy with life (moving and work) that I forgot. Oops. This post will be on my current Spoonflower entry, and the next post will be a catch up of new designs. I plan on finally photographing a few sewing projects this week and will have posts for at least one later this week.

The current Spoonflower Fabric of the Week contest is something right up my alley. Spoonflower partnered with The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University to hold a limited palette contest for fabric designs that would fit in a Matisse painting. The contest theme is for an upcoming exhibit at The Nasher Museum, and the Top Ten designs will be featured at an event there.

Matisse happens to be one of my favorite artists, so this contest was a must for me. I like both his earlier paintings with the bold use of color and design and his later paper cutouts that still have the bold designs. I drew inspiration from both his early and later works for my entry, Squiggle Stripe:

Squiggle Stripe
Squiggle Stripe, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see repeat in yardage.

I've been on a bit of a diagonal kick lately, which is good considering there are diagonal elements in several Matisse works. Creating shapes and lines that weren't perfect was a bit hard for me, but was also fun. Getting the repeat right was much easier after messing with several other diagonal repeats, even if this one wasn't a typical diagonal.

While the contest brief led to the impression of the designs working well for home decor purposes, I think my design would also be great for a summer outfit. I am imagining a full skirt or even a dress made from this fabric. A fashion scarf would also look great with this fabric.

You can vote for your favorite entries for the Matisse/Nasher contest at Spoonflower here. The contest ends Wednesday. There are lots of fantastic entries in a wide variety of styles, so be sure to check out the contest.

*Up next: a catch up post with new designs and recent contest entries.*