Spiders, Australia, Paisley, and Fabric

So, about those sewing posts. Uh, I think my sewing machine may be mad at me for neglecting it lately. I added a new craft to try (needle tatting!), and haven't been sewing much, besides an oven mitt (which will get a post eventually). I wanted to finish the accessories for my sewing machine, so I could photograph them. I worked on the last thing to do on Friday, and decided I didn't want to seam rip the bias tape anymore, and set the project aside. The bobbin wasn't working properly, and I didn't feel like trying to mess with it at the time. I may try to figure it out today. Meanwhile, I have a new fabric design to show off!

This week's Fabric of the Week contest theme at Spoonflower is Australia fauna, perfect for Australia Day, which was yesterday. I went my usual route by choosing a lesser known subject for my design. I chose to use the Pink Flower Spider as inspiration and knew I wanted to include flowers and leaves in the design since the spider hides on those objects while waiting for prey. But, I had no idea how the design would look, or what sort of style to do it in. Then I thought of the leaf shapes as paisley, and had my design figured out. Here is my entry, Pink Flower Spider Paisley:

Pink Flower Spider Paisley, fat quarter 21"x18" view shown. Click image to see fabric page.

The paisley is made up of very stylized flower shapes, leaves, dots, and Pink Flower Spiders. At first, I was just going to use a pink, yellow, green, and a background color for the design, but then chose to include a tangerine color. I'm glad I did include it, and love how the design turned out overall. It's bright, fun, pretty, and has spiders. I'm even thinking of doing coordinate prints for this design.

You can vote for your favorite Australia animal themed fabrics here until Wednesday. There are lots of fantastic entries, using both well known and lesser known animals as inspiration.


*Past Contest Results*
- Year of the Snake: Sea of Swirly Snakes 28/130

Retro Kitchen to Pomegranates

I have done several new prints (and a couple collections) since the rainbow hat pattern. I have the hat completed, but one of the colors didn't print correctly (it does now under the new color profile), so I am holding off on a post for it until I can do a new version of it. I may end up making a doll size version as a test. Here are my recent contest entries and their results.

* Retro Rainbow Hat: 35/42

* Range Cubes: 78/281

Fat quarter, 21" x 18" view shown. Click on image to see print in yardage.

This contest was for fabrics with a kitchen theme, in a retro style, and in a restricted color palette. Range Cubes is made up of stylized range coils and knobs, making a fun retro design. I really like how this print turned out, and think it would be perfect for potholders, oven mitts, aprons, and the like.

* Garden of Magic: 146/500

Fat quarter, 21" x 18" view shown. Click on image to see print in yardage.

This print was for the Hand Drawn contest, which drew a huge number of entries. Garden of Magic was inspired by one of my favorite childhood books, The Secret Garden. I drew flowers described as being in the garden, and colored them with oil pastels. I drew the pattern with a half drop, so minimal digital work was done (I did have to touch up the repeat a bit after scanning, but I did not digitally create the repeat).

* Parallelogram Trapezoid Stripe: 164/375

Fat quarter, 21" x 18" view shown. Click on image to see print in yardage.

Parallelogram Trapezoid Stripe was for the Geometric contest, which had a restricted color palette. I like the optical illusion this print creates. I also have it in other colors, but they are not available for purchase yet.

* Extinct Animal Crackers: 91/226

Fat quarter, 21" x 18" view shown. Click on image to see print in yardage.

This print is part of a collection that will receive its own post soon. Extinct Animal Crackers was for the Extinct Animals contest. This wasn't my first choice for the contest, but switched to this print to add some fun to the sad contest. I digitally drew several extinct animals in cookie form, and topped some cookies with icing and sprinkles. More details will be in the post for this collection.

* Starry Starry Stripes Grey: 108/328

Swatch 8" x 8" view shown. Click on image to see print in yardage.

Starry Starry Stripes Grey was for the Stars and Stripes contest theme. I also did this print in a red, white, and blue colorway, but decided to enter this greyscale version for the contest since I knew there would be a lot of red, white, and blue designs. I like how this print has an almost dainty feel in yardage. It's simple, but extremely useable.

* Hot Air Pomegranates: 148/290

Fat quarter, 21" x 18" view shown. Click on image to see print in yardage.

I went in a whimsical direction for the Pomegranates contest. I was looking at a sketch of a pomegranate and thought how much it looked like a hot air balloon. I decided to use the idea for this print, and love how it turned out.

All these fabric prints are available for purchase by clicking on their image (though not all their colorways are available for sale, if they have other colorways). The Retro Rainbow Hat is not available for sale yet, as I still have to fix it.

Jack O' Lantern Pillow/Plushie

This week's Fabric of the Week contest at Spoonflower is for Jack O Lantern pillow and/or plushie kits. My first idea sounded so much better in my head than on paper. It ended up looking like a Medusa pumpkin alien pillow. Not exactly what I had in mind. Somehow, that bizarre idea led to my refined contest entry. Here is my "Posh Pumpkin Pillow and Cube Kit":



You can view the kit by clicking the image above or clicking here. The kit includes an 18" pillow and two 4" cubes on one yard of quilting weight cotton. There is an extra 12" pillow on some of the wider fabrics. The pillow can be embellished with beading, French knots, or it can be tufted. The cubes can be used as decoration or toys. There are two different Jack O Lantern faces on the pillow, and six on the cubes (two of the cube faces are those on the pillow). The grey prints darker than pictured, and the orange prints as a burnt orange color.

It's hard to see the "stitched" detail on this kit, so I have some close ups of the faces on the pillow (and two cube sides). The first is a happy Jack O Lantern face:

The second is a happy vampire Jack O Lantern face:

You can vote for this week's fabric contest here at Spoonflower. There are not as many entries as the past few contests, but there are still a lot of great (and creative) kits. The contest unfortunately ends later today. I wanted to post this earlier, but life kind of got in the way a bit. (And fabric designs). To make up for that, there will be at least one more post today, and more this week.

Past contest result, Autumn contest: "Fall Flowers" placed 63/260. WOOHOO! Usually, my entries get lost in the big contests, and am happy to just place in the top half. I was really excited to see that number though. It's not top ten, but it's still the top 24%.

I talked about a knitting project last week that never got a post. It's happening today, after I take a picture I forgot about and upload them. Don't forget to vote for your favorite pumpkin pillow and plushie kits!

Is it fall yet?

As soon as I get excited about nice, cool, fall weather, the temperature mysteriously climbs up for a day or too. It's happened three times so far this year, so I hope fall will finally be here for good. I just finished a knitting project, perfect for cooler weather, that I will put in a post this week. I will do several posts this week to celebrate the start of fall.

This week's Spoonflower Fabric of the Week contest called for autumn inspired fabrics using no more than three colors plus white. It's another big contest, although not as large as last week's Bird themed contest. My entry is titled "Fall Flowers" (I couldn't think of anything else at the moment), and is a large scale repeating pattern.

My design is layers of giant flowers piled on top of each other. The flowers were originally stylized mum silhouettes of one color each. They needed more to them, so I gave the flowers some layers of their own. It's a bit different and busier than my usual designs, but I'm happy with the outcome. I think it would be perfect for a full circle skirt, coat or jacket lining, and pillows among other things. Here is a closer look at the design:




The current contest ends Wednesday evening and you can vote here at Spoonflower. I am actually working on doing a collection for this design, and having the designs in various seasonal colorways. I will release the current collections as soon as I have them complete and proofed and release the others later.

As I mentioned before, this week will have several posts perfect for fall. I have a sewing project, a knitting project, and a garment reconstruction project. I will also have some fun Halloween posts later, too.

Past contest result, Bird Contest: "Chic Birdie Bows" finished 214 out of 341.

Please check out the Autumn fabric entries and vote for your favorites! Also, check out Spoonflower for fun fabrics for fall, Halloween, and Christmas. You can never craft too early!