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

Year of the Snake (Fabric)

2013 is the Chinese Year of the Snake, and this week's Spoonflower Fabric of the Week Contest called for designs inspired by snakes. I originally wasn't going to enter this contest since snakes scare me a little. Then I did a bit of research on various snake breeds, and found the yellow-lipped and blue-lipped sea kraits. They look like something straight out of a Tim Burton film, and the yellow-lipped sea kraits reminded me of sandworms from Beetlejuice. These graphic sea snakes were the perfect inspiration for a fun design with some pop. Below is my entry, Sea of Swirly Snakes.

Sea of Swirly Snakes, shown at fat quarter 21"x18" view. Click on image to see repeat in yardage.

I created stylized versions of the sea kraits, and placed them on a teal background so that the blue-lipped sea kraits would almost blend in and the yellow-lipped sea kraits would give a graphic pop. The end result is a print that is fun and works well as a fabric. I think it would make fantastic clothing that people would possibly find pretty and terrifying. For some strange reason, that thought makes me happy.

You can vote for your favorite designs for Year of the Snake here at Spoonflower until Wednesday. There are not as many entries as there have been in previous weeks, but there is still a wide variety of styles in the contest.

*Past Contest Result*
-Snowflakes: Space Age Snowflakes 241/320