Winter Wrap Up

This post will be a summary of some projects and designs from this past winter. It's officially spring; when did THAT happen? (I know it was yesterday, but where did the time go)? Well, I will try my best to get back to regular posting. Starting with this post.

1. Cookie Advent Calendar found here at Spoonflower.

I designed this Advent Calendar for the Spoonflower Advent Calendar contest. The yard sized kit includes cookies, oven mitt (not pictured), cookie sheet, and instructions. I used hook and loop tape to attach the cookies to the cookie sheet. I also put a piece of board inside the cookie sheet (left the top open then sewed it shut) to add some stability to it. The idea is that the oven mitt (I will add pictures of it to this post later; I thought I had a good picture of it) holds the cookies until they are needed for the countdown. I did make a few changes after getting my fabric and making it. The "7" heart cookie wasn't the right red I used and I changed the "1" and "13" to black since the white didn't show up well against the yellow. "Cookie Advent Calendar" finished 9th, and was my second time making the Top Ten.

2. Road Trip Collection. Complete collection can be found here at Spoonflower.

Printed swatches of the current collection

My "Road Trip Coordinates Sampler" placed 170/200 in the Coordinates Contest at Spoonflower. There were a lot of great collections! I'm really happy with how the designs printed. I do have another stripe that I will add to the collection, but it will but solid colors. I'm really happy with Film Strip Stripe. It actually lines up with 35mm film, frames and perforations! (Well, the film I compared it to wasn't Kodak, so the perforations didn't line up at a certain point, but I'm sure it would line up exactly with other film). I still have ideas for two more prints, but haven't started them yet. They will eventually be added to the collection.

3. Contest results!
* Evergreens- Retro Evergreens 108/149
* Coordinates- Road Trip Coordinate Sampler 170/200
* Cityscape- St. Louis Skyline Border Print 57/180
* Art Deco- Deco Geometric Teal Medium 136/275
* Jellyfish- Dangerous Beauty 69/226
* Bicycle- Simple Bicycles Green 65/199

I am working on two contest entries right now. One is a kit, and will have new coordinating prints. The other is a print being done is a style I haven't done before. So far, so good. I will have an easy project in an upcoming post.

Collection Sampler: Road Trip!

Wow, I've been away for a long time! I will do a post on a couple of my past contest entries, complete with pictures of a finished project I designed. (The project post is a bit late, since it was Christmas related, but it's fun and it's never too early to think about later this year. Right? I still can't believe it's 2012). But first, is my current contest entry, and a new collection.

My new collection Road Trip was inspired by a trip on a section of Route 66. It includes things you would see or bring on a trip, such as neon lights, luggage, sunglasses, and film (not anymore though). I plan on adding a few more prints to the collection. Until then, here is the collection so far.

Click on the image to see it in detail.

This is my contest entry for the current Fabric of the Week Contest: Coordinates at Spoonflower. You can vote for the contest here until Wednesday evening when voting ends. The Coordinates Contest was for a one yard image that included four coordinating fabrics. One of the fabrics had to be a stripe and one fabric had to be a dot of some sort. It's really interesting to see all the mini collections and the wide variety of subjects, color themes, and pattern choices.

My coordinate sampler includes Film Strip Stripe: Small, which is half the scale of my Film Strip Stripe found here. The Film Strip Stripe is a vertical stripe print made up of strips of film negatives and are the exact size as actual negatives. Once I get my samples, I can test actual film negatives against the fabric to see if the perforations match up.

Film Strip Stripe: Small. Click image to see it in repeat.

The large scale print for the sampler is Sunglasses Outline. It is a 4-way print made up of various types of sunglasses. The shades all are about 4" wide. The outlines of the sunglasses are in varying thicknesses. I also have a half scale version of this print, better suited for smaller craft and sewing projects. Sunglasses Outline Half scale can be found here. Sunglasses Outline is my favorite print of the collection. I think it would make an awesome circle skirt or summer dress.

Sunglasses Outline. Click image to see it in repeat.

Pink Luggage Ditsy is the small scale print for the sampler. It is a ditsy print, which is typically a smaller 4-way/scatter print. Luggage in retro shapes are scattered in various colors on the print. The same print is also available in a blue colorway, Blue Luggage Ditsy, which is available here.

Pink Luggage Ditsy. Click on image to see it in repeat.

Last is my dot print for the sampler, Neon Dots: Night. The dots are similar to how circles are done in neon form. The colors pop against the black background, and look very bright, but are actually the same colors used throughout the collection. I also have a dot version on a white background, Neon Dots: Day, which can be found here. For the Day version, I made the white neon grey in color. It's neat to see how muted the colors look on the white background, even though the colors (excluding grey) are the same as on the Night version.

Neon Dots: Night. Click on image to see it in repeat.

You can see the entire collection here, but I will be adding more prints eventually. My next post will be a sort of Winter/Holiday wrap up, complete with two contest entries and project photos. Until then, please vote for the current Spoonflower fabric contest, and check out the talented designers there.

Ornament Kits

My postings stopped for a bit because of massive computer problems. My computer is back to normal (hopefully it will stay that way), and now it's posting time! I have several posts to do, ranging from an easy art project to items for Christmas. First up are two ornament sets I designed.

I designed my pop bot ornament set using traditional ornament shapes and filling the shapes with prints from my pop bot collection (click the link to see the prints). Here is the complete set:




The set includes 8 ornaments on a fat quarter of quilting cotton, and 10 ornaments on wider fabrics. It's also designed to print one ornament on a swatch sized piece of fabric. That ornament was entered in the Swatch Ornament Fabric of the Week Contest at Spoonflower, where it placed 60th out of 124 entries.

I decided to make this ornament 3-D, and filled it with polyfill. I hand stitched the ornament, and made sure to trim the seam allowance at the bottom point and at the top corners before turning it right side out and filling it with polyfill.

I think this ornament (and the others in the set) is a fun alternative to the normal holiday ornaments, and could even be used as non-holiday decor, too, for bunting or even sachets. Here it is finished on one side:

And here is the other side of the ornament:

I also made a holiday penguin ornament set featuring mini versions of my penguin stocking decked out in holiday accessories. I designed the layout for this set just like the pop bot ornament set. There is one ornament on a swatch of fabric, 8 ornaments on a fat quarter of quilting weight cotton, and 10 ornaments on wider fabrics such as linen-cotton canvas and upholstery weight twill.




Here is the printed swatch (on quilting weight cotton):

For the penguin ornament, I decided to go the 2-D route, and used a double sided interfacing for it. You can find it at most fabric stores under the name Innerfuse. (It's available in medium and heavy weight; I used the medium weight for this project). Here is the ornament after ironing it to the Innerfuse:

Front

Back

I then sewed a satin stitch around the edges of the ornament with my sewing machine, but you could probably do a blanket stitch by hand instead. (I would trim just inside the dotted line to make sure it doesn't show when you do your stitching). I punched the ornament at the top of the hat with an awl to make a hole for the ribbon. Here is the finished penguin ornament:

You can also make a flat ornament by using batting instead of Innerfuse. I used it since I had some already,  and wanted to do an easy method with little sewing. Here is a bonus shot of both ornaments:

You can find the ornament sets by clicking on some of the links above, or by going here for the pop bot ornament set or here for the holiday penguin set. Both ornament sets have full instructions on them (for making 3-D ornaments). You may have to alter the instructions for flat ornaments, but can use the above penguin ornament as a guide. I plan on making the full sets of each soon. You can always click on the Fabric Shop tab at the top to go straight to my Spoonflower shop.

I am currently working on an entry for the advent calendar contest at Spoonflower. I will also be writing some more posts, and putting them up soon.

Past Contest Result
Root Vegetables: Sliced Dots : Earth : 60/181.