Herb Garden

This weeks Spoonflower contest is all about the herb garden.  I have always loved growing herbs since i picked up a book on traditional herb gardens when I was in high school.Chives, basil, sage and rosemary have always featured in my garden and my front garden is full of lavender.

  But more recently I have been interested in herbal teas. Camomile and Honey being one of my favourites.  It is with this in mind that I produced the pattern below. If you like it you can vote for it here.  It will also be made for sale soon and in two other colour ways - chic yellow and grey and a serene blue and green

Also - Summer School starts this week.  There are three different levels from beginner , intermediate and advanced .  Each will have a new brief every two weeks.  It going to be lots of fun.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how everyone interprets the themes.  Summer school lasts for 6 weeks and is completely free.  If you haven't signed up yet follow this link and I will see you there.

Exciting times

Firstly a big thank you to you.

Thank you for all the encouraging comments and support I have been receiving.  If you want to you can also contact me through Facebook.  (I will have my social media buttons up and running soon.)  In the meantime, follow the link and say hello.  If you like my page you will the first to hear about further instalments from the blog along with other news.

Why not Rhino's?

Spoonflower last week was all about fishing lures - well not feeling too inspired I gave that one a miss.  Others however came up with some stunning designs. Which can still be seen on the front page. This week it is all about rhinos.  Safari themed prints commonly have elephants and lions but its not that often that you see a rhino.  However, there are herds of them at Spoonflower this week including my own design. I wanted to create a design which had scenes, was fun and vibrant and could be used for the quilting market.

A bit of coordination

I wanted to show some fabric samples of this design.  I am UK based so my Spoonflower samples will take a while to travel from USA but I have had some made up at the UK fabric printers, Print me Pretty and what's really great is that because the samples came out so well, they have now been made available to buy. If you are based in the UK, this is brilliant as it is much faster and there is no chance of the customs import charges. They are currently available in two types of cotton . I also created two coordinates and all three are now available.  I hope to have two further colour ways available soon both on Spoonflower and Print me Pretty.

Voting
There is still a little time to vote. So I advise you head over there and share some love to these beautiful creatures.  If you are not into crafting but still would like this design head over to Society6 where I have made it available on some different products.  My favourite is the bag.

Fabric8

On Friday the 8 finalists of the Spoonflower/Kaufman Fabric8 competition unveil their coordinating designs and we get to vote this year winner.  I would definitely recommend checking them out as these are some very talented designers and I'm personally looking forward to see how they develop their designs.

Its not over, it's just the beginning

So week 5 and the final week of the brilliant Module 1 of the course.  Firstly a very big thank you to Rachael Taylor and Beth Kempton for producing and developing such an amazing, inspirational and supportive course.  I have had so much fun on the course  (The art and business of surface pattern design) and it has really made me think about the possibilities ahead.  Exciting times.

Secondly the course would not have been half as much fun if it hadn't been for the fabulously talented Facebook group who I  enjoyed the course with,  thank you to anyone who has liked or commented on a post, pattern or idea that I put out there.  You have helped me to be brave.  I also look forward to following your progress and seeing where your journey takes you.


I started with the idea of coordinates for main design and other places to put surface pattern onto.  The presentation sheet below actually took far longer than I expected but I am pleased with the way it came out.

We then discussed branding and logo,  This has, I will be honest with you, completely scared me.  I think it is far easier to create a brand for someone else than for myself.  This will be an ongoing project I feel and definitely not to be rushed but you may notice in the next few week some changes to the blog and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram pages as I play around with some ideas. Be pre-warned of scary uses of typography and colour choice ahead.  Also I am aware that I need to add some linking buttons to my blog too for now I can be found at these links above.  Busy times.

Next came technical repeats and Checks which I will hold my hands up and say I haven't quite finished.

And finished  Characters.  This is Painting Mouse.  She is my first character... ever!!

Module 2 will start soon so in the mean time I hope to produce some designs to add to my Spoonflower shop.  Will let you know when they are up and ready.

I also entered the lastest Tigerprint competition.. April 2014 was to design a floral Mothers Day Cards.  Wish me luck.

wow busy week so three posts

I didn't mention that this weeks spoonflower contest has an anti-Valentines day theme.  Not only was you asked to create that expresses some Anti-Valentine's Day sentiments but also a design styled after a traditional cross stitch .

I went for a traditional colour palette of pinks and purples with heart motifs.

I'm really happy with how this turned out - If you like it please vote for it here

Year of the horse

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, Spoonflower asked for designs styled like a traditional Chinese paper cutting, using red and white only.  It is the year of the horse so I incorporated this into my design. I also tried to keep it a continuous design to keep the style of a design cut from a piece of paper so no floating elements.  I took inspiration from design elements in traditional papercuts.  Please vote for it here

Bright Coral

New fabric design for this week Spoonflower contest.   I went for a simple layout with nice bright colours.  The theme was Great Barrier Reef in celebration of Australia Day on January 26th .  I had considered a dark green and gold yellow design but the reef is famous for the bright colours so seemed wrong not to acknowledge them.  I thought about adding turtles, fish and other marine organisms but felt that the coral should be the star of the show.  I also think that, as a simple design, it would work better as a dressmaking fabric too.  Please vote here if you love this design.

In other news this week I have used this design to open a society6 shop.  This means that this design can be bought in a range of ways from throw pillows to tote bags and phone/ipad skins.  My favorite though is the note cards as I love all things stationery.

Available from my shop http://society6.com/sarahpricedesigns

First Fabric Design for sale

Exciting news this week with my first swatch coming back from Spoonflower.  I'm based in the UK and with the Thanksgiving/Christmas postal service had expected this to be really delayed, as it has to come all the way from Durham, North Carolina in the USA, that's 3874 miles if your interested in such geekery.  Well it was ordered on the 19th November and got to me on the 13th December so not too bad.

So what does it look like...

Well its called Mittens and Christmas Trees and I chose a vintage/traditional colour scheme. 

It feels great to have my first design made up and also available for other people to buy, however with the timing (having missed the Christmas 2013 market) I'm not convinced that there will be many sales.  Still 100% successful as I wanted to try out the process in preparation for future designs.  I was really impressed with the quality of the printing and the fabric. 

There will definitely more designs available on Spoonflower soon as I am currently preparing a 30 swatch bundle for spring.  I look forward to sharing with you once they become available.

My next post will be after the big day so I wish you all a very merry and peaceful Christmas.