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.

20 ways to doodle- mini book review

During my course I was very lucky to win a copy of 20 ways to draw a doodle.  Well last week it arrive in the post, attractively packaged in one of  Rachaels gift wrap designs.

  Rachael has chosen 45 themes as a launch point  to doodling.  You could ask why would you need a book to teach you how to doodle but then your missing the point.  It a beautiful reference guide to many different styles of doodling. I know that when I'm just doodling I always fall into similar themes and styles.

The book also encourages the use of different media to get different effects and most importantly to keep your work and refer back to it for inspiration.  I have found it useful to flick through until something catches my eye and then use this as a place to start. Thank you Rachael for the book I know I will be referring to this a lot in my designing.

Sewing Notions

This week I entered the Spoonflower Contest. The brief asked for a design on the theme of sewing notions.  This is something I love as when I'm not designing I am dressmaking.  This contest was a bit different from the usual as it required not one but four designs set up as fat quarters shown as a yard.  Perfect really as this contest has a guest judge Denyse Schmidt and the top 10 will be featured in Love Patchwork & Quilting!

Voting is open now so please follow the link and vote for your favourites.

June already

This past month I entered two competitions.  The Tigerprint monthly competition with the theme Kids Character   and Spoonflower's annual Fabric8 competition.

For Tigerprint the brief asked for a birthday card design for an 8-12 year old boy or girl.  It needed to be age appropriate and to appeal to the adults buying the card.  The most important part of this process for me was the research.  I am really new to greetings card design so I really looked into what was about.  I was really surprised of the lack of boys birthday cards for this age group.  Most boys birthday cards were images based upon toys or cartoons.  I also tried out some new techniques and styles.  I think my favourite is the camping.  

The second competition was the Spoonflower & Robert Kaufman competition Fabric8, this is an annual competition for new and emerging designers. The prizes are really cool, with the winner getting a contract to design a fabric collection for Robert Kaufman Fabrics.  This years theme was Cosmic Voyage.  I wanted to go for a mid century modern cats is space feel.  I also think I will be making a dress with this material as I really think the colours will work well.  I am waiting for the swatch to come and then this will be up for sale soon.

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.

lets make patterns all day, everyday

Week 4 of the pattern design course (ABSPD) has been and gone and it was so much fun.  As you know I love patterns so taking in what I have done in week 1-3 I started making some patterns.  My work to date has been very much unlayered so I found layering quite difficult.  Placing a motif over another and hiding its prettiness seemed wrong, so imagine my surprise when the designs actually looked so much better when layered - seems so obvious now but my designs were really lacking this.  More layering in the future for sure.

We had some really cool and informative tips from the very awesome Marie Perkins, of Print & Pattern fame,  I am such a fan of her blog and try to read it everyday to stay up to date with current trends. We also started to think about describing  our own work.  This was tricky but will get easier as I create a large body of work.

We ended the week with a scarf project themed celebration.  I thought I would try something a bit different so went with a Mardi Gras theme using green, gold and purple as my pallette.  I know the edging is wrong.  Shhh dont tell anyone I'm sure they wont notice.

I also entered a competition run by the lovely ladies at By Hand London.  My design was not shortlisted this time but I am still really proud of it