Spoonflower Shop Update

Last spring I posted about dipping my toes into fabric design on Spoonflower. I have a couple new designs in my shop to share with you. First, I received a request to design my Cloudy Day fabric with a light blue background...

My Cloudy Day design is now available in gray, teal, and light blue.

My second new design came about as the result of a recent Spoonflower contest. The theme was to design a "cut and sew" pencil pouch, so I decided to enter. Remember my pencil-shaped pencil pouch tutorial from two years ago? Well, I designed a fat quarter that easily recreates that pouch in record time with no piecing required...

The exterior and interior pieces are all there... all you need to do is cut them out and add some interfacing and a zipper! Here's the final product when it's all sewed up...

Over the past couple of months my designs have started selling! I now have proof that (my mother and I) I'm not the only person who likes my work... and that feels pretty good :)

Another Divided Easter Basket

Last week I told you I had another one of these divided baskets cut out to sew into a second Easter basket for my girls. This one is for my oldest...

Still loving Anna's basket pattern.

Since I used quilting cotton for my baskets, I went with Anna's recommendation to use both fusible interfacing (I used Craft Fuse 808) and fusible fleece on the exterior pieces of the basket. It really gives the basket a lot of body. Another tip... I had a really hard time finding white cotton webbing for the handles, so I used fabric paint to paint the "natural" colored webbing that I was able to find. It worked really well, so I may use fabric paint again on future basket handles to coordinate the webbing with the fabrics.

I absolutely love these Easter baskets! Can't wait to see them all filled up on Easter morning.

Fabrics: My designs... Available in my Spoonflower shop HERE.

My New Spoonflower Shop

Yesterday I mentioned that I designed all of the fabrics for my divided Easter basket project...

I've been studying and playing around with the idea of fabric design since last summer. At first I thought I wanted to carve stamps based on my sketches, but that has proven to be a very difficult process for me (with the exception of the tooth stamp I carved for my daughter's tooth fairy pillow). Spoonflower never really seemed like an option I was interested in... until I read the Heather Ross Prints book in January. Then I went back into all of the fabric design books I had amassed over the past 8 or 9 months...

and went through them with the goal of designing a little Spoonflower collection. (By the way, all of the books pictured above are excellent. I love them all for different reasons, but you really can't go wrong with any of them.) After fumbling my way through Photoshop Elements, lots of trial and error, and many late nights, I finally did it.

It's amazing to me that my little pencil sketch of a bunny has turned into this...

and this...

and this...

I also sketched a little cloud...

Then I put together a polka dot and a stripe pattern to round out the collection.

Its been a lot of work, but I have learned so much, and it's so rewarding when you get that fabric in your hands and know that it's all yours. If you've ever toyed with the idea of designing fabric on Spoonflower, go for it. It's so worth it!

I have a little Spoonflower shop set up now. If you're interested in any of my fabric designs, check it out :)

Divided Easter Basket

Have you seen Anna's (Noodlehead) new divided basket pattern? I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it. These baskets can be used for so many different things, and I have a feeling these will be my go-to gift this year. First, though, I decided to use the pattern to make Easter baskets for my girls...

I've always wanted to make Easter baskets, and this pattern is perfect for it. I only have one finished so far, but the other is cut out and ready to be sewn up, so it will show up here soon.

This pattern is such a brilliant design. I don't know how she ever figured out the divider, but it goes together so easily.

And they hold a lot! After cutting everything out and sewing it up, I was really surprised at how big this basket is. I absolutely love it!

What do you think of the fabric?

I had a hard time coming up with an Easter fabric that I liked, so... I designed some myself! Yes, I have entered the realm of Spoonflower, and there is no turning back :) I'm so pleased with how these fabrics turned out, especially my little hand-drawn bunnies. Every fabric on this basket is my design, and there are three other designs not pictured here that I can't wait to share with you. I'll be posting about my fabric tomorrow, but if you want to check out my designs now, you can visit them HERE in my Spoonflower shop (and if you're interested, the fabrics are for sale :)