Spoonflower blog tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1648254 2009-11-10T12:26:04-05:00 News from Spoonflower about custom fabric printing, sewing, crafters and crafting. The official blog of Spoonflower.com, a service that prints custom fabric on-demand. TypePad Last few hours for voting in the doll panel finals! tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d8834012875703d80970c 2009-11-10T12:26:04-05:00 2009-11-10T12:26:04-05:00 If you haven't voted yet, please make sure to let us know which of the doll panel finalists is your favorite! The poll closes today at 6pm EST. Later this week you'll get a chance to vote on our Fish... Stephen

If you haven't voted yet, please make sure to let us know which of the doll panel finalists is your favorite! The poll closes today at 6pm EST.

Later this week you'll get a chance to vote on our Fish and Colors Fabric of the Week participants. Should be fun.

 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/11/last-few-hours-for-voting-in-the-doll-panel-finals.html Doll Panel Finals! Help Choose the Winner tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a6ac5fbc970c 2009-11-05T11:38:23-05:00 2009-11-08T18:10:45-05:00 Ok, we've chosen the top five designs from last week, printed them along with the top five designs from the week before, and it now gives us great pleasure to present the top ten finalists from our doll panel design... Stephen

Doll Panel Finalists - vote now for a winner

Ok, we've chosen the top five designs from last week, printed them along with the top five designs from the week before, and it now gives us great pleasure to present the top ten finalists from our doll panel design Fabric Of the Week contest. They are:

You can vote (once) here, and follow the results -- with a one hour delay -- here.

audey and pippin dolls by mytinystar on Flickr Thanks to everyone who participated. It's too bad we couldn't run the contest using photos of the completed dolls themselves, which were just fantastic. Do take a minute to check some of the great doll photos in the Spoonflower Flickr pool for examples (like Audry & Pippin here from MyTinyStar). See the previous blog entry for upcoming contests!

 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/11/doll-panel-finals-help-choose-the-winner.html Fall Craft Project: Create your own fabric using leaves - no Photoshop required tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a656cf27970b 2009-11-05T11:13:30-05:00 2009-11-05T11:13:30-05:00 People who are not familiar with design tools like Photoshop and Illustrator often ask me how they can go about creating fabric designs to print using Spoonflower. There are many approaches you can take, of course, but just for fun... Stephen

People who are not familiar with design tools like Photoshop and Illustrator often ask me how they can go about creating fabric designs to print using Spoonflower. There are many approaches you can take, of course, but just for fun I threw together this very short how-to video on making your own fabric design using a handful of colorful, fall leaves and a simple home office scanner.



 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/11/fall-fabric-craft-project.html More Themed Fabric Of the Week Contests: Calendars, Celestial Designs By Hand & Children's Clothing Patterns tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a656b8a2970b 2009-11-05T11:03:25-05:00 2009-11-05T10:57:22-05:00 Entries for the Fish and Colors contest closed on Monday with -- whew -- just under 80 entries. We plan to post all of those fabrics for voting next week, but in the meantime below is a short list of... Stephen

Entries for the Fish and Colors contest closed on Monday with -- whew -- just under 80 entries. We plan to post all of those fabrics for voting next week, but in the meantime below is a short list of upcoming themed Fabric of the Week contests, along with entry forms and deadlines. This will allow the ambitious among you to get started early. Please do keep in mind that we reserve the right to modify or clarify these guidelines as needed as the actual deadlines approach, so check the blog now and then for new notes. We'll probably also post one or two additional themes over the next weeks to fill in the gaps in our contest calendar.

Contest rules and Q&A can be found here.more about our contests

Calendars: Using no more than a fat quarter of quilting-weight fabric, design a hanging wall calendar for 2010. A fat quarter is 21 inches by 18 inches (53.3 cm x 45.7cm). Deadline is Monday, November 16, 2009 at noon EST. For inspiration, see these lovely calendars from the brilliant Michelle of Cicada Studio. [pls note that she did not print her calendars through Spoonflower, but used her own process] Entry form for calendars is HERE.

Celestial: Starting from a non-digital piece of art -- collage, painting or drawing -- create a fabric design with a celestial theme (stars, moon, sun, planets, clouds, winds, heavens). You can manipulate the design digitally in order to create the file you upload to Spoonflower, but the more non-digital the art, the better. We'll post an example on the blog soon for inspiration. Deadline is Monday, November 23, 2009, at noon EST. Entry form for Celestial is HERE.

Children's Clothing: Create a sewing pattern and design for an article of children's clothing that includes -- in one yard -- all the pieces, cut lines, seam allowances and short instructions printed directly on the fabric. This is obviously a tough one, but we know some of you are up to it. [Probably not a good one for folks not familiar with using vector art programs.] Deadline is Monday, December 14, 2009, at noon EST. Entry form for Children's Clothing theme is HERE.

 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/11/more-themed-fabric-of-the-week-contests.html Post your ideas for upcoming Fabric Of the Week contest themes! tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a64b87d8970b 2009-11-02T14:34:31-05:00 2009-11-02T14:34:31-05:00 Last time we solicited ideas for themes to use in our Fabric Of the Week contest, lots of folks weighed in with great suggestions. For the next couple of days, I'd love to open up the comment thread one more... Stephen
Last time we solicited ideas for themes to use in our Fabric Of the Week contest, lots of folks weighed in with great suggestions. For the next couple of days, I'd love to open up the comment thread one more time to see if we can gather even more good ideas. What do you think? What should our next contest theme consist of?
 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/11/post-your-ideas-for-upcoming-fabric-of-the-week-contest-themes.html Ready to vote again? Doll Panels, Round 2 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a688c3b5970c 2009-10-29T11:20:56-04:00 2009-10-29T11:20:56-04:00 Ok, after some good feedback on a flawed voting process last week, we've decided to experiment with the way we handle voting during weeks when we hold semifinal rounds. Instead of having to choose a single favorite design per page,... Stephen
Just a few of the 37 entries this week are pictured here

Ok, after some good feedback on a flawed voting process last week, we've decided to experiment with the way we handle voting during weeks when we hold semifinal rounds. Instead of having to choose a single favorite design per page, you can vote for as many -- or as few -- as you want. This week we've spread 37 designs over three pages, and on each page you can 'check' all the designs you really like and then move on to the next page. The vote totals will obviously be much higher, but everyone will get a chance to vote for designs they like without being forced to skip over one excellent design in favor of a slightly more excellent one. That's what the finals are for, right? We still plan to take the top five designs in the voting and run them against the top five from last week for the final round. Vote here.

The contestants in round two of our doll panel-themed fabric of the week contest are:

Heidi Crawford  dollpanel
Rochelle Hughes nancy_ann_drawing
Stephanie Faith This Doll Loves
Kim Niles Christmas Westie Doll Panels
mel latthitham bright owl
Tina Rose annabelle_doll
Jane Pierce aka zJayne Galley Girl
Chelsee Gobin  What a Doll ! - Happy/Sad
Michelle @ Wee Folk Art weefolkart-gnome-dolls-four-colors
Jean  img056
vo monkey_doll_all_tealsharpened
kismutt Little Geisha Girls
blueberryblonde Nurse Berry
Carrie Kirby Clementine thinking
connie kaiser Gingerbread Doll
susalabim doll_panel
Kim Timothy Nesting Dolls
Joan De Lurio stuffed vegetables: roots
Mochi Studios Ninja Beans Panel
Emily Hawke astronaut
Gretchen Schroeder Baby Saguaros
Kathy fronczak  Gnome_for_the_Holidays_Dolls
jackie the weebotts
TurquoiseCro Pink Rose
Cate Anevski The Pact Doll Panel
melanie hamilton catrinaFatQuarter
Dawn Huntington ChristmasBoggie
Jordan Perme wonderland_flip_doll
Star Primm audrey_and_pippin
Uptown_girl  Winter Dolly
Katy Tanis Teddy Bears of the World
Sarah Nussbaumer Cats in pajamas
Rosanna Bernstein Jazzy Jasmine Dolly from Japan
emily  ready for play
kari DollPattern
Aliza   Rich Doll Poor Doll
smilerecipe Kawaii Kokeshi

Good luck to all!

The top five vote-getters from last week, by the way, are listed below. These five doll panel designs will appear again next week in the final voting.

Jessee Maloney 'Robot Dolls'
apoo 4 little gnomes
Renule 'Dollpanel_triorio1'
Sylvia Ion Humpty_Shelf_Sitter
Gila von Meissner  14"/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls

And for those of you who pulling together costumes this weekend for yourselves or your little ones, have a happy Halloween.

 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/10/doll-panels-rd-2.html A new sewing obsession tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a62907ed970b 2009-10-28T12:27:40-04:00 2009-10-28T12:27:40-04:00 In the last 24 hours, I have become completely obsessed with sewing a zigzag quilt. It all started with a general feeling of bummed-ness that came on while reflecting that I am really not so good with the clothing sewing.... Kim

In the last 24 hours, I have become completely obsessed with sewing a zigzag quilt.  It all started with a general feeling of bummed-ness that came on while reflecting that I am really not so good with the clothing sewing.  Then came a little twinkling of re-interest in home-sewing projects. I start craving as much cozy as possible when the weather turns cool.  Shortly thereafter, dear Stephen picked me up a copy of Material Obsession which pictures quilts sewn with just the right mix of reproduction vintage fabrics and funky modern prints.  Then on to the Material Obsession blog--where I saw this beauty--and then on to the Flickr zigzag quilt pool.  (Is there a Flickr pool for everything?)  I'm totally smitten.

Lest you dismiss this quilt project because of all that triangle piecing, did you know that you can make one with strip-pieced square blocks sewn on point?  You can!  Amanda Jean from Crazy Mom Quilts offers a tutorial on Bee Square Quilts here!

 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/10/a-new-sewing-obsession.html Fabric Of the Week: Fish & Colors Theme - deadline Nov. 2 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5523f5f4d88340120a6789d84970c 2009-10-26T15:13:59-04:00 2009-10-26T15:13:59-04:00 When I posted about the upcoming Fabric Of the Week theme in our email last week, I made two mistakes: 1) The deadline for submitting your design is Monday, November 2, 2009 at noon, EST -- NOT November 5th, as... Stephen

Fish-contest-example When I posted about the upcoming Fabric Of the Week theme in our email last week, I made two mistakes:

1) The deadline for submitting your design is Monday, November 2, 2009 at noon, EST -- NOT November 5th, as I wrote in the email.

2) In addition to the prescribed palette of colors, I wrote initially that you could use only white. Upon further consideration, we decided that white AND black are both ok to use. Apologies for the late modification!

You can read more about the rules for entry and find the form to submit your Spoonflower design for the contest here. 

Due to widespread dissatisfaction with the voting methods used in recent semifinal rounds,  the upcoming voting this week will allow you to vote for as many -- or as few -- finalist candidates as you like in our doll panel design contest. So stay tuned!

 http://blog.spoonflower.com/2009/10/fabric-of-the-week-fish-colors-theme-deadline-nov-2.html