Wednesday, May 4, 2016

First Vector Design

If you are tired of hearing about Spoonflower, then just go on your merry way.  If not, keep reading.  One of our parting gifts was a certificate for a free yard of any fabric with one of our own original designs printed on it.  This is a very nice present, but I am having a paralyzing creative block.  I want the design to be representative of the fabulous educational experience with Becka and Spoonflower and the other eleven students.  Even though I could always try again with another printed yard, this one needs to be special.  I think this happens a lot in the Maker world.  We leave quilt tops unquilted because we don't want to ruin it by imperfect quilting.  We are afraid to submit a design to a magazine because we feel it doesn't look as professional as other designs.  We buy stacks of fabrics but don't want to cut into them in case a better pattern comes along.  As with anything, the more you do something, the better you get at it.  You only get good by being mediocre a whole bunch of times.  So, I just need to work on an idea, decide on a fabric, upload, and push send.  It will be my first fabric that I designed using Illustrator.  It will be fabulous because it is my starting point, my diving board, into, hopefully, a big design pool of great vector fun.  Jerilynn

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Spoonflower Printed Fleece Fabric and a 4th Birthday Quilt








The Bow Tie project from last summer's Denver Wedding is still popping it's head up in various projects.  As I may have mentioned, after a few glasses of wine at the wedding, I decided it was a brilliant idea to take a picture of all the necks of the men wearing bow ties.  I cropped all of them into neat little rectangles, collaged them, and made a large canvas print for the grooms.  I titled it "They Tied the Knot".  When Spoonflower introduced their new poly-fleece fabric, I knew right away that the bow tie design would make a good one to print on fleece.  The fleece isn't a squishy Polartec weight, but it is a nice, very soft, thinner fleece.  Almost reminds me of a heavy German flannel weight.  I used it for the back of Addy's 4th birthday quilt that I made from her tees that she wore during her 4th year.  She was in the wedding last summer, so I thought it fitting that she has a reminder of that fun time.  She wasn't all that impressed when she opened the quilt - after all, I have made her tee quilts each year.  She will like all the quilts, someday, I hope.  She did, however, love the mermaid blanket that we also gave her! I would love to say that I made it, but crochet is painfully slow for me to do.  I don't think she'd want a mermaid blanket when she was 16!  I bought it on Etsy, from Littlepatchescrafts in Canada, and it is beautifully done!   You can see that it makes a great napping blanket!
While I was printing the bow ties, I thought that I would also make a fleece blanket for Ben.  Last summer his folks took a family vacation to Duluth, MN, and went to Canal Park and visited the lighthouse there.  I thought this picture of Ben was really cute, so I posterized it using the tutorial at photoshopcreative.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2877  .   Also turned out really well. 
This fabric doesn't ravel, so I just cut off the white borders, turned the edges under a bit, and zig-zagged in place.  One yard made a very nice 54" x 36" blanket. 

You can tell that I am a big fan of this printing-my-own-fabric!   Great fun.   Jerilynn