Large Mermaid Dollie Doll Plushie

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry featuring a mermaid dollie doll plushie I'd made for my youngest granddaughter.  The design is by Amy_G on Spoonflower.  I liked that design so much and my granddaughter loved her new dollie.  I asked Amy if she could size the mermaid to a yard's worth of fabric so that I could make a larger mermaid for my five year old granddaughter.  Amy did!  Here's a picture of the Large Mermaid Dollie Doll Plushie along with the original Mermaid Dollie Doll Plushie. (I bought another fat quarter with the original design. I'm going to tell my granddaughter that they are sisters.)

 A wonderful thing about Spoonflower is that the designers that you will find there are willing to resize a design if you ask.   There are links to both of the doll patterns posted above.  You need to look at Amy's pictures of the mermaids she has made with these patterns.  She really glams them up.

I also would like to point out that one of the reasons I felt okay about giving a mermaid to my youngest granddaughter who is one and still puts everything in her mouth is that all the design is on the doll itself.  There is nothing extra added -- no small pieces -- it's all in the art work.  The fabric is organic and the ink is water-based and eco friendly.  No added chemicals.

So original artwork printed on organic fabric with water based, eco friendly inks and dyes.  Doesn't get better than that.  Spoonflower . . . check it out!

Little Toy Airplanes

During Spoonflower's recent 2 for 1 fat quarter sale, I  kind of went nuts buying fat quarters of some of my favorite designs on Spoonflower.  One design I purchased a fat quarter of was "Little Toy Airplanes."  This design was created by a Spoonflower designer by the name of Tara McGowan.  She has many wonderful designs in her Spoonflower shop, artreedesigns. 

In addition to her fabric designs, Tara also writes and illustrates children's books.  One of her books, "It's a Full Moon Tonight," is illustrated with illustrations from Tara's fabric design.  It's a wonderful children's book.  My youngest grandson is going to receive a pillow made with "Little Toy Airplanes" printed on Spoonflower Kona cotton and the book, "It's a Full Moon Tonight," as a holiday gift.

Here are a couple of pictures of the pillow and the book:

The reverse side of the pillow is a section of a baby blanket of my youngest grandson's.  The colors coordinated with "Little Toy Airplanes" which was a happy accident.

Spoonflower Gift Wrap is here

Yesterday evening FedEx came rolling into the driveway.   Our cats scrambled for cover. The sheep baaaad and baaad.   Buster, our dog, barked excitedly.  So did I.  Well, that last sentence isn't true, but I was excited because I knew it was the Spoonflower gift wrap.

A wrapped birthday gift for one of my grandsons.  This design may be viewed at my shop on Spoonflower.  In addition to gift wrap, this design is also available as fabric and wallpaper.

I initially ordered four rolls of Spoonflower gift wrap.  Each roll was in a plastic sleeve inside a long square box.  The four boxes were strapped together.

In one of my previous posts, I stated I thought the gift wrap was a bit pricey, but since actually working with it, this is $15 gift wrap.  It is fairly thick and has a slight gloss to it.  Colors print well on the gift wrap.  When shopping online at Spoonflower, what one sees on the computer monitor is what one will receive. Just click on the gift wrap button and look at the preview.  The gift wrap will look exactly like the preview you see on the computer monitor.

I love paper and once I held the gift wrap in my hands, I started thinking about other things that could be done with the gift wrap.  One is limited only by the imagination.  Of course, the easiest thing to do, after wrapping a gift, is to make an envelope.  The link below will take you to my photostream on Flickr where I've posted a brief clip on how to make an envelope from Spoonflower Gift Wrap.

How to make an envelope from Spoonflower Gift Wrap

One Spoonflower designer has done a design featuring different styles of picture frames on a white background.  This kind of design on gift wrap or even wall paper brings a host of ideas to mind.  A child could use it to post his or her favorite stickers, it could even be used as a table runner at family gatherings.  People could doodle within the frames while they visit.

Another Spoonflower designer has done a beautiful design in red and gold which lends itself well to the holiday season. 

And if you want to test your children's reading abilities, see if they notice this design wrapped around their gift. 

All kinds of designs are on Spoonflower.  If you don't believe me, think of a design you would like to see on fabric and type in the word on Spoonflower's search box.  Something will come up and the design will be on fabric, wallpaper, decals, and now gift wrap.  How cool is that?

Spoonflower is selling gift wrap paper designed by indie designers!

Yesterday afternoon, as I was looking at designs on Spoonflower, I noticed a small package option down on the right hand side of the viewing window.  "Special Holiday Item.  Buy this design on Gift Wrap."  I clicked and there was one of my designs made viewable as gift wrap!  Oh, the excitement.  I looked through my designs and decided on four designs that would work as gift wrap all through the year, not for just the holiday season.  The wrapping paper is a little pricey at $15 a roll but you get a generous amount of gift wrap: 36" wide by 6 feet long.  Plus it's a little pricey because either you design your own wrapping paper or you can choose one of the wonderful designs available through indie designers on Spoonflower.

Here is one of my designs that can be purchased as gift wrap paper: "Happy Birthday to You!"  All of my designs on sale in my  shop can be purchased as gift wrap. 

Now, for the holiday season, you have the option of purchasing fabric to make gift bags or buying wrapping paper with designs that won't be found anywhere else except Spoonflower!

 

Halloween is coming!

Spoonflower is a great place to shop for unique designs printed on fabric, wallpaper, and decals.  I've purchased fabric with designs created by women in Canada, Australia, and in the USA, Texas, California, and Wisconsin. 

Halloween is coming and I have 6 grandchildren.  For this upcoming Halloween season, I made six book bags from fabric designed by a lady in Canada and one mermaid dollie doll and five treat bags from fabrics designed by a lady in California.  Three of the book bags, two of the treat bags, and one Mermaid Dollie Doll are shown below.

The fabric for the book bags can be viewed in Bluevelvet's Spoonflower shop

Amy_G's designs "Skully Spider" and "Mermaid Dollie Doll" can be found on Spoonflower also.

Spoonflower -- check it out.

"Only the Cat Saw" Quilted!

 "ONLY THE CAT SAW"

Zigzag cheater quilt design by Deborah Astley, printed on
Spoonflower Kona cotton, and quilted by Gail Bush and her
crew at Quilts by Gail in Chickasha, OK.
 

My entry in Spoonflower's last cheater quilt contest, which featured zigzags, was "Only the Cat Saw."  My design used casual zigzags taken from my "Blue River Stalactites" design and from the colors used in my "Circus Sky" collection, both on Spoonflower.  I ordered one yard of "Only the Cat Saw" and one yard of "Blue River Stalactites" both printed on Spoonflower Kona cotton.

I decided that, even though in my little dream world in which I live half of the time where all things get completed and come out looking great, I would take these two yards of fabric to a quilt shop in downtown Chickasha, Oklahoma, and see if maybe the ladies there would do the quilt for me so I could give it to my youngest granddaughter.

Chickasha is a small city about 26 miles to the north of us.  It's home to a wonderful liberal arts university, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, from which our two children graduated.  The university is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In downtown Chickasha, in the old Petroleum building, (constructed in 1907 -- the year of Oklahoma's statehood) on the corner of Fourth Street and Chickasha Avenue, is a quilt shop on the second floor:  Quilts by Gail.   More about her shop can be found here.  More current information about Gail's shop along with a picture of "Only the Cat Saw" can be found on Facebook.

The quilt shop had a hushed silence because of all of the beautiful bolts of cloth lining the walls and filling the floor space.   Also covering the walls were completed quilts, quilts that took my breath away and made my mouth drop open so that I looked quite the fool.

I showed Gail, the owner of the shop, my two yards of fabric and asked if her shop would make a crib quilt for me.  I know nothing about quilts, just that they are beautiful works of art which are also useful, which adds another layer of beauty to them.  Gail explained that the backing for the quilt needs to be larger than the front piece.  I had brought her two equal pieces of cloth.  So we looked for a trim fabric for the quilt.  I chose a bluish gray random stripe pattern for the binding - I felt it went along with the zigzag theme of the quilt.  Then Gail got out three large binders of quilting patterns to thumb through.  We finally decided on a random quilt pattern with geometric shapes.  Gail said light gray thread would probably work the best with my design.   I chose a lightweight 80/20 batting.

I also told her about Spoonflower.  She had never heard of Spoonflower.  When I write a proper thank you note to her, I will include my card which has Spoonflower's web address printed on it.

Yesterday morning the phone call came.  The quilt was ready.  Oh, I was so excited.  The young  woman I had talked to the first time I visited approached me with a big smile and the quilt.  She had done the binding.  The quilt turned out wonderfully.

Here is what I learned about the quilting process:  quilting fabric gives it life.  There is a design on the fabric, but the quilting factor adds another dimension, and the fabric design is enhanced.

So, to all you quilters out there, my hat is off to you.  What talent.

The Mermaid and the Grumpy Old Moon

Sometimes when I'm photographing a finished project or fabric or wallpaper swatches, a story will start building as I click, click, click, focusing on the images.  That very thing happened this afternoon when I was photographing Ms. Mermaid Dollie Doll, a cut and sew fabric design by Amy_G on Spoonflower.

So, here's the story about the Mermaid and the Grumpy Old Moon.


Every month, when the moon was in his waning phase, he would grow sad and grumpy because soon he knew no one would notice him.  To human eyes, he disappeared from the night sky.  Really it was the Earth's fault, blocking him like that.  The humans noticed him shrinking smaller and smaller until he seemed to have disappeared.

To make  him feel better, Ms Mermaid Dollie Doll would wave to the moon and he would reach down and pick her up and place her in the night sky next to him and they would talk the night away.

Ms. Mermaid Dollie Doll would tell the moon about the latest news from the depths of the oceans. And the moon would tell Ms. Mermaid Dollie Doll about the odd things he had witnessed from the night sky and there were plenty.

After the visit was over, the moon would gently place Ms. Mermaid Dollie Doll back in the ocean and she would swim away.  And the moon would rise back into the night sky knowing that at least someone would remember him when he did his monthly disappearance.

What attracts me to designs on Spoonflower

People are funny, yes, we are!  Some of us want everything just so -- colors must match in a pleasing manner, things must line up correctly.  Some of us don't care.  We are attracted to a specific design for no other reason other than that we like that design or the colors used in the design.  The design does not have to coordinate with anything else.  We appreciate it for what it is: creativity, art, an expression of an individual.

On Spoonflower, though, there is another reason I like specific designs.  If there is a story that goes along with the design or if that particular design has a unique name, I am hooked.  I'm a lover of words and stories.  If a designer takes the time to pick a unique name for his or her design or if there is a story that goes with the design, you've got me.

Spoonflower is full of talented designers.  What I like best about Spoonflower, though, is that if one browses through the designs and takes the time to read the specifics of each design, then maybe click on the designer's name and read what the designer wants to share about himself or herself, that knowledge adds another dimension to the design.

Spoonflower is one of the easiest web sites to use that I've come across.  There is a wonderful blog that has instructions about how to prepare files for uploading.  Rarely have I had a problem with my shop.  When I do, I shoot an email to Spoonflower and receive help within 24 hours. 

Signing up is free.  How many on-line sites are free anymore?  A designer can upload an unlimited number of designs.  There is a size limitation to the file: 40 MB, but, hey, how big does a file really need to be.

And there are weekly contests. What I like about contests is the challenge.  

Also, a designer gets a designer's discount when purchasing one's own designs.  And, now, in addition to fabric, there is wonderful wallpaper and decals.

Spoonflower -- check it out.

Wallpaper on Spoonflower

My maternal grandparents owned a paint and wallpaper store in Miami, Oklahoma in the 1950s and 1960s.  The introduction of wallpaper on Spoonflower has brought back a lot of memories for me.
I used to spend summers with my grandparents and everyday, except Sundays, we'd go to Davis Paint Store and spend the day.

One wall of  the store was covered with storage bins.  There were flaps over each of the bins, each flap covered with a different design of wallpaper.  Inside each of these bins were rolls of wallpaper matching whatever design was on the outside flap.  I'd lift the flaps and stare in at all the rolls of wallpaper.  I enjoyed looking at the different designs and feeling the textures of each design.

There was a tall wooden cart with wheels that had a large ball of twine.  When a customer came in to look at wallpaper and then make a choice, my grandfather loaded the rolls up on that cart and pushed the cart to the checkout counter.   If there were several rolls of wallpaper, my grandfather bundled them with the twine from the cart.

I particularly enjoyed it when someone would come in to buy a gallon of paint.  Then I could watch the can of paint shake up and down and all around.  It was a simpler time then.  No television, just a radio.  No cell phones, hand held games.  The only game I played on those hot summer days was tic-tac-toe with my grandmother. She and I would sit out front and mind the store while my grandfather rested at noon on a cot in the back of the store. 

It occurred to me the other day that that wall of different wallpaper designs that was inside my grandparents' paint and wallpaper store had been recreated in my "Fear of Commitment" half bath and laundry room.  It's covered with different swatches of Spoonflower wallpaper.  Here's a picture:

The wall is covered with Spoonflower wallpaper swatches of some of my designs.

 

The window is curtained with a hemmed and trimmed piece of fabric showing swatches from one of my Spoonflower design collections.

My fear of commitment to wallpaper comes from an incident when I was growing up.  My parents had wallpaper in every room of their 1950s ranch style house.  At some point, my parents decided they would rather have paint.  What followed afterward should never be experienced by young children.  Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth as water was sprayed on the walls to loosen the  wallpaper paste so that the wallpaper could be scraped off!

But, make note, Spoonflower's wallpaper is not like the wallpaper of old.  It is so simple to put up and even simpler to remove. The texture is lovely and the colors in all the varied designs are rich and vivid.

Check  out Spoonflower  and their new wallpaper and decal designs. 

Wallpaper and Decals too!

In addition to fabric, Spoonflower announced this morning that it will begin printing wallpaper and decals  using indie designers' designs.  This is exciting news.  I had the opportunity to try out the wallpaper and I ordered swatches of several of my fabric designs to see how they looked on wallpaper.  Fantastic.

Spoonflower's printing process picks up all the color and detail that a designer puts into his or her design.  There is a visible richness and depth to the design when printed on wallpaper.

The surface of the wallpaper is smooth and just slightly -- very slightly glossy -- actually I would call it a "glossy matte" which I know is a contradiction.    

Here are two photos  of my design, Blue River Stalactites printed on Spoonflower Kona cotton and printed on a swatch of Spoonflower wallpaper:

I am afraid of wallpaper, commitment phobe that I am. I took one swatch and applied it to one of my walls.  The surface of the wall was very slightly textured.  The paper is easy to work with and easy to apply.  I left the swatch on for five days.  On the fifth day I removed it.  The wallpaper is easy to put on and easy to remove.  There is a brief video shot of my hand removing the wallpaper in the video above..

As Spoonflower says, the wallpaper is great for people who rent their homes, apartments, duplexes, etc. 

Spoonflower is an easy web site to work with.  Setting up your home page and shop is fairly simple.  If you have questions, there are lots of other designers to answer your questions or you can contact Spoonflower directly.  Spoonflower posts regularly to its blog and  there are lots of answers to common questions posted there.

There is no fee to join.  You can upload a design and see what it will look like in fabric, wallpaper or a decal for free.  Your designs will need to be proofed before they can be put up for sale which does involve money but Spoonflower tells you about creating collections so that the proof swatches will be as inexpensive as possible. And, if one of your designs sells, even if it is just a swatch, you will receive ten percent of the sale in Spoondollars which can be applied to your purchases of fabric or wallpaper. 

If  you have ever thought about designing your own fabric or wallpaper, give Spoonflower a try.  Spoonflower . . . what a concept!

My "Make Me Laugh" Throw Pillow

There are two designers on Spoonflower: Amy_G and Whimzwhirled.  Each designer has her own distinctive style and they both produced designs that made me laugh out loud.  So I decided to sew a "Make Me Laugh" Pillow.

For one side, I chose a fat quarter of Amy_G's "Flying Tin Cans brought to you by Can-Do Airlines!"  printed on Spoonflower Kona cotton.  Here's a pic:

For the other side of my "Make Me Laugh" Pillow I chose Whimzwhirled's "Pick Me" design in a fat quarter of Spoonflower Kona cotton.

Look at that frog.

Lots of talented designers on Spoonflower.  Take a look.

Designing your own font

I was doing my usual "lurking" in the Spoonflower-Flickr Fabric Design discussion group.  I always learn something new.  Spoonflower has an upcoming contest which involves designing a calendar for 2013.  Fonts came into discussion.  I knew someone designed those fonts that are available in the different software programs that we use on our computers.  I was not aware, though, that those fonts are copyrighted.  So in designs that involve text, designers walk a fine line regarding copyright infringement.  What to do?

Design your own font.  I "Googled" designing your own font and found this web site:

http://www.yourfonts.com/

It's a fairly simple process.  You print off a template provided by the web site, then carefully fill in each block with the appropriate letters and numbers, using a black felt tip pen.  Once done, scan the completed template at 300 dpi and upload it to the web site.  In a few minutes, a sample of your font will appear.

Your own personal font costs around $9.95.  But it's worth peace of mind.  You know that all of your designs which contain text will have your very own font.

Just thought I'd share. I'm going to practice some more on this font designing.

Update on 9/25/2012:  Part of this very post appeared in my font, Summersgaze 2, last night when I posted this entry. I'm not sure what happened and I won't question the powers that be, but the font will work and stay on documents and artwork created on your computer.

Spoonflower Projects Apr. 2012-Aug. 2012

I recently uploaded a brief video to Flickr showing some of the projects that have been completed using Spoonflower fabric by two Spoonflower designers and me during a four month period.  As  usual, I didn't get as many projects completed as I wanted.  Since the weather has cooled off now, I can work in my little house, "Summersgaze"  longer during the day.

The video appears here:  Spoonflower Projects Apr. 2012-Aug. 2012

I have more ideas and fabric than time, but with autumn comes a resurgence of energy so I hope to complete more projects.  Looking forward to my shipments from Spoonflower.  It's always like Christmas when the orders arrive.

Fat Quarters

Fat Quarters on Spoonflower

Aside from finding the terms "fat quarters" amusing, I am also attracted to the size of a fat quarter of fabric.  It is not intimidating -- 21" by 18", yet it's bigger than an 8 x 8 swatch.  One can get a better feel for a design, plus, let's face it, it's less expensive than a yard of fabric.  For those of us who paint or sketch, a fat quarter of fabric is the same as a waiting canvas.

The above highlighted link will take you, not to Spoonflower, but to Flickr, where there is a 60 second film clip featuring designs created specifically for the fat quarter.  While I enjoy looking at photographs of swatches, I also enjoy combining motion, music plus the fabric swatches.  The designs on Spoonflower are art, after all, and art and music are an unbeatable combination.

Something a little different

I made a little film clip using Muvee Reveal (the trial version).  The film features the designs I sized at four fat quarters per one yard of Spoonflower Kona cotton.  Also, "Only the Cat Saw" is on this film clip.  "Only the Cat Saw" is my entry in the Spoonflower zigzag cheater quilt design.  Hope you enjoy the clip.  I had fun making it.

Just click on the link below to Flickr and the film should come up.  It's just a minutes in length.

Flickr

My Tree Frog Green Art Wall

At the above link on Flickr you can see my Tree Frog Green Wall of Art.  I recently put designs for sale on Spoonflower from my collection "Fly Away Clothes."  Some of the designs are based on the large collage in the white frame.  This collection can be viewed here.  

The collage on which the collection "Seems Like Old Times"  is based also be seen hanging above my collage, "Flyaway Clothes."

At the suggestion of another Spoonflower designer, Phoebe (feebeedee), I've also been experimenting with putting my fat quarter designs on one yard of fabric.  Then four fat quarters can be purchased for $18 rather than, say, four fat quarters at $11 per fat quarter.  Designers such as Su_G in Sydney and feebeedee have been at this far longer than I have and when one of these ladies makes a suggestion or offer a criticism, I listen.  (If you click on the highlighted Su_G and feebeedee, you can visit their Spoonflower shops.)

My "Four Fat Quarters on One Yard" collection.

My next post will be:  I've discovered fractals!  Woohoo!

Fabric Design using digital photographs

Many of my designs on Spoonflower are based on photographs or scans of original artwork.  The fantastic thing about living in this moment in time is that we live in the age of digital.  We can take pictures of objects and work with them instantaneously rather than going to a dark room and developing our photographs or, even better, throwing a roll of film in a drawer until we get around to taking it for developing to one of those tiny Kodak Photomats that used to sit out in the middle of shopping center parking lots.

Our digital photographs can be manipulated using Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter Essentials, just to name two.  There are also online editing sites such as PicMonkey and Sumo.  The more I work with this kind of software, the more I learn how cool pixels are.  For instance, one morning a beautiful morning glory was blooming outside our front porch so I got the camera and took this picture:

I came back into the house and took the SD card out of the camera, opened up Adobe Photoshop and ended up with this photograph:

Now, whether or not  I choose to inflict this design on Spoonflower(!), or perhaps I ask myself the question, "Isn't a purple morning glory more beautiful than a psychedelic one?", that this can even be done is amazing to me.

Happy designing!

Texture Maker

Two great things about Spoonflower is that I'm continually learning something new (like fat quarters can be used for more than just throw pillows!) and that the designers are generous with their tips and information about how to improve designs.  One designer, Phoebe, has a shop on Spoonflower which you can visit here:  http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/feebeedee.  One day while on Spoonflower I saw that Phoebe had mentioned Texture Maker to help in making seamless repeats.  I messaged Phoebe and asked for more information.  She told me what was involved and how to get started using it.  She also gave me several tips.  Thank you so much, Phoebe.

What is nice about Texture Maker created by Reichart Software Engineering is that you can get a 30 day free trial.  When looking for it on line, do a search for Texture Maker 3.1 using the years 2012 or 2011.  There are older models out there, but Texture Maker 3 by Reichart is the most recent that I could find.  Thirty days of a free trial is a good deal.

An example of what I've done with Texture Maker so far can be viewed here:  Circus Ribbons.

So, Spoonflower -- it's really about more than fabric design!

A Field Guide to Fabric Design by Kimberly Kight

As I've mentioned before, there are many talented designers on Spoonflower.  They can work absolute magic with the designs they upload.  Someday I'd like to be like them!

Kimberly Kight has written "A Field Guide to Fabric Design."  Her blog is www.trueup.net. The softcover book, 160 pages in length, is divided into three sections.  I'll get my only criticism of the book out of the way first: there is no index.  Even if the Contents page is comprehensive, I find an index is always helpful. Now on to the good stuff.

The book's first section deals with the basics of design and color, i.e., how to develop a style and the use of color.   There are four different kinds of patterns: one way, two way, tossed, and four way print.  When designing on Spoonflower, designers can automatically put their uploaded designs into a basic repeat pattern, a half drop repeat, a half brick repeat, or a mirror repeat.  My goal right now is just to achieve a seamless repeat.    Kimberly mentions that the eye is naturally attracted to a one way print; however, the disadvantage of a one way print is that more fabric is wasted in cutting out a pattern.   A tossed design, one that has no up or down, is print in which less fabric is wasted because pattern pieces can be cut any which way and the finished product will still look great. The section also covers set layouts as opposed to random layouts.  There are excellent tutorials for designing repeats by hand and also by computer and why we need to PROOF!

Under the heading of "Know Your Color," there are ideas for developing color  palettes and how these schemes can be applied in Illustrator and Photoshop. The upsides and downsides of following trends are included as well as where to go for inspiration.

Another important part of Section One is the Copyright Primer.  It covers how important it is to do your own work and it also talks about protecting your original work.  Public domain designs are discussed.  Also this helpful web site is included:  www.copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm.

In Section Two, printing the design is addressed.  There is an excellent tutorial on fabric construction and the different weaves that are involved.  After a discussion of weaves, there is a discussion of knits.  There are lots of illustrations and photographs.  She goes into fiber types and weights and yarn qualities.  There six pages devoted to which fabrics are conducive to digital printing and hand printing among other methods.  Kimberly also goes into lino block printer and rubber block printing.  Again, her instructions and illustrations are extensive.  Inks are also covered.  There is a section on digital printing.  Spoonflower is covered as well as other digital printing services.

Interspersed with the tutorials and basic information are discussions with designers about the various topics covered in this book.

The final section covers the world of fabric design: building your brand, going pro, design school?  There are also three pages at the very back of the book devoted to resources such as reading material, software, digital textile print services, supplies, websites, design programs, and trade shows.

This book is well worth the price.  I have marked and highlighted many of its pages.  In the evenings, when I'm tired of sitting in front of the computer, I read and re-read its pages.  Kimberly Kight did a great job and I highly recommend this book.

We live in exciting times!

If you grew up in the times of mimeograph machines and remember the smell of the purple ink on exams handed out by the teachers, if you remember learning shorthand to take dictation or using a Selectric typewriter, if you can remember advancing your camera's film to the next frame and letting the film roles pile up in a drawer before getting them developed, then you can relate to my view of exciting times as far as the Internet, digital photography and Spoonflower.

I still find it difficult to believe that images we create can be uploaded and reproduced on fabric.  And all the different image programs available to edit our creations is wonderful.

That I can do this

Tiny bird done with acrylics and  Q-tips

and it turns into this design on Spoonflower  is still amazing to me.  Now I just need to master the art of the seamless repeat or even better, a multi directional fabric design!

Meditation

There is a willow tree by our red handled water pump by the kitchen door.  It planted itself and it appears to be a very intelligent tree having taken root next to a dripping water source.  I enjoy watching it change through the seasons.  In spring, its leaves take on that new green that only newly unfurled leaves can have, then the willow's leaves grow into their beautiful summer green until the blast of July.  Now my willow is losing leaves.  It isn't dormant yet but I can tell her energy is focused into just staying alive in these 100 plus degree days of high summer.

On Spoonflower there is a design I created to honor this wonderful willow. It's a photograph of the beautiful willow leaves taken into a posterized view.  On top of the leaves is a poem called "Meditation."  The companion fabric design can be seen here.  These designs are part of my "Fat Quarters Collection" on Spoonflower.

I made a pillow using two fat quarter of Spoonflower Kona cotton.

Repeat design of willow leaves for "Meditation."

Pillow made from the "Meditation" fat quarter on Spoonflower.

Golden Lily

This morning I made two fabric designs available for sale on Spoonflower .  They are part of my Fat Quarters Collection.

The two designs started out based on a photograph like this:

It's a "shaky hand" photograph taken of the yard light down by our sheep shed.  I never intend the "shaky hands" effect.  I'm usually intent on catching some image that never comes out.  However, in working with this photograph, many colors were discovered as the "bumping" effect was used.  I really had to work with the image, though, to get the design just right.  At first, too many actual pixels showed up along the edges of my design giving it a rough edge.  I had to work to get those rough edges to disappear.  Sometimes the rough edges wouldn't be so evident on the digital image I uploaded to Spoonflower.  It wouldn't be until I ordered a proff of the design that I would see those rough edges. I wanted the "Golden Lily" to be smooth.  My plans were to size it for a fat quarter.  Eventually, I downsized the design so it would be centered on a fat quarter, rather than stretching all across the fabric.  The rough edges disappeared and the design looked like a smooth golden lily.

The Golden Lily designs can be seen here and here.

Thank you, Spoonflower

Well, the $1.00 a swatch days are over but I enjoyed them while they lasted.  Because of Spoonflower's color change, designers on Spoonflower were offered the chance to purchase as many swatches as they wanted for a $1.00 each instead of the regular $5.00 a swatch or $1.20 a swatch if in a collection.  Because of this offer, I was able to see a lot of my designs on fabric swatches.  Thank you for the opportunity, Spoonflower.

The design "Midnight Swirl" can be seen here.

Aviation

Spoonflower is having a contest I can relate to.  Some contests don't appeal to me, but then there are others like the Extinct Animals contest or the Cake Collage contest that I find exciting.  There is an upcoming contest about aviation which I knew immediately I wanted to enter.  I have an old picture of my great grandfather's showing him and other relatives standing next to an airplane that had landed in my great grandfather's pasture in Cowley County, Kansas.  The picture is from the first or second decade of the 1900s because my grandmother saw it when she was a young girl and she was born in 1900.  I created a design using that picture and the pillow shown above is what I made from the fat quarter of "Look What Fell from the Sky."  The designs can be viewed in my "Carson" collection on Spoonflower.  

I made this video about a year ago built around the photograph featured in my "Aviation" design.

Change of Life

I have a collection on Spoonflower called "Change of Life."  Even though women of a certain age are told to embrace this new chapter in our lives and that 60 is now 50, 50 is now 40, etc., I really feel this is being dishonest to women.  We might be healthier and have longer life expectancies than our foremothers, but, frankly, most of our foremothers didn't live long enough to go through the "change of life."

A design I did for this collection is called Hot Flash.  The fat quarter version can be seen here  and the Hot Flash repeat (I think Hot Flash repeat is just funny -- who really wants a repeat of a hot flash!!) design can be viewed here.

The whole collection is based on a single mask I created a few years ago.  Freaky, huh? At least that's what my husband thinks.  It's covered in bleeding tissue paper.  The eyes are photographs of my eyes.  I made the mask to represent the many changes I was experiencing:  children leaving home, going to college, getting married, and having children of their own.  My husband and I have become the spectators instead of the participants in our children's lives.

I appreciate that I've lived long enough to experience the change of life.  Can't say I'm particularly enjoying it, but there are worse things, aren't there?

I think every gynecologist's waiting room should have a throw pillow of "Hot Flash."  They could then ask their patients, "Is this how you feel?"  :-)

I just noticed the last time I published a post to this blog on July 3, the topic was the same.  Ha.  Now that's freaky!

Change of Life

I am slowly rolling out a new collection of designs on Spoonflower called "Change of Life."  The designs are based on one papier mache mask which I did several years ago.  The mask was covered with bleeding tissue paper, then coated with a clear acrylic coating.  In the eyes sockets, I placed two small square mirrors.  On top of those mirrors are images of my eyes. My husband and children find the mask creepy, but my grandchildren love it. The slide into menopause is as traumatic as changing from a little girl to a teenager.  So many changes, so many different feelings, so many highs and lows.  I tried to reflect this in this mask.

So the swatches have started coming in . . .

Below are swatches of some of my designs printed with the new Spoonflower color map.  I am  pleased. 

"Unexpected Full Moon"   

"Basket Weave"

"Beautiful Garden"

"Bee Cheater Quilt"

"Chainlink Coyote Flower"

"Cinnamon Swirl"

"Tiled Swirls"

"Vintage Triangles"

Bzzzz!

On Spoonflower, I have group of designs in a collection called Bzzzzz!  These designs are dedicated to the honeybee although you will not see the actual bee!

Carl in his outfit with his smoker.

Out by the bee hives.

I think in this picture he is adding a super to the top of the hive.

Coming back from the hive.  Our son  Jacob didn't like the bees much.

Long ago -- back in the late 1980s -- my husband, who is a patient man, decided to try his hand at keeping honey bees.  He chose the Italian strain because they were the most gentle.  He purchased two hives from a man who lived 20 miles south of us in Lawton OK.  He had a friend with a truck -- thank goodness for friends with trucks -- and they went to pick up the hives.  They had to cover the hives to transport them back.  That was the beginning.

The idea was to harvest enough honey to use and give to friends and family.  Our little sideline wasn't named Broken Foot Honey Farm until during our first harvest.

It was a cool foggy day in November.  Weather affects bees.  On cool, foggy wet days most bees like to stay indoors like people do.  But since my husband had the day off from work, he figured he might as well try to harvest the honey.  My children and I watched at a distance as Carl approached the hives looking like a white bear.  After he put some dry tinder in his smoker and started a fire, he looked like a smoky white bear.  The top was lifted off the first hive and smoke sent down into the hive. Bees began flying out but they weren't too upset because of the smoke. Suddenly the smoker went out, leaving the hive exposed and Carl standing there with no smoke to lull the bees into submission.

The bees went on the attack.  Carl yelled for me to bring him some tinder and matches.  So here are two things to NOT do if you are around angry bees: wear wool and have on a fragrance. (I had been at a parent-teacher conference at my children's school earlier in the day.)   As I got closer to the hives, the honey bees greeted me by going for my eyes.   The first thing honey bees go for are eyes. After all, what will you be able to do once you can't see?  Bees are so smart.

So, not being a calm person like my husband, I panicked, threw the tinder and matches in the general direction of my husband and started running.  The children enjoyed the show from the safety of the house.  My hair was long and the bees got tangled in with my hair which really enraged them.  In my running, I fell and broke my left foot.

Carl continued to work with the honey bees as I entertained the children.  I crawled toward the house.  Looking back, we laugh, but at the time, it wasn't funny.  The honey was delicious, and with each additional harvest, things went more smoothly.  Then we lost the hives to mites.  Nothing was done for a few years, then Carl got the urge to try beekeeping one more time.

It was 2005.  We drove to Tipton, OK, and purchased a hive from a beekeeper.  We still didn't have a truck that go that distance safely, and once you ask a friend with a truck to help transport honey bees, that's the only time you can ask that friend!  No, this time, the covered hive was placed in the trunk of our Ford Taurus sedan.  We made it home safely although we wondered for a time if this was another dumb thing that years later would give us a funny story.  We could hear the bees buzzing in the trunk.

We lost that hive.  Even the gentleman from whom we purchased the hive is having trouble keeping his bees now and his operation is big.  He transports hives all over the country -- California, Texas -- to pollinate the orchards.  His wife runs the tag agency in Elgin OK and we purchase honey from her.  This past year, though, the honey ran out in the spring.

I'm not sure what will happen if the honey bee population does not increase.  There are other insects that pollinate, but none so industrious as the honey bee.

The original is faded now so the scan didn't come through too well.  We used this logo on  our honey
and also on the greeting cards I sold in a florist's shop in Fletcher.


Here's a link to a brief video I posted 4 years ago on YouTube.  If you can listen closely -- once I quit yapping -- you can hear all the bees pollinating the corn.  Carl planted corn this year but there are no honey bees.

YouTube video I posted about honey bees

Su_G's Designs on Spoonflower

When I first saw the design "Manly Lines of Chalk" on Spoonflower, it immediately reminded me of the abstract artist, Paul Klee.  The vibrant colors combined with the design really came together.  Su has several other fabrics along this line that be coordinated with this fabric.   I ordered a fat quarter of the design printed on Spoonflower's Kona cotton.  The colors are very vibrant.  Check out the rest of her designs on Spoonflower.  Her shop can be found here.

Throw pillow made from Su_G's "Manly Lines of Chalk" design on Spoonflower.

Something New on Spoonflower -- Pillow Poetry

It was with great trepidation that I posted my latest offerings on Spoonflower this afternoon.  Trepidation because this time my new collection "Fat Quarters Collection" contains not only my designs based on my artwork and photographs, but also my words.  I have written stories and poetry since I was small.   Recently I wondered if perhaps some of my written creations would work well on fat quarters, a nice size for pillows. As I said in a previous blog entry, creating is wonderful, showing one's creations is risky business for I think all of us who create -- no matter what format -- view our creations a little like our offspring.

Fabric and some designers on Spoonflower

When I was small,  there was a department store, JC Penneys, located in the old Capitol Hill section of Oklahoma City. In late July my mother and I would drive there, walk down the stairs, and, in the basement of the store, were beautiful bolts of fabric.  Late July meant school would be starting in about a month and we were there to pick out fabric for my school dresses.  I could take a long, long time . . . probably what seemed like forever to my mother . . . deciding on what designs I wanted.  More importantly, though, was how did the fabric feel?  

When I found Spoonflower, I ordered one of the sample swatches books.  Lovely textures, especially the organic cotton sateen and the organic cotton interlock knit.   If you are involved with fabric, you are a tactile person too.  I used to do handmade papermaking, but making handmade paper is physically intense and the energy to do it has faded.  I still have quite a stash of handmade paper, though, and I enjoyed the years that I did it, taking workshops and sharing my craft.

There are so many imaginative, creative, talented people currently contributing to Spoonflower.  When I look at the designs, I feel like I can see a tiny bit of how that designer looks at things.  That is what art is, isn't it?  A manifestation of what is inside a person coming out.  It's a brave thing to do -- to create and let other people seen what one has created.

Here are some fabrics I have purchased recently from designers on Spoonflower:

I'm currently working on a pillow using designer Su_G's fabric design Manly Lines of Chalk. 

From left to right, back row: My Garden by Nekanen; Johnny Bump Ups by Beebumble; 18th Century Karakuri Tea
Serving Doll by Zandloopster.  Front row, left to right: Pick Me! by whimzwhirled and FlowerJournal II by weavingmajor. 

These images were taken out in my little house, Summersgaze, where there is only natural light, and a morning light at a northern angle at that.   I did not use a flash.  The colors are much more intense to the naked eye.  Maybe I should have used a flash, but I've provided links to all the fabric designs so they can be viewed in detail.

Summersgaze in Summer 2012

Who was the person who first uttered, "Life is what happens when you are making other plans."  (Was it Paul McCartney?  Not sure.)  In between life, this is what has been going on at Summersgaze.

First, my husband and I have been in the process of repainting the tiny house.  The poor wood is so thirsty, it drinks up the paint -- pumpkin -- so it's taking more paint than we had originally planned.  Still, it is coming along.  We got the three major walls finished yesterday, with just a few touch ups remaining.  Here are some pics:

Saturday 1:  Out of paint.  The east side is done, but we still needed to finish this south side, then begin on the north.
These tiny houses are great for experimenting -- my husband wanted to try his hand at installing
solar panels.  It worked!

Saturday 2:  Out of paint again.  At least all three major sides are completed save for touching up.
The porch will be the next focus.  Since I want the porch to set everything else off, I'm still thinking
about colors.  But I do know the door will be a shade of turquoise!

Clouds of Stars

Oklahoma summer sky

On Spoonflower one of the designers I follow asked me how I manipulated my Oklahoma summer sky photograph into Clouds of Stars which can be viewed in my Spoonflower Collection simply called Stars.

I took this photograph and loaded it into an on line photo and drawing site called Sumo Paint.  On that site, pick Filters, click and on the drop down and Distort will appear, click and more choices appear.  To get a star effect, I click on Kaleidoscope.  I sometimes use other effects before I take the photo on into Kaleidoscope.

I learned about Sumo Paint on the Spoonflower Fabric Designs Flickr group.  It's an easy to use program.  HOWEVER, within the last two weeks, I've been receiving cautionary warnings which pop up from McAfee virus protector about using this site.  I got a free app for Sumo through the Google Chrome store and put it on my Google Chrome browser.  I still get a brief warning from McAfee, but now I can access Sumo again.  I'm not sure what the issues are.  I just thought I needed to put that out there so users can be aware of this.

Spoonflower patches to the rescue again.

My daughter is a busy mother of three children, the oldest being 7 and the youngest an ornery 2, with a 5 year old in between.  She was in a rush the other morning cleaning, and as she later said, "I don't know why I was using bleach while wearing a good skirt."  The bleach splashed onto her black skirt.  She asked me if I could think of something to do and I thought about what I'd done with my Fossil bag.

I looked through my Spoonflower test swatches and found "Seems Like Old Times."  Since it's a pattern in repeatable squares, I clipped out one square with the pretty lady.  I used one of those squares that Spoonflower sends out with the printed fabric and used that as a backing.  Between, I put in a bit of quilt batting and sewed it up, using a top stitch across the small square.  I had an antique button just looking for a home and that was sewn in the corner.

You might have guessed by now that the buttons scattered across the skirt are where tinier drops of bleach landed.  Of course, looking at the photograph of my handiwork through the eyes of the camera, I could have done a better job of stitching.  To the naked eye, though, the skirt looks really cute.  I hope she likes it.

The lady in the design is from a scan of old sheet music that was purchased at an estate sale in the 1980s in Miami, Oklahoma.  The sheet music is from before 1920.  I included the lady in a collage I did a few years ago.  I chose the name for the fabric design. The sheet music the image was scanned from was not the same song as the title of  my design.  The look of the sheet music lady just reminded me of the song's performance by Diane Keaton in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall."

Carson

I have a collection of designs simply called "Carson."  Carson was the last name of my grandmother's grandparents.  If any of you have ever done any genealogy research for any length of time, you might have discovered, as I did, that even though I never met the individuals, the more I learned about them, the more I felt like I knew them.  A photograph of Lovina Jane Record Carson and her husband, Thomas Riley Carson, appears on my blog, Genealogy ending in Cowley County, Kansas ; more information about her can be found there.

My fabric design collection, "Carson"   on Spoonflower is dedicated to Lovina.  She was a milliner and she taught piano lessons, in addition to raising her children and helping her husband run their farm.  My grandmother gave me Lovina's travel trunk.  It traveled with her and her husband and their baby boy from Peoria County, Illinois to Cowley County, Kansas in 1874.  I am not sure exactly how old the trunk is but I date it on her travel date.

"Carson Star"

"Lost in Thought"

These two photographs show the design on which these fabric are based.  This lady rests on the interior lid of the travel trunk.  The first design, "Carson Star," is a crop of a detail  of the photograph of the lady.  The second design is a mirror repeat of the lady herself.  Both these fabrics work well together.  The fabric shown above is Spoonflower's Kona cotton.

Cinnamon Swirl

Bamboo blinds with morning sun shining.

Bamboo blinds manipulated with photo editing

Some designs I'm not too sure about until someone makes a comment.  In fact, you can tell this by looking at the name of the collection -- "Regrets, I've had a Few!"   Cinnamon Swirl is one of those designs.  One morning the sunlight was filtering through the lowered bamboo shade in the dining room and I took a picture. It was really quite lovely and I wondered what a fabric design would look like using that photo.  I uploaded the photo to Sumo Paint and fiddled with it until something showed up that I liked.  With Spoonflower's mirror imaging, the resulting design was something I liked. (Regarding Sumo Paint, for about the past week or so, there have been issues with that site.  It's an easy to use site and I read about it on the Spoonflower Fabric Design group on Flickr.  I'm not sure if the Sumo site has been revamped or what.)