Woohoo! My Spoonflower fabric samples have finally arrived and I’m very happy with the results. I ordered small samples of my little collection of 12 designs and 1 yard of my Blocked design. The colors of the blocked design are exactly as I hoped and the fabric, a linen-cotton mix feels very nice. The 12 smaller samples are also good, though I’ve realized that I should probably make a few of the designs a little bit smaller and there are maybe 1 or 2 colors I would change, but that’s why you have to order samples, right? It’s all still learning process anyway.

The voting for the Carousels contest has also started and the reactions have been amazing. I’ve had loads of lovely comments on my design and even more favorites, not only for my entry for the contest but also my other designs. Voting lasts until next wednesday. If you’d like to cast a vote you can do it here, apparently it’s not necessary to be registered at Spoonflower.
Can’t wait to see who’s going to win, there are some other really nice designs as well.

Yesterday I woke up to discover it was free swatch day at Spoonflower. This means everybody could get one fabric swatch printed for free, yeay!

Above you can see my new design that I’m getting printed. Isn’t it fun? It’s part of a little collection that I’m creating, all inspired by my design that I’ll be entering for the Carousels Fabric Contest. You”l have to wait to see my entry for the contest until the deadline next Tuesday though…

And I’m still waiting for the swatches and fabric that I ordered a while back. They shipped everything on wednesday, so it should be arriving soon. Can’t wait to get them…

***Little update*** My free swatch already got shipped on friday, yihaaaa
They really have been working hard to get turn around times down. But I’m wondering how long it will take to get it shipped from the US to Belgium. Hopefully no longer than a week. I’m feeling very excited and impatient right now…

Yesterday I tried out another one of the hand carved stamps I made during my holiday, and I’m absolutely loving the result. This time I picked out some better colors than last time, I didn’t think the pink purple combo worked very well on that unbleached cotton fabric. But light blue and dark grey are perfect on this fabric.
I’m also going to make a new block with several of these dandelions so I can print faster next time. Definitely going to make some more of these prints…

Yes, great news! I’ve been working very hard today to upload my fabric designs to the Spoonflower website and I just ordered samples of them. Can’t wait until I get them. It has become a little collection of abstract patterns, some inspired by flowers and peacocks as well. You can already have a sneak peak on my Spoonflower profile page.

In the beginning of my holiday I told you that I was working on some fabric print designs that I’m going to get printed at Spoonflower and I also started carving my own stamps to do some block printing on the fabrics I already have.
So far I hadn’t really printed anything on fabric yet. I tried my stamps on paper, but yesterday I finally got to print on fabric as well. And I’m very happy with the result. The design is ok, but could be better I think, but the quality of the print is great! I was a bit scared that it would look too rough or unprofessional, but I think it’s perfect. I used acrylic paint, to which I added a textile medium. In the future I might buy some real fabric paint, but I already had the acrylic paint and textile medium. I can’t wait to make some more block prints…

I also received a package from Spoonflower with a color chart and some samples of the fabrics they print on. So I can convert some of my designs to the right colors and order them. How exciting! I really feel like I’m starting to get somewhere with this whole fabric design thing

And I got myself the Print & Pattern Book. I love the Print & Pattern blog, and the book is great as well, very inspirational.

I’ve always loved pattern design, whether it’s for wallpaper, fabrics, paper goods or anything else. But in the job I’m doing right now I haven’t really had the chance to do this. So I’ve decided to use my vacation time right now to start up a little fabric collection, that I’m going to get printed at Spoonflower.
Above is already one of the designs I’ve made in the last few days.

I’m also trying to out some block printing on fabric using either self-made linoleum or rubber stamps. I have accumulated a big collection of rather boring plain fabrics over the years and the block prints could make them more interesting. It’s been ages since I’ve done any linoleum cutting, I completely forgot how hard it is to cut the linoleum. The day after my muscles were even hurting, but it’s a lot of fun making them and I’ve already learned a lot. I’ve realized that cutting the stamps out of rubber is much easier and they also seem to last longer. The lino cut I made seems quite fragile and some of the fine lines were already braking after cleaning of the paint