Spoonflower weekly design contest – Rhinoceroses

There were lots of lovely, bright entries to last week’s Fishing Lure themed contest on Spoonflower.  I noticed that 2 of the designs I voted for made the top 10 this week!  This is one of them; 'Alluring Lure' by Olivia Henry.  I love the colours and watercolour style of the flies…

You can see all the designs in the top 10 here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/254  My entry came 71st (with 89 votes) out of 159 entries.  Thank you to everyone who voted! :)

This week’s contest has a Rhinoceroses theme.  I’ve drawn rhinos before at Colchester zoo and have several photos to use as reference, so was looking forward to creating a pattern design for this contest.  Last week I took a long time drawing the fishing flies and wasn't entirely satisfied with the end design, but work on the rhinos seemed to flow much better (and quicker) and I am happier with the finished repeat pattern!

I started by sketching rhinos and a few ideas of geometric, tribal inspired patterns.  Most of my designs have quite light backgrounds so I wanted to try a dark background for this one and decided on using a dark grey.   Often I just colour on the computer but the coloured pencils were useful in choosing a colour palette - it’s a really quick and easy way to try different colour combinations, just by holding different pencils.  I love how these colours look together too!

Here’s the finished repeat pattern…

You can see all the other rhinoceros designs here, and vote for your favourites too!  http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=257

Spoonflower weekly design contest – Fishing Lures, Faux Suede and Free Shipping Offer!

Last week’s Sewing Notions themed contest had some lovely entries – you can see the top 10 here!  If you are a member of Spoonflower and vote when you are logged in, you can keep track of who you vote for.  It was interesting to see one of the designs I voted for ended up in the top 10! I came 60th out of 177 entries – thank you for everyone who voted for my design! :)

This week’s challenge has a fishing lures theme, so I was able to make use of the fishing flies I have which belonged to my Grandad.  I actually found this one quite hard to do and it took me a while to settle on how I wanted to draw the flies.  In the end I combined pen line drawings, with coloured pencil and a bit of digital work.

 

Here’s the finished repeat pattern…

Voting is still open (contests normally change over on Thursdays) – as always there are lots of lovely designs to choose from!

Vote for all your favourite Fishing Lure designs here:- http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=254

While I’m on Spoonflower news I thought I would share this little swatch I had printed…

The stars pattern, made from my hand drawn stars which were coloured and arranged digitally, is printed on Spoonflower’s new Faux Suede fabric.  It’s lovely and soft, I think it would be great for making cushion covers!

Spoonflower has a great offer on today, I’m planning on taking advantage of it by ordering some swatches of new designs.  I want to use some of my fabric in a sewing project too, I’m trying to decide what to make (cushions or zip pouches maybe) and then which design to use!  (The offer ends 9am tomorrow EDT - that's 2pm for us in the UK)

If you would like to see the designs I currently have for sale, here is my Spoonflower shop address… http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/hazel_fisher_creations

Spoonflower weekly design contest – Sewing Notions

There were lots of lovely designs entered into last week’s Farming themed contest on Spoonflower – see the top 10 designs here!  Although I didn't win I was still pleased with the results (65 votes and 99th out of 260 entries).

This week’s Sewing Notions themed contest was slightly different as the brief was to create 4 coordinating designs on 1 yard, instead of just one design.  I had a good rummage around the sewing box, drawing spools of thread, buttons, pins and other bits and pieces.  Then scanned my pen line drawings and coloured them digitally – here’s a work in progress shot of one of the designs…

 

And the finished yard with 4 coordinating designs…  I'm looking forward to seeing how these print on fabric!

Voting  for the Sewing Notions contest is open now – vote for your favourite designs here!

Spoonflower Fabric of the Week Contest - Farming

It’s been a while since I entered one of Spoonflower’s weekly design contests (almost exactly a year since the Citrus one!)  Sometimes the theme doesn’t immediately  inspire me but next week’s ‘Sewing Notions’ one caught my eye.  I decided to try the Farming one too and really enjoyed drawing lots of different farm animals (along with the tractor and ears of wheat) to create this repeat pattern…

I am going to try and enter the weekly contests more often, to make me draw new things and be inspired to try out different ideas :)

Voting is now open for the Farming contest - you can vote for your favourite designs here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=253