Skunk Pants!

A while ago, before Little E came into our world, I made him a pair of pants using my Stinkin' Cute skunk fabric. I just love them. It's hard to believe that he's almost too big for them now. Where did the time go!?? 

You can purchase the skunk fabric from Spoonflower here. I used the Organic Cotton Knit. It was perfect for a simple pair of leggings. 

Citrus Fruit

Spoonflower always has such nifty little themes. An upcoming contest is revolving around the theme CITRUS. Check out my design below. 
I don't know about where you are, but here in Iowa, it is FINALLY warming up and starting to feel a bit like summer. I'm ready for picnics, ice cold drinks in jars, and sketching outdoors. I feel like this design captures that! What are you looking forward to this summer? 

Spoonflower Blog Profile

My first entry into the world of surface design was through Spoonflower.  This amazing resource is an on-demand fabric printing service where anyone can get their designs, photos, or anything really, printed on a variety of fabrics. But, Spoonflower, for us designers is really so much more. There is a vibrant, engaged community of creative souls from around the world! It's pretty amazing. This unique community did and still does provide me with creative and moral support, critique, and advice. The weekly contests initiated by the crew at Spoonflower provide creative jump starts with design challenges on such themes as Mardi Gras, Nautical, Australian Animals, or Hand-drawn fabric. For a designer like me, those little challenges have been such fantastic inspirations, and really gave me the inspiration to create my first portfolio of fabric designs. I can't say enough positive words about it all. 

So, having Kim Fraser, one of the owners of Spoonflower, post a profile about me on their blog yesterday was a really pivotal moment for me. It was just amazing to see my name on that site--something I could never have imagined a few short years ago when I entered my first Spoonflower contest. 

If you have some time today---check out the post. I hope you enjoy it! 

(and, enter the give away to win a big fat bundle of fabrics of mine from Marcus and Spoonflower!) 

-Greta 

Coasters Galore!

I decided to do a little crafting before my trip back home to Louisiana for the holidays. I made these adorable little coasters for friends and family.
Out of one fat quarter I was able to make about 20 coasters! I made a few packs of 5 coasters each, and voila!---a great gift for anyone for any occasion. 
I guess this can't really be called a tutorial, since it may be fairly lacking in step-by-step directions, but it was super fun to do, and I highly recommend making some of these little ditties. 
I bought a couple of fat quarters of my Eclectic Kitchen fabric when Spoonflower was having a buy one get one sale a few weeks back. Check out the fabric on the site here. 
I just love how well the watercolor design printed on this one! 

I decided to fussy cut the piece up into pieces about 5x3 inches each. 

Then, I added a small strip of 2 inch fabric to the edge of each one to create a 5x5 inch piece. 

 I added a little batting to the back side, did a little quilting with a few fun little stitches on the solid color portion of the coaster. Then, I sewed them inside out, right sides facing, clipping the corners and making sure to leave a little opening to turn them the right side out. 

 Then, I just sewed that little part shut to finish it off .
For some odd reason I didn't seem to take any photos of the final products, but hopefully you get the idea. I think more of these are in my future. I really loved this project. I am thinking about doing some embroidery (my new love) and using some of my anchor fabric I just got in from Spoonflower. What do you think!!?? :)  

Mollie Makes Spoonflower contest

This week I decided to enter a Spoonflower contest that sounded like a great one!....Mollie Makes, a UK craft mag, is hosting a contest called Flights of Fancy. There was a restricted palette of some pretty scary colors (ha!)...but I managed to work with it and came up with this! Check it out and go vote if you have a moment! :)

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1571439