Category: Designing Fabrics and More (Page 1 of 2)

Image of Karla's CornerSee Karla’s fabric designs and more.

Fabric Designs

Follow Karla’s adventures as she creates new fabric designs. With around 50 print-on-demand fabrics now available, Karla has only scratched the surface on her design asperations and possibilities. Especially watch for more focus fabrics designed especially for Karla’s quilt patterns!

Matching Merchandise

Discover the matching merchandise to go with quilt patterns made from Karla’s fabric designs. You’ll see home decor from Spoonflower and various merchandise from Redbubble and Zazzle to match your quilts made with Karla’s fabric! What FUN!

Designing for Hoffman

In addition to her fabric designs, follow Karla’s adventures in designing quilts for Hoffman California Fabrics. See her sketches turn into quilts made with both beautiful sides of Hoffman fabrics. The adventure began, like Karla’s pattern business, with Phoebee. This girl, however, was made with Hoffman’s Electric Garden. See sparkling pieced quilts and interesting broderie perse designs using Hoffman fabrics.

Valor Quilt Design – Creative Tools for Unique Quilts

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Each year our guild hosts a presentation of valor quilts. As one of three committee members organizing this event, I’ve had a front row view to some beautiful valor quilt design! Over the last ten years, our members and guests from the community have had the honor to present scores of gorgeous patriotic quilts to wonderful, humble, and grateful active duty military and veterans.

Valor Quilt Design – Making it personal.

Firstly, the variety of patterns, fabrics, and designs of these quilts make the special presentation very personal for each recipient, with no two quilts alike. In addition, a quick search online to find you lots of patterns designed specifically for this genre of quilts, with consideration of the sharp contrasts of the blues and reds with white – a common theme of these quilts.

valor quilt design at mount rushmore
Lt. Col. (Retired) Matthew A. Kiefner, USMC

Why share this quilt?

The quilt I am sharing with you today was a labor of love. I bet you can relate. Oftentimes, when you make a quilt for someone you know really well, you are driven to make it truly special for them. That’s what this quilt is. It isn’t a show-quality quilt. It would not win any prizes for design or technique. However, I’m certain the content of the motifs on this Valor Quilt design touched my husband’s heart – and for that I am pleased.

Additionally, I’m sharing the process with you, my quilter friends, because I remember a big influence in my quilting journey was from one person, Tula Pink, saying two words. We were at a Fall Paducah Quilt Show, listening to her presentation about how she designs fabric. I wrote in my notes: Adobe Illustrator.

About a year later, I decided I wanted to learn fabric design. Consequently, had to go searching for that notebook for the two words I had written. I knew nothing about Illustrator, except that it is what Tula used.

Unusual Tools of the Quilting Trade

Briefly, let me explain this quilt. It is a simple patriotic background of vertical stripes of red and white. Across the top and bottom are two horizontal strips of blue. The true features of the quilts are the flight patches, flight suit name tags, the golden wings and USMC emblem appliqued onto the quilt top. Each of these symbols define my husband and his time in the Marine Corps, first as a pilot and later as a Forward Air Officer. I asked him for his patches and got to work.

VT-25 Patch

Step One – Trace the Elements

Fortunately, by this time I had learned enough about Illustrator to know that I needed to draw each individual element in order to layer them to look like a patch. I’ll use “Bombing Betty” as my example. The easiest way for me to do this was to use my iPad and a very cool and expensive drawing app called, “Procreate”.

I took a photo of each patch and began tracing the elements. As you can see on this patch there are different colors – beige for her legs, arms and face, red for her dress, etc. So I traced them all separately, based on their color and what layer they would be. For example, the background is grey, the white star is next, Betty’s left leg is behind the bomb, her dress is in front of it and her hair is on a layer on top of her face and so on.

Bombing Betty Patch

Keep in mind, I had no idea if this scheme of mine was going to work!

Next, Vectorize and Colorize with Illustrator

I developed each patch, one at a time. I sent each file via email to my computer where I opened it into Illustrator.

Undoubtedly, you may be wondering why I didn’t just take photos of the patches. Because the patches were between two to six inches in size, photos would have become pixilated (distorted blurry) when made very large.

However, vectors (which is what Illustrator is for) can be any size – even as large as the 22-inch Marine Corp Emblem in the center of the quilt and look as crisp as the four-inch patch. So I changed each element into a vector shape, then colored and layered them until they resembled the patch. I got approval for each patch from my husband as I went along.

Spoonflower to the Rescue!

Furthermore, all of this work was dependent upon the printing of the fabric. Having designed fabric for a few years now, I was relatively sure I could eventually get a good result, but I wasn’t sure how many printings it might take to get it right. So, my next step was export each patch as a high resolution photo and arrange them on two artboards, to mimic two yards of Cotton Poplin. I sent the files to Spoonflower and waited for the results.

YATZEE! BINGO! CORNER ON RYE! (a family favorite called PIT)

valor quilt design patches
The first artboard to send to Spoonflower. Notice all those details in the 3/24 patch above (with the Arch)!

Fusible Applique – the truly easy part!

The first printing was a success! Fortunately, once I received these two yards of fabric I could breathe a sigh of relief. Everything looked great. The color and vibrancy were spot-on. Next, I proceeded to make fusible applique out of each patch. I use a very lightweight fusible that quilts beautifully and is barely there. So you quilters know the rest of the story here…almost!

One More Valor Quilt Design Tool – Design Doodler

On the bottom blue strip of the background, I added outline embroidery of the aircraft my husband flew in the Marine Corps. I wanted to add this part of his story to the quilt, but not in a way that took away from the patches. So simple outlines in blue worked perfectly.

Matt at the cabin

Admittedly, I’d been wanting this software for two years, and this quilt was the perfect excuse! However, Design Doodler is SO easy to learn and SEW much fun, I recommend it to anyone with an iPad and an embroidery machine! You truly DOODLE and it works out the stitching! Notably, John Deere, Deere’s Embroidery Legacy, so it is a top-quality product. Check out the YouTube videos and start playing with the full app today!

Last But Not Least: VALUE!

You may have noticed that the background of this quilt is lighter than most patriotic fabrics on the market. Yep, you guessed it – I used the reverse for the entire background. I made the binding with the RIGHT side of the blue fabric. Had I used the right sides as the background, the patches may have gotten lost. And I wasn’t going to take that chance! I did make sure I found just the right red, so that it would read as red and not pink. Learn more about using both beautiful sides of fabric.

Be happy to learn and willing to fail.

Finally, I shared this valor quilt design adventure because I hope to remind each of you that you can never learn too many things, take too many notes, or try too many new things. You never know when it might all come together one day for something you never dreamed of doing! I’m glad my husband likes his quilt. That’s what’s most important.

matts valor quilt design
Love you, Hon!

Sewing Machine Tee

Home » Karla’s Corner » Designing Fabrics and More

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The Featherweight sewing machine has long been a work horse for quilters.

Additionally, the Singer Featherweight sewing machines have a simplicity in their design that makes them dependable, even 90 years after they were made!

Quilters collect the little machines for display and use. Some owners even name their featherweights and display their birth certificates.

Moreover, the trend with these machines is to get the Singer Featherweight professionally painted in the owner’s favorite color. But you don’t have to own a actual machine to “paint” your own! Just make her with your favorite focus fabric! See Aria below!

Scroll down to learn about the new Singer Featherweight Tee for quilters!

You’re probably quite familiar with my quilt pattern that features a Featherweight Model 221.

Her name is Aria, because she’s a singer (Singer Featherweight)!

Singer Featherweight Quilt

You make the Aria quilt pattern with BOTH beautiful sides of one focus fabric. Use the RIGHT sides of the fabric for the Singer Featherweight machine and binding; use the REVERSE for the pennants, vintage scissors, and thimble!

It’s all about value! Learn more on my YouTube Channel.

It’s all placed on a fun, scrappy background fabrics which include:

  • Mottled teal (for the table)
  • Vintage newsprint
  • Beige “Grunge”
  • Beige geometric batik
  • Contemporary newsprint with doilies, butterflies, and more
  • Off-white on white
  • Miniature floral (reversed)

Likewise, see another version of Aria here.

Introducing…Aria’s Tee Shirt for Quilters!

Furthermore, owners of Singer Featherweight machines are quite proud of their little workhorses. With this in mind, I’ve designed quilters’ tee shirts featuring my Aria artwork!

Choose from ten wonderful tees that feature my Singer Featherweight artwork from the Aria quilt pattern. These Bells + Canvas Jersey T-Shirts are the most popular shirts in the Print on Demand marketplace.

SHOP the Aria Tee Shirts NOW!

Most importantly, take a look at all the new quilting-themed t-shirts, more than 50 quilt patterns that use BOTH beautiful sides of fabric and MORE in my Etsy Shop!

It’s a Whale’s Tale

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It started with a sketch and ended up as whale quilting fabric!

First things first: this sketch was made for punch needle, not whale quilting fabric. But sometimes things have to simmer a while. In other words, ideas need to age like a fine wine or quilt fabric that has yet to find its rightful place!

Surprisingly, Bubbles (and his focus fabric) had already been designed before this tail sketch became part of a fabric. Read about him in Uncork the Bubbles!

First, the sketchy whale tail.

image of whale quilting fabric and sketch
Sketches to fabric.

Learn more about how to use Spoonflower at Spoonflower How-To.

The whale tail shown above, with a sand dollar and seashell, are rough sketches made years ago. The first result of the tail sketch is in a tiny frame here surrounded by seashells and a “watercolor” whale.

Punch needle before whale quilting fabric.

Image of punch needle whale
Punch needle whale tail.

Click here to see Redbubble merchandise with the blue whale shown above.

Initially, having numerous designs in my Seashore Friends Fabric Collection on Spoonflower, it had not dawned on me to use the whale tail sketch. However, it didn’t take long to work this tail into an interesting stripe of whale quilting fabric.

Deciding on the elements for the striped design.

Putting the whale quilting fabric design all together.

Furthermore, the initial fabric design began with a collection of sand dollars. Next came the sand dollars. Finally, because I was searching for an interesting third element, I remembered the whale tail punch needle.

Lastly, I made sure the directional elements went both North and South, to give more usability to the fabric.

See matching merchandise in my Redbubble shop!

See the Seashore Friends baby quilt that’s made with both beautiful sides of my Spoonflower fabrics!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing this fabric’s simmering process!

Enjoy YOUR quilting journey!

The Adventures of Bubbles the Baby Whale Soft Book

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

“The Counting Game” featuring Bubbles the Baby Whale is a soft book made from a fabric panel.

Stitch this new, soft book (to match the Bubbles quilt pattern using a fat quarter fabric panel and a little bit of batting!

Printed on the exquisite Organic Cotton Sateen fabric by Spoonflower, this book makes a perfect gift for babies and toddlers! Not only is the fabric super soft, it is vibrant, a delight to stitch, and perfect for little ones!

The Adventures of Bubbles the Baby Whale – The Counting Game

Stitch this fun, easy project for your favorite baby or toddler! Available on Creative Bee Studios Etsy Shop OR at Creative Bee Studios Spoonflower Shop.

The Adventures of Bubbles the Baby Whale begins with the friendly whale inviting the little “reader” to count with him. Through the pages, Bubbles counts his seashore friends, seashells, and more.

First to appear is Bubbles’ friend, Pinky, the baby octopus. Shop the Pinky Quilt Pattern.

In addition, “readers” count (or point to) Sally, the seahorse, colorful corals, Fiona (flamingos), fish, sea turtles, sand dollars, and seashells.

Learn more about the creation of Bubbles Geometric fabric for making the matching Bubbles quilted wall hanging!

What’s wonderful about the Bubbles soft book?

To start, the fabric has a great feel for little hands. The cotton fabric has a satin-y sheen that makes a great tactile experience.

Secondly, the size is just right for small hands to hold or carry around.

Third, it’s fun and easy to make.

Lastly, the book can be just a part of a whole gifted package of Bubbles items! Make the quilt or order a onesie and bib. You might grab a matching wall clock, rug, or curtains – there are lots of possibilities!

This soft book fabric panel is a fat quarter (28 x 18 inches) of Organic Cotton Sateen (56 inch width).

image of bubbles quilt on beach

Please invite your friends to Catch The BUZZ and enjoy your quilting journey!

Seashore Friends Collection One

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Delight in the happy colors of summer as we take a first look at Seashore Friends Pattern Collection One.

Firstly, you’ve seen the main character of this show (the Seashore Friends Pattern Collection), Bubbles. (See Uncork the Bubbles for more Bubbles fun!)

Image of Baby Whale Quilt
Bubbles is made with both sides of “Paint Pots” by Kaffe Fassett.

Secondly, you know he’s got some beach-loving “supporting characters”, Pinky and Sally.

To begin, each character started from a focus fabric and an idea. This is a case of the fabric driving the quilt!

Each quilt was made using both beautiful sides of the focus fabric. For each character, the fabric sparked the idea for the quilt design.

Pinky Quilt Pattern
Pinky is made with both sides of fish bones on pink.
Image of Sally Quilt Pattern
Sally is made with both beautiful sides of a seashell bouquet motif.

Now, you’ll see how these friends take center stage in this new pattern collection.

So, how do you combine these very different characters into one pattern collection?

Seashore Friends Pattern Collection One
Seashore Friends Pattern Collection One

With colors, motifs, happiness and love!

Granted, that might sound corny, but it’s very true! When you put in lots of hours on an idea (or many ideas), you get connected, right? It happens when making quilts, for sure. Some quilts are hard to give away because of the “soul” we’ve invested in them! (Not to mention time.)

Therefore, it’s the same with pattern collections. Here’s the headline fabric:

Look for the colors and elements that connect each fabric in Seashore Friends Pattern Collection One.

Image of Stripe
Whale Tail Stripe fabric coming soon to Spoonflower!
Image of Dancing starfish
Dancing Starfish & Seaweed Fabric at Spoonflower

Finally, from bubbles that can make Bubbles, dancing starfish, whale tails, sand dollars, and seashells, these designs perform together!

Watch for encore productions of Seashore Friends – New collections premiering soon!

Watercolor on a Whim

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

One month earlier, “watercolor on a whim” wasn’t even a thought in my head.

First, the “watercolor on a whim” theme started as a spring break trip with my daughter, Paige. As often happens with Paige, our trip soon became packed with more things to do than hours in the day (unless there is no sleeping allowed). Therefore, Paige is actually responsible for the “paint brush to fabric” idea – completely. It’s ALL her fault! Blame it all on her.

That said, I’m so glad she made me do it! Here’s how watercolor on a whim happened:

We traveled to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to visit the hometown of Ree Drummond, known as The Pioneer Woman. Now, Paige and I might not know the “in’s” and “out’s” of Ree”s cooking shows and cookbooks, but we are HUGE fans and experts (it is known) of her merchandise! We love everything about it…and it’s kinda, sorta dangerous, in a MUST HAVE ALL PIONEER WOMAN way!

For instance, Paige and I love Ree’s flowers, the graphic design, and the colors. We love the way everything goes together and NOTHING is matchy-matchy. It’s also cool that we can afford at least one piece of most of her merchandise. We cherish that there are no apologies for All Things Pretty when it comes to The Pioneer Woman! (Kinda like “life’s too short for ugly fabric”. Right, sweet quilters?)

Above all, thanks to Ree, there’s always a bright spot in going to Walmart!

Most importantly, we have learned that if you see something you like, grab it immediately. It’s sure to be gone the next time you’re there. Not a bad thing for the bottom line, either – theirs’s…not mine.

Moreover, we love Ree’s business model (what we’ve observed, anyway), her style, her writing, her, well…everything! Especially after reading her two FANTASTIC books which provide a “best friend” look into her life, we are certain that we are “forever friends”! Ree actually states this in her book (and I’m pretty sure she was talking about Paige and me- just kidding – you can be one, too, if you read her book!).

Therefore, considering our shared love of three-tiered white prairie skirts from The Limited (me), ballet (Paige), West Side Story (Paige WAS Maria), and Gone with the Wind (me), Paige and I think Ree loves us, too! She just doesn’t know it yet. (Again, just kidding – not stalkers.)

Image of Maria (played by Paige)
image of Paige as Maria

Back to Pawhuska. The Mercantile is fabulous. The food (of course) is, too. The people are friendly. Overall, it’s a wonderful place to visit. The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve is definitely worth the drive just outside of town. I highly recommend a visit! I do recommend checking the lodge tour schedule before you go.

Below, the quilt made with BOTH beautiful sides of Ree’s fabric using my Dazzling Kate pattern is pictured in front of the Merc (short for Mercantile by us “besties”). See my blog post HERE about the quilt pattern. However, this quilt resides in my own kitchen!

dazzling kate merch
Windy (but cute) outtake below:
Image of flying quilt in Pawhuska where watercolor on a whim happened

But what does one do “after hours” in Pawhuska? To summarize, when you’re with Paige, you create! That’s how watercolor flowers on a whim went from paint brush to fabric.

Firstly, we took acrylics, oils, and watercolors and all the supplies we could think up. The darling “Pioneer Woman meets Joanna Gains” cottage where we stayed had great lighting. We covered their beautiful table with a protective table cloth. So we laughed and painted each night until well past our bedtimes.

image of paige painting
Paige painting at the cottage.
Image of work station for watercolor on a whim
Our messy table! (She made me post this.)

In addition, during our creative sessions, my opera singer/computer coder girl and I brainstormed as we painted about how she would “fix” my website. Until now, the WordPress site was solely “designed” by me (which is my own “code” for “hey, it’s running, don’t touch anything!”).

Paint brush to fabric started on paper.

For instance, it was Paige’s idea that a) my water color flowers were any good and b) that we should use them on my new website. This is a sample of what we had to work with.

image of paint brush to fabric watercolor flowers

In addition, these steps were taken: scan the paintings on the printer, vectorize them in Adobe Illustrator, make a repeat pattern design (continues seamlessly in all directions), and export assets so Paige could add them to my website. Therefore, you now know how these flowers came to be here- quite on a whim.

image of website showing watercolor flowers on a whim displayed on website

In conclusion, the paint brush to fabric idea “blossomed” when this Watercolor Whimsy design became available on Spoonflower as fabric, wallpaper and more! Click on the photos to go to my Spoonflower shop:

image of paint brush to fabric
image of wallpaper

Thank you for taking this trip with me through the process of Watercolor Whimsy and a trip to Pawhuska!

Image of Paige at the Merc
Mini Palette Painting at the Merc!

Please share this and future posts, my blog, and website with your friends and on your social media. Until next time, Enjoy your journey, Karla

Uncork The Bubbles

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Celebrate summer and vacations and beaches and babies! BUBBLES is a happy fellow with an irresistible smile. Now this popular baby whale is popping up everywhere!

Image of Baby Whale Sticker
Bubbles Sticker on Redbubble

You might even call this a Bubblesfest!

Your next celebration might call for more than making a Bubbles the baby whale quilt with your own two hands (gasp)! Shower that new baby or grandbaby with Bubbles on a pillow! Or splurge with curtains or removable wallpaper!

Find Bubbles the baby whale on clothing, phone cases, shower curtains, tablecloths, and more!

Indulge your senses with Bubbles fabric printed by Spoonflower.

BUBBLES the baby whale quilt is created using a fantastic fabric by Kaffe Fassett: Paint Pots. The Paint Pots fabric is a gala of bright layered circles on a muted gray background. The front side makes the shape of the whale. The reverse side of the same fabric makes his under-belly, blow-hole, and (actual) bubbles. It’s a spree of fun when you use BOTH beautiful sides of fabric!

Shop Redbubble HERE

You learn how to audition both sides of fabric with each of my #usebothsides patterns. In other words, it’s all about VALUE. SHOP more than 45 quilt patterns that use both sides of fabric.

image of textile
Starfish and seaweed dance across a bubblegum pink background while Bubbles swims to and fro.

In other words, there’s almost a theme for every occasion. Try a broderie perse applique. Or pick up a large, pieced quilt pattern. There’s a bison, deer, several bouquet’s, a bee, a butterfly and much more!

Bubbles Quilt Pattern

In conclusion, Bubbles the baby whale is happy to be part of your next party!

Now that I have exhausted all the synonms of celebration words, I will leave you with this thought:

Cheers to your next festivity!

New Textile Designs

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Here’s a sneak peek at my latest new venture – textile designs!

You might call it “repeat pattern design” or “tiling”, but whatever you call it, it’s a lot of fun! What “new textile designs” means for me and you is future FABRIC!

Last post I shared my “fails” in past textile design and why I decided to pull them out of hiding and frame them on my work wall in embroidery hoops. Most seasoned quilters know that “fails” are just mediocre ideas that lead to better ideas! Click here to read the “Embrace the Journey” blog post.

My learning curve progress in repeat pattern design is MAYBE at about 50%, but I am super excited to keep designing! It’s odd to be this excited about a mousepad, but here’s my first repeat pattern on a product:

Image of Mouse Pad with New Textile Designs
Sand dollars with line-work of coral in the background is part of my new Seaside Friends collection!

This product is from ZAZZLE, but there are all kinds of companies that can print your designs on their products. And, what’s fun is, other people can order those designs, too!

You’re likely familiar with Spoonflower, a print-on-demand fabric company. Here you can see a few more of the newest designs I’ve been working on.

Image of Garden Tea Party New Textile Designs
Four designs from the Garden Tea Party collection.

Click here to visit Spoonflower.

Image of bedding
You can choose more that fabric at Spoonflower! Here’s how my Butterfly Stripe would look on bedding! Too much fun.

Of course, designing quilt patterns that use both beautiful sides of fabric is still going strong! With more than 45 current designs, I just shipped a new one for Hoffman California Fabrics for use in their future catalog! See all the current patterns in my Etsy Shop:CreativeBeeStudios

Remember to enjoy your quilting journey!

All the best, Karla

Sketches to Patterns

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Tropical Sunset fabric is available!

Quilt shops everywhere are opening boxes of Hoffman California’s beautiful “Meet Me in Paradise” fabric used to make the Tropical Sunset quilt pattern!

Before I started designing patterns, I had no idea how short the window is for designing and making quilts for fabric companies. To get the fabric produced and shipped takes much longer!

Sometimes I’ve had less than a week to open a box of fabric, design and make a quilt, write the pattern, photograph the quilt and ship the quilt from Missouri to California. Whew!

Image of Tropical Sunset Quilt

Of course, many quilt designers use digital software to “build” their quilts. Fabric companies have digital swatches to download for designing. They can plan the quilt and insert the fabric without taking a stitch. However, fabric companies don’t make swatches of the REVERSE side. Enter the need for real fabric!

For this design, I used my Ipad and the app called Procreate. This is a great drawing and painting app that’s easy to learn and fun to use. In Procreate, you can also make clippings masks of objects (in this case, the photo of the fabric). That’s how I “drew” the bouquet. Here’s the sketch I send to my representative to “pitch” my quilt idea:

SHOP Tropical Sunset Quilt Pattern HERE.

Image of Sketch of Tropical Sunset

As you can see, there’s quite a difference from the sketch to the actual quilt. Things don’t always work like you picture them in your head, right? Sometimes, they are much better in real life and real fabric!

I love that the “wallpaper” border made from the reverse of one coordinating fabric. If you’ve made a #usebothsides quilt pattern before, you know it’s important to audition both sides of fabric with itself (focus) and with surrounding (background, border) fabrics to know if they will actually have enough contrast. That “wildcard” is what makes getting a box of fabric a whole lot exciting and a little bit scary! This is one line that is PERFECT for using both sides!

See more about Tropical Sunset Quilt Pattern HERE.

As orders for patterns come in, I’ll be sharing links to the shops so you can do some online paradise shopping!

Until next time, enjoy YOUR quilting journey!

See Treasures made with Hoffman California Fabrics in New Fabrics in this One Block Quilt Pattern.

Embracing the Journey

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

In all things life, embrace the journey.

It’s not just about quilting skills, but the older I get the more I cherish my past experiences and embrace the journey I’ve been on. Do you keep proof of where you began?

Many of us, I’m sure, miss our days of guild meetings and live programs. One of the main messages of my programs to quilters was for them to reflect on their past and recognize how far they’ve come – to truly enjoy their quilting journey. In addition to experience and maturity, there are lots of influences in our lives that change our outcomes.

I bet you know someone who said they could NEVER quilt, right? My answer (sometimes silently in my head): all you need is a willingness to fail.

For me, to embrace the journey, I try to look at the good, bad, and…yes, ugly! I definitely have those in my collection of quilts! Some great ideas that just don’t quite make the cut. Do you look back at quilts you thought were just grand and laugh as you hide them away? I do. Wow.

But you know what? It’s this way for all things in life, I think. The older I get the more I realize that I could do what I’m doing if I didn’t start somewhere with the desire to learn and a willingness to mess things up!

Recently, I took a bit of my own advice. I pulled out some sample fabrics that I had printed on Spoonflower, framed them in embroidery hoops and hung them on my work wall right over my computer desk. It’s a little painful. These fabrics are absolute rejects. Colors are off, design are just…bad. White lines show the “repeat” was off. They are what they are!

I’m hoping with determination and lots of hard work, I’ll soon have hoops filled with successful designs.

Now I’m in the middle of a fabulous repeat pattern design course and I’m learning to fix all of those things. If you’ve ever been interested in repeat pattern design, I highly recommend following Oksana at Okscania HERE in Spoonflower or also on Pinterest.

Here I share my fails with you my friends. I hope soon I can share some beautiful fabric designs. We will see!

Image of fabric in hoops
My work wall includes a Spoonflower swatch guide, about 10 clipboards for keeping up with sales, inventory and quilt patterns, clues for Adobe Illustrator, UPC codes for more than 45 patterns and much more! Now the fabric hoops add history and perspective, if not beauty!
Image of magnetic pouches made to embrace the journey
These are a couple of ruler pouches made with the fabrics shown above.

See the Merry fabric above? She’s from the red truck quilt pattern. See more about her HERE.

Discover my fabric designs at Spoonflower!

As always, you can shop Creative Bee Studios Quilt Patterns HERE! New patterns being added all the time.

« Older posts