Getting to Summer Bliss, The Story Behind My New Fabric Collection

I love fabric. The colors. The designs. The texture of it. The smell of it under a hot iron. Sewing was one of the first creative pursuits I delved into when I started focusing on living a more creative life. At first I never dreamed of being able to design my own fabric, but eventually a tiny spark of a wish ignited into something bigger.

I printed my first Spoonflower swatches in October of 2014. I didn't design anything for those first attempts, but simply tiled some of my images. The resulting fabric was boring and I realized I'd need to do a bit (truthfully, a lot) more learning before I'd be able to design my own fabric.

And it did take a lot of learning. To understand how to create a seamless repeat. To be able to fluently use design software.*

The whole process has been slow for me. I didn't want to rush. I still have a lot to learn and I need to spend more time creating patterns before I'll have a larger body of work to share (you'll notice that although I've been designing patterns in Illustrator and created many for Spoonflower's Design a Day Challenge, my new collection doesn't include any of my patterns created with that program).

That being said, I am so excited to finally unveil Summer Bliss, a new collection created from my watercolor paintings:

The Summer Bliss collection is inspired by the joy of summertime and the magic of my garden:

The sun is warm on your face. Breathe and you're met with the scents of soil, herbs, roses. Bees buzz around the lavender. A hummingbird zooms past, vying with butterflies for sips from the nasturtiums. A soft breeze ruffles the maple leaves overhead and creates a kaleidoscope of orange-glinted ripples in the pond. Grass tickles your bare feet. You bite into a cherry tomato and savor its warm, delicious tang. Nothing is a sweet as a summer afternoon in the garden.

It's made up of eleven coordinating designs.

I think this collection is such a great reflection of my aesthetic. My paintings translated into fabric. And I think the designs truly capture the beauty and joy of summertime.

Summertime is filled with gardening and flowers, tomatoes and herbs, soft breezes and butterflies. And so is my Summer Bliss fabric collection.

There are a few different groups within the collection that coordinate well together. The veggies and herbs. The butterflies. And then there are a few that stand alone.

The collection captures the bliss that is summertime

and because of that, I think all of the designs play well together.

The collection is now available in my Spoonflower shop. There are many substrate options from a variety of different cottons (including lawn and canvas), satin, knits, crepe de chine, pique, faux suede and even silk (see all the options here).

If you're curious about how Spoonflower works and want to learn a bit more about their history and the fabric they print, check out Abby Glassenberg's podcast on While She Naps where she talks with Stephen Fraser, the co-founder of Spoonflower.

I'm dreaming of creating a simple patchwork quilt with my swatches and some solids in coordinating colors. It's been so long since I've done any sewing. I'm itching to get back to it. Plus there's the goldfish pajamas that I've been talking about making... Guess I better get busy.

What about you? Do you have any sewing projects in the works? I love to hear about people's favorite sewing patterns.

And if you sew with any of my designs, I'd love to see what you create!



*I've taken various classes online as I've learned. If you're interested in creating your own fabric you might want to try some of them:

• Creativebug's class How to Design Fabric
• Classes on Skillshare:
• Bonnie Christine's classes on Illustrator
• Sandra Bowers' class on creating designs in Photoshop 
• Jenn Coyle's class about using Photoshop and Illustrator 
• Elizabeth Olwen's Illustrator classes 
• Karina Eibatova's class on creating designs with watercolor, drawing and Photoshop

The classes were so helpful. Creativebug's series was full of inspiration, but helped me less with the technical aspects of using the computer programs. The Skillshare classes were invaluable in helping me to get comfortable using Photoshop and Illustrator. They're such HUGE programs with many ways of doing things. Every class I've taken and every tutorial I've found online has given me one more tool to use and sometimes a whole toolbox worth.

The Spoonflower Handbook and Spoonflower's video tutorials are also helpful if you want to upload and print your designs.

Happy designing!