Ditsy Divine

Ditsy definition - "A ditsy print is quite small in scale, and the design motifs are usually scattered or random rather than being ordered in a definable pattern like rows or stripes." So I've learnt something again, Spoonflower is doing me loads of favours by making me get on and do things which before I would'nt have bothered about or thought to do.

My ditsy print has butterflies, "kind of" japanese flowers and leaves, and I've thrown a few hearts in because all the ditsy prints I looked up as reference were very pretty... so I made my design pretty as well. To see the repeat go to my shop on Spoonflower, hope you like it? Wish me good luck in the Ditsy Print Competion... well I must do better than 114th this time!

My very own fabric

My "Hiding from the Fisherman" fabric finally arrived from the US, and I love it. As it was ordered over a month ago I was pretty excited to get my hands on it. I am now busy with plans to make two different items from the fabric but am keeping them a secret for a while longer in case I change my mind. Don't want to build your hopes up to much do I?
I have uploaded a detailed photograph of the fabric on FLICKR mainly for the benefit of Spoonflower members but please feel free to have a look. However I seem to remember that I mentioned the items that I want to make with the fabric in the caption!

Autumn Forest by Dennis the Badger

Congratulations to Dennis the Badger from Frankfurt who was the winner of this weeks fabric contest on Spoonflower. I really love this design and of course it is one of the ones I voted for. The design is so simple and graphic but also very intricate at the same time. I find the colour palette lovely, subtle yet effective. I'm not in the habit of posting the winners on my blog but I really love this design. Please take time to look at his work, all available to buy from Spoonflower. Yummy yummy yum. (His nickname isn't bad either.)
You wondering why I am writing this so so SO small, I came 114th with 128 votes in the same contest as Dennis the Badger. Serves myself right for taking the contest so lightly this time round. Look out for my "Root Vegetables" entry in the next competition. I intend to do a lot better.

Autumn Circles

"Autumn" was the theme for this weeks Spoonflower Fabric Competition, with only three colours allowed plus white. In my design Autumn Circles I have chosen to leave white as the background colour because it makes the other colours stand out more. I have also chosen three colours that clash a little to create a bright autumn glow. It may seem a bit obvious to choose leaves as a design element but it was all I could come up with at the time. The voting has started already and I am getting zero feedback so I think this entry may lower my average?
As promised this is a four way repeat pattern (I think).

For the next competition I will be trying my luck at designing a DITSY print, no colour restrictions. So look out for my Disty print design soon, in the meantime I have to find out what one is first!

P.S I sometimes am a bit slow on the uptake but have found out that I can access the final voting results on the Spoonflower blog. So here are my results so far.
Hiding from the fisherman: 34th place with 238 votes,
Coffee beans and flowers: 23rd place with 295 votes,
Birds of a feather: 12th place with 397 votes!!!!
My aim is to get into the Top Ten, just once.

P.P.S. Have just joined Twitter so will be setting up a widget on my blog soon.

Upside down garden

Over the last few days I have been doing a bit of sightseeing with Flowerlady. We went to see the Palace Gardens in Turin (well what else would a Flowerlady want to see?) and then went for a stroll around the cobbled streets outside the Palace Gates. I came across this strange upside down garden (Il giardino capovolto) on the ceiling of a passageway which leads to a Bed and Breakfast situated in the courtyard. It is really quite well done and very effective, it certainly makes you look twice. The lettering is super (see detail) and the flowers are real "plastic" ones stuck to the ceiling. Very nice indeed!

Birds of a feather

These are a few design details from my entry to the latest Spoonflower Fabric of the Week competition with the theme birds and using a restricted colour palette. My idea is to make the leaves of the tree into feathers so the birds will feel even more at home! I am very pleased with the result as this is my very first "acceptable" design which is a real repeat pattern. It is still however only a one way repeat, next time round I will be trying a two way repeat... or something else even more complicated!

Hope you like it?

You can see the whole repeat on Spoonflower or enjoy some details on Flickr.