pond_ripple's Fabric Blog

Newest swatch project: stuffed cube. I had loads of fun with this one. It's pretty straightforward to make one from a swatch. Just cut into an equal sided cross fold arms up into a box shape and sew the edges together. Last sew on one of the square scraps to make the last side and stuff before sewing last edge closed. Arrows Fabric Cube Stuffed Cube with Arrows Little Curly Lion Red  Block Toy

I made the small Sweet Bear plush from my test swatch and almost immediately gave it to my cat Richard because he really wanted it. There was a brief attempt to take pictures of it, but they didn't really turn out well. Instead of posting some sorry pictures, I've decided to just let Richard show you how nicely it turned out. A final note to how much Richard loves his Sweet Bear he's taken to sleeping with it.

Green Dragon Skin Sunny Chevron III. Sweet Bear Delicate Floral on Red

Spoonflower is always looking to push us artists to our creative limits. The most challenging contests to me are the restricted palette contests. This one takes the cake though: Palette-Limited Butterfly Contest . Design must use butterflies as a motif and use the palette pictured here. No blended colors, please. No gradients. You can choose to use some, rather than all, of the colors in the palette. Deadline is Tuesday, July 5th, 2011. [hex codes: orange: f28102 pink: d96fc3 light green: 7b9432 white: f5f8f8 (or ffffff) dark green: 003a00 blue: 1a87c8 ] No black on this one, please. No transparencies, either. Look at these colors!! And don't even get me started on no black. I was just about to throw in the towel on these colors, but I decided to give it a try anyway. So here's what I came up with: I am totally going to throw out that green outline as soon as the contest is over, but other than that I love it. It makes me think of a blanket that my grandmother made

I absolutely love getting swatches in the mail. I usually don't blog about just the swatches, but this batch was a little adventure. So I'm giving it a little more attention. The first swatch here is my Mothers Day Roses fabric. I knew that Spoonflower has trouble printing similar colors side by side, and I thought I had my reds and greens far enough apart. I didn't. They printed out as the same color, but if you hold it up to the light at just the right angle you can see the faintest difference. (Mom and I had a good laugh about it) I have since darkened the outline colors, and hopefully the next swatch will be fine. Full swatch Detail of roses The next swatch is the Small Daisies design. It came out darker than I thought it would, but it still looks gorgeous. So I'm pretty excited, and I can't wait to make something from it. Swatch with flash Swatch without flash Detail Next on the list is Sunny Chevron III. The colors turned out exact

Sweet Bear Fabric Sweet Bear Bouquet Fabric

I'm finally figuring out how to get the most out of my fabric scraps.  Most of my Golden Sea Serpent swatch went into a messenger bag. There was only a thin strip left, and I ended up making a fabric button and a cat toy. The button was easier to make than I thought. Basically it works just like covering a small sewing button. Just cut out a circle a little larger than the button do a large, loose running stitch all the way around. When you reach the place you started, with the fabric on the button the way you want, pull the thread so that it gathers like a drawstring bag. When you have it as tight as you can get it, secure the end with a knot or several backstitches. To tidy up the edges whip-stitch the edges all the way around a couple of times. Button Back Button Front Detail of Mouse

Richard and the Potholder This weekend I made a lovely potholder out of my Fleur-calm pastels  fabric. The potholder is a mite bit unpractical since the fabric was s ilk crepe de chine. That's right, a silk potholder! And of course I didn't have batting so I used pillow stuffing and quilted lines to keep the stuffing from bunching.  So far, and quite surprisingly, it works great. I have some doubts about what to do when it gets something on it. I know the silk is dry-clean only, but taking a potholder to be dry-cleaned does seem a little nuts. Potholder Closer view