pond_ripple's Fabric Blog

Cephalopods In honor of Cephalopod Awareness Days (Oct. 8th- 12th) we decided it was about time again to pay homage to our favorite inky sea creatures. Although, it's a fact that not all species of cephalopods produce ink. With more than 800 species of cephalopods, that's a lot of inspiration to draw from! Show us your best Cephalopod themed design! Previews will be sized as a fat quarter (21" x 18") Deadline for entry is Tuesday, September 29th, 2015. Voting will open Thursday, October 1st, 2015. Octopus Jars Octopus Jars Octopus Jars Octopus Jars Octopus Jars

Ditsy lizards Do you know why lizards stick their tongues out at a rapid pace? Make a ditsy design from our favorite creature that smells by tasting the air around them with their tongue! Previews will be sized as a swatch (8" x 8"). Deadline for entry is Tuesday, September 8th, 2015. Voting will open Thursday, September 10th, 2015. Chameleons in Green

This little pouch was a gift for my grandmother. She needed a new bag to hold some small items in her purse as her old one had worn out. I decided to make her a special one of a kind bag by making a pink version of my Cat Grass Damask design that I would only print once. It got squeezed into the same yard as my forest Mix shirt and headband . There were a couple of swatches in my stash that went well with a similar gray and pink palette, Pink Southwestern Geometric Stripe and  Pink Southwestern American Bison . I used these to create the lining, and Grandma was very happy with her new custom pouch. :) Here you can see the Pink Cat Grass Damask . The other side looks exactly the same. One side of the lining is  Pink Southwestern Geometric Stripe  as you see here. Pink Southwestern American Bison  makes up the other half.

Contest Egyptian Owl Triangles The pattern for this adorable little stuffed llama comes from this pin on Pinterest . The original idea that I had was to make it bigger, but there was a conveniently sized remnant in my stash that would be way cuter. Just a word of caution, my llama was done on Spoonflower's satin and the tiny seam allowances make this an incredibly delicate figure. Mine is just meant to be decorative and sit on a shelf so it works. So if you plan on making one like this out of a ravel prone fabric be sure to be generous with seam allowances, and zigzag or serge each seam. Contest Egyptian Owl Triangles Contest Egyptian Owl Triangles Contest Egyptian Owl Triangles

This coordinated t shirt and headband set was made using a single yard of Spoonflower's performance knit. I used a free downloadable pattern for the shirt and made an image file the size required for the yard. After playing around for awhile and getting my pattern pieces to fit I filled them in with the designs from my Forest Mix collection . The front of the shirt is  North American Forest Mix , the back is  Mixed Flowers , and the headband is Mixed Fruits & Berries . After the file was complete, I uploaded and ordered it :) It took a couple of hours to sew everything up once I got the fabric in the mail. North American Forest Mix Mixed Flowers Mixed Fruits & Berries

This quilted pillowcase was a rather unusual labor of love. You see, we tend to keep our bird feeder stocked with birdseed, and someone innocently set the sack on the desk while we were bringing in the groceries one night. Obviously refilling the feeder in the middle of the night wasn't on the to-do list. So it remained on the desk until the next day. Our cat Richard discovered that it's pretty much a tiny bean bag chair, and lazed around on it all day. And then the next day, and the day after that, and it was quickly becoming a joke that we should just buy another bag for the birds. Here are a few pictures of his adorable self: Look at that smile! After a week or two it eventually became clear that the bird food was here to stay. So to keep it looking a little less like an eyesore in the middle of the living room, I took it upon myself to make a zippered cover for it. My swatch collection needed some paring down, and there were just enough from my Lama Fancy co...

This is a quick project, and my all time favorite rice sock. I just took two swatches and put them together right sides facing. I sewed a little ways outside the outline of the skull of my main fabric leaving a hole for turning. Then just flip right side out, fill with rice, and sew it closed. It takes about 5 minutes to make a rice sock like this!  The fabrics I used here are Golden Skulls in the Jungle  and  Holes in the Wall . Golden Skulls in the Jungle Holes in the Wall Golden Skulls in the Jungle Holes in the Wall

This wine tote was a gift for a friend's birthday, and since her party was last weekend, I can share without ruining the surprise ;) It has a plain silvery satin interior, and uses my  Arrows & Flowers Purple satin fabric for the exterior. The quilting is simple lines from top to bottom both inside and out which has the effect of hiding the side seams and making it look almost entirely seamless. The basic pattern and size were taken from  this tutorial . I just modified it to have different handles. If I ever make it again, I will add some width because I like a little more seam allowance, especially on fabrics that are as ravel prone as these.

I made this using Sewaholic's Gabriola skirt pattern, and  Silver Leaves on Ruby satin fabric. The yoke and waistband accent pieces use my Dark Coordinate Linen , also on satin. Photographs don't really capture how fabulous this looks in person, especially since they were taken with some haste. (We were leaving to help my grandmother pick out a new kitten, and my cat, Richard, was "helping" me get ready.)   Front view with my shirt held up to show the yoke pattern. Front view of the skirt wearing shirt normally. Back view of the skirt with Richard draping himself over my shoulder. Bonus: Me wearing the skirt with Grandma's new kitten Oliver in my lap!!

Llamas It's time to travel to the South American Andes mountains to show your llama love! Give a go at creating a lovable llama themed design. Deadline for entry is Tuesday, June 30th, 2015. Voting will open Thursday, July 2nd, 2015. Here is my entry! This week's contest has such an awesome theme, llamas. It was fabulous to have something a little more my own style than some of the harder challenges they've been putting up lately. I really tried to push myself to make loads of different blanket patterns, and giving them a slight ikat treatment as well as the linen texture. The only drawback is that since I've done all this fine detail, it does tend to get swallowed up in Spoonflower's fabric views. Anyway here are my llamas: Fancy Llama Herd Fancy Llama Herd Fancy Llama Herd Fancy Llama Herd Fancy Llama Herd