Spoonflower is shrinking this week. We ‘re going ditzy! A ditzy pattern design is one that is small scale and random. A tossed pattern that is non-directional. They do not need to be matched up, and that saves on wasted fabric. They are great for clothing and quilting. The pears in my design are about 1 inch squared. Many ditzy patterns are even smaller.
Ditzy patterns have never lost popularity. In the early 1900’s, feed sacks were made from a light cotton material. Resourceful women were using them for towels and to make clothing for the family. Companies soon took notice, and started using ditsy prints on their flour sacks. Flour sack dresses were a staple during the depression in the 30’s.
Voting is now open. There are over 1200 entries again, so grab a cuppa. 🙂 There are quite a few pear designs, I voted for several of them. Thank you for taking the time. One of these days I will make the top 60. Fingers crossed. Haha. Hey, gotta have goals, right? Making the top for me, would mean that my skills have improved. So I will keep working at it. ;o)
Deco Diamond placed at 777 of 1276 entries with 26 votes. That’s about at the 60% range. I thought it would be lower. I went against the grain, hoping it might pay off. I knew there would be lots of scallop entries. You can see in the top 69, almost all of them were some form of a scallop.
So grateful for your votes! Thank you for taking the time. 1276 is a lot of entries to go through.
Wishing you all a fabulous weekend!
You must do the things you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt
Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit. Bear Bryant
The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. Michelangelo
I started with the original painting as inspiration. Problems with Photoshop used up several days of my design time. A revamp was quicker than creating from scratch. What you see here, is all that is left from the original. I noticed several mistakes in the yellow blooms, so I eliminated them. I added digital outlines using the pen tool, for nice crisp edges.
I cleaned up the white blooms. The blue background was visible and made them look a bit dirty. The grey is the template that Spoonflower provides. The darkest, inner rectangle is all that will be visible when the design is printed.
I added color blocks and considered using them for the final piece. But they were too flat, and I thought a pattern in the background would be too much. I placed the plaid to find the right scale.
I decided to paint paper with three colors. Yellow, blue, and green. I scanned them in to get the texture and uneven color tones. The variations are less obvious, than in the original painting. But I think it “warms” the design, by having a hand made, imperfect quality.
The design brief really called for wacky, or strange. They showed a tennis ball cut in half to reveal a lemon interior. This may not be wacky, but it will be unexpected to some.
I am really starting to feel comfortable using the pen tool in Photoshop. I never thought I would say that. There were only three connections I had to smooth out. Just slightly. I am so stoked about that. And so grateful. Whew! 🤓
Voting is now open, until October 18th. Voting is easier on a computer or larger screen like a tablet. If you are using your phone, you need to scroll slowly, it can only load so many images at a time and you may miss seeing images without knowing it. There are only 484 entries, roughly a third of the usual.
Your votes help give me the chance to win cash prizes. Money I can use towards printing samples of my designs, which is a requirement to making them available for sale in my shop.
1st place winner will receive a $200 Spoonflower credit.
2nd place winner will receive a $100 Spoonflower credit.
3rd place winner will receive a $50 Spoonflower credit.
Remaining top 10 designs will receive a $20 Spoonflower credit.
The top 50 popularly-voted designs from each theme will be automatically made available for sale in the Spoonflower Marketplace, no $5 swatch required.
