First post of the new year, now that January is over half gone… My how time flies! Last year, I managed to post a whole three times… maybe I’ll get better in 2022. I am getting a better start for sure.
Just before Thanksgiving we lost our Bella… Up until the end of June, she had been acting like a puppy most days. We had a wonderful 5 years with her… not long enough. She was 13 years old, and my constant companion indoors and out. Thumper, our cat, has now decided that he needs to take her place. He used to hang out with Ken most of the time, but now he is glued to me whenever I’m on the couch.
In 2021, I did a much better job of adding designs to my Spoonflower shop. My goal for the year was to add new designs regularly, and try to end up with 1000 designs available in my shop. I was able to hit and surpass that goal, with a total of over 1600 designs available by the end of the year! That meant I added over a thousand in a year. Many of the new designs were new colorways of some of my older ones, and lots of stripes, checks, polka dots, and other simpler coordinates. I also entered 19 Spoonflower Challenges. Those challenges usually sparked ideas for more new designs. I bought a new laptop last Spring, and that made a huge difference in how fast I could design. No more waiting forever while watching the little spinning wheel when saving or opening files. It’s amazing what I can do with the right tools.
So far this year, I have made a pretty good start with new designs. Not many of the Spoonflower weekly challenges have fit with my style, but I am joining a group of Spoonflower designers in a collaboration of designs using a great, bright color palette for Spring. The colors we were to use are a bit brighter than I usually use, but I found them easy to play with. Here is a little sneak peek of some of what I have designed using the colors.
The designs in the above mock-up are part of my Spring Brights Collection, but not in the collaborative collection. Those will be introduced formally at a future date.
Currently, I have been working with some flowers that I painted in watercolor this past year. Since it it too cold and snowy to play in the gardens, I can play indoors on the laptop with flowers.
In the above photo, the lower left corner shows the original watercolors I am playing with. After removing the backgrounds, I did some recoloring of the Foxgloves. The Roses were painted to resemble a Peony in full bloom, but while working with the flowers, I felt they looked a bit more like Roses. The flowers needed a bit of an accent, so I pulled out the watercolor paints and now I have some pretty butterflies to add. These should be available in my shop by mid February, depending on how long it takes to get proofs printed and delivered. I’ll be placing the order by the end of this week.
Again, there are no guarantees of regular posts here, but this year’s goal is to post at least once a month. Baby steps are all I can plan on. I still never know how I will be feeling from day to day. I have learned to go with the flow, doing as much as I can on my good days. Here’s to a great 2022!
I am a former textile artist and new pattern designer with a degree in horticulture, wishing to share my love of nature, flowers and gardens with everyone through my photos, sunprinted fabrics, and now pattern designs. Chronic Lyme Disease has caused major changes to the direction my life. I have to limit the amount of time spent digging in my gardens, and quilting has become more difficult. I discovered pattern design as a way to get art back into my life. I now use my gardens and photos to inspire designs that can be used on fabrics and print on demand items.
