Caleb's Quilt

When Baby Caleb arrives in January, his mom will be able to wrap him in this rockin' quilt. His mother's friend, Jennifer, contacted me to design a quilt as a shower present. We looked through several fabrics until we found this great guitar fabric. Thank you, Jennifer, for letting me design this quilt for Caleb.

WISH LIST: Fabrics

When looking for fabric for a project I am working on, I found these great fabrics. Hope you enjoy them.

Bike ride anyone?

B is for Bird

I am excited to be posting this fabric design entry because it is my first design using Adobe Illustrator. This entry is for another of Spoonflower.com's weekly fabric design competitions. The theme for this week's competition is "Birds" and to challenge the designers, the color palette was limited to 4 colors; three selected by Spoonflower and one chosen by the designer. I chose a lovely shade of purple to complement the colors chosen by Spoonflower. 

UPDATED: Ride the "Sweet Waves"

Connecting Threads is having a quilting fabric design competition and the prize is HUGE. It's a chance to design your own collection to be offered in their catalog for next year, $2000.00, and royalties from the sales! There were no themes and you could use as many as 15 colors in your design. Above is my focal fabric entry, "Sweet Waves", for Phase 1. It was inspired by a graphic design I did for an art class in college. I chose the shades of teal, purple, and green because the were calming and serene.

The results are in and you can view the top 5 designs here. Thank you to everyone who voted! However, I didn't make the top 5, so I will be adding this and some coordinating fabrics to my design library on Spoonflower.com. 

UPDATED: Sharks to the Left, Sharks to the Right

I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. I have been very busy on several projects and one of them has been attempting fabric design. I entered my first design in Spoonflower's weekly contest. The theme is "Sharks". I was inspired by a book my son likes to read about whale sharks. I just love their beautiful spots and stripes.

The results are in and...I didn't even place in the top 10. However, I had a great time trying fabric design and will continue to improve my design skills in this area. To see the winner and the top 10 fabrics, click here. Congratulations everyone and great designs!

PAST PROJECTS: E's Baby Quilt

I am somewhat of a fabric hoarder. I buy lots of fabrics to use "someday". When I found out that my sister-in-law was going to have a little girl, I had the perfect fabric for my niece's quilt stashed away; birds with pink polka-dots. Wanting to incorporate yellow into the design, I found this great traditional, yellow fabric that complimented the bird fabric perfectly.

M's Second Birthday Party

I LOVE to celebrate birthdays, especially when it is my son's birthday! This year we decided on a fish theme. It was an obvious choice. Since January, when M's class received a Blue Beta Fish as a class pet, it has been what we have heard about after school and useful in motivating M in the morning to go to school. Everything for the party was inspired by these adorable fish cupcakes I found on Wilton's website.  (Shown above are the ones I made for M's party)

M's Easter Ties

For Easter last year, I waited almost until Easter to buy M a simple, cotton tie from one of the children's clothing places. The bonus was that it was on sale for about $5.00. I intended to do the same thing again this year, but the tie I wanted sold out before I had a chance to purchase it. So, after searching the internet, I found this easy, free, Little Man Tie pattern from Very Homemade (click "Read more" for a few things I did to save myself time and make this easy tie even easier). I was able to get enough material and velcro to make M three ties for a little over $6.00 because I happened upon a $.99 fat quarter sale! Here are two of the ties I made for him to choose from for Easter morning. I will post pictures of the third one (it's for a wedding we are going to) at another time.

M's Naptime Blanket

 M, my son who will be 2 in June, has been using a receiving blanket for his naptime blankie at school. I decided it was time to make him a "big boy" blankie to use.  

Relay for Life Team - Rowdy Relayers - Fundraiser Necklaces

In the last couple of months, I have had the opportunity to design a collection of necklaces for the Relay for Life team I am a member of. My aunt's company, 4Sisters is making the necklaces. Above is an image of all the designs and colors we are selling.

PAST PROJECTS: M's Nursery

This week I didn't spend much time at my sewing machine, so I thought I would share a project I did a few years ago, my son's nursery.

Baby J's Owl Quilt

This is the first quilt I made this year. It was a gift to my niece for her Baptism. I wanted to design something pink and girlie, but add some bold colors too. This owl fabric, which was found by my 18-month-old son (long story, see below), allowed me to do just that. You will probably notice that the fabrics match what I used in my studio last week. Though they are the same, the quilts that will be available for purchase are slightly different in design than this quilt. I believe, just like snowflakes, no two quilts should exactly be alike.

TRENDS: Lenzing Group Colors for 2011

The Lenzing Group, located in Austria, supplies the global textile and non-woven industry with cellulose fibers. Through much research and careful trending, they have released the color trends that we will see in 2011 and 2012. Above is a summary of the colors for 2011. To see the full report, please visit the link below:

http://www.lenzing.com/en/fibers/service/trends/trends-springsummer-2011.html

Week in Review - Pink Owls

What's been going on in the studio this past week? Well, it has been a week of pink, red, and teal owls. Here is a preview of the fabrics used. Though these quilts are sewn together, it will be a couple of weeks before they are quilted and for sale in my Etsy store.

The beginning...

Studio13Eleven is my design studio where I design, sew, and create custom projects. I will mostly focus on quilts, but will venture into other areas of sewing from time-to-time. By following my blog, you will get an inside look into what I am working on and a preview of what will be available for purchase in my Etsy shop.