It’s National Quilting Day on March 21 so in honour of that here is my entry for this week’s Spoonflower “Micro Modern Quilt” Design Challenge! The idea this week was to design a small-scale, non-directional ditsy print perfect for piecing together into a quilt top...A little insight into my design process: I started out with a more complicated design, but it just didn’t satisfy me, it was too busy, so I just kept paring it back, streamlining elements until it looked “just right” (at least to me!) I call this one “Spring Ditsy” (shown here with a coordinate called "Spring Dotsy"!)
I wonder...Do you work more intuitively or do you pretty much know where a design is going when you start?
If you would like to see this week’s challenge entries, check out the Voting Page! 

NOW OPEN! Registration for Bonnie Christine’s Surface Design IMMERSION Course is now open for 1 WEEK ONLY from Feb 18-25 2020! Once closed, you will have to wait another whole year. So if you have been dreaming about furthering your career in surface pattern design, you just need to START…and this is a fantastic place to do it!

The Surface Design IMMERSION Course is an intensive 8 week online course starting March 2. Step-by-step, Bonnie’s focused lessons will teach you Adobe Illustrator from the ground up, how to create repeating patterns, build pattern collections, put together a portfolio, how to license your work, and how to become a creative entrepreneur. Bonnie will guide you along the way and you will become part of a wonderful online community of like-minded creatives. As an IMMERSION student, you can work at your own pace (so it’s not scary!) and you will always have lifetime access to this year’s course content!

To find out more about Bonnie’s Surface Design IMMERSION Course, follow this LINK!
I am honoured to partner this year with Bonnie which means if you sign up through my LINK I will get a little kickback to support my creative business. Please know that I truly believe Bonnie is a great teacher and I have learned so much from her courses, she is open and honest and passionate, and her wonderful creative community which I have been part of for several years, continues to be one of my go-to places for ongoing support, inspiration and learning.

I wish you all the best in your creative journey!

I spent part of my winter holidays on the wild West Coast of Vancouver Island in the wonderful surf town of Tofino (think: crashing waves, storm-watching, wind-swept beaches, coastal rainforest hikes, hot tubs and local seafood...plus a storm-caused power outage)...and it was fantastic! But I'm now looking forward to a different sort of beach experience, so here is my new "Beach Stroll" Collection of coastal art prints that have a much more Summer-y feel! Warm sunshine, here I come! These prints are currently still available to license.

I'm a bit late posting about my entry for this week's Spoonflower "Illustrated Spring Flora and Fauna" Design Challenge because I've been working on new work (stay tuned!), but here it is...My "Three Little Birds" pattern design which was inspired by the song (you know which one I mean!) I think this fits the challenge perfectly and makes me feel happy...kinda like a Spring day! I do like it on a cushion or for the tabletop...Link to the Voting Page here!

I couldn't resist! As you may have noticed, I can't get enough of the 2020 Pantone Color of the Year "Classic Blue"! I was also inspired by this week's Spoonflower "Classic Blue Limited Colour Palette" Design Challenge (see previous Blog post!), so I decided to re-colour (and revise) my "Palace Walls" Collection. Wondering what you think of Classic Blue? Have you been inspired to use it in your designs?! Or maybe you don't really like it...? All designs here are available to license!

I love the limited colour palette design challenges put on by Spoonflower! This week’s “Classic Blue Limited Color Palette” Design Challenge includes the 2020 Pantone Color of the Year "Classic Blue" (which I really, really like!) and 3 other blue shades. I re-coloured my “Mahal” pattern design which was inspired by my travels in India using only the 4 gorgeous shades of blue, and may inspire me to re-colour more of the designs in my "Palace Walls" pattern collection! If you would like to see this week’s entries, be sure to check out the Voting Page!

Many of you have seen my “Floating World” pattern design before and asked if it was available on fabric, so I decided to enter it in this week’s Spoonflower “Vintage Kitsch” Design Challenge (one of my favourite themes so far I think!) If it is voted into the Top 50 it will be immediately available to purchase on fabric and lots of other products next week (see below), but even if not it will still become available but will just take a bit longer. If you would like to check out all the fun designs this week, you can link to the Voting Page here...Groovy! And check out my Spoonflower Shop here if you like!

Wakefield Design Studio is a Florida-based textile print studio that focuses on contemporary, highly sophisticated, and trend-right designs for women's wear, juniors, swimwear, home and accessories. I designed a range of exclusive botanical prints for them which they will show next week (Jan 21-22 2020) at Premiere Vision NYC at the new show venue Center415 on 5th Avenue! Come see all the prints Wakefield will be showing at Booth C5! 

A "folly" is a funny little whimsical building or structure built primarily for decorative purposes...So I thought it would be a good name for a new collection of funny little whimsical art prints I've been working on! These were designed as a triptych, and wouldn't they be wonderful altogether on a wall?! Would really love to hear what you think about these, since it's a bit of a departure for me but definitely something I will do more of! Stay tuned!