Trying Something New

I had been thinking for a while that I would like to order custom printed fabric from Spoonflower. I had in mind that I would like to use some of my zentangle inspired designs and have them printed so I could do something with them without having to draw a each and every one of them. What I had in mind was some of my heart designs for valentines. I scanned some of my drawings and fiddled with them in Picasa.

I drew them with a black Pigma pen and a Sharpie ultra fine point pen. In Picasa I was able to change the black to red. I was not able to do what I wanted in Picasa so I downloaded PaintNet and I was able to manipulate my images. I finally got it the way I thought would work and this image on the left is what I uploaded to Spoonflower. I could have ordered a quarter yard test piece but I went with the whole yard instead of having to order twice.

 

In just a few days this is what came in the mail. I want to say that I am happy with the quality and the service. the color was uniform throughout and not yellow at the sides which is the result of my photography. I couldn't take another shot because i had already cut it all up into squares and  ovals.

 

There were, however, some problems with my own design. I did not space my motifs far enough apart and I spent a week and a half trying to figure out how I could cut the large motifs so I could use all of them. In the end I cut ovals and squares and I was able to cut squares of the small hearts  as well. I should have skipped the small hearts in my design as they are a bit small and fussy and not really suitable for what I wanted to do. I ran out of time because after I cut all the ovals and squares  it took me too long to figure out how to use them for what I wanted.

I did get a few valentines made after all and I sent one to my daughter and one to a friend before thinking that I wanted  photos. They were a little different than these below which is what I finally settled on.

 

I quilted it by stitching over some of the long lines with red thread and I colored in some of the little hearts with a red colored pencil to make them pink. I fused the heart ovals and squares to white fabric so there would be no color or print showing through and then I fused the white squares and ovals to a pice of hot pink after I trimmed them with a pinking blade. I fused the whole thing to fusible batting and quilted it with red thread. after I pulled all my thread ends to the back and tied them and burried the tails in the batting I fused a piece of backing fabric to the back and stitched around the outside  of the white and a quarter inch along the outside edge. I trimmed the outside edges with a pinking blade to finish.

Next time I will know what I want and how to do it (well, maybe).

There will be a next time but I am going to do some homework first.

I need to learn more about photo editing and maybe spend some time on Jack's computer (gasp) to see if I want to buy Photo shop. It came installed in his new computer and I am sure it is an abbreviated version but it will give me some idea about whether it is going to be any better for what I want than PrintNet, which was free.

 

 

 

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