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Bandage Stripe fabric

| jenimp

Sometimes I spend a ton of time carefully drawing a million details for a fabric or illustration…and sometimes I get a really simple idea that just works on the first try. “Bandage Stripe” was definitely the latter – it came together really quickly, but the colors make it special.

And I’m thrilled that this design came in 2nd place in this week’s Medical Professions themed contest at Spoonflower – thank you to everyone who voted!

I can see this fabric making great scrubs, an ice pack cover or a fun pouch to hold your first aid supplies – because every 5-year-old will tell you that boo boos feel better when you have a cool bandage (or bandage-themed accessories!).

First aid kit mockup with Bandage Stripe fabric by Lellobird

Boxy Foxy

| jenimp

Boxy Foxy fabric by Lellobird, photo by Spoonflower

My Boxy Foxy fabric came in seventh in this week’s Spoonflower Tangrams contest – thank you to everyone who voted! It was fun and a little bit challenging to work with tangrams – they’re easy to draw, because they’re just geometric shapes, but I tried a few different ideas before I found a way to make them visually interesting. I enjoyed seeing how many images I could build with just simple shapes.

Sew Sew

| jenimp

Thread Garden fabric by Lellobird, photo by Spoonflower

This week my design placed 4th in Spoonflower’s sewing-themed fabric challenge.

I’m a bit of a geek about researching and recreating vintage-looking labels and ephemera, from record labels to library circulation cards.

So it was fun to study old wooden spools and come up with my own take on them, combined with stitched leaves, for my Thread Garden design. This was a limited-color-palette contest, using Pantone’s Greenery color of the year, plus black, white and tan. I really like the fresh, spring green of Greenery.

Photo: Spoonflower

The Craftroom

| jenimp

The Craftroom fabric by Lellobird - photo by Spoonflower

I got my start in online design contests doing tee shirts back in the day, so it was especially fun to merge tee shirts with fabric design in Spoonflower’s 2017 T-Shirt Design Challenge.

It was tricky picking a 3-color scheme that would work on both light and dark shirts, but a lot of fun to think of all the things to put in my The Craftroom fabric, from spools of thread to googly eyes to a swatch of one of the first fabrics I designed at Spoonflower. I’m pleased to say my design came in 8th, against some very lovely competition.

I’m already thinking about ways I can use all the bits and pieces from The Craftroom in other projects – you might be seeing that sweet little bird in a blockprint sometime soon!

(Photo by Spoonflower)

Family recipes

| jenimp

Grandma's Sugar Cookies tea towel by Lellobird at Spoonflower

I’m pleased to announce that my entry in Spoonflower’s “Grandma’s Kitchen” tea towel design challenge made the top 10 this week! This was such a fun theme to work on — starting with going through recipe cards with my mom to pick out a few family favorites.

We settled on my grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe, for which she was mildly famous (at least within our extended family). She used to press the cookies flat with the cut-glass bottom of a drinking glass before baking them, leaving a pretty flower pattern on the cookies. When she passed away, each of her kids got one of the glasses so they could carry on the tradition. Pretty cool.

Of course, my grandmother knew her recipes so well she never had to write anything down, so this recipe card is actually written in my mom’s handwriting, and carries the marks of many years of vanilla extract and buttery fingers.

Grandma's Sugar Cookies tea towel by Lellobird at Spoonflower
I decided to play against the vintage scanned recipe card with more modern accents, like a stylized drinking glass and cookies and simplified lace doilies in the background.

You can buy the Grandma’s Sugar Cookies fabric at Spoonflower, or have Roostery sew up a set of their Orpington Tea Towels (it prints the right way round, even though the preview may be sideways).

If you’d like to give the recipe a try, here’s the slightly modified version (replacing shortening with butter) we made this week to celebrate:

Sugar Cookies
Makes: 6 dozen cookies

2 c. butter
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. powdered sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
4 c. flour

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Sift together baking soda, cream of tartar and flour. Set aside.
  3. Cream butter and sugars in mixing bowl.
  4. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
  5. Beat in flour mixture.
  6. Chill in refrigerator (at least 1/2 hour or up to overnight). Or, if you’re lazy like me, skip this step entirely…
  7. Roll dough into small balls. Place on greased or silicone-mat-lined cookie sheet.
  8. Press dough balls flat with fork or bottom of glass, dipped in sugar.
  9. Bake 8-10 minutes or until firm and golden.