Folk Art Santa Fat Quarter #2!

I've been busy with other stuff during the day, but in the evenings, I'm still embroidering. My Folk Art Santa Fat Quarter #2 arrived from Spoonflower (it's available for ordering now, also as wrapping paper). Again, I suggest the Basic Cotton for embroidery, and Kona Cotton or Canvas for painting or coloring.

I am really happy with how this one came out, and as always, I'm delighted with Spoonflower's service and quality.

I decided to go mostly monochrome reds with this entire fat quarter. It would have been ALL red, but the thread showed through from snowflake to snowflake, and as much as I love embroidery, I'm not tying the thread off for every snowflake...

I also decided to leave the faces white, with just a crayon circle for the pink cheeks.

I still have the two Santa motifs to embroider. I might do some table runners with this one.

Amazing what you can accomplish during a long afternoon of football...

And yes, of course, I watched the new X-Files (there were some very bad words muttered during the exceptionally, and needlessly, long post-game wrap-up), and I did it without embroidering or knitting (my ultimate compliment to a TV show). I may have teared up a little at the opening credits.

My bar for new installments of the show is set pretty low- I just want Mulder and Scully back together (on the screen, they don't have to be together-together), and that made me very happy. The first episode got tepid reviews, but almost unanimously, the advance reviews for the other episodes are very good indeed.

Here's my recap of last night's episode: aah, ooh, SQUEEE!!!!!!, is that a wig?, heeee, sigh

Words this time, and a new embroidery panel!

I'm continuing work on the first Folk Art Santa embroidery panel (available from Spoonflower now).

I really love how all of these are coming out. Again, the faces are lightly colored with crayon and then set with a hot, dry iron (using paper towels to absorb any wax)

And, I finished a new Santa swatch, which will be available soon.

And another Folk Art Santa Embroidery Panel. As with the first one, this fat quarter has 5 blocks to embroider, embellish, or color. My samples should arrive in a week or so, and as soon as they do, both the panel and the swatch will be listed for sale!

And speaking of *for sale*- Spoonflower let me know that my Embroidery Panel #1 was currently trending in their Indie Designer Shop! I've designed fabrics through Spoonflower since 2010, and this is the first time any of my designs has *trended*. I am pretty thrilled!

And it's here! The Folk Art Santa Embroidery Panel! It's here! And Available!

Okay, this time it came out right! Kathleen Taylor's Folk Art Santa Embroider or Color fat quarter is now up for sale at Spoonflower. My sample just came and I am delighted with it. The 5 blocks are meant to be cut apart AFTER embroidery or coloring. All of these designs are printed on one fat quarter (I recommend their Basic Cotton Ultra). If you want lots of them, a full yard will have 4 full repeats of the fat quarter. Check out my other designs there- my shop is listed under the designer name: grammak. I plan to put together more Folk Art Santa Embroidery panels.

Here's the full fat quarter. If you want to order a yard, you get 4 of the above repeats.

These Santas can be embroidered, painted, colored with crayon (and set with an iron), and/or embellished any way you like. If you get them, please share your versions via email, Facebook, and/or on instagram ‪#‎ktfolkartsanta‬

Also- these drawings were all inspired by wood carvings I did in the 90's. Soon, I will have a new and exciting announcement about them!

I am excited to start working on them, but first I will finish the Brew dish towel, because I am a grownup. A reluctant grownup, but still.....

Link- Spoonflower

So, do you all know about Spoonflower? If not, click the link. I'll wait for you.

Are you back now? Are you amazed? And hyperventilating? I was when I first realized that there was a way to have custom fabrics printed. It's spendy, fer shure, but the potential is unlimited.

And of course, I have to try it out. My first custom fabric?

Is on the way. It's a fat quarter with a color, cut and sew outfit for an 18" doll. It took me quite awhile to put this together (it's hard to design a huge single motif for a fat quarter, especially when you're working on an image that is 3,000 pixels wide) (smaller, repeating motifs will be much easier to handle- but for an entire outfit, I had to work with that size). The skirt, vest and bag are my own design, and I think the Grands will love coloring the pieces with fabric markers or fabric paints, or whatever. I'll do the first sample myself, and if it comes out okay, I'll order a yard, and let The Girls go to town.

And if it does work out, the print will be for sale in the Spoonflower shop (designers get a 10% commission, redeemable on future orders, so it's not like anyone will get rich here. I figured others might want to try the design too, just for the fun of it). The sample should be here within 10 days. I can't wait!

And of course, I'm just getting my feet wet. I know I'll be designing more (and not just cut-color-sew stuff, but actual fabrics for quilting and sewing). Woohoo!

P.S. I can already see that I need to revise the piece to say the seam allowance has already been added in (in other words, cut on the black lines), and to practice coloring in the margins to make sure that the markers or paints don't bleed into each other. Also, to color first, and then cut.