Blog / inspiration

A few weeks ago, the kind folks over at Riley Blake Designs invited me to participate in their Quilt-It Modern blog tour, which starts today. The tour is all about showcasing the fabric company's impressive range of cotton solids, so I was excited to have the chance to try out their fabrics and work on a new wall quilt design for the shop.

I love looking to geometric patterns, especially tile patterns, for quilt design inspiration. During a night of Pinterest browsing I came across this tile pattern and immediately started envisioning it in fabric and began sketching. My sketch became this mini quilt. I used white and two shades of coral and peach to create hourglass triangle blocks, which replicated the tile design.

I love olive + peach paired together (as evidenced in this recent quilt), so I bound the quilt with a solid olive, and backed it with an olive polka-dot print by Spin Spin. 

I made lots of extra hourglass blocks, so two of these quilts are now available in the shop. Each one has corner triangles and loops for hanging, and will ship with a wooden dowel. 

I really enjoyed working with these solids---they were super soft!---and I can't wait to see what other colors everyone else is working with. You can follow the blog tour, and see all of the quilt projects made for it, by checking out the hashtag #ModernQuiltTour now through July 8. 

When I first started working at Spoonflower over three years ago, my husband still lived in our Maryland apartment, so I spent many weekends driving up and down I-95 to visit him. Along the way, I kept an eye out for quilt inspiration, snapping pictures of rest stop bathroom floor tiles and highway signs.



The black-and-white chevron signs posted below the highway exit signs stuck with me, and I...

As I continue to grow my little fabric shop and prepare to add new designers to its shelves, I'm constantly searching for inspiring fabric makers, projects that feature hand-printed fabrics, and tutorials that show you how to print your own designs. Here are a few of my latest and favorite finds:


1. Kate's step-by-step tutorial for how to screenprint on fabric at home is super thorough.

2. Great way to use a fat quarter: Anna's invisible zipper pillows made from gorgeous Skinny Laminx fabrics.

3. Love this interview with Australian fabric designer Leslie of Maze and Vale. (Update: It looks like the interview is no longer available on the Handmaker's Factory website!)


4. Two projects featuring Umbrella Prints Trimmings Packs (there are still a few left in the shop!): wide-mouth zipper pouch by Anna and a gorgeous wall quilt by Ashley.

5. Design Sponge's silkscreen tutorial (They make it look so simple---I want to try this method!)