The Earth Day 'Everyday' Tote

The Earth Day 'cut & sew' bag...
Spoonflower started their challenge this week with this statement… 'Did you know that the United States alone uses approximately 100 billion new plastic bags every single year?'

The Earth Day 'Everyday' Tote
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

thin plus (deep sea)
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.  

dotty dot natural (deep sea)
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
 All Rights Reserved. 

dotty dot natural
 (lt.  aqua, deep sea + leaf)
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
 All Rights Reserved. 

thin plus 
(guacamole)
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved. 

  To honor Earth Day 2014, Spoonflower asked their army of artists to create a cut & sew pattern for a reusable shopping bag.
  The first decision that I made was to pick the fabric that I wanted to use. Fabric strength for a bag is important so I chose Heavy Cotton Twill fabric. My 1-yard pattern is 58" x 36".
  Next, I wanted to design a large useful bag, one that I would use when my girls and I go to the farmers market on Sunday. I like the hobo style and first designed an outline of  the shape that I wanted to use, then copied it and pasted it on my 58" x 36" Photoshop file.
  The fabric design is a simple pattern taken from my india ink paintings of dots and pine branch bits that were scanned and manipulated in Photoshop.   The 'thin plus' pattern was designed in the same way.
  The layout of the logo was designed and placed, and finally the directions for assembling the bag.
  I can't wait to get my sample pattern for this one, I will post the process and final bag here when it arrives!!
  Voting starts on Thursday, April 17th, 2014. Please Vote!

Lilies for Spring!

'Lily + Palm' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Lilies are a sure sign that Spring is here! This week at Spoonflower, designers were asked to celebrate Spring and Easter with patterns that included the Lily!
This week I wanted to keep it simple. I drew a ton of lilies and lily of the valley icons. Then as usual some birds worked their way into my sketches. I just can't resist adding a few happy birds whenever I can. I added palm branches as a way to give my pattern structure, then some hydrangea petals for a spot of color. Only minimal details were added to keep it… simple!
Design preview is in a quarter yard (21" x 18"). Voting starts on Thursday, April 10th, 2014 and will continue until Thursday, April 17th, 2014! Please Vote!

Whales!

'Baby Beluga's Birthday'
©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

This week in the  Spoonflower design contest… whales!  
The restricted palette this week helped to determine the direction of this assignment. The colors felt like a baby palette, so I kept that in mind when I drew my whales. 

restricted color palette

I researched the subject matter and looked for references and then drew a ton of whales and other sea creatures. I had in mind that my whales would be white (baby Beluga, Moby Dick, etc.) and I would use the blue to be the background. The tan color was to give detail in the pattern background (the seaweed/coral shapes), and I wanted to use the dusty pink color as a pop element (the octopus and starfish). I chose to eliminate the bright pink because it didn't go with the feeling of the other colors provided.

I drew elements in my sketchbook and on my iPad in the Adobe Ideas App, and opened the images in Photoshop. I colored and arranged the elements into a pattern of whales. Added the octopus characters, then the wave shapes, anchors, seaweed and the starfish. Finally, I added the party hats and birthday cake. 

All designs submitted had to use this restricted palette (21" x 18"). Voting starts on Thursday, April 3rd, 2014, and continues until Thursday, April 10th, 2014. Please Vote!