2016 Tea Towel Calendars!

It's that time of year again!

2016 'flea market finds' calendar (white)
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

2016 'flea market finds' calendar (avocado)
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

2016 'choose happy' calendar
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

2016 'farm friends' calendar

©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Spoonflower is hosting it's annual design contest for tea towel calendars.
I have re-issued my 'farm friends' calendar for 2016, and added 2 other new calendars (in 2 color ways) as well! (Previewed at the scale of a linen/cotton fat quarter (27" x 18" oriented horizontally).

I have until Tuesday the 27th of October to decide which calendar to enter into the contest, so if anyone has a preference - let me know! All 4 Calendars are currently available for purchase at Spoonflower. (Great holiday gift - just hem + give!)

Voting starts on Thursday, October 29th, 2015. Vote Here!

Nana's Vintage Kitchen!

This week's design challenge at Spoonflower was to create a 'spoon-themed' design.
I started my research by opening my kitchen drawers and began sketching what I found.

Nana's Vintage Kitchen ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs

Designing my pattern with only spoons seemed a little boring so I incorporated some drawings that I originally did for MATS4A last fall of the cool gadgets that I had inherited from my Nana. (My daughter Hanna especially likes the hand-mixer).

I assembled all of my drawings in photoshop and made an organized collection of the items using only their grey outline. I felt that there were so many shapes that the color palette had to be simple. I chose the smoky blue/green color because it worked well with the grey and really made the white pop. Plus I liked it! I've learned from the MATS (Make Art That Sells) classes that I've taken from Lilla Rogers over the past year and a half that I should be designing something that I would buy!

Voting opens on Thursday, March 12th. Please Vote Here!

Suzani by the Sea!

Coral, mint, black and white...

'Suzani by the Sea' ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Spoonflower's challenge this week was to create a design using all four colors in this restricted palette,

restricted palette

no less, no more. The only restriction was the color, the design concept this week was left wide open, so I chose to make a Suzani* type print.

I had drawn hundreds of these elements for MATS 4A this fall and was looking for a way to make a design for Spoonflower using my sketches, so I opened my sketches in Photoshop and added my new palette. Then built my layered elements into designed motifs and created my pattern.

(*Suzani is an embroidered and decorative tribal textile made in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries. Popular design motifs can include the sun, flowers, leaves, vines and an occasional bird or two.)

Voting opens on Thursday, March 5th and continues until Thursday, March 12th, 2015. Click Here To Vote!

'A Retro Christmas' gift wrap design in the Top 10 at Spoonflower!

©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. Photo from Spoonflower on Flicker.

My 'A Retro Christmas' gift wrap design made the top 10 at Spoonflower !!

Thanks to all of my friends, fellow MATSies and family for the votes!!!