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!

A Retro Christmas!

Ornament Gift Wrap for Spoonflower!

A Retro Christmas! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

I love this theme because Christmas ornaments come in so many shapes, styles and traditions. I chose to illustrate some of my favorites from the ornaments that my family and I have collected over the years!

I started by just drawing as many ornament shapes as possible on my iPad with the Adobe Ideas App. (I love this app, I can take my iPad anywhere and draw without being tethered to my desk.) The next step was to add the details... I drew stars and dots and swirls and spots and hooks and pine branches a hundred different ways. All of the illustrations are just outlines and in black only until I open the PDF in Photoshop. When I get to this stage I make decisions on how many colors (in this case 5 + b&w), and come up with a strategy on the overall look. I decided to make the ornaments white because I wanted the details to be the focus and limited my colors to unify the shapes. Tried to keep it simple!

Voting starts on Thursday, November 6th, 2014. Please Vote!!

'Ski Retro' in the Spoonflower top 10!

I'm very excited, my latest design on Spoonflower is one of the top 10 designs this week!!  'Ski Retro' fabric, wall decals, wallpaper, and gift wrap are now available at Spoonflower.com.

Thanks for voting and Happy New Year!

'Ski Retro'fabric, wallpaper, wall decals + gift wrap 
available at Spoonflower.com
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs

Ski Retro!

The challenge this week… 

'Create a pattern that uses skiing imagery with a retro or vintage flair.' Submitted designs must use this restricted palette! 

 For this challenge I started out by researching on the internet, mostly vintage ski posters and ads on Pinterest and Google. I found that the palette was pretty good and workable except for the mustard and ketchup colors. 

I started to sketch figures in ski poses with detail but found it to look too busy. Many of the vintage posters that I had researched were simple silkscreen prints, so I changed direction and simplified the shapes once I got them scanned and opened in Photoshop. I had sketched the trees for an earlier project and auditioned them with my figures and liked the simplicity, so I kept them. I liked the monochromatic  design but forced myself to use the mustard and ketchup.

I noticed that many of the vintage posters and ads featured cars. I thought adding a car might bring in the vintage feel that I needed and give me a place to use the yellow and red. So I sketched many cars and exaggerated some of their features to give the design retro flair. The cars were added, then the road and finally I thought a lodge was the perfect final element.

'Ski Retro'
fabric, wallpaper, wall decals + gift wrap available soon at Spoonflower.com
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs

Previews will be shown at the fat quarter fabric size (21" x 18"). Voting starts on Thursday, December 12th, 2013, and continues through Thursday morning December 19th, 2013. Please Vote!!

'My Garden Sketchbook' in the Top 10!

Very excited about the news this morning that my latest fabric has made the top 10 this week at Spoonflower.com! It is currently available in 10 different fabrics, (quilting cottons, home decor fabrics, silks and organics),wallpaper, wall decals and now gift wrap in both satin and matt finishes! Thanks to everyone who voted!

My Garden Sketchbook
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs

Fat Quarter Bundles of the top 10 contest themed designs are available at Spoonflower.com for $60. Each quarter yard of fabric is printed on Kona® cotton, then bundled and wrapped in a lovely ribbon!

Garden Fat Quarter Bundles available for this week only!

My Garden Sketchbook!

This week, Spoonflower designers were asked to design fabric dedicated to gardening tools (21" x 18"). Deadlines for entering were Tuesday, April 9th, 2013. Voting begins Thursday, April 11th, and goes through Thursday morning, April 18th, 2013. 

I thought I would celebrate this Spring assignment with sketches from my journal where geraniums bloom, garden tools look used and gorgeous vegetables can grow without ever having to put my paintbrush down!

'My Garden Sketchbook'
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs

Asparagus Garden Stripe
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs

 Accompanying 'My Garden Sketchbook', are two other fabrics in the Collection so far.

Garden Sketchbook "Mini"
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs

In keeping with the garden theme, my final entry for today... the Harvest! Our growing season is just about wrapped up here in South Florida as we head into the 'Wet' season... my final tomatoes were harvested today from my very small patio garden! They were served at dinner with great pride.

'Bountiful Harvest'
©2013 Patty Rybolt Designs
featured on my fabric in Linen/Cotton
Olive Branches (lt. lime, lt. aqua & white)