Tray Chic Digital Fabric

One of my favorite things to do is to transform family memories into fabric designs. The August 28 deadline for Spoonflower's Zig-zag Cheater Quilt contest was the incentive I needed to turn one of my dad's woodworking projects into fabric I'll use in his Christmas gift.

My fabric design "I Could Have Danced All Night Chevron Cheater Quilt" -- vote in this week's Spoonflower fabric design contest here

The idea came as I was doing the kind of cleaning I do only when my mother is going to visit. Instead of washing windows, though, I had just enough time to get from the idea stage to a completed fabric design before my folks arrived for a summer visit.

The tray Dad made

I took a photo of the tray Dad made for Mom years ago. It came to live in my house when they downsized to a smaller place in Florida. Dad loves to do this kind of woodworking -- what he calls "patterns that look complicated but are really simple."

The printed fabric -- http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1380286

Using Gimp, I turned the photo into a design sized to fit on one yard of Kona cotton. The contest rules stipulate that the piece should be printed to look like patchwork or applique so you can skip the piecework and just quilt and bind the fabric to make a finished quilt. I may add piping on the edge (that's the dark brown line at the top of the photo). The finished size should be just about right for taking to outdoor concerts and to the beach.

And yes, that's the actual, printed fabric on my design wall. I finished the design and got the fabric ordered at 1:26 am on the day my parents arrived for their visit. Spoonflower had it printed and shipped it 2-1/2 days later. It arrived in Tuesday's mail so I could show it to my folks before they left. Thank you, Spoonflower!