Can you believe it? I won!

Image from Spoonflower.com.

Thank you so much for your support in the Spoonflower fabric of the week contest! I'm so excited! I can't believe I actually won!

For those of you who asked about purchasing the 'Cheater Friday' fabric, here's the lowdown. Before a designer can sell their fabric on Spoonflower, they are required to order the fabric to serve as a proof (in the textile industry, it's called a strike-off). The designer should use the proof to ensure that the fabric prints as they intended and gives them the opportunity to make changes if necessary before the fabric is available for sale. Spoonflower's current lead time is about 20 days, so I wasn't able to get a proof prior to this fabric going on sale. Spoonflower is going to make the fabric available for sale today (before my proof ships) since I won the contest.

If you buy the fabric from Spoonflower before I see the proof, be aware that I can't vouch for how it turns out since I haven't seen it yet. Stephen also sent me a message to let me know that he's having to rotate the design, and I think that's actually going to modify the repeat, so you may not receive all 56 squares in a FQ.  I won't know for certain until I receive the proof.

Once I see the proof, I am going to order some yardage of the fabric. I'll probably sell some FQs myself since I would actually profit more by selling the fabric myself and you could purchase the FQs for less if you buy it from me after I buy yardage.

Image from Spoonflower's blog at www.blog.spoonflower.com.

[Edited to add - Spoonflower just uploaded some photos of the printed fabric to flickr here and here, and sent out the email. It's official!]

I'm still working on the Paintbox quilt when I steal a few minutes for myself. I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out and I love quilting with the perle cotton. I think I'm going to hand quilt the pinwheel sampler with perle cotton too.

I received a couple of questions about my quilting frame and you can see above, I'm just using a quilting hoop.  It's an Edmunds 14" quilting hoop which I purchased at my LQS. Quilting hoops differ from embroidery hoops in that they are much sturdier and the hoop is thicker (this one is 1" high or thick). I'd love to have a larger frame, but until we move and get settled, I'm going to stick with this small hoop and just continue to move it from block to block as I quilt.

As much as I'd love to stick around and chat, I've got to get to work. Thank you again for your kind words regarding the cheater fabric and especially for the votes! I would like to enter another Spoonflower contest, but I've set the standard a little high for myself after winning the first one I entered. I'm overloaded at the moment with work projects and I'm working against a tight deadline, so real work is having to take precedence this week over the fun stuff. I really want to do some more fun designs now!