A Visit with Spoonflower...

I'm freshly home from vacation in Raleigh, NC. We visited some of our best buddies for a much-needed break from flat land Indiana. While we were gone, we dipped our toes into the ocean at TopSail Beach (I wouldn't get all the way in...it was Shark Week on Discovery, y'all!), and breathed some FRESH mountain breeze in Blowing Rock, NC. I got a little suntan (little.) and a lot carsick (a. lot.)...

Here's the part that you'll be excited about too...I visited Spoonflower to see where all my fabric designs are printed. It was so fun to put a visual with the 'magical place that prints fabric'. I met Darci, who is one of Spoonflower's growing number of employees. I always look at my packing slip when I order fabric, and I know she's signed her name to many of them. Now I have a face and story to put with the signature.

(thanks, Darci!)

Spoonflower started with just a few employees, 2 tempermental printers, and one quilting cotton fabric option. They have since grown to about 30 employees, shipping their custom-printed fabrics all over the world. You can have your designs printed on organic cotton jersey knit or even a new silk to name just a few fabric options.

All that gorgeous fabric starts here...

...then is printed on one seriously large format printer, using eco-friendly inks

(they now have a room FULL of printers. Each printer has a name, face, and 'personality'...my favorite was Charlie.)

Once the fabric is printed, it's loaded onto a roll to run through a heat-setter.

Each order is then cut by hand...yardage, fat quarters, test swatches....you can see why it takes more than a day or two to ship your fabric order...but these folks get to marvel at each and every fabric design as it comes through.

the waiting area...chairs covered with several of the designs that come through Spoonflower

Many designers will make goodies out of their fabric and share...

Love these coffee cozies...

Turns out, Spoonflower folks love them some coffee. :)

The whole place was filled with gorgeous designs from independent fabric designers. The employees were so down-to-earth and it's evident that they LOVE their jobs. I can tell it's a great place to work. Now, if I lived in North Carolina, I'd so bring in my resume ;) Happy fabric lovin', y'all!