Mar 27, 2014

March Boot Camp Final Design

It is end of March and this months has been fun and challenging.

I was sharing the March Boot Camp assignment with you beginning of the month. The topic was Jelly ( or I call it gelatine pudding as well since Jell-O is brand name protected ) molds for bolt fabric ! What is bolt fabric ? Bolt fabric is fabric you buy in fabric stores for sewing, quilting, etc., as opposed to fabric for clothing.

I have to admit it was not an easy topic for me and as my friend Bethania put it in the right words...the assignment "pushed me out of my comfort zone and back in"! So it was a great, fun exercise and I would have never challenged myself with gelatine pudding molds without participating in the MATS Boot Camp.

I was most inspired by these pictures...gelatine puddings with fruit...could not get over the fact people ate it with vegetables and/or meat in it.

Source

When I was a child in the 70s we had those molds we used for gelatine and puddings.

Source

And there is even existing a great vintage quilting fabric.


Quilting fabric 758

Some of my sketches...

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Sketches

And finally my submission to the March Boot Camp Gallery ( you can find it on page 6 within the gallery ).


copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Jolly Jelly Design copyright© Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014

If you want to see more gelatine pudding mold inspired designs, there are hundreds of them in the March Boot Camp Gallery and they are fantastic ! Make sure to click on the individual designs to see all details, the thumbnails do not show everything. And maybe leave a nice comment on some of them...

Happy Thursday !





Mar 20, 2014

Early Work

Today it will be a quick blog post...I hurt my neck badly and I can not sit in front of the computer for long. 
But still I want to make sure something surface pattern related is going on over here and I hope you like it. 
I want to show you some of my early surface pattern work...hand drawn elements mixed with graphic shapes in mid century colours. Looking back at these designs, it shows I found my style early on and I still love working this way.

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2012
"Floating Circles" copyright © Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma  2012

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2012
"Half Circles" copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2012

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2012
"Avant Garde" copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2012

Please make sure you stop by next Thursday when I will show my final submission for the March MATS Bootcamp "bold fabric with the topic Jell-o".

Happy Thursday !

Mar 12, 2014

Happy Dance

I wanted to share since last week but life has been just so busy...I am very proud and so happy some of my work has been chosen to be included into the Surface Pattern Design Guide by UPPERCASE magazine.

Cover Design by Jan Avellana

This is such an honour. UPPERCASE is my favourite and most inspiring magazine. It is around for five years now and is published, edited and designed by Janine Vangool from Calgary/Canada.


UPPERCASE issue #21, cover by Molly Hatch

The Surface Pattern Design Guide is part of the upcoming issue no. 21 which is currently at the printers and will be out in early April. There will be also a free digital version of the guide released right before Surtex/New York by mid of May 2014.

I do not know yet which of my designs have been chosen, so I can not give you a sneak peek at the moment. But I can reassure you this Surface Pattern Design Guide will be pure eye candy with designs from a lot of talented designers. Can't wait...

If you would like to subscribe to UPPERCASE magazine you can use this discount code "USPDG2014", it is good for $15 off a subscription.

Janine made a great video showing a lot of beautiful designs and giving some great advice.








I will keep doing my "happy dance" now with the help of music from Pharell Williams ;)
Maybe you have something to celebrate as well...?

Happy Thursday !

Mar 10, 2014

The Paper Love Blog Hop - Spring Patterns

Welcome to The Paper Love Blog Hop. Thank you for hopping over from my designer friend Mary Tanana from the United States. I am so excited to be part of this celebration of paper. Paper has always been one of my favourite things. As a child I was collecting stationary ( and I think I still do but I did not confess yet ). I could spend hours and hours in stationery, paper and art supply stores.

I always enjoy printing out my designs to hang them up or use them for DIY projects. For this blog hop I made a small, simple "spring" collection of patterns you can use for a variety of DIY projects out of paper.

Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Spring Patterns

Loving any types of garlands I made a simple one out of circles.

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Garland

Since Easter is around the corner, I also made very simple egg cups for the breakfast table.

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014

copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Egg cups made out of paper

Please feel free to download the patterns for your own little DIY spring project ( license for personal use only ).

Patterns by Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Spring Patterns

Thank you very much for visiting. 
Please hop over now to Linda Tieu from Italy and enjoy more paper love.
Happy Monday !


Participant List


The Paper Love Blog Hop
The PaperLove Blog Hop is a celebration of all things paper! Follow the links to discover more bloggers who love paper and use it to inspire and delight. And if you want to explore a whole world of paper, and stretch your paper passion further with a host of creative projects, why not join the innovative new online course PaperLove (startsMarch 31). Led by book artist Rachel Hazell, PaperLove is a five week creative adventure for paper lovers. Find out more here.






Mar 5, 2014

What I am up to - New Mini Assignment for March Bootcamp

Lilla Rogers MATS Bootcamp

After so much "cuckoo gorgeousness" ( I actually had to look up that word ) from the February assignment time has been flying and on Monday we have received our next topic and for me this was a total surprise and I would have never ever thought this would be a topic to make some designs and illustrations from. 

It is Jell-o molds...

Thinking about it, my mom had some plastic Jell-o molds in the 70s where we used to make "Goetterspeise" ( German word for Jell-O ) with. Preferable the green "Goetterspeise" with the flavour "Waldmeister" ( still my family's favourite flavour ). Researching the topic on the internet, I came across the weirdest combinations ( from North America ) from the 50s and 60s with salads and other main meal ingredients in it. They actually made Jell-o dinners out of it. I can not remember we did this in Germany.


Source

I like all the retro posters about Jell-o, there are a lot of fabulous shapes of Jell-o online with great retro colours. And there are so many different molds. Definitely a topic to dive in. 


I started doodling around a bit, just to get a feeling for the shapes. But I have some more ideas I want to bring to paper.

Copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014
Jell-o doodles

Maybe you will go to your kitchen now and make some Jell-o...enjoy and Happy Thursday !



Coming up soon : March 10th



I am looking forward participating in the upcoming Paper Love Blog Hop on Monday March 10th ! It starts  9am PST / 12 noon EST / 5pm GST. 

Please do not forget to "hop" by !

See you on Monday !