Another in a Series of Tracy Miller Design Ads

Based on a floor wax ad, I'll let the image speak for itself:

Fab Florals - Vector Repeats

Last time I showed the softer side of my florals.

Here is now a bolder assortment.

The Softer Side of Tracy Miller Designs

Like most repeating patterns designer, I have SO MANY florals!

I've pulled 18 of them together in my current favorite format, which is sample swatches accompanied by a vectorized vintage image. In this case, the two ladies were from the cover of a 1935 issue of Home Notes Magazine.

Santa Approved Christmas Design Collection

I've done a mix of vintage and new patterns here, and gone with a bluer green than usual.

These larger collections are kinda my thing right now, with more in the works.

Like many repeating pattern designers, I have hundreds and hundreds of designs that just don't see the light of day. This will be my way of putting them out there en mass. 

Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine - My Designs in March Issue

Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine have purchased and featured four of my designs in their March Issue. The designs are a part of my Hedgerow Collection, also available at Modern Yardage in 4 colorways, and at Custom Quilt Tops, also in 4 colorways. At Custom Quilt Tops you need to keep scrolling down until you find me!

My four designs are available at Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine's website as a download, and double-sided printed in their actual magazine. They're also included some sweet projects with which to use my papers!

Valentine's Day - Vintage Reimagined

This time I expressed my passion for vectorizing vintage images on an old Valentine.

I may have over-designed my version, seen in the lower of the two images below, but I wanted something bright and bold.

 Mission accomplished.

Custom Quilt Tops - Make a Cheater Quilt

I'm so pleased to now be a part of PatternJam, a super fun and easy-to-use website for designing your own quilt top.

All of my fabrics from Modern Yardage are there, and I've got new, special pattern collections arriving there soon. Search under Fabric Shop by Designer to find me.

"In Orbit" will be there soon, a collection for space lovers of all ages.

Go to Pattern Jam and just have fun. It's as easy as filling in a coloring book page!

Scented Drawer Liners for Baby - Elodie Essentials

I've had the great luck of being a part of several startup companies by developing the repeat patterns that go on their products.

One such company is Elodie Essentials, which features my designs. So far, the line includes two versions of drawer liners for baby, but Lisa, the owner, and I have been hard at work getting the next designs ready for production.

Next time you need a unique gift for a baby or baby shower, remember these scented drawer liners!

Antique Seed Catalog Cover

From my archives of collected images, I chose a Burpee's Seed Catalog cover to "vectorize."

Working on this is how I spent many hours of my Christmas time off.

Happy Thanksgiving to All of You With ...

... plant-based diets!

We're having the vegan works:

Stuffing and gravy with seitan roast, green bean casserole with French fried onions topping, sweet potatoes,  mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and Mom's famous refrigerator potato rolls.

AND MORE,  depending on what everyone else brings.

Fresh

This was another super fun ad to replicate.

Vintage Dress Patterns

My Mom was a seamstress who sewed all my clothes until I was a teenager, and then I started sewing them myself.

Shopping for dress patterns and fabric, then, is practically in my DNA. Combine that with my love of designs, and for turning vintage images into vector, and VIOLA! You have what you see below.

Baseball Ticket Transformed

Like most designers, I collect digital images for references. I have hundreds (thousands?) and they keep me inspired and motivated, and give me ideas when my creative well has run dry.

This baseball ticket is another example of a great original image, a thing of vintage beauty.

My version is below. I call it A Ticket to Life.

Quilt Label Sighting - Modern Yardage Meets Modern Patchwork

Quilting is alive and well, a great hobby and timeless art form. 

 Modern Patchwork magazine keeps quilters up to date on what's new and classic, and has an ardent following of quilters, DIY-ers and sewing enthusiasts.

I was happy, then, to see Modern Yardage quilt labels were featured in a Hot Picks review in Modern Patchwork magazine.

One of the labels shown is mine, the one with the little birds in the lower left.

See it here at Modern Yardage.

And below.

Halloween Sewing Projects: Trick-or-Treat Bag and Bunting

I'm posting this again, because there's still time!!!

Halloween Trick-or-Treating is just around the corner, so get busy!

Buy the panel here: Trick-or-Treat Bag Panel

Download the complete-with-photos instructions here: Bag Instructions

Here's what you'll end up with! It's a great size, pretty much the dimensions of a plastic grocery bag.

And you can also make a Halloween bunting with my Spookalicious fabric collection.

Colorization = Fun for Tracy

All that clipping! All those paths!

But, yeah, I love the process, the HOURS it takes.

Some people play video games. Others work crossword puzzles.

Me? I pick apart a black and white image and colorize it.

Of course, I have to add my patterns to the mix.

And then make a collage out of the results in the form of a postcard-style greeting card.

Vintage Image Birthday Card

My last post showed my before and after of lady from a fashion plate that's in the public domain.

I spent a weekend turning her and a few others into birthday cards.

Again, I have used my own patterns for the dresses, backgrounds and upholstery, and used a secret recipe to rough it all up.

This is what I'm doing with my life.

Old Vintage Fashion Plates

For recreation, I design all kinds of things just for fun, knowing they likely will never be a product.

I recently came across some fashion plates from the early 1900's that were fairly high res, AND in the public domain, I downloaded several dozens of them. (You never know when they might figure into a design project.)

But, they also fed right into my ongoing search to find things to apply my repeating patterns to. So, I opened a fashion plate in Photoshop, extracted the black outline, copy and pasted it into Ai, and used Live Trace on it. Live Trace almost always needs quite a bit of cleanup to get rid of its distinctive weirdness, and this time was no exception.

But when I was done, I filled in all the negative spaces, and viola! 

Here are two samples of the 5 I did, showing the before and after.

The Research is In!

Just for fun ...

Just For Fun

I did another vectorizing of an old ad today, inserting my own designs in the dress, hat and butterflies. Today was all about designing for recreational purposes only. And it WAS fun!

I had planned on creating some snappy text, but since I've been spending a lot of time recently giving myself pep-talks, this seemed appropriate.