How to Create a Stunning Example of Beautiful Designs

Over my 12 years of graphic design I came to discover in my creative process that whimsy, irony, satire and edginess are not my strong suits.

I have learned, however, that I can create full on, no excuses beauty. So that's where I went with my next in a series of videos featuring my designs. I used the prettiest colors, pleasing dimensions and lovely music.

If it's in my power to put forth beauty in the world, I'm gonna do it!

How to Present Floral Designs in an Innovative Way

I first found Animoto when wanting to make book trailers for Loveweaver and The Maiden Seer.

It occurred to me early on, though, that I could make a video using large images of my designs set to music. I plan to make several, each showcasing a different genre of my designs.

I love the results!

Dynamic Auto Painter

I'm not one for specialty software for creating art. I use CS6 Illustrator, the master program that allows me to design vector patterns with mathematical precision. And I use Photoshop for a few subtle effects, but mostly for formatting raster files.

It's highly unlikely that I'll ever learn to paint, though. So, I was intrigued from the start with Dynamic Auto Painter for $99 - on sale for $50. After thinking about it 6 months, I bought it.

Gosh, it's fun! There are a lot of painting styles to choose from and countless custom options for tweaking the process. But I just like to pick a style, click play, sit there and watch it paint whatever image I've opened!  Be assured this is not like Photoshop filter.

For $50, I got more than my money's worth. Only time will tell if it will be useful to me professionally. (Click on my images to enlarge them.)

Here is a photo of the lake I see from my back door:

Here's what it looks like after I used the Van Gogh Starry style:

Here's a closeup. I started with a high res image and ended up with fantastic detail:

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.

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!

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.

The Research is In!

Just for fun ...

Quilt Labels - Baby's First Birthday and Quilt Washing Instructions

Modern Yardage has just added my two newest quilt labels to their line up.

I've done them in several different colorways. 

Order as few or many as you like at $1.00 each.

18th Century Fabric - Reimagined. Again.

This one looked "easy" but took me several hours over several days to complete.

Of course, I switched it up a lot so that it is very different from the 200 year old curtain panel that inspired it.

A bright color palette replaced black and gold.

Another 18th Century Redo

This design had another large flower, but I changed the design by just using the one. I included the smaller bouquet, but fudged it a lot to make it different from the original.

The leaves took forever!

More Scrapbook Papers

I pulled together some of my existing designs for this fun new collection.  For sale in my Etsy shop.

Digital Scrapbook Paper

I've got SO many design collections, many of which go to Modern Yardage.

But, they're also perfect for scrapbook papers, and Etsy is the perfect place to sell them in digital format. Once the listing is posted, Etsy does all the work.

There's some overhead on my end, of course, formatting it all for the listings, but now that I have a process in place, I should be able to work my way through my collections.

Accuquilt Quilt Block Contest

I took my newest pattern collection, Merriweather, and applied it to a quilt block I created for Accuquilt's contest.

Fingers crossed!

25 New Patterns

Man, I get discouraged.

As a pattern designer, I am in competition with hundreds of talented people. I question my skills and abilities. I worry about making a living.  Days or even weeks can go by without a sale or a job.

In those times when I just don't know what to do next, what market to cater to, how to be better or more successful , I always seem to remember the most important thing for me as a designer:

Create beauty.

Yes, I still look for work and keep my current clients happy. But mostly, I gotta do what I do best.

So, the second most important thing is:

Design.

I set a goal last week to get busy and create 25 new patterns just for the joy of it.

Here are the first 6 patterns filling the letters of one of my favorite words.

Television Ad - Vivid Vision?

I love this Vivid Vision ad that's in black and white! Or sepid rather than black, really. 

Not exactly vivid.

I did my own version, keeping the same off whites and off blacks.