Planet Penny has been about pattern making for a while, what with mice, and bunting and other colourful things.  However I have long hankered after learning a different sort of pattern making, surface pattern design.

I’ve always been fascinated by fabrics and wallpapers.  I used to lie in bed as a very small child finding faces in the flowers in the curtains, and trying to spot identical areas and wondering how on earth it could go on and on repeating.

So that’s why, some time ago I signed up to Pattern Camp, run by Jessica Swift, the painter, surface pattern designer and author.  This has meant a lot of time sitting in front of the computer, waaay out of my comfort zone, learning how to use Adobe Illustrator.  And although I’ve been using Photoshop for years, I’ve had to discover an awful lot of stuff I didn’t know!

Because I haven’t had my brain in gear for a lot of this year I ground to a halt a couple of months ago and with the course over I hit a brick wall of frustration.  But a couple of weeks ago the lovely Jessica announced two free weeks of access for previous campers, exactly what I needed to get me going again.

This time, it all started to click into place, and I’ve had so much fun, especially now I can not only tile a pattern, but make half drop repeats too!  (I’m even learning the lingo!)

So, here are my very first attempts…I only ever wanted to try this out of curiosity, but I love it!

These designs are all about the process, a learning curve, but I really want to push it further.  I keep thinking about what I could sew…and wrapping paper!  It’s very exciting.

And, in case you are wondering, I haven’t given up on knitting or crochet.  There are a couple of posts in the pipeline guaranteed to hit the spot, a different sort of pattern altogether!

See you soon…x

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