It’s like the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine meets the Titanic. I guess that makes the little scuba diver swimming away from the sunken ship Leo. Ringo is on the submarine getting checked out by a seal and the octopus is just there to passively observe the whole affair.

This is all I’ve got this week. Man, I’m tired. I actually drove away from Starbucks this morning without my coffee. The guy in his little apron chased me half way down the street. How’s that for service! I guess when you serve uppers to grumpy tired people at 6 a.m. you get used to that sort of behavior.

Because I am a lady of my word… Here are a few more answered questions plus some handy visual aides!

Step 1: Draw it out

Step 2: Outline and fill. I usually work in black and white at this stage but to make the post look pretty I colored it all up.

Step 3: Add darks to define depth

Step 4: Add lights

Step 5: Repeat and fill background.

Kim: I would love to know more about how your designs get from graph paper sketch to fabric.

Tula P: See Above. I draw and redraw and redraw… I work out the whole design on paper first. I think there is more fluidity in the hand than going straight to the computer. It is a useful tool but it is just that , a tool, much like a pencil or a fancy ruler. It will only do what you ask it to do so you better have a darn good idea of what that is.

Scott: So you are a sales rep and a designer?

Tula P: Actually I am NOT a sales rep. I work for moda as a designer as my day job and then I work on my fabric independently. When market time comes around they pull in non-sales-rep-types to handle the overflow, double booked appointments and new accounts. So I keep pretty busy but it is not my job. The sales reps are infinitely more talented at it than I am. I only do it twice a year so I start to get the hang of it about 2 hours before market closes.

Happy Zombie: Since you’re from SoCal… who would you most like to see wearing something made from your fabric… Frosty, Heidi or Frank?

Tula P: I would like to see all three of them in a Camel costume. Frosty can be the back side, Frank can be the head and Heidi can be the lump in the middle. If only the world bowed to my very simple desires… sigh.

Holly: How long from drawing to fabric availability?

Tula P: It’s about a year from when I start conceptualising the group to store delivery. These drawings that I have been showing you were started about 7 months ago, finished in July and the fabric samples have been in my possession since August. The advanced yardage should be arriving in the next week or two (for sample quilts and swatches for the sales reps) and will debut at Quilt Market in October. This collection should start arriving in stores sometime around March.

The timing is really hard to get used to especially when you have a real time blog. This blog is usually about 6 months behind what I am actually working on.

Rosemary: Can I request some anchors in the line?

Tula P: There is a whole print dedicated to anchors!

There were three questions from the last RVPU (see title above, I am from Southern California and therefore must abbreviate everything). I plan on answering them here. I am so glad that someone actually cares about these pencil sketches! If you have any other questions about my process or almost anything else, leave me a comment and I will answer it on the next post.

Okay, down to business…

Marlene asked: Why do you sketch on graph paper?

Tula P. says: I sketch on graph paper because I am neurotic. Every scrap of paper in my studio is most likely on a grid. The paper I use for sketching fabric is a 10×10 line per inch transparent vellum. It’s like a heavy tracing paper with itty bitty grid lines. The grid helps me keep track of size and repeats. I draw to scale most of the time. It helps me keep things even and balanced and allows me to keep track of how much surface I have covered so I can engineer the repeat.

Myth asked: Can you post bigger shots of your sketches?

Tula P. says: I don’t post them larger because of loading time. The pics are meant to be more like a snapshot rather than something you can actually print or blow up. I will work on it though, I promise.

Pam asked: Will you be at Quilt Market in October?

Tula P. says: Yes! I will be in the Moda booth sellin’ all the new fabrics. I give a good pitch I think. The best part is showing my line and watching peoples faces. Most people don’t know what I look like so they speak frankly, sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not. The first time I ever showed Flutterby the customer took one look at it and said, “Yuck! Pass!”. I wrote that one down in my sketch book under First Customer Interaction. I wish I had it (and the look on my face) on tape, it was priceless! Good thing my mom was there to tell me that I am awesome and other validating mom-like things.

I’m not lazy, just busy. I swear I’m thinking about you every minute.

What does a girl who gets paid to design fabric do with her free time? That’s right, she designs more fabric. I stumbled onto this Spoonflower blog a while back and my head was all a buzz with ideas. Spoonflower is a site where you can upload your own designs and they digitally print limited quantities of that fabric. It’s a blast. I can make all kinds of wacky stuff. I just had to try it out. I plan on using this site to make all of the things that Moda would never let me get away with. It’s not their fault, how are you going to sell thousands of yards of tuna cans with my name on them?

My first print… ta da! They are Tula cans, not tuna but Tula. I think it’s hilarious. So there are really big cans and little bitty cans. A girl needs options. The big ones are about 12 inches across and the little ones are around 3 inches.

So go check it out. Oh, and please don’t stop buying my fabric even though you can make your own now. Thanks.