Happy Friday COLOURlovers! Today we are going to do something a little different for Community Day. First up, we have an awesome template challenge we've organized with one of our wonderful craft authors, Tonia Davenport, who comes over from CreateMixedMedia.com.

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Secondly, each week I am going to feature the first of many community surveys. They are only going to be between 3-5 questions to help us understand what you lovers would like to see on the blog, on community posts, contests, you name it. Let's just call it a quick raise of hands on some topics. I'll promise to keep them short. In turn, we'll give one participant at random selection, a COLOURlovers T-Shirt each week.

This week's survey topic: What do you want Community Day to be about?

I can guess all day long what you guys would appreciate being featured on Community Day, but why not ask you? So let's show a raise of hands...and remember, one person will win a t-shirt!

CreateMixedMedia Template Contest 

This is a template contest. That means you will need to use either Seamless Studio or Seamless Lite to make your initial submission.

The challenge is for you to design some numbered templates - a pattern design. These will be showcased for the first week of April, days 1 through 7.

• We will need a template for numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 - That's SEVEN WINNERS!
• You may include graphics within the template as long as the number you chose is legible (see how it will preview on createmixedmedia.com below).
• The theme to base your design on is "April Fools Day" and "April Showers" - combined or singly.
• Seven different winners will get a $25 gift code at the NorthLightShop (applied at checkout). 
• Winners will be chosen by CreateMixedMedia. 
  

CreateMixedMedia.com does an artistic feature on their homepage showcasing the days of the month, coordinated one week at a time - see below.

Days of the week shown on createmixedmedia.com

You will have from today (March 2nd) until Wednesday, March 21st to submit designs in the comments of this post.

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As crafters and sewers, we emerge from our cozy winter projects and start looking for fresh, colorful crafts that will get us ready for warm weather ahead. So we've put together a collection of spunky spring crafts to kick off National Craft Month.

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We bring you a the latest trends in DIY to brighten up your life be it you prefer to sew, work with fibers or even glue, it's all here in a bundle of color and style!

20-min Tote DIY | Repurposed Jeans Bag DIY | Boxed Pouch DIY | Diana Hobo free pattern | Kindle Slip-Case |  Felt Checkbook Holder DIY | Easy Knit Produce Bag DIY 

If you make anything this spring, it has got to be a new bag, clutch or tote of some sort. Changing up your carriers or adding new ones to your collection will add a little skip to your step for certain! The 20-min tote is an awesome way to utilize a great print you want to see hanging around and that denim bag is the trendiest done with repurposed jeans.

Those adorable boxed pouches can be used for organizing anything from makeup, hair irons, art supplies, accessories, you name it.  At the end of the day, most of these are the quickest projects to start your spring crafting off right. In addition, a great book by Kay Whitt came out last fall called, Sew Serendipity Bags which would also be an excellent choice full of colorfully inspired patterns, as her style is unbeatable!

Blue Clover Pants modeled on author Sarai | Skirt & Dress

What better to go along with a new bag or tote accessory than a new outfit? The Colette Sewing Handbook, is chalk full of spring and summer fashion patterns perfect for any beginner to intermediate sewer. Sarai also continues to offer tips, tricks, more in-depth tutorials and alteration ideas (usually with tutorials) to the patterns in the book.

In addition to all this available support, she features real sewers from around the globe on the Coletterie blog, with photos of finished outfits from the book and a small interview. A great sense of community and an excellent purchase that keeps on giving.

Coffee Filter Flowers | Felt Hair Pins | Felt Dahlia | No-Sew Vase Flowers | Bottle Cap Button Flowers | Felt Hair Accessories  

Heading away from sewing projects, here is a colorful collection of minimal to no-sew DIY flowers to get your floral fever on. Between crafty arrangements for your table or something to adorn and accessorize with, they're all full of texture and color!

patterns (scroll the page to find each): Green Grocer Tote | Daisy Motif  | Loopy Roses | Irish Roses | Love You  | Mabel Pillow | Granny Garland

Springtime brings flowers, farmers markets, celebrations and an itch for warm weather and sunshine. This is the time to start getting some summer-loving colors on and around you! A cheery market tote, a bright celebration banner or a few unique flower patterns to add to your lapel, hair, shoe clips, bag, you name it - bring some flowers out before they actually sprout!

Techniques (also need to scroll to find each): Larksfoot (technique) | Squiggly Wiggles (technique) | Granny Squares

Check out these wonderful techniques. The Larksfoot (shown above) works so well with an ombre palette, the Squiggly Squiggles is fun and funky and really pops with a large, loud palette and granny squares, well gee you can do so much with them!

Hawaiian Flowers FREE printable PDF crochet pattern

If you're looking for a great way to color block and add some palette-love to your body or abode this spring, get cracking on one of these fabulous projects from Sarah London, author of Granny Square Love.

LOVE pattern | Cartwheels pattern | Wind Swept pattern | Snow Globes pattern

If quilts were nothing special to you before, they will be after you take a second look at, Quilts from the House of Tula Pink. Tula is a total trend-setter for an entirely new kind of quilting. If anything, her projects will give you fantastic inspirational colors, textures, patterns and shapes.

So what are you working on right now? What medium is your favorite to work with and what colors are seeping in to all of your projects?

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Spring Palettes:

 More COLOURlovers spring palettes...

So many great things have happened on COLOURlovers in 2011, but one major, behind the scenes project that only a very small portion of members have been aware of was a quilt project straight from the heart of the Group: COLOURlovers on Spoonflower.

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Group administrator, leader and very involved COLOURlover, Penina, wanted her group to be something more than just a group of people who loved the idea of fabric. So one fine day back in July 2011, after coordinating ideas to make a digital quilt from the group member creations, she had the thought, “What’s stopping us from making a real quilt?!”

Penina wanted this quilt project to have purpose and to involve as many group members as possible. This also meant that the final piece would need to have a good home at a single location; so who would get the quilt?

Gift wrapping has taken on a whole new life in recent years. It almost seems like it has become a competition to see who can be more genius at the art of gift giving.

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If this display of craftiness won't get you in the mood to dig around your house for things you can turn in to beautifully embellished gifts, I don't know what could. Here we give you a fabulous collective to top, tie and cover your gifts in an eye-devouring display!

Covering: Wrap It Or Bag It

Receiving a gift wrapped in anything other than ordinary wrapping paper can be intriguing and a lot of fun. There are many ways to creatively get the proper packaging for a gift. Crafters seem to be conquering the feat of the "gift card" gift. Anywhere from creating fancy hand-made envelopes to putting one in a handmade snow globe - there are some fun ways to tackle making it look cute.

Mini Envelopes | Word Search Wrapping Paper | Stamped Kraft Paper | Lace Covered Kraft Paper | Stenciling | Fabric Covered Gifts | Newspaper Gift Bags | Embroidered Fabric Gift Bags | Egg Carton Gift Box | Patterned Pillow Boxes (or up-cycled toilet paper rolls)

The possibilities and ideas are endless! Fabric covered gifts could potentially go to the seamstress or crafter to reuse (the whole gift with gift idea here). Lace and dollies are being used plenty as embellishments in many variations. Embroidered fabric gift bags would be perfect for children to reuse or store the gift that came in it. Did you run out of gift bags and wrapping paper? No big deal, dig out some Kraft paper or newspaper and create your own gift bag! Lastly, pillow boxes and up-cycling toilet paper and paper towel rolls are trending massively right now.

However you wrap it up, make sure you embellish it fantastically too!

Of all the things to be thankful for, color is at the top of the list. Color is saturated into every fiber of our lives. It gives variety to our days, our moments, our very lives. It is there in our darkest moments and happiest memories. It can influence moods and reactions. It is there for us when we brainstorm inovative ideas, new marketing techniques, or complicated craft projects. Color is simply inspiring. So, on this Thanksgiving Day, remember to take a look around you and notice all the beautiul colors that this season has to offer.

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How are you celebrating color this season?

Fall Leaf Garland from Maureen Cracknell Handmade as a part of Celebrate Color 

Celebrate color this season with a leaf garland made of felt and yarn. Incorporate a gorgeous color palette into your home's decor without the crunchy mess of real leaves.

Project by Triple Play

Dazzling. Do you think these sparkly aqua-blue accents steer a little bit away from traditional fall colors? You have to admit, it adds a nice depth to the overall setting and complements that traditional orange nicely.

Thankful Tree" by Simply Vintage Girl

Elegant. Bring the outdoors in to create thankful bits of autumn pastels and pattern mixtures combined in a "Thankful Tree."

Parents.com

For the kiddos. Shades of brown add warmth and provide an earthy feel in this Turkey centerpiece. Choose a fun and colorful palette for the thankful feathers.

Tradition, (What Are You) Thankful Four?

What are you thankful...4? A great excuse to use color in so many ways! Write what you're thankful for on colorful number fours cut from scrapbooking or construction paper and share. Turn them in to ornaments to display all weekend. Keep them around as reminders.

"...one year I cut large 4s from paper and placed one on each person's plate. Just before dinner, we wrote the things we were thankful for on our cutouts, then took turns sharing our lists..." - Candice Steelman (reader at Disney Family Fun)

By Holiday Crafts and Creations

There's always room to go classic. Traditional autumn colors make a space warm and inviting. These edible place settings using M&M's to imitate Indian Corn are quite fun!

KABOOSE.com under Thanksgiving Crafts

Create a three dimensional palette with blocks and display an appropriately thankful message.

Design Sponge - DIY Project Autumn Leaf Bouquet 

What better way to say thank you to the beauty of color than to use fallen leaves to create vibrant autumn roses.

avery & anderson - Fall Decor' Part 4: THANKS be to upcycling wine bottles!

Get funky, use a few recycled wine bottles, a bit of paint and some other odds and ends to create and display a thankful word.

Crafty Katie - Fall Burlap Wreath

What would fall be without a wreath? Burlap offers a very earthy-happy texture, while adding a mix of traditional or non-traditional colors livens it up.

FineCraftGuild.com - Abundance Seed Balls

Blending tradition with innovation - did you look close enough? I took a double-take after realizing those were bean-balls in the cornucopia! How creative and fitting to the season. A gentle reminder of warm soup on chilly fall evenings.

INKspired Creations - Paper Pumpkins | Teresa Collins - Paper Thanksgiving Pumpkins

Autumn wouldn't be autumn without a couple of paper pumpkins leftover from Halloween. Another way to utilize a mix of patterns and palettes.

PLAID - Thankful Art Collage

The paper flower on this thankful journal has a nice whimsical feel to it and reminds me of autumn leaves. Writing down what you are thankful for is always a great way to reflect and come back to on days when you aren't feeling so thankful.

 Kind Over Matter - Thanksgiving Fortune Cookies

This simple, yet unique idea encompasses the idea that being thankful can also remind us of the good things that are yet to come.

Incorporating autumn colors into our homes and Thanksgiving celebrations is a special way to recreate that warm feeling we experience when we start listing all the things that we are thankful for. This reason, above all, is why color should be remembered on Thanksgiving Day.

A big Thank you to all of you COLOURlovers for loving color and making our community flourish with so many beautiful creations! Be safe and colorful on this holiday! - The COLOURlovers Team

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header credit: Leaf Garland

Hi everyone, I'm Sarai, sewing writer and pattern designer for Colette Patterns. In honor of the release of my brand new book, The Colette Sewing Handbook, I thought I'd share a few of my all-time favorite textile prints for making clothes.

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In the chapter on fabric in my book, I go over a range of different types of prints and patterns, from florals to stripes. For me, there are a few types of prints that I always fall in love with at the fabric store.

Ikat

1. Schumacher Sunara Ikat | 2. Amy Butler Lark Glamour Kasbah Persimmon Red | 3. Annette Tatum Bohemian Ikat Diamond Pink

Ikat is a style of fabric weaving used throughout the world. Traditional ikat fabrics can be found in diverse cultures, from Japan to Guatemala. The graphic patterns are often produced in rich colors, and the resulting designs work so beautifully for everything from clothing to decor.