The Pattern Post: High Point Just Told Us What to Draw

The Pattern Post · Tuesday, October 27, 2026

The people, patterns & possibilities shaping the creative industry.

If you're new here, The Pattern Post is my free weekly read on surface pattern design, art licensing, and illustration news, every Tuesday. This issue is from Tuesday, October 27, 2026.

This week in a sentence: The museums won the licensing year, and High Point handed us the brief. Draw the storied print, then build it a family!

From Bonnie's Desk

Combe, corduroy, and a puppy under the desk

Hi friend, and happy Tuesday! Here in the Smoky Mountains the leaves have started letting go, the porch coffee now comes with a blanket, and our new puppy, Boaz, came home last Tuesday. We're in love!

It's a big day at the studio, too. Your Print & Pattern Payday starts this afternoon at 3 PM ET. We'll spend three days of pattern design together, and there is still a seat waiting for you!

Out in the wider world, High Point Market packed up and left us a trend board, the licensing world counted up its year and the museums came out on top, and Anthropologie has released the most gorgeous painterly chair.

☕️ Pour something warm, and let's dive in. We have news!

In this issue

• High Point wrapped with florals, stripes, toiles, and ginghams on the trend board and block-print florals on the rugs. I have never felt so on trend! 😆
• The licensing industry counted up 2025 and the museum archives won the year. The V&A alone has ninety licensees in seventy-two countries, and H&M just put Strawberry Thief on toddler corduroy.
• Anthropologie turned a painting into 46 pieces of holiday home. Forty six!

The archive is open, friends!

Making Headlines

High Point packed up, and it left us the brief

Image: Loloi, via Home Accents Today, Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines "Winslet"

High Point's fall brief reads like it was written for us, with florals, stripes, toiles, and ginghams on weathered, earthbound grounds and sunkissed brights. Fall Market wrapped up last Wednesday, and the organizer's own trend theme for the season is called Combe, a word for a small valley (which I did have to look up). It asks for heritage textiles with fresh, energizing color layered across wallpaper, bedding, and upholstery, and for emotionally durable design, pieces that carry meaning, tell a story, and improve with age. Furniture Today's count had registrations running three percent ahead of spring, and the first Style Spotter picks are up, with the rest of the team's choices still to come.

The rugs and the bedding followed the brief. Home Accents Today's rug report opened with "Rugmakers embraced color and pattern at this week's High Point Market." Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines for Loloi showed Winslet, raised floral vines "inspired by classic block print patterns," and Momeni's Horizon put "traditional pattern with updated colors" on the floor. In bedding, HiEnd Accents introduced Max Humphrey's first collection, with camping toile, oversized plaid, folk florals, and graphic stripes on wide-wale corduroy and sweater knits. And Four Hands said its art studio works with more than 175 independent artists and added 192 new works this fall. That last number is a licensing target with a showroom.

This week I'd build a home mockup set, a tablecloth, a fold of fabric, a roll of wallpaper, and drop in your most storied print, the one with the hen or the canoe or the garden gate. When the brief and your sketchbook agree, that is not the week to be shy. Let it be seen!

The museums are winning licensing. Here's where you fit.

Image: H&M, via Retail Gazette, H&M Kids x Morris & Co.

Licensing International counted up the year at Brand Licensing Europe in London, and the archives came out on top. Licensed merchandise reached $389.8 billion in 2025, up 5.45 percent, and the Art property type rose 5.7 percent, its fourth straight year of growth (8.4 percent in the UK). The V&A's head of licensing, Jen Maude-Roxby, said "Our global brand licensing programme now spans 90 licensees with distribution across 72 countries," with sixty-three new product ranges last year alone, and the Natural History Museum says its program "continues to grow consistently at around 15% year on year." The fair itself set a record with 325 exhibitors, up twenty percent, and its director, Ella Haynes, put it simply: "There are incredible archives to draw on and so many possibilities for interpreting them."

Ninety licensees.

You can see it on the shelf already. H&M Kids launched a children's collection with Morris & Co. earlier this month, Strawberry Thief and a handful of botanical, bird, and floral prints on brushed knit, corduroy, and wool mix, in taupe, ivory, chestnut, dusky pink, and deep teal. Sofia Löfstedt, who leads kidswear design at H&M, called it "heritage made playful." And last Friday Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen announced ten holiday collaborations in the same breath, and three of them, LoveShackFancy, Hill House Home, and Roller Rabbit, are print brands first. A signature pattern is now a licensable property on its own, the same way a cartoon character is.

A museum licenses the archive, but somebody has to redraw the ground, build the coordinates, and recolor Strawberry Thief into dusky pink for a toddler's corduroy, and that somebody is likely a surface pattern designer on a freelance contract.

Anthropologie's new artwork chair

Image: Anthropologie, via License Global

Anthropologie Home's holiday collection with author and artist Suleika Jaouad and musician Jon Batiste landed this month, and License Global's write-up last Thursday is worth reading slowly. Forty-six pieces across tabletop, decor, furniture, and entertaining, built on Jaouad's original artwork and illustrations, "heritage-inspired patterns" that nod to her Tunisian roots, Batiste's handwritten musical notation on instrument ornaments, dessert plates with handwritten affirmations, and an occasional chair upholstered in her paintings. Anthropologie Home's chief marketing officer said "This collaboration has been more than a year in the making," and the couple's line was "We wanted each piece to feel like the beginning of a story, something you can make your own." The same week, Brooklyn candle maker APOTHEKE launched a holiday collection wrapped in Norman Rockwell's holiday illustrations, brokered by IMG and sold at Crate and Barrel, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale's. Candles and gift packaging remain some of the friendliest doors in licensing.

A year in the making. That's the part I'd underline! Collaborations like this start with a body of work that already exists, in a voice that is already recognizable, long before anyone asks for it.

Pattern POV

The archive doesn't put itself on corduroy

Everything this week points the same way. The licensing industry's growth story is museum archives, High Point asked for emotionally durable design, pieces that carry meaning and improve with age, and Anthropologie's chair took a year and a body of work that already existed. None of that is a request for something new and shiny. It's a request for work with a story in it, drawn by a person, that somebody can put on a chair, a rug, or a toddler's corduroy. So this week, go back to the print you've loved the longest and give it a family: two coordinates, a second colorway, and a mockup. The story is already there. Your job is to make it easy to license!

More news in brief

Image: Threadless

🎨 Threadless opened Secret Societies last Friday. The new design challenge wants "cryptic crests, seals, insignia, coded messages, strange maps, membership badges, recruitment posters," and it's free, because "Membership may be invitation only, but the Design Challenge is open to everyone." First place takes $1,250 cash and a $250 gift code, second $500, third $250, and every entry can keep earning on products. My favorite line in the brief is "Keep your conspiracies fictional and your organizations original."

🧵 The fabric houses are showing us next spring. Riley Blake's Reach for the Stars with NASA is in shops now with galaxy prints and floating astronauts, and its January and February 2027 pages already list thirty-four more collections, velvet and rayon among them. Robert Kaufman introduced Cosette on Quilter's Linen, sixteen prints of "delicate florals, winding vines, and soft, romantic hues," shipping May 2027, and FreeSpirit previewed Zen Chic's Dolce Roma, twenty-four prints in two color stories, terracotta and okra on one side, stone and sage on the other, also May 2027. The houses are buying for a spring that is eighteen months out. Draw accordingly.

Image: Cloud9 Fabrics, Edit: Rayon

🌿 Cloud9 is licensing prints from seven artists. Edit: Rayon, coming in February, is eight designs from seven artists, among them Hang Tight Studio, Rachel Parker, Maria Galybina, and Pip & Lo, paired with garment patterns from Hubbading and Sew House 7. A house that buys a hero floral at a time is a house a designer with a great floral can pitch. Just sayin'!

Image: Quilts, Inc., "Fish Frolicking Among Lotuses" by Jing Chen

🏆 Houston posted its winners before the doors open. Quilts, Inc. published the 2026 judged show results, and Best of Show and $12,500 went to "Fish Frolicking Among Lotuses" by Jing Chen of Beijing, two of the five $5,000 Master Awards carry Moda's name, and Viewers' Choice is voted on at Festival, with the winner announced Sunday, November 15, at 1 PM. The special exhibits list is forty deep and includes the debut of YEA!, a Young Emerging Artist show for textile artists 35 and under. The Festival runs November 12 to 15 with over 1,400 quilts and 500+ vendor booths, $18 at the door.

📷 Etsy wants a photo of the actual item. Its Important updates to AI use on Etsy, posted last Thursday, say every listing now needs an unedited photo of the actual item. Print-on-demand shops can keep a stock mockup of the base product when "the stock photo's owner has authorized its use," craft patterns need a photo of something made with them, and "AI-generated functional guides are no longer allowed on Etsy." We are the people with the actual item, so photograph a finished product in daylight this week and put that photo first.

👜 Vera Bradley is retiring three prints on Christmas Day and bringing a 1997 print back. Chief brand officer Melinda Paraie walked Yahoo through the holiday line a week ago Sunday: Prairie Blooms, a heritage floral with birds, a second floral in berry reds and golden yellows on deep chocolate, a beaded Chelsea Plaid, corduroy versions of the prints, Blue Leaf back from 1997, and Poppy Fields, Vineyard Green Chambray, and Cabbage Roses retiring on Friday, December 25. "Ultimately, our customers tell us which ones they want to keep and which ones to retire," she said. A print has a life and a retirement, and a new substrate is how it gets a second life.

💌 The Louie Awards have a people's choice winner and an open door. The Greeting Card Association named AfroTouch Design's "Nutcracker 2" the 37th Louie Consumers' Choice last Wednesday, by public vote, and founder Georgina Fihosy said "What a fabulous 10th birthday present!" Entries for the 38th Louies opened on the 15th, $60 for members and $75 for non-members through Monday, November 2, then $75 and $105 through December 31, closing January 14, with two free entries for makers from underrepresented communities.

🛍️ Spoonflower named its patchwork winners, and December is coming. The Patchwork Revival results posted last Thursday, Added Texture voting runs through next Tuesday, November 3, at 8 PM UTC, and Spoonflower's help center says next month's themes are typically shared on the first Friday of the month, so look for December's themes on Friday, November 6. And a shop note while you're in there. Redbubble's holiday itinerary says to drop any references to past years in your titles and tags, because designs labeled with an old year, like "Christmas 2025," can get filtered out by search entirely. Bless them.

Open Doors

Opportunities open right now

Everything here is open right now, closest deadline first. Times are the organizers' own.

• Fri, Oct 30: FreeSpirit's 25th Anniversary Block Party. A 121⁄2" unfinished block in any FreeSpirit fabric, with purple in it, and it's free. The 25 chosen blocks become a quilt auctioned for Nest, and each chosen maker gets a tote valued over $650.
• Fri, Oct 30: h+h americas 2027 retailer scholarships from the Craft Industry Alliance, five awards worth about $1,418 each for shop owners who have never attended. Send it to your favorite quilt shop.
• Sat, Oct 31: the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition, extended from the 26th. Five pieces on the same theme, €25 plus VAT, no AI.
• Sat, Oct 31, 11:59 PM EDT: QuiltCon 2027 quilt entries, $20 per quilt, Modern Quilt Guild members, plus the Windham Handloom fabric challenge. Early-bird registration for the Atlanta show ends the same day, $50 for a four-day badge and $60 after.
• Sat, Oct 31, 7 PM Eastern: SAQA's Fungus Among Us, $50 for up to three entries, members only.
• Mon, Nov 2: early-bird pricing ends for the 38th Louie Awards, $60 for members and $75 for non-members until then. Entries close January 14.
• Tue, Nov 3, 8 PM UTC: Spoonflower's Cozy Cabincore. Free to enter, with $200, $100, and $50 in Spoonflower credit for the top three, $20 for 4th through 10th, and the top 100 featured.
• Sat, Nov 7, midnight: Illustration West 65. Extended a week. $35 per entry, $20 for members, $10 for students, worldwide, no AI.
• Thu, Nov 12: the Booooooom Illustration Awards. Free to enter one image, with a Product & Merchandise category and five $1,000 prizes, no AI.
• Tue, Nov 17: The Hopper Prize, $40 for up to ten images, with grants of $4,500 and $1,000. The John Ruskin Prize closes the same day at 5 PM GMT, £9,500 in prizes including a £3,000 first prize, textiles included, worldwide.
• Thu, Nov 19: AQS QuiltWeek Paducah 2027 quilt contest, $25 for AQS members and $40 for non-members, with $20,000 for Best of Show.
• Wed, Nov 25, 5 PM Mountain: the Estelle Center for Creative Arts 2028 winter residency in La Veta, Colorado. Applications open Sunday, November 1, and close early once 60 arrive. $35 to apply, and the residency comes with a private room, studio access, and a $500 stipend for a three-week session. Fiber art is on the list.

Further out: Mon, Nov 30, 7 PM Eastern: SAQA's Color in Context: Green, $40 for up to three entries by November 15 and $50 after, members only. · Tue, Dec 1, 11:59 PM: the Cheltenham Illustration Awards, theme "Marvellous!", £10 per entry, up to three, worldwide. · Fri, Dec 4: priority deadline for the American Craft Council's new Craft Objects & Design Atlanta show in November 2027, with a $450 Early Career booth. The final deadline is January 8. · Dec 7–13: Folktale Week 2026, free and on Instagram, with the prompts announced November 2. "Illustrators, painters, fine artists, storytellers, wordsmiths - come one, come all," and please, no AI art.

Pattern Forecast

Weathered grounds, sunkissed brights

Image: Graham & Brown, Roselle Grove in Dusky Pink

High Point's Combe palette, weathered and earthbound tones with sunkissed brights, is the same story every forecaster is telling in different words. WGSN and Coloro began naming their A/W 28/29 key colours on Instagram last week, starting with Bloodstone, an iron-oxide red, and Liminal Yellow, a yellow Coloro defines by its duality. Graham & Brown's Design of the Year for 2027 is Roselle Grove, an Indian chintz with English flair, printed on a Colour of the Year called Rose Earth, drawn from the mineral pigments of Italian clay. The brown wave rolls on, too. Dunn-Edwards picked French Press Coffee, a color it says is built around ritual and comfort rather than style, and HGTV reports Dutch Boy went warm with a terracotta called Deep Rooted. Pantone's pick usually lands the first week of December, and last year's came December 4, so expect the group chat to light up in about five weeks.

Further out, the January fairs are betting on feeling. Maison&Objet's theme is Sensory Shift, the art of living felt and not only seen, and Heimtextil is walking its three Home-Maxxing directions on Instagram ahead of the fair. Texture you can feel, color you can name, and a story on every surface.

What buyers put on the table this week:

• Block-print florals on rugs, from Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines for Loloi.
• Camping toile, folk florals, and oversized plaid on bedding, from Max Humphrey for HiEnd Accents.
• Florals, stripes, toiles, and ginghams on wallpaper and upholstery, straight from High Point's Combe brief.
• A painter's heritage-inspired patterns on forty-six pieces of holiday home, at Anthropologie.
• Nostalgic illustration on candle packaging, APOTHEKE with Norman Rockwell.
• Strawberry Thief on brushed knit and corduroy for toddlers, H&M Kids with Morris & Co.
• Hero florals from seven artists on rayon, at Cloud9.
• Romantic florals on linen, Robert Kaufman's Cosette.
• An English chintz on a clay-pink wall, Graham & Brown's Design of the Year.

Worth your time

• Watch: The Textile Museum at George Washington University's Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning on Saturday, November 14, at 11 AM ET, "The American Coverlet and Its Role in the Digital Age" with conservator Harold Mailand, free in the museum or on Zoom with advance registration. Figured coverlets are repeat pattern at its most American, woven between 1820 and 1880.
• Learn: Sherwin-Williams' Colormix Forecast 2027, Rewild, forty-eight hues in three stories, Revive, Reignite, and Reconnect, plus ten continuity colors, with free lookbook PDFs for home and commercial. Pair it with Benjamin Moore's eight and you have the 2027 paint deck on your desk.
• Listen: Design Matters with costume designer Debra McGuire, who dressed Friends, on how fabric and print build a character. Creative Pep Talk 578, Andy J. Pizza on what to do when you're feeling constant resistance. And Craft Industry Alliance #322 with Tawnee Kinnebrew of Wyldwood Creative, a fabric shop owner on what actually sells at retail.
• Read: Corduroy: The Story of a Timeless Fabric by Eric Musgrave, out from Batsford on Thursday, November 12, because, as Batsford puts it, corduroy is the unsung hero of many an outfit, and apparently of Max Humphrey's bedding. And UPPERCASE #71, with cover art by Helen Cann and readers' hand-drawn maps of where their inspiration comes from.
• Browse: the Dezeen Awards 2026 textile design shortlist, eight projects including Kvadrat by Raf Simons and Lidewij Edelkoort's Room, before the winners are named November 16 in London. And the World Illustration Awards online showcase, where the Design, Product & Packaging new talent winner is Annie He's Crafted Heritage: Gamble House Silk.
• Save a seat: "Wall Power! Spectacular Quilts from the American Folk Art Museum" is up at the Dayton Art Institute through January 10. The International Quilt Museum's "Material Nation: 250 Years of American Quilts" runs through December 19 in Lincoln. And "Tove Jansson and her Families" opens at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in London on Saturday, November 21, if your travels take you that way.

Repeat After Me

Word of the week

Toile. A scenic print, usually drawn in one ink color on a light ground, named for the French word for cloth and made famous by the eighteenth-century printworks at Jouy-en-Josas. It showed up twice this week, on High Point's trend board next to florals, stripes, and ginghams, and as the camping toile in Max Humphrey's first bedding collection. The practical bit is that a toile is a storytelling print, which means it rewards exactly what we do. Draw four or five small vignettes at the same scale, the tent, the canoe, the hen, the garden gate, keep them all in the same ink, give them room to breathe, and the repeat reads as a toile. Then a second colorway costs you almost nothing, and a buyer sees a family instead of a print.

Until next Tuesday

Thank you for reading, friends. Go draw the storied print this week, and I'll be back right here next Tuesday with the next round of news. Same time, same place. :)

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