Thirty Days to a Pattern Collection: From Seed to Submission

By: Bonnie Christine

Story Adapted From Pattern Magazine – Volume 4

Pattern Magazine is Bonnie Christine's quarterly print and digital publication for surface pattern designers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs who believe that how you live shapes what you make. This story first appeared in Volume 4, Expansion & Exposure, the spring 2026 issue.

From seed to submission.

What does it actually look like to design a pattern collection?

There’s something intriguing about the behind-the-scenes, the messy moments in between. The notebook scribbles, cluttered desks, and loose sketches often stay hidden, while the finished product makes its debut. But if you’re anything like me, you want to see the creative process, the imperfect path an artist takes to grow an idea into a complete work.

For one of my collections, A Year in Petals, I documented my creative workflow in real time, including exactly what I was doing each day and how much time I spent each day.

I'd like to give you a glimpse into that journal.

This is not a template to follow or a perfected process. However, it shares the relatable, stretching, unexpected, and beautiful growth that occurs on the path from inspiration to a finished collection.

I hope this glimpse into the ebb and flow of my creativity inspires you to press into your own and enjoy the messy middle just a bit more.

Before we flip through my process, I’d like to share a few background notes to paint a fuller picture.

Gathering My Inspiration

For this particular collection, I only referenced inspiration I had grown from seed in my garden.

Buttercups, Dahlias, Queen Anne's Lace.

The year before, I sketched out my garden beds, planted the seeds, and observed and photographed as the garden bloomed. My inspiration, literally, was right outside my window, in full color. (Read From Garden to Palette here!) This made the process of gathering inspiration incredibly fun and grounding.

Mapping My Timeline

I usually plan on thirty days to complete a collection from start to finish. This time, it took me thirty-three working days, spread over two months. I found it challenging to work on the collection during a typical workday. Between content development and some larger projects, my schedule left no room to sit and draw during regular hours.

This collection came together mostly in the margins. I sketched on the sofa at night, drew motifs on the weekends, and pulled out my iPad on long car rides. I only wrapped things up on my desktop once all the details were ready to come together.

Choosing My Tools

When designing pattern collections, I usually work almost exclusively on an iMac, but this time, I found myself reaching for a laptop more for flexibility and to work outside of my studio.

I also used an iPad Pro to refine most of my motifs. Half of the hours were logged on the iPad, before I finished my collection on a larger screen.

Creating in the Margins

There were several moments I had to remind myself: showing up consistently does not mean showing up perfectly. My goal was to keep moving forward, doing one thing a day for this collection.

I had to let go of my ideal setup, convenient work hours, and seamless timeline. I recognized that this collection was coming together in the moments in between, in the messy and real that is life. As I embraced this, I created a collection that conveys a truth I live by:

Create the beauty you want to see come alive in the world.

Now let’s explore the behind-the-scenes of how and when I created this beauty.

Inside My Design Process: Day-by-Day Notes

Day 1: Setting the Foundation

I flip through lots and lots of photos of my inspiration. 200!

Have a heart-storming session, me and a big sheet of paper.

What story do I want to tell with this collection?

I dream up a big list of about 25 words that support this story.

Quick Jot: I draw 12 squares and create thumbnails for patterns. Loose. Messy.

TIME LOGGED: 1 HOUR, 32 MINUTES

Day 2: Sketching by Hand

Making marks with pencil sketches and gouache paint. Different angles. Mediums. Shapes.

12 pages in, finally creating marks I like.

Creating art is supposed to be slow, so slow I go.

TIME LOGGED: 3 HOURS, 45 MINUTES

Day 3: Finding the Collection's Personality

What’s working? What’s feeling difficult?

I spend a lot of time on the iPad, working from my photos.

TIME LOGGED: 4 HOURS, 25 MINUTES

Days 4-5: Trusting the Process

I start in Procreate with a new set of brushes.

Should I rework the 30 motifs I’ve already done? No, let’s see what happens.

Working more on the iPad. Are these motif ideas strong enough?

Trust the process, Bonnie.

TIME LOGGED: 4 HOURS, 15 MINUTES

Days 6-7: Momentum and Multitasking

Motifs are humming along. Moving between paper and the iPad.

I play with a color palette, which will probably change a million times.

Oh, this palette is very springy!

TIME LOGGED: 9 HOURS, 32 MINUTES

Days 8-10: Refining Technique

Taking a pause from sketching to brush up on illustration skills.

Google and YouTube

Refining my techniques to breathe life into my process. Time to draw again. Things are finally beginning to click!

Being intentional with each mark now.

37 Procreate documents ✓
42 paper sketches and paintings ✓

TIME LOGGED: 9 HOURS, 47 MINUTES

Days 11-13: Finishing Motifs

Ready to scan a big ol’ stack of beauties into the computer soon.

Am I capturing the vision?

Taking one motif concept and drawing it in different ways, sketchy, painterly, realistic. Multiple perspectives to make the pattern flow and become a story.

TIME LOGGED: 14 HOURS, 35 MINUTES

Days 14-15: Scanning & Organizing

Everything is scanned and transferred into the computer!

Dropbox. Creating a new Collection Folder with 4 folders:
Paintings and sketches
Found and foraged items
Anything scanned in from a photograph
All of my iPad Pro files

32 scans in Painting & Sketches folder
106 scans in Forged & Found folder
352 scans in PNG format (All the layers!)

Using image trace in Adobe Illustrator to convert these 490 images into vectors over the next week

TIME LOGGED: 4 HOURS, 32 MINUTES

Days 16-18: Vectorizing Designs

Officially in vector land. Let the magic begin!

Making 3 Illustrator boards:
Painting and Sketches (446 elements on this page!)
Forged and Found (113 motifs!)
iPad and Procreate (103 motifs!)

Plenty to choose from ✓

Organizing motifs to prep for pattern building

TIME LOGGED: 15 HOURS, 17 MINUTES

I’m taking time away from the collection. I’m afraid to lose momentum, but I need some distance.

Days 19-21: Creating Patterns

Diving back in! Working solely in Adobe Illustrator on the desktop

I want to start with a complicated hero print, but I'm warming up with a simpler idea first.

Created 6 patterns. Goal is 12.

TIME LOGGED: 7 HOURS, 23 MINUTES

Days 22-25: Creating Patterns Continued

My normal tasks are falling by the wayside as I give 100% of my focus to bring my vision to life.

Pattern work complete! 15 patterns ✓

This is too many. I'll have to kill a few of my darlings.

TIME LOGGED: 9 HOURS, 32 MINUTES

Letting the collection rest for a few days. Dreaming patterns and colors nearly every night.

Days 26-27: Pattern Flow + Color Prep

Studying the patterns. Zooming way in and out. Looking for inconsistencies, rivers in the patterns, and anything that nags at the eye.

Turning them upside down + sideways. If someone cuts pieces of this for a quilt, does it work?

TIME LOGGED: 4 HOURS, 18 MINUTES

Days 28-30: Curating Colors

Pulling potential colors from my original inspo photos

18 colors ✓

First colorway is buttoned up. Time to crack the second one.

Focusing on similar amounts of contrast to the first colorway

Bringing a few dominant colors from colorway #1 to #2 to be complementary colors

Trying to sneak in at least one element of surprise into the colorway

TIME LOGGED: 8 HOURS, 52 MINUTES 

Days 31-33: Scaling + Submitting

All of the patterns and colors are complete!

Scaling each pattern by eye ✓
Cohesion + variance ✓
Room to breathe ✓
Each pattern in its own Illustrator doc ✓

Click submit. Wait for feedback and keep growing.

TIME LOGGED: 6 HOURS, 36 MINUTES

FINAL TIME LOGGED: 106 HOURS, 50 MINUTES

Wanting More?

This story comes from Volume 4 of Pattern Magazine, Expansion & Exposure. The whole spring issue, with every story and photograph, is at bonniechristine.com/patternmagazine.