Cover Competition

On behalf of the International Textile Alliance’s Educational Foundation, the ITA is pleased to bring to you another opportunity to gain exposure in the home furnishings industry for your school and students. The Interwoven Textile Fair by ITA Show Guide Cover Competition.

Twice a year the Interwoven Textile Fair by ITA Show Guide is printed and distributed. We would like to give you the opportunity to create a print, dobby, or jacquard fabric design that will be applied to the cover. Below you will find the guidelines for the “Cover Competition.” The winning student and school will receive a $500.00 monetary award and exposure in the Interwoven Textile Fair by ITA Show Guide publication. In addition the student and school will be recognized in the Interwoven Textile Fair by ITA Magazine.

Submission Deadline

October 4, 2024 for the Fall Guide

March 20, 2025 for the Spring Guide

Please narrow your selections by pre-screening, only 6 entries
per school will be accepted. Feel free to contact our office with
any questions. (336) 885-6842

Sara Lusky Michigan State University

I was heavily inspired by the V-shaped patterns formed by knitting. Knitting patterns are revealed in various articles of clothing that we wear daily. This inspired me to take something comforting, familiar and wearable and translate it into a design suitable for home interiors.

Menghan Wei Academy of Art University

Purple always gives people a feeling of mystery and nobility, and so does the purple tulip. Its flower language is “endless love, no regrets in this life,” symbolizing warm and lasting feelings, whether for lovers or friends. Therefore, I hope that this layered ocean of purple tulips can bring endless and tolerant love to everyone.

Kaitlyn Jones Savannah College of Art & Design

For clients who want to create a timeless look, Emanate is for them. The color palette consists of classical blues paired with ageless golden yellows. To create a visual harmony that will brighten any space, Emanate takes inspiration from shimmering golden lights on the backdrop of a night sky, providing a place where time and color are limitless.

Meredith Sides Savannah College of Art & Design

My inspiration was the quaking aspen trees I saw when I visited Utah. I thought the way they climb the sides of mountains was so beautiful. The quaking aspen is actually a colony of biological cloned trees sharing a root system. These clones can stretch for miles, creating their own forests. I wanted to capture the way they crowd together, outnumbering all others in the forest.

Flora Walsh Thomas Jefferson University

Wild Countryside was inspired by a yearning to be surrounded by nature while dealing with the effects of increased time spent inside due to COVID. All of the motifs were painted on sight at different spots throughout Philadelphia, PA and Ashby, MA. The design was created to allow the viewer to feel less alone amongst the hills, treetops and creatures.

Callie Connors Kusama Half Drop Repeating
Callie Connors
November 2021 Callie Connors Thomas Jefferson University

This design was inspired by the work of Yayoi Kusama and her concept of “self-obliteration.” This is the idea of forgetting your identity and becoming one with the universe. I wanted to create a pattern that created the sense of being lost in a field of flowers and becoming one with that environment.

Julia Urrea Swatch
Julia Urrea
May 2021 Julia Urrea University of Georgia

The inspiration for my print comes from the idea of tassels. While sometimes considered to be a small detail, tassels have the power to spruce up any home furnishing (pillows, blankets, curtains, chairs, etc). What fascinates me most about tassels, however, is the large quantity of individual threads it takes to create such a unique texture along with the physical explosion that comes from it. That is what I wanted to emphasize in my design: a soft and comforting firework.

Jeremy Kalteux swatch
Jeremy Kalteux
May 2020 Jeremy Kalteux University of Georgia

This abstracted mountain print was part of a larger collection focused on the Japanese ideal of yin and yang. The collection entitled “Saints and Sinners” was split into two sections. These sections drew inspiration from symbolic elements within Japanese culture that represent both the positive and negative sides of life. This print in particular drew from the idea of the perfect circle, the balanced mountain, and the peaceful zen garden. The geometric lines represent the repetitive act of meditation much like that of a zen garden. The circles and mountain – like motifs demonstrate the balance that one can achieve through the process. The goal with this print was to take the identifiable Japanese motifs and translate them into a modern repeated pattern, to take the old and make it new.

Olivia Pagnotta swatch
Olivia Pagnotta
November 2019 Olivia Pagnotta Jefferson University East Falls

I wanted to emulate artist Moe Brooker’s style by evoking a feeling of joy through color and movement. I used bright colors and quick brush-strokes to create a design with high energy that radiates a feeling of positivity.

Claire Chang swatch
Claire Chang
June 2019 Claire Chang Savannah College of Art and Design

This pattern was inspired by the feathered beauties that flew around my childhood home. While all the other kids had dogs and cats running around their homes, I had Australian cockatiels flying around. These birds hold a close place in my heart and will always be a symbol of comfort, happiness, and home.

Haritha Yadala swatch
Haritha Yadala
December 2018 Haritha Yadala North Carolina State University

This is a contemporary Aztec pattern inspired from the techno music. It is a euphoric themed print for a high energy environment.

Meghan Cooper swatch
Meghan Cooper
June 2018 Meghan Cooper Savannah College of Art and Design

This design was inspired by the beautiful movement of seaweed that’s created by the currents underwater. The elegant leafy collum builds up the fabric creating depth and space while the colors loosely interpret the reds and purple tones that can be found in certain aquatic plants.

Kaylie Kaitschuck swatch
Kaylie Kaitschuck
December 2017 Kaylie Kaitschuck College for Creative Studies

This design was inspired by the weather patterns and mapping in everyday society. It represents humanity, nature, and community within it. This pattern is composed of a singular unit made from couching on a long arm quilting machine. By building up layers and layers, I was able to make my own textile through different dyed yarns. This is a story about everyday life and what we are granted with on a daily basis.

Shelby Williams swatch
Shelby Williams
June 2017 Shelby Williams Savannah College of Art and Design

Jane Eyre

Ever since reading the book, Jane Eyre, I’ve been inspired by Charlotte Bronte’s novel. Every flower used in the design is mentioned within the book, and the birds are a reference to Jane as she often calls herself a bird of sort.

Gina Miller swatch
Gina Miller
December 2016 Gina Miller Savannah College of Art & Design

Bubble Leaves

The inspiration for this repeat pattern comes from learning to let the nuances of nature and the process of creating to show through in a design. I created mono-prints by rolling ink onto various sprigs and leaves and pressing them to paper, and one set stood out with the organic yet defined shapes. I then scanned in the image, inverted and filled the color and began rearranging the sprig to showcase the natural beauty of the mono-print that would not have been reached solely by drawing. The assignment for my screen-printing

class was to utilize only two colors for the design, so I also played around with stretching the values and dimension with a half-tone effect of two different sizes for both a shadow and lattice-work structural grid. The unit for repeat was printed out onto transparency paper and transferred

to my two 23″ x 36″ screens. I screen-printed the design by hand onto 4 yards of cotton poplin with 3.5×11 units with an additional colorway on 4 yards in reverse values of a light green and aqua.

Michelle Dunbar swatch
Michelle Dunbar
June 2016 Michelle Dunbar Rhode Island School of Design

Inspired by a handmade paper yarn Japanese Shifu Kimono, I noticed writing from the original paper was visible on the surface of the cloth. Thinking about this idea of hidden stories woven into fabric, I created a series that explored the transition of time and story telling through hand-dyed color gradations and complex, layered surfaces. In this sample I cut long orange yarn floats and used these tails to stuff the triangular pockets.

Although parts of the story have been hidden within the fabric, evidence of their existence is visible through the orange edges on the triangles.

Marissa Carey swatch
Marissa Carey
December 2015 Marissa Carey Savannah College of Art and Design

Major: B.F.A. Fibers

This pattern design developed out of an interest in my environment, specifically the variety of visual information found on the exteriors of houses in Savannah, Georgia. Each home with an individual set of colors, quirks, and textures collaborate to convey an independent personality. When viewed as a community of homes, however, they nestle seamlessly together.

My focus was to capture these qualities by pulling elements from a mixture of the house exteriors and reimagine their interaction through a repeat pattern. These characteristics were then overlapped to evoke a similar experience of walking through the neighborhood streets of Savannah, Georgia.

Laerke Michaelsen swatch
Laerke Michaelsen
June 2015 Laerke Michaelsen Savannah College of Art and Design

Graffiti
The work is inspired from Australian aboriginal and graffiti art. It is a combination of the spontaneous line work of graffiti, and the patient and thought through process of painting with dots, as seen in aboriginal artworks. The colors are mainly drawn from aboriginal inspirations, but the shapes themselves represent the knotted futures of graffiti letters on walls. Together the two very different styles create an untraditional and visually intriguing pattern. Graffiti is a symbol of differences coming together and the melting pot of culture in today’s society.

Rachael Powell swatch
Rachael Powell
June 2014 Rachael Powell Cornell University, Fiber Science and Apparel Design

Graffiti
The work is inspired from Australian aboriginal and graffiti art. It is a combination of the spontaneous line work of graffiti, and the patient and thought through process of painting with dots, as seen in aboriginal artworks. The colors are mainly drawn from aboriginal inspirations, but the shapes themselves represent the knotted futures of graffiti letters on walls. Together the two very different styles create an untraditional and visually intriguing pattern. Graffiti is a symbol of differences coming together and the melting pot of culture in today’s society.

Lauryn Reiners swatch
Lauryn Reiners
June 2013 Lauryn Reiners Savannah College of Art and Design

Fibers Major