Monday 30 April 2012



 Another new design that has been sitting waiting patiently in the file named "new designs" had an opportunity to come to life today.
I've decided that Mondays are for just that...


 ...y'know, when you've had all weekend with work being pushed into a corner for the sake of family time, but your brain doesn't switch off and by the end of the weekend it's bursting at the seams to get going on some of those ideas?






 So it seems only right that Mondays should be honoured with time for creating...time for releasing those ideas that have been cooped up and time for putting into practice some restrained creativity.  
Well that's my excuse for getting on with trialling a new design today (not all day obviously...I did some proper work too...promise, stockists...) and finally my Doily design is here.
The Doily design is a stencil screen print taken from an actual doily with the added twist of paper cutting added detail.



Whilst honouring Making Monday, I was fairly restrained and stuck to one colour, one item...
but...


...tomorrow is another day...
a day for more colours and more products...
...can't wait for Tuesday!

Friday 27 April 2012

 So less than 24 hours from conception, so to speak, and already we have the Jewellery Pouch Mark II...


I wasn't overly happy with the ribbons and where they were placed and I wanted to be able to fold the pouch in 3 if necessary.
So now the ties, made from coordinating fabric is sewn onto the back of the pouch - you'll have to take my word for that since I haven't taken a photo of that integral detail - and the ends are free to tie big...



...or smaller.

Hopefully there won't be a Mark III, Mark IV or any other Marks and I'll be able to get on with making these guys like this.

 And in other news today, I had a very exciting delivery that I've started working on this afternoon and no doubt will get abandoned until after the weekend now, unless I can find an excuse to sneak off upstairs for a few hours over the weekend.


Hope you have a great weekend and manage some sneaking around of your own ;-)

Thursday 26 April 2012

So, carrying on with my attacking the long list of things I want to try out mode (note: 'want' rather than 'need') here is a jewellery pouch that I've been wanting to produce.

 I didn't sleep very well last night and for some reason every time I was awake I found myself trying to work out how it would all piece together.
Do you ever do that?
So once awake today I had to give it a go.

It has to be said, it wasn't easy!
I had sort of got a picture of it in my head of how the zips and linings needed to go, but it didn't transfer quite as easily as I had hoped.
Thank goodness I made notes along the way because I'm not sure I would be able to remember what I did, without working through from scratch again.


Strangely it has worked out exactly as it was in my head, including the divided pockets on one side and ribbon fasteners at either end (although I did have to use my trusted friend the stitch ripper as I had obviously forgotten to place the ribbons the first time. 

I love finding time to try new things an all I need to do now is try it out a few more times to see if it really is a goer.

What do you reckon?



Wednesday 25 April 2012

A little update on what I've been up to today...


I have had this waterproof fabric on order for a while and finally it arrived today. 
You know me and my inability to put something to one side, so it was operation sew up for an order that had been waiting for their super cute wash bags.

 And the good news is I ordered extra so there's a listing for them in my Blueberry Park shop right here...


It's probably a good thing that I just got on and made these as I have other projects that really need attending to...including one very exciting (to me...and probably you) one that I can't wait to get started on...

...but more about that another time.

Tuesday 24 April 2012



 3 weeks later and everyone is back where they should be, which means that I'm back in the cellar, thank you very much!
I've had this on my list for far longer than I wanted to, but finally they went into print.



 My original card of this design was hand stamped, which was not only a labour of love but didn't allow for the flexibility of printing in different colours. Also, i often went wrong...one mis-stamp and a card was wasted and I had to start again.

So now this card has turned into a screen print which allows me to not only offer it in a multitude of zingy colours, but also I've decided to offer it as a set of blank cards for people to personalise as they would like.

The cards will still be available to buy personalised by me,  with a hand-stamped name or person, but the added bonus of choosing your colour, and they will now also be available as a set of these 4 bright beauties blank and ready to be personalised at a moments need.

Genius, huh?

Friday 20 April 2012

 Are you playing along with Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition?

 I am a big fan of Amy's designs so didn't need asking twice when I saw details of the competition.

My fabric pack arrived quite a few weeks ago now and has been sitting on my desk begging to be played with.

 The fabrics sat there teasing me for far too long and this week when stress levels were beyond high, it seemed a perfect time to take a little break and do some therapeutic sewing.

 To be honest when I starting cutting them I had no idea what I was going to make. 
Before I knew it HSTs had been cut (actually this was a couple of weeks ago) and sewn and still I had no idea what they were going to turn into.

 Today it became a little more obvious and now we have the set of Umbrella Coasters, matched with linen and vintage braid detail and, irrespective of the fact that in my book you can never have enough mustard and grey and linen hanging around the house, I'm rather chuffed with the results.

 I think it's fair to say a little amount of beautiful prints goes a long way. The itty bitty scrap bits were even turned into details on the backs (I knew there was a reason I didn't throw them away).


I don't care too much if I don't win as making these today was just what the doctor ordered.
Actually I do care if I don't win...have you seen the prizes???!!

Wednesday 18 April 2012

I would like to introduce you to my friend Tara...


You have probably heard me wax lyrical about Tara and her wonderful art before and seen some of the pieces I have previously bought from her...(here and here)

 I love Tara's use of wording in her work and I also love the texture her work has with all the layering she incorporates.

 Tara generally uses acrylic paints but has just recently started working with oils and as her first pieces show (as below and here) I think we'll be seeing her using oils a lot more....love this little piece below.

And now for the really good bit...

Tara has kindly offered you, my lovely readers, a special 20% off her work in either her Etsy shop or on her website. All you need to do is quote HAPPY20 at the checkout.

Go check out her work...I'm sure you won't have trouble finding something you can't live without.

Also read more about this lovely lady here.

Thursday 12 April 2012


I've built up quite a collection of screens now and it's fab to have my designs on them to make printing to order nice and speedy.
I have however kept one blank.


 I've done this so that I can still try out new designs and ideas at home, without the time and expense of transferring them more permanently to screens if the designs don't work.
Working with stencils means it is relatively easy to do just that.







So today, in a spare 5 minutes - literally - I started working on refining a previous design and started cutting out a stencil from newsprint paper. 
I'm always amazed how much detail the paper gives you when you print. It's such flimsy paper, but with a flood of paint over the screen, it sticks like magic and works as well as a photo exposed screen.


The only drawback really is the temporary-ness of a stencil, but the flexibility that it gives far outweighs this and is definitely a worthy method in it's own right and one I'll be repeating I'm sure.






In the meantime I think I'll be getting this design up onto a screen some time very soon.

Tuesday 3 April 2012









I have so many projects on the go at the moment...


...you know the ones...a quilt here, a cushion there and a big pile of picked out fabrics that haven't even made it to being anything specific yet...


...and now it seems I have added to that list...


...but I just couldn't resist Anna aka Noodlehead's Go Anywhere Bag Pattern.
Even thought winter has re-descended on the UK this week, I have faith that summer will return...


...and I intend to be ready.