new kits...

I find it's always good to produce new items this close to Christmas. 

You know, when you are so rushed off your feet and can hardly breathe.

It's just perfect timing to spend all hours getting it into a ready selling state and neglect what really needs doing.

Hence I have just produced  these kits...

I spent most of yesterday photographing and writing up the instructions for them and they are now winging their way to various stockists to sell as Christmas extras.

They come with everything needed to make one pouch and full instructions to make as many more as you like! Perfect for making lots of presents this Christmas!

For now they are available in my Etsy shop...and in time I will let you know which stockists are selling them.

Now back to the To Do List...

Familiar colours...

It was back to the more familiar colours of yellow and grey today, with a little random orange and brown thrown in.

 Printing my triangle design in white on various coloured Konas had been on the To Do list for some time and was needed to be pushed up the pecking order with autumn/winter thoughts in mind.

 I love how the coloured fabrics have taken the white ink, altho when you compare the 2 ways below (white ink on coloured fabric or coloured ink on white fabric) I am not totally sure you can tell the difference with this design, can you?

What I think it does give me is the flexibility of colour. Paint colours are much more limiting than the huge array of choice of Kona solids, so printing in white ink does allow me to get the perfect colour. I mean who wants Tomato when you can get Tangerine? Seriously, who?

Being the impatient soul that I am I had to see if things would be any different when I made it up into products and again, I'm not totally convinced they are.

Along with the vast choice of colours with Kona, the other advantage of printing with white ink is I can print in lots of colours at once without having to wait for a screen to dry first. This has to be a big plus. 

So unless you have a huge problem with this set up, I think I will be printing with white ink for the foreseeable future.

It's amazing how much one can get done in a very short space of time.

Now that the children have gone back to school, it was full speed ahead preparation for the Saltaire Maker's Fair.

I was in the screen printing studio on Tuesday and then it's been all systems go sewing for the past couple of days.

I'm really really looking forward to the Fair, more than any other that I have been part of.

I've visited Saltaire Art's Trail before (the Maker's Fair is a central part of the trail) but never been in a position to apply let alone be accepted.

I'm certainly not quite ready yet (it's fine...there are still 48 hours to go...at least) but I've been working damn hard these last few days to make sure there will be plenty on my table to peruse.

There will be lots of new stuff, lots of old faves and hopefully lots for everyone.

Look forward to seeing you there!

WARNING:

Do not adjust your screen...the following blogpost is brought to you in black and white...well, grey anyway.

Following my screen printing session this week, I was drawn to making up some pouches in grey.

We have Wave in Grey...

and we have Hexie in Grey...

I don't know if it's just my mood this week, or my usual affinity with grey, but I'm rather liking them.

If you are drawn to more colour yourself, next up will be something with a bit more zing...

(For all you mutual grey fans, the first are in my shop...the rest to come very soon.)

You know when some weeks start off mental and continue at that pace well into the end of the weekend? This week has been one of those.

Starting with the photo shoot on Monday, it was swiftly followed by a trip to Wimbledon on Tuesday. An overnight stopover (would have been rude not to) meant not being back home til Wednesday and back at "the office" til Thursday, which in itself meant 2 days to fit a week's work in. Not surprising that didn't happen.

The busy week itself was sandwiched between 2 crazy weekends. It's all been good crazy. it's all been fantastic things, but I'm far too old for this racy lifestyle quite frankly.

Because the week was so mad I didn't get time to go to the screen printing workshop, which obviously made me quite sad and yearning to get there. Consequently I've booked to go in tomorrow. I've still got a back log of work from last week but if I don't get in on Monday I've a feeling the week will get crazier and I'm not going to miss another week. As it is we are nearing the school holidays (the boys break up on Thursday - more madness) and it's going to be hard to get in much then.

Last time I was in I was trying out my Bubbles design and one thing I have had time for was making up some pouches in it. I'm really pleased with how it's come out, especially with it combined with the vintage fabric I recently bought and tomorrow am going to be printing in other colours as well as trying out another design.

Crazy it may be, but hopefully productive too. This latest little pouch is in my Etsy store, along with more made in the fab Sumemrsville fabrics and hopefully after tomorrow it will be joined by even more Blueberry Park screen printed designs...

Do you ever make things to sell and realise actually you can't bear to part with them?

Well, I'm on a mega zipper pouch making sess and was using some small leftover pieces from various projects.

One such project was the fabric I used for my cushions for the hallway. I decided this would make perfect little pencil and coin pouches, so I set off making a set for the shop.

At the same time I covered a sketch book with some wallpaper (that my friend Tara very kindly 'bequeathed' me) that I was planning to use for my Screen Printing journey as recommended by Gina, my screen printing guru. Gina suggested (I've a feeling you may be hearing the phrase 'Gina said' fairly often around these parts) keeping a journal of prints produced and marking on them what worked, what didn't. I really love this idea as I have a brain like a sieve and to keep a record seemed a genius idea.

Back to the zipper pouches...

Because I was doing the 2 mustard-based projects in tandem, I realised there was no way on earth that these pouches were ever going to make it into the shop. I love the wallpaper that Tara sent me and this gorgeous Skinny Laminx fabric was just made to accompany it, so in record time the pouches were a keeper.

I may just order more of this beautiful fabric to make some pieces for the shop (can't keep a good thing to yourself) but in the meantime, I am more than happy and inspired by having these things for me.

I've talked before about my hoarding of scraps and my inability of throwing anything out. After all, you never know quite when you may need them and what they can be used for.

And this is the reason why...

The leftover pieces from my pencil pouches weren't exactly huge but they were too big to be discarded in the bin. It's almost a criminal offence to throw away these bits of beauty.

At 11.30pm last night, my normal lightbulb time, when I should have been finishing off and heading to bed, I started playing with these pieces and voila, the new Lippy/Coin Keyring Pouch was born.

They will be in the shop very soon.

I can't guarantee what designs there will be.

After all, as I've said, they are just a bunch of scraps.

UPDATE: Now available right here...