umbrella quilt...

 i ticked off a WIP from the list today...

after waiting for my stripes to dry (i had to print up my own binding fabric as i didn't have just the right thing in my stash) i set to sew yesterday and finished it off today.

i am so in love with this umbrella prints range and can't take my eyes off it.

a while ago i got sent some pieces from the elephants love water collection and instantly fell in love. it's no secret that umbrella prints are one of my favourite pair of clever designers and this range is a real winner. 

the red/blue combo is always a success and coupled with amy and carly's eye catching designs on beautiful organic cotton, elephants love water really is a must have range.

i wanted to do something relatively simple and let the bold designs do the talking. i paired the fabrics with some coordinating solids and backed it in a red solid for simplicity.

 more simplicity with some straight line quilting through the wonky windmills and we were done.

i really encourage you to try elephants love water if you haven't already. you won't be disappointed. check out a stockist near you here.

i've listed this baby quilt in my etsy store here. 

the process...

it goes from this...

 and this...

to this...

and then this...

 to finally this...

and a bit of this...

all in less than 24 hours.

i love the process of design to screen to printing and it's been quite a while since i did it.

happy days.

new skills...

 a few weeks ago i bought a new toy and after a shaky start of the wrong foot being sent i finally had a spare 5 minutes to try it out yesterday.

 me being me i jumped right on in. no trying it out on fabric to see how this would actually work.

oh no, not me, i just grabbed the nearest block hanging on my wall and set to try.

if it worked great, if it didn't, well, it wouldn't be the first time.

 i knew exactly the design i wanted to try.

i'd made this sashiko cushion a while ago. i just love the stitch and thought it would work quite well on the x+ block. i actually had this quilting design in mind for my scrappytripalong quilt and so i thought this would be a good place to try it out. see...not all blind thoughtless jumping in. there is occasionally method to my madness...occasionally.

ok so it may be a little wonky and uneven but for a first attempt, not bloody bad at all! it is actually easier than quilting with a regular foot where i seem to ruche up the back no matter how careful i am at basting.

i am really pleased with how this little block has turned out and now just a teensy bit excited to quilt the scrappytrip along.

new toys, new skills...even more sewing fun!

a rewarding fat rascal...

it seems as if teaching is what i am supposed to do.

having not taught officially since my middle baby was just 1 (nearly 13 years ago now) it seems to be playing a big part of my life once again.

the screen printing workshops are really taking off and this year i have a series of sewing workshops lined up at the wonderful and inspiring RHS garden, Harlow Carr in Harrogate.

i am going to be teaching several workshops throughout the year, from pretty screen printed napkins to piped cushions and the first of which on sat 9 march where i will be teaching how to make a patchwork zippered pouch and tote bag.

so if you fancy coming along to this fantastic venue to learn some new skills or simply to have fun sewing in a wonderful environment  please do join me. all details are on the website - just click on the link here and then click on 2013 Guide under Courses and Workshop Guides on the right hand side. my courses start on page 30 (creative section) and then all booking details are down on page 38.

the course includes a stroll around the beautiful gardens all in the name of inspiration and i am sure there will even be time for you to nip to the on site Betty's afterwards for a well deserved tea and fat rascal!

friday workshop take 2

 friday came around mightily speedily this week. 

it seems only 2 minutes ago that lizzie came over for a one-one workshop and here i was this week with jess, her mum wendy, vicky and chrissy round for their workshop.

 in my former life i used to be a teacher and doing these workshops has made me realise that it's not the teaching i grew to dislike, but the being in a classroom teaching unmotivated kids.

 teaching screen printing on the other hand has given me my passion back. 

when you have keen, star students in front of you and you get to pass on the wisdom of something you are passionate about, well quite frankly life doesn't get much better.

it is a privilege to have such lovely people come and want to learn something new and to show as much passion as i have.

 it was quite an intense day, in the best possible way. everyone was full of ideas and creative juices were running high.

i never saw such looks of concentration in the classroom.

 when all stencils had been cut we headed down to the print room (the basement) and after a quick session on how to actually pull a screen everyone set to work on their own screens.

 

i don't know about them but i was beyond excited at this point! i couldn't wait to see how their designs were going to turn out.

seriously, i needed to give myself a pep talk at this point.

and what star students they turned out to be...

after the printing and the cleaning up came the magic...

 seeing their designs transformed...

how cool are all of these?

i just love how different each and everyone's work is...

vicky brought her fab bird and birdhouses design printed out and ready to cut...

chrissy punched holes a crazy to make her striking design...

wendy did 2 - she used cat post-it-notes as silhouettes to cut out - and also took inspiration from melissa bombardiere's wonderful belbird design (i love melissa's work)...

and jess produced a wonderful piece that looks  tribal.

 the next workshop isn't until march 15..i'm not quite sure how i'll get my fix until then, but it's certainly something to look forward to.

if you fancy joining me for a fun passion  filled friday (does that sound wrong?) there are still a couple of places left for march 15. 

please do join us (mother's day is march 10 so put in your request for a great gift)...you can book a place here.

wonderful way to spend a friday...

what a fantastic way to spend a friday!

i had the pleasure of liz coming over for her one-one screen printing workshop.

liz has done a couple of screen printing courses before and so had a good idea of what she was up to.

she claimed she wasn't very artistic but if you see what she produced i think like me you would disagree rather swiftly.

liz brought some sizzex paddle punches with her. I haven't seen these before and they are so cool! It would be very difficult to cut these shapes for stencil printing and liz used these in such a creative way. I just love the effect she achieved.

we spent some time talking techniques (actually we didn't stop talking for the over 3 hours liz was here) so that we could perfect her already more than basic skills.

 one advantage for liz booking a one-one session was that she had more me time (not necessarily an advantage you might say) and we were really able to work on her skills.

she also had plenty of time and could work on 3 different designs.

 whichever workshop you book on you get tote, tea towel and fabric pack to work with.

i love how the stars came out on liz's tote!

with a little bit of time left liz set to work on her 3rd design - partly hand cut, partly sizzex paddle punched. 

how cool is her tea towel? just genius!

liz really was an a* student in both attitude and aptitude and i had such fun hanging out and 'playing' with her today.

thanks liz for a wonderful time!

if you would like to come and do a fun workshop there are a couple of places remaining on my march class or like liz you could book a one-one for that little bit more me time.

next week i have my next group workshop and i can't wait!

a lightbulb moment...

 i am still a bit giddy from yesterday. 

for those of you that follow me on IG you will know what i am talking about...

the wonderful and talented Leanne Fanny of the little house martin sent me some of her amazing fabrics....and i mean amazing!

we follow each other on IG (i'm blueberryathome, Leanne is leannefanny) amongst other places and we got chatting about doing a swap of our fabrics. i was certainly up for that!

would you just look at what came in the mail yesterday!

Leanne's designs and colours are just too stunning for words.

i have always been a fan of her dotted leaf design so was delighted to have a couple of those in the bundle.

 as for flower pop...just darling and such gorgeous colours.

Leanne mixes the most stunning colours and i am determined to spend some time on doing what i started doing a couple of weeks ago and mix better colours. it makes such a difference.

you may have come across her sewing machine patch that she has made a very cute needle case kit with. i think that is due to be in the shop very soon.

so there i was, lucky me, with all this sitting on my desk. 

taxes were done so there really was nothing (imminent) stopping me from creating with them.

as soon as i opened them and pulled (in a very refrained kinda way - obviously) them out i knew exactly what i was going to do with them. I had no preconceived ideas at all and thought they would sit on my desk for several days waiting for something very special to use them for.

but no sewing commenced rather swiftly...

 i was being a little bit of a tease posting photos on IG for Leanne to guess. she had absolutely no idea and nor did anyone else, although i did like one suggestion of it being a headboard for a bed.

 in typical karen can't-possibly-stop-to-rest-eat-or-do-anything-until-it's-finished mode at about 9.45pm last night the patchwork lampshade was completed. 

 i absolutely love it.

Leanne absolutely loves it

and judging by the reaction on IG last night a load of other lovely folks do too!

i can not tell you what a pleasure it has been to get to know Leanne and to have this wonderful experience with someone so lovely.

in fact, in less than 24 hours we have set up a collaboration of working together to devise the first in a series of lampshade kits! (there is already a very exciting second one in the pipeline, but can't say any more at the moment)

these kits will be available very very soon (or to buy ready made if you don't fancy making your own) so you too can have your very own beautiful Fanny Park lampshade in your house!