Blueberry Park Makes 2...

Apologies for the rather late posting of my favourite makes during July as posted on Instagram...school holidays, vacations, out of routine goings on all contributed.

The good news is you won't have to wait long to see August's!

There are so many inspiring pieces made with my fabrics ~ it is overwhelming to see all your makes ~ but I have to narrow it down to 4 so here, clockwise from left, are my 4 favourite makes during July...

@annikaihallonhuset ~ what an awesome Modern Medallion quilt...check out Annika's IG feed to see the finished item

@adrianneonthewindyside ~ a gorgeous block from Adrianne's Block a Day July

@frankieandray ~ what can I say? Jo's mix of linens, Liberties and Blueberry Park fabrics in her quilts are stunning every time

@sandycass156 ~ I am constantly staggered by Sandra's use of fabrics to make stunning mini quilts...again check out the finished piece of Sandra's timeline.

Want to be in with a chance of being featured as my Top 4 of the Month? Simply remember to tag your IG pics with #blueberryparkmakes

x

:: selvedge ::

it's that time of year again...xmas fair season...where i can normally be seen galavanting off all over the place at various fairs around the country.

it's an unusual year this year however, due to other work and personal commitments, as i am actually only going to be out and about at one fair. 

i am going to be exhibiting at the selvedge winter fair at chelsea old town hall on fri and sat 29 and 30 november.

coincidentally this is one of my favourite fairs to exhibit at and also to shop at. it is full of beautiful handmade products that make exceptional gifts. i'm hoping to conquer my complete xmas/chanukah list whilst i am there!

if you are in the neighbourhood and fancy a great day out do come along and as a little incentive to come over to my stand i am offering all my lovely blog friends 10% off at the fair. just make yourself known to me quoting {fair13}.

right, i'm off to make some more goodies for my stand and hope to see lots of you then!

ps if there's anything in particular you are wanting to buy do let me know and i can make sure i have it or put on one side for you. x

a week in pics...plus the odd word or 2...

 what a week...and it's still only thursday!

it all started with Ruby's Bat Mitzvah weekend which went brilliantly.

i had been very anxious about it for weeks partly due to how much work i have on at the mo and how on earth i was going to have time to prepare for the batty as well and partly due to not having dad with us. i have been very emotional about that for the weeks leading up to the batty and was worried i wouldn't be able to keep it together...

i did keep it together...

for most of the time...

well, some of the time.

we had a truly wonderful weekend and one thing it did teach me was, whilst it is beyond sad that dad is no longer here to share these occasions with us, it is so important to build new happy memories.

the work side of life has had to fit in alongside. it couldn't stop altogether due to the up coming xmas fairs and other deadlines.

the newly discovered silver brussels linen was made up into cushions and napkins. i can't tell you how much i love this fabric. it's so soft and smooth and of the most exquisite colour and i blame that for my little sideways distraction of piecing it together with some of my printed pieces. i haven't quite decided whether this is destined to become a quilt or wall art...time will tell.

then things got a bit more colourful...

selvedge needle books for the xmas fairs...

ruby's horse printed onto vintage fabric that is destined to become famous...

printed fabrics for a new exciting commission...

a play around with lotje's gorgeous pattern for this week's big city girl QAL...i couldn't resist...it's so cute!...and besides my new love kona fern had arrived and i just had to find something to sew with it...

and then finally, not made all this week, my screen printing table drop cloth... 

it could just be the colours but i'm thinking it would look great framed as a piece of art...or maybe not!

another mad week in my mad and hectic world and looking at the calendar it isn't due to get any less mad this side of 2014 so you may just see photo mosaics cropping up regularly just to keep you up to speed with what's going on around these parts!

threat of burning out...

 you may see me storming through work stuff this week at a rate equal to a hurricane. the kids break up on friday - well those that haven't yet broken up having had exams - so i can see my future work time rapidly diminishing.

all of that would be fine of course if i didn't actually have major projects on the go. this summer is going to be the biggest challenge yet. it's always a juggle, with me losing it most days, but with some tight deadlines early october 8 weeks with the kids kicking their heels, it is going to make it even more so.

so today, the start of the last proper week of work i've shot out of the blocks and been printing, sewing and ticking off the list.

i have a feeling i may burn myself out by the end of the week and need the 8 weeks to recover myself.

sun sea and sand...

sun sand and sea?

it's not quite looking like that from where i am sitting today but i am really liking the sun sand and sea charm pack created by a lovely customer.

i love how you lovely peeps out there see things and add your input into my designs.

i think i'll be creating something myself with this charm pack...

you can too as i have listed a few sets in my Etsy shop...go here if you are tempted by a little sun sand and sea.

don't forget to enter my giveaway if you want a chance to get your hands on some of my screen printed fabrics. 

go here for a chance...but be quick...it closes tomorrow 

a huge thank you to those that have already entered x

triangular sweethearts...

 it's that time again...

the Saltaire Makers Fair. 

 i love exhibiting at the Saltaire Makers Fair as it is full of lots of wonderful talented makers and it has a reputation for the visitors expecting quality handmade work.

as normal i haven't got myself particularly well prepared for the event so am trying desperately hard now to rectify that and make plenty of my usual favourites as well as having a few fresh new lines to show.

a few weeks ago i printed my first stencilled heart tea towel in orange and finally today managed to print some more in a couple of other colours.

this will be their inaugural outing so it will be lovely to see how they are received. to date i have printed them up in the tangerine, a sunshine yellow and then a greeny-turquoise. the greeny-turquoise was today's happy accident. i had printed the yellow first and went over the screen with my regular turquoise and hey presto a lovely seafoam colour. i love it! i've been trying but failed to mix this colour for ages. don't you just love happy accidents?

i think i will stick with these 3 colours...

unless of course there's a colour that you think i must print it in...all suggestions on a postcard pleas...or simply left as a comment.

and of course i couldn't just leave the design as tea towels...

there are t-shirts for your little sweetheart too!

if you live in the vicinity and are looking for something great to do this forthcoming Bank Holiday then please do come visit. the Makers Fair is part of the Saltaire Arts Trail so there will be lots to see and do. it would be well worth a special visit even if you live a bit further afield.

...and if you aren't able to be there then you can always pick up one of my new tea towels in my Etsy shop. (t-shirts will be available there v soon)

far flung stockists...

 Being a supplier to other people's stores means my work travels around a fair bit.

Sometime's I am lucky enough to get to see some of it in situ and I love that, because every place presents it differently.

 Other times there isn't a hope in hell and have to rely on beautiful images to see what someone has turned my work into.

This is one of those times...

Jiyeon has, what I can only assume to be, a beautiful store in South Korea no less.

Jiyeon kindly sent me these stunning images of napkins she has made from my Scruffy Daisy fabrics.

It really is lovely to see where they get to and what they look like.

Seeing them has cheered me up no end today!

the changing of minds...

 So, the Low Volume quilt for our bed has had various transformations while I searched for just the right block design.

You may remember it started life as a Log Cabin on Sunday...

 Early yesterday morning it had morphed into HSTs...

 And before the day was even out it had changed again into straight line piecing cut within an inch of its life. 

I woke up dreaming (yes, literally dreaming) of wonky windmill blocks, having gone to bed wowing at this beauty and finding this ace tutorial.

My Tuesday running buddy was coming round at 8.30 so I was hard pushed to do a trial block before then....I am seriously my own worst enemy.

That said, I am now 100% sure (yeah, right, until the next change of plan) that this is the block I am going to use. 

The log cabin would have been too busy, even if it is Low Volume...

the HST gorgeous, but too full-on for a king sized bed (yes, Charlotte, you were right...I do listen)...

as for the straight line piecing, I have no idea where that one was going.

I'm hoping the wonky windmills will be easy on the eye, be as asymmetric and random as I like and still be the one I love when it eventually gets onto the bed.

Now I have made a decision this will now have to be put on a shelf high up out of temptations way. I have a lot on. And I mean a lot. And if I'm good I'll let myself bring it down and do a few blocks for a while.

Ooh I'm so strict.

Summer of the Simpatico...

September already? Wow where did the summer go?

Amazingly for once I actually got a summer project finished. Well, if you exclude the fact that it isn't actually made into anything, but a completed thing none-the-less.

Summer 2012 will definitely be remembered as Summer of the Simpatico. I did a tutorial of my fold-over pouches for The Daily Stitch - Annie of The Village Haberdashery's blog in Simpatico and I had such a summery, fresh making time with them that I decided that I was going to use the collection for my summer of hexie fun. We spent a lot of time in the car this summer - London for the Olympics, Bristol for family birthdays, mid France via London (again) and Paris. I was in need of a good hand stitching project that could be done on the move as well as picked up in a shady place.

Perfect!

 I am not 100% sure what it will become - possibly a wall hanging, possibly a cushion, but definitely not a quilt! I really really loved sewing these little hexies (just over 1" across!) and loved sewing them together too, but the reality of now the summer is over that it will stay in a corner with all the other "i've-started-but-goodness-knows-when-i'll-ever-finish-it" projects is making me realise that I need to stop here.

Also, to be honest, I'm a tad disappointed with how I've pieced it. The flowers (top pic)  were so lovely when sewn individually but when I began piecing together they all got lost together and looks rather random instead. If I wasn't away and impatient about not wanting to wait to come home and finish (besides, we had a 600 mile journey - I needed some hexie-ness) I would probably have pieced the flowers with solids between so they would show up better. I may trying embroidering in coordinating floss around each flower. They may stand out a little clearer.

Either way Summer of the Simpatico was a very enjoyable one.

Now we are back I have started on the next project. This one may take a while. I have been wanting to make a quilt for our bed for a couple of years. I even started some blocks last year but I was never that enamoured and now I've gone right off them - too much yellow. Yes, you did here correctly. The wallpaper in our room is rather bold and I think what is needed is something a little more easy on the eye. I've been drawn to all the Low Volume creating going on at the moment and thought this was the way to go here. I am also tying my hands behind my back and not including any yellow but a little splash of red. You may remember the gorgeous pillow my lovely friend Kylie sent me at the beginning of this year. The splash of coral red works so beautifully in the room. I am not entirely sure where this quilt is going or where it will end up, but here is the start of Block 1.

I hope you have had a good creative summer (month for you Southern hemisphere peeps) and do link up to Lynne's Fresh sewing Day if you want to see what other people have been up to.

 It's been a hellava week this week. One that can be basically be described as a bit of a post celebration blur.

I'll post about the amazing weekend we had at another time, when I can put into words what we all went through and when I've picked myself up off the floor from exhaustion. 

I don't remember Sam's flooring me quite so much, but I think that's a lot to do with us being out of routine this week with the extra Bank Holidays and Half Term. If we had been back to routine the next day we would have had no choice but to get on with it.

We spent most of this week sleeping late, saying farewell to visiting family and friends and generally living in the moment.

By the time Matthew went back to work yesterday we were finding it tricky to get out of our slump.

I dived into the cellar to get some printing done for some orders that were piling up and as is my normal trick started playing around with an idea that had been forming in amongst the blur.

As you know i normally print in colour on white fabric but wanted to give printing on some colours a go.

This ended up with me printing on a fair few of my solids and rather liking where it was going. The main reason behind this was the need to order more magnets and deciding that perhaps they would look better with more colour.

I've put up a couple of pics here to get a feel of the difference.

What do you reckon? Printing on solids or printing on white?

I'm rather liking how the solids look coupled with other fabrics. The design seems to stand out better, particularly with the blues, but on the other hand the postage stamp block seems to work with the print on white.

Maybe I'm too tired this week to make a decision or maybe there is a place for both.

Do you have an opinion? Would you like to see more designs on a coloured background?

Would love to know what you think. You are probably less tired than I am...unless of course you are recuperating from FQR...

I have an unhealthy obsession with orange at the moment.

It all started when I received these fabrics (more on that to come very soon) and then the need for a binding fabric to bind the quilt I am making with them.

I couldn't find what I was after so I decided to print it. Easy, huh?

While I have been working on that quilt, all I can think about is orange, orange and more orange.

Consequently I have been trying out my designs in orange...

...and I absolutely love them.

I guess it is no surprise I can be so easily swayed, as at one time I couldn't look yellow in the eye and we all know where that has got me.

I'm pretty sure this love affair will be around for some time yet and having printed all 3 now 2 I'm now undecided which to use on the binding... scruffy daisy or tiger stripes...what do you reckon?

And if you have your own orange crush going on at the moment I've put together these 3 fabrics as a nice sunshiny summery set in the shop...it's right here.

It's a 3 day weekend in the UK this weekend.

That's cause for celebration don't you think?

It doesn't look like we are going to be celebrating too much on the weather front, which quite honestly for my eldest off on a 2 day Duke of Edinburgh Expedition, isn't the greatest news.

In an attempt to have something to celebrate, I'm offering 3 for 2 on my screen printed fabrics until the end of the Bank Holiday on Monday.

And if that isn't cause to celebrate, quite frankly I don't know what is.

I'm under no illusions that this may not soften the blow for Sam, but hey, if we're happy, right?

Have a great weekend however you may be spending it.

 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???!!

Red, white and blue!

I got distracted by the sun again today.

With the weather about to dip in the UK from tomorrow I made the most of catching some rays with a little outdoor printing.

As a consequence I'm a little ahead of the game (for once) and printed up some special fabric packs...

Enter the Jubilee packs!

I've put together a navy and a red piece in the same design, perfect for all those Jubilee crafting projects.

At the moment they are available in Kite Strings or Framed Flower but if you'd like a set in one of my other designs, just give me a shout!

I am utterly in love with the light at this time of year.

Opening the front door and seeing the hazy spring sunshine after long dark winter days makes me very happy.

I think it is this spring haze that was responsible for my latest printing.

Some of that pale pinky glow must have worked its way into my sub-conscience and when ordering new paints this week, pale pink appeared on the order form.

Who'd have thought?

So here we have Framed Flower and Triangle Mania in Pale Pink.

They say everything I've been feeling this week seeing this sunshine.

If you're feeling all hazy and pinky glowy go right here to grab yourself some...