handprinted fabric swap III

The handprinted fabric swap, hosted by Leslie from Maze and Vale was great fun, as I thought it would be. Nothing like a deadline to get me to make a final choice and stick with a design.

I made acetate templates and printed the pebbles randomly onto the fat quarter, once dried I added the ladders over the top in a diferent colour.

Theses two are my favourite, I did them in colours to suit my swap partners and I love them. 

I think less is more, the red ones have too many circles, sorry partner! You live and learn right?!

all ready to go (they left before the deadline, just slow at posting about it)

I can hardly wait to see what will be dropping through my door, it's so exciting. 

You can see what everyone else has been up to over on flickr.

Playing along with Creative Spaces.

something different

My blogging these days is very erratic, I'm going to stop apologising for it. 

I have done a little sewing though. I made some bunting for Annie a while ago and I didn't know what to do with the leftovers (I got carried away with cutting triangles).

Simpatico is a really modern print, though not my usual style. So I've pieced the traingles together and this will become a charity quilt, not sure where it's going yet, but I hope it will bring someone some comfort when it's finished.

I love how it's turning out, it's so good to be out of my comfort zone too, it has shown me some many other options. 

The strips in the top picture will be the binding. If you love the fabric, you can still get some here.

Check out some other creative spaces here.

a new list

Feeling refreshed and raring to go again, I have a new creative list, things I would like to make and do this year. I did one last year and managed to complete most of the tasks, the curtain and the clothes for me didn't happen, fancy.

Armed with some juicy fabrics, from here, I will be printing onto the solids and diving into the list...

a quilt each for the girls (gulp)

a couple more cushions

a dress or two for me

a skirt for me

2 sets of curtains (which I loathe doing)

clothes for these ever growing children

make more progress on the bullseye

(see below)

develop some new designs for screen printing

have a go at an embroidery collage for the wall

make a magic potion that doubles the number of hours in a day

I know that is an impossible list, but you never know!...

The Bullseye, this is a slow project. It's my on-the-go project. It comes with me on the occassional tube journey and I pick it up while watching the girls at their swimming lessons. I am almost one year on from starting it, I may not have done loads, but I LOVE it, my circles are fairly ripply, but I can live with that. 

What are your creative plans for the year? Tell me you have impossible goals too, please! 

Playing along with my creative space.

Giveaway Winner

Wow this was fun!
Thanks to SewMamaSew for hosting.

Thank you all for taking the time to leave such lovely comments, so are you ready for a winner??

There were 366 eligible entries, Random did the honours and the winner is.... 

which is Ducks and Rabbits who chose the hexadots, congratulations!
I'm e-mailing you for your address, so expect a parcel heading your way soon.

I so enjoyed reading all your comments I thought I'd share the love and happiness and offer you all 15% off all purchases in my shop for the next 10 days, enter the code happy15 at the checkout.

We are putting up the tree tomorrow, I'm finally starting to feel Christmassy and get a wee bit excited, yay! Have a great weekend. x

hand stamping fabric - tutorial

I have wrapped a few presents for crafty friends this year with handprinted fabric. I know they will love these, and I've had great fun doing it! So here's a little 'how to' if you want to do the same.

You will need:

-washed and ironed fabric to print on (yes, you have to wash it first to remove the size (coating) so you're actually printing on the fabric)

-shop bought craft stamps (I'm using clear ones with an acrylic block)

-Versacraft ink pad for printing on fabric, which are available in lots of colours

OR fabric paint and some foam / sponge / sponge roller (I used Setacolor which I got from Hobbycraft)

-old sheet or something to protect your work surface

Choose a stamp, I used mostly non Christmassy ones, so the fabric can be used all year round.

If you are using a Versacraft ink pad you should be fine using any design. 

If you are using fabric paint and the sponge method try out different stamps on a scrap of fabric first, I found the solid designs (the star) were OK but the stamps with a finer detail were a bit splodgy).

test piece, with varying results

Apply ink to your stamp, by either pressing onto your inkpad, or if you're using fabric paint, apply a little paint to your sponge and dab until you get a thin, even layer on your stamp - too much paint and you'll get a splodge. Practice on scrap fabric first.

If you get paint on your acrylic block edges, wipe it off before you print, it'll get messy otherwise.

To get a clear print, press firmly where the actual stamp is.

Now repeat in your chosen design, random, straight lines, stripes...

When you're finished allow the fabric to dry. Follow the instructions on your inkpad / fabric paint to set the inks to make your fabirc washable. I ironed these for a few minutes to set them. I've used these inks many times and found they wash very well.

Then wrap up your present and share the hand printed love.

Joining in with My Creative Space this week.

Hand Printed Fabric - Giveaway

I so enjoyed doing the Sew Mama Sew giveaway back in May I could hardly wait to do it again. 

This time I'm giving away my own designs. This is so exciting for me!

These are available in my Etsy or Folksy Shops (and of course would make a lovely Christmas present for your crafty friends!)

But on with the giveaway...

The winner will recieve one set of 3 hand screen printed panels in each colour, emerald, raspberry and yellow, all are printed on pale grey.

You can choose from the Circles design (top) or these Hexadots. The printed area measures 36 x 25cm (14 x 9.8").

to enter:

- leave one comment telling me which design you would choose

- for a second chance Like my Facebook Page and leave a second comment here telling me you've done so

If you are a no reply blogger please include your email address.

A winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced at the weekend.

I will post internationally. 
Giveaway ends Friday 7th December, 9pm GMT (UK)

Don't forget to pop over to SewMamaSew to see all the other goodies being given away.

Good Luck!!

Giveaway is now CLOSED.

You can find the winner here. Thanks for entering!

a finish

I made an effort this week to finish of my Hexie cushion. You know what, after going through that "I hate it, I love it, I hate it" performance...

Now it's finished I actually love it! 

Particularly fond of the back. 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday, I'd love to say I have another quilty something on the go, but I don't. 

There are one or two lurking in my head though, maybe after Christmas...

stocking fillers

You probably already know it's Black Friday / Cyber Monday this weekend. There are stacks of great offers all over Etsy.

I have some offers on too, in my Womenswear shop there is 25% off everything, even the items already on sale. 

In my home shop there is free postage on all UK orders (if you're overseas contact me and I'll reduce the shipping)

If you love handmade be sure to pop over to your favourite sellers to see if they have offers on too. 

Now I need to take my own advice. I've only bought one Christmas present so far, soooo much to get still! x

print, print, print

I am so excited, my fabrics are ready to go! WooHoo! I have enjoyed designing and planning and printing these so much, now of course I'm hoping they will actually sell. 

This is a big step for me on my journey of working once again, albeit on a very small from-the-kitchen-table sort of scale.

To celebrate getting to this point I am offering the first 3 customers who buy some fabric a free mini 'test pack' of extra fabrics, (which I admit is not put together yet, let alone photographed), you may get some imperfect samples in this. 

You can buy in my Folksy shop or my Etsy shop and keep upto date on my Facebook page, which I intend to try and update more often with offers. 

What do you think?? 

edited to add

*thanks for all your support, all three mini test packs

are now gone - happy sewing ladies!*

bits and pieces

A couple of weekends ago I went to Lola Nova's workshop and spent the evening chatting and stitching with like minded folk, very good for the soul let me tell you, I should do such things more often.

We each made a patch / brooch from Alexandra's new book Simple Sewing with Lola Nova, which is packed full of lovely projects to make (there are some great Christmas pressie ideas in there).

My photos are all dodgy, so take a look at Alexandra's (Lola's) tale, peek into her glamorous assistant Flaming Nora's extensive stash and meet fellow pupil Laila, who wrote a lovely post about the evening here.
  
Aside from all the practical tips, the best thing I learned? To just sew, for pleasure, it doesn't always have to have a purpose. I often only sew with a finished result in mind, I will try and make time for more whimsy sewing (probably after Christmas though!) 

*****

Little Miss turned 5 last week. She's desperate to be a big girl and I'm desperately wondering where my baby has gone. 

Pink Bun popped up on just about everything, he/she is her partner in crime.

There was of course a party, with bunnies and hat making, games and laughter. 
With an exhausted me at the end of the evening, remembering when she arrived, the good times we have enjoyed and thinking of the exciting times still to come.
Five years, gone in a flash.

*****

This quilted cushion cover is finally coming together, I started off quilting it like this, but thought it too busy.

So I unpicked and started again, much happier with it now.

I know this post is all over the place, but so am I these days. Things are starting to come together, starting with my new screen printing screens which arrived yesterday, the next post will be full of pictures, just warning you!