Origin 2011

On Sunday, me and my boy went into London to visit Origin at the old Spitalfields market:

Visiting Origin gives me a little boost of inspiration and fuel for my creative fire. I always come out thinking 'I could do that'. Who knows, maybe next year?

I took a few pictures of the things that caught my eye, although was really quite surprised to note that some of the designer/makers had signs saying 'no photography'. Surely it's the perfect opportunity for a bit of free promotion. It seems really odd - like saying 'look at me, but don't look at me'.
Anyway, I digress, here is what caught my eye:

Sadhu - hand-woven pashmina shawls and scarves

Anthony Theakston Ceramics

Catherine Tough - Knitted socks

Abigail Brown - soft sculpture birds

Danielle Gori-Montanelli - wool felt jewellery

Danielle Gori-Montanelli - wool felt jewellery

Esther Coombs - Illustrated upcycled ceramics

Sarah Morpeth - Handcut paper

Catherine Carr - Crocheted glass

UOLDBAG - upcycled suitcases

Muir and Osborne - Knitted Dogs

Anna Wales - Metal and felt Jewellery

Sign in Old Spitalfields Market

Big Ben!

SALE!

I'm having a SALE in my etsy shop at the moment to make room for new stock:

My Flying Birdy and Flowers stitched paper collage cards have now been reduced by 50%. 2 cards in a pack (one of each design) now for just £2 (or $3) and if that wasn't enough of a treat, FREE UK shipping for a limited time too. What are you waiting for, go and grab some before they all go.

new cards

With Christmas fair prep well under way, I've just ordered a small print run of some greetings cards I designed this weekend:

I've deliberately gone for generic non themed cards as they can be used for multiple occasions.

I'm toying with the idea of doing just a handful of Christmas designs too in a similar style. What do you think? Shall we do a little interactive project? Leave me a comment with your suggestion for a Christmas card design/icon/theme and I'll base one of my designs on a suggestion made by my blog readers.

The root of things

Yesterday was one of those days that I seemed to lose my ability to draw. This is massively inconvenient when I have a big list of things to do, many of them involving said drawing skills. Perhaps it was the subject matter that caused the creative block. I pressed on regardless (because I inherited a family gene of stubbornness) and finally came up with a root vegetable themed pattern:

It seems my way of tackling something difficult is to make it more enjoyable and fun, hence my smiley faced vegetables. I even like the little slugs in this pattern and I'm not normally a fan of slugs - especially the real ones that last week munched their way through my winter pansies. Little buggers.

bears

I'm preparing for my Christmas fairs and starting to get things made. This year, as well as my felted wool softies and accessories I'm planning to have some printy things for sale too. I'm thinking tea towels, printed softies, cushions and purses.
I've been working on some bears (for softies):

new baby gifts (?)

The designs are all ready to be printed and I don't mind admitting, I'm feeling quite excited about these.

Autumn Forest 2

I've been having another play with my Autumn Forest design. This one is really busy - lots of leaves, twigs and sticks - all the stuff that comes off the trees at this time of year:

I've entered this one into the Autumn themed contest on spoonflower (limited palette of 3 colours plus white). If you like it, your vote would be gratefully appreciated.

Garden Bird

My Garden Bird design came 7th (out of 342 designs) in last weeks bird themed, limited palette, spoonflower contest:

Here it is printed:

I'm really quite chuffed! The design is now available for sale here

Halloween Fabric

When I was designing this fabric collection - called 'Ghost Face' I didn't have Halloween in mind -  well not in the conscious part of my mind anyway:

I'm really pleased with this little collection - it has printed up really well. With Halloween looming up I I'm inclined to design a few more co-ordinates too, maybe some skull and pumpkin motifs.

You can now buy this fabric here, in fat quarters or full yards, and on various fabrics too (oh the beauty of spoonflower!). My swatches are on quilting weight cotton but I think they would work really well on Jersey Cotton too. I'm imagining little long john style pyjamas, in the style of Mini Boden.

the last of summer

This last weekend I had a go at capturing the remains of summer in a few photographs:

No matter how much we all try to deny it, summer is ending and Autumn is fast approaching. Some might argue that we've actually been having Autumn for a good few months now. The trees outside my studio/office window are thinning and starting to drop leaves and the ones that remain are changing colour from green to yellow and red.

printed softies

Firstly, thanks to those who commented on my last post about whether owls were a bit overdone. It seems that they are still popular and have longevity. I'm glad about this because today I've been happily sewing up some new softies:

These are a bit different for me as I'm normally a big lover of felted wool when it comes to my softies but I just had to have a go at a printed version too. These are printed onto a linen cotton canvas (from spoonflower) which is just lovely. I've backed these two in a cross hatch design - in pinky red and grey, which has also printed really nicely:

I usually stuff my softies with wool stuffing but these ones seem to be better with polyester, so now I'm on the look out for a polyester stuffing that doesn't go lumpy when you stuff it into things. Any ideas where I can find such a thing?

Autumn Forest

I can definitely feel Autumn in the air this week. Slippers have been needed (instead of the usual bare feet) and it's felt a bit chilly in the evenings. I think it's time to put the winter duvet on the bed. And if ever proof was needed, whilst writing these words an email popped into my inbox inviting me to view Habitat's new Autumn collection.
I've been working on an Autumn Forest collection, which is timely for the change in weather I think:

Click on images for more detail

The colours of autumn are many and varied. I based the colours of the above designs on shades and tints from this picture, which I found on pinterest:

The little owls make me smile. I know they are popular (hence why I included them in this collection) but are they just a bit over done now? What say you blog readers?

I'm getting ready

I'm really loving what I've heard from Michael Kiwanuka, especially this, called 'I'm getting ready':

and also this, which just has a really cool funky 70's vibe going on. I'm especially loving the Jazz flute at the beginning:

and finally...

They are starting to ripen:

They make a nice palette too don't they.
I might have mentioned here (or maybe on twitter) that I've grown a massive (some might say 'silly') amount of tomatoes this year. I love them. I mean really love them. If there was nothing more to eat in the world but tomatoes I would be quite happy.
I've been growing 3 varieties this year, the big red's are 'harbinger', the little yellow cherry's are 'sungold' (well at least I think they are - I grew these from the seeds of last years crop), and I have some black cherry's which are still ripening on the vines.
I was getting a little bit troubled as I have lots and lots of tomatoes but they were all green, but slowly, slowly, I am starting to get some colours coming through. I blame the poor summer. I don't think there has been enough sun to ripen them sooner. All will not be lost however - it looks like there will be plenty of green tomato chutney making going on this year, especially if September ends up being anything like August weather wise.

a little bit ditsy

When I choose fabric to buy (for all those projects I never get around to!) I tend to go for ditsy florals. My portfolio was lacking in florals generally so I've been working on a few this week. The last pic shows a close up of this pattern:

I think the rings look like I've spilt my cheerios on the fabric. They also look a little like mini doughnuts. Anyone would think I'm hungry!

Bird Garden

Phew, it's been a busy and challenging week (hence my lack of posts). It's definitely true that every ying has a yang.
I've been working on a bird themed collection this week:

 

and I'm quite liking the black - which surprises me actually as I think black can look quite harsh sometimes, but the overall effect in the top designs is a green-y/blue-y one despite the black background.