February Blues

So much for the new years resolution... My blogging has once again fallen behind. This has mainly been due to being ridiculously busy at work, feeling generally under the weather and also February being the most depressing month of the year. I don't think I saw the sun shine for an entire four weeks! Even so, I did do something productive with my time...

Me and my man made this gorgeous birdtable for my Mum's 50th birthday present. I love the colour of the outdoor wood paint we found. It's called "willow" from the Cuprinol Shades range, all of which are gorgeous. We are definately making one of these beauties for ourselves!

From Bird Table

New Year, New Materials, New Inspiration

I was spoiled this Christmas for amazing books and craft supplies. My list of books included Van Gogh, Hockney, Munch and Henry Moore's Sheep Sketchbook art reference books, Clare Youngs' Scandinavian Needlecraft and Rachel Allen "Bake". I have already baked the St. Stephen's Day "Christmas Pudding" muffins from the Rachel Allen book which were delicious!

I also got a set of Permaset Aqua fabric inks which I am so excited about! I have wanted to have a go at printing my own fabric for a while and now I am one step closer to being able to do it. I think I will try block printing first but I really want to get myself set up to do screenprinting.

Last but not least I got a free motion embroidery / quilting foot that I am dying to use! I have wanted to have a go at free motion machine embroidery for a while now and when it was featured on the latest series of Kirstie's Homemade Home that was it... I had to have one!! It will also come in very handy when I finally finish my first patchwork quilt.

While I was at my Mum's house for Christmas, I found my old kaleidoscope from when I was a kid. I'm not sure that I fully appreciated this toy as a child but I am absolutely mesmerised by it now! Everytime you turn it a brand new, never before seen pattern emerges in front of your eyes... This is my new favourite source of inspiration for pattern design. I also discovered I can take pictures through the eyepiece!!! I might make this into a feature... "Kaleidoscope Pattern of the Week".

From Kaleidoscope

No excuses for lack of crafts this year!! Plenty of materials and inspiration sources to keep me busy. I think I might start a pattern design inspriation sketch book (another New Years Resolution!)

Christmas Craft Time

I know, I know... I haven't blogged for six months, what am I playing at? I know I am rubbish at keeping up with this, so I am making a new years resolution to start blogging again on a regular basis and try to finally get some loveliness stocked in my Etsy shop!

Christmas is a great excuse for making time for crafts and I was busying myself for months with presents for various friends and relatives before the big day. Here is a sneak peek of a few...

I sewed up some of these patchwork Christmas robins using this bird pattern from the clever people at Spool Sewing in Philadelphia.

From Xmas Crafts 2010

I love wrapping presents... It's is possibly my favourite pastime ever! Hand printed gift wrap is a great way to make a gift even more special. I printed this aeroplane gift wrap using brown parcel paper, a stamp I cut from foam and poster paint. Easy squeezy! (Look out for more block and screen printing in the New Year!)

From Xmas Crafts 2010

I have been a fan of Amigurumi ever since I stumbled upon Beth Doherty's stunning creations over at Gourmet Amigurumi. I have made various creatures for friends and family over the years (always by trial and error and not from patterns) and here is the latest, a little Christmassy crochet bear. His name is Wilfred and I am rather pleased with how he has turned out.

From Xmas Crafts 2010

This Dahlia flower pattern cushion was a bit of an experiment since I wasn't sure how fiddly it would be to complete but I love the finished product. It's a brilliant way to use up tiny fabric scraps and this will definitely become a regular on my sewing table. This is a very special present for my Grandmother since she has not been well this year and I wanted to make her something to thank her for being such an inspiration to me in all things craft; teaching and encouraging me to do knitting, crochet, embroidery and patchwork. My fabric stash wouldn't be half as big if it weren't for her!

From Xmas Crafts 2010

Last but not least, most of my lucky friends and family received yummy homemade food hampers for Christmas this year so me and my man have been frantically making gift boxes, baskets and bags for all the tasty treats to go in! Putting together personalised hampers was so much fun because you can create themed hampers for people who love Italian or Indian foods, buy weird and interesting foods that would otherwise be overlooked and also make things like Christmas cakes or homemade fudge. Best of all, no matter how much you seem to put in them, they will always cost less and have a lot more personality and meaning than if you bought a prepackaged, mass produced hamper.

From Xmas Crafts 2010

I got some amazing art and craft based gifts for Christmas this year but I will post more on those later, when I've had a chance to play with them!!!

Birthday Bags

As promised, here is what I have made my twin sisters for their 21st birthday...

From Birthday Bags

I am so pleased with how they have turned out, despite the fact I was still sewing them the morning of their birthday!
The black and yellow bag is from the Amy Butler Weekender Bag pattern. I bought this pattern ages ago and have been dying to make it but just hadn't found the right material. When I found the retro looking Malena fabric from Ikea I knew it would be absolutely perfect and it goes so well with the sunshine yellow trim, handles and lining.

From Amy Butler Weekender Bag

I never could have imagined how long this bag would take to make and how difficult parts of it were. There are so many layers to sew through and sewing piping round curved corners was a nightmare. I never broke a needle once though and it only started to blunt towards the end, I am so proud of my little sewing machine! I have already forgotten the pain of stabbing my self with pins several thousand times and can't wait to make this bag again, this time for myself. I just have to find the perfect fabric.

The nautical bag was a pattern design I drafted myself, using this gorgeous EZ Canvas Bag from Kinies as my inspiration. Although this was a simpler design than the Weekender Bag, working out the measurements and the design of the bag meant that it took just as long to make and is just as beautiful (if I do say so myself). I love this summery design and will definitely make it again (if I can remember how!)

From Birthday Bags

More pictures of the finished bags and the Amy Butler Weekender Bag in progress can be found on my Picasa page.

All quiet on the blog front

I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing, I keep telling myself I'm too busy to write things down but truth is I just forgot or am lazy with it. However, while I haven't been blogging, I have been extremely busy with all sorts of creating and making!

First off I decided to try my hand at print making. I got a beautiful book for my birthday called Printing By Hand by Lena Corwin which is amazing. It covers block printing, stencilling and screen printing. I have done screen printing in the past at college but haven't quite got the space or supplies at home to give it a go yet, so I decided to start with block printing instead. I had somehow got it into my head that I wanted to create a wood block for printing my tomato silhouette which was so much more difficult and time consuming than I could ever have imagined. I used an old wood scrap from the garage and a dremel to "carve" the shape. The actual wood block looks great, I wish it printed as good as it looked. Maybe I need to use something other than paint to print with, ink maybe... Any suggestions?

Anyhow, since carving wood blocks proved a nightmare I have decided to use foam instead. Cutting foam into the required shape and gluing it onto a backing is soooooooo much easier and prints so much better too. I've been printing little bits of fabric with fabric paint and would love to do something more extravagant, having been inspired by the beautiful block prints of Galbraith & Paul but I have been distracted by bigger projects...

Numero one: I have been asked to make a wedding dress!!! Eeeek! Since finishing a short part time dressmaking course at the local uni, I am blatantly now a supreme expert on creating amazing pieces of couture for the most important day of peoples lives... Not. But I am more than willing to give it a go. More on that in a later post.

Numero two: My twin sisters are turning 21 this weekend, so instead of buying them meaningless gifts I have decided to make them presents that hopefully they will actually like and be more personal than yet another silver key. I can't say too much about it since they will probably read this but I will post the finished goods next week!

Craft's on hold

This weekend was definately not as productive as the last in terms of craft. The weather was so nice for a change, I spent the entire time in the garden, tidying it up after the winter months. Since I live in a rented house, I can't really make the garden my own, nor do I want to spend time and money on something which I will only be able to enjoy until I have to eventually move out so I have been focusing most of my efforts on clearing weeds out of a bed so I can plant vegetables in it. Most of my veg is in pots so it's easy to move into the greenhouse if frost is forecast but there a few things I will be plating out when they are big and strong enough, mainly pumpkins and courgettes. I really can not wait to have my own garden to look after and fill with fruit, veg, herbs and wildflowers... I've spent far too much time watching Alys Fowler on The Edible Garden!

May Bank Holiday Weekend

So last weekend was a bank holiday, which meant three days to make the most of crafting instead of the standard two. Coupled with the fact that the weather was awful and my house mate being away for the week, I felt no guilt at all in taking over the kitchen table for an entire three days with sketch books, pens, pencils, paints and my sewing machine. As a result, I have had a massively productive weekend and have finally kick started my creative drive.
I started by digging out a patchwork quilt I started about a year ago and then forgot about.

From May Bank Holiday Weekend

The colour theme for it is pinks and greens and I got most of the fabric either from my Gran or from sending away for "free samples" from fabric companies. Sneaky, I know, but it's a great way to find out simply and cheaply, what looks good and what doesn't. I haven't done a lot to it but I made a few extra squares to add to the mix.

From May Bank Holiday Weekend

I also got my sketch book out for the first time in ages, to draw some of the plants I have around the house. My orchid which was this year's Valentine's present, a birdseye view of a succulent and one of my many many tomato plants.

From May Bank Holiday Weekend

From May Bank Holiday Weekend

From May Bank Holiday Weekend

I'm really pleased with the tomato plant silhouette and think would make a brilliant print, I might try my hand at carving a wooden block stamp next weekend and see how it turns out.
I love my little tomato plants. This is the first year we have tried growing our own veg and when we planted our first batch of seeds, I was a little overzealous and planted the whole packet, not considering how many plants we would actually end up with. So now we have around thirty rapidly growing tomato plants and limited space... Does anyone like tomatoes?