Sunday 17 March 2013

Baking With Love Tea Towels, Rose Garden Tea Cosy And Easter Egg Butterfly Fabric For Handmade Monday




This week has been a bit of a mixed bag weather wise we've had everything from brilliant sunshine (allowing me to photograph my latest makes - yay!) to icy winds and snow!  I enjoy coming up with names for some of the snow hybrids... a cross between snow and drizzle is 'snizzle' and a new addition this week has been ultra tiny hail stones - a cross between snow and hail which i have christened 'snail' :)

But enough of my silliness... i've got lots to show you!


'Baking With Love' Tea Towels




These tea towels (see all three at the top of the page) were actually one of my very first fabric designs when i discovered the joys of Spoonflower a couple of months ago. I love tea towels, they are one of favourite types of 'functional art' - the perfect way to add a touch of colour, flair, style or philosophy to the domestic environment of the kitchen.

I wanted to create something simple and subtle without being bland... a bit countryish but no so much it wouldn't fit in amongst other styles. I hope i've struck that chord with these... i'm pretty pleased with them which is i good start i think!

The delay in showing them to you was waiting for the labels which i've now stitched in alongside a corner loop for hanging.



The fabric is 50% linen and 50% cotton - super absorbant (i have tested it!) with a gorgeous and hardwearing canvas like texture.



Each towel measures 35x54cms. I'm selling them individually for £12.50,


or as a set of three for £35.



They are available now from my Etsy shop and will be listed in my other outlets over the next couple of days.

This set was inspired by my love of baking , the joy of lovingly preparing some sweet delight and watching family and friends tucking in :)  and tucking in myself of course! :)

I have another collection in this style which i've called the 'Happy Kitchen' collection. I wanted to see how these were received before i got anymore printed onto fabric but here's a peak at the digital versions... 










do let me know what you think!



Rose Garden Tea Cosy

I finally got some shots of the latest addition to my rose garden collection this week... a tea cosy! Pictured here with matching tea cups.





It is 32cm wide and 29cms high (excluding loop) - big enough for an average 6 cup teapot and more than adequate for anything smaller... my little two cup teapot is hiding under it in this picture!

The rose garden fabric is beautifully soft organic cotton...




... and the lining is a durable white linen like cotton which is organic too.




(the insulating wadding is also cotton - not organic but i'm working on that one!)

It is priced £19 and available from my now Etsy shop (and will be listed on my website and other outlets very soon).


Butterfly Fabric


Thank you sooooo much to all the lovelies who commented on my last post about my butterfly fabric designs... as always your thoughtful remarks have been super helpful and your support much appreciated! (If you missed out you will find all my butterfly designs in my Spoonflower Shop - they're not for sale yet but they should be in a week or so)

I've added a couple more designs to the collection which i thought i'd finish up by showing you today. There is this one... (image represents a 22x18 inch piece of fabric)


... and also something a little bit different which came about when i decided to enter the weekly fabric design competition over on Spoonflower! (a brave moment for me :))

The coming week's competition theme is 'painted eggs' and once it occurred to me that i could combine the egg shapes from my 'Birds Of A Feather' fabric with the butterflies and flowers i've just been working on...



 ...i had to give it a go!

Here's what an 8x8 inch swatch of the finished design.



And here it is as a 22x18 inch piece.


Only ten submitted designs are picked to be part of the comp so i've no idea if mine will feature... if it does though, all votes appreciated! (the winner gets $100 to spend at Spoonflower :))

Thank you for sticking with me to the end of this lengthy post... :) i hope i haven't given you information overload!

Without further ado lets hop over to Handmade Harbour see what all the other Handmade Mondayers have been up too :)

Have a great week! x

28 comments:

  1. You are such a very busy bee! I really like the eggs. Good for you going for the comp. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The tea cosy is a great addition to the tea set - maybe a matching tea towel is another addition?

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    1. Aww thank you! I know, i felt very brave doing it :)

      Oooh yes i'd love to do a tea towel next! x

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  2. I like the tea towels. Very simple, but clever.

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  3. Love the tea towels. Great design and I like the design of the digital versions too. I hope your egg design wins :-)

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    1. Thank you!

      He he aww thanks, that would be amazing! x

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  4. Love the tea towels and particularly like the green in the "home grown" one. The egg fabric is fabulous and I've got my fingers crossed for you. xxx

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    1. thank you! I like that one too, i can't wait to see it printed :)

      aww thank you! x

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  5. Love the eggs! Your tea towels are wonderful, and the new designs look great. Perhaps you could expand the rose garden range - I can picture coasters, placemats, ovengloves.......

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    1. Thank Natalie!!

      Ooooh yes i'd like to do all of those things! :)

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  6. oh how much i love your dotty paintings! the fabric with those dotty roses looks so nice and so feminine!
    id love to sit by such a nice tea set with a cuppa and a biccie :)

    well done on creating your tea towels. i buy one or two every so often but the problem i always experience is that fabric of the tea towel gets washed off and fades away with time plus mine always seem to shrink too! perhaps, this could be sort of a clue from a tea towel consumer :)

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    1. thank you very much! I'm so glad you like the design :)

      Thank you for sharing you tea towel troubles! I know what you mean about them fading.. these are high quality printed fabrics rather than the cheaper types you can get though so i feel pretty confident they'll stand the test of time! :)

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  7. What a lovely range of items! So talented.

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  8. Lovely Easter egg fabric! Just as Easter designs should be in my opinion.
    Your new labels are very cute too- great finishing touch.

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    1. He he oh thank you! I'm glad you like it :)

      I'm pleased with the labels too :) x

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  9. I love your tea towel designs. I also love those Easter eggs! Is Spoonflower easy to use? You have inspired me and I may have a go one day if it's not too difficult (I don't have a lot of patience figuring out techie stuff and can't use Photoshoppy-type things).

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    1. Thank you Wendy! :)

      Spoonflower is very user friendly, you should definitely have a go, its great fun!

      I'm just like you with techie stuff and photoshop is waaaaay beyond me :) You can edit images for Spoonflower using PicMonkey or similar... i use an app called Pixelmator which is for Macs and it is excellent, super easy to use but with enough scope to do some really cool stuff.

      Do email me if you give it a go and get stuck! I have limited knowledge but i'm learning new stuff all the time and i'd love to help :) x

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  10. Awww Natalie, I love the tea towels - they're really funky and fresh! Good luck in the competition!! Simmi x

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    1. Thank you very much Simmi! I'm glad you like them :)

      I will let you know how i get on in the comp :) x

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  11. Lovely, lovely, lovely - such beautiful makes. The Easter Egg fabric is really gorgeous and I can imagine lots of different makes it can be used for. Hope you have a good week.

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    1. Aww thank you! :)

      I'm glad you like it! I think i may be a bit late with it for this Easter which is creeping up fast... there's always next year though :) x

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  12. Your tea towels are so cute and so cool - and what a fab picture of it blowing in the sunshine! Super professional labels too, which I find a bit hard to come by: would oyu mind telling me who you use please? :) x

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    1. Aww thank you! I'm glad you like them :) I was lucky to get a sunny day to take those pics!

      I actually made the labels myself... well, kind of, i got the design printed onto fabric on Spoonflower and then cut then out and stitched the hems myself - a bit time consuming but i am happy with the result!

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  13. I love your tea towels.
    I haven't been brave enough to try Spoonflower yet but am tempted every week when I read your posts!

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  14. Your tea towels are gorgeous and I really like the labels, very pretty. I love the easter egg design fabric, another wonderful design. Have a lovely week.
    Ali x

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Your lovely comments are much appreciated x