Water The Plants Sign And Butterfly Fabric Storage Basket For Handmade Monday

We've had some gorgeous weather this week and its been a pleasure to work on some summery makes in my lovely sunny new kitchen :)

I look forward, as always, to hearing your thoughts!

Remember To Water The Plants!

Its getting to that time of year when potted plants, especially tender young seedlings need regular watering so i thought it would be the perfect time to make some reminder signs...

I've used a nice linen/cotton blend fabric featuring my Watering Seedlings design (available to buy from my Spoonflower shop) for the background, and i've hand embroidered the message on hessian.

The reverse is un-dyed organic cotton and i've used interfacing in between so that the sign holds its shape.

Its completed with a twine hanging string with wooden button embellishments,

and is available now from my Etsy shop priced £9.50.

* I made a stuffed heart version of this last year which was popular but i thought perhaps a sign that hangs flat against a wall might be more practical... time will tell which my lovely customers prefer!

Butterfly Meadow Storage Basket

I've been meaning to add some storage baskets to my shops for a while now, i'm a big fan of pretty and practical makes!

I've used my favourite linen/cotton blend fabric, printed this time with my Butterfly Meadow design in pink and blue (also available from Spoonflower).

The fabric i've used for the lining and base is a gorgeous organic linen which i've fallen in love with and plan to use in lots more projects.

As i'm sure many of you know, baskets like this are super useful for storing away crafty bits and bobs.

I think this one would look fab in a little girls room too, it could be a handy place to keep anything from dolls cloths to hair bands, brushes etc. Its 20cms high and 18cms across at it widest - to give you an idea of capacity it will comfortable hold 20 average sized apples!

This basket is now available from my Etsy shop priced £18 and i have plans to make more to join it soon.

Right now though i'm off to enjoy what's left of a glorious afternoon in the garden...

i'll be back later on for a pleasant evening stroll around Handmade Harbour though... see you there! x

Summer Fabrics - Vegetables And Butterflies For Handmade Monday

Thank you to everyone who kindly left a comment about my garden themed fabrics last week, as always your feedback has been invaluable!

As you may have gathered from the image at the top of this post, as a continuation of the gardening theme, i have some vegetable fabrics to show you this week (there's also some 'real life' pictures from my butterfly meadow collection coming up too!)

Vegetable Fabric Designs

The first of my vege designs is the tomatoes at the top of this post - here's what a 22x18 inch peice of fabric would look like.

I have to say, i'm really pleased with how it turned out - i just love the cheery colours! :)

Next came the peas. I think that curly whirly pea shoots are one of the loveliest things on a vege patch - full of sculptural elegance...

... so i was excited to make them a feature of my pea fabric design.

This is an 8x8 inch swatch.

And here's what an 18x22 inch piece of fabric would look like.

You can find these along with the rest of my 'Gardener's World' Collection in my Spoonflower store. They will be available to buy from there on a range of fabrics in the next couple of weeks (if you'd like to be notified when they're available just let me know).

Exciting News! Spoonflower Does Gift Wrap!!

Before i tell you what i've been up to with my butterfly fabrics, i must let you know about the latest development at Spoonflower. As well as printing designs onto fabric, they have started to branch out into other areas... first it was wallpaper and decals and now gift wrap! I have made my designs for sale in all of these mediums - you can just select which you would like from the menu (let me know if you get stuck or have questions!)

I'm especially excited about the gift wrap option as i could see lots of my fabric designs working equally well as gift wrap. Its not cheap at $15 (£10 ish) a roll but its a great way to get something a bit different for special pressies, or even to use as paper for other craft projects.

Here's a mock up from Spoonflower using my white on pink watering can silhouette design... :)

Butterfly Meadow Fabric Update

When you upload a new design to Spoonflower you need to order a sample of the fabric before you can offer it for sale. When you have a lot of designs (as i now do!) the easiest way to do this is to order a swatch sampler of a whole collection which provides one large piece of fabric with an 8x8 inch swatch of each design.

I recently received the swatches of my butterfly meadow collection and i'm really pleased with how they turned out!

Here are the small prints...

And one close up.

And some of the large prints...

And one close up...

So far i've made this cute mini-bunting... 

...which i think would be perfect to decorate a bookcase or bed in a child's room.

I've still got quite a few swatches to use, including some from my birds of a feather collection too... i've a few ideas of what to do with them but any thoughts from you clever people on great makes using 8x8 inch swatches would be super useful! :)

Maybe i'll find some inspiration on this week's trip around all the wonderful crafty blogs over at Handmade Harbour's Handmade Monday - if you've never visited before, i highly recommend it! (be sure to visit the fabulous Planet Penny too if you're intrigued to know why i'm rushing out to buy some knitting needles this week!!)

Have a wonderful week all :) x

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

Butterfly Fabric Designs For Handmade Monday

Happy Mother's Day Mum's! I hope you're all being waited on by grateful offspring :) You deserve it!   I made my mum a little tea cosy which i hoped to show you today... however, due to unfavourable weather conditions i haven't been able to photograph it, so it will have to wait, along with a few other things i've been working on.

Happily though, i am someone who always has about 900 projects on the go so i've got some other things to show you - mostly works in progress so all input welcome!

Blue Morpho Butterfly Fabric

This is a painting i did years ago of a blue morpho butterfly. It struck me one day that it might work well as a fabric pattern so i changed the background of the image to a solid red, loaded it up to Spoonflower, and this is how the design turned out...

As it is a one off, without any related designs to turn it into a collection, i'm still thinking about what to do with it... For some reason i keep imagining it on a notebook cover... what do you think it would work well for?

Blue And Yellow Summer Butterfly Fabric

More butterflies now, although a different style altogether. I've been mulling over the idea of creating a summery butterfly fabric for a while... something reminiscent of a walk through a wild flower meadow in mid summer, where whole swarms of beautiful butterflies take flight as you approach them... one of my favourite summer time activities! :)

I started off by playing around with some flowers...

... and then some flowery butterflies.

All of the elements are hand drawn, photographed, colour edited and then assembled.

Then i had a go at putting some designs together. I started off by creating a small print - this image represents what an 8x8 inch swatch of fabric would look like.

I think this could work well for small details like a pocket, or perhaps as some summery bunting... what do you think?

I also decided to create a larger print design for making things like cushion covers and aprons - this image represents what a 22x18 inch piece of fabric would look like.

I'm happy that more of the details in the flowers will come through in this design, although i won't really know to what extent they will be visible until i have the fabric in front of me... computer monitors have their limitations! :)

Colour Variations

I chose the yellow and blue colour palette because it make me think of bright summer sunshine in a clear blue sky.  I'm also starting to experiment with other colour combinations for these designs though - here's the larger print design in purple tones and yellow...

... and pink and purple.

and pink and blue...

I'd love to know your favourites and any others you'd like to see!

When the range is complete, these fabrics will be available to buy from my Spoonflower shop (contact me if you'd like me to let you know when they're in!).

In The Pipeline

I have an idea for a design floating around in my head at the moment that i want to use for fabric and porcelain. I had a little play with painting some elements of it on a mug this week... here's a little peak.

Its going to be called 'Wash Day' and was inspired by my recent burst of spring cleaning during which even the pets had a wash and blow dry! (well... not a blow dry, although i was tempted! :)).

I've already decided that the cat is coming off the line - after all, cats are far to wiley to get caught for a bath aren't they :) It will instead be sitting, cleaning its own face with its paw observing the goings on from a safe distance!  I'm going to include a bird taking a dip in a bird bath i think, along with a few other things... and probably make all the elements a bit larger too.

Do let me know what you think... all thoughts/ideas welcome!

In Other News

Before i take a very enjoyable trip around all the other blogs joining in with Handmade Monday this week, i'm going to be watching the Crufts final.... there's a whippet in it!! Very exciting in our household :)

I will leave you with a photo our little 'Best In Show' watching all the woofers on the tele from the comfort of his favourite spot in front of the fire :)

Thanks for visiting! x