Personalised Patchwork Hearts And Colourful Cats For Handmade Monday

Another gloriously sunny week in Wiltshire... its just soooooo lovely to have some proper summer weather :)  And isn't it beautiful out there...?! I just had to take some snaps of this stunning field of poppies and yellow rape seed flowers.

Personalised Patchwork Hearts

Do you remember i told you about a lovely commission i got to work on recently? Well today i get to show you some photos!

The brief was to create six patchwork lavender hearts similar to this one which i made a while ago as part of a collection of other hearts and banners.

I had to improvise as i only had a little left of a couple of the fabrics, and i needed enough to create six identical hearts (fellow crafters reading will no doubt be familiar with the scenario where you've used up scraps of lovely fabrics on a project only to be asked to reproduce it at a later date!)

The customer also wanted each to have a personalised message - i've blurred it out for this piccie but you get the idea of how they look.

I loved working on this project as the fabrics are gorgeous and the sentiment behind the gift is lovely too. 

Commissions can be a bit nerve wracking when you're waiting to find out what the customer thinks of the finished result... happily though she was really pleased with them!

Colourful Cats

This week i've also had the chance to finish my colourful cats bookmarks...

and lavender pillows...

...their cheery colours have suited the summery weather beautifully!

I'll be listing them soon in my various online outlets. The bookmarks will be £5.50 and the lavender pillows £8.50 per pair (if you know you want one let me know and i'll set it aside for you!)

Mystery Plant Time

As always you have astounded me with your cleverness this week! There were some superb guesses as to the identity of this mystery plant...

Highland Monkeys and Ginx Craft did fantastically well to guess that it is in fact...

CELERY!!!

The biggest well done has to go to Christmas Pie Crafts though who also guessed that it was grown from the bottom of a celery i'd planted up!

If you've never given this a go, i highly recommend it as a way of making the most of your shop bought celery - cut off the stalks and use as usual, then just pop the base in a saucer of water for a couple of days until tiny leaves start to appear, plant it in a pot and watch a new celery plant grow! It even works during winter and if nothing else provides something lush and leafy to look at when nothing much else is happening.

That's more than enough from me for this week i think! Time to find out what all the other Handmade Monday crafters have been up too... 

Have a wonderful week :) and thanks for popping by! xxx

Cool Cats Lavender Pillows And Bookmarks For Handmade Monday

More glorious sunshine this week - yay! And a busy week of making for me. Mostly i've been working on a commission that i can't show you yet though so it will be quite a brief post from me today (and possible quite a long one next week!)

Cool Cats

Whenever i complete a new collection of fabric designs i order sample swatches of all of them from Spoonflower. My cool cats collection is my largest yet so this huge array of feline fabric swatches are currently gracing my crafting table...

Although the main purpose of ordering the swatches is to check the designs work in terms of colour representation, print size etc, i am of course keen to make lovely things from them too.

I've had my thinking cap on and come up with a few ideas of what to create with 8x8 inch swatches recently - things like coasters, mini bunting, lavender pillows, bookmarks have come to mind so far...

I've decided to turn these colourful 'cats in love' swatches into lavender pillows and bookmarks.

 I had hoped to have them all finished this week but due to being pleasantly sidetracked by a lovely commission, i've only completed the blues so far...

Blue Cat Lavender Pillows

They make a cute little set i think - the perfect pressie for a cat lover!

They measure 8x10cms and as with all my lavender pillows are stuffed with a combination of soft British wool and gorgeous dried cotswold lavender. The reverse side is fresh white organic cotton.

If they prove to be popular i will keep them as a permanent fixture in my shops and make them entirely from organic fabric i think.

Blue And White Paw Print Bookmark

Recent visitors to my blog will know that i'm very enthusiastic about making bookmarks at the moment, so no surprise i've been at it again this week!

I've used the white organic cotton canvas again, i love how fresh it looks alongside the bright colours of these fabrics. There are no frayed edges this time, in keeping with the neat, bright, fresh look i'm going for with these designs. I look forward to hearing what you think!

That's it on the making front for this week. So, back by popular demand, its...

Mystery Plant Time!

Okay, here's this week's mystery...

... anyone who manages to correctly identify it will get a big 'hooray!' in my next Handmade Monday post!

Speaking of which, its that time of the week when i like to enjoy a good browse of all the crafty delights lined up over at Handmade Harbour... do come along, everyone is very friendly :)

Have a wonderful week! x

Cat Cushions, Tea Towels and Gardening Themed Hanging Hearts For Handmade Monday

This week's been all about making things with my latest fabrics... its been so exciting to see my designs in fabric form and immensely satisfying to see the items i envisioned when i first started working on them through to completion!

I have had so much kind support and generous comments from you folks about these designs in digital form (thank you!) and i really hope that you like what i've created with the fabrics... :)

Colourful Cat Cushions

Regular readers will recognise these colourful cats from recent posts about my cat fabrics and craft papers. I'm really happy with how this design turned out on the linen/cotton blend fabric from Spoonflower...

... and i'm also really with the finished cushion covers i made with it! (see photo at the top of this post)

I have used a double stitched french seam internally for strength and a neat finish and i've also added Free Spirit Designs labels which i'm really happy with too!

They will be listed in my shops soon priced £25.50 each.

Colourful Cat Tea Towel

I also made a tea towel from the colourful cat fabric - perfect for a cat lovers kitchen!

This will also be available in my shops soon, priced £12.50.

'Wash Day' Tea Towel

I had a lot of fun with my wash day design and i'm sooo pleased with how its turned out printed onto fabric - really cheery and fun just how i'd hoped!

So far i've made tea towels with it.

As with all my tea towels it comes with a handy handing hook on the reverse...

...and arrives tied up with pretty string and tag -perfect for pressies!

This tea towel is also priced £12.50 and will be available from all my shops soon!

I still have some of this fabric left over... any idea what you'd like to see it made into..? :)

Gardening Fabrics, Hanging Hearts

If you popped by my blog last week you may remember me mentioning that i'd received the sample swatches of my gardening fabrics. Again, i'm super pleased with how they turned out and i couldn't wait to start creating with them!

These two rustic style hanging hearts are what i've come up with so far...

They each have a hand embroidered panel on the front and are stuffed with wool and some dried lavender too for a lovely aroma!

I love the calm stillness of the garden, even though the plants are busily growing and flowering and insects are busily pollinating (and eating my seedlings!) everything is at peace and its such a relaxing environment to be in...

'Peas and Quiet' encapsulates this for me, i hope it makes you smile too :)

Everyone needs reminding to water the plants don't they, especially at this time of year when thirsty little seedlings quickly suffer without a drink. Well, here's just the thing to hang up as a reminder for yourself (or anyone else you've trusted this vital task with!)

They will both be popping up in my shops soon so keep a look out!

That's it from me for this week. Do join me in exploring all the fabulous Handmade Monday blogs over at Handmade Harbour, there's always lots of lovely things to see :)

Have a wonderful week x

Colourful Cats Mug

I'm a big fan of bright colours on a white background as a design style and i have been experimenting with this look in my mug designs. I have some colourful cats to share with you today, nine in total, all 'miaowing'... looks like it could be feeding time!

It is priced at £14 and is available from my website, Etsy and Wow Thank You. It can also be personalised with a name or short phrase for no additional charge - here's an example i made earlier :)

If you read my Handmade Monday post this week you will already be familiar with the black cat mug design i have been also been working on recently - if you're a cat fan and you missed it you can find it here.

Miaow! x