Can a home have too many cushions ?

Well it has been a while since  my last blog but I that does not mean I have been having a snooze on the sewing front. In fact the last couple of weeks I have been doubling my sewing efforts to try and pull together some new stock for my shops on my Folksy and Etsy.

We do not have many fabric shops locally and I do wonder what they think I am up to as I pop in so often, so I do now purchase alot of my fabrics online as  there are some fantastic stores out there on the internet and have had my fabrics delivered from all round the world and I am always on the lookout for designs

If you have read any of my previous blog entries you will know I have been on a printed textile course this year and loved it so much and would have happily continued for another year, therefore lots of my current projects have been based on my printed designs.

I have loved turning all my printed fabric into cushions galore some have even managed to make it to my living room rather than the shop!!!.

1920's Vintage Harper's Bazaar

1920's Hermes advert from French Fashion Magazine





Edwardian Fashion Adverts

I have decided to use the envelope style for these cushions  this is proving to be the easiest type for the printed fabric as it means I can make small and large cushions and add bulky or fragile trimmings wherever necessary and it allows the cushions to have smooth edges rather than the bulk of a zip.

It was like a production line at one point in the kitchen only to be halted for a cupcake and coffee which is what a girl needs while sewing. Though I did have a disaster with a coffee and walnut cake last weekend which was a bit like an exploding volcano, but that story is for another day and I have been sticking to my local cupcake bakery which is keeping me well stocked

Look at the range of cushions  ended up with  !!!!



The final cushions of the afternoon was a piece of embroidery which was edged with some vintage and floral fabrics. It is a great way of using up the scraps of fabric

Look out for the another selection of cushions on the next blog

Cushions, curtains and lampshades !!

As I mentioned in my last blog update my textile printing course is now complete and we have an exhibition in a few days time. We spent this week setting up and everyones prints and products looked fantastic, it was lovely to see all the combinaiton of colours and different products.

I spent the last couple of weekends stitching away to get some items finished and I still have a load of printed fabrics to do the next round of products

My finished products  for the display are 2 cushions, a lampshade, curtains, a tote bag, a show bag and some box canvas framed pictures and I am pleased with the collection,

Let me know what you think?

The exhibition has arrived!

I cannot believe that my textiles course is already over and done with for this year, when we started last September it seemed we had ages to learn all the techniques and practice printing fabrics and now it is all over and we have our exhibition starting in less than a week.

I have had so much fun doing the textiles print course, trying our different ideas and learning what I like and don't like and even discovering my own style. The rest of the people on the course have been a great bunch to work with and it has been really fun watching everyone develop. I wish we could continue for much longer, I  only just seem to be getting started, there are so many things I would love to try out.

The last couple of week have been making all these printed fabrics into interior products and that has been so much fun.

Cushions, curtains, bags, pictures, book covers, lampshades and needle cases are just a few of the things that have kept my sewing machine busy.

So watch this space in the next few days for the pictures  to be revealed.

Its back to school!! or the production line

I cannot believe it is February already where has all the time gone, so much to do and so little time.

It has been back to school time as my textile course started again in January and we have our exhibition in March so where to start!!!.  I have been working on my designs for the last few weeks and trialling them out in the print workshop and have been really pleased with the results with the different patterns, colours and types of fabrics. I even had a little print production line going at one point as I was getting so enthusiastic

I now need to start turning the printed fabrics into something to exhibit so the sewing machine will be in full flow this weekend. Thinking about table runners, cushions, book covers, lampshades bags, where to start!!! though any suggestion would be welcome

Here are a few of the sample printed fabrics and most of them stay with the vintage/art nouveau that I have been focussing on  theme but I did stray to make a baby print for a present for a friend, I could'nt resist

I even tried to print some vintage magazines onto fabric and these will be turned into book cover and bags this weekend  so look out next week for the results.

New Years resolutions include the words, crafts, crafts and more crafts

Well the Festive season is well and truly over, there was a sudden rush just before Christmas to finish off one of two projects such as these cushions with an embroidered Christmas motif, I realised if I didn't finish these off they would need to be put away for another year, so a few evenings after dinner and they were completed.

Next was the sort out of the Christmas Fabrics and they have been put to the back to the cupboard till later in the year. I even started on the New year detox and in this case it wasn't putting away the booze and chocolates it was a case off  sorting out all the unfinished sewing and craft projects of which I seem to have accumulated a lot of them. So this was the basis of resolution number one, I will only have a maximum of 2 unfinished projects sitting in the craft corner at any one time .So  I am now in the middle of trying to finish off 15 quilts, 10 cushions,  5 bags, 4 niteatures, 2 places mat, 2 pot holders and a book cover. (this sounds like an alternative Christmas Carol)  and  I think will keep me going for sometime. Oh and a realisation that I am easily distracted!!

I did manage to also finish off another embroidered bag

There was even time to finish off another couple of my Niteaures.

Now for Resolution Number two, I will up date the Blog at least a couple of times a week, so here goes!!

The niteatures have arrived for Christmas

What a week in Scotland  the wind was so bad,  particular up in the Cairngorms and the highlands which was made even worse by snow, luckily as we are on  the coast  it was only trees that came down and so I decided that since there was only one or two bits  to pick up for Xmas and having just spent 2 hours in the post office with parcels, I was locking myself away for the weekend and trying to finish off projects.

I found some great fabric panels which look like like vintage library books, 10 minutes later they were needle cases, they were so easy to do

The bag obsession continues and I finished off a little girls bag with a gingham lining



Among the unfinished projects there was a Cath Kidston kit to make a bag, surprise surprise !!!!. I added an extra touch by adding in a floral lining to finish it off.

Now I may be able to sew but I have to say one of the skills I have never mastered was knitting, squares seemed to be as far as I ever got and I have a fab wool blanket to prove it which I will feature at a later date.

Now I have bought the knitting books, watched my mother but no I have still not improved. So I was wondering what to do with all the squares and spare bits of wool to and that's when the niteatures (knitted creatures) were created. I also used up some scraps of liberty fabric for the stomach and the ears and added a fluffy tale, so here are the first couple of attempts

Last but not least I was working on 3 different quilt tops and the Snoopy quilt was coming along nicely, all will be revealed in the next blog. So off for now to have a mince pie and cup of tea

Cup of tea, mince pie and fabric printing

Today has been a busy one, not only have I had several cups of tea and mince pies but I have even managed to squeeze in putting  together my visual diary of all the print techniques I have tried over the last few months.

I have now pulled together some fabrics to use on projects, all these have been designed and printed by myself and will be turned into bags and purses.

The first collection are all designed and hand painted

For the second collection I have used vintage magazines, letters and adverts which I turned into screens which I then printed on fabrics. This this fabric will be used to make purses and bags.

Now the exciting part is planning my vintage range for next year !!