Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to everyone out there. I love Christmas - especially when I receive something handmade that is a delight. While I was out the other day my daughter produced this Christmas card with some scraps of fabric that she had. Love the Christmas tree with snow on it and the presents underneath to unwrap. Hope you all have a lovely time.

New Prints - Bridge of Sighs, Venice

Printing today has had its highs and lows! I wanted to use a drawing that I made of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice and at first decided I wanted to make it in Prussian Blue. Unfortunately as the ink for this did not behave itself and the image did not print correctly. Then I decided to try again and persevered in turquoise which is reminiscent of the Venetian canals.

I had quite a lot of ink left over and so decided to make some cards:

Celia Birtwell

I have been a fan of Celia Birtwell's textile design for a while now and next time I am down in London want to visit her shop. Recently she has been creating new designs for TopShop.

Celia is also the muse of one of my favourite artists David Hockney.

Handscreenprinted Fabric

There is just so much good fabric being hand printed out there which is really exciting and one of the artists involved in this is Lucie Summers. This is an example of her fabric, in one of my favourite colours - turquoise which she has made up into a lovely notebook cover.

Lucie is very inspirational and I will keep watching to see what she makes next.

Swatch Swop - Dark Turquoise

I have had a really good day today printing the second layer of colour onto my fabric swatch with my Venetian lino block design. The first colour was printed in grey and I decided to print the second offset layer in dark turquoise which is a colour that I associate with Venice.

One of the most important things to ensure when printing a second layer is to make sure the registration is right so that the print all lines up correctly. The method I was using was my own with marks on the lino block and a ruler:

Other things that I found essential were:

Using a firm and even surface to place the fabric onto whilst printing, I placed my fabric onto newspaper and then on a cutting mat. This was clearer than when I placed the fabric straight onto newspaper on the table.

Inking up the block thoroughly and then wiping excess ink off areas that were not going to be printed, this ensured a clean print of my image;

After inking up the block it needs to be printed quickly so that the ink does not dry up on the block and the image you are printing is clear;

Pressing the block down equally and firmly in all areas.

This was the result of the days printing and I was really pleased I shall wait for it to dry and fix with the iron before sending it off to Jesse:

I am so pleased with how my design worked that I may use part of the image and print it onto cards.

Finished Bags

This bag was made by my daughter (with a little stitching advice), she chose the design and fabric and here is a detail of the embroidery she added.

I think she has done really well.

Also here is the beach bag completed with the fabric bought recently. It has just enough space for a towel, book and a few other things needed for a day on the beach.

Swatch Swop - work in progress

Thinking about a design for Jesse's Swatch Swop was relatively easy as I already had a design based on a Venetian window that I could use and I thought this would look good as a repeated pattern on fabric. My first attempt at this pattern was a while ago and the 'block' made with press print and in this prussian blue colour on paper.

I decided that the block should be made more substantial for fabric printing and started drawing my design on the lino and carving it out

I thought about using two colours in the design: grey and dark turquoise which are colours I like and also reminicent of Venice. I am hoping that the two colours will be layered with the grey on the bottom and dark turquoise offset over the top. After finishing carving the block I decided to print with the grey and this is the result:

I am pretty pleased with this first printing session and will let it dry and then go over the top with the second colour. Not sure if I need to fix this first layer by ironing it now or if I should fix after I have printed both layers. Can anyone please help with the answer to this?

Artist's Apron

A few weeks ago I decided I needed an apron for when I do my artwork and I decided to buy this Artist's Apron from Alicia. Her sewing skills are wonderful and this apron is really handy as it has pockets in the front (I mustn't fill them too much!) for my artist's tools. It is so lovely I don't want to spoil it by getting paint on it!

Creations link

After making these cushions which were a dream to sew, I was contacted by Caitlin whoose fabric I used to make them. She has very kindly posted a photo of them on her web page which you can see here. It is really great to see all the different fabrics made up into such good things. I think we have fallen in love with the elephant!

Swatch Swop

This lovely fabric swatch came in the post for me which is part of a Swatch Swap that the very talented Jesse of Jezzeblog has set up. As this is part of a Swatch Swop that now means that I have to print a piece of fabric to send to Jesse; therefore new project coming up - watch this space.

Fabric for Beach bag

New fabric purchased for a beach bag - love the colour and design. Will post results when finished.

'Ugly Doll' Number 2

We so felt sorry for the first 'Ugly Doll' that it was decided she needed a companion. Therefore my daughter brought some really cute soft material home and started creating another. This is the result and she also decided that it needed a lovely purple flower to finish it off. What do you think of this one?

Lunch and cushions

Went to my friend's house in the country for lunch the other day and decided that instead of taking flowers for her I would make her a cushion out of this lovely Pippijoe fabric instead. I haven't made cushions for a while (I used to make a lot at one time) and really enjoyed making the piping and putting in the zips. Need to make some more for me now.

Ugly Doll!

My daughter came home with this 'Ugly Doll' that she had made, however, she did not want it to be 'ugly' so she decided to create it with some pretty fabric and gave it a nice smile. What do you think?