I See Sheep

I went for a holiday to West Wales to visit my brother, it was great to get out of London and breathe fresh air.
It is a beautiful place with stunning views of mountains and valleys and yes I saw sheep. I was luckly the weather was great so I was able to take long walks and visit nearby towns.
I took lots of photos when I was out 'n' about, so I will posting some of them over the next week. Here are few of the pics of the flowers growing at the side of the road while out walking one day and the sheep :)

Summer Sun and simple Kanzashi style flowers

Classes are finished until September. The weather has been very good this summer, the flowers are in bloom and everything seems brighter, even people in general seem happier.
I have been busy working on lots of projects  mainly with a floral theme - crochet, knitting, jewellery, fabric and even playing with resin again. I need more hours in the day!.
Some of my fabric samples from spoonflower arrived the circle fabrics for Kanzashi style flowers there are currently 3 different designs to choose from each a fat quarter - Circles No.1, Circles No.2 and yes Circles No.3. I have been making and teaching how to make different fabric flowers for years and used to paint/ print the colour on the fabric to make the flowers as I could not always get the colours I wanted. Plus it can be messy when you have a very small space to work in and getting the same results each time can take a lot of extra work (although I will still use this method to develop new print designs). Now thanks to digital printing I can get the results I wanted and it is easy and  repeatable, plus others can now also get the same results. I have made up the flower samples and I am very happy with the results. The circles can be used not only to make flowers but also quilting yoyo's (also known as Suffolk Puffs), hair decorations (I am working on a "how to" for that currently) and covered buttons/ beads. If anyone purchases this fabric I would love to know what you make with it :)
The flowers are very quick and simple to make so I have posted the photo "how to's for making the flowers and some ideas for the centres.

Frogs

This week Spoonflower.com have a "Frog" fabric contest - there are lots of entries this time and so many extra cute frogs. This is my entry called "Leaf Surfing" lots of little red eyed and footed tree frogs :)

A free things for the weekend

A quick post this time as thanks to BT I have no phoneline working and no Internet :( so sorry to anyone who has been emailing or phoning me. Emails I am slowly replying to as I get online in various places out 'n' about.
A few things for the weekend Craftsy are giving a free class to new people who sign up with them there are lots to choose from

Don't forget the Eurovision song contest is on tonight (who watches for the singing its so funny) and tomorrow is World Baking Day to encourage everyone to bake something you have never tried before, what will you be making?

Its May and Spring maybe?

Maybe I am speaking to soon but the bitter cold weather seems to have gone. The sun is appearing a little more each day and staying longer so brighter evenings.
Which has got me thinking of all the new colourful flowers now blooming and the insects buzzing about them.

So inspired I have added a new e-booklet to my ravelry and newly re-opened etsy shops. It is called the "The Garden Collection 2” and contains 2 charts “Swirly Snails” and “Fluttering Moths” both charts match the previous garden collection designs.

And while I am in the create making mood I have been cleaning my sewing machine (my poor machine really needs servicing another spring cleaning job to be sorted very soon) ready for my fabrics from spoonflower.com which have just arrived. I have been planning to make a shopper bag for a while but could not decide which designs to pick. So I choose 2 (well you can never have enough bags). I plan to make a lightweight cotton shopper using the "Circle in a Square - small red/ oranges"
" pattern with a peach fabric to line it and a heavier weight bag in cotton/ linen with the "50's Lace" design and a hot pink lining. I will add the finished bags as I make them :)

Waiting for Spring

While I am waiting for the spring to arrive (its still snowing and so cold) some new samples have arrived from Spoonflower, well some totally new including "masks", "Roos" and "Sugar and Spice and all things Mice"






A few re-sized smaller versions (have had lots of requests of smaller prints) of some popular prints


Plus new colour version of the "circle in a square" (looks like granny square) in a blue/ purple tone and "50's Lace.

I have also opened a new shop at Society6 they sell ready made cushion covers, phone covers, t-shirt, art print and much more. I picked them as they do cushion covers in a variety of sizes and their prices seemed good. I have had many people say they like my fabric prints but can not sew or do not have the time to sew and would love a design as a cushion, so I have added my fabric designs from my spoonflower shop and here's a few examples of the cushion covers and phone covers with my designs

It's winter so its pattern writing time :)

Why the cold weather comes as a surprise every year I don't know but its here and with a good coating of snow. I do like the snow it makes everything look bright and clean, but its when it turns to slush I'm not a fan.
An advantage of the cold is staying in keeping warm and completing the patterns I have had on the go for several years. Patterns I keep saying to myself I just have to add the photos or a few lines of text and its ready and which I somehow seem to put aside for another day and start on something new and never finish.Well this year I am determined to finish as many patterns as I can. So here's the completed Celtic Knotwork Hearts Chart Collection It contains eight charts (some can be purchased separately). They are available on Ravelry.com as an E-Booklet and its is at a special price for a limited time.




 I like traditional white and off white filet crochet pieces, but sometimes its also nice to use a colour so here's one of the charts from the Celtic Knotwork Hearts Chart Collection made up using a dark pink cotton :)
The other filet crochet piece is from the first of a new set of booklets I have been planning so several years (hopefully writing what I am planning here will make me complete them quicker) the first ones called Ogham Love Charts. I will post more about it adn Ogham soon.

Happy New Year 2013

A Happy New Year 2013 to all, filled with lots of happiness, good health, prosperity, yarn, fabric and the crafts and things you love.

Am I the only one who thought 2012 went by way to fast?
Lets hoping 2013 is a little slower. My New Years Resolutions this year are the same as last year, finish off the mountain of projects living in assorted bags, including writing up and testing the patterns if needed before starting any new ones and give a little more time to blogging.

Snowflakes

Spoonflower Snowflakes Fabric Contest started yesterday
Here's my entry, "Floating Snowflakes" There are lots of entries this time and the voting is on until the end of this month so pop over to their site and have a look and vote for the ones you like :)










Luckily the samples have already arrived for this design and they have printed up very nicely. The design is in 2 sizes the larger size is the one in the contest.

Sugar Mice and all things Nice

This weeks Spoonflower contest is "Sweets" (scatter print) Fabric Contest - The theme of this contest is fabric designs depicting sweets that use small-scale repeating motifs that are non-directional, or scattered. So this is my entry Sugar & Mice and all things Nice
:) I had fun with this one even added mice, sweet sugar ones that is : )
Have visit to their site there are lots of great designs in this week competition vote for your favourites

Gift Tags, Samples and New E-Book

Its been busy since my last post.I have added a new e-book to ravelry "Christmas Baubles Charts" It has four new matching charts with different patterned Christmas bauble and another e-book "The Christmas Chart Collection" includes a selection of free patterns from the NezumiWorld Website, Christmas Tree with Angel, Twas the Night before Christmas, Reindeer, Snowman and Merry Christmas with an improved Poinsettia chart. lots of people have emailed and asked for these in pdf form and have been willing to pay so I included some new charts only available in this e-book. The 3 new patterns are Candles, Christmas Pudding and Bells Charts. A total of 9 charts
And continuing with the gift tags theme from my last post (the filet gift tag chart), this time it fabric and I have entered Spoonflower's current weekly contest. It is for Gift Tags - the brief was "The theme of this contest is gift tags that can be printed on fabric or wall decal material, then cut out and used by anyone" this is my entry (if you like it pls vote, there are lots of others to vote for also worth a look)











I am also very happy my samples arrived in time super quick, so I could test the gift tags out, mine are cut and sew. I have a few new flowerbird cut and sew fabric prints in pink and purple also new are cut and sew pincushion mice in the purple and green spiral crocheted flower print, plenty to keep me busy over the next few weeks :)





I discovered Spoonflower are also doing for a limited time wrapping paper here's a sneak peek at some of my designs as gift wrap :)

Christmas Gift Tag

 With Christmas coming I decided to make some different gift tags
This is the chart for the Christmas Bauble Gift Tag. It could also be used as a tree decoration.
The chart can be used not just for crochet but also knitting, cross stitch and beading weaving, beaded crochet/ knitting, tunisian crochet, embroidery.....
I made my sample in 4ply cotton so it a little big but is easier to photograph, the real one will be in N0.10 cotton thread :)

I recommend a 1X1 filet crochet
Chain 27

turn, chain 3 (this will count as first treble crochet (UK)/ first double crochet (USA) of first row), 1 treble crochet (UK)/ 1 double crochet (USA) into the 5th chain from the hook,treble crochet (UK)/ double crochet (USA) in next 2 chains to

complete bottom right solid square of pattern.

Continue following pattern for the first row reading the graph right to left. After completing first row, chain 3 to turn to start next row.Continue following graph until all rows are complete.

At end of row 19 fasten off.

Decreasing in filet crochet

Fabric inspiration for Spoonflower Contests

I have been inspired with some of Spoonflowers latest fabric designing contests and have entered into a few up-and-coming ones. I think it can be a bit addictive, plus I really enjoy seeing what the other designers have created. 
This is for the current contest  "Holiday Cocktail Napkin Set Fabric" 
My design is a set of Ivy leaf shaped cocktail napkins. A fat quarter makes 4 double sided or 8 single sided cocktail napkins. Recipes include Ginger punch, Eggnog, Orange & cranberry fizz and Mulled wine. I ordered some fabric and it is somewhere in the post I'll make up my napkins and post some pics here. Hopefully before Christmas (my post is really bad)

This is for the contest starting on Thursday evening Spoonflower are partnering with Mollie Makes Magazine for this one. Its called Flights of Fancy and has a restricted palette, the brief was - Create a bird or flight-related fabric design (repeating) that uses the following palette grey, light teal, apple green and pale yellow. I have created a design We Fly with lots of humming birds (I have always liked humming birds), again this print is also somewhere in the post.

And this one is for the Nasher/ Matisse Contest starting on 24th November. Spoonflower are this time partnering with The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University for a contest to design textiles that would look at home in a Matisse painting. Entries must use the specified colour palette (RGB hex codes: #DE8371, #C33855, #D1CC56, #2E486B, #FFFFFF). Please do NOT recreate a textile in the images but instead create a new design with this palette.So this is what I have entered it a Floral Matisse inspired design.