new skills...

 a few weeks ago i bought a new toy and after a shaky start of the wrong foot being sent i finally had a spare 5 minutes to try it out yesterday.

 me being me i jumped right on in. no trying it out on fabric to see how this would actually work.

oh no, not me, i just grabbed the nearest block hanging on my wall and set to try.

if it worked great, if it didn't, well, it wouldn't be the first time.

 i knew exactly the design i wanted to try.

i'd made this sashiko cushion a while ago. i just love the stitch and thought it would work quite well on the x+ block. i actually had this quilting design in mind for my scrappytripalong quilt and so i thought this would be a good place to try it out. see...not all blind thoughtless jumping in. there is occasionally method to my madness...occasionally.

ok so it may be a little wonky and uneven but for a first attempt, not bloody bad at all! it is actually easier than quilting with a regular foot where i seem to ruche up the back no matter how careful i am at basting.

i am really pleased with how this little block has turned out and now just a teensy bit excited to quilt the scrappytrip along.

new toys, new skills...even more sewing fun!

 It's been a hellava week this week. One that can be basically be described as a bit of a post celebration blur.

I'll post about the amazing weekend we had at another time, when I can put into words what we all went through and when I've picked myself up off the floor from exhaustion. 

I don't remember Sam's flooring me quite so much, but I think that's a lot to do with us being out of routine this week with the extra Bank Holidays and Half Term. If we had been back to routine the next day we would have had no choice but to get on with it.

We spent most of this week sleeping late, saying farewell to visiting family and friends and generally living in the moment.

By the time Matthew went back to work yesterday we were finding it tricky to get out of our slump.

I dived into the cellar to get some printing done for some orders that were piling up and as is my normal trick started playing around with an idea that had been forming in amongst the blur.

As you know i normally print in colour on white fabric but wanted to give printing on some colours a go.

This ended up with me printing on a fair few of my solids and rather liking where it was going. The main reason behind this was the need to order more magnets and deciding that perhaps they would look better with more colour.

I've put up a couple of pics here to get a feel of the difference.

What do you reckon? Printing on solids or printing on white?

I'm rather liking how the solids look coupled with other fabrics. The design seems to stand out better, particularly with the blues, but on the other hand the postage stamp block seems to work with the print on white.

Maybe I'm too tired this week to make a decision or maybe there is a place for both.

Do you have an opinion? Would you like to see more designs on a coloured background?

Would love to know what you think. You are probably less tired than I am...unless of course you are recuperating from FQR...

 So less than 24 hours from conception, so to speak, and already we have the Jewellery Pouch Mark II...

I wasn't overly happy with the ribbons and where they were placed and I wanted to be able to fold the pouch in 3 if necessary.

So now the ties, made from coordinating fabric is sewn onto the back of the pouch - you'll have to take my word for that since I haven't taken a photo of that integral detail - and the ends are free to tie big...

...or smaller.

Hopefully there won't be a Mark III, Mark IV or any other Marks and I'll be able to get on with making these guys like this.

 And in other news today, I had a very exciting delivery that I've started working on this afternoon and no doubt will get abandoned until after the weekend now, unless I can find an excuse to sneak off upstairs for a few hours over the weekend.

Hope you have a great weekend and manage some sneaking around of your own ;-)

 It's always a good Saturday when you can get a bit of sewing time in as well as hanging out with the family.

I'd had this cushion commission for a new baby that I was supposed to have had done all week but it didn't quite happen.

I bribed Ruby with choosing some of my fabric and having a play on my machine while I was working on it so I didn't feel quite as guilty working on the weekend.

I've done a fair few of these cushions but this one is a little different. 

It's made entirely from my own fabrics.

I feel I've come a long way in a relatively short time being able to use just my own designs in my work.

I'm going to have to rethink things a little for the boys' version however as looking at this made me realise that most of my designs are definitely geared towards being more suitable for girls.

The Kite Strings would work well, but a couple more neutral designs are needed I think. Perhaps miniaturising my Euro Wonders and using that would be good.

Another new little detail is putting my screen printed name as a label on the back. 

At the moment I have just printed these as a selvedge strip on my fabric pieces but I'm definitely going to print up a whole load of them.

So a fun Saturday was had by all...well by Ruby and me anyway ;-)

So, I took my designs to the screen printing studio today. I know this isn't the design you were thinking I'd be showing you, but all in good time with triangle fever (ooh, I think I've just named it...was wondering what to call it!). I want to sew some of it up before I show you the fruits of my labour.

Suffice it to say, I am rather pleased with the outcome.

I'd also like to introduce to you Scruffy Daisy...

...in grey...

...bright blue...

...and red.

Scruffy Daisy is the result of another doodling session whilst Ruby was off last week and this really is one of those occasions that doodles do come alive in the screen printing process. I won't ever profess to being an artist and consequently my designs will never be perfect pictures, but what I hope they will be is quirky, eye-catching designs.

I printed the designs on individual pieces of fabric ready to make into various items and also straight onto tea towels, which I think work pretty well. If you think so too they are available right here. I'm hoping to get some sewn up into napkins too. And also table runners. The possibilities are endless...

I've had a few enquiries about my fabrics and whether they are available to buy. What do you reckon? Would it be something you'd be interested in?