A pinch and a punch... hopefully no returns!

  Happy Beltane, or Mayday, if you prefer. I cannot believe we are here already! I guess alot of it is because I now have a weekly routine of trundling to the Bluebirds Market on a Tuesday and everything else revolves around that lately. It's amazing how quickly a week goes by... 

  Always busy, I made 7 journals last month, and tried to finish my butterfly rucksack, but it has sat next to me on the sofa while I get on with other bits like embellishments for the journals.. it's been lovely, 4 of the journals were commissions, and have all safely arrived with their new owners who are very happy, which in turn makes me happy! Echoes sold yesterday too, so I shall have to make another creamy vintage journal soon.

  I've also managed to get some work in a handmade shop in Canterbury, Whitefriars Food and Craft Market so we'll see how that develops, Canterbury is very busy with lots of students and tourists, so fingers crossed. I just need to make a few extra bits to test run over there.. some larger dreamcatchers and a new textile accessory range, based around my collaged textile pieces. Where am I going to find the time?

  I shall finish the rucksack tomorrow, then I plan for a quilted messenger bag with some of the remnants. Then onto creating one of each of the expanded textile range, and creating the first wedding album cover... looking forward to that..

  So, busy, busy, watch this space- I can't promise I'll get time to post much, time gets less each week, which is great really, but I will be posting more fabric dying techniques, my monthly beading/ quilting block and all my swaps over in the Friends' Gallery, etc

 

Beading and Crazy Quilting projects, April's block

The butterfly is growing... April is the month for yellows, and it is now complete so here's a peek at the block, with the full details over on the project  page

To see what everyone else is up to visit the Beading 2013 and the Crazy Quilting 2013 projects.

B & CQ JP Butterfly- March block

It's March 1st, where's time gone? Woosh...

I'd been looking forward to making this month's block and I made the base up ready last night... January and February's blocks are reds and orange, this month is orange and yellow so that the whole piece will eventually be rainbow coloured.

I've used a wide range of fabrics, including the sample piece that Spoonflower send, well, it fitted the theme!

For the full pic and an ongoing summary visit the B & CJ JP page .

Crazy butterfly...

For those of you also doing the Bead Journal Project or the Crazy Quilting Project this year I imagine that the design element is both the hardest bit and the most fun... it certainly is for me!

January is my design/ layout and gathering month, finding the beads, fabrics etc to work with. This January has been no different... I've been collecting beads and lace, and now I finally have the design laid out and the templates cut.

 

I'm going for a much less involved design this year, last year's beading project was a zodiac/ wiccan visual reference aid, and very detailed with tons of information. Because this year's project is based on a crazy quilt I don't think that it will work as a teaching aid, it will be far too busy. 

I've chosen a butterfly, I doodle them alot and it will be nice to do one in a different media. It really lends itself to blocks of crazy quilting. Each section will be a blend of  similar coloured fabrics, lace and beads.

Scale has been fun.. the original design is on A4, so it will give you an idea of how big it will be...

...but then the sections need to be reasonable or the crazy quilting will look silly!  Can't wait to get going now... but I'm still waiting on that fabric to turn up so I can ice dye the background. That promises to be great fun considering the way my snow dyeing adventure went!  Come on postie!!

Spoonflower fabrics

Woohoo! I'd been toying with turning some of my artwork into fabric so I can make truly unique bags, not just by design but with the fabrics too. I joined up with Spoonflower and uploaded some of my work. It's pretty easy to do and I hope it will be worth the expense.. you have to buy a swatch before it can be printed in quantity... 

I picked one of my abstract series, which began as a pastel spiral, and was then worked in a few favourite software programs and filters. Sets seem to work best, especially if I'm quilting, you need a variety of depth and pattern. 

So here is my first swatch

Not bad, I like how they've come out... and the base cotton is not too thin. I'm thinking of using these in a crazy quilt, they're only 8 x 8" squares so not big enough to start making bags... but now I know the design works I can play with the scale of each pattern and get what I need. 

If you have artwork that would translate into a pattern why not take a look at Spoonflower and get your own original prints!