A baby quilt

Our friends had a daughter and I wanted to make her a mini quilt. I have been thinking about this for a long time and in between half term and various other mummy jobs this one got delayed. Inspiration was from the Prints charming books and my general sewing ideas.

What I loved about it was how much I enjoyed doing it. I needed to incorporate lots of different ideas into the making of it making it more crazy than I intended but I loved the outcome.

Prints Charming

Prints charming the book, this book dropped onto my mat this morning. Hurray. I have been waiting for weeks or so it seems for this to come and boy is it worth the wait. What an amazing book for anyone who ever thought of or would like to screen print and put things together this book it is. 

a few pictures to drool over...literally.

So basically printing and then adding hand embroidery and other bits to embellish. Really really loving it right now. Off to come up with a design for printing. Ooh how happy this makes me...

The science museum

It was almost the end of the holiday and I had wanted to take the little ones to the science museum. I do enjoy a good walkabout and the weather seemed perfect for it. There is a reason I write about this, I promise...

I did not know they had a display of sewing machines and their history. Included was the lovely old american ads for the first machines.

After my Print club experience I was thrilled to find the studio project  run by Access art up in Cambridge. I signed up for a creative morning of printing and print making with the rather talented Zeena Shah. Turned out to be a fabulous morning, lots of very creative people meeting and learning together.



Here are a few photographs of the day

We worked on three different processes. Lino printing, screen printing and mono printing. I enjoyed the lino printing the best. The part I enjoyed the most was being able to create prints, even used pizza board to scour and use as a print. I will upload the how to's soon.

Printing

For those of you have come into a dress making workshop you know the problems with tissue patterns and  know that I consider them a necessary evil to making clothing!  As a teacher I find it a shame that it puts so many of us off sewing (me included!) I would rather make and wing a pattern sometimes to make that work for me. Now, it is incredibly satisfying to take a pattern follow the directions and come out with something fabulous. Maria one of my participants and I cut and sewed a wrap dress which was lovely and then proceeded to change things as we went along to make it more on trend. Now that was a workshop I really enjoyed! I digress...
I have been working on printing on fabric, there are so many different ways of doing this that I signed up to two particularly good courses that have helped me understand the process. The first was with the London print club, a wonderful set up based in Dalston that really made screen printing fun. It also helped me explore the use of colour and understand the boundaries of the process.

The first picture shows the drying racks, the second was of a screen table and the third of the computer, light box and a few of us milling about.

Here are the results of this creative day and my playing with colours to pull.

  

Two other screen printed images that I loved:

 

On to other types of printing for me. So many ideas... so little time.

Things am working on and things I love...

Finally sorted out the website or at least part of it. So much more I want to do with it but of course on to another time. I have been preoccupied with finalising the teaching plan for the new teens workshop that I want to start soon. I wanted this to be an exciting class full of stitched jewellery, accessories and of course fashion. I love how fabric is making a cross over into jewellery and for some amazing and simple ideas am using this book as a guide.  

 Am really into redoing old pieces to make new ones and have been reading some fabulous blogs with lots of ideas and inspiration. My current favourite point of inspiration is Threadbanger on Youtube. One in particular caught my eye, Tee dress recon by the very talented Maybelle. 

There are some fabulous easy redo's there and tons of ideas for the new teen class. I think this one will will be making the list. Exciting...

Snow and musing of a new projects...

My first post off my new blogger address. Have moved from here . Exciting stuff!

White powder and lots of it. I thought I would use part of my time to try my hand at a few more projects for the kids room and  here are my favourite projects on the web.

I need to do another cushion for Ayaan and he loves flowers. What better way to celebrate flowers than a cushion that uses a dresden design. If you, like me, thought dresden was a type a plate then read on!
 
http://www.houseonhillroad.com/my_weblog/

Wondering how to do this? I did some research and here is the clearest explanation that I found was from the missouri quilt co, you can watch their video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcy_p4pryE4

Be careful though, these folks make it all seem very easy ! Their simple instruction are just what I needed.

The next thing am working on on is a big map for their room. I love this one from Notonthehighstreet done by the future mapping co.

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/thefuturemappingcompany/product/future_map_version_1
There are options of getting this as a magnet and framed and various colours, they also offer the london cycle map


http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/thefuturemappingcompany/product/london-wall-map-version-2

Got to love them :)

I was reading my daily roundup of craftiness when I saw, this, from Kojodesigns...


http://kojodesigns.blogspot.com/2010/12/kojotutorial-interactive-world-map.html
A how to make your own
Don't you just love the amount of craftiness out there?

I also got my new phone last week, the Nokia C7-00. It is beautiful and sleek and looks like it is not going to tolerate too much abuse!

so I think a phone cover is in order... tons of tutorials for this on line and Sew Mama Sew has done their 

round up of all things for audiophiles  from around the web. 

A Ipod touch cover which I think can be modified to suit my needs and is written Robyn of Dog Named Banjo. 

The check out this tutorial for zip up earbuds which I think is beyond genius. Will def be using this tutorial as well. 

More present to make and things to do. Meanwhile, have a great weekend.