Wednesday 11 November 2015

tea towel calendars and a 2 for 1 sale

Every year spoonflower holds a tea towel calendar contest at the end of November. These calendars are designed to fit on a fat quarter of linen-cotton canvas. This year my design features sweet peas. I worked on the winding trellises of sweet pea flowers during a holiday in Germany a few months ago and enjoyed creating a seamless repeat. I love working with a scanner and a printer which I don't have at home, it means I can work on multiple versions of the design by hand, rather than doing most of the touch-up and fine-tuning on the computer.
I shared a photo of the process on instagram a while back:


While I'm still tweaking the repeating pattern, I decided to use this for a calendar, since the trellis shape was perfect to hold twelve months.
Here's the final design, which is for sale now in my shop:


A close-up photo of the colours printed on fabric:


I also finally updated my 2015 blackberry calendar for 2016. This calendar is available here.


Finally, spoonflower is having a 2 for 1 sale on all fat quarters, so you can either get both calendars for the price of one or choose any other fabric or type of fabric in my shop!

Thursday 5 November 2015

fabric blocks tutorial

A few months ago on instagram I posted a picture of some fabric covered blocks I made for my daughter. Here is a picture tutorial of how I made the blocks. I used an old greengate placemat that I had kept, hoping I could make something with the beautiful matching fabric. And the blocks I've actually had since I was 13, dragging them across various continents in the hope that some day I would get around to covering them! I made ten blocks.


  • Prepare the fabric
  • Measure your foam blocks and make a template - I made mine 1/4 inch wider than the blocks on all sides
  • cut out squares of fabric


  • Sew six squares together in a cross shape, starting and ending the seams 1/4 inch in from the edge of the fabric
  • Sew Y-seams so that you have a little cube, leaving one edge open for turning


  • Trim the corners of the fabric, turn the cube and poke out the corners
  • Stuff with the cube and close the last seam by hand