frogging round two

Remember this sweater I decided to frog more than a year ago? Well I did, a bit, but then it sat and sat and sat and I tried many times to finish it, but just wasn't happy with the mistakes further down I had thought I could live with. So today I took it out of hibernation and did this:

A bit more drastic. And now I'm not really sure what to do. Take it all apart? (Remember, the back is done already). Do something else on the front? Try to redo the windmill. I don't think so, I don't really like the windmill. It looks nice, but the counting drove me mad, and it is supposed to be embroidered on but I was doing intarsia instead. 

woodworking tools bag

My mother sent me this lovely photo of a bag she sewed using my woodworking tools fabric. 

new shop

I've opened a new shop on society6 where some of my designs are now available on different products. From now until March 8 you can get free shipping if you follow this link to my shop!

Here are some of the products for sale:

I will be adding more designs, new ones and some that I already sell on fabric.

fabric photos

One of the most popular fabrics in my shop is the design vegetable garden. I've written about the design before, which I designed as a tribute to my grandma and her garden. There are a number of different designs in the collection. Here is a photo of fabric swatches printed on cotton poplin for three of those designs (vegetable garden, gardening fruit and canning).

inspiration and learning

One of the main focuses of my blog is to share things I learn (for instance through the tutorials I post) and places where I find inspiration for designs.

I love to browse through the library, picking up books about design, artists, knitting, gardening, cooking etc. When I have a bit of time at home I leaf through the books, get inspired and learn new things.
I love design reference books and have recently started analysing how designs are put together by sketching elements of the design. Actually putting a pencil to paper helps me to see better how the design works.

In the bottom picture there is a book I borrowed about the history of Morden and Merton. The house in the picture is where liberty fabric used to be printed. After looking that up I came across Merton Abbey Mills, close to where we live and a place I'd like to visit some time!

dollhouse renovation

I found a dollhouse! Carried it home and have been sanding, filling in holes and now painting. Here are some pictures from before I started renovating:

And now I'll get started on the second coat of paint. Its going to be white inside (bone china to be precise) with white trim outside and dark (breton) blue.

ps. today there is another free shipping day in my spoonflower shop, for 12 hours only!

moo cards

Look what came in the mail today! I ordered some cards from moo and love them. Good quality thick paper, colours exactly what I expected and I love the little details in the way everything was packaged. They're going to be presents, so I hope the wrong people are reading this!

advent wreath

The felt craft evening was fun and I'm looking forward to the next one in two weeks. This time I want to do a mini felt advent wreath and am working on the tutorial. I love the tiny candle flames.

more autumn berries

Some more finds from my walks around the neighbourhood.

I had fun arranging this on a piece of paper and then turned them into a fabric design: sketching, digitizing, arranging and coloring. Just love the process.

fabric swatches

A few days ago I got a package with fabric swatches (always so exciting :-)). Here is my new collection in two different colourways:

I've now set them for sale in my shop. I'd love to try this one as wallpaper. What do you think?

autumn inspiration

I go for a walk or two a day with my daughter around the block. Today I looked for berries and flowers in all the colours of the rainbow. I love all the little things you see when you take the time to look.

a postcard from Gloucester

Two weeks ago I went to Gloucester for the weekend. Three and a half hours on the bus aren't so bad when you sit in the front seat.

Two things I enjoyed there:

Exploring the cathedral

The Tailor of Gloucester Museum

pumpkin postcard

This month I made pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup and today I enjoyed a bowl of home-made pumpkin ice cream. 

I used this recipe for the ice cream, omitted the raw eggs, and since I don't have an ice cream maker, froze it in the freezer. One small pumpkin is perfect for a good sized container of ice cream. It tastes creamy and delicious with the roasted pumpkin and coconut milk, and I love the crunchy roasted pumpkin seeds on top.

Heidelberg

I'm working on a last Heidelberg postcard. We moved from Heidelberg to London, UK at the beginning of August. A new country, new home, new job / work circumstances is not always easy.

I've been working on a design for quite a long time. Usually I don't take this long with one design, but I want to get this one right and make it the way I see it in my head. Its a postcard from Heidelberg in that the design features the houses along the river in Neuenheim. Kind of like these postcards from last October. In fact, that's one of the photos I used as inspiration.

Here's a progress update, since it isn't finished yet, and since I haven't written here for so long. Not quite ready to move on to postcards from London I suppose?

I want to use the design for making fabric, but I also want to use the design in an upcoming spoonflower contest for tea towel calendars. So this evening I'm working on watercolour letters for the month's names. Here's June.

coffee steam

I love the steam from freshly brewed coffee in the sun. It changes so quickly and creates such beautiful swirls and twirls.

And here's a coffee postcard. To show how a blurry banana tree in the background can add some tropical warmth to a sombre day.

macarons

I had macarons for the first time a few weeks ago. From the French bakery around the corner. I was surprised at how good they taste! For some reason I always assumed they were dry and crunchy, but they're not, they're chewy and delicious. These were filled with a coffee cream.

autumn postcard

This morning I went for a walk along the river. The leaves are just at the point where they're about to explode into colour.
 

 

 

spring flowers

When I came back from Canada my mother in law had planted spring flowers on my balcony. What a beautiful surprise!

 

There were many warm days in April where I could sit outside and enjoy them.

 

 

drinking tea from one of my favourite tea cups, matching the forget-me-nots.

ribbon store

When I was in Toronto in March we went to a ribbon store. The whole store was full of all possible colours textures and sizes of ribbons.



I think the best part of working in a ribbon store must be arranging and rearranging the colour combinations.

 

white elephant

flying in winter makes for a lot of white.