Lovely lovely fabric swap

I was so excited when I received some lovely packages in the mail from my hand printed fabric swap III swap partners this week!

:: Love this woodlands print and card from Kerry-Anne - Ameliorate v. to make better 

:: gorgeous print form Kelsey - lovely and enough

:: Lovely triangle print and card from Melissa - a happy stitch

:: very cute print from Amy - Crafty Shenanigans

I feel very lucky to have received such gorgeous fabric from my talented fellow fabric swappers! I can't wait to make some wonderful things with these lovely prints... just need to find some time now :)

my creative space: hand printed fabric swap III

I just love the Hand printed fabric swap III that Leslie Keating from Maze and Vale organises! It's so much fun to participate in! I love designing and screen printing a special design for my fellow swappers!

I had this little "Seedlings" design (thanks to Steph from Bondville for the name x) whirling around my head for a while and scribbled it down in my sketch book.

I then created the "Seedlings" design in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out, so I could cut out the stencil! It was a little bit tricky to cut out all those stem parts! I do rather love cutting stencils! :)

Once the stencil is cut out, I got stuck into screen printing it... I just couldn't wait! There is nothing like seeing your design screen printed for the first time, it always gives me such a thrill! I had so much fun screen printing these fat quarters, two in emerald green ink, on off white linen/cotton...

...and two in charcoal ink, on oatmeal linen/cotton.

They turned out just gorgeous! I was so excited to pack them up and send them off to my swap partners who live in New Zealand, UK and two in the USA! I hope they like them :)

I couldn't help myself... I screen printed some seedlings for me too and I made a cushion! Love it :)

Hope you have had a wonderful creative week... check out what other creative people have been up to at my creative space!

some lovely things made

Life has been very busy and not much time for blogging to be honest! It seems very quiet out there in blog land... don't you think?  I suppose everyone is busy with life too! I have a few things to catch up on here on my little blog...

A while ago I was involved in Handprinted: a fabric swap II and a few of my swap partners have made some lovely things out of the fat quarters I sent them...

Diana from Bimba made a gorgeous cushion and a little koala out of my fuchsia poppies fat quarter!


:: image source - bimba

Cassie from elegantitus used my "grey cats fuchsia" screen print in a lovely quilt. It looks so cosy!


:: image source - elegantitus

It's so lovely to see where my little fabric swap fat quarters have ended up... I love seeing them being used and loved! That makes me happy :)

Hope you are having a great Monday!

my creative space: tote bag

I received this gorgeous fat quarter from Diana from www.bimba.hu (Budapest Hungary) as part of the handprinted: a fabric swap II! Love her work!

:: Bimba fat quarter

I love the design so much and I couldn't wait to make something out of it! I really needed a bag to carry around all of my little man's bits and bobs... you know... water bottle, wipes, cars, sticks, dinosaurs etc. So I decided to retire the old nappy bag and make a new tote bag.



:: my new tote bag... YAY!

:: I love the little animal designs especially the hedgehog and the kitty

:: much better than a nappy bag :)

I am so happy with it and it's so much better than lugging around a big nappy bag!

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

hand printed: a fabric swap II

I've finished screen printing my second lot of fat quarters for  hand printed: a fabric swap II over the weekend... hooray! I love cats and always wanted to do a little kitty cat screen print design... this design has been stuck in my head for quite a while now! So I though it was time to get it out of my head and onto some fabric :)

:: grey kitty cats - cutting out the stencil

:: grey kitty cats - screen printing on cotton/linen

:: grey kitty cats in orange - screen printed fat quarter

:: grey kitty cats in fuchsia - screen printed fat quarter

I screen printed one fat quarter with bright orange cats (one of my swap partners loves orange) and one in fuchsia! I hope my swap partners like cats! I know it's quite a simple design, but I really love how they turned out! I have made some extra for me too, of course!

Now all four fat quarters are packed up and ready to be sent off to the other side of the world... hooray! I hope they like them! 

Hope you are having a great start to the week :)

my creative space: fabric swap

I forgot to mention that I am taking part in the hand printed: a fabric swap II that the lovely Leslie Keating from Maze & Vale has organised! I love doing this little swap it's so much fun creating fat quarters for other creative people :)

I have been busy screen printing some lovely little fuchsia poppies... I am loving the colour fuchsia at the moment.

(bad lighting has made the fuchsia look quite red)

 I also hand carved a stamp for the center for the poppies to give the design a bit of texture.

:: fuchsia poppies fat quarter

I made two lots for the fabric swap. I love it! I think I will have to make some for me too! But for the moment.... I better get onto my next design for the remaining two fat quaters for the swap :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are lots of creative people over at my creative space...

my creative space: it can work out for the better...

Sometimes things just go wrong but it can all works out in the end! I really loved the grey and red chevron fat quarter I screen printed for the fabric swap but when I went to iron it to set the fabric ink, some odd red ink marks appeared from the iron onto the fabric... arghhh!! I know you can't really see the marks that much but I can and me being a bit of a perfectionist, I just couldn't send it as it is! I was pretty frustrated.. grrrr!

:: bad marks!

So yesterday morning I got busy and made a new fat quarter of the bold red poppy-ish flowers that I created on the weekend on some white quilting cotton.

:: screen printing flowers

:: hand stamping flower centers

I hope the recipient will like it! I actually feel much happier sending her this as she does love bright red!

:: bold red flower on white quilting cotton

I do have plans for the good bits of the chevron piece.... Things do work out in the end!

Right onto the next projects - kris kringle swap and softies for mirabel! Yay I have lots of new fabric to play with too :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

handprinted: a fabric swap

Today is the handprinted: a fabric swap deadline... phew I made it! I have been very busy over the weekend, screen printing the two remaining fat quarters.

fat quarter no. 3 - bold flowers
I really wanted to do a bright bold flower design and I'm really happy with how it turned out! I decided to screen print the flower petals and use a stamp for the center, to add a bit of texture!

:: flower - stencil cutting

:: flower - screen print

:: flower center - stamp calving

:: flower center stamp

:: flower center - stamping

The flowers are screen printed on linen and I love how it makes the print looks a bit vintage! I almost don't want to give it away, but I made sure I screen printed a bit extra for me :)

:: bold flowers - orange/red and chocolate on linen

fat quarter no. 4 - chevron - grey and red
For the last fat quarter I screen printed the chevron design in red and grey, as it seemed to be quite popular in the comments in my last post :)

:: chevron - screen printing

:: chevron - red and grey on linen

I have really enjoyed screen printing for this fabric swap and it was fun to experiment a bit too! Now all I have to do is pack them up and send them off to their new homes... hope the recipients like them :)

Hope you are having a great Monday!

my creative space: handprinted fabric swap

This week I have been busy freaking out over the handprinted fabric swap... The deadline is Monday 14th November!! There are too many ideas whirling around in my head! I can drive myself a little crazy at times... why can't I go for the simple option... Ohhhh Noooooo... I must do something challenging!! I can't help it.. I love a challenge :)

fat quater no. 1- chevron
I know this may look quite simple on the outside, but I can asure you it was a bit of a challenge! Two colour repeat... yikes! I always freak out when I'm doing the last bit part of the screen printing...

:: cutting stencils

:: screen printing and holding my breath!!!

:: chevron screen print - grey and mustard

Lucky for me it worked out just fine.. pheeeeewww!!

fat quater no. 2 - geometric flower
I just love messing around and making geometric patterns in Adobe Illustrator... this one happened by accident :)

:: stencil cutting

:: screen printing

:: geometric flower screen print - teal

Unfortunately I made a bit of a little boo boo when I was screen printing the top right hand corner... a bit of shadowing from ink leaking on the back of the stencil... grrrrr!!! So I will have to redo this screen print again... boo hoo hoo!!

:: a bit of a boo boo!

update: I re-screen printed the geometric flower fat quarter last night and it turned out perfect... I think I held my breath the whole time I was printing :)

I'm really happy with my little designs and I'm looking forward to sending them off into the world as part of the handprinted fabric swap!



Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

my creative space: cushion + banana bread

I've been busy... I have managed to finish my chevron crochet cushion which I am really really happy with - my mothers group friends really loved it too ...thanks guys xxx What do you guys think?

:: crochet chevron cushion

:: tested and approved by my little man!

I also made my very first banana bread for my mothers group today... recipe from here! I change it slightly because of my lactose allergy - exchanging milk for soy milk and butter for dairy free margarine.  I seriously can't believe I have never made one before... it was so yummy and everyone loved it! I was a bit worried making something for the first time but luckily it worked out beautifully....phew!! :)

:: my little helper and taster

:: he just can't wait until everyone gets here... yum!

I am also joining in on onegirl - handprinted: a fabric swap! This is so up my ally... woo hoo!! You only have until tomorrow - Friday 21st October 2011- to join up if you are interested :)



Day 20 of blogtoberfest 2011 - blog everyday for October

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...