Scraps, Colour Samples and a Crafty Cake

This week has been very hectic as I've been juggling a bunch of different projects - brainstorming ideas and pitching designs for a couple of deadlines, stitching and photographing things for another, plus doing all the usual crafty, bloggy, emaily stuff that goes on in my working week.

One of the projects I'm working on involves pretty Liberty fabric. The scraps are so pretty I can't bear to throw even the teeniest of them away! I must think up a way to use them for something crafty... hmm...

The dark weather this time of year makes photo-taking a challenge. There's just so few hours of usable daylight and sometimes it's so gloomy that "light" seems like too strong a word to use! I am currently dividing my schedule into "daylight" and "non daylight" tasks, so I can make the most of the light that is available before it fades.

A particularly tricky thing to photograph even in good light = neon colours, which I was working with this week. I did lots of experimenting with different backgrounds to get the neon shades to look right.

 

 

One of my "non daylight" tasks was to sort through some old sketches and project proposals, adding unused ideas to my box of "project idea" index cards. One set of sketches has some colour samples attached, which I thought were much too pretty not to photograph before I threw them away:

It has mostly been work work work work work here this week, but there has been time for cake (check out those button-shaped berries and "knitted" leaves!)...

... and for a flick through some copies of the wonderful UPPERCASE magazine.

I've been meaning to buy some copies of UPPERCASE for simply ages but after listening to this interview with the editor I could resist no longer and treated myself to some back issues plus the lovely Work/Life illustration directories.

They are going to be perfect reading material for evenings when I want to relax and soak up some inspiration away from the internet (I love you, internet, but too much of you is a bad thing!) and for when our yowly cat decides it is time for me to STOP WORKING AND GIVE HER CUDDLES THIS INSTANT :)

Autumn Colour

I'm working on a whole bunch of fun autumnal projects this week which I hope to share with you guys sometime soon. In the meantime, here's a peek at one colourful project I've got in-progress.

 

Cutting out lots of felt pieces = lots of scraps.

Ah, how I adore these bright colours. Crafting with colourful supplies is always a joy, but especially so at this time of year when the view outside my window is starting to look a little grey and miserable. I'm going to have lots of fun sewing all of these!

Getting Ideas Out of My Brain and Into Felt-y Reality

I have so many projects that I've been thinking about making for aaaages. I need to stop faffing about and just make them so I can share them with you guys!! They're no use to anyone just sitting in my sketchbooks (well, I say sketchbooks but I mean "scribbled on the scrap pieces of paper I had to hand at the time I had the idea").

So, on Sunday my To Do list read, in full "MAKE ALL THE THINGS".

I made a good start! I cut out lots of felt...

 

... for a whole bunch of different projects.

I then took my To Do list a teeny bit literally, sketching out a quick pattern and cutting out a bunch of felt letters...

... so I could make a permanent reminder to MAKE ALL THE THINGS.

Tutorial and pattern coming as soon as I've finished stitching it :)

Deadline O'Clock

What time is it? It's deadline o'clock!

Well, almost. I've got a deadline tomorrow which involves these cheerful colours.

The past few days have been super busy. I've been doing lots of crafty, deadline-related things: drawing, cutting, sticking, sewing, painting...  plus buying supplies, taking photos, writing notes, etc.

I've also had a couple of Nice Days Out (planned before I knew about the deadline), meeting up with Charlotte of Displacement Activity, Alex of Hydrangea Girl and Maria of Dinki Dots, who are all lovely. 

It's always great to meet up with other makers and bloggers, there's always so much interesting stuff to talk about - you know, all that stuff us makers and bloggers find interesting but which weirdly seems to make "normal" peoples eyes glaze over when you try and talk to them about it! I'll blog about what we got up to sometime soon and I'll also be blogging about a little maker / blogger meet-up I'm planning (exciting!).  

First up: gotta meet this deadline...

Finishing Things, Starting Things

I finally managed to fit a Making Day into my schedule, hurrah! After a quick bit of emailing etc on Monday  morning, I spent the rest of the day working on some sewing projects - sketching, planning, cutting out pieces, sewing, and generally enjoying having time to work on my own projects after weeks of being quite deadline-focused.

I finally finished these sparkly owls that have (I am ashamed to admit) been in my WIP box for over a year!

You can find instructions for making your own felt owl ornaments here.

I've also started stitching a couple of new things which I can't show you just yet - something pink and purple and summer-y that I'll (hopefully) be sharing soon and something Halloween-themed in white, orange and yellow (can you guess what that might be?).

It does feel a bit weird working on a Halloween project in May- especially when I have lots of summer-themed things on my To Do list - but that's the project I felt like making, and you've gotta go with the creative flow sometimes, right? :)

A Busy Monday

I'm having one of those busy "tick a gazillion different tasks off your To Do list" days today.

So far I've written some emails, caught up with replying to blog comments, been to the Post Office, bought some thread for a project I'm working on, taken some stuff to the charity shop, eaten an icecream (okay, so this wasn't strictly on my To Do list!), taken and edited some photos and cut apart some prototypes to salvage the usable felt (isn't blanket stitching a nice stitch?).

Next up I need to do some sewing with this rainbow of thread...

... take some step by step photos, edit them, do a bit more sewing, write up some instructions, draw and scan some neat templates, answer some interview questions and tidy up my day's sewing.

Then if I've got time I'm hoping to write a book review, prep and schedule this week's (awesome) guest post and edit my photos from a recent Nice Day Out in sunny Kensington.

Lots to do! Time to put the kettle on and get back to work...

Old Favourites

I don't know about you, but I often find myself returning to the same colour combinations when crafting. I know I need to mix things up sometimes, but I just can't resist using my favourite colours.

Purple + turquoise = yum!

Lots of Secret Sewing = Lots of Scraps

I've got quite a few projects on the go at the moment (about a dozen!) for various books & magazines. It's great to be busy but eek, there's so much to do!

Each project starts with a brief (sometimes very specific, sometimes quite open), then I do some brainstorming and sketching and submit some design proposals... then if they get approved I start making.

There's templates to design (and problems to solve to get things looking just right, and maybe changes to make if they don't work out), supplies to source and buy, pieces to cut out and, of course, lots of things to sew.

I make notes as I'm working, take step by step photos (if they're asked for) and take photos of my threads and/or leftover scraps and write slightly teasing blog posts (like this one) about "secret projects."

Then the notes get typed up, turned into a tutorial and proofread. I edit the photos and number them to match their steps. All the template pieces get drawn out neatly in pencil, carefully drawn over with ink, labelled and scanned.

Finlly, the finished project(s) get packed up safely and posted and the digital files get emailed.

And then I keep the projects a secret for months (or in the case of some books I've contributed to, years) until I can do a "yay! I just had a project published in X" post here on my blog :)

Until then, please enjoy the snaps of the colourful scraps I've created this week. As you can see, there's been lots of making going on!
 

A Top Sewing Tip

Don't leave your work unattended on the floor when there are kitties about!

During an afternoon of sewing on the sofa I came back from making tea to find this little lady casually sitting next to a bit of purple felt she'd obviously been having fun catching / attacking. Luckily it was just leftover scraps and not something I was sewing.

"What? This was nothing to do with me!" *innocent face*

This is why the kitties aren't allowed in my studio! :)

Projects in Progress This Week

This week I've been doing some colourful stitching which has been very relaxing. Working with bright colours like this never fails to cheer me up on a gloomy day.

 

I've been printing out some words for a project that involves lettering.

There's also been lots of felt cut out, including some quite fiddly little shapes (thank goodness for embroidery scissors).

A while ago I took the bottom drawer out of this mini chest I use for storing craft supplies... and then forgot to put it back. The the weight of the supplies in the drawers above made the divider bend out of shape and the bottom drawer won't go back in. So I'm now trying to bend it back into shape.

 

I'm working on a prototype for a project that involves pipecleaners, which I don't think I've used for crafting in about two decades!

 

I've also been sewing lots of fabric squares together.

(Quilts are a bit of a pain to photograph, aren't they? So hard to find the space!)

I've sewn five long strips of squares together and I'm now halfway through adding them to one end of the quilt. Next up: arranging and then sewing a bunch of squares together to fill in the "missing" section in one corner where I removed a bunch of squares that didn't fit at all with the style of the rest of the quilt.

I vaguely remember noticing this in my teens and thinking "whatevs" (or whatever the equivalent teen expression was back in the late 90s) but on rediscovering the quilt it really bugged me, so I unpicked the section and will now be restitching it. Luckily I had plenty of spare squares leftover from when the quilt was going to be much bigger! 

Busy Days & In Progress Projects

The past couple of days have been quite busy - I've been putting together lots of project proposals (which is always exciting and nervewracking in equal measure), replying to lots of emails and doing lots of cutting and sewing for a looming deadline.

It's a great perk of my job that I can work while sitting on the sofa, with my lovely assistant keeping me company!

He's not allowed in my office/studio so he's always extra happy to see me when I camp on the living room sofa for the day, sketching and sewing.

Here are some of the bright colours I've been working with:

In the evenings I've been reading this lovely book, which was one of my Christmas gifts to myself...

... and I've been making a start on a personal project, taking the dozens of samples and prototypes I stitched for Super-Cute Felt Animals and turning them into a mobile that I can hang up in my studio (plus a few ornaments to hang on the tree at Christmas).

It'll be great to have these (and all the other samples not shown in this photo) on display instead of just sitting in a box, where they've been since I finished the book.

Fancy sewing some of these for yourself? The crab, whale, sheep, cat and toadstool patterns can be found in my book and the other designs can be found here on my blog.

Grey Days, Bright Felt

Ugh, the weather is seriously miserable today - dark, grey skies and lots of rain.

Luckily there's lots of sunny colour in my work-in-progress pile to help cheer me up!

Just delicious.

Here are a couple of other snaps from projects I'm working on at the moment...

... some scraps left over from a brainstorming / prototype-sewing session:

... and one of the upturned-tin-lids I'm using for my in-progress projects:

I hope you like the look of the leaves on the right, as they'll be making an appearance tomorrow as a little tutorial :)

Thinking About Spring

I've been thinking about spring - or rather, more specifically, about spring-themed craft projects.

I've got a few ideas in progress, which involve sugar paper (construction paper) hearts...

... and green felt...

 

... although not at the same time!

P.S. The last few handmade pieces in my shop (teapot rosette brooches & swan masks) are now reduced to just £1 each. Grab a bargain and help me make room for some fun new things :) Update: these have now been sold! There are still some bargain copies of my books available though, along with some destash craft supplies: find them HERE.

This Time Last Year

This time last year, I was working on my new book, Super-Cute Felt Animals. Exciting times! :)

 

I cut out lots of felt...
 

 
... did lots of stitching with colourful thread...

 

... and worked my way through a To Do list that was so big  it was actually a To Do chart:

I designed and stitched lots of felt animals...

... I took over the coffee table in the lounge so I could sew while watching all the old movies on over the holidays...

... and the cats helped! (well, they kept me company while I sketched and stitched and scribbled).

Thanks to everyone who's bought a copy so far and/or said kind things, you are all awesome xxx

You can read more about Super-Cute Felt Animals HERE and find a whole series of fun free tutorials to accompany the book HERE. 

This Week I Have Been...

... tidying up my stash of sewing thread.

 

... getting up early. Getting out of bed when it's cold and dark is rarely fun, but you do sometimes get to enjoy sunrises like this!

 

... clearing out some felt scraps from finished projects.

... and making a start on writing my Christmas cards, plus wrapping some gifts to send to faraway friends. I didn't send a single Christmas card last year as I was so busy working on my book, so I am trying to be more organised this year!

(Cards etc by Telegramme, Dee Beale & Kate Slater).