the patchwork dress

homemade with love

I won this gorgeous book, courtesy of Diana's giveaway.  Thanks again, D for the lovely package.  Can you believe it is most likely 3 years since I 'met' Diana through blogging - that Christmas she sent me another lovely package full of baker's string and soap.

I have been musing about the way I blog, or what this blog is for.. but haven't yet found the means of expression for it.  I don't want to give it up, but don't feel I have much to say at the moment!  Perhaps it will change only when I do.  

The book reminds me of why I started blogging and how exciting it was to discover others all around the world who were observing nature, trying to change their lives by slowing down, sharing ideas... and most importantly making things and sharing their inspiration.  It is full of lovely images and has such a nice tone, even if I don't make anything from it, just to glance through the pictures is a touchstone.

On a homemade, handmade note - I have been making some things for the home..!

...more 'clutterbuckets'! and this time a smaller model which can sit on a desk or sideboard.  It has quilted handles and a pleasing curve to the corners on the base, and is made from 3 layers of fabric, with all seams hidden.

I am enjoying using combinations of rather festive ticking... and so if you would like one for yourself or a friend, they will be up in my  'Christmas shop' soon - from this weekend.  I think they would be handy for holding papers, bits and pieces or crafty projects.

There will also be a few of the original style, with a mix of vintage and new fabrics - like this one..

Hope you are having a good week x.

 

a commission

A colleague asked me to do a commission for his partner's birthday which is coming up.  He gave me some dates and named a couple of places where he'd lived..  It is the first time I've done the map collage as a circle - but divided it into the 27 years, and wherever a significant move or area came, I put that map into that segment..

I actually like the way it frames the map of central glasgow - somehow it gives more focus to names and the shape and layout of the city, with it's arterial motorway (beloved M8 :) ) and river Clyde.  You feel quite drawn to looking inside the loop.

I also like the way certain sizes of scraps highlight place names, like small found poems.

One of the older maps showed a dotted line for the proposed M90 - heading north to Perth.

Hope to be back in this space more often, another contract coming to an end.

Went to visit Debs last weekend, she had a pumpkin on her dining table.  She said when she had returned from a trip the pumpkin was at the end of a worn out plant, exhausted from putting all it's energy into the pumpkin.  Rather how I feel at the end of a creative contract!

art for arts sake..

No, not a spot the difference competition, but a print (above) made from the photographic image (below).  

This is the year where I seemed to have expanded my practice with Photoshop (mostly for work) - and am quite enjoying it, where formerly I had 'the fear', and it all seemed very complicated.

Making up artwork to hang in film & tv sets is trickier than you think..  Firstly the issue of copyright, and the prohibitive rates for paying picture library fees ratio to the often miniscule graphics budget, means that we often have to call in favours of other members of the department, holiday snaps, or friends who will give us permission to use their images!  Then there is also the appropriateness of the image to the character who will be in the set.  Normally this can be bypassed by hiring images for short periods, but as these will be required in a long running series, they had to be practically free and permanent!

I had already used several photographic images already, so had a dabble about transforming the photographs into watercolours or even screenprints.  There is also the effect of trying to intimate that artworks have been acquired over a lifetime, rather than in a few short weeks, as is often the case!

The print was made by fiddling about with 'artistic effects' in the Effects Palette on Photoshop.  I think I used 'cutout' then 'ink lines', and then individually selected each colour (under the toolbar heading Select - see 'colour range' - you can click on the colour you'd like to change, then just use the 'eyedropper' tool to pick another colour from the colours that come up.

I can hardly believe it is nearly two years since I took this photograph!  Autumn seems to be coming around a little quicker this year..

If you have had 'the fear' of using Photoshop, open up a photograph, go to the Effects palette and just dabble around - a lot of art comes through happy accidents anyway!

best wishes

Caireen

roses

I love the way dog rose petals are like little hearts confetti'ed on the ground.

 

Thanks for all your recent comments and continued support for my blog, despite my posts having been further apart these last months..  I appreciate all of the comments and apologise if I don't answer them all personally - in fact I wish some of you would delurk and say Hi - would love to hear from you!

I've got 5 weeks off work! and have been getting back to what I love to do... wandering along taking photos of flowers in the hedgerows, catching up with Polkadotfarm sitting outside at the Courtyard Café with its beautiful flowers, and getting inspired to bundle up some cards I've had printed recently... 

Here's a sneak pic of one of the card bundles (thanks for the inspiration Rebecca).  

There will be 3 different bundles each with 4 cards plus envelopes.

In addition, there will also be a pack of 5 postcards with envelopes - featuring some of my 'core' images.

Will post as soon as I put these in the shop!

 

fresh

I managed to make a few more eco-cards a while ago, and have already used quite a few or given away as gifts.. 

..but there are some in my shop if you are interested - I may have to put my prices up in the future to qualify the amount of time in making and photographing them/posting them - but meantime they are still at the old price while stock lasts!

 

have a good week! Cx
 

'deep' appreciation

I don't tend to write too much about my dayjob, preferring to keep my blog for other types of creative musings - although my job is very creative in a different way.  However, on the last project I worked on, we had call for several images (60 to 70 was my brief!) to frame the walls of a marine biologist's house.

I wondered how I was going to get the right images without blowing the entire graphics budget through photo library costs!  I turned to my blog friends Ginny and Diana, and asked if I could use some of their coastal/nature images (mixed with a few of my own).

It was a lovely to collaborate with them, as the images complimented each other, and it did seem believable that they could have all been taken by the same character.

As a 'thank you' I decided to order some Moo mini cards for Ginny with her images on, and her blog address on the back.  Diana had already ordered some cards for herself, so instead I made a little patchwork collage of the images she allowed us to use, and framed it as a gift.

I also ordered myself a pack of Moo mini cards... just because!

Thankyou sweetmyrtle and pebbledash - I hope you don't feel too exploited - and we shall see the result this autumn on BBC1!

 

it might as well be spring...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

Thank you for visiting my blog over the last year, and everyone who has responded or left a comment on the patchwork dress - and all the lovely people who supported, encouraged me, or bought my cards or gifts.

I sincerely hope your 2010 brings you peace, simplicity, creativity and joy.

These are also qualities I hope to expand upon this year!

    

I've been woefully late in posting my first post of the year.. for a number of reasons, most of which seem pretty shallow by other worldwide situations at this "beginnings time".  Whether it is lack of time, or energy, or some other distraction (such as frozen pipes a week ago), going back to a 6 day week at work or other commitments... and then, just plain - I'm not sure that I have anything interesting to say or share!

However, yesterday, I motored ahead and made some changes in my creative room.  I changed round a few pieces of furniture. N put together the new folding table I got from Ikea (I got the cheaper, knot-ier version), with its deep drawers to take lots of crafty equipment.  So I got a new lease of life and energy to put some more items in my folksy shop.

 

Mainly tags which I hadn't put up yet as they were very springy with lovely spring colours and images, to get your eyes excited by the prospect of colour again!  So here they are.  Throughout January I wanted to offer some sort of discount, so anyone buying eco cards either singly or in a pack of 4, or spending over £5 will get a free set of handmade upcycled gift tags!  For January only - leave a comment at the payment stage saying BLOG, and I will add in a free set of tags.

 

These look delicious tied to a brown or news paper parcel tied with twine or string - if you want to make eco conscious savings on your gift giving this year, these tags are the bees knees (even if I say so myself) - and there is a picture of a bee showing you his knees to prove it.
 

I look forward to sharing the year with you and all the other blogs that I love to read everyday, and my very special blogfriends. I'll be back hopefully with something to say (I'm about to finish my current contract and go down to a 3-4 day a week, which will free up some making and thinking time!).  

And if you are feeling a bit strange and restless these days - here is a song that keeps popping into my head... hmmm, very apt....

 

blitz book bag

As the result of some enforced domestication (due to a stinker of a cold), and being gifted some lovely vintage fabric by a work colleague... I woke up on Saturday with an urge to design..

 

a book bag!

What do you think? - it's just big enough to take a couple of paperbacks or a nice hardback, with handles big enough to loop over a forearm - perhaps for a literary nosebag for a long journey?

 

The fabric given to me was some wonderful old suiting that Anne-Marie reckoned was 1930's or 40's - and this amazing lining fabric - which appropriately reminded me of fireworks...

 

While sewing, the combination of fabrics reminded me of wartime, as the pattern could be fireworks or lights from the blitz - again all quite relevant to this Remembrance weekend.

 

I wanted the lining to start further down inside the bag, so then had to think how the handles would come out - so they are also recessed. I quite like the idea of finding a use for that slot - perhaps to hold a pen? 

The original idea was to sew right round the mouth of the bag in a contrasting thread to fasten the handles further up - but the suiting fabric was so fine, it looked better with as little stitching as possible.

In the end I just did a stitch line on the outside.  The handles have a little flash of the lining sewn in as a detail.  I'm intending to give the bag to the lady who donated the fabric, as she had held on to it for so long, I felt she should have something from it, plus it has inspired me to move along with this design I have been ruminating about for a while!

 

Coincidentally - while I was cutting out my patterns - this parcel arrived from Ginny.  I was fortunate enough to win one of her Morsbags in the recent giveaway.  So give a bag, gain a bag!

 

I used it today Ginny and it is great - big and strong to hold a lot of shopping!

By the way, Ginny is also running a series of posts about gratitude and being grateful throughout November... a Thanksgiving if you will.  I hope to be joining her, as I have found it hard to get time to do many creative or extracurricular things to blog about - and this will be a nice simplistic way to blog and to bring me back to that noticing space.

Today I am grateful for the wonderful connections and serendipity blogging and making through the patchwork dress has brought me xx

i'm at folksy... and a giveaway!

As well as making my eco-cards, I have been playing! - making lots and lots of tags!  Some are for next weekend, and I also thought I would try out a little shop at folksy.com, the british version of etsy, which also works internationally.

It's a lot easier dealing in £'s, as it does my head in a bit, dealing with etsy and the dollar thing.  I think etsy do have plans to introduce other currencies in the future, but in the meantime I may try out folksy and see how I get on.

these two packs are available to buy at £2.40 plus postage for 6 tags - all handmade by upcycling magazine images onto recycled card, and themed into batches.  They're so pretty, they could get used on a brown paper or newspaper package tied up with twine or string... or could just hang around the place - above a workdesk or off a twig tree!

I love making them anyway... as you can see!

this one never made the packet - straight onto the wall!

china teacups....

red and blue checks...

vintage summer...

cutting table/potting shed...

I've not had a giveaway for a while, so if you leave a comment before friday 10 july, I'll pick 2 names to receive some tags - the rest will go on sale in the folksy shop.

sticking & stitching

At last I have some new cards and have restocked my etsy shop!  If you are not already familiar with my cards, they are made by 'upcycling' my favourite magazine images into cards and matching envelopes using recycled card for the interior.  The images are non-toxic glued & wrap right round the back of the card, and the envelopes fold round and seal with a sticker - so no glue on them!

I take a long time choosing the images, matching them to their envelopes, getting them really flat, and then finding 4 that go together before they pop in their (now) biodegradable wrapper!  I'm going to add a little detail of a twine tie and small label, for those people who'd like to give them as a handmade gift.

More to come... I feel gift tag making session coming on - watch this space!

In the background there you can just see one of my latest finds from the charity shop...

...this lovely green linen with lilacs embroidered all over - it was a bargain for £3.99 - how could you compare the price with the work that has gone into it?

I have also been doing some sewing with one of the sashiko kits -

it does feel a bit of a cheat, rather like doing dot-to-dot which I used to love as a child.  

It's quite therapeutic just following the stitch marks, and lets me practice and regulate my stitch length. The kit comes doublesided so you are stitching 2 layers together which is quite a nice quality.  I think the pattern would have been quite a complicated one to draw out for a beginner - so actually it is quite a good idea despite my slight guilt.

Now I have to decide whether to do the infill patterns in another colour, or do the whole in turquoise. Hmm.

On the stitchery front I found this book in the Oxfam bookshop on Byres Road.  They have a good used craft section, a whole shelf - even two - filled with embroidery books.  I thought some of the patterns in here were quite cute and bought it for my mum - perhaps with the hope that she might do some of the decorations in there for me! : )

Such as this family of sparrows - who in real life have taken over the garden as a favourite food-stop!