Yarn Bombing and Crimbo Decorations!

This week has flown by. It's been fun working in the shop and I've been making things whilst I've been sat at my desk too!

There's an awful tan coloured staircase in my space at CFQ so I decided to yarn bomb it to jazz it up. I'd seen a picture on line of a bike rack being eaten by a yarn bomb snake and it was amazing, so huge and dramatic, so I decided to homage it on a smaller scale and crochet up a beast of my own.

I used mainly treble stitch (UK crochet stitch) as the fabric would grow much quicker. It was a flat piece that I stitched up onto the banaster then I added some toy eyes to finish him off. He has cheered up the place this week :)

I've spent the past few days working on some Christmas decorations to sell in the shop! I made a few from felt and thread, creating traditional bauble shapes but with fun colours. I stitched down each layer and then blanket stitched a backing in a contrasting colour.

 

Earlier in the week I started re-vamping a denim jacket. I'm thinking of adding some studs to the colour tips too. The Singer is really great with heavy weight fabrics and denims. Love it!

Our lovely friend Dani has just dropped off a couple of knitting machines and a pile of wool so I have some interesting crafting fun coming up! Hopefully I'll have some sample pieces to share soon. If I find any good you Tube tutorials on how to use the beast then I'll post them up too.

Cushion the Blow

A good seller in the shop this week has been cushions that I've stitched up with my screen prints on. For me this is great as I'm getting my art work straight into peoples homes and keeping them comfy too haha. I had a good day of sewing yesterday so here are a few more I've made and some cheeky extra bits.

The Zebra repeat is a one off print I created about a year ago and I've been wondering what to do with the fabric for ages. I'd made the screen for a PrintHaus open day and had made a cushion for my friend Neil using a similar effect. It's so simple to do as you just line up the diferent colour inks on either side of the screen and pull them across with the squeegee at the same time. It creates a blend of the shades in the middle. I went for the classic pink and purple and cacked the pillow with a pink polka dot!

I made a space print cushion for our living room when I moved in with the boy and love it so thought I would make some up for others to enjoy too as it always gets compliments ;) It's backed with a cyan blue fabric with black polka dots, I'm loving spots haha! The main print is navy and has a light blue pixilated cloudy pattern underneath. Hmm I did make a couple of musical cushions on the pink polka dot fabric with trumpets and guitars from the last Snapped Up open day but forgot to take pictures! Will have to grab some tomorrow before we open.

Ah I'm glad I did manage to grab a photo of the jean's I revamped with some heart shaped knee patches and also a printed patch to the back pocket. Eep it's cool to say this -they're available in the shop!!

 

A Little Pink Zebra

I've spent the day at CFQ doing a bit of embroidery whilst running the stall so thought I'd share. I used a piece of screen printed canvas that I'd printed in hot pink waterbased ink and embellished it with some crazy pink thread that has a gradient in the colour to it and various blues for the french knots and scallops. Will soon be up on the wall in the shop for sale!

 

Love the Weekend!

Ah this weekend is definitely a good one! My gorgeous sister and family are down visiting from London, it's my friend Becca's birthday and all systems are go at CFQ!!

I had fun picking a new outfit out from my rail of clothes for my display mannequin this morning. I've gone with one of my handmade tops, a cute sailor collar and some revamped shorts! What do you think?? I know its the end of October but it's warm inside!

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to get the ol' spray paint out and re-do a frame that I've had kicking round the house for ages. It was a gordy gold and not very appealing; much better now!

I made a birthday handbag for Rebecca too! Craftster have some awesome tutorials on making things and I used this one as a guide for the bag. I cut up a beautiful old pillowcase and found some plain bright cotton for the lining.

Also at CFQ this week I revamped a lamp with a couple of pretty braids and I painted a few arrows on the door showing people the way!

Come say hello!

Bangles

I came back from the shop a tad early today; leaving the lovely Alys in charge! I had good intentions of cracking the whip and getting on with some more sewing; I've sold a tonne of the revamped t-shirts into skirts that I printed onto and thought I should replenish. However when I got into my messy workroom I ended up finding these bracelets in a draw as I was tiding up (I can never work in a messy studio).

I bought them ages ago when I was teaching the small craft class in Barry as a back up for a lesson. Now is definitely the time to be finishing off all those planned but not yet done jobs! So what does a girl do with a pink glue gun, bracelets and a pile of chincy braid?

Voila, cheeky bangles!

 

The Grand Opening @ CFQ!

Ah this has been a crazy, awesome weekend. I've had an amazing time and am really thankful to all my lovely friends and family that popped down to see what was going on.

Some of the guys doing the art collective Colour Doomed inside painted some amazing art on the outside, as well as Bryce from Peaceful Progress and Spike too. I'm super impressed.

 

We had the lovely ladies from Kitsch n Sync doing inspired walkabout performances. I even had two roller-skating dolls dressed up in my play suit and polka dot dress! There was lots of music and the place was buzzing all day, I can't wait to see how the place pans out as it settles into a routine.

Super fun! So finally here are some shots of the shoppy filled with goodies.

 

One or two photos I've pinched from facebook so I'd like to thank Tom and Josie. We're open everyday from 10 til 7 apart from Sundays which is 11-5.

Printing Signs and Patches

Today I have spent the whole day at the PrintHaus making fun things for the new shop!

I wanted to print a sign to go on the wall in the shop and I've been wanting to make sew on patches with some fun drawings on for ages; I was fed up with only being able to get band patches!

This is me making my film work ready to go onto my screen. I would normally print my images from the computer onto acetate so I don't have to keep drawing things over again but as the sign is so big I thought it would be easier to scale it up myself.

I can't get enough of purple at the moment so decided to print the text in a lovely rich shade that I mixed up myself. I thought it would compliment the colours of the patterned fabric that I wanted to use. I'm planning on stitching it up and finishing it in the morning so will post more pics when it's finished!

In between all this sign making I also printed a tonne of patches! As I was using waterbased inks I thought I'd take advantage of only being able to do about 4 prints before the ink started drying in the screen and change colours!

So tonight is filled with cutting them all out with the pinkin shears! Oh I lead an exciting life haha!