Design a fabric competition for Making magazine

Phew! am I pleased I stayed inside working today and didn't go to the Driffield Show as it was the hottest day of the year and I know it would be way too hot and tiring for me, tough for the livestock too.

I've decided to post about a fabric design for a competition I entered in May and was holding off with posting my ideas until I knew the outcome. However I think it's safe to say I wasn't successful as the notify winners date was end of June.

The subject matter was nature.

I created one of my mixed media collages with newsprint and stitch.

Started by painting some newspaper.

I wanted to create some butterflies, pods and flowers so I made some scribbles to base my shapes on and then I ripped & snipped bits and built up layers for the shapes.

Then it's time for a bit of stitching, using machine stitching to go around my shapes and add detail

They start to look more interesting when the definition is added

With all my hand made elements complete they were scanned in and worked up in Photoshop. I then started to create a repeat pattern which went through many phases before the result you see below. It had been on a white background but it looked too new and I wanted a more antiquey looking fabric so I did some rubber stamping in the background and built in a few more layers.

Here is my fabric repeat and shown in more detail below.

The competition was quite thorough and even wanted a mood board sending so this was my inspiration.

Not sure which forthcoming issue of Making will reveal the winner but I can't wait to see what the winning design looks like.

Today is good - I won a competition!

I entered a craft competition in one of the sewing magazines back in May and you had to make a fabric cupcake, donut, gateaux etc. Anyway I have a few of my cupcake pincushions in my craft stock which I was going to enter but in the end I thought I'd make a new one and try to improve on my past attempts. The result was my Smartie bun, a subject I know very well!


Today the 10 winners were announced and and with fingers crossed I saw my name on the list. It's so exciting, I've won a goodie bag which has over £100 worth of craft books & items. I'm trying to contain the excitement as they reckon it could be a few weeks before the prizes are dished out.