Fabric design for competition

I'm back, 2 posts in a few hours... goodness me!

I am trying to get any feedback on which is the preferred design out of these 6 I've created, would be great if anyone can be bothered to express a preference. Of course, I may throw caution to the wind and go with my instinct but here we go.

The design is not my usual type of thing, the subject was to design in an 8 bit pixel style, that is those little pixelated images used on computer games, the simplest one to give you an example is PacMan graphics. The critera was to design a fabric to be used in trendy clothing for young people, I've gone along the lines of 'groovy' and colourful.

Here are my 6, brief description:
1. embroidered flowers, stamps and butterflies collage
2. flower power girl
3. paper sculpture
4. velvet leaves
5. paper butterflies
6. vintage bobbins

 These pixelly things are not easy on the eyes but you have to suffer for your art sometimes!
Any comments would be fab, thanks folks. x

Crochet and chicks

It's been so nice to have such good weather for so long and a good job because it's just over a month since I mentioned the hole in the roof and still absolutely no progress with it. I'm not good at doing battle with people I dislike immensely to get things done so because of my mild manner I will just have to keep my fingers crossed that eventually they take action, or the good weather holds! My priority is to protect my belongings, I'm quite happy for their building to drop to pieces but hopefully after I've fled.

Onto nicer things and one success story has been a fledging of a full nest of chicks.

This little hanging basket which I haven't used this year became the home to a spotted flycatcher family.

I discovered a nest in the top of it about 3 weeks ago and then saw these....

It was a bit of a worry as the basket is only about 3 feet from the ground and it hangs on a very rusty old nail so I hoped we didn't have strong winds or rain or I think it would have blown off.

Once the parent was sat on the nest it was tricky to get pictures but I did sneak this one of the chicks at maybe only 24 - 48 hrs old.

I had a great view of the basket, it was just feet from the house and I could watch the parents swooping for flies and taking them to the nest.
Once the chicks were sitting up a bit there was more action and if i went outside the mother would swoop at me if she saw me taking a quick snap so I held off and this was the last pic I got.

They did really well, good weather, lots of flies and butterflies and they fledged on Tuesday but I missed them go! I noticed the nest was empty, it took all of 14 days from eggs to fledging and a real success. A couple of days a new stoat family were on the scene which caused concern but all was ok.

I miss them now and I also miss Gladys and Graham the great tits, I managed to get Gladys to sit in the palm of my hand feeding towards the end, but they left after their family fledged, here she is tapping on the door for food.

On to crochet, I've been busy making things in the fine weather, ready for the bad weather!

There have been 2 thick & chunky crochet waistcoats completed so that I can layer jumpers under them.

I'm also doing large granny squares for a blanket.

I have quite a big, but hush hush craft project in the pipeline which is keeping me busy now and another fabric design competition which I think will be my next post.

Have a good weekend!

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.

Packaging 5 - Percy Pig is 21 & Earl Grey

I haven't done a packaging post for a while so to celebrate Marks and Spencer's jolly little pig Percy's 21st, I present the Percy carrier bag! So cute.

There are so many Percy products sprung up in his 21 years but only one pack of veggie sweets which is a shame, come on M&S if you can do one bag without gelatine I'm sure you can do many more!

Having said that, I did spot this nice looking Percy pudding on their website which is veggie friendly.

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Marks-and-Spencer-Percy-Milkshake/dp/B00C10U2YG?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_6&nodeId=42966030&sr=1-6&qid=1373537411&pf_rd_r=16ERV572JEB1WTX6CG66&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_i=0&pf_rd_p=321381407&pf_rd_s=center-3

Moving on to other recent purchases and that is Earl Grey tea bags. I am always on the quest for good quality EG tea bags for a quick, non ceremonial drink throughout the day. (coffee is my evening indulgence, tea gets me through the day).

This is my current stash.

Firstly and one of my favourites, alongside M&S EG (not pictured here), is Booths store own brand.

Booths are a wonderful chain of supermarkets mainly in Lancashire and the North West, with a few in the Yorkshire Dales. Their EG is very flavoursome and good value and comes in a pretty purple box, my favourite colour!

Here is a link to a tasty recipe from Booths website, I must try it, hence the link is mainly to remind myself.

http://www.booths.co.uk/recipe/organic-creamy-lancashire-and-thyme-tarts/

Whilst I'm sharing things veggie, here is a link from a friend to another great source of veggie recipes

http://frogsinmykitchen.com/

And one more

http://www.kirlysueskitchen.co.uk/?page_id=105

Back to the tea. It's good to be a bit healthier now and again with some green tea and this is a Taylors, very delicate EG green tea which doesn't taste too watery so I can about manage it.

I am a lovely of black and strong, flavoursome tea so lighter teas and green teas can be a bit of a struggle for me but this is ok.

Lastly, a new purchase and unopened so I can't comment yet but it's a Duchy EG in a nice stylish package. I hope my expectations aren't too high as it's a Duchy!

Reloved - I made it into print!

Today is an exciting day for me. Some weeks back, when I discovered the first issue of Reloved magazine, I decided to send them my story of how I recycle and reuse to make some of my fabric designs. I was very surprised when they said they would like to use my story and of course you never quite believe your story is interesting enough to go in but somehow I managed it.

Issue 2 is out today and I am at the back in the Upcycled Life feature,  now I'm only showing you a sneak preview as I tried to hide & disguise myself a bit with the photo by pushing my hair into a hat but I've been accused by my better half as looking a bit fierce, I'm sure I don't always look so fierce but I'm generally not a smiley person for photos as I hate having my picture taken. (I think I have every right to look fierce as changing the subject slightly, it's a week since I reported the hole in the roof and nothing has happened, typical!).

Back to the mag, here is a glimpse

Reloved is a lovely magazine with lots of nice ideas to make, probably more household type things than some of the other magazines but there's plenty to go at.

I really like these tin can lanterns

And this section on making natural dyes is right up my street.

There are some great magazines these days, I just don't seem to have time to read them all but I do cherry pick and return to things as a good source of inspiration.

Looks like nice weather for the weekend, yippeee!