little one in next

Sometimes Im lucky enough to find a design of mine in the shops. This is quite rare as most of it sells in the USA. Here is a hoodie I found in Next, modeled by my youngest daughter.

nelly the elly

Here's one of my character prints for baby wear. I was inspired by an Elmer the Elephant book for the jungle leaves. David McKee, who wrote and illustrated Elmer is a legend.... he was also the creator of Mr Benn, one of my childhood favourites.

recycled peg bag

Today after finishing a design for sending off into cyberspace .... I decided to make Mum a peg bag. Shes seen the first kitty stitch peg bag.......say no more, of course she was desperate for her own one!!!! With Mothers day being on Sunday I had to get a move on. I found one of the girls old pinafore dresses, appliqued a big denim and gingham flower on it, then cut a hole for the pegs to go in. The hanger just goes where the shoulders should be. I think its quite a nice idea, you could do the same with boys dungarees.

illustrator

Today Ive been learning how to use illustrator CS, through an online learning website. Its called lynda.com and you pay $25 per month to get tuition on loads of different software. I usually use photoshop for my designs, but have wanted to learn illustrator for ages, as you can get different line qualities. Heres my first little character, which is for my website.

my first web page

The girls are on half term this week, so its been manic around here! Still, I mangaged to get my home page designed, which my wonderful brother then linked to the domain name for me!! Heres a preview of it above. Now the first step has been taken and I just have to get my on line portfolio in place. One little step at a time!!

cheeky leopard

Someone who is very good at making her own bags is a friend of mine cheeky leopard. She prints most of her own fabrics and designs and makes up beautiful bags. The one above is called Soho bag and is made with fabric she found while on her travels. Actually I must put a link to her site on my blog as I think its always good to point people in the right direction of beautiful hand made things!

peg bags are us!!

Here it is my first peg bag! Ok so I didnt manage a vintage embroidery but I had to start somewhere eh!!! This one is a pressie for my brothers girlfriend so I hope she will enjoy it!

kitty stitch labels

Ive been helping at my eldest daughters' school today (shes 6). They were doing a weave and stitch project so it was great to go in and help inspire the kids with their textiles. We found twigs and leaves and then wove them into hessian and used yarn to stitch on larger found items. Some of the boys really got into it ...so I was pleased about that.

My kitty stitch labels arrived the other day(see photo)...............now I just have to make something to attach them to!! Ive found a lovely blog called stitchy britches where you can find a great collection of vintage embroideries...........am thinking of using one for my peg bag project..... now its in writing I will have to get on with this, I will keep you posted on my progress.

tweet love

Happy Valentines day! Heres a card for all of my avid kitty stitch readers ..(er well, the 1 or 2 who may click by!!)

mccalls sewing

I found this lovely old sewing book in our local charity shop yesterday. Its got some very 1960s illustrations and of course all those handy tips for making clothes and er..............curtains (straight lines is not my strong point!) but think it will be a useful manual to have!!

new home

Today Ive been busy looking after my youngest daughter, at 3 yrs she takes most of my energy! I found a chance tonight to make this card for my mum who is moving into her new home today. On the subject of houses I found this lovely blog red.house through print and pattern. I really like the designs she has created and I can see them as being printed for textiles. She must be really pleased with such a great response on her blog!

woody

Well the outcome of all this birdy talk is one of my winter 07 designs ...I called him woody, thought that was a sweet tweet name for a birdy! (copyright to buyer of this one)happy birthday huberland today!!

birdys

While on the topic of birds here are the Poole pottery blue birds that we found ....actually my husband as its his favourite pastime.. found on ebay!

brighton museum

Today I took my youngest daughter to the museum. They have the little black dress exhibition on, which is worth a look at. I found this coffee set by villeroy&boch c 1970. Its so full of colour and typical of its era.......and of course the birdy motif is very popular again now. When I was at college many moons ago we were told dont ever put a bird on a print ...it wont sell....how things have changed!

feb already!

Gosh I havent even posted and its already 5th Feb! We (me hubby and our 2 girls) spent the weekend in Bath with my brother. I love the architechture there and they have a fantastic park for the kids too. My bro gave me these sweet buttons for inspiration. Saw these cute dolls hanging in a shop window. My brothers girlfriend would like a kitty stitch peg bag, so am onto that project now! The thing is I have so many projects going around in my head at the moment, and I need to get the ideas down into my sketch book to see how I can progress with some of them. I would love to print some of my own fabric and am looking into ways to do this. Ive stumbled across a gocco whilst browsing some esty shops and it seems a good solution for small design projects. Has any one used one/got any ideas where to buy one?