I've been run off my Feet :-)

I haven't posted for ages.. loads of things happening and I've been naughty and not posted here for ages.

The most urgent bit of news is:
My Spoonflower shop : ART ON FABRIC   this is where you go to take advantage of a FREE SWATCH offer, with FREE shipping, that is only for FEB 14th 2014 ... starting at EST USA
You can get a free 8 by 8 inch swatch of any of my available fabric designs on the new Modern Jersey fabric.


Here is your chance to see what Spoonflower's fabrics are like, if you've never tried them before.
When you login on Spoonflower and then come here and click on the link, you'll go straight to my shop front page where you can choose a design, click on it and when you get there you'll see a green outlined box with a message GET YOUR FREE MODERN JERSEY SWATCH with a yellow GO FOR IT button... click that, you will be taken to your cart where you....... well you'll see :-)

This just in from Spoonflower :

 Spoonflower Fabrics says:

Friends,

As you may have heard, Spoonflower's home state of North Carolina is buried under several inches of snow and ice at the moment, which has brought our little fabric factory temporarily to a grinding halt. As a result, we are postponing the Free Swatch Day that we had planned to run today and tomorrow (Feb. 13-14) for our new fabric, Modern Jersey. We will reschedule a new Free Swatch Day once we dig ourselves out. We'll go ahead and make the new fabric available today, but -- with apologies -- we're going to ask you to be patient and wait for your free swatches.

Thank you for understanding!

-The Spoonflower Crew 

I'll let you all know when it's on again.. :-) Sorry

The other news is that I'll soon have work posted up on SENOVA STUDIOS , yup one of a very few designers to be on this site and I'm really excited about it. I've always wanted my designs on shower curtains and blankets and duvets.... :-)


More news is my work is also on Society 6 now... see I wasn't kidding hey.. happily rushed off my feet I am :-)

Here my work is on pillow slips, laptop covers and laptop and phone skins, clocks, tote bags, T shirts and onsies and hoodies, all sorts of things.. oh yes coffee mugs as well.. LOL.

http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/art_on_fabric
http://blog.spoonflower.com/free-swatch-day-spoonflower.html

Here are some examples of designs on Spoonflower and Society 6......   Senova Studios will have to be a later post :-) Have a great day everyone .

A little bit of Reef on Spoonflower
The Great Barrier Reef on Society6

Anemone on Spoonflower
Nemo's cousins are Visiting on Society 6

All That's Jazz on Spoonflower
All That Jazz on Society 6

RazzMaTazz Jazz on Spoonflower
RazzMaTazz Jazz Nite on Society 6

For the Love of Sharks on Spoonflower
Sharks on Society 6

Shark Quartet on Spoonflower
Sharks, Which Ones? on Society 6

Chained Up on Spoonflower
Chain Gang on Society 6

~~~~~~Etsy's Quilts Quilts Quilts Team~~~~~: Copyrights

~~~~~~Etsy's Quilts Quilts Quilts Team~~~~~: Copyrights: Are you one of the many people heading off to your local fabric store.. to purchase licensed fabrics to make something to sell at your local...

Block Swap

Lorrin of Enchanted Birk decided that she'd like to host a block swap. So in due course she put a notice up on the QQQ forum about it. Now, I'm not much of a quilter, because I design fabric, but I like to try my hand at it every now and then. I thought about it and decided that I could sew a reasonable looking 12 inch block, so I put my name down. It works like this:
1) send your Address to the person Below you.
2) send your Block to the person Above you.

Easy peasy.

At the end of a couple of weeks Lorrin decided that we had better get it moving so she shut off the application and even though there were only 4 of us doing it, we decided to carry on. Well it's the first time and we feel that in the future more of our members will decide to join in the fun.

This is a picture of the four blocks that were made and sent on.
Lorrin's Shop is Enchanted Birk = https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/EnchantedBirk
Sylvie's Shop is Art On Fabric = https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SylviesArtOnFabric
Kym's Shop is Fabric Fascination = https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FabricFascination
Tanya's Shop is Spool and Thimble = https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SpoolandThimble

I've decided that I'll make a quilt with all the blocks I get. It will be a fun special quilt, with the pieces from the QQQ team members. :^D
Cheers till next time,
Sylvie

Moonlight Sonata with Freddie Croaker and the Clockworks!

You might be asking yourself what on earth is this woman on about now. Surely she's finally gone off the edge... and it may be so this time. You tell me!

Spoonflower is having another contest. This is the Theme:

Frogs

Where we live, spring nights tend to turn into joyous and noisy frog parties. To celebrate our amorous little friends, this week's theme is fabric designs featuring frogs. Previews will be show at a swatch size (8" x 8"). Deadline for entry is Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/191  will be the link for this contest when it's in action.. after the 30th May.

My eyes saw 'Noisy Frog Parties' and my mind went back in time to my childhood and the very sound of frog parties that used to lull me to sleep at night. I know now that you can build a pond and frogs will not come and live there, unless you put some tadpoles into the water. A frog will live around and near the pond he or she was born in and will only go back there to spawn.. so if you destroy a pond or a source of water, you can destroy a species of frog.. WOW!
Anyway I digress.. really badly, sorry... Frog Parties, Spring Nights and Joy... these are the keys to my design.
I created a tree frog, ( they're my favourite frog ever), except I didn't want him to be ordinary so I made him a steam punk frog. 

Introducing Freddie Croaker!

I decided that I would have to go all the way and get more involved in the steam punk idea, so I designed nautilus shells and put the hours of the day in them.

Another tree frog hugging a Nautilus Clock.

Next I wanted to create another type of frog that sits on a lily pad ... These chaps would be serenading and backing up Freddie in the Moonlight Sonata. Of course the night sky and rising moon would also have to be created just right to set the mood.....

The clockworks, frogs on watch lily pads,
 back-up singers to Freddie Croaker.

I put it all together and this is what it finally looks like.

Freddie Croaker and the Clockworks, getting ready to sing the Moonlight Sonata to You ,
 should you wish to come on down and join in the FUN!

The night sky, for some reason changes with those fat dark stripes whenever I reduce the picture.. but in actual fact the real deal is the same all the way up. The design can be seen here http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/2072125 if you want to see it in yardage etc. 

Feel free to leave comments either here or on the design on Spoonflower... You don't have to be a designer to have an account on Spoonflower, and that's the only way to see the comments written under the designs...some of them are really fun reading.. LOL

My very First Paper Piecing Block

I was surfing the net the other day and saw a beautiful quilted block on Pinterest. Thought to myself... oh I'd love to be able to sew like that. SO I put the question out in our QQQ Team on Etsy, asking how is something like that done and got a few really helpful answers.
This is the quilted block I saw and fell in love with :

http://pinterest.com/pin/5981411977882379/

One of my Etsy friends, Patricia Caldwell of The Butterfly Quilter, said I should look at this site : http://www.averyspecialcollection.com/freepatterns/howto.pdf and another friend steered me towards 

Soma of Whims and Fancies ....who does a LOT of paper piecing.. she has a web site :  http://www.whimsandfancies.com/ where she holds paper piecing hops every month :-) Very interesting... Also she has a paper piecing pattern tutorial for beginners called the School House...

Donna of June Bug Quilts posted a link to a video on Utube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNzg78tsF7g that shows paper piecing.... all so very helpful, thank you All!!!

Anyway I digress, I sat down with a cup of hot Bovril, don't do coffee and I've run out of Green tea with Mint... so Bovril it is. and started reading.. I looked through that school house pattern and thought.. Wow that sounds quite simple, but I don't want to do a school house... hmmm Next I looked at the link that Patricia had given me... ummm well a tad more complicated I thought, till I started! 

I had to draw my own pattern out, so I made it an 8 inch block against the 4 1/2 in the pattern. I needed something BIG to start off with.. Then I had to choose my fabrics... that took a wee while and eventually I started...

All I can say is that IT'S TOTAL FUN :^D !!!

This is the outcome :

Of course you should mentally cut off the 1/4 inch seam around the outside edge to get the outside pointy bits be the same as the rest..lol  AND I didn't hand sew the brown handle onto the fan.. i sewed it with the machine... I didn't realise at the time that I was doing that bit wrong.. but I still sort of like how I 'fixed' it..I think I'll change it later though..  hehe 

It's nowhere near the first photo, but I think it's a great start.. don't you?

Sailing Fabric Design

There is an upcoming Spoonflower contest called "Sailing". I've entered the following design into it. I first designed the centre section with the lighthouse and then designed the other sections around it. Notice the birds by the trees at the top left side. :^D

Do you see the dolphin playing at the bow of the yacht and the birds sitting and flying in a group behind the yacht. We have been in this situation many many times. It's amazing and wonderful. :^D

Modern Day Ocean Crossings.

Both David and I raced dinghy's from the age of 8. This next drawing brings back memories of those days.

Childhood Racing Memories...

This next one grew from memories of sailing in the Indian Ocean off the Mozambique Coast. The locals sail little boats at night with no navigation lights, so you have to be very careful you don't hit them. Notice the star constellations, there is Pisces Austrinus, Part of Sculptor, Part of Grus, Part of Capricornus and Part of Microscopium. These are constellations seen in the south of the Northern skies in Autumn. Not the stars you'd see sailing off Mozambique, but ones I like :-).

Memories of Mozambique.

This next section is all about racing and these yachts are supposed to be those huge cats that are racing in San Francisco at the America's Cup. We've sailed there and I'm able to imagine these yachts racing there too.

Racing in or near San Francisco

The picture below is a reminder of how our ancestors travelled across the oceans, braving the weather and awful conditions on the ships, to be able to start life anew. Some of the Stars seen here are the Southern Cross or Acrux and Mimosa, The Crux, Orion, and Musca,

Historic Ocean Travel.

Here we have another nostalgic modern day cruiser sailing the oceans looking for an anchoring spot on the far side of this island for a while... or maybe continuing on through the night to a destination they have chosen. A red sky at night.. means a clear night with no rain.

Cruising the world, visiting wonderful new lands.

This is the complete picture. One repeat of the design that is 18 inches by 21 inches in size. A Fat Quarter as the Quilters know it.It's a half drop repeat so 3 full ones and two half designs fit into a yard.

One repeat

I'm thinking that this design would look great made into a scatter cushion / throw pillow, or even as curtains.  Here is a picture of it repeated.

This is what a yard would look like..http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1984220

If you like it, During the week starting 24th April to 30th April, this design will be available to be voted on...so please take a few minutes to vote for it : http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/185 This link is to the present contest, but they're all run off the same page.. The sailing contest will be number 186.. so just change the 5 to a 6 and hit enter.. you'll see it :-) 

At the moment I have another design about Pop Art Chickens, that is in the 185 contest. Busy Busy.. heehee.. AND a whole new blog post...

Thanks! :^D

The Aftermath and Painted Eggs

In my last post;

I told you all about my talk at the KeriKeri Quilters monthly meeting and the wonderful day I had with them. Quite a few of them had asked me if I'd please turn one of my paintings into a fabric design. So I did and here is is: Guinea Fowl. 

http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/1887266 

Since then I've had the pleasure of visiting the Whangarei Quilt Group at their monthly meeting. Yet Again I was openly and warmly accepted. I listened to the speaker of the day who was a supplier of threads. Wow, she had an amazing selection to choose from and some really helpful tips about bobbin winding, and other things I didn't know. I couldn't help myself . I bought a reel of orange variegated cotton thread to use on my Turtle Quilt. 

The bobbin info... okay, I'll pass it on... when you're putting thread onto your bobbin it's apparently VERY important that it isn't done too fast and that the thread is wound on evenly. If it's not done properly you'll have no end of trouble with the thread misbehaving under the fabric. So there you go.. I didn't know that and I've had no end of trouble with my bobbin thread... so next time I wind a bobbin, I'll be taking a heck of a lot more care. :^D 

I've been designing since my last post here and thought I'd show you some results. 

This design is called African Easter Eggs.

http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/1886525

I've submitted it into the latest Spoonflower Contest 'Painted Eggs'. Click here if you'd like to check out the contest. When you get there, click on the words 'Painted Eggs' to see all the submissions. I cannot tell you which page my design is on, because each time someone clicks on the contest, the design order changes. 

I also did another that I called Ostrich and Eggs : 

http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/1894734

Admittedly it was a hard choice to make. which one to submit to the contest :^D 

Back to the great folks of Whangarei. I have here the link to their Quilting Blog if you'd like to see what went on that day.

http://www.quiltwhangarei.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/show-n-tell-march-2013.html 

Leeann, who runs the blog, was really kind to include me in her latest posting. I did a bit of a 'show and tell' there, with some of my quilts that are made from fabrics I designed and had printed, or that I dyed and painted. 

Thanks for visiting.. see you again soon.

Sylvie.