August Break 2.0

Oops, there I go again!!!! At least this is for a 52 weeks 52 crafts project!

Love this Karma Baby fabric!

August Breakin'

Still on a post shopping high from my favourite fabric shop on earth, but heading to another one today which could lead to more overspending!

I'm taking part in the August Break and posting photos of what I'm doing through the month... and trying to take a photo every day...might be a bit of a challenge, as August is gonna be a hectic month, but why not take up another excuse to stop and savour what I'm doing amongst the busyness?

secret craftings

Crafting requires patience, a resource that I have very little of in all other aspects of life (and even when I'm crafting its pretty limited)... so the process of imagining, designing and then creating something can sometimes drain my resources of patience. Especially, when my mind is raring to go on the creative side, but it takes time to work out the logistical method of creating what I see in my mind.

Add into the mix, the fact that sometimes we craft very special gifts, for very special occasions - with the result of my very patient self, having to sit on my work in secret waiting even longer for the day that I get to reveal it to whomever it is made for.

In this case, its a wedding gift for two dear friends.

After visiting the Quilt exhibition at the V&A in London, I was overwhelmed with amazing ideas and wanted to find a way to incorporate a quote into a quilt. A few days later, a conference took me to New York where I found myself knee deep in a wealth of amazing fabrics patterns - putting a few ideas together, I bought up some material and came up with the idea of make a simple scrap square quilt, with a featured quote from William Wordsworth as inspiration in the centre.

I tried to use some fresh colours which weren't too tied to any season or style... and chose fabrics which had a vintage, but modern look to them.

Check out the results.




Quote from William Wordsworth, suiting Her penchant for the pastoral... and nostalgic of a road-trip we took together through the lakes district. (Although, I must admit its not terribly suitable to His scottish heritage) For the next gift, I'll have to quote a Scot.


Close up on the fabrics. I tried to find an interesting balance of matching and constrasting, so each combination of materials would have a difference effect.

illustrator hater

With all the amazing tools and techniques now available in photo and illustration software packages, everyone can transform their photos into digital art within a few short clicks. In some ways these editing suites have opened up art and design in amazing new ways, but the luddite in me acknowledges that these programs now instantly and effortlessly perform artistic process which craftspeople have been doing for years and years.

There is something amazing about taking a process once done by the skill of a good eye and a steady hand, and turning into a effect which takes milliseconds, but there is also something kind of sad about it.

As such, I'm always trying to find ways to mix new fashioned and old fashioned art and craft techniques... which is what brought me to making fabric and paper portraits.

With facebook, flickr, and other sites which let you publish photos online, we all have access to the photos of our closest (and sometimes not so close) friends and family. I love all the ways that you can digital transform these photos, and then quickly print them - but I've been looking for a way to take the ditigized moments and turn them back into something which is textured and tactile.

Thus enter portraits like these;



After first editing images and printing them, I can then turn a posterised image into a set of layered fabrics or paper... the possibilities are really endless, depending on what materials they use - and its a beautiful way to preserve your favourite digtal images in a way which does not require access to a computer or the internet.

here are some of the gifts I have made for friends, family, and customers...

a present unveiled

I am so excited to finally be posting photos of this quilt... Although Lazy Crafternoons often produce things you want to show off and be proud of, you have to keep mum about the things you make which are going to be gifts.

I've been sitting on this work for a while now, waiting until my friend's wedding day when I can let the secret out.

I took this photo a few years ago during Autumn, and was inspired by the way the leaves looked scattered across the patchwork-like tiles.



I actually took this photo, to show off how enormous the leaves were, but when I stood back and looked at the image, it reminded me of a quilt.

With the help of some quilting skills once imparted to me when I was a child, by my great aunt and a heapload of internet tutorials, I have up with a way to interpret the tiles into a patchwork, and then came up with a leaf design which I could patchwork together and them applique to the quilt.

Since it was my first endeavour and I was a bit unsure of doing the acutal quilting, I enlisted the help of a long arm quilting service to finsh off and bind the patchwork. I just wanted it to be perfect, and didn't trust myself to not to ruin it in the quilting process after all my hard work on the front and back.




The back is done with a single wide stripe and a few leaf cut outs so there was an alternative to the busy top... and in one of the leaves I wrote my friends name and their marriage date with fabric pen.



Working on this quilt obviously took more than just one lazy crafternoon, and although my work was inspired by the original photo, it was also fuelled by a wide range of inspirations, much of which came from the quilting forums on craftster.com ... hopefully this quilt can be one little addition to the vast array of works out there, and add to the collective pool of textile creativity!