Little Moped

OK, so this is a bit of a distraction from what I should be doing, (getting everything together for our little show) but, after the other weeks (rightly) disasterous contest entry for Spoonflower and this weeks theme being 'Motorcycles', I couldn't resist tweaking the repeat and colours of this little drawing and entering this design.

Cards

 Friends Bethan Matthews and Paula Cloonan have asked me to join them in their show here in Totnes in a couple of weeks. (more information to come) So I have, at last,  ordered some postcards of a few of my designs to go with my fabrics I'll be showing.

You can also buy these designs as cards from my shop at redbubble.com

Yay! Samples Arrive

I love it when my samples arrive. It can be the first time I see a non digital version of the design and it always amazes me.  Spoonflower send 8 inch squares of each design on a quilting weight cotton so that I can see the colours and the repeat. Once I have checked them they are for sale by the yard and on a selection of fabrics here. It's hard for me to chose a favourite but I am particularly pleased with my bicycle collection.

It's a dull day so I haven't captured the vibrancy of the colours. I have a lot more new fabrics to show you but I need to take some better pictures so watch this space!

Ingredients for a Pirate Party

When  a four year old about to be five years old requests a pirate themed birthday party you will need......

a pirate cake.....

a sunny day......

a garden pirate ship including a lot of little pirates......add some games including a pirate treasure hunt, draw the patch on the pirate and make big brother walk the gang plank.

Round off with whole load of small pirate treasure chests filled with chocolate treasure for your small pirates to take home as a Thank You for coming. And a good time will be had by all.

If you need to make treasure chests down load this jpg. Print it off, glue it to thin card, cut it out and stick together then, for added authenticity, fill with chocolate coins!

Maurice Sendak

As a child I loved Maurice Sendak's books and have passed this love of his work onto my children. There is many a bedtime when the house resounds with 'I'm not the milk and the milks not me I'm Mickey.' So it is with great sadness that I today I learnt of Maurice Sendak's death. He was 83 and died from complications from a stroke.

Maurice Sendak is the reason I wanted to become an illustrator. He has been a major influence and inspiration of mine for as long as I can remember.  He illustrated many other authors work but is probably most well known for the stories he wrote and illustrated, in particular Where The Wild Things Are and my favourite, In The Night Kitchen.

 In the Night Kitchen published in 1970 is a dark children's story that explored relationships with his relatives whilst playing with childhood fears and aggressions. Bizaarly it was banned for innocent nude images of Mickey.

His work is quite beautiful. I love the compositions of his images, the restrained use of colour and the wonderful personality he brought to his lines. It is his linear quality that particularly inspired my linocut work.

Today has become a sad day with his death, but it is tempered with the knowledge that Maurice Sendak's unique, wonderful, beautiful work will be loved by children and adults alike forever.

A Challenge

Spoonflower's contest this week was for a 'Retro Kitchen' fabric design but with a restricted palette. I liked the theme and the restricted palette turned it into an interesting challenge as I would not usually choose these colours. 

With very little time I chose a motif I have used before, one of my linocut prints. I re coloured and used a block based background hopefully creating a 70's feel. I found the pink almost impossible to include without it looking forced so I omitted it from the main fabric, but I did create a complimentary abstract design that included it.

This is the palette required for the contest plus white . 

I have to admit I am not completely convinced by my design, it seems a little stilted to me. What do you think. If you like it enough you could vote for it here. (voting starts Thursday 10th May for a week) I recommend you have a look anyway as it is always fascinating to see what other amazingly talented people have come up with and it's fun voting for all the ones you like. You have more than one vote!