Howies/Folksy competition

Folksy are running design competition in conjunction with Howies and I decided last night to do a last minute entry. I had been thinking about their 'life is complicated, sport is simple' theme for a while and had some ideas but true to form life is complicated and I hadn't had any time to do anything about them.

So last night I cut some flock, did some embroidery and came up with a bird themed tea towel.

I went for a tea towel cos everyone has to do the dishes and I wanted a design that would remind you to hurry up, dry up and go outside.

The winning designs will be displayed in the window of the Howies carnaby street store during london design week. There are some lovely entries on folksy at the moment. I like Stitchy Woo Woo's freedom to wheel tote bag and Lucy Player's simple illustration.

the pop up shop

is finally going to happen....

I saw our unit yesterday. It's in Kingly Court just off Carnaby Street. The unit is absolutely massive so I am hoping that we can do it justice.

I am keeping in mind though all the Mary Queen of Shops programmes I have been watching and how she advises her clients to keep the layout and fixtures very simple. I love the interior of the Mayfair Stella McCartney shop with its vintage style wallpapers combined with modern touches like the bright pink bag display unit.

My aim is to move us as far away from a 'craft fair' with its horrible 'behind a table' philosphy to a place where customer can browse and touch the product, see demos of knitting, embroidery and other crafts and really talk and get to know who is behind the product. I have a fab bunch of designers ready - some london etsy folk, others I have met at craft markets.

In order to keep costs down I am planning to use some of the victorian pine vintage furniture I have already plus we are of to find a cool sofa and chair at one of the many second hand places round here at the weekend. Plus a trip to Ikea for some open shelving too.

I have big plans so watch this space!

my mums a hippie

The lovely my mums a hippie aka Monique Jivram was part of the Brixton Craft Market. She does embroidery and illustration and I love her quirky and colourful style. She had framed drawings, embroidered broaches and t shirts for sale on sunday. Her images are really diverse - wasps, fairground ride and vintage gramaphones and she stitches on top of the drawings.

I am hoping that she can join our seven dials pop up shop as I think she has an amazing talent. She isn't on etsy yet but I've told her all about it! She's on my space www.myspace.com/mymumsahippie

Glasgow Craft Mafia - Miso Funky

I am loving Miso Funky's emo broidery series. Definately using embroidery in a new and individual way. I can just see this in my hallway.....

They are part of the lovely glasgow craft mafia and their shop is:

http://shop.misofunky.com/collections/emo-broidery

trapunto cushion

I learned about trapunto from my tutor Debby at Morley College. It's an italian enbroidery technique where sections are stuffed with wadding and then embroidered on top.

I have a couple of works in progress that I will photograph over the weekend and I'll post a step by step 'how to' cos it's a really fun technique that looks very effective.

On this cushion cover I've used a vintage cream cotton backed with a coffee and cream piece of french ticking. The design is called 'walk in the forest' and combines shades of green and brown with corally pinks for the flowers.

It's in my etsy shop as a custom listing at the moment with others ready to buy to be added soon!