In the best traditions of British Comedy

Oh dear, printing was going so well today.... until the cat obviously thought I was not paying her enough attention and leaped up onto the bench where I was mixing inks.  She landed with one foot in the red and one foot in the blue, then ran off all over the house with me chasing her screaming, "No".  The kids just stood around killing themselves laughing watching the show.  Thankfully there was only one small casualty, a little blue footprint right on the edge of some organic cotton that had been laid out to dry.   The rest of the footprints were easily cleaned, thankfully we have wooden floors in our house.  Though I do suspect I will be finding footprints in strange places for quite a few weeks.

Brrrrrrr

Yesterday's Craft and Design Market was so cold  I was tempted to wrap up in one of my cosy blankets.   I think next time I might be tempted to move out from under cover and into the sunlight.  I am sure it will be much, much warmer.  Roll on spring time.

A custom project in progress

 This weekend I have been working on a custom project.  It can be stressful doing a custom print,  one little slip up and its back to square one.  Especially when working with a vintage item, its not as easy to pick up another blanket.  For every four blue and white checked blankets I acquire, only one of them will be suitable for printing as a whole blanket.  This time the printing stage has gone well, fingers crossed the ink curing stage goes well too.

The Finished Print

Here it is the finished print, all the way from a doodle to an amazing block and a beautiful print.  I am really please with the results.  I have printed on an organic cotton duck, quite a heavy weight.  I would like suggestions as to what I could use it for, what do you think?

Bad Habit or Good Habit

 I have to put my hands up to a small habit of mine, that some people find niggling. Yes, I am a doodler.  I doodle when I am on the phone, waiting in queues, well really just anywhere at all.  I used to get in trouble at school for doodling.  For me its a way of concentrating, if I am doodling I am listening.  If I am not doodling my brain will have wandered off somewhere else.  The doodle above was done in a meeting at work.  I asked Peter if he would make a wooden printing block for me, and two weeks later here it is.

 Below is the first test print before the final tidy up.  Its just how I imagined it would be, can't wait to try printing with it tomorrow.

A brief look beind the scenes

I thought you might like to see what we get up to behind the scenes.

Peter carving a new block

Piles of organic fabric waiting to be printed

Some well used blocks ready to be used again

The mess I make when mixing my printing colours

Nicola printing

Printing butterflies on a vintage blanket

Printing hanging up to dry, the house is usually full of drying fabrics on printing days.

I have left out me standing ironing, fixing the prints, for hours and hours, I am sure you all know what that looks like. 

More Number Cushions

 I have been working on the sets of vintage wool blanket number cushions this weekend.  I originally did them as house number cushions, but Peter pointed out that they would work well for birthdays and anniversaries too.  They are available in my Felt shop now.