Tree Fall

light and dark

 

I was sure that green was going to be the over riding colour in both my home and my work this summer. But somehow grey, and yellow (with a touch of blue) have taken over in both the fabrics I'm buying and the rooms that I'm (finally) decorating.
After a few years of feeling that our front room was little more than a repository for an increasingly large amount of toys and that Jim and I were suffering from the lack of somewhere comfortable and grown up to relax in, I have finally (well, you know, almost) finished it.
The sofa was originally cream, which was fine in the pre-child days but was looking very much the worse for wear, so I dyed it and it's given it a completely new lease of life and made it far more practical. I've never dyed anything so big before. Back in the day I used to tie dye long johns in the microwave (!?) but nothing really since. This was really easy though because the sofa covers are completely removable so I was able to just throw them in the washing machine with a box of Antique Grey Dylon
I also recovered the girl's table in a laminated cotton that I bought from Ikea. I'd really rather not have the table in the room as there just isn't enough space for it, but it's so useful and they both use it every single day, so I just kind of move it around from one spot to the next in the hopes that if it doesn't stay still for too long I won't notice it! And the fact that it's covered in such a great print really does help.

I love these new picture ledges from Ikea, especially as they let me swap the artwork around without knocking yet more nails in to the wall. And they've given this normally annoyingly useless bit of wall (in between the window and the front door) a real focal point. The prints are from Etsy and the plate and tray are both from Habitat. The top print is Snowy Owl by Dee Beale, and looks great with her Shine print (another recent purchase that you can see unframed in the top photo). And the bottom print is the Amidst Routes print by Pearl and Marmalade. The tiny painting is an original by the wonderful artist Anne Davies.

The other change to the house has been that I've painted the stairs and the landing a dark gray. It's one of those internal spaces that suffers from no natural light and awkward angles, so I've struggled with the best way of decorating it ever since we moved in.
In an attempt to embrace the lack of light I decided to just go with a dark colour, since painting it white (or cream or magnolia or whatever)  has just left it feeling boring and lifeless.

 

For the first few days Jim and I could both be heard muttering "it's so dark" every time we walked up the stairs, but I have to say that I really love it now and that it's given the hall an identity that it didn't possess before.  The only down side is that I hate the way it looks when the girls bedroom door is open (at the top of the stairs) and you can see the shade of pink on their walls. Soooo, I'm going to paint the girls room a slightly lighter shade of pink. Which is not quite as crazy as it sounds when you take in to account the fact that my youngest daughter has been systematically stripping the wallpaper next to her cot, so I'm going to need to redecorate half the room anyway. Which is good, because I wouldn't want there to be a chance of actually finishing a room in the house!

And the winner is.....

The first winning comment chosen by the Random Number Generator is.....

"What wonderful fabric, the colours are so vibrant. The blue pack is simply stunning but I love the pink and purple pack too. Please please please pick me."

Posted by: Katie | May 12, 2009 at 06:23 AM

The second winning comment is....

"those fabrics are beautiful!"

Posted by: Sandy | May 13, 2009 at 01:22 PM

And the third and final winning comment is...

"oh these are just lovely fabrics - thanks for the giveaway!"

Posted by: Caroline | May 12, 2009 at 01:47 AM

 

Congratulations Katie, Sandy and Caroline! Email me your addresses and I'll get a fat quarter pack out to each of you.

And as much as I don't want to tell you this, because I want to keep them for myself, I still have another few packs to give away another week. So if you didn't win, you're still in with a chance.

Sea Sew by Lisa Hannigan

** Edited to add that ATO Records (thanks Court!)  have been kind enough to let me have a couple of packs of Lisa's great badges/buttons to give away, so since it's obviously give away week on TreeFall, leave a comment and I'll pick a couple of winners next week **

When I was contacted last month by Lisa Hannigan's record company ATO, I was very excited. I've been a fan of Damian Rice for a long time and was therefore already a fan of Lisa's work, due to their previous 7 year long collaboration. So I was quite comfortable about being asked to have a listen to her latest album, Sea Sew and seeing if I would like to share it with you all here on TreeFall.

Lisa Hannigan is an Irish singer, songwriter, who has had much success and critical praise. At the moment (but not for much longer) she is best known for having accompanied the highly successful singer-songwriter Damien Rice. However, after seven years of working with Rice she was brutally fired just as she was about to go on stage with him at a gig in Germany
The firing, whilst shocking had the extremely positive side effect of giving Lisa the time she needed to write her beautiful new album Sea Sew. The result of which is both wonderfully haunting and melodic and has fast become my favorite drive to, cook to and relax to music (Lily's particularly keen on it too!).
Of course it might seem a little odd for me to be sharing a music cd with you on a craft blog, but Lisa not only writes great songs and sings beautifully, she also sews and cooks and has found a ingenious way of intermingling her love of craft with her love of music.
Lisa's mother Frances began knitting in preparation for the cover artwork whilst the album was being mixed, creating the back drop for Lisa to embroider and applique badge like pieces of linen and cotton on to (as well as becoming the wallpaper on Lisa website). Lisa then went on to hand embroider her entire albums lyrics on to rough cotton, picking out the frequent references to the sea as illustrations, and then using it as the art work for her cd. Which is just so cool.

Lisa's love for paper and textiles is also evident in her videos, with the video for  “I don’t know”, featuring an entire landscape made from paper cutouts and her second video, “Lille”, features an amazing handmade pop-up book that illustrates the song.
All of this combines to make for a beautifully sung, and beautifully illustrated album that is going to be on my favourites list for a long time.
If you want to read Lisa's blog you can find it here and if you want to find out more you can find her website here. And thanks to ATO records you can also download a free mp3 of 'Lille' from here (no sign ups or anything, don't worry).
I truly love everything about this album, so much so that today I'm actually wearing a Lisa Hannigan badge! Well how could I resist, it's yellow and looks just like a button!

*Edited to add that you can see Lisa's vid "Lille" over on the Meet Me at Mikes blog*

* Thanks to everyone that commented on the Prints Charming post. Comments have now closed and I'll be picking the lucky winners on Wednesday*

A Charming Giveaway

These are exciting times for crafters and designers, especially when it comes to textiles and print. With the emergence of sites like Spoonflower and the even newer Fabric on Demand, designing and working with your own fabrics is becoming more and more achieveable. Which in turn is leading to a wonderful wealth of new independant textile designers, selling beautiful, original prints through their websites andof course Etsy.
Two of my favourite independant designers are Cath and Kirsten of Prints Charming, who spend their time screen printing the most amazing designs on to fabric and then making beautiful quilts, clothes and accessories out of them. And if you're lucky enough to live near their Annandale studio in Australia, you can not only experience their work first hand but also take one of their classes and have the pleasure of designing, printing and sewing with your very own fabrics.

Of course Cath and Kirsten don't only print their own fabrics, as they made the cross over in to the mass market a couple of years ago and through Marcus Bros have recently launched their latest collection of beautiful fabrics called Rainbow Garden. Which means that if like me, you aren't able to pop over to Autralia to take a lesson (oh how I wish!!!), you can still have the pleasure of enjoying their wonderful designs and using some of their super soft cotton poplin.
As Cath told me,  Rainbow Garden "was conceived through us as children of 70's mothers, who made amazing kaftans and always read us Dr. Seuss. It has that fun fresh feel and is again printed on the soft polished poplin"

 

I was extremely excited when Cath and Kirsten sent me samples of Rainbow Garden and am absolutely in love with it all. It's great to see their Starburst design available in even more colourways as well as the hugely popular Bubble print. But it's also great to see that they've once again tapped in to the need for modern, cool boys fabrics with their Trees and Cars print.
Another definite favourite is Baby Paisley. I've used the taupe colourway to line a new purse and love it combined with the chartreuse laminated cotton that I chose for the outer (I'm going to come back with details about the purse properly another day).
The great thing about Prints Charming fabric is that the softness means that it's perfect for clothing as well as quilting which is why a large number of Bella's dresses and quilts have been made using previous collections. In fact, the first dress that I made for Lily was made using Prints Charming fabric because I knew it was perfect for a new born. It really is softer than any other cotton I use.
But you don't have to take my word for it, because I'm going to be giving away the fat quarter packs below, starting with the one on the left which includes Baby Paisley in taupe.

So if you would like the chance to win a pack of three fat quarters (each pack has three fat quarters in it) then all you have to do is leave me a comment, telling me how much you'd like to get your mitts on it. I'll be leaving the comments open until the end of the week, when I'll use the random number generator to pick the winner.
And don't worry, I'll be giving away the other packs too as well as giving you more info where you can buy yardage from - just watch this space!

Distractions

 

We're (and by that I mean I'm ) still recovering around here, which means that my poor, hard done by children haven't left the house properly for 3 days!
I had hoped to get out today but didn't manage it, so instead I had to try and come up with ways to fill our time without me actually having to get. off. the. sofa!! Which pretty much meant rotating the toys every hour or so, with each rotation being punctuated by both girls piling on top of me and jumping up and down. Apparently cries of "I'm not welllllllllll" just aren't cutting it any more.
One of the quick and easy ways that I distracted Bella briefly (so that I could photograph their room) was to get her to help draw a big picture on her wardrobe doors.
I originally built this wardrobe when the room was my studio, and had painted the plain MDF doors with chalkboard paint, so that I could use them as a noticeboard. In fact it was a double set of wardrobes back then and when we changed rooms over I decided to keep this one so that the girls could have a nice big chalkboard to scribble on.

The paint is magnetic as well and Bella usually uses it to display her pictures - the love hearts that you can see are actually magnets - as well as practicing her name and other letters. But for some reason we've never really used it to draw together, until today.
I was surprised by how enthusiastic Bella was about doing this because although she draws and colours constantly, she hasn't been hugely bothered about the chalkboard before. But this really made her happy. So much so that she felt compelled to 'write' me a letter thanking me for doing it (she loves to write letters and lists!).

Is it just me, or is there no way she looks just four years old in that pic??

On a different, but very exciting (for me) note, did you see that Apartment Therapy featured my studio today?? It made me feel a bit shy for some reason!

And on yet another different, but very exciting (for you) note, I really, really will be giving away fabric this week!

Silver lining

I've spent the majority of the last few days on the sofa with an awful throat infection. It's been one of those illnesses that kind of sneaks up on you and then knocks you sideways and has led to two visits to the doctors in as many days and mega, mega doses of antibiotics and painkillers. It's not been fun but it has been useful.
Because whilst I've been too ill to sit at the sewing machine (or look after my children for that matter), I have appreciated the distraction of the lap top and have not only learnt to Tweet (really like Twitter now that I get it) but have also had the time to make some headway into the huge pile of emails that have needed my attention. And as an added bonus I've actually managed to also fill the shop for the first time in months.
The new stock includes my new (to Etsy) Buggy Blankets as well some new cushions and Bunnies and playmats in the new summer colour ways.  The Buggy Blankets (listed as Stroller Blankets because it's still a predominantly US site) are one of my favourite items, because they evolved out of a personal need rather than a commercial one.

I made my first one of these back in January last year, before Lily was born, because I didn't have a small blanket that was warm and cuddly enough, and yet light weight, that wasn't a fleece. I wanted something that looked beautiful but was completely practical as well, so (inspired by the stocking that I made for Bella the year before - there's a connecting thread that runs through all of this) I came up with the Buggy Blanket.
It's just the right size for the baby car seat, the buggy or the crib and is both machine washable and can be tumble dried (a must if you ask me) so it can be thrown in a bag and can handle spit up or worse, with no worries at all. Lily's has been used constantly and has been commented on many times and is now being used to wrap dolls in!

I've also listed the new unisex colour way for my playmats. Which were actually the first thing that I ever designed as TreeFall, they were also the first thing that I ever sold, so hold a special place in my heart, as they allowed me to dare to think that maybe I could make a living at this sewing/designing lark.
That said, like the Princess and the Pea sets (oh my goodness, thank you for all your support of those!!) the Playmat has been needing a little update. So whilst I was preparing for BCTF I worked on a couple of new colour ways and came up with two more on top of the standard pinky/red mat and blue mat. One of them is a vintage inspired ultra girly one (but I haven't had time to photograph it, so that's not available yet) and the other is this orange and green colour way meant for boys and girls alike.

This colour way has been rearing it's head a lot around here lately, showing up as bibs and bunnys as well as cushions. And although it's not my normal range of colours I'm getting a real kick out of it. I'm also really pleased that I've designed a playmat that's a lot more unisex, without being boring. And that can (I think) easily be for a boy without being all about blue. It just gives people with boys in particular, a little bit more choice.
There are lots of other new bits and pieces still to come - bibs and cushions in particular - but I think it's going to be a few more days before they get added.

Oh and don't worry, the fabric give away is definitely coming next week, I'll let you know which day as soon as I can!

And I meant to say - did you see the lovely write up Ohdeedoh gave TreeFall and the Princess and the Pea Sets? Thanks so much for that Carrie!!