Wednesday, May 29, 2013

my day :: custom printing :: suzy bags

A few of you may already have seen these market bags around the place :: they are a collaboration between Yardage Design and Suzy Hausfrau Yarn Store. The design is based on my tram roll menu, but with knitter words and abreviations I know nothing about! Anyway, today I printed the second run of these for Renae, and thought I would snap some pics along the way ...


Each printing job is different :: it is changed by the climate, the screen, the squeegee and the ink. In this particular case, the combination of the design (lots of block colour as well as fine details) and the consistency of the ink make it a little tricky. This one needs two very swift passes at just the right pressure to get it right.


It also takes time to change the bags over between printing, so the screen must be flooded every time to avoid drying out or clogging, and misprints. I hate misprints (even though they are inevitable some days)!


This job has also been interesting as I had to make the ink match a particular Pantone colour ~ 246 to be exact. I tend to mix by eye normally, but this colour (a purpley pink) was tricky and the pantone formula didn't quite do it, so we ended up with a 246 "tweek" which is so pretty and works really well with the design (hard to see in this pic due to the light).


So there you have it ~ a sea of drying bags, ready to be heatset and posted to Renae; and, a peek into my day. If you like these, they are available to buy here!




Monday, May 27, 2013

weekend :: making

We've just had a lovely weekend. Nothing special at all, just a good, homey weekend. It's been a very busy and sometimes stressful month, and we all needed to recharge and get our equilibriums back. There was baking and roasting, playing tennis, cafe and market visiting but really just a whole lot of relax time. I wanted to make some things for some special people too, and Little Mister Yardage was my willing assistant ...


We made some beads together using some oven dry clay (Sculpey). It was so much fun mixing colours together and making some very "on trend" necklaces to be gifted. I can see why so many people like making these! Great kid craft too.


I also printed some little tops to go with the beads. We chose my "kissing birds" design, which for those in the know is actually my fabric 'stash design, but who cares ~ they can be kissing birds or pretty moustaches! Today these little goodies go in the post.

The week ahead is also a busy one, but at least we feel rested and ready for it. Wishing you all a productive and fun week!


Monday, May 20, 2013

new :: windows market bag

My new design, windows, is making its debut this week as a super handy market bag ...


This design was inspired by pretty simple leadlight window I saw a while ago that featured ovals. I started with some simple shapes, and kept adding! Red ink was the obvious choice!


I'm seriously thinking of also printing this as fabric panels ... yes? In the mean time, you can snap up a Windows Market Bag in the Yardage Design online shop.

Happy Monday everyone!




Saturday, May 11, 2013

{first quilt of the year} isla

If you follow Yardage Design on instagram or facebook, you will know that over the past week I have been making a quilt for a new baby girl, Isla, who was born on my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I raided the stash and printed a few of my designs in custom colours to match, and ended up with a bright, fun, interesting quilt for tummy time ...


My starting point was the Juicy Jungle print (by Alexander Henry) that I've had for ages ~ I used the colours in these cute little animals to guide the other fabric choices, including: red ABC panel by Aunty Cookie; green Laundry Birds by Pippijoe; olive Elephants by Umbrella Prints; grape Fan by Yardage Design (this colourway is not in my shop, but email me if you would like me to print it for you) along with some custom printed gold Circa and Freckle; and finally, a few spotty fabrics and a floral from (where else) Spotlight!


I ended up quilting and binding in hot pink, to add a bit of girlyness, and I also backed it with some pink polka dots ...


A most enjoyable project, and I hope the new parents (and baby Isla) like it.

Have a great weekend!


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

tea + towel


{available here}

Have a lovely Wednesday!


Saturday, May 4, 2013

yesterday + sew and go patchwork

Friday's are usually printing days for me, but yesterday I really needed to take some photographs of my products (including some new ones, coming soon!), which took up most of the day. In amongst all of this, I found the patchwork quilt I made last year for my studio door at the convent, so I photographed it as well ...


This quilt has a lot of sentimental value, so I'm thinking about making it bigger. Maybe big enough for our bed? I'm also thinking I might cut a few extra squares, package them up and pop them in the shop ~ what do you think? Sew and go!

Have a great weekend everyone!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

sunny + pea

I've been printing some new colourways for my "Fan" fabric. I was looking for some fresh zingy colours, so I went for sunny yellow and pea green ( both on off-white organic cotton hemp) ...

 There was also some faffing about a bit with some star fruit styling ~ as you do!


Both of these new colourways are now in the shop, and "Sevilla" in red is also back in stock incase you fancy making a gorgeous cushion like Beky did!