…stitching

May 22nd, 2013 1 Comment
Posted in: Made by hand

You may have noticed … I have not been here … I have been doing this instead …

Large button shoulder bag

Large button shoulder bag

Reversible Shoulder Bag

Reversible Shoulder Bag

Cross body bags

Stitching up a range of hand made bags ~ working with the beautiful ‘stamped’ fabric by Ellen Luckett Baker ~ detailing with vintage buttons ~ lining with reclaimed and vintage fabrics ~ surrounding myself in the process.

Most of these beauties have now been posted to Church Street Gallery in Saffron Walden, in Essex, and will be available there in the very near future!

Three of the cross body bags are still with me, and will be appearing in my shop very soon … first I have to take some more photos!

The process of planning and producing a ‘range’ of bags has been full of learning and has also given me lots of time at the sewing machine to ponder the process of becoming a ‘maker’. It is just eight months since I launched the lemon loves shop … and every step has been about testing and learning … testing and learning in terms of my skills, my creativity, the market place, the production process, my mindset, materials, pricing, marketing … the list goes on.

The pondering has led to an idea around a series of blog posts to explore and celebrate the whole process. And maybe in June … or even July … I hope to get time to start putting my thoughts into words.

Watch this space.

And thank you for reading!

 

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… feel good friday :)

May 3rd, 2013 4 Comments
Posted in: Made by hand, Out and About

This is the post I prepared to upload last Friday ~ before our wifi started to misbehave ~ we now have a new router … it is sitting in it’s box in the dining room! It has been a busy busy week for both Mr P and me, and the window of opportunity to swap the routers is yet to present itself … so I am hoping the dodgy one allows enough cyber waves to reach my remote laptop so that I can finally get this post to you!

It has been a little while, and here are some of the places I have been since I was last here …

~ at the sewing machine ~

cross body bag prototype

vintage fabric bins

~ walking the land ~

cropped field

woodland lane

~ at the flower stall ~

white tulips

white tulip

I have some fabric baskets in the shop, some have sold already …

I have stitched up a prototype cross body bag which looks fab …

I have an heard from another gallery who wish to have some of my bags and baskets …

I have made an apron by special request … and have been pacing the floor awaiting the delivery of cotton webbing tape to make ties for said apron …

I have been pulling fabric off the shelves and mixing and matching it for new stitchy projects …

Yes, I have been busy … and it is all good … until, following a delightful wedding last Friday I suddenly found myself exhausted … you know, flaked out, wiped out, fit to drop, pooped!

And so I stopped, and realised that it was the first time I had stopped since the beginning of April … I had been ticking off day after April day without stopping. And I noticed that in trying to set up a business from home it is very easy to never take a day off. And so I switched off the computer, put away the sewing machine and took myself for a walk – that walk up above down the beautiful woodland lane … an old favourite of a walk … which ended with a cold cider in a pub garden, because it was probably the first day this year that it has been warm enough for a pub garden. And it was glorious.

Perhaps I will do the same this weekend!

Wishing you a restful and renewing weekend, whatever you may find yourself doing!

 

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… two happy things

Apr 9th, 2013 4 Comments
Posted in: Made by hand, News

Happy thing one:

~ you can find a little bitty about lemon loves at the Response Exhibition over on the Arteria Shop blog … I am very excited about this … it all feels unreal and really very real at the same time, and it makes me smile!

lemon loves at Gallery 23

Happy thing two:

~ I have finally finally finally finished the four bags I have been working on … it feels like it has taken me forever, but then I had to remind myself that the whole ‘design and make a new bag’ project was put on hold by the ‘make four bags and fifteen baskets for the Response Exhibition’ project … and so, with that in mind, I’ve actually done quite well! And here is a little sneaky peek …

Vintage buttons on lemon loves bags

… I’m hoping to photograph them properly at the weekend, and if all goes to plan these will be in the shop next week!  Yee~ha!

 

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… feel good friday :)

Mar 22nd, 2013 3 Comments
Posted in: Home Life, Made by hand

Taking a moment to gather up the weekly goodness and shine a light on it …

… one of my highlights this week has been the process of drawing, planning and stitching up a new bag design for my shop! I wanted to make something larger, with a more defined shape, and with a focus on the detail …

~ combining new and vintage fabrics ~

vintage button detail

~ detailing with vintage buttons ~

Vintage button detail

~ stitching strength and beauty into the strap ~

strap detail - new bag

~ colour, shape and functionality ~

prototype bag

… this is the prototype ~ a tester to see how it would come together ~ and I am pleased with it, only a couple of minor tweaks needed! I used some fabric which was left over from my recent basket making marathon …

… but I have some gorgeous new fabrics lined up, which compliment some of my vintage prints and reclaimed linens beautifully … here’s a little peek …

new fabric

… it is a linen and cotton mix, and has a beautiful weight to it … I have already started cutting it (deep breaths were required) and I can’t wait to get stitching!

Other highlights of the week include …

~ an MOT pass for my car ~

~ my favourite wine on special offer ~

~ blossom braving the cold chill of our Spring ~

~ my baby brother turning 40 (how did that happen!) ~

~ the cuddliness of Tillie ~

Tillie

Wishing you all a joy~filled weekend.

 

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… Lancashire

Mar 18th, 2013 2 Comments
Posted in: Made by hand, Out and About

Last week we took a little trip up the M6 to the lovely town of Lancaster ~ to deliver a freshly stitched batch of baskets to Gallery 23, the exhibition space above the wonderful Arteria, a shop full of gorgeousness if ever there was one!

fabric baskets

fabric baskets

fabric baskets

I was a little anxious ~ never having done anything like this before, and still feeling very much like a learner in the whole ‘making things’ world ~ but I was welcomed so enthusiastically that all my fears fell away (thank you to Sharon). These and other baskets, and a few of my bags are now awaiting the Exhibition launch on Wednesday evening …

Response exhibition

… how exciting is that!

Whilst in Lancashire, we took some time to explore and this is what we found …

… a peaceful, mirror-like canal, home to swans, moorhens, ducks, grebes and narrow boats …

Canal at Conder Green

Swan at Conder Green

… far-reaching views of the mountains of Cumbria from Morcambe …

View to Cumbria from Morcambe

… the beauty of light over the Lune estuary, fading sunlight, crisp air, the evening call of wading birds, the distant baaing of lambs …

lighthouse at the Lune Estuary

… the glory of a sunset at Conder Green …

sunset at Conder Green

… a beautiful two days indeed!

 

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… a catch-up!

Mar 8th, 2013 1 Comment
Posted in: Home Life, Made by hand

Well, you know it has a while since you last checked into your blog, when you find 650 comments in the ‘spam’ folder! Wow, thank you, blog builders, for inventing spam filters!

Yes, it has been a while, and here is a little peek of the good things that have been keeping me busy …

… some fabric shopping …

new fabric

… I found this little bundle of prettiness in a local antique centre, although these all seem to be pretty modern and unused to me, they were certainly a bargain!

I have also been busy at the sewing machine, stitching up a little mountain of fabric baskets …

Fabric baskets

… fifteen of which will be winging their way up the M6 to a lovely gallery where they will be part of an exhibition running from March through to June … more about that in the next week or so!

And in stitching up a little mountain of baskets, I found myself with a growing pile of scrappy squares, which were cut from each basket to make the pattern … and not being one to throw fabric away … I found myself stitching the little scrappy squares into strips …

Patchwork strips

… which look a bit like this …

Patchwork strips

… I am so in love with the whole mustard – teal – grey combo at the moment, these just make my heart sing! I’m not sure yet what they will become, but the combinations of vintage and modern, textures and patterns mean they won’t be sitting in the ‘to do’ pile for too long!

Any ideas?

I have also been lucky enough to have the time to enjoy our local annual film festival …

Blackmail by Alfred Hitchcock

… especially exciting for me, was viewing Blackmail, a silent film made by Alfred Hitchcock in 1929, which was screened with a live Piano Accompaniment by Stephen Horne … it was full of all the melodramatic glances, and staged poses, held for the camera which silent films are known for, but to have the pianist sitting just metres away, improvising the musical score as he viewed the film, and even throwing in a bit of flute playing for the mournful bits, was wonderful!

Before I leave you, I just want to share a warm welcome with my newest subscribers, thank you for joining this little corner of cyberland … I do usually blog every week, and am very happy to have you here … my recent absence is a mere hiccup.

 

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. And a very Happy Mothers’ Day to all the British Mommas reading.

 

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