Original Book Illustration Exhibition

If you live within reach of Harrogate and you love original book illustration you may be interested to know that Books Illustrated will be exhibiting there on the 13th to the 15th of June. Books Illustrated Ltd. are specialist dealers in original book illustration with prices ranging from £50 to £50,000. You can view beautiful art by contemporary illustrators, including the breathtaking work of Peter Malone (shown above, top is an illustration called Rappacinis Daughter) and many other talented individuals, alongside classic illustrators such as Arthur Rackham (see above, second illustration down) and if you are very lucky, maybe even an original Kate Greenaway. For details of the exhibition, please visit the Books Illustrated Ltd. website.

Queen of the May

I love this month best of all, the hawthorn in blossom, pink campion, birds building nests and everywhere green, green upon green, fresh and unspoilt. It is also a month when I think of my sister; today would have been her birthday. When she was little she was crowned Queen of the May, I wonder if anyone does that anymore?

Two Holly Trees

Two Holly Trees is the name of my Cafe Press shop which I upgraded to a Premium shop earlier this year. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Cafe Press, it is a print on demand design service. You can choose to make the products available to yourself or you can open a shop on their site. The advantage is that they handle all printing, shipping, payments etc. The disadvantage is that unless you order the products yourself it is impossible to check the quality. Having said that, I have been pleasantly surprised with the products that I have seen to date. The photographs show a ceramic coaster tile and a note card.

An A to Z of flora by Valerie Greeley

I have spent a great deal of time over the last few years, trying to learn many new skills and have turned into something of a course junky. So far I have had classes on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Desk top publishing, not to mention the numerous classes and workshops on bookbinding. The grand plan behind all of this frenzied activity was enable me to produce my own books all be it in very small quantities. After many failed attempts I have finally produced one that I am pleased enough to offer for sale! This miniature book is printed on Bockingford paper and measures three inches by two inches. I have had great fun making it and hope to do more as time allows. You can read more about this book if you visit my Etsy shop.

Quilting project book.

Sarah Wellfair, from Goose Chase Quilting, has sent me a copy of her new book called SIMPLY CHRISTMAS.  It contains, not surprisingly, Christmas projects for making bags and gifts! Sarah has used a collection of fabrics to make her creations, my favorite being a drawer string bag using my Christmas teddies from Makower.

Note Books

I have been making little note books by hand, printing the designs on my computer printer.

Hedgerow Collection

Some time ago I created a collection of Hedgerow inspired designs for Makower UK

The fabric collection is aimed at crafters and quilters and features images of owls, frogs, hedgehogs and mice alongside fruits, flowers and leaves.

It is always lovely to see how many different uses people make of these fabrics. Imagine my delight therefore, to receive a gift all the way from a crafter in Maine. TKR Designs make use of these three inch square "label" designs by sewing them into Balsam Sachets. They say that the Balsam Fir tree grows in Maine and the trimmings from the tree are used to make scented wreaths. They have a wonderful clean, fresh scent: I have hung mine on a drawer handle, as it is far too pretty to hide in a drawer! You can buy these hand made sachets from their on-line shop at Etsy.com

Creating a banner

What a lot there is to learn when one creates a blog? How to choose a banner, how to edit the graphics? My head is in a spin! This one looks very Autumnal, I suppose I should have thought about that earlier, but not to worry at least I have done something constructive today.