New Festive Fabrics

New Festive Fabricshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phatsheeptextiles/5104727583/, originally uploaded by Phatsheep Textiles.

The cotton with my latest print designs arrived a few days ago and I'm really pleased with how they look.....now I just have to think of what I'm going to make with them!
Also they are now available for sale at Spoonflower along with a number of my other designs. Lately I've not had time to list fabrics on my Etsy site so I made the decision to make them available on Spoonflower for the meantime, it takes the pressure off me keeping my Etsy store stocked up but it means people can still buy the fabrics.

I had a great time at the knitting and Stitching show and I'll post about that soon once I edit my pics.

What I've been doing instead of Blogging

Hello

Another long blogging gap, once again life and work have got in the way of blogging and I have to admit I have kind of got out of the habit of posting here. Hopefully I'll get back into the habit and be more frequent with my posting again soon.

I did make some clothes for the boys during kids clothes week, photos of which I will take shortly and post up here and in the Flickr Group, some of the items were more successful than others The T-shirt with lots of cute details that was just too small to fit over baby A's head (no matter how hard I tried) was one of the less successful ones!

I have finally got my trade prices, terms and conditions sorted, got my products photographed and put together a trade catalogue, which I'm really pleased with.

And Lastly I've been really busy with the North Rock Gallery business and am excited to say that we have launched our new website complete with online shopping facility today, so please go and have a browse and tell your friends its there and we ship worldwide.

I will be back with some more Phatsheep news and pics shortly.

S

New Edition of Sew Hip Mag features PhatSheep Interview!

Wow, this is a big bit exciting and a little bit scary!

I was interviewed by Kerrie Allman a month or so ago and had kind of fogotten about it, but when I got the new edition of Sew Hip magazine there was my interview and huge pic pic of me and the boy! Good grief it's a bit scary to see such a big pic (or any pic for that matter) of yourself in print in a proper posh mag that people pay money for! I hope that what I have to say is a bit interesting to people!? Anyway there are lots of other great patterns and articles in the magazine too.

Oh and there is a whole lot more fabrics listed in the Etsy shop now, go check them out!

Photoshoot

Yesterday was spent doing a photoshoot of new products, I'm currently working on an update and re-design of the phatsheep website, its nearly there now I have new photos so I hope to be able to launch the new site within the next fortnight - I've set myself a public deadline now so I'll have to finish it!

Can you spot the little hand reaching for the orange campervan, somebody got a bit fed up I was using his toys for props!

p.s Swatch packs of the new fabrics available for sale in the phatsheep fabrics etsy shop, I think they'd be great for small craft projects.

What happened to summer!?!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24780416@N06/2653694888/, originally uploaded by Phatsheep Textiles.

Over the Midsummer weekend PhatSheep Textiles and PhatSheep Photography had a stall in the craft area of the Flavour of Shetland Event - a major outdoor event showcasing some of the very best food, drink, music, craft and culture Shetland has to offer.

This is an annual event I always look forward to as its a great opportunity to sell direct to customers, sit outdoors in the sunshine, listen to some great local musicians and catch up with friends.

Except this year it rained and rained and rained........

The weekend was mostly spent in waterproofs having endless hot drinks to keep warm! Thankfully, despite the weather, people still turned up enjoyed the event and sales were still good. So a worthwhile weekend, but fingers (and toes) crossed that the sun shines next year!

Quick update....

Its been too long between posts again, as always I've been busy, so here is a quick update:

My new fabrics came yipee!:


Cotton



Linen

I've just completed an order and sent it off to Kirsteen Stewart in Orkney who is having a shop in Kirkwall over the summer months, heres a selection of items I sent off to her:


Shopper bags, Tea-Towels, Purses and Aprons

Its the first time I've used my new packaging and I think it's a big improvement, here is a close up, please ignore the fact that the tea-towels need ironing (oops)




I've sent off a package of goodies to Amy at Pikaland as I'm participating in the July Pikapackage, no pics of that though, you'll have to wait till Amy posts it up first! To learn about Project Pikapackage click here, its a great idea and I'm sure it will keep growing in popularity.

I've just posted off this tea-towel to the Nicholas Gallery in Cincinnati, USA, Its going to be part of the 'Mad Tea(Towel) Party' exhibition running there this summer:





And Now I'm busily making stock for the local Flavour of Shetland event next weekend, we will have a craft stall for 4 days, hope it's nice weather! I'm looking forward to it as it will be the first outing for many of my new designs and my new Birds print so it will be good to get feedback and learn what sells.

I'm looking forward to July when I hope to take some time off and enjoy the summer. I've signed up for a summer sac swap with pixiewinkle over at My Cosmopolitan Diary. I have to make a sac and fill it with bits and pieces from our summer travels and/or where we live so it is a good excuse to get out and explore Shetland a bit more and hopefully some of Scotland too!

News Update

Ooops another long time between posts,hope everybody had a lovely Easter, its been busy here again but thats no excuse!

I've been busy working on some new bag and purse designs:

Linen Coin Purse made with some lovely new linen I've managed to buy and some Fabric Scraps, I like the shape and wil try it again with some PhatSheep Fabric soon.

Completely new bag design again using the new linen and some cute Alexander Henry Fabric I bought from America, I've put this for sale in the Etsy shop, was very tempted to keep it for myself though:)

New shape and size of Linen tote with PhatSheep Fair Isle Jumper Print Fabric panel, the bag is squarer than the previous shopper bag design with longer handles and an inside pocket to fit a mobile phone. I've put this one up in the Etsy shop today and I'll be making more of them in both this Fair Isle Jumper design and the Croft design over the next few weeks.

Also I've been playing around on the sewing machine and these are some of the new applique designs I've been experimenting with:

For a pencil case


Mug of Tea

Boat


Seagull and Oyster Catcher


Thats all for just now but I promise I won't leave it a month before I post again!

Cool Competition

My partner Mark has his own photography business and a great online shop where you can buy a huge range of prints of our native Shetland, UK and beyond. He's just launched a competition where you can win a 16 x 20 inch mounted print of any photo that appears on his website. I think its a great idea so go on have a look at his website here and enter the competition here - you might win a lovely picture for your wall:)

Also I completed my mobile for the Elsie Marley Mobile swap last week, I decided to make my mobile from card, a change from fabric and it was good fun experimenting, in the end I went for quite a simple design, here are some pictures ( not very good quality are they).

I really hope it gets to its recipient in one piece, I wrapped it up in a box with lots of bubble wrap but I'm still a bit worried!

I've just been looking at the pics everybody taking part has uploaded of their mobile creations to the Mobile Swap Flickr Group, well worth a look they are all great and really different. Its been a fun swap to be part of and I can't wait till my mobile arrives.

New Product Shots

We've been busy busy busy making up stock for trade orders and also for the Christmas Craft Fairs over the past few weeks. I finally got organised to have some product shots taken so I thought I would post up a couple of pics - I think they look quite good?

I will have to get organised and get them up on the website so people can actually buy them!