Strawberry Pin

A freshly picked pin straight from the ripe fields of the local thrift store...on William Morris' Strawberry Thief, naturally. 

Strawberry Mug

I recently found this cheery mug at the local thrift store for $2. More strawberry kitchen goodness!

Strawberry Shirts Forever

As per June tradition, the strawberries outside are flowering and I'm working on various strawberry themed creative projects. Here's a dress from Joe Fresh I found at a thrift store, shown partially deconstructed. I already own it in blue, so I decided to turn this pink version into a shirt. It will likely be a peplum crop top with puffy sleeves. I wish I knew the name of the surface pattern designer, as it is the fabric I love. It's like a fusion of my Strawberry Blonde and Splashy in Watermelon! Thank you, anonymous creative!

June Bulletin 2019

Summer bliss, strawberries, and curb appeal

Grandma's Strawberries

As I mentioned, my grandma, a painter, was a big fan of strawberries. These are some of her personal projects. The strawberry pendant has a twin--it used to be a pair of earrings she wore often. The strawberry pin is actually from my great grandma, so really we're spanning 5 generations of strawberry adoration!

Berried Treasure

My latest Value Village find: The Strawberry Tin, a.k.a the one that didn't get away!

I originally fell in love with this tin back in 2015, when I snapped this photo of it an an antique store on Île d'Orléans! (You can see the store in the photos of my Québec City adventure!) Alas I put it back on the shelf at that time, but it found its way back into my life, and the one I have now is actually in better shape than the first one I saw three years ago. Oh how I love circular thrifting moments such as this...a little humour for patience.

Strawberry Stuff

This is a pile of 3 generations' worth of strawberry themed goodness. My grandma's signature icon was a strawberry (she was a painter and had a strawberry on her business card), my mom has followed suit in collecting strawberry themed items, and I am also in love with the cheery summer fruit! 

This is one of those fluke enduring cheer paintings...I painted it on a whim in an afternoon in 2009 and it still makes me smile. It shall be the new heirloom. Keep your eyes peeled for more strawberry stories...

June Bulletin 2018

Strawberries, sightseeing, and sweet summer fun!

Tea Towels

I've been on a tea towel making rampage! I ordered a bunch of fat quarters from my shop in Linen Cotton Canvas Ultra and then sewed the edges with mitered corners. The designs pictured are Fresh Berry, Cobalt Craze, Delft Tea, Union, Cabbage, Turkish Tile, and Bubblegum Calico. How perfect with these dishes!

New to Shop: Pinks and Blues

These new surface pattern designs are now available for sale in my shop as fabric, wallpaper, gift wrap, cut-and-sew patterns, and homewares. Here's Turkish Tile

Cabbage

Fresh Berry

Bubblegum Calico

Horizon

McCoy Strawberry Cookie Jar

I found this 1950s McCoy strawberry cookie jar #263 for $15 at a local thrift store! It is 9" wide by 11" tall of glossy red cheer! Guess what's going to be in my kitchen forever?

4th Blogiversary!

Appliances, fruit, flowers, linen, and silk are 4th anniversary gifts, so here are two new surface pattern designs celebrating those items! They are available in my shop as fabric (linen and silk are options of course), wallpaper, gift wrap (party time), cut-and-sew patterns, and homewares. I give you Smeg

and Strawberry Blonde. Thanks a bunch for 4 years of readership, and here's to the next years of creativity!

Sweet Vignette

A snapshot of a display on my shelf--I'm loving fruit and clear, splashy colour. If you get the "Go to England--make her smile" reference, you make me smile.

Fruity Floral Shirt

When I was a toddler I had a pair of lime green shorts covered in a cheery fruit print. They met their demise when I dropped an ice cream bar on them. Death by chocolate. I was more devastated over the loss of that beautiful fabric than the ice cream, and ever since I have adored fruit print clothing. In the fragrant sea of berries, melons, and roses that is July, my wardrobe looked like it could use some of that fruity loveliness.

So I started with this coral t-shirt.

I painted it with acrylic paint.

I absent mindedly started painting the reference rose while waiting for the shirt to dry...

And here is the final product!

Tigerprint Floral Wrap Patterns

Considering my obsession with flowers, it's hard to imagine a better theme for my first entry to the Tigerprint Design Competition. This month's challenge is to create a floral design for wrapping paper, and the winning entry may be used for Marks and Spencer goods. Here are all the contenders; these are the two florals I entered. Fruity Floral, above, was inspired by a page I saw in a recent Martha Stewart Living magazine, and Piece of Matisse, below, was inspired by the loose style and colors of Henri Matisse's artwork. 

Strawberry Buttons

I painted strawberries on white knit using red and white fabric paint. Then I used a fabric covered button making kit to create these cheery buttons. They are 3/4'' in size.

They will likely get sewn onto a summer garment.

Collared Shirt Repurpose

I had this men's dress shirt kickin' around and decided to experiment with it.

I whacked off the sleeves, picked out the pocket, took in the side seams, hemmed the bottom edge, and finished the sleeves with bias tape.

I was originally going to leave the white collar on the shirt, but its sharp points looked too severe against my face. I opted for a peter pan collar in a calico instead.

Then I stumbled upon a fat quarter of this gorgeous fabric (yes, fruit and polka-dots!) and knew it would be perfect for the embellishment.

And here's the result!

Bike Picnic

After making this Spoonflower fabric Bike Picnic for the weekly contest, I looked up related pictures on Pinterest. The following are just so beautiful I had to share:



This is from Country Living Magazine.

Audrey Hepburn!