Wedding Bunting...not for the faint hearted

I normally warn people off wedding bunting as it is invariable underestimated in required length, required time etc.  But how could I quibble when called to arms by one of my earliest icons of crafting prowess, my oldest friend Chloe's mum, Jan Fuller?! 

It was only one flag, mind.

I had a little bit of breathing space this weekend...so how did I fill it, a bit more sewing, what else!?

Chloe is getting married in a few months. The invite popped through the letter box on friday, complete with 2 bunting flags and instructions to get creative! I am always keen, when presented with a crafting challenge, to use up what I have and not have to buy anything new - Jan would surely approve - that is the whole premise of make do and mend is it not?

Most useful kit is at the studio but my quilting kit still resides at home and with it, a healthy amount of embroidery thread. 

I haven't done any embroidery since I monogrammed Ant's initials for his birthday present last year. I'm a bit rusty to say the least, and improved considerably as soon as I found a needle with a big enough eye to fit a full strand of embroidery thread through...  

So far, a little bit wobbly, but I like to think it is friendly embroidery. 

I love colour graded embroidery thread...these three ferns were done with one thread that gradually got pinker and pinker!

For those of you keen to have a go yourself, I used a split stitch to write my font. I faintly drew it in a water soluble pen. To decorate, I did a variation on the two below stitches, Tete de Beouf and Fern.

Split Stitch

Tete de Beouf stitch

Fern Stitch

And here is the finished article, complete with tassel so I'll be able to identify it from the thousands 

Another new venture?! Part 1

You may think I have enough on my plate...?

Well I clearly didn't think so...and have added another string to my bow. In doing so, I have made the tough decision to fine tune what I do and cut out the event and interior design (it was SO hard to say no to a job of that nature today.)

Last year, my step sister Sally, asked if I could help with her wedding stationery. I couldn't resist but jump in with both feet. Soon a fully designed invitation was in existence and I had been bitten by the bug. The wedding industry is something I have always felt I could contribute to but was never sure of what particular field. 

Sally and Andy's invitation from my instagram 

Meetings with my good friend and super wedding stylist Kirsten Butler helped me start on the long path to becoming a wedding stationery designer, with the opportunity to design some invitations for a shoot at Arnos Vale. I featured those on the blog a little while back and it really got me inspired.

I needed to improve my painting skills so I enrolled on a wonderful 5 week course at the Folk House and got back to basics with the watercolours. It was a botanical drawing class, which is a subject I love, and just happens to be all over high street prints and homewards at the moment. 

These seems to go pretty well, so I started to have a think about what kind of designs I wanted to do for my wedding invitations. After narrowing it down from being everything to everyone, I settled on hand painted, high end, beautiful and delicate patterns inspired by botanical prints. But I had a strong desire to add a contemporary edge. This would come in the use of colour. Poppy Delevingne's second Pucci Wedding dress summed up the feel I wanted to give: incredibly elegant and drawing on traditional fold art and crafts but beautifully bright, daring and contemporary.

This led me to think of the traditional floral patterns found in Mexican Folk Art...Could I justify going to Mexico just to look at embroidered flowers? Hmm, I needed to think a bit closer to home...

So I booked a ticket to Seville.

You'll have to wait for the next post  to find out if Seville gave me what I needed and to get a hint of my drawings and paintings of Seville tiles and architecture

Juno and Joy: Arnos Vale Wedding Shoot writeup

Photo Frances Taylor

A lovely blog post from Juno and Joy Wedding blog was written today about a shoot done by the very talented wedding stylist The Little Wedding Helper aka Kirsten Butler, which featured my wedding stationery designs!

Today I also got the sample prints back for my step sister Sally's invites...I'm really enjoying the stationery design process so far, and building up a store of templates ready to launch a full design service by the end of the year!