fionahogarth

[fionahogarth]

I've been meaning to make some non-festive napkins for a while and I've finally found the time to do it. For now I've got six of these sunflower print napkins sewn but I'm thinking of making them to order in the future. If these sell well I might expand into other prints but this linen fabric is more expensive than the cotton I generally use for tea towels so I'll see how it goes.

These are up on Etsy already with my other pieces. I've priced them so they get cheaper if they're bought in bulk but I might change it in the future. I am probably going to print some more tea towels soon but I do want to start work on some new designs as well.

[fionahogarth]

I took a break from sewing last week as I was back at my day job but I did sew a couple of these coin purses. There's something about this print which never seems to come out right in photos so I had to do some colour adjustment and it still looks muted. It's actually very bright and really shows up against some of the more muted colours in my other prints.

Anyway, these are already up on Etsy here with my other pieces. I'm still trying to work out some other design ideas which I'll hopefully start on soon but I do want to finally print some non-festive napkins as well so hopefully I'll have them sorted before my next market on Saturday.

[fionahogarth]

I've had the last week off from my day job, which coincided nicely with getting some of this camellia print fabric which I'd ordered from the printers a couple of weeks ago. I managed to sew two cushion covers and two medium sized pouches. I am planning on making some more coin purses as well but that might have to wait for a few more days as I needed a break from sewing after that.

For now these are up on Etsy here. I've also added a couple of older squash based pieces back up as I got them back from a shop I'd given them to, in order to try and sell them there. I do also have a couple more tea towels but I might hang on to them for now as they aren't quite seasonal yet and I do already have the orange and yellow ones up.

[fionahogarth]

I've printed and sewn another three of these tea towels. Only one of this batch is up on Etsy now so I've got three for sale all together. The other two I'll hold on to for now for markets.

I sold my last wisteria print tea towel recently so I thought I'd print some more. I forgot how challenging this block can be to print, especially as I needed to get it lined up properly to fit nicely and central on the fabric, rather than my other designs which I just print a length of fabric with and then cut it up later. I think I've got a good system for doing it now so I will print some more but the first one came out too faintly to sell. For now there's two of these up on Etsy and I'm sure I'll post again when I've printed more, or possibly just reblog this post.

I have also ordered some camellia print fabric which is on it's way too me, so hopefully I'll be able to make a couple of pouches with that soon and possibly even some cushion covers if I have enough fabric.

[fionahogarth]

I sold my last wisteria print tea towel recently so I thought I'd print some more. I forgot how challenging this block can be to print, especially as I needed to get it lined up properly to fit nicely and central on the fabric, rather than my other designs which I just print a length of fabric with and then cut it up later. I think I've got a good system for doing it now so I will print some more but the first one came out too faintly to sell. For now there's two of these up on Etsy and I'm sure I'll post again when I've printed more, or possibly just reblog this post.

I have also ordered some camellia print fabric which is on it's way too me, so hopefully I'll be able to make a couple of pouches with that soon and possibly even some cushion covers if I have enough fabric.

[fionahogarth]

I haven't had the chance to work on anything new recently but I did make a few more sunflower print tea towels. These are the most popular thing I've made by quite a long way, which I enjoy as this sunflower print was the first large one I used as a lino print and that set me off on using lino print rather than screen printing as the main way I work.

I am planning on making some napkins in the same print as well but that keeps getting bumped down the list of priorities so it hasn't happened yet. Hopefully soon I'll get around to it though.

In the meantime these are up on Etsy already along with my other pieces. I am going to add some more wisteria print tea towels soon, as it's the time of year for those flowers. I haven't managed to order any more camellia print fabric yet but that will be the next job for me.

[fionahogarth]

I got two of these camellia print coin purses sewn up just in time for a market I did yesterday. As I didn't sell either of them they're both now up on Etsy here along with my other pieces.

I'm hoping to order some more fabric in this print soon, as my sample wasn't really big enough to make more than another coin purse or two. Then I'll be able to make some bigger pouches. I'm debating whether to make them in the biggest size as I've only currently got a couple of those at the moment. It just depends on what I feel like doing once I've got the fabric.

I've also got an idea for a more complex design which I'm considering, that may involve some funghi along with my old favourite ferns and some pinecones. That all depends on whether I can work out how I'm going to put the elements together though.

[fionahogarth]

I only had one of each colour (pink and blue) of these hydrangea print tea towels so I thought it was about time I printed some more. This is the most awkward block for me to print as it doesn't have any straight lines and it's difficult to print consistently but I think I'm getting better at it with more practice. I'm also learning to enjoy the variation in the print as it does work well with it.

These are all up on Etsy now with my other pieces. I'm planning on printing some more wisteria print tea towels soon as well, along with sewing a couple of coin purses and pouches.

[fionahogarth]

I got a sample of this camellia design printed on this nice cotton twill fabric. I thought I'd try out a new fabric printer as I've been using Spoonflower since the last one I used shut down and the shipping's pretty expensive from the US to the UK. I'm really happy with how well it's come out. The colours are bright and vibrant and seeing it on fabric brings it to life.

I'm planning on making a couple of coin purses and maybe a smaller pouch with this sample, depending on what I can squeeze in. I'll definitely order some more fabric as well, probably sticking with this cotton as it's usually pretty easy to work with.

[fionahogarth]

I've spent some time this afternoon putting together this camellia design from my drawings. I was expecting it to take much longer as it's been a while since I worked on a digital design like this but it was actually pretty simple and easy. I was aiming for something like my magnolia design but lighter, which I think I've achieved.

Now I just need to get it printed on fabric. I think I'll go for a cotton twill as that's pretty versatile as well as being affordable, although it might be nice to try a linen or velvet sometime as well.

[fionahogarth]

Continuing with elements for my new design, this time some leaves and buds I can combine with the flowers. I find the colours tend to come out colder when they're photographed and edited so chances are I'll end up adjusting them later once I've started putting them together. Now I think I've got enough elements to work with though so I just have to sit down and stare at Photoshop for a while to see what I can come up with.

[fionahogarth]

I did have a plan for a different design but I think I need more reference images for that so I've got sidetracked into another design idea. A friend suggested camelias as a good flower to base a design around quite a while ago but I didn't think about it again until recently as the camelias in my garden are flowering at the moment.

I thought it would be interesting to do something like my old magnolia design but with less dense greenery and more colour. I've started off with a favourite combination of oil pastels and watercolours, which is great for colour and texture. It's also good as I can add more oil pastel back over the watercolour if I want to. I feel like I'm slowly getting back into drawing but it's nice to get back to it. Hopefully once I've drawn/painted some more leaves and buds I'll have enough to start playing around with composition for the design.

[fionahogarth]

This week I've been busy making some more coin purses, using my hydrangea print and this curl print which is one of my favourites. I'd like to do some more abstract and geometric prints but I've found that generally people tend to prefer the more straightforward designs. I would like to explore other less plant and floral based designs though for some variety.

Anyway, for now these are up on Etsy with my other pieces. My festive sale is now over but there are still plenty of other designs and I'm hopefully going to add some more of the floral tea towels soon.

[fionahogarth]

I took a bit of a break from printing over Christmas but as I had some time off work I got back into printing last week with some of these seaweed print tea towels. I actually sold my last one back in November but I know they always sell reasonably well (particularly with people who aren't so interested in my floral designs) so I thought it was time to make some more. The colours always end up being slightly different as I add more pigment or binder and this time the blue's stronger, which I think adds a nice contrast.

These are already back up on Etsy here. I've also still got my Christmas cards and a couple of festive tea towels reduced but I'll be taking them down next week. I always have free postage in the UK and you can get an extra 10% off with the code TUMBLR10.

[fionahogarth]

After a couple of days of relaxation over Christmas I've decided to get organised and run a small sale on my Christmas cards. They're all 25% for the next month, when I'll be taking them down along with my other festive pieces. I've also slightly reduced the price of my last holly and holly and ivy print tea towels so that I can make some space for more holly ones next year.

I also always have a promotion code for this site so you get 10% off with the code TUMBLR10, as well as free UK postage.

I'm still taking a short break from printing but I will be going back to some non-seasonal printing with some seaweed print tea towels, before I start working on some new design ideas.

[fionahogarth]

I felt like doing some non-festive printing so I printed some of these greenhouse print tea towels, which I had been meaning to print again for a while anyway. I got them made in time for a market today but as is typical I didn't sell any, so now they're up on Etsy along with my other pieces here.

I had a nice and busy market day so I have now sold some of my Christmas tea towels and napkins, but I do still have two sets of two napkins left, along with one holly print tea towel, one holly and ivy tea towel and some poinsettia ones.

[fionahogarth]

I printed some more of these napkins so now I have eight up on Etsy. I had hoped to sell them at a market on Saturday but that's been cancelled due to another oncoming storm. I do have another market coming up on the 15th but it would be nice to have a couple of online sales before the end of the year as well.

People have been asking for a while at markets whether I sold napkins as well as tea towels so I finally got around to making some in this holly print. I used a ramie (a fibre similar to linen which is made from nettles) and cotton mix fabric as I thought it had a better weight for these than the cotton calico I usually use for my tea towels. It works pretty effectively as the texture of the fabric really shows through the print.

For now I've got an awkward three of these already made and I plan on making more. I'm selling them in pairs as I doubt people will want just one napkin but feel free to send me a message if you're looking for a specific number. I think the most I'll be able to make is six at a time but I'm thinking about making them to order if there's the demand for them. After Christmas I'm also planning on making another couple of designs, probably starting with my sunflower design as that usually sells well.

In the meantime these are up on Etsy already along with my other pieces. I always forget to add that you can also add the code TUMBLR10 when you pay for an extra 10% off anything, along with free shipping in the UK.