Saturday, July 26, 2014

The power of giving


I'm feeling very happy right now, so at ease with myself and life around me.

The summer is unfolding beautifully here in France although we've had our fair share of storms and rain now. I quite like it though because it's nature's way of clearing the air or we'd all suffocate with the heat.

Button Fayre's been extremely busy recently completing orders, designing a wonderful Robot blanket for a commission, and of course with the auction to raise money for CICRA.

I'm very happy to announce that the total raised is £231.51 and the donation has now been made.  A
massive thank you to everyone involved for  your wonderful support, it was a huge success.



I lovely lady approached me on Facebook recently and asked if I could design a cuddle blanket for her two year old son.  I was hot on the case and ordered in some lime green fleece ( which is delicious and wonderful to work with, I think I'll be ordering more in lots of colours! )  I suggested doing a robot as I knew this would be a fun thing to work on and she very happily agreed.
Working on a robot design was really great and designing with boys colours in mind and different shapes...well, it was super duper. 

Here's the finished blanket and the photo doesn't do it justice but it's so rich, vibrant and fun to look at!  My two year old twins have been extremely drawn to it and their faces lit up when I showed it to them, so lovely to see their smiles at my work.



I've called him ' The Raggedy Robot ' because with time, the freehand machine embroidered squares on the main body will fray slightly and really give him some texture and life, I love that effect in my work!

I'm hoping that the next blog post I write will be a tutorial for a quick piece of textile art and so keep your eyes peeled.

Lucy x


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Giveaway and Auction

This is just a quickie to make sure everyone's in on the action!

I'm holding a fabulous giveaway on Button Fayre's Facebook page and so please do head on over to enter as it's ending this-evening!

The prize is for a gorgeous flower brooch made from vintage linens and laces, vintage and modern buttons and hand sewn embroidery.


The ' GREAT BUTTON FAYRE SEWING BUZZ AUCTION ' is going amazingly!  Goodness, what a fabulous group of people there are on Facebook.  It's ending this-evening at 9pm and so please do check that out on Facebook too as all items are of an exceptional standard and all very beautiful too.

As always, I LOVE and celebrate handmade!

I've also posted some useful information about Liberty's ' Best of British ' and the ' PopUp Britain ' schemes on Button Fayre's Facebook page and so that's worth checking out too, I think as designers/makers we should grab every opportunity that comes our way.

Lucy x

Friday, July 11, 2014

' The Great Button Fayre Sewing Buzz Auction ' is open!


Great news for everyone!

I've worked for over 2 months to organise the fabulous competition that gave me the entries into the amazing auction to raise money for CICRA ( children with Crohn's and Colitis ).

The auction is now officially open and runs until 9pm on Sunday 13th, best of luck to all as there are some gorgeous handmade designs available and all starting at only £3.50.

Here's the link to take you straight to the Facebook album on Button Fayre's page;

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.262506723929227.1073741901.115156331997601&type=1

Best of luck and hae some fun,

Lucy x

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The ' Flowery Caravan '

Inspiration comes from so many places, I've even been inspired by smells in the past and the memories they hold.  
I've often found that breathing deeply and taking a few minutes out of your day simply to think about nothing, can lead to some quite inspiring off thoughts which in turn take you on a journey of inspirational discovery. I'm pretty good at turning an idea around in my head too as I have a very overactive imagination and when you're very heavily inspired by colour, it's not difficult to think up something new and fantastic.

So, on the way to our local capital town for shopping, I must have passed a certain house dozens of times in the last 6 years since living in the Limousin, France, and although always found it very compelling and quite mysterious, it's always just passed me by and I admire the beauty of it for a few seconds and then it's gone again until next time.  This house is nothing extraordinary, quite a humble small village corner house on the main road, but what is really quite amazing is the fact that there are red roses growing inside all of the downstairs windows!  I've never actually seen something like this in this kind of setting and yes, we're used to walking into a flower shop and seeing flowers indoors but in an actual house AND up all windows?  They are really so beautiful to look at, the bottle green paintwork on the exterior of the windows really looks pretty against the reds too, it really is very picturesque.  Little Shop of Horrors also comes to mind and it makes me giggle, especially yesterday when we went past and I saw a super trendy old lady, really quite eccentric looking, cleaning the outside of the windows!  She's now added another part to the intrique I have and I found myself imagining what it's like inside her house, what kind of life she's lived, and quite possibly if she's an artist of some kind.  I even found myself imaginging a giant, man-eating plant inside calling and singing to her ' Feed me Seymour, feed me now! ' he he he

Anyway, this house became the inspiration for some of my work, mainly the technique I use to create textile art pieces using lots of little flower shapes that I freehand machine embroider to make into a super design like the ' Flowery Snail ' and now my latest.....wait for it......' The Flowery Caravan '.

' The Flowery Caravan ' is a work of art and designers, artists and crafters have the patience of a saint!  I spent 20 hours in total on this design and it took me one week of thinking, designing and cutting in preparation and then sewing in stages because this kind of work does actually make my brain all dizzy when I look at the colours and fabrics for too long, 3 hours at any given time is quite sufficient to be sat at a sewing machine under these conditions!

Without further a do here it is and you've been given a brief insight into the inspiration behind it and what motivated me into putting so much time, love and effort into this design.  I must say that it's turned out rather beautifully too.



Love it or hate it, everyone has different tastes, BUT one thing's for sure, don't you find it incredible what can be done with fabric?

Lucy x