sunny street, a mug. and 60 days to go. and stitch magazine. and a really long post.

so. sunny street, a mug, is a winner, i'm happy to announce. we went away for a week last week but we went to a posh hotel with proper free wi-fi so i could keep an eye on things in a stalkerish manner. and so i found out via twitter that a design i entered into buttercup china's design competition had won first place! i found this out just as we arrived at our hotel, and then couldn't sleep. so it was a double edged sword, so to speak.

but after a beautiful week in the sunshine while the UK shivered under more snow and minus 16 temperatures, i have come home to more marvellous news. the second collection i designed for moda fabrics has been sent to the mill for strike offs. OMG. it's called 'summersville spring' and is loosely based on life around the farm but it's not a tractor-y type of collection, more of a nod to different things i find inspiring - mud on tires, tracks in the land, meadow flowers - it's very 'me' but this time in glorious TECHNICOLOUR. i forgot to take any snaps of the designs before i sent them off (i design directly on to fabric rather than by computer as you may know. one day soon i shall do a process post on this, if anyone would find it interesting!) but i produced lots of 'out takes' and so used them to make up this little experimental block above. so there IS a little sneak into what to expect but it's by no means an exact expectation, if you see what i mean...the 60 days in the title of this post refers to the amount of time before the fabrics are back from the mill in strike off form - which is where the fun starts - choosing the best colourways to create the line. as soon as i know when that happens, you'll know. brownie guide promise.

ohhhh! and before i go, another something lovely - i've got an article on the back page in the spring 2012 issue of stitch magazine AND on the very back cover page, there's a full page advert for summersville, using my own photo! so odd to think that when i quickly set up that little shoot just to show the samples of summersville to you lot, i didn't think in a million years it would be used as a proper advert! and rather sentimentally, that little white jug in the photo was my nanny shirley's. that makes me happy.