Daisy Dress in Dusty Pink!

As soon as my "Dusty Pink Daisy" fabric sample (above) arrived from Spoonflower, I knew my days - To Do - List would be out the window!
So instead of working, I searched the internet for a cute little toddler dress pattern and spent the day sewing instead ;)
This so cute (and so easy to sew) 'A' line sundress is based on a free downloadable pdf pattern by Oliver + S  called "popover sundress" ~ Thank-you ;)

Now that it's finished, I guess it's time to get back to work! 
... Although It could be 'milk and cookies' time first ;)

Winging It!

Yay! 
So happy to see a sneak peek today of the (Aug 2011) edition of Australian Homespun Magazine, as their Window Shopping Page 'Winging It' features our colourful little dragonfly design: Dragonfly Dance 

Courtesy of Homespun Magazine, I am so excited to share this 'sneak peek' of 'Winging It' with you too!
- Happy Days ;)

Free Shipping 'Monday' at Spoonflower!

Heellloooo,
How is everyone?
It's been absolutely far too long since I said hello! 
(Is it the cold - aka freezing - Winter weather sending me into hibernation?) Well, whatever it's been, the following news is just to good not to share:
Spoonflower is having a FREE SHIPPING Monday - Yay!

... Here are the details fresh from the Spoonflower Blog :)

"For 24 hours 
-- from 8am ET on Monday, June 20th, to 8am ET the following day -- 
we're going to make shipping completely free on all Spoonflower orders. Free to those of you in the US and free to those of you elsewhere (shout out, Australia!). The offer will apply to standard shipping only, but otherwise there are no restrictions and no minimum or maximum order size to qualify. See you on Monday!"

... (Penciling in the diary now ;)

In other news ... Following the amazing response to our very first cushion 'Olives on Spice' (Now Sold Out) I've been busy designing and hand screen printing some all new 'French Provincial' inspired designs, that I hope will be available as cushions, in the Kristopher K Shop, very soon!

And finally 'Just for Fun' 
... here is a photo of a new 'Kristopher K for Spoonflower' fabric - Bubbles - Designed originally for one of my young nieces, and featuring a palette of pink, plum, aqua and mint :)

Anzac Day

Today in Australia it is Anzac Day; a national day of remembrance to honour the Anzacs, (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps from WW1) and to remember all those who have died in military service for their country.
- Lest we Forget
During WW1 mothers and wives, who were anxious to send their loved ones in the trenches in Gallipoli, long lasting nutritional food supplements, started to bake what came to be called Anzac Biscuits 

below is an old family favourite recipe ...

Anzac Biscuits

1 Cup each; 
Plain Flour, Sugar, Rolled Oats, Coconut
100g butter
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup (or Golden Syrup)
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tbls boiling water

1) Preheat oven to 170°C (about 325°F)
2) Line biscuit tray(s) with baking paper
3) Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl (Flour, Sugar, Oats and Coconut)
4) Melt butter and Syrup (approximately 30 sec in a microwave / or stir in a pan over a low heat)
5) Dissolve bicarbonate soda in boiling water, and add to butter mixture
6) Mix butter mixture well into bowl of dry ingredients 

7) Place walnut sized tablespoons of mixture onto trays - leaving plenty of room for biscuits to spread.

8) Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until golden.
9) Cool biscuits on a wire rack.

ENJOY :)

Pear Harvest - Cabinet Makeover!

Yay!
Today I finished making over my new 'stock' cabinet!!!

Finding this beauty for a bargain price on ebay was the easy part - deciding what fabric to use for the makeover, .... well that's another story!

Weeks of procrastinating later, I finally ordered my Spoonflower design "Pear Harvest" 
I love that even with the doors closed, you get the sense you are peeking inside the cabinet, to see shelves of pretty pears all lined up in rows :)

Before pics below:


To give this cabinet a simpler, more rustic country feel - the first thing I did was remove the fancy 'fret work' from the legs.
Then I lightly sanded, washed and painted the cabinet in one of my all time favourite products: White Paint!


Further adding to the country feel, I attached a new iron handle and French inspired escutcheon (for a key and tassel.)


To attach the fabric to the timber panels, I measured and cut the fabric to size - and simply used double sided tape to fix the fabric to the timber .
(This also makes the fabric quite easy to remove whenever it's time for a change)
Finally the edges of the fabric were topped with ribbon (applied with a hot glue gun.)


And Voila! 

Linen :)

Just because I heart linen, I've added some beautiful new 100% linen and linen/cotton blend fabrics to the Kristopher K Shop.

Available now, in a variety of natural colours, widths and weights, and sold by linear meter.
Suitable for a variety of uses including apparel, homewares, and crafts.

Fabrics pictured from left:

Linen/Cotton: White

100% Linen: Vintage Stone

Linen/Cotton: Spice

Linen/Cotton: Natural Sand


Also below is a wonderfully filmed and informative short video all about linen, appropriately titled: BE LINEN MOVIE by Benoit MILLOT

~ enjoy



BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

New Fabric Designs :)

Yay! it's the weekend ... !!! 
It may be raining again today, here on the Gold Coast but these beautiful Chrysanthemum daises never fail to make me smile.
I clicked a few extra photos of them, while taking photos of my new fabric designs, now available at Spoonflower... enjoy :)
Cheers, Kris

Tea Time :)

I'm certainly going to enjoy my tea and biscuits this morning,
since I've just updated the Kristopher K Shop with more of our hand screen printed designs ....

Pics below feature our latest organic wheat design, 
printed on 100% Linen Tea Towels in Oat, Vanilla or Black. 

Cushion: 'Olives' on Spice

What a fun day I've had today printing the first of the new Kristopher K Cushions - this design features snow white olives on spice coloured fabric.

I am screen printing these designs by hand, using eco friendly water based inks, on a beautiful linen/cotton blend fabric.

These cushions will be available soon in the Kristopher K Shop!

Hope your having a lovely weekend too :)
Cheers Kris

Just Arrived !!!!

... I couldn't wait to show you all these beautiful natural raw Jute 'Market Tote' Bags, that have just been added to the Kristopher K Shop.

Available now in this wonderful softened, natural clay coloured Jute <here>

I will also be hand screen printing a variety of new 'Kristohper K' designs on these totes in a cool collection of earthy shades (... coming soon :)

Stylish and strong, Jute (also known as burlap) is an environmentally friendly, natural alternative to regular poly and plastic bags.

Biodegradable, re-useable and oh so versatile - jute bags are perfect for so many applications: from shopping, picnics & storing your market produce, to adding a rustic provincial flair to your home decor :)

"Easy As" paper flowers :)

Happy Sunday ...

Today I've been making some fun paper flowers, that are not only an ideal way to dress up and decorate gifts but are oh so wonderfully - "Easy As" - to make.

I like to make them from recycled white tissue paper, (after carefully removing the wrap so often used by department stores on new purchases) - but vibrant colours work well for kids birthday parties, and restricted or limited mixed colour palettes help give a co-ordinated look to presents under a Christmas tree etc ....

.... If you'd like to try these out for yourself, see a wonderful tutorial for similar tissue paper flowers on the Feeling Fuzzy Blog <here>

But be warned ... try stopping after you've made just one :)

Revamped Vintage Chair

Fabric Design: Inky Floral - French Blue

I have been wanting a cute and comfy study chair for absolutely ages ... so I decided to remodel an old timber dining chair that had seen better days.

.... Using the chairs original, worn out fabric as a template and leaving the existing padding in place helped to make this (my first ever) attempt at reupholstery so much easier than I thought it would be - YAY !!!

For more fabulous Chair makeovers, see the Chair Party being hosted on the Drab to Fab blog 

... Oh the possibilities :)

Bunting - Just for fun :)

Happy New Year !!!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Over the last few weeks, we have also celebrated several family birthdays - including mine on New Years Eve - YAY! - Happy Birthday to all the other Capricorns :)

... and in what for us was some very surprising and exciting news, we made Spoonflowers list of Top 10 Indie Fabric Designers for 2010

All I can say is WOW ... and a HUGE, Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you, to everyone for all their amazing encouragement and support :)

I'm thinking all the celebrating may have stopped me noticing until now, that we are already 11 days into 2011 - Time seems to be flying by this year.

So finding some extra time today, just to relax and sew up my first ever Bunting Flags was fabulous. (I did cheat a little with the sewing - just cutting the edges of the flags with Pinking Shears - but I'm loving the way they have turned out ;)


Directions for "Easy As" Bunting:

Cut 15 fabric flags (as included in this bunting kit) with pinking scissors - Iron flat - Arrange as desired leaving an even space between each flag - Cut enough bias tape to fit all 15 flags side by side + extra on each side for tying bunting to hooks etc - Pin flags into place in bias tape (or folded ribbon) and sew to secure - Enjoy :)

Merry Christmas :)

I had such fun today listening to old Christmas records, and making this cute fabric ornament with my new design "Vintage Christmas Star" 
..... Many many thanks to the Knitty Gritty Thoughts blog for your inspiring free tutorial on how to make these super cute ornaments :)

To all my fabulous friends here on Blogger, 

Wishing you a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Thank-you so much for all your wonderful support throughout 2010

... you guys rock!!!

All the very best for 2011
Enjoy the holidays

Cheers,

Kris
xxx

Multi Dots Collection

Hello friends...
Here are some Multi Dots for a Marvellous Monday!
Colours from top left : 
Purple, Blue, Mint, Yellow, Green and Pink :)

It's summer school holiday time here in OZ - YAY!!!
(although with all the rain and flooding along the east coast, its quite easy to forget it's summer) .... 
Hope you have a fabulous week, and stay warm (for those of you caught in the snow) and dry (for those of you, like us here on the Gold Coast, listening to the sound of drumming rain ;)

Delft Blue

Happy Tuesday Friends ... Here are some designs from my latest Spoonflower collection : Delft Blue 

.... Hope everyone enjoys the last day of November ... Can't believe it's December tomorrow....

:)

One to pencil in the diary

YAY !!!! 

Free shipping on all Spoonflower fabric orders for 24 hrs.

Starts 8am EST Monday Nov 22, and 
Ends 8am EST Tuesday Nov 23

Thanks Spoonflower.
... I'll pencil this in the diary for sure :)

... Lovin' Linen

If I hadn't told you - could you have guessed that I love linen?

I know as a textile designer, I probably shouldn't be Oohing and Arring over plain (unadorned) table linen quite as much as I have been lately - but these pure linen tablecloths & napkins are so Oooo & Arrr worthy just as they are.

So ...... together with our collection of original hand printed table linens (...coming soon) I'm adding these perfectly plain, 100% linen, oat coloured beauties to the Kristopher K Shop : What could be more fun than mixing and matching prints & plains :)

Speaking of mixing and matching fabrics ... I've just seen an amazing tutorial on the Knitty Gritty Thoughts Blog for fabric ornaments. I'm thinking they would make fabulous "no sew" decorations for the upcoming Holiday Season ... but be careful - this tutorial has been blogged with a warning ... It's hard to make just one!

Vintage Shabby Rose : Cushions

This month, I've really been enjoying pretty pink, green and neutral colour palettes.



So to bring some of these wonderful Springtime tones inside, I decided to make myself some new cushions, featuring designs from the Vintage Shabby Rose Collection.

Today the rain is pouring outside my window, but I'm enjoying listening to the steady sound it makes as it hits the roof :)
..................

Also this week Judi Hall from Gingezel, featured our designs on the Gingezel website ~ Thank-you so much Judi for the wonderful Kristopher K feature :)

I first became aware of Gingezel Fabrics on Flickr, when I saw this lovely Collection of fabrics called Ocean Villa 

... (I just love the muted blue and brown colour palette) 

See more beautiful Gingezel Fabrics @Spoonflower here

..................


I hope your week so far has been fabulous ... 
Time for me now to make a nice hot cup of coffee, while outside the rain continues to fall :)

Terrific Tuesday

Today has been a Terrific Tuesday ... why ? Well apart from being the first Tuesday in November and a day when a little old horse race called The Melbourne Cup stops a nation ... I also made some fun "easy as" fabric buttons :)

Using a simple button kit that I purchased from The Haby Goddess (here) it really was as "easy as" 1, 2, 3 to make these adorable fabric covered buttons (with absolutely no sewing skills required ;)

Fabrics shown are from my Perfect Pink Collection and include : (from top)
Disco Dots - Hot Pink
Country Checks
and
Spring Blossoms 


I hope you had a Terrific Tuesday too, and if you placed a bet on The Melbourne Cup, I hope you backed a winner!

Spring Blossoms on Silk!

... How exciting !!! 

I received my first sample of the new Silk Crepe de Chine fabric from Spoonflower today. 

See photos of this beautiful silk fabric, featuring my design Spring Blossoms below 

.... Now I'll really be able to practice some of my new "how to tie silk scarves" skills :)

The Liberty Way To Tie A Scarf

Inspiration I just had to share with you all, from a recent visit to the Liberty YouTube page : featuring several inspiring demonstrations on "How-To" tie a scarf :)
Hope your having a fabulous week, Enjoy, Cheers Kris :)

Multi Dots of Floral Fun!

Hello, hope your weekend so far has been wonderful :)
Today for me was lovely and relaxing (and sunny too - Yay!) 
... although I may have gone a little bit dotty over my new floral design "Multi Dots"



Shown above in Green and Blue ...

"Multi Dots" will also be available in a range of serene colours including Purple, Pink, Mint and Yellow!

Spring Blossoms

Here is a snippet of a new design that I've been working on "Spring Blossoms" : inspired by the pretty springtime blossoms blooming in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney :)

(click image to zoom)

... Hope your having a fabulous week, Cheers Kris :)

Night Owls Tweet - Week 19

[Over the next 52 weeks, Shey B from Arizona USA, and I from the Gold Coast (and Sydney :) AUSTRALIA, will attempt to blog a total of 365 photos. Each posting ... 7 photos, from the last 7 days, on alternate Monday Nights]

By Ferry to Manly, Sydney Australia !!!


(click image to zoom)

#1 Rainbow Lorikeet 
#2 Travel by Ferry from the city of Sydney to Manly Beach
#3 Manly Beach local
#4 View of Sydney Harbour from the Manly Ferry
#5 View of Manly Beach on a stormy afternoon
#6 Beach house at Fairy Bower Beach
#7 Storm brewing above the walkway from Manly to Shelly Beach

...........


Well we made it to Week 19 ... which is pretty awesome ... but ...
I'm sorry to say this will be the last official Night Owls Tweet .... 
This is due to an exciting tweet that I recently received from sheyb ...
"I'm thinking I need to stop night owls tweet posts : I am so busy and just got busier planning a conference!"



Wow - and - Wow again !!! 
If you would like to know more about "creative estates" see the sheyb Blog here .... 


And Shey .... from your "Night Owl" friend here in Australia ... wishing you all the very best with your new project ... tweet ya soon :)