Monday watercolour

The colouration of this floral suits the day outside - many farmers in the district are burning off the stubble in their paddocks today in preparation for the winter crop sowing. The sky is a smoky pink.

Pin-cushion Hakea

Pin-cushion Hakea (Hakea Laurina) has just come into season and will be the next subject for my Australian native flora design project. I hope I can find a way to paint those rather detailed sea-urchin like flowers.... hmmm.

Waiting for the paint to dry

Now that the colder temperatures are beginning to settle in it takes a little longer for my water colour textile designs to dry out between each colour application - a perfect excuse for a little wander around blog land....

Floral Friday

The beginnings of a water colour floral design - a relaxing way to finish off the working week!

Rose season

There is something so graceful about the old-fashioned roses that are blooming in the garden at the moment.

Flora and Foliage

A big thank you goes out to Brooklyn based textile designer Becca from the lovely design blog (extra)ordinary wonders for featuring my wattle painting in her Print and Pattern round up. I love the watery blue and yellow colour combination of this post.

If you are after a bit of design and colour inspiration, Becca has a great eye for interesting colour palettes and maintains an insightful working sketchbook.

http://www.extraordinarywonders.com/

Heal's Fabric Design

Over on the always inspiring Heal's Reveals blog you can find a little give-away of the newly released V&A Pattern Book 'Heal's', which I blogged about here a wee while ago. 

One of the designs featured in the book has recently been re-worked by Heal's into a new bed linen collection. The vividly coloured 'Indian Summer' pattern was designed by Jyoti Bhomik for Heal's in 1966, and has now been re-worked with intricate embroidery on a fresh white cotton ground. I love the eye-catching colour combination of turquoise, lime, orange and hot pink.

This is the original fabric design for Heal's by Jyoti Bhomik, spotted on the wonderful design blog Fabulous Vintage.

Pictured above are the updated versions of Jyoti Bhomik's design for Heal's, re-coloured for a contemporary audience. 

And here is the retro inspired bed linen design embroidered onto crisp white cotton.

Barnrum goodness

Creative and colourful children's bedroom inspiration from the stylish Swedish magazine Skona Hem.

Happy Easter!

Here is a lovely old Easter theme tin in which my Nana stored embroidery threads.
Enjoy your Easter break!

The old hawthorn tree

This hawthorn tree was planted in my grandparent's garden over 110 years ago and has managed to survive ten years of drought in fine form. Yesterday I noticed it was beginning to flower - pretty little white blossoms amongst the bright red berries. Perfect textile design subject matter!

Washing up, 50's style

Whilst packing for my move to the country 6 weeks ago I came to the realisation that I have a bit of a 'thing' for patterned tea towels. Two boxes worth in fact! 

These new tea towels featuring textile designs from the 40's and 50's from the V&A Museum would fit in perfectly with my collection of vintage designs too....

 V&A 'Houses' Tea Towel

'Houses' was originally designed as a furnishing fabric by Joy Jarvis in 1950, and was manufactured by  Gerald Holtom Ltd, London.

 V&A 'Mugs' Tea Towel

This design is based on 'Full Measure' by Kenneth Rowntree, manufactured by Edinburgh Weavers in 1957.

V&A 'Vases' Tea Towel

Based on 'Urne', a furnishing fabric designed by Pansa Studios, and manufactured by Sanderson Fabrics in 1955.

V&A 'Fishes' Tea Towel

Based on a furnishing fabric design by Rhona Park under the instruction of the Central School of Art and Design, London, 1951.

V&A 'Fishermen' Tea Towel

'The Fishermen' furnishing textile was designed in 1956 by Keith Vaughan for Edinburgh Weavers.

V&A 'Harvest' Tea Towel

This design is based on a textile repeat by John Drummond, a student at the Central School of Art and Design in 1948.

An artist's home in the south of France

I love the eclectic mix of patterned fabrics, tiles and wallpaper and the bright pops of colour found throughout the family home and studio of artist Myriam Balay Devidalin in Nimes, France.

A screen is covered in an Atelier LZC textile design, whilst the bed linens were sewn by Myriam from her collection of vintage fabrics.

Layers of wallpaper were stripped away to reveal the original rendering of the house, built in 1835.

The vintage Scandinavian chairs are covered in printed fabrics by French design studio Robert Le Heros.

11 Year old Alix's bedroom is decorated with a classic Osborne and Little wallpaper design.

A length of Deborah Bowness wallpaper sits perfectly in the library.

Moroccan tiles in warm orange hues and a beautiful hand woven curtain create a peaceful environment in the bathroom.

Via Marie Claire Maison.