Summer's here at last! It's such an inspiring time, isn't it?

Summer’s here at last! It’s such an inspiring time, isn’t it?


We’ve been enjoying blue skies and beautiful weather here – and the garden is blooming.
After I’ve dropped the children off at school, I like to come back to my garden and potter with a cup of coffee. Feeling the sun on my face, listening to the hum of bees and breathing in the warm scents of summer – it’s so calming and gives me a wonderful sense of purpose for the day ahead. After a session in the studio, it’s also the perfect spot to catch the last of the day’s rays – preferably with a glass of something delicious in my hand!

Meanwhile, pirates have taken over the studio! Our classic pirate ship design is back with new fabrics and a very special personalised twist. Choose a name and I’ll embroider it on my handmade and appliquéd cushions, laundry bags and framed pictures. I’m particularly excited about the pictures – they’re my first foray into appliqued and embroidered textile art and I know you’ll love them as much as I do.

Pirate ship collection

Each of our pirate designs combines denim, ticking stripes and spots – they’re the perfect gift for the little adventurer in your life. I’m currently developing this design into a printed fabric, so keep your eyes peeled for more exciting new products!

This month I’m also feeling inspired by my recent adventures with my family on the North Norfolk coast. The sun shone and it was even warm enough for the youngest member of our team to have a little paddle in the sea! The Norfolk coast is about big blue skies, pale sand and little beach huts. No trip is complete without a visit to Cromer to do a spot of crabbing. Did we catch any? Sadly not, but a great time was still had by all!

 











Now, it might sound a little crazy, but I’ve also been thinking about Christmas. Yes, that’s right, Christmas in June! In the world of design, we’re always thinking ahead. And I’m so excited about what I’ve got planned. I’ll be launching my very first Christmas fabric! 
As well as beautiful textiles, my design will also feature on kitchen products, cards and gift-wrap. Exciting, right?


Now, let’s make a swift return to summer time! As you know, I hand make everything in my studio. I thought you might like a peek inside my day. Here’s a little video, showing part of the process of making the new pirate range. I hope you enjoy this little glimpse into life at the studio!

I’d love to hear about what’s been inspiring you this month!

New collection

New nursery collection includes prints, bunting and lampshades

Hello! It’s Kirsty here. How are you all? It feels ages since my last post. So much has been happening in the studio. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Spring has well and truly sprung and we’ve all been hopping with excitement about the warmer weather and longer days. The extra light in the mornings and evenings means lots more creative time for me – essential when I’m fitting my designing and sewing time around my busy family life!

I had a such a lovely Easter at home with my family. One of our favourite traditions is decorating our Easter Egg tree. This year I hung the branches with sweet little fabric cones. The Easter bunny was kind enough to come and fill them with lots of mini eggs. Yum!

We’re based in the heart of the Leicestershire countryside. I love this time of year because everything gradually starts coming to life again. I’ve been pottering around the garden and veg patch, watching it all wake up after winter. I love to start my day with a wander down to say hello to my chickens in the sunshine. Then I grab the coffee and biscuits and climb the stairs to my little attic studio.



And there’s been lots happening in the studio! I’m thrilled to have launched my new Bunny range, which is perfect for nurseries. Elm Tree Studio started out with nursery products and I’ve really enjoyed going back to my roots. I’ve been experimenting with new designs and I’m so happy to be able to share them with you all.

New co-ordinating nursery fabrics available by the metre

The Bunny design (nursery fabrics) is based on my original appliqué artwork. It’s been cleverly reproduced as fabric, whilst keeping a flavour of the original stitching and embellishments. It’s available on our classic lampshades and as beautiful bunting. It’s soft and pretty – perfect for boys and girls alike.

Bunny nursery bunting

No nursery is complete without a bit of bunting. It’s such a pretty way to add character to a plain room! I design and make everything by hand, so each piece is truly unique.

My bunny bunting has been a joy to make and it’s available in several different styles. Choose from  flag style bunting or more traditional triangular bunting. There’s something for every baby! I can even personalise bunting with a name. It really doesn’t get much cuter!

Beautifully embroidered personalised bunting

Bunny flag bunting

Nursery lampshade

You know I love my coffee, and it’s been so soothing sitting with a cup of my favourite blend while I cut and stitch all that lovely bunting. I know you’ll all love this new design as much as I do.








And while we’re on the subject of new designs, have you spotted my new mustard coloured aster fabric? When I first designed my aster range, I was inspired by the striking natural shape of the aster flowers in my country garden. This dream has translated into a subtly modern design, with a real hint of mid-century style about it. My new lampshades are effortlessly stylish and will inject a bit of scandi-cool into your home. I love mine!

I hope you’re all enjoying spring as much as me. I’d love to hear more about what you’ve all been up to!

A fresh new start!

It been a long time since our last blog post so we are declaring it a fresh new start for this space. After a manic period for Christmas orders (our best yet!), I can practically sew stockings in my sleep! It was a fantastic end to 2016, but I am equally as excited to share a bit more about what we have been working on in 2017 so far. Hint: it involves some beautiful fabrics...

I thought I’d start a new blog regime with a little reintroduction to me (I’m Kirsty!) and Elm Tree Studio. So grab a cuppa and let’s have a virtual chat. Talking of cuppas, I should let you know I’m a big coffee snob and can only drink fresh bean to cup coffee. I definitely can’t get into sewing mode with any decaf brews! I’m constantly in search of the perfect mug.  Being small, I have the bottom shelf in the kitchen all to myself for my mug collection and each one is for a certain drink - builders’ tea, posh tea, coffee, hot chocolate. You could say I’m quite particular about things, but I think that’s a good quirk to have when you are designing products too.

At home I share my space (but not my mug collection) with my hubby Darren (who weirdly doesn't "get" the need for more cushions in the house… a constant battle!) and my children, Josh and Chloe. We take care of two cats, referred to as "the boys" and two chickens called Omelette and Button.

So, coffee and family aside, I mentioned I’ve been sewing in the studio lots! Over the Christmas period, I stitched through the night on some occasions, to make sure all orders went out on time. I discovered Netflix and binge watched Gilmore Girls whilst sewing. I loved it so much I’ve watched it all and started again from the beginning. Have you seen it?

I also had some behind the scenes photos taken in my studio and thought I’d share them with you here, so you can see where everything happens.

January has been equally as busy, but I have returned to what I started last summer and I’m designing my own range of fabrics. The first one, Aster Flower has started to really take off and is now available on a range of textile products, lampshades, lamps, cushions and clocks.

It’s exciting to see the designs come to life on the products. The two existing colourways (dove grey and indigo) will be extended to include spicy mustard which is a beautiful shade! The product range will also grow to include some non-textile pieces. See all the collections here.

We were also thrilled to see our Embroidered Linen Lavender Pillows in Country Homes and Interiors magazine. Seeing our designs in print will always be exciting!

I’d love to know more about you and what enjoy, so do leave me a comment. I’m off to make a cuppa - I’ve just tried Perkulatte Coffee and it’s delicious. I’m really hoping that someone (no pressure, Darren) will treat me to their monthly subscription. Just imagine, fresh coffee delivered monthly straight to your door!

Love, Kirsty

Finally getting organised….. Working for yourself, at home must be so easy, so everyone says.

It’s August, almost half way through the long summer holidays, if you have kids. How are you doing? Are you surviving with a smile on your face, or like me, getting more and more stressed as each hour ticks by? I’ll let you into a secret. One day last week, I actually locked myself in the loo, just so I could answer some emails in peace! Yep, I'm that kind of mum.

I'm normally pretty organised, but the last week everything went to pot. I have over the years, learnt to just roll with it, but when work calls, you stick to the floors and you realise that your five year old is living on food from the “goodie cupboard” I had the feeling that I needed to take some kind of control, again.

OK, so it won’t stop me working strange hours over the holidays, but if that means I get to bake cupcakes with the littlest, then that’s fine by me.

My personalised wall planner from Who ate my crayons

It’s time to “Live by the Planner” again, plus it gives me 5 minutes to just sit down and look at the week ahead. I always put in the “Family” stuff first, dentist appointments, play-dates and what-nots, so that even if I don’t know what I'm doing, at least I know what everyone else is doing! Second on the planner is my work schedule, orders that need to be made and admin which needs to be done. Thirdly, I enter a bit of me time…… I find that if I don’t then I start to get frazzled, snappy and just right down horrid! It may be just half hour chill out time or gasp, a whole afternoon!

To-do lists.

I break them down into monthly, weekly and daily. Just remember that not everything needs to be done that minute! I keep mine all together in another pretty notebook, again broken down into “Life” and “Work”. The monthly one has everything on that must be done, I then break it down into weekly amounts and then again daily, that way what’s starts to look like a big, daunting list gets smaller and smaller and much easier to tick off!

This is where my planner, wall chart and note books come in. And if you are a stationary addict like myself this is where its gets exciting! Let’s face it, even if you don’t use any of the lovely stationary, it will look pretty on your desk, kitchen counter or bag!

I've made a list of my favourites below.

Weekly planner from The Green Gables with lots of space for lists and notes.

• Above my desk, I have a personalised wall chart planner, by the super Who ate my crayons. On here I pop all the important things that I need to see at a glance, such as the all-important hair dresser appointments, holidays and school terms. I always cross reference this with the kitchen calendar downstairs.       
•  I have another weekly planner by the wonderful Green Gables, I try to fill this in on a Sunday and it’s mainly used for my work stuff. What orders need to be made, what supplies I need to order and any other important information. It sits on my desk and is also a handy mouse mat, if your old school like me. One thing that I have found to be very important to how I work is to try and pencil in some me time, much easier when the kids are at school, much harder when it’s the school holidays.
•  Small note books are a must for slipping in my bag, to jot down ideas, must do’s and any other “monkey brain” stuff that goes on. Personal favs are my sewing machine print, from Green Gables and my personalised “Awesome plans” by Who ate my crayons.  
• Hard backed notebooks, now I have quite a selection, in all different sizes. They all have a different role, from sketch book, general note making, and the one that I always keep on the cutting out table for making notes on new products/costings, I love this one from Charlotte Macy and features one of her beautiful printed fabrics. I have another, slightly larger one for blog/photo/product ideas, big enough for me to sketch out ideas and layouts.

• 

  A selection of note books that I currently use, functional doesn't have to be ugly!

  So there you go, that is how I'm surviving (or not) the summer holidays whilst working from home x

A little self improvment

Just before the madness of Christmas kicked in last year, I treated myself.

Shock, horror, something for me! not the kids, or hubby or even the house... ME

I booked myself onto Lyndsey James photocraft course. 

Lyndsey, for those who don't know, is an extremely talented photographer who specialises in the creative industries. I stumbled across Lyndsey's work not long after I started Elm Tree Studio, and surfing through facebook land I noticed her work on one of my favorite pages. Realising that my products were never going to sell through my photography skills, I knew that I needed help.

Last year, I went on one of Lyndsey's workshops in order to finally use my late fathers camera, a supa dupa Canon SRL. After just a couple of hours, cocooned in a gorgeous manor house in Ashbourne, Derbyshire I was snapping away, and producing shots that I loved...

I learnt to do foreground blur,background blur, lighting, using a tripod! Really everything that I needed to know for the types of shots I wanted to take for my business. The full course was two days, with the camera skills being on day one and photo styling on the second. Unfortunately, due to childcare, I couldn't do the second day, boohoo
So although my photography skills were and still are improving, I wasn't quite getting the style and feel of my images right. They didn't feel me

Learning to use my camera

Just before Christmas, Lyndsey posted about a new online e-course....

Photo styling, online, learning at my own pace, no childcare to worry about..... I signed up straight away!

Armed with my goody bag, notebook and camera, I spent two weeks gazing at my computer, scribbling notes, printing off lessons, raiding B&Q for wallpaper samples, ordering Annie Sloan paint samples, cutting, sticking, making pinterest boards..... ooh it felt like I was back at college, and I enjoyed every second.

Making a style board 

Painting props

Playing with styling

My essential sewing kit

I still have a way to go, and I'm still working through the lessons, but with each photo I take, my shots are improving, I'm liking the style, they feel me.

A new and improved product photo

So, if you want to learn how to take fabulous photos of your craft sign up now to one of photocraft online or real life workshops, you will have a wonderful time and learn lots of new skills.

To find out more, visit www.photocraft.org 

http://www.photocraft.org/

Sunshine and pretty flowers

Today has been all about taking some photos of products and picking flowers from the garden.

I try to take pictures of all the orders that I make, sometimes it's just a snapshot for my reference and others, like today it, it was a style shoot as an order was in a different colourway to what I normally do.

wedding table tags available from www.elmtreestudio.co.uk

I love to see flowers picked from the garden put into jam jars and milk bottles, as I find that garden flowers often have short stems and my vases are all quite large.

I like to "pretty up" my containers with scrapes of linen, lace, ribbon and vintage style letter stamps. It's so simple to do, I just fix the ribbon or whatever I'm using with some double sided tape to keep everything in place. If I'm using fabric scraps, simply iron a hem (no need to sew)to make a neat edge. Layer ribbon or lace over the top and fix again with tape.

The small glass bottle (which we found when digging the foundations of our new home!) has some linen ribbon and pink ricrac wrapped around. 

Now my home is filled with the heady scent of lilacs, my favorite flower... I will be sad to leave this behind when we move, but an excuse for buying some more, one of which I will plant near the kitchen window to allow the scent to billow through.

I must admit that most of the flowers in my garden are pinks and lilacs.....

Allium holladicum, lilac superba, aquilegia vulgaris, aquilegia winky , geranium sanguineum

But then there are splashes of blue....

Forget-me-nots

And orange.....

These zesty orange poppies give a fantastic pop of colour

And of course, daisy's, a must for teaching Chloe the joys of making daisy chains.....

Daisy, daisy.....

New home and vintage love

Well, we have sold our house, so that means that it's full steam ahead on the building of our new forever home.....

This has me quite excited as that means shopping for new furniture and bits and bobs for the home, although as you can see from the photo, we still have a way to go.....

Well we have bricks.....

I have a love of vintage, especially textiles and have been lucky enough to have been sent a wonderful parcel from my great aunt..... 

Lots of lovely linens, lace, collars, tray cloths........

I have been looking for inspiration and there are a couple of artists work which I admirer greatly for their use of vintage materials. 

The first being the lovely and gorgeous Marna from little a designs 
Marna, takes vintage linens and works some kind of magic to turn them into stunning artwork, with a stitch here and a button there.

One of Marna's fabulous hoop artworks http://www.littleadesigns.co.uk/shop/little-p-frames/


This is a chair that I have been lusting over ever since I first discovered this page.....
Kelly Swallow breathes new life into chairs and sofas using a variety of new, pre-loved and vintage fabrics... 
I can just see this chair snuggled into the corner of the family room......



This wonderful 1925 chair re-covered in vintage flour sacks from http://www.kellyswallow.co.uk/

For all those little nic-nak's there are some wonderful vintage and retro pages in the world of Facebook. 

Another wonderful lady, is Vicky from Love Vintage... Love Retro... http://www.facebook.com/retrogirlie

Vicky also has a weakness for vintage buttons and textiles that could send me all of a flutter if I every got to see it all in "real" life.... I love the collection of blue pieces below, espeacally as we are looking at having a blue and cream kitchen/family room. Vicky sells her carefully chosen pieces through her eBay shop http://stores.ebay.co.uk/retro-girlies-retro-gems

A selection of blues from http://www.facebook.com/retrogirlie

Another of my favorite pages in the world of Facebook is  Milly & Dottie's Emporium

I have been lucky enough to purchase a few things from their wonderful treasure trove of a website. http://www.millyanddottie.com/

A lovely vintage child's cup and saucer that I purchased to use as a prop in my photographs

A vintage tin fulled to bursting with threads.....

I hope that you have enjoyed my vintage picks..... Please pop over to have a browse (and maybe a little cheeky purchase) from these wonderful pages.....

Love Kirsty x

Back to making clothes, again......

Well the sewing bee had me well and truly inspired, strange as I sew nearly every day, but I hadn't made clothes for a long time. I think the last time that I actually made anything to wear was when I was at college studying fashion and textiles, nearly 20 years ago!!!! ooh now that makes me feel old!

After my little Miss Chloe was born, I really wanted to start making little clothes again, following in my mothers foot steps who made nearly all of my clothes when I was little, more from necessity than just wanting to.

I bought two lovely Oliver + S patterns from http://www.fabrichq.co.uk/ last summer, and even though I kept getting them out, and looking for fabric in my HUGE fabric stash, I kept putting it off.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I took the plunge!

I chose a lovely pale pink ditsy floral cotton, which I picked up from Leicester market while back and started......

Oliver + S patterns have a lovely vintage feel about them

I decided to do the little top version of the dress, as Miss Chloe is not a dress person....

The pattern was easy to understand and it quickly came together, although I do want to make another with some changes.... I would sew up the side seams and underarm seams with a french seam rather then the single machine stitch which I edged with my overlocker, as I feel that it would look better and have a more professional finish. I was always taught at college that the insides should be finished to the same standard as the outside....

Anyway the top has been a huge success as Chloe has worn it a number of times, and I had great fun making it, yes it would of been cheaper to pop to primark and pick up a £3 top but would I rather have something that was made with love, something that had been made by me for my daughter with love and devotion in every stitch. 

The finished top, made with love in every stitch...

Right, I'm off to raid the fabric stash to make another..... Happy sewing.

Love Kirsty x