just the card

My creative endeavour this week which i'm sharing with all those amazing folk at kootoyoo, has been involved in the making of my next range of occasion cards for the fantastic card company Art Press, who are truely eccentric about art! I've been designing for them for the last year and it has been a really wonderful experince and I feel very lucky to work with them.

Busy Baby Days (c) Rowe 2010

I feel like i've climbed another mountain today and i've actually added the beautiful Occasion cards that i've designed to my website.

Tiny Pitta Patta (c) C. Rowe 2010

I've designed and am in the middle of making the next range right now, but felt so excited about the one's that have already been published I wanted to share the moment!
I promise to post more photographs of my current work, but you know how it is when your camera is in another place in the house to you, you've a freah mug of coffee to hand and your chair is really too comfy to leave!

my creative space

Having a back up plan .... my creative space as pictured above, is this week void of my sewing machine, which is being serviced, nothing unusual i'm glad to say. It wasn't making funny noises or missing stitches, it's just gone in for an annual service to keep it healthy, running smoothly and all things ship shape and tickety boo.


But it has meant that i've got to use my trusty older Bernina. This is where it lives in my studio full time I don't pack it away, it's always out, just in case. It has it's own spot light, thread box and tool kit.


Here is a close up of the little shelves I use for all it's bits and pieces, it could do with a lick of paint. Perhaps that'll be next week's project. Don't you just love kilner jars! These ones here have my precious collection of prized pearl buttons in them.



This is the space where my usual Bernina sits, gazing out across the table top of fabrics to it's older counterpart in the distance.


I couldn't resist putting up a few pics of the bright cotton reels and fabrics in the studio. They all look so yummy together, I could actually just sit and tidy them up all day, arranging them into different classifications.... dark to light, spots, stripes, florals, geometric, vintage, new..... the options are endless. Rows of potential projects!


For more wonderful creative spaces and inspiration go over to kootoyoo. A truely wonderful place where crafty folk meet each week to share their latest projects and inspiration.

Happy stitching.

Cat x

from the sketchbook

This week i've been keeping it small. Time just seems to fly past and i'm always trying to find ways to capture the moments, minutes and ideas that might just make the basis for a great piece of work.

It's also been ages since I posted any of my sketchbok pages and thought it would be nice to share some today.


The pages are taken from my pocket sized notebook (3 1/2 inches x 5 1/2 inches) an old molskine diary that I chopped up once it became out-of-date. Bound a selection of new pages of my favorite watercolour paper (300gms rough) and re-housed them in the old covers of the molskine diary.
I found this way of recycling and reusing notebooks to be a really satisfactory way of guaranteeing the perfect sketchbook. They feel and sit perfectly in my hands and fit like a dream into their own pocket inside my handbag.

I always label my notebooks and sketchbooks clearly, I would hate to loose one. So each one has my name, address and number in the front. I always date them too, I love knowing when I strted one and when I finish it. They sometimes live with me for so long, they become best friends and witnesses to everything, some of it will inevitably end up in their pages.


Lists, i'm forever writing them! I find they help make sense of everything that i've got to do and i'm able to prioritise work and ideas.


Oh! The wonderful Japanese MT tape, an incredible range of multi coloured and decorated masking tape. Looking at the little rolls together in their box just makes me happy! I think if you just google that, a list of suppliers in your country should appear. It took me ages to find a UK supplier and I know there are several now.


Doodles: a very important part my sketchbooks, I'm forever just jotting down ideas and pictures, they don't have to be wonderful or beautiful, just help me to remember what tickled my fancy or caught my eye!

If you have any questions or suggestions to help capture those moments then please feel free to email or post below.

Happy Sketching,

Cat x