My 2016 Calendar Design - various and sundry items adorned with, and links to such!

I recently created my 2016 Calendar design for this years Spoonflower Tea Towel Competition - thank you to all the lovelies who voted for me there :)

 and now it's live and ready to be purchased on items big and small.

At Spoonflower you can buy a fat quarter of Linen (27" x 18") for a wonderfully large sized Tea Towel - you will have to sew the edges yourself but then you have a great 'homemade' gift for the coming gift giving season - click HERE to go to my shop.

At Etsy shop you can purchase my Calendar on

SHOWER CURTAINS - a witty way to know the day and date first thing in the morning - a WALL HANGING - up to 88" x 104" - a wonderful and attractive gift for a business, dorm room or home office!

A blank inside small, neat NOTEBOOK journal (5.2" x 7.3")

Calendar on the front cover - Blue Rhapsody textile design on the back. 

And as framed and unframed PRINTS:

Thanks for stopping by - as always I can customize, to a certain extent, many of my products so just be in touch via FACEBOOK - or there's a message form/box in the right sidebar of this log, and I'll see what I can do!

PATRICIASHEADESIGNS

Holiday Recipe Round Up - because some need to be made early, some need practice and some could be for Thanksgiving too!

Making a traditional Christmas Fruit Cake is quite the undertaking - you have to round up all those lovely ingredients, which could include making your own candied/glaceed citrus peel then you have to bake it nice and early - like right now - and store it in a nice tight cake tin to develop it's lovely favours then a few days before the day itself you need to cover it in marzipan and ice it with Royal Icing - so thus the post at this time of the year. Click on the name below to go to the recipe in my blog archives:

IRISH CHRISTMAS CAKE - CISTE NOLLAG

Here's a recipe for one you could bake much closer to Christmas if you don't have time to do it now:

LAST MINUTE GOLDEN CRIMBLY CAKE

...and then there's the Christmas Pudding - which should traditionally be made on Stir-Up Sunday - this year it falls on November 22nd - again this is a recipe that really improves with aging.

The hearty ingredients for a very traditional Christmas Pudding

CHRISTMAS PUDDING OR PLUM PUDDING?

My personal favourite:

NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS PUDDING

Full of wonderful New England ingredients like cranberries and pumpkin and with a good dash of tea soaked raisins - yum!!!

 An unusual pudding:

STEAMED APRICOT HOLIDAY PUDDING 

This could become a Thanksgiving holiday tradition?

Here's is a play on Christmas Puddings and is a quick and easy make for anytime over the holiday season:

MINI CHRISTMAS PUDDING DRIED FRUIT BALLS

 This little delight might need some practice to make perfect but is always an impressive site when brought ceremonially to the after dinner table:

YULE LOG or BUCHE de NOEL

 And last but certainly not least the wonderful anytime of the year but especially on Christmas Day or New Year's Eve - a luscious confection of jelly (I made mine vegetarian) English custard, homemade Ladyfingers and lashings of whipped cream:

 CHERRY AND GINGER TRIFLE

'Tis the season to enjoy baking and cooking and cosy toes cups of tea by the fire - so please have fun!!

PATRICIA SHEA DESIGNS

Spoonflower 2 for 1 fat quarters and Sprout Patterns!

 Hooray - it's the most wonderful time of the year over at Spoonflower where until Tuesday Nov. 12th you can buy 2 fat quarters of any of my fabric for the price of one - and you don't have to limit yourself to how many fat quarters you buy to avail yourself of this fine offer - buy 4 for the price of 2 - buy 8 for the price of 4. PLUS you no longer have to create an account or log in to my SPOONFLOWER SHOP - you can now purchase as a guest!

The two collections picture here are some of my recent design additions to my SPOONFLOWER SHOP

Not all of these designs pictured above are yet available for sale but if you drop me a line I can make sure they are for sale before the Tuesday deadline. Thanks!

Of course the fat quarter sale works best for my 2016 Tea Towel competition entry (thanks to everyone who voted for my design) so you get 2 tea towels for the price of one - you do still have to cut out and sew the edges of the towel but then you have two homemade gifts for this coming holiday season.

And here's a fun new way for the sewers amongst you to use my Spoonflower textile designs - SPROUT PATTERNS!

Here is a mock up of a Sprout Pattern for a short Anna dress with my Elizabethan Quartrefoil design.....

 and here's how Sprout Patterns works:

So you create an account at Sprout, or, if you already have a Spoonflower account you can log in with that e-mail and password, then select a clothing pattern and chose a textile design from Spoonflower - hopefully one of mine, and to find the number of one of my designs you would have to go to my SPOONFLOWER SHOP  first - chose the design you want to use then locate the number at the end of the pattern url address - for instance the pattern above is http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/4584531 - so the pattern number you need to plug in at Sprout would be 458431 and ta dah my Elizabethan Quartrefoil shows up and you buy my design already laid out on the fabric in the pattern pieces ready to cut and sew - no messing about with paper patterns! How amazing is that?

"With Sprout, simply choose your sewing pattern from our curated collection of indie patterns, then fill the pattern with your fabric design of choice from Spoonflower’s marketplace. Select your size, features and fabric, then relax while your order is printed by Spoonflower and shipped to you. You will receive a package that includes a digitally printed custom sewing pattern—all you need to do is cut and sew!" Sprout Patterns

 Here is a lay out in 2 of my designs for the Lined Zipper Pouch at Sprout - one pattern inside, one pattern outside:

I recently purchased this layout - I'll make up the pouch and post here for you to see!

The way the world of print on demand is going is so very exciting for an indie surface designer like myself - the tools available to me today to create my own items from my own hand painted designs to sell to an appreciative buying public is astonishing and things are being added so often it makes me smile from ear to ear!!

**I love to create my textile designs at rather a large scale - I do have a fondness for oversized designs but I am more than happy to rescale a design for you if you wish to see any of my designs smaller - just drop a line or post to my Facebook page HERE** Thanks!!

CHRISTMAS ORDERING DEADLINES
for Spoonflower 
 - of course always order as soon as you can but this is the guide for 2015:

 

Thanks for taking a look - PATRICIA SHEA DESIGNS