Prints Charming

Prints Charming @ Koskela

Prints Charming workshops @ Koskela.   Koskela, crafters of beautiful locally made furniture and purveyors of all things good taste, have just opened the doors to their new space in Roseberry. And space is the word, so much so that they have created a purely creative  workshop area, and we are excited  to have been asked to host our screen printing and embroidery workshops here, over the next couple of months.  You must plan your worshop around a visit to Kitchen by Mike, in the same space. Enjoy the freshest of fresh dishes and wonderful coffee either before or after your class, or both! Book early as places are limited ring Koskela on 9280 0999 or email info@koskela.com.au Paper Cut Screen Printing Workshops At Prints Charming we develop most of our original designs using a paper cut method of screen printing. We love this method as it allows you great freedom and gives immediate satisfying results. In this class we explore the possibilities of this useful method of printing. The classes will cover: Learning how to set up your own print table at home. Motif design in relation to this technique of screen printing. ie positive and negative designs, as well as floating piece designs. Applying motif to screen and printing using the over lapping of colours and screens. By the end of the class you will have an understanding of this technique and will be able to further develop at home on a small or large scale. You will print on white “prepared for print” fabric with up to four colours. Cost of each three hour class is $140.00 and includes all that you will need to create your fabric. Please wear clothing you won’t mind getting inky! Bring along some simple motif ideas of your own or we can help with ideas on the day. No experience necessary, prepared to become hooked! Dates and times for screen printing Thursday 17th May 10am - 1pm Saturday 26th May 1pm - 4pm Saturday 9th June 1pm - 4pm Thursday 14th June 10am - 1pm Saturday 30th June 1pm - 4pm  Book early as places are limited ring Koskela on 92800999 or email info@koskela.com.au Embroidery Sampler Workshops   Thread a needle and start stitching! We love embroidery and the way it adds so much colour and texture to fabric, it is the most creative way to paint with thread. The “sampler” has long been the method of learning  your embroidery stitches, we’ve updated the look but the stitches are still the same. Come along to these two workshops, learn the stitches and you’ never look at fabric the same again! Cost of Class $90 for the two classes, hand printed linen sampler panel and threads for class. Extra threads can be purchased to suit your colour choices. Dates Thursday 31st May, 10am -12pm, and Thursday 21st June, 10am - 12pm Book early as places are limited ring Koskela on 92800999 or email info@koskela.com.au   Kids Class! - Screen Printed Bag It's the kids turn to screen print! Come along to this class and print your own calico bag with your own one colour paper cut design . After printing we’ll get you embellishing your bag with some simple stitching, buttons and braids.  Ages 8-12. Cost of class  $50.00 includes all that you’ll need.  You may not get the bag decorated completely, but you’ll have everything you need to carry on at home, impressing all who see!  Hurry - only ten  per class!  Just bring your imagination. Date: Saturday 9th June 10am-12pm Book early as places are limited ring Koskela on 92800999 or email info@koskela.com.au  Prints Charming PO Box 48 Westgate NSW, 2048 AUSTRALIA Ph: 02 9564 0207                Fax: 02 8246 6330 Int'l: +61 2 9564 0207 info@printscharming.com.au This email has been sent by permission. To be removed from this mailing list, please click on the link below, or reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Unsubscribe me from this list

 

 

Kids getting crafty.

On a rare sunny saturday morning two weeks ago we held our first kids screen printing class. And what fun it was! Ten keen young printers, who designed their own motifs, then printed straight onto a calico bag. We were so impressed, how at ease with the process, all of the girls were.

Printing done so let's get stitching.

The enthusiasm and anything can be done attitude of all the girls was wonderful, and we will holding more kids classes for sure!

It has been raining ALOT in Sydney lately and out side activities have been on hold, and a couple of old crafting fav's have been rediscovered. Who remembers the joy of balsa wood? How easy it was to cut and glue into anything you could imagine.

Toby's amazing pirate ship in progress. Will be splendid when finished! Ooo arrr..

And Lucy has taken on granny square crocheting with the plan of having this finished by winter, think it just might be.

It's so great to see the pride all kids have in anything they've made themselves. Maybe we don't mind the rain!

Cath and Kirsten

 

Thank You.

Our Daisy Chain samples have been on a world tour, now glad to be back home and on display at Calico and Ivy. Thank you to all our Prints Charming friends that popped in on Saturday afternoon, to say hello and chat, at what we know is a very busy time of year. Those in the know, know you're never too busy for a bit of fabric shopping!

Thank you to Sarah for hosting a lovely afternoon. 

Best Wishes

Cath and Kirsten

Slide Show

What a trip down memory lane we've been having, happily trawling through 100's of photos we have taken over the years that Cath and I have been Prints Charming. The slides we've been putting together are to show at our workshops we are about to hold at Purl Soho, The Urban Craft Center and Sew Modern. Hope you enjoy the reminisce with us. 

    Our first shop in Lilyfield. Tiny but wonderful. circa 2005

 Same little shop, Piper Street. It was while at Piper St that we designed and launched our first range, Birds Of a Feather for Free Spirit.

 

 

The two family's in our fab old printing shed, with the first delivery of Birds of a Feather, surely we both still look that young!

More photos from the archives over the next week or so.

 

Prints Charming On Tour

Hints have been appearing on our blog, glimpses of new designs and maybe travel destinations?

 Prints Charming is releasing a new fabric line and PC is going on tour!

Daisy Chain is the name of our new line and we are thrilled to be releasing this new line with Kokka Fabrics. “Starting with the notion of ‘70’s summers, love birds nesting in fields of daisy’s, spots and stripes decorating their world. Layers of colour create hexagon lakes, and strung form tree to tree chains of daisies brighten up the rose tinted skyline.”

Embroidery has become a distinct part of the Prints Charming look over the last few years, it is the most creative way to paint with thread, and while designing this new range we were always excitedly thinking of the different stitches we could use here and there.

Our classes are the perfect way for us to share our love of screen printing and embroidery and we are excited packing up our trunks and taking a little bit of Prints Charming and Daisy Chain to The States in October.  So for all of you in America that have patiently read our newsletters about our classes in Sydney you now have the chance! Bookings can be made directly with each of these fabulous stores.

Purl Soho in New York is our first stop for The Daisy Chain launch and an embroidery workshop. We are so excited about spending an evening in this wonderful NY store.  If this is your local or you are close we’d love to meet you, we will be stitching up a storm on October the 11^th.

After a few days exploring NY (the to-do list is long) we are taking Daisy Chain to Los Angeles.

The wonderful thing about the internet is the way we can all travel and be inspired by fellow crafters. We have been “visiting” these stores on-line for a while and now we are visiting for real!

The Urban Craft Center in LA, what a resource if you’re in the neighborhood?  We will be at UCC October 14^th for chat and trunk show. Then on Sunday and Monday we get the screen printing gear out for workshops.

Sew Modern we love their fresh contemporary take on quilting and sewing, so if you’re lucky enough that this is your local fabric shop, again we’d love to meet you. October the 15^th is the date for your diary. We will be holding an embroidery workshop and all the samples we’ve made with Daisy Chain will be on display.

The PC blog and web have been given a new “Daisy Chain“ look. We will be blogging our tour so please drop on by and check it out.  Any handy hints on wonderful places to visit??

Our shop will be off line from the 23^rd September till the 28^th October. We apologize for any delay in answering emails whilst we are away during these dates.

Looking forward to meeting fellow crafters!

Cath and Kirsten 

 

New Decoration Kits

The combination of embroidery and hand printing is becoming more and more a part of Prints Charming. Our Christmas Decoration Kits combine the two wonderfully, making it easy for you to create individual decorations as gifts for family and friends. Embroider your name and date on the back to make the gift even more special and memorable for the lucky receiver. Now is the perfect time to start stitching your decorations and this year, our third year of designing these kits, we’ve chosen wonderful coloured linen to print on.

 

Each kit comes with the hand printed panel of twelve motifs, beautiful bright mini spot backing fabric, three skeins of floss thread to get you on your way, and a handy stitch guide. We also put in a photo sheet in to inspire your creativity. Wonderful also as presents for your crafty friends. Two colour ways await your embellishing. Pink with lush raspberry motifs and lovely lime with aqua motifs. Kits cost $60.00 plus postage.

 

 

We will be holding a full day workshop to learn stitches and then how sew together your decorations. Handy tips will be shared along the way: how to clip your decorations after sewing, how to make multi coloured cord for hanging, among others. To be held at a friend's fabulous studio, 54 Renwick Street, Marrickville on Friday the 2nd of September from 10am-2pm. We will provide lunch, coffee and tea and make sure you stop to enjoy it, as we all know how addictive the stitching can become! Cost for the day including lunch and Kit is $120.00.

 

Email us on info@printscharming.com.au or ring on 02 95640207 to book your place or order a kit.

 

Busy printing PC packs!

Thank you for all the lovely comments on our PC packs and the Sew-it-Together PC Pack Skirt Sewalong! More and more skirts are popping up - see Sheridan's, Gillian's, Lara's and Megan's. They are all just beautiful.

Lots of people have been asking where they can get a PC pack of their own... the good news is that we have been busy printing more this past week. If you are in Sydney and visiting the Craft & Quilt Show at Darling Harbour next week, stop by the Kelani Fabric stand at G40 - there will be lots of PC packs available there. For those of you who are out of town, we can post you a pack. Drop us an email on info@printscharming.com.au, and let us know which colours take your fancy: pinks, blues, neutrals, greens or lucky dip!!! We can ship world wide, no trouble. Packs are $35.00 (Australian) plus postage.

We're looking forward to seeing more creations made from them soon... if you have a finished project you can share it on our Facebook Page  or send us an email!

PC packs

Have you seen our PC packs? They are little bags of treasures... definitely not remnants or scraps, but specially printed bundles of our favourite colours and prints, ready to be made up into something wonderful by you. Every one is a unique mixture of colours and prints, so it's a bit like a lucky dip.

We've seen them used so many ways... in quilts, to upholster a chair, and in clothing. The packs were one of the most popular things when the Sew It Together girls came to visit us at the studio, and some of them are using them to make skirts like the one Kirsten was wearing on the day.

Karen & Donna are organising a Prints Charming skirt sew-a-long, with a step-by-step posts describing how to make your skirt. You can see some of the beautiful finished skirts here and here, and posts describing how to make your own here.

Have you made something from a PC pack? Leave us a comment, email a photo or send us a link... we'd love to see it!

block of the month

In 2010 we worked on an embroidery block of the month project for Addicted to Fabric, a wonderful Canberra patchworking and sewing store. We designed six exclusive embroidery blocks, and the group met monthly to work on them (and chat and swap ideas too, of course).

Recently the group had a reunion to show off their finished pieces - they all look wonderful. It is great to see how the blocks inspired lots of different styles of stitching.

Here are two very different but beautiful versions of one block:

A2F will be running a Block of the Month project again in 2011, starting soon, so if you are in Canberra and would like to stitch along then get in touch for details. A big thank you to Jenny and also to Kerry and Sam for sharing photos and making it all possible.

Screen Printing in the Studio

Cath hard at work in the studio printing our bird panels. Remember how clean and white our table cover was? It didn't last long! The new layer of colours and shapes gives you a glimpse of some things we've been working on.