Folk festival

 This pretty blue and white folk-inspired design is the perfect print for making into a cosmetic bag.

A melange of blue quirky reindeer and stylised florals sit on a crisp white background.

This bag is lightly padded with a blue and white polka dot lining and has a zipper closure to keep its contents safe.

Use it as a cosmetic bag, gadget pouch handbag organiser or pencil case.

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So soba

 When I first moved to Japan, the idea of eating cold soba noodles wasn't very appealing, until I tried them for the first time on a hot Tokyo summer day, and I loved them! The noodles are clean and fresh-tasting and are served on a bamboo tray, with a dashi, soy and mirin dipping sauce and garnish such as spring onions and daikon.

Whilst living in Japan I collected the soba cups that the dipping sauce is served in. They are the perfect size for serving dips in, or for serving snacks such as nuts. Needless to say, I stocked up on a few whilst I was living there.

I love the soba cups so much that I decided to create a soba cup design for my Spoonflower shop. I've included an array of designs from simple geometrics to pretty florals and bamboo leaves.

I've created two background colours, one on a clean white ground and the other on a dark navy ground.

Blue and white

I love blue and white pottery and decided to create some crockery-inspired designs for my Spoonflower shop. Old English plates sit alongside Chinese-inspired vases and Japanese soba cups on a crisp white background.

This fabric can be bought by the yard on a variety of fabrics or bought as ready-made items. I love this large throw pillow.

The crockery also looks nice as flower pots and the addition of the green of the foliage adds an extra dimension to the design.

I love how the plant pots look on this circular tablecloth, perfect for a table in a conservatory or for alfresco dining.

Teacups are the perfect print for afternoon tea. Print it onto a table cloth to enhance your teatime experience.....

...or use it on these gorgeous little cocktail napkins, perfect for having with an afternoon cuppa, or serve it with an early evening G&T!

The pottery also looks nice as a mosaic effect and makes a great co-ordinate to the crockery design.

I've tried it on these napkins that would look great with the pot plant table cloth above.

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Damask reimagined

 I created this print a while ago for my Spoonflower shop. I wanted to create a traditional damask print that had some fun hidden elements. I love traditional folk designs and feel that their images lend themselves perfectly to being incorporated into a damask print, so chose a simple bird motif. On closer look, you can see there are quite a few birds nestled within the design. How many can you see?

This black and white colour palette makes quite a strong statement and works really well as a cushion cover. I could see it making a nice combination with other scatter cushions in solid bright jewel tones.

The turquoise and white colour palette is much softer and prettier.

It looks great on napkins, the perfect addition to a summer table setting.

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Cotton face masks

It's been a while since I've added anything new to my blog and the main reason for that is that I've been a tad busy! To fill my time during lockdown I decided to try my hand at making face masks and selling them in my shop and they seem to have taken off! They've been selling like hot cakes and I've been sewing like a mad woman to keep up with all the orders. Here's a little selection of the most popular items so far. Each one has a co-ordinating fabric on the back which makes it reversible.

Many of the fabrics I've used are Japanese or have been inspired by Japanese design, and blue and white is a lovely colour combination. The mask above is made from a blue and white cotton parasol fabric. The mask below is made from a blue and white floral fabric inspired by Japanese kimonos.

I couldn't not make a leopard print mask and this one comes in black and white.

Sausage dogs are always popular and this beige and black sausage dog mask has been flying out! It matches several items in my store such as cosmetic bag, glasses case and tissue holder.

Another popular Japanese image is this stork print that I designed a while ago. 

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Indigo by Makower UK

I was scrolling through Instagram recently when I came across some fabrics I designed recently for Makower UK! I saw them on the Fabric Worm Instagram page and they were so beautifully presented I just had to share them!

Each design has been created in two colourways, with most on a blue ground or a cream ground. All colours can be intermixed and all compliment each other. I included a mix of Japanese florals as well as a selection of other Japanese images such as koi fish and temples.

I've been a textile designer for many years, but I still get a thrill when I see my designs. I especially like these ones as they are inspired by the indigo fabrics and designs of Japan. I lived in Japan for four years and often found myself gravitating towards the soft, muted blues of the indigo-dyed fabrics there - the older the better!

I have designed a few Japanese-inspired collections for Makower UK over the years (which you can see here) and this time I was excited to use the indigo palette as my starting point.

In conjunction with this collection, Lynne Goldsworthy designed a quilt pattern and I was so pleased with the outcome. It really shows off the Indigo designs well.

True blue

I'm always on the hunt for new inspiration and when I decided to start a new design project based on blue and white pottery, I headed off to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford to get inspired.

Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is the museum of art and archeology for the University of Oxford. It contains collections ranging form Egyptian mummies to modern art and is a great place to spend a few hours pottering about and getting inspired. I love the modern interior which marries perfectly with the traditional architecture of the exterior.

I spent most of my time on the second floor which is called 'West Meets East'. It showcases ceramics from China, Japan and Europe as well as many other amazing items.

It wasn't until I started looking properly that I realised how many cultures have used blue and white pottery through history. It makes it amazingly varied as a project idea.

I'm always looking for an interesting motif or a novel layout. I love the simple yet sophisticated placement of the image on the plate, above left. The floral uses up a small amount of the plate, so that the negative space is just as important as the image itself. The plate below uses a stunning image of a dragon. I'm now wondering how I could incorporate a dragon into one of my designs!

I love the shape of the two vases below and could see them working well as circular cushion designs.

Most collections I design contain three or four main designs, but the collection also holds together better with smaller co-ordinates. The two images below show some great co-ordinate ideas. The plate on the left almost has the feel of a patchwork design, incorporating a selection of small geometrics.

I love the idea of combining cultures within one collection and enjoy the challenge of how I approach this, whilst creating an interesting and cohesive group. Below is a little taster of my first design for this blue and white collection - a selection of blue and white pottery!

Something fishy

Yesterday I mentioned some fishy little sweets I'd been given. These inspired me to make some fishy items for my store, and here they are! It's a coin purse and tissue holder combo, made from a gorgeous little Japanese cotton blue and white fish and bubbles design. I decided to give it a contrasting red and white spotty lining for a flash of colour.

Can you spot the little red fish amongst the bubbles?

I decided to give it a contrasting red and white spotty lining.

You can find them both in my store here.

A new addition

I've recently been playing around with the idea of making a glasses case that has a metal closure and here is the first addition to my store! It's lightly padded and made from a fun blue and white stylised flower design, with a metal kiss clasp closure to keep the glasses safe.

I've added a fun multi colour leaf lining.

This case is big enough to fit large sunglasses like the ones shown, but could also be used as a makeup case, pencil case or as a gadget pouch.

You can find it in my store here.

Fabric Friday

This Friday's fabric choice is an ikat fabric that I'm thinking of using in the spare room of my new home. I decided to use a fresh blue and white colour scheme for this room as I already had the blue bedside tables and quite liked them. Sometimes it's nice to have some sort of colour reference to start with and the blue of the bedside tables matched perfectly with an ikat-inspired bedding set that I found in John Lewis. 

I recently inherited a bed for the spare room from a friend of mine and it came with a padded bed head. The only trouble is that the bedhead is covered in a red fabric which doesn't match my new colour scheme!

After much foraging through my fabric stash, I came across a beautiful blue and white ikat fabric that would be perfect for the job! Now I just have to be brave and give it a go. If anyone has any tips on the best way to do it, please let me know......

Atishoo!

We've been getting crafty here at Cheeky Leopard and now have a new addition to the Cheeky Leopard family - tissue cases! I've been playing with some fun fabric combinations and have rustled up a few cute cases to store tissues. Note the contrasting lining on each one that gives it a pop of extra colour. You can find them in my store here.

Anyone who knows Cheeky Leopard knows that we like a good cat print.

The two below are both quite quirky but sweet and are two fabrics I picked up when I was in Tokyo.

I also love a simplified animal prints in bold colours and the two below fit the description perfectly.

Nautical prints are fab and I love this navy anchor on a red and white striped ground.

Japanese juiciness

There's a bit of Japanese juiciness going on at Cheeky Leopard!

I've been busy making some lovely Japanese-inspired cosmetic bags. Each one uses a fabric that includes an image associated with Japan. These purses could be used for storing makeup, or as a gadget pouch for storing chargers. I use mine as a handbag organiser to store all the pesky small items that get lost in the bottom of my handbag.

This stork purse is made from furoshiki fabric. Furoshki is a wrapping cloth, used for wrapping gifts or for carrying groceries. I love the simple design of the storks and matched the red and white geometric lining to the red of the stork's legs.

This bag is made from a tenegui fabric (also a fabric used for wrapping presents etc) and depicts a simplified version of a daruma doll. The daruma doll is seen as a talisman for good luck!

I love this sumo purse! The images are fun and depict different sumo moves.

I gave it a black and white spotty lining.

I've used this blue and white stork fabric a few times and love its graphic image. I used a red and white polka dot lining that matches the red of their beaks.