Personalised Wedding Notebooks - Commissions for Jayne

I was recently commissioned to make two wedding notebooks for two couples who are getting married abroad this year.  One wedding was to be in Cyprus and one in Crete.

The lady who commissioned them, Jayne, is attending both and wanted to give the couples a reminder, not just of their weddings, but also of the enormous amount of planning and organisation that goes into that happy day.

My wedding notebook standard design features bride and groom outfits on the front with personalised details of the wedding eg names and dates.

 The back is a design personal to the couple.  Jayne asked for maps of the islands on which the weddings will take place..

If you are looking for an engagement present with a difference, contact me at sue@rubypatch.co.uk to commission your personalised wedding notebook.

VW Beetle Ipad Mini Cosy with Personalised Design

Recently I had a message on my Etsy shop from a lady in Columbus, Ohio who is beetle mad.  Not the creepy crawly kind of beetles but the VW car type.  She asked if I could customise my normal VW Beetle Ipad mini cosy design to make it look like her car, Sunshine.

This is my standard design case.  

Sunshine the VW Beetle is bright yellow with a smiley face on the front and daisies scattered all over the body work.

As my design is a front view, there was nowhere for me to feature the daisies that are all over the sides of the car.  To make sure the case featured these, I covered the plain brown linen background fabric with little daisies and lined the case with a daisy design fabric too.

It was lovely to be able to customise my design.  If you are interested in ordering a bespoke Ipad mini or Kindle cosy, contact me at sue@rubypatch.co.uk  

Embroidered Portrait - The Yethouse, Newcastleton

Last summer we went on holiday to the Scottish Borders and stayed in a gorgeous farmhouse called The Yethouse.  Owned by a lovely lady called Barbara who lives next door it had the best standard of accommodation and furnishings we have experienced in a long, long time.  

Remotely set but within walking distance of the village, the house is right next to the Seven Stanes mountain bike trails and also a Rock UK centre offering a wide range of outdoor activities for all members of the family.


On returning from our lovely holiday, I completed a commissioned picture of the photo above and this was the result:

Barbara's was delighted with the picture and it is now hanging in the Yethouse for visitors to see.

If you are interested in commissioning a portrait of your home, favourite building or landmark, please contact me at sue@rubypatch.co.uk .

Embroidered Notebooks - Lots of stuff posted very late!

Once again I have been guilty of neglecting my blog.  

No excuses, straight onto news!

In the last few months I have been changing my products, introducing new ones and removing some old ones.  Over the last year it has become obvious that my most popular ranges are the notebooks and framed pictures.

I have therefore been concentrating on these and phasing out some of the less popular (and smaller) items.  

Here's a little collage of my most recent notebooks.  I'll post more about them and in more detail later.

Many of my notebook designs are bespoke.  They allow me to product new original designs and this keeps me interested and also gives me the patience to produce my standard lines (gardening, recipes, sewing and travel) without getting too bored!

You can find my notebooks and artwork for sale via my Etsy shop , my website or on Make the Most of. 

Alternatively, if you would like to discuss a bespoke design or would just like to order direct, please email me at sue@rubypatch.co.uk  

Additional Notebook Designs

I thought it was about time I posted an update on what I've been getting up to lately.  After developing the range of notebooks I have posted about previously, I have been asked for a number of custom designs too.

At a craft fair recently, a lady asked me if I would design an A6 notebook cover so that she could record her grandson Tiaan's speech development.  As she provides child care for him, his parents were keen for her to keep a record of the new words and phrases he learned in their absence.  I thought this was a lovely idea and would make a great keepsake.  Here's the finished item.

I have also designed some customised A5 notebook covers for teacher's gifts.  My niece is leaving middle school this summer and wanted special gifts for her two teachers.  I was pleased with the results but they were completely unique to the individual and therefore some of the motifs will not make sense to people that don't know them.

Who knows what notebooks designs will be next.....  Well it is possible that one might be entitled 'Soapy Notes'.  My friend Deborah, who owns Peculiar People soap and beauty products wants a notebook to reflect the soap making process.  That will definitely be a challenge!

Journals

My new range of journals and notebooks is now half complete.  I have designed and made four of them so far and I am really pleased with them.  There will be another four to complete the range but they are still 'in development'.

Although I have made notebook covers before,  they had covers that were based on a very simple applique design.  This time I approached it differently.  The cover designs the purpose of the notebook/journal.

The first is a recipe notebook.  It features a kitchen scene with a cupboard and an aga.






The second design is my favourite as it is a sewing  notebook based on my own workstation.  My sewing machine isn't actually flowery but other than that, the design is quite faithful to the original!




The third design is a travel journal.  It is quite a feminine design with a sun hat on a deckchair next to a cool drink on a little table.  One of the designs I will be working on soon will be a more masculine travel journal.




And the final design so far is a gardening notebook.  I wasn't sure of this design at first but it has really grown on me and is now possibly my favourite so far.




The notebook covers are all A5 size and I supply them with a hardback lined notebook.  They are for sale on the Make the Most of website and in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/uk/shop/rubypatch

New Products

The last couple of months have been quite eventful in the world of Ruby Patch.  I have had to take a lot of time off from sewing due to a particularly nasty stomach virus which was a real blast.  Nausea is really not conducive to creativity.  So the great plans I had for developing new products were badly delayed.

I have felt a lot better in the last week or two and consequently productivity has increased.  In addition, I was invited to become an artisan on Make the Most of, a site which supports the sale of hand made, artisan and designer products.  All in all, I am feeling really positive about developing the business.

The first new products I have been working on are storage boxes and bowls.  Using recycled denim and cotton, I tried a square and round bowl to see which would be quickest to make.  The two trial runs were successful with the square shape being quicker to put together but this one used a lot more fabric.  The bowl with the circular base was quite attractive but fiddly to put together.

After buying some lovely new linens and cotton linings, my next attempt was a square box with handles.  This was quite successful but still used a lot of fabric and interfacing.

I then went onto bowls with circular bases.  I have make three of these and they were all successful.  There were lovely to make until it was time to add the bases.  This became more tedious the more I did.  I am still undecided whether to continue making these as I may end up rushing them in frustration and spoiling the finish.  I cannot see my patience improving if I know I have to make a number of these!

Anyway, here are the three that I made.