Fabric Sampling & New Patterns...

Excitement here in the studio... our new pattern design (Agapanthus and Elderflower) arrived back from the printers for our colour sampling check stage. Two of them are absolutely perfect, so the Chartreuse & Olive and Cream & Stone are GO... we also have a charcoal colourway, which we are going to tweak again to get it just right!

... we're also loving our a*r cotton, which will be getting used in a very special way as part of our forthcoming Heirloom collection. Can you guess how? I keep giggling calling it our pirate fabric... ar! ;)

We (well, me!) are *seriously* excited to print some of the chartreuse for our living room - we have a new dark floor to go down, a wall to paint Olive and our new fabric to turn in to curtains (I have even spied a hot pink curtain rail that will bring out the hot pinks and purples in the flowers!)... maybe it will be our Christmas pressie to ourselves?!

These new lovelies will shortly be available as cushions in our shop... perhaps in around a month to six weeks. Stay tuned!

Bye for now!

Abigail @ a*r

A sneaky snippet...

...of our brand new pattern- being sent off for sampling in the next few days, we're hoping it'll be added to our range, as cushions and *cough* quilts (honestly- they're coming soon!) this autumn.

Four brand new colourways (stone, olive, charcoal and chocolate) and quite a different style of pattern to our existing range, we really hope you all like it as much as we do :)

Spiky, jutting elderflower leaves contrast with slim, elegant agapanthus blooms to create a pattern simultaneously regally traditional and strikingly contemporary. We've been playing with scale on this one, too...and, so far, there isn't a size when this one doesn't work!

You'll have to wait until after sampling before we show you any more than these little snippets...don't want to give the game away too soon :)

A different point of view...

A few nights ago, Abigail and I were having fun playing around with different shapes cut from our fabric to come up with new and exciting patterns for our (soon to be launched!) Patchwork cushions.

It was great, but we only had time to sew up a few before we had to dismantle the kitchen to have our new floor laid, so we quickly snapped some pics of our favourites to make sure we could replicate them. On taking the photos a strange thing happened...this block, which we both saw as a star as it lay on the table, suddenly became a very definite cross! It seemed so strange, and so interesting, that changing how we viewed the block, completely changed how we saw it... Have you ever had any experiences like this? We'd love to hear about them :)

The funny thing is we like it even better as a cross and it's been very inspirational. Now i'm really looking forward to taking the time to play around with our fabric shapes to come up with the perfect representation of a "nought" for a "Noughts and Crosses" or, even better, a "Hugs and Kisses" quilt!

I'll make sure to keep you all posted on how it turns out :)

ryan@abigail*ryan

This EXACT time last year...

...I had just finished the drawings that would become our Anemone and Rhododendron patterns. It really only seems like a couple of months ago, not a whole YEAR!!!...

So funny that at this exact time in 2010 I am drawing blooms again - this time for MORE teatowels.

Watch out... coming soon...

Dahlia :: Hydrangea :: Agapanthus

We're so excited to get to send them to print soon... but before then... more drawing to do tomorrow!! I'll share sneaks soon, 'kay?

Abigail@abigail*ryan