I have had a request from new blogger friend CraftyHelen on how I have made my printed words on my cushions etc.
The way I do it is to use BubbleJetSet and my home printer which is just an ordinary Canon ip3300, nothing special. There are easier ways to do it using printer fabrics which can be bought from ebay or any good craft shops. That is the easier way to do it, but it is limiting as the fabrics available are very limited.  I wanted to print on my own fabrics so decided to have a go. Bubble Jet Set is not available in many places, and I have only been able to buy it online. I found ebay quite expensive but then found it at George Weir, a craft shop online for about £9 per bottle. I think with the fabrics you buy already treated you get about 10 pieces for £10. With my Bubble Jet Set I got around 25 pieces of fabric printed, so it does work out cheaper, but you can get mixed results and it is a lengthy process which I feel would put a lot of people off. If you want to have an easy life I recommend the ready treated papers!
With Bubble Jet Set method you have to first cut out pieces of material in the size of paper your printer would take(mine is an A4 so obviously I cut out pieces of linen and cotton A4 size. I do have an A3 printer which I bought for Kate when she was doing Art A level, so I am thinking of trying printing with that printer). You then have to soak the pieces of fabric in the Bubble jet set solution. I used a new cat litter tray which was just right for the purpose. I then hung the pieces of fabric over the bath and let the excess drip back into the tray (therefore you dont waste any, and the bubble jet set is reusuable) You can then place the materials onto towels to speed up the drying process or use a hairdryer. Once dry you then go onto the next step.For this you  need something called Freezer paper, which again is available on ebay or craft stores and it is widely used in the crafting world for many purposes. You have to iron the freezer paper to your A4 size piece of fabric before putting the material into the printer. Depending on your fabric this can be a bit hit and miss. I tried various linens, and the best one was Laura Ashely natural linen which is quite smooth. I wanted to use my favourite white linen, but it was too thick for the printer, and I had some tricky times trying to get fabric out of my printer! I would recommend if you use this method, to try material with freezer paper before you use the Bubble Jet Set, therefore not wasting any of the solution on material which just wont go through your printer! Through trial and error I found that putting masking tape on the leading edge made the fabric feed through better, although again it was a bit hit and miss and sometimes I got some ink where I didnt want it!
I used different fonts and pictures onto a word or publisher program and just had fun experimenting.
After the ink has dried (best to leave for 24 hours) you then have to rinse the fabric in a solution of synthrapol, adelicate detergent,  (cost about £5 again from George Weir) which takes all the excess inks off. You only have to use a tiny few drops of this, and will probably last me a lifetime! You have to let this dry naturally, and when dry iron on the wrong side to set. It is a lengthy process and you may waste some fabric but I thought it was worth it to use my own fabrics. The Laura Ashley Linen in natural is my favourite, it takes pictures, photos and the written word lovely. I have printed some photos of my mum onto fabric, and will use these soon to decorate boxes where I will keep some memories of her.
Well Helen, I hope this hasnt put you off. Feel free to email me if you have any trouble finding the products or need help with anything.

Heres hoping we all have a much happier and healthier 2010. Ive been looking back over the last decade, there were some good things and some very bad and sad things (losing mum, Kates accident in 2003 which changed her life forever, have got to be the two absolute worse things that have happened in my entire life).

Heres wishing you all a merry Christmas and hope one and all has a happy, healthy New Year for 2010.

Fell rather sad and guilty today as a couple of herons or cranes have eaten 11 of my fish.  Noticed this morning that rather a lot of water was missing but didnt realise the fish were also. Then as I was waiting for my cousin Deb to pick me up to take me shopping I noticed one heron/crane on the rooftops. I had netting over the pond but when I had replaced the pump in the summer I hadnt put the netting back on properly.... When I returned from shopping I thought I had better refill the pond, only to realise that there were only 8 fish in the pond instead of 19. Daughter Kate then heard strange noises from my dads garden which we later identified as a heron. Then son Damon saw two swooping down on the field at the back of us while he was walking Max our German Shepherd. I caught sight of them in the distance and thought that was the last of them. So I refilled pond and put new pond protection net over and thought that the fish would be fine now... Then this afternoon my dad came home and came running in to tell me that there was one large and one juvenile heron on our roof! I rushed out into my garden to make sure the fish were alright, only to find the fish in only about 6 inches of water...the herons beaks had cut into the butyl liner without me realising it. So now the poor remaining 8 fish are in a temporary plastic box in the garden with lots of metal grilles etc over them to protect them. My poor fish.... I feel really guilty. If only I had put the old netting back on properly, Ive had the new netting for about 2 months now and hadnt bothered.... I love birds, and normally see the cranes or herons fly over my garden early in the morning on their way back to the Thames marshes and never see them in the middle of the day. Just hope they leave the remaining fish alone.

Well its been weeks and weeks since I started sewing my lovely raspberry gingham, powder blue/duckegg
gingham and laura ashley linen bits and pieces and finally today got around to photographing some of them.
Shame I didnt iron the piece of gingham on the left of this pic......

Well I still havent had chance to photograph all my makes - migraine and weather have been too bad, and daughter Kate has been playing Modern Warcraft until all hours (she goes to bed when I get up) since her break up with boyfriend Matt a month ago she has taken again to sleeping in my bed.
The weather here in Kent (as all over England I expect) is terrible, very gusty and torrential downpours, so I have been looking around blog land and have found  a lovely blog http://frenchlarkspur.blogspot.com/  by Tracey, and she is having a marvellous giveaway. It includes some lovely textiles with french wording on, which I love (a lot of my recent makes have English and French words on so I am going to enter Traceys giveaway- i have never entered one before) So click on French Larkspurs link and have a look! What a lovely name too, roses, larkspur, geranium and poppies, my most favourite flowers. I grow larkspur every year, most of it self seeding, some from an original sowing from my parents house back in the early 1970s.
Hopefully tomorrow I can pull Kate out of my bed and start photographing my lovely linen and gingham makes! Hope the weather isnt too bad where my blogger friends are, Betty x

I just wanted to post in remembrance of all our servicemen past and present who have died for our country and other countries far and wide. Coming from a long line of military men on my fathers side (his grandfather and great grandfather were career army men from 1860s to 1920 between them, and dad like most men of his age spent a good few years doing his bit, and both my grandfathers were in the trenches in the 1st World War)
I cant bear to listen to the news lately or read the papers to see how many of our young men are dying still in foreign fields. Let us hope they will all return home safe one day soon.

Goodness its been a while again, but I have been busy sewing if nothing else! My daughter Kate loves going to game expos. In May she went to one as a female warrior type with scanty costume and huge sword, but decided she wanted to go as something more pretty for the October expo. So I made her a Belle dress from Beauty and the Beast.  Kate said that hundreds of people took her photo, but we havent any of them! When she arrived and dressed in the toilets of the expo in London a girl took her photo and luckily posted it on the net, so here it is, rather blurry, here is my beautiful Belle

The picture doesnt do her any justice and she wants to do a photo shoot, but I think it is rather too cold at the moment. I suggested a shoot at Greenwich, on the steps of the Queens House would be nice, maybe when the weather warms up in the spring! I just wonder what outfit I have to make next time! Her favourite game is Call of Duty, so no doubt it will be something military!
Next post hopefully will be pics of  all my sewing I have been doing. I really have been going mad!

I havent blogged for a month or so as I have been getting terrible migraines every time I look at the screen, so I have been busy sewing (which also has been giving me migraines! I think I have been eating too much chocolate and cheese....) I am going to post my creations next week as I am busy this week helping my brother Bill who has been recovering from a heart attack who has and still is quite poorly.
But my main reason for coming on is to give a link to my cousin Debbies Wednesday giveaway for a wreath of her pretty paper roses - view her blog and websites, she makes beautiful lifelike roses and is such a lovely person - so please visit her and post a comment and be included in her giveaway. I would if only I wasnt her cousin.... Cant wait to photograph all my new creations, I really feel in a sewing mood. I have to make my grown up daughter Kate a Belle evening dress from Beauty and the Beast before next Saturday, so wish me luck!
http://debbie-paper-roses.blogspot.com/2009/10/wednesday-give-away.html