Today is all about ironing

I arrived in Luxembourg yesterday, it's really nice to be here. I had to pack all of the newly printed tea towels, cushions and prints into suitcases and somehow I managed to get it all on the flight without having to pay extra. Unfortunately most of it is now pretty creased and I'm going to be spending most of the day ironing. I'll need to find a good film to watch to make it more bearable because I've calculated that it will take me around 5-6 hours! I wish I hadn't bothered calculating that, sometimes it's better not to know.

I have just discovered another great time saver though. Once you've screen printed the fabric you need to heat cure the dye, the professional studios will have a heat tunnel, but unfortunately I don't, so I usually use a heat press. It works well for small projects like tote bags and aprons, but for larger items such as tea towels it's not great as I'll have to press it several times to cover the printed area. Anyway, I thought maybe commercial dryers would work, so I chanced it and spoke to my local laundry guy, who turned out to be a trained textile screen printer!! I just love Hackney. He knew exactly what I wanted and he could heat the fabric to the exact temperature I needed in his dryers. Saved me about two days work.

Tomorrow I'm taking part in a design market at the Design Museum in Luxembourg, I was there last year too and it's always so well organised and full of lovely products. I can't wait. If you're in Luxembourg, please come by and say hello.