Saturday, June 25, 2011

Introducing Emma

Here we have Emma wearing the gorgeous new design ' The Skirt of Armour '.
Perfectly suited to events with standing room only!


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Fabric Swatch Exchange

A few months ago I took part in the Cloth Paper Scissors Fabric Swatch Exchange.
It was good fun. The challenge was to design your own fabric using surface design techniques.
Here is a photo of the fabric I did.
I called it 'Venice Impressions'


Then (and this was the hard bit) I had to cut it up and send off 8 squares and then wait and wait til one day a parcel arrived with my swapped swatches in it - Yay!
And here they are...


I only got 6 back as Cloth Paper Scissors are keeping 2 to make a couple of big Fabric Swatch Books - 1 for them to keep and the other goes to the winner, I shall assume at this point that it is not me but would be very happy to be wrong about that!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Daylesford Craft Experience

I wanted one of my first posts to be about the Daylesford Craft Experience that I went to a few weeks ago, Sat 5th June.
Merrilyn from Thread Needle Craft in Daylesford organises the event. Last year three of us went along and this year there were six in our group.
We had a great time, as you do when a heap of crafties get together and had the opportunity to talk with the three designers who were there to present their new designs to us.
They were - Kristen Doran from Kristen Doran Designs, Melanie Hurlston from Melly and Me and Jodie Carleton from Ric rac.
I want to make special reference here to Jodie as until I read about her selvedge work in the 2009 Stitches and Craft Melbourne programme and subsequently visited her blog I had never looked at a blog before and probably never heard of blogging either, now of course I lurk around on blogs here there and every where!
So thank you to Jodie for her inspiring work that reached out to me and introduced me to sewing your selvedges together and blogging!
You can visit jodie's blog here
http://www.vintagericrac.blogspot.com/
The following are some of the projects that were presented to us at the craft experience.




The Craft Clock and Work in Progress Bag by Jodie Carleton


The Kokeshi Girl and Caravan Pillow by Kristen Doran

I would also like to mention here that Kristen posted a picture on her blog http://www.kristendorandesign.blogspot.com/ taken in Merrilyn's shop after "a hard day's work of crafting" that if you look closely I am standing in the background. I can tell you that I did feel a bit like a blog star when I saw this! (I have a green furry hat on.)


I have been working on one of the pattern designs from Melly and Me and that is this ellie cushion that uses a new technique (for me anyway) of needle turn. This is my first effort of needle turn and I have to be honest and say that I was really quite good at it - not singing my own song or anything! Not sure if I am going to rush around needle turning everything in sight but I may do this again as it was quite painless.



Looking good, I just have to put the back together and I am thinking of the way to do this and line it at the same time - with a button closure not a zip.

The other project I have finished is this stitchery from Kristen that I have turned into a Tape Measure Cover.


On the Friday en route to Daylesford we stopped to have a stitching night at The Elephant Patch in Creswick where Jo showed us how to cover a retractable tape measure so I used my new found skill to make another out of the stitchery from Kristen which was as you can see the perfect size - couldn't be better!

Fabulous weekend getaway looking forward to doing it again next year!



Sunday, June 19, 2011

Felting Workshop

I have just spent the last two days making a dress / tent / dress - I just don't know anymore!
OMG it has already been mistaken for a sandwich board!!!
And here is the creation...


Sadly it really is not going to be worn as a dress however all is not lost I might be able to make it into a skirt or maybe a jacket and am open to any ideas.


This is #1 wearing the sandwich board.



This is a picture taken earlier on in the workshop while we were all still smiling.
After 2 full-on days of rubbing my tent dress I am a bit exhausted and oh how my arm aches!

Apart from all that I had a great time and was thrilled to be able to work with Rose Kingsmill a fabulous and experienced felter.



Friday, June 17, 2011

This is my space.


Welcome!
This is my space.


I am adding a few photo's taken from inside my 'studio' - unfortunately for you it is not tidy enough to get a whole view of anything so it is just a few shots of some selected favorite things.


Above are my first three quilts - very pink and girly (comes from living in an all boy zone I think)!


Here are some special little bits of favorite fabrics.


A growing collection of vintage patterns...


A few of my current favorites - so funky!


Vintage Ties - to be one day turned into a skirt.



These are my paper folded flowers.
You can view the tutorial for the folding technique at http://www.foldingtrees.com/
They look great.