The Great Fabric Giveaway

We've been having a clear out this weekend. Lightening the load around here and moving on things which just aren't getting as much love as they deserve.
I've cleared out my fabric drawers and made a pile desperate for a loving new home. I don't get as much time to sew these days as I used to and some of these pieces are just too lovely to be sitting idle in a dark draw.  Not wanting to dump them at the op shop I thought I'd have a little Giveaway and hope they find their perfect place.
I've bundled the fabric up with a few extras and placed it all in this great, very retro looking, beach bag. All the pieces are varying sizes, manly cotton, a couple of Kimono pieces, some silk & jersey. If you would like to make them yours leave me a message here under this blog post or on Facebook and I'll draw a winner next Sunday 24th June.

 ** Since the bag will need to be collected from Elwood, Victoria this giveaway is only open to people able to collect it within 7 days.

Feel free to forward this giveaway onto any crafty friends who could put this stash to good use. 
Good luck. x

Morning reflections

I'm totally in love with Skinny Laminx's new fabric range. I know the perfect job for her wild flower print. Now to get started and migrate this old couch off our back porch and into our lounge, where it truly belongs.
Beautiful work Heather, congratulations on your new range. x

odd jobs for a chilly night

These chilly Autumn nights lend themselves to completing odd jobs left undone over the summer...first of which is the above moss (seed) stitch scarf for my brother-in-law.
Next, I want to finish this quilt for another brother-in-law's dear new baby boy.

I love 8tracks. It makes working so much sweeter. Here's another mix I put together for you.
Enjoy.

Not for the broken hearted from stupendous joy on 8tracks.

sew liberating...when I find the time to sew.

I whipped this apron up for Z yesterday, at his request. It's such a simple pattern and takes no time at all to make. You can find directions and a pattern here at Sew Much Ado.

Now...a few sewing links to things I'd like to make for my wardrobe....
- Sew Liberated's Aurelia Cardigan Sewing Pattern
- Built By You's Tie-Sleeve Dress
- one of these sun hat's from Lotta Jandotter's Simple Sewing book.

xx

Summer PJ's

You may remember this sweet Liberty fabric from way back here. I was going to make a pair of pants for the Z man to take away with us...but somehow in all the holiday preparations it slipped off the list.
With the midday heat bearing down on us yesterday we retreated from our blow up pool to the air-conditioned indoors. We only need to use our air-conditioning around 3 times a year as our house stays pretty pool. Yesterday however, topped the charts and so on it went.
Z, to his great delight, watched a movie while I whipped up a pair of pj's using this very rock star pattern by Dana at Made.
They have a slightly flared leg with a low riding elasticised waist... perfect for emergency toilet scrambles!
The second pair I made with one eye on the Nadal and Berdych match last night. They're not so rock star but there's plenty of room to run around in.
The pattern is a ripper, super easy and so fast to whip up. No previous sewing experience is needed to succeed, I promise. I'm thinking a pair of these may be in order for Z's first day at kinder next week.

Thank you.... & now, to the new.

Notice things look a little different around here? It's been fun playing around.
It's also given me a chance to look back on my year and be thankful for all the incredible beauty in my life (and realise how slack I've actually been at uploading to Flickr. Oops, there's a New Years resolution right there).

Here's some summer lovin' linkage to kick start all this newness...... and say thanks to the last 12 months.

Seam Magazine discovered via Floating World.
All the beautifully inspiring content over at Lou, Boo and Shoes ...via Beautifully, Suddenly...equally as stunning.
This fabric just ordered for my latest chair.
I may have posted on a previous list but really....I'm still in love with this photo by nehmzow
This makes me laugh.....
Dreaming of a new quilt to sew... either this, this or this.
Loved the Beci Orpin & Sportsgirl co-lab this Christmas! They made for excellent gifts and stocking fillers.
All the playfulness over at Mamamekko.
The Train to Crazy's homemade car track for boys...perfect for camping holidays!
This for 2012!

and to finish off I couldn't resist sharing this quote from a letter Jessica Mitford wrote to her daughter while she was away at college "Only vegetables and fibbertigibbets go through life with no problems or pain about the future, as you are unfortunately neither, I guess you can expect a few ups and downs."

Life, so simple.
xox

Screen printing snaps

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~ Confucius .......... even the humble ol tea towel!

Here are a few snaps from our day of screen printing. It was such a fun day I'm itching to do it all again. I was even quite sad to dismantle all the lines. They looked so lovely hanging in our house. I think I'd like to do another run in yellow and then move onto a new design.

I've had some sorry excuses for a tea towel stashed in my third drawer.... How about you? Are you in need of a new one?
You can still enter the giveaway until the 16th December by leaving a comment here or 'LIKE'ing here and one of these little lovelies could be yours.

I hope your weekend hasn't been too crazy with Christmas cheer and the likes.
We've been on the hop and I'm feeling a little Nanna nap coming on. xox

Chinese laundry Giveaway

Our house resembles a Chinese laundry at present. We have 60 screen printed tea towels hanging from clothes horses, make shift lines and chairs around the lounge and dining room. It's such a great sight.

The whole process of screen printing was so enjoyable. It's a little messy and it definitely requires pre-printing organisation (or a Dutch person..organisation is an inherent quality of the Dutch it seems) so things run smoothly . A 2 person process....one person with very clean hands is needed to handle the finished tea towels.
There were a few learning curves but on the whole things went very smoothly. Only one smudged print - that was from careless hanging rather than printing...I'll also confess to being the culprit. oops.

My neighbour, Vic, is an experienced screen printer and kindly came over to lend a hand. She even ironed the tea towels before we printed. Thank you Vic!!
There will definitely be more screen printing as our dinning room table is perfect for printing and the process is very addictive.

As a little Christmas thank you to all who regularly visit....and to any newcomers....I have a tea towel to giveaway. Just leave a comment below or head over and 'Like' my facebook page before the Friday 15th December for your chance to win one for yourself. I'll be placing all the names into a pillow case and asking the little man to pull one out.

Good luck & thank you. Ho ho ho.

xx

Colour me yellow

Z and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the backyard dying an old top (and a couple of Z's singlets) using tumeric. The top was headed for the op shop so I thought I'd make one last ditch attempt to redeem it.
I followed the process in The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes a book I have talked about before and been itching to try. We had the tumeric in our spice cupboard... and I used cold water dying for the process so Z could be involved. It was a lot of fun and super simple. I'm now eager for my cabbage plants to sprout so I can try my hand with those gorgeous purple cabbage leaves too.
Here's to a bright summer.

PS. check out my chick over at The Toy Society blog she was drop #1647.

who's that knockin' in the new green skirt

Here's a few shots (Z, who's 3, took the top one) of my new green skirt which I finished last night. I made it using Simplicity pattern 2656. I love the shape, colour and the fact that it has extra deep pockets, lined using a contrasting print. There will definitely be more of these to come. I think I'd like a denim one next.

The toy was found! Hooray!!! She now lives with a lovely 18th month old girl who has apparently taken to carrying her everywhere and making clucking noises. What a perfect find. Happy, happy people. xox

it's a crochet world

NBC News at 5 from olek on Vimeo.

I found this video via the Slow Cloth Facebook page and had to share. It definitely brightened my day and provides great food for thought on this Crafty Monday. Possibilities really are only as limited as our own imagination!

Enjoy x

PS. Check out Slow Cloths page too. It harks back to my previous post on 'Slow Textiles'.

Crafty Monday

We worked on the chairs above for Crafty Monday, last week. The two on the left are mine. The top right is Lisa's and the bottom right belongs to Max, fellow Crafty Lady's.
I'm hoping to get the chair in the bottom left hand corner completed today.

For those of you who remember... the fabric was ordered from Spoonflower. I waited, patiently, for 3 weeks until it arrived. Then I discovered (after stapling straight through the ply) I needed 3mm staples to fit my compressor staple gun so I could attached the fabric to the moulded ply, which fits to the back of the chair....None of my usual hardware stores stocked 3mm staples so I had to order them online.... another week. After what feels like an eternity of stop start proceedings, I'm hoping today is the day for completion!

*** oh ah, I've finished already. Just waiting now for the L.F. to fit it all together tonight. So happy to see this little job completed. We found the chair on the curb in Malvern. The L.F. spent a few hours stripping and sanding it back....and now look at it...all grown up.

Slow Textiles

I came across this book today.
Z and I had to vacate the house while the L.F. worked from home this morning. 12 degree temperatures, rain, fiercely bitter winds and both with crappy head colds, we took respite in Readings.
I'm so grateful to the cold and the L.F. for ushering us into the warmth of Readings and this discovery. Sasha Duerr's philosophy and passion for plant dyes is so accessible and fascinating.

Sasha has established the Permacouture Institute. An educational non-profit organisation for regenerative design in fashion and textiles. Check out their mission statement for more specifics.

In an environment where we see retail fashion houses opening (and closing) at a rapid rate, all heavily discounted, largely synthetic and more often than not made in China, the Slow Textile movement is a welcomed reprieve.

Better still I can start my own Slow Textile movement in my humble old kitchen. Watch out L.F. you could be sporting a couple of purple business shirts....dyed using red cabbage leaves....shortly!! Wont you be the talk of the town.

Making Daily life more beautiful, fun & functional.

I came across this line when researching Marianne Westman's designs and was instantly sold Marianne made the Swedish daily life both more beautiful, more fun - and more functional. That, to me, speaks volumes about what life is about. Marianne is in her 80's now and her work is still as fresh and inspiring as it was 30 years ago.

These images certainly inspire a sense of beauty and fun in the practical.

New House Textiles in the Uk have aquired the rights to reproduce Marianne's designs and have a fantastic collection of vintage design tea towels.

If you're looking for something a little more local, however. How about printing your own tea towels. Harvest Texiles, in Brunswick, run some fantastic courses to get you going. Ohh, so many courses. I'd like to do this one, this one and this one..... to start with.

Have a fun filled weekend! A week of dreaming.... and now we're off to the country for a couple of nights. We can't wait(a huge thank you to my dear friend N, for covering my bacon and doing my babysitting duties....next year I'll need to invest in a year planner on one page...I completely forgot to flip the page before making plans. Sorry). xox

After another day of sorting at Doo's, in preparation for this weekends garage sale, I'm exhausted & seeing crosses. The end is in sight.....
The L.F. & I ordered this above lovely linen fabric from Spoonflower last night. We ordered the upholstery weight for a chair we're currently working on. It's such a fantastic site for fabrics as you can choose which weight fabric you require depending on the project. The prices are really reasonable plus they're all by independent designers. I'll post photos of the resurrected chair (another roadside find) once we've finished.
I'm off to put my feet up. The L.F. is cooking dinner tonight. Yippee.

Finish & Complete

The L.F.'s mum is always on about 'Finisher Completer's'. Apparently there are only two types of people in this world. Those who Finish & Complete and those who don't.
I've never been too sure which side of the equation I reside on in this debate. I like to think I'm a 'Finisher Completer' but sometimes the lag time on my projects stretches out way longer than would be considered 'a fair quota of time' (we're talking, on occasion, years)....which possibly negates my 'Finisher Completer' status?
I do however love to finish off other peoples crafty projects. Especially ones that have been so lovingly stitched and laboured over. I found these gorgeous quilted pieces on Saturday while continuing our clean up over at Doo's. What a precious find, hey! They were stitched in the 70's and have been packed away, for some reason, for the last 40 odd years in an old suitcase in the studio. I've never attempted this kind of patchwork before, using paper templates. So I'll have to investigate the process and add it to my growing list of To-Do's.
When my mother passed away I found some woollen patchwork pieces she'd been working on and turned it into this quilt. It's kind of a lovely, cathartic, contemplation on someone special's life (if that makes sense). A way of showing gratitude, I suppose. Finishing the pieces somehow makes the journey together feel strangely complete.