Zoo Baby Quilt

I have finally gotten around to cracking open the fabric scrap packs that I bought from Rabbit and the Duck at the last Thread Den North Melbourne market.

Paired with a Japanese print that I bought from Purls Palace in Daylesford, fussy cut the centre of each block and surrounded them in the fabric pack scraps. I've been making "zoo" themed blocks for another baby quilt, this time a custom order.

The process of working with a fabric scrap pack is a little more archaic than I am used to. A bit more experimentation, un-stitching and knowing that you don't have any more of the orange or lime green fabric that you really like. But I like the way that the quilt is coming together. A bit different to what I usually do which is a lot more controlled. The blocks are smaller than I usually make. The middle section is 2 1/2 inches square and each border is cut as 1 1/4 inches.

Our new cat, Vladamir, has given the quilt a stamp of approval. Vlad is setting in very well into our household, restoring a balance in the cat population that we were missing. After this photo was taken he then proceeded to do a mega wash and then settled down to sleep. I am glad that I pre-wash my quilts before selling them!

Craft and Quilt Fair

I agree with one of my friends, that going to a craft fair is more enjoyable when you with a group of friends. You get to explore, mock and enjoy the experience more. We hit the fair early, did a circuit together and then split off for an hour (but of course kept on bumping into each other). In the afternoon we went back to my place to continue crafting with some of our stash.

My only task was to collect a few purple/black fat quarters for a quilt that I can't seem to finish. But I found myself a few gorgeous items.

I found the most gorgeous counted cross stitch kit. Now, I am a cross stitch virgin .. so I spent some time tonight with my Mother in Law going through the basics and completing a line of stitching to make sure that I have the tension and technique right. I love this image and it will look great in our Library room, but it might take me a while to complete.

I also spent too much time adding to my stash. The Kelani stand was the most dangerous. I order from these guys online, so I know what range they have. I indulged in some Kristen Doran prints and a Co Co Chi Japanese print that were in their bargain bins.

I love her Robot print, not sure what I will do with it yet, but definitely something for Tori. She has robots all over her bedroom walls.

Custom Purses

After playing around with some purse frames that I bought a while back , I am in awe of those people that make purses for a living!

A bit fiddly, but I managed to get them working.

A credit card sized pocket in the middle. The next ones might have a zip attached to them!

The mustard material is called Hummingbird, Michael Miller, and was bought from GJ's in East Brunswick.

Along with the tool that Dad made for me a while back, we managed to secure the frame to the purse with some special Nicole glue and clamp it shut with minimal casualties.

Japanese print picked up at the Quilt Fair

I made the pattern myself tracing the outside of the frame and then adding 5mm to the size. The bottom bit was using a traditional bag base method. It took me a few calico trials, but I managed to get the shape that I wanted.

These purses are off to Berlin to be enjoyed!

Old chair recovered

We bought this chair when we lived in Cheltenham, about 15 years ago. The chairs are a bit worn down and rather than being situated around a table, they are now scattered throughout the house.

I have one in my sewing room and it was looking a bit tired. The original cloth is stained and looks quite hideous. I have one of these chairs sitting in the hall and I want to cover it in a nice mushroom velvet to co-ordinate with what we are doing in that part of the house. So I thought I would give re-covering a go!

The base came off quite easily with my hubby's power tool ...

I put another layer of wadding over the top of the existing fabric and stretched the fabric over the base. Using my staple gun I attached the side of the selvage first and then the bottom side, and then each side. Probably not the most hard wearing fabric, but I love it!

*giggles*

The base gets re-attached to the chair and voila!

Not too bad for a quick crafty fix!

Australiasian Quilt Convention

I managed to steal an hour on the way home from work yesterday to sneak into the AQC and take a look around. And yes, I managed to spend my convention budget in that hour!

Institches of Williamstown

The stands were jam packed with good stuff and you could probably divide them down the middle between what we would class as "modern quilting" and that dusty rose Americana traditional quilting. Institches of Williamstown had a beautiful "Kellie Wulfsohn" quilt adorning the back of their stand.

In this quilt they had written
"love" in the stippling!

They had spread themselves out a bit more this year and it made a world of difference. More room inbetween stalls. Even at 3.30 in the afternoon, it was very, very busy with far too many people called Margaret there ...

I love they way they did the
thistles in this display quilt.

The Quilt Show was spectacular, I hope that as I grow older, I develop the patience to make something as spectacular as I have seen. I really should have written down who made these quilts.

I have a fascination with colour wheels,
and I just love the finishing touch
of the wreath on this display quilt.

I haven't ventured beyond a baby quilt at the moment, Tori's single bed quilt is the largest that I have worked with, but I haven't started putting that one together.

I love this black and white
"redwork" but not redwork quilt.

And yes I bought things! Mainly Japanese prints and Japanese embroidery thread. Mainly personal shopping, rather than business shopping.

I could have spent a small fortune in fabric and gadgets, but my biggest splurge was a gorgeous Japanese panel that I am hoping to sash in red linen and hang down my stair well.

Did you go? What did you get?

Custom Money Belt

A quick post about a custom money belt order with strap that I just completed, ready to be popped into the post tomorrow.

The client wanted some Japanese fabric as a lining, and after a few emails chose this gorgeous print. She said it was "ok" to do some applique on the front, so I decided to do something non-traditional and follow the flow of the print. I think it looks rather cute!

The back of the bag has some straps so that you can put a belt thorugh it and inside there is a zippered section for large notes and a pocket for change.

Can a girl have too many handbags?

I must admit that in recent years I have taken a liking to handbags .. well the making of them!
I've uploaded some limited edition prints to my etsy store. Some lovely girly floral bags!

The design above I used a while back to make a 40th birthday present for a crafty friend.

I love this purple and apricot print and it sat in my stash for ages until I decided on a lining for it. It is a japanese print, and I only have limited quantities of fabric.

I like the fact that my bags are one of a kind. I make limited quantities of the bags and generally not the same bag twice. Different lining, different positioning.

Providing they are not sold, they will make an appearance at the Northside Makers Market on the 13th March.

Northside Makers Market

I'll be glad when the week is over. The first full teaching week back is always hard yakka. Lesson plans, parent evenings, very little sleep and lots of photocopying. But in between all of this, I have managed to steal some time to make some stock for my first market of the year, Northside Makers Market. As a Northside committee member, I haven't been much use at all .. and to my team mates I apologise and promise to make it up with cider and martini's!

So here is a sneak peak of what I have been doing ...Firstly, my Wizard of Oz range .... Some Market Bags ....

Each one of course has a surprise lining ... you'll just have to come to the market to see what I have done!

 Some makeup bags or small pouches and some coin purses, these ones a bit bigger than my usual ones, so they should fit a licence.

I was very excited about using the Thea and Sami  hand screen printed fabric. They are a Queensland based business and they hand print it all themselves.

The bag has a bit of a Mattt's bag's feel to it, but the pattern is all mine and it is 100% cotton and machine washable (actually, the Thea and Sami fabric is 55% hemp/45% organic cotton).

And of course some new japanese fabrics have been used as well. I love this print and the colour palette.

So come along to our first Northside Makers Market for the year and check out all the new crafters and some old and trusty ones.

New Japanese Fabric

I am on a massive sewing frenzy at the moment trying to stock up for all my Christmas Markets that are occurring. The embroidery machine is doing overtime making labels and also small jobs for other crafters.

I have to steal my husbands external flash so that I can take better pictures of my Market Bags. I took a whole stack the other night and decided that they needed far too much photo-shopping to get them looking right. I work on the philosophy that if I spend far too much time in post production, then it takes away my time from actually sewing the products.

So I shall tempt you with the Japanese Fabric that I used to make the bags ...

The challenge is getting a lining that doesn't distract you from the lovely prints. So I am going for basic matching or contrasting colours at the moment.

Pencil Case for Tori

In a month my little girl will turn two and I have no idea where the two years went since her birth. She is a real person now, talking, singing and of course displaying the famous Lawson temper!

Her Oma has been on at me to make her a pencil case. So tonight I grabbed some fabric I bought a few weeks back, some left over micro-cord and an old dodgy zip and voila!

The pencil case has a strap that she can pull across to open or close. Inside there is matching lining as well!

I have uploaded some of my other pencil case designs to my etsy shop. Yipee!

Japanese Resin Pendants

I am in the process of uploading these resin/pewter pendants ... I love my new MOO business cards for presentation!

I loved making the charm pendant, cutting the fabric for the skeleton hand was so much fun!

Ouka (purple) is one of my favourites. Just a hint of purple against the black background ... yummy!

Keep and eye on my etsy shop over the next few days when I will be uploading most of my pendants.

Which Bag is your favourite?

My Year 7 class are putting together a class load of Rainbow Comfort Packs to go up to a bush fire affected area for students who have lost everything. About half of the class have managed to make or get made a hand made bag for the project. And being the good teacher that I am, I am running up a few on my trusty Janome to help them along. Most of the material given to me was from the costume store room, left over from productions past.

The bag design being used is the pattern for my Market Bag, except I have refined it using some of the techniques in the Zakka book to streamline the process. There is also no interfacing, fussy stitching or closures in these bags. They are a very quick make.

1. Kaos Bag

2. Army Bag

These two bags have got black chunky cord as the outside fabric and a lovely red inside.

3. Pink Gingham Sakura Bag

4. "I love Gingham" Bag

It is good for me, as it allows me to refine patterns and processes quicker than I normally would. There is also a sense of freedom in doing whatever you want to embellish the bags. I like embelishing Gingham bags, they are very girly!

5. Another Cherry Blossom Japanese Fabric styled Bag


6. Strawberry Patch Bag

Some more costume store fabric. I don't particularly like the strawberry design (on right), but enough people have said that they like it for me to use it. The petals are from the pinafore that I made for Sarah at the start of April.

7. Skull Love Bag

7.

Lastly, this bag uses a scrap of the skull love fabric. Sewn on and frayed! Hoping that a boy likes this one. I have lots of cord and Gingham (Pink, Blue, Red, Black, Yellow) left, so I might make some larger bags and perhaps try my hand at a backpack or two.

So this is what I have done this weekend. Another load will be done after the Thornbury Market on Saturday 2nd May. I will also be making one for the teacher and put achievement stamps in there and some other nice teacher styled things).

So which bag is your favourite?