Darkly Red etsy treasury

Ohh! My red skull baby quilt has been featured in a treasury ..

There are some gorgeous pieces in this treasury .. go and visit!

Obsession with Glasses

My darling daughter currently has an obsession with glasses ...

I took an old pair of my reading glasses and removed the lenses ..

Where as I am not sure where the green glasses came from but they appeared on her face one day in the back of the car.

Shy .. she isn't ..

Marathon Sewing

It is amazing how much sewing you get done when you are not watching an election coverage!

I had a bit of a marathon sewing adventure yesterday and re-stocked my bags with some gorgeous prints, handprinted pippijoe, Thea and Sami and some yummy Japanese prints.

And I whipped up some media pouches for the savy shopper looking for a present for their dads.

Each pouch is quilted and fits a WD external hard drive, or iTouch. North Melbourne Market, come along and say "hi"!

Kaos at North Melbourne Market on Sunday

Days have been busy in Konstant Kaos land, but not in the crafty sense. We are at the business end of the teaching year, especially for Year 12's. We have 4 weeks left of Term 3 and then two weeks in Term 4 before the dreaded end of year exams start. So I guess my energies are focused elsewhere at the moment.

Every once in a while I steal a moment or two to create an item or two in my sewing room. But my mind drifts back to the school preparation and marking that I have to do and I guess I feel guilty for wanting to steal an hour of craft. This is what it is like at this time of the year especially if you are a Year 12 teacher. Bring on the September break so I can recharge my crafty batteries!

But on Sunday I get to spend the time doing a Market again. It has been far too long between markets and I am looking forward to showing off some of my groovy Japanese handbags and other goodies for Father's Day.

So come along and say hello! I am not sure when my next Market will be at this stage .. lots happening at the moment!

Name Tag Swap

As posted before, I participated in a name tag swap.

Well, here is the one that I got! Isn't it cute!
I love the bit of Shannon Lamden fabric on the back!

The funny thing about the quilters crowd is their almost obsessive compulsive knowledge of both the names and designers of the fabric that they use.

If you are a quilter, consider coming along to the next meet up. Bring hand work for the morning session and then after lunch we generally crack open the sewing machines. Lots of levels of experience, lots of interesting people to chat to.

Make it Handmade

Beky and I braved the freezing cold Melbourne weather to line up to see Make it Handmade, a documentary about Melbourne crafters by Anna Brownfield.

picture via MIFF site

It was great to see so many familiar faces up on the big screen. Lots of Northside Makers and people that I don't know personally, but I know "of" them from the craft scene in Melbourne.

What struck me about the documentary, was that it concentrated on a specific demographic of crafters. Inner city and probably from a 'WASP' background. Although there are plenty of craft or hobby groups all over Melbourne, the documentary seemed to focus on the alternative crafters. Alternative equipment, messages and methods. To many of the quilting, embroidery or community craft groups the idea of craft is not new, but to the group of people in the documentary it was new and empowering. The group of women interviewed had a similar indie feel to their craft.

There was a statement made about Etsy in the documentary and how it is now owned by Walmart and how many crafters underprice or devalue their work in this environment. I felt that etsy was slightly demonised through the assumption that they make lots of money from crafters without giving much back. For me, etsy gave me a way to open an online shop with minimal effort. It empowered me as a crafter. Perhaps now that I know what I am doing I might move away from it, but initially it empowered me. I wonder how fast the online craft world would have grown without sites like etsy.

There was also a comment made about about crafters that try to make a living from their craft, because of course craft should all be free and warm and fuzzy. But to many of my friends, selling their craft allows them the financial freedom to then make craft for themselves and their friends. It gives them the freedom and independence from the household budget that they might not otherwise have. I don't have an issue with crafters making money from their skills and ideas. But I do have issues with people copying someone elses craft while trying to make a buck.

Walking out, Beky and I both remarked that we wanted to go home and create something! I also wanted to go home and work more on building up Northside Makers, which is a kind of craft/business group that I started with two other lovely ladies about a year ago. I hope that Anna gets the chance to show her documentary elsewhere in Melbourne as I am sure it will create lots of discussion and momentum within the crafty community.

Did you see the documentary, what did you think?

Vladamir in Sunday Sketch

A friend of mine, Creative Fidget, loves to sketch and takes with her a sketch book and a mini water colour paint kit. She sketched this at my place last week.

You can see Tori's car quilt and Vladamir curled up on the couch, Emily is patching on a table behind the couch.

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.

Back into another Term

Tomorrow I start Term 3 and probably the last "real" term for the Year 12 kids as Term 4 is taken up with exam preparation. I hit the ground running at 7am tomorrow morning and it is a full week for me, so 5 days of working ahead of me despite my part time status (*cough*).

So I spent yesterday doing some quilting with some colours that I have been collecting for a while.

I bought this a while back from the etsy seller North Country Quilts, Black Geometric Bird from Timeless Treasures.

I had picked up some fat quarters at GJ's a while back in a black, white, yellow theme and I thought that the bird print might make for a nice block.

So I played around with a block or two and liked the contrast.

Used some of the bird fabric for the sashing and I have to get some more of the black with dots for the last row of sashing, as I have run out of fabric. I had some left over yellow from my tetris adventures kicking around, only enough to border a few of them. Some blocks work better than others. Using more solid colours would have made the designs stand out a bit more.

I might have turned out differenly if I had sashed the blocks in a single colour, what do you think? Too busy? I seem to be getting more and more adventurous with patterns and colours at the moment.