just a minute ... in september

Today I'm joining in on the fun over at August Street and reflecting on the past month ... here goes ...

Watching ... my garden grow and bloom. Lots of kids cartoons with my Little Mister ;-), but when he sleeps I'm really enjoying Sarah's House, re-runs of Sex in the City, Great British Menu and movies. Last Chance Harvey stands out as one of the most enjoyable this month - warm, sad, happy, real and wonderful actors. I'm also watching United States of Tara - not sure if I'm enjoying it or enduring it to see what ridiculous thing will happen next. Sort of like a car wreck, and a bit Lost-esq!

Reading ... magazines ... I'm addicted (and bit broke!) - Australian House & Garden, delicious, Australian Country Style, Frankie, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Real Living, Yen, Inside Out and Cuisine are next to my bed at the moment. I'm also reading "New York: a novel" by Edward Rutherford - it's really good so far.

Working ... on our little house which we are slowly renovating ourselves. This month has been all about the outside - stripping paint, preparation and painting (when it hasn't been raining).

Learning ... new software (Inkscape) and translating my textile design ideas from paper to screen. Also learning some new vegan recipes for a dinner party we're hosting for friends next month.

Searching ... for the holy grail: nice base cloth fabrics - Australian made, natural, heavy-weight and organic would be great (and should be possible), but so far, to no avail.

Eating ... roast chicken with sage, homemade lasagne, apple crumble, pancakes ... it's still cold here in Melbourne so we're still into comfort food! Looking forward to summery salads, stone fruit and BBQs too!

Reflecting ... I started this blog exactly 2 months ago on 29th July 2009. This is my 50th post. I wish I'd found blogging years ago - it has made me happy, inspired and confident enough to have a go at pursuing my creative interests in earnest. Thanks to all those who have read my blog, left a comment, or sent me an email - it really makes my day!

I hope you have a great month, and that October is a cracker!

a new handmade friend ... the sequel!

I gave it a go ...


My first ever softie ... is loved ...


It was really fun working on this - the best bit was watching Little Mister watch me make him a toy - he was enthralled and helped with the stuffing. A good time was had by all!

a new handmade friend ...

Beautifully handmade and lovingly carried home from Quebec by Mr yardage for Little Mister ...


I was so impressed with Mr yardage's selection! I really love the shape and the feel of this gorgeous bear. I think it would make a great shape for a softie too?

friday night easy peasy pin cushion

I had the urge to sew tonight - it's been too long. I needed instant results, so I made myself a cheerful pin cushion with some Surface Art fabric scraps and one of my treasured red glass buttons.

As easy as one ...

... two ...

... three ...

Sewing needs met = time for sleep!
Have a great weekend!

my creative space ...

... the lights are on ... but that's about it!

Not much time for sewing this week, but I have been designing (more on that soon) and making things with the little mister in between reno stuff!


For more creative spaces, or to join in, visit Kootoyoo!

a computer "softie"

I have been designing this week. I have been using my ancient version of Illustrator (7.0.1 - don't laugh - it's prehistoric!!), but it's very cumbersome and not very compatible with Vista. I checked my wallet incase I'd left a few hundred dollars in there, but alas, no. So I did some searching on the web the other night to see if anyone had made a free version of something similar to Illustrator. Turns out there is - Inkscape. I downloaded it, and it seems great so far - easy and intuitive to use, pretty similar functionality to Illustrator, and it even saves in a range of formats including pdf. I did a screen print for you below - pretty geeky, huh!


Anyway, I just thought others might be interested in my find - for those that just want to play, or those who need a stop-gap while they save up for the real thing!

Boring stuff = no one paid me to plug this softie - I found it all by myself! Please do your own homework before downloading anything from the web.

Enjoy the rest of your day ...

a visit to ironside studios

Just a quickie! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Yesterday, Pam (from Pippi creates) and I trundled over to the open studios at Ironside in the Young Husband building in Kensington.


It was a treasure trove of designers and artists - lighting, handmade buttons, sculpture, graphic design ... For me, one of the highlights was meeting Susan from Spin Spin Handmade - her space was lovely, and I picked up one of her tea towels for my kitchen ...

As always, people were very generous with their time and knowledge. It was a great afternoon and I left feeling inspired!
Enjoy your Monday - I hope it's the start of a very creative week for you.

a splash of red!

old gate + red spray paint + red geraniums = a splash of red outside the kitchen window to liven up a dull fence!

This was the result of procrastinating this afternoon while I should have been stripping paint off the fascia's ...

Have a great weekend!

exhibiting at the show ... anyone?

After dragging an overtired, overstimulated and chocolate filled child around the arts and crafts pavilion at the Royal Melbourne Show yesterday, I was disappointed to find, well ... so little craft.

There were the usual quilts (which were lovely) and some cabinets of a variety of hand crafts etc, but not much else. Liesl from Hoppo Bumpo entered some scones in the cooking section (she didn't win - totally robbed!), and mentioned that some of the sewing categories did not receive one entry.


Anyway, I've decided it's on my "to do" list for next year. There is a real opportunity for some blogger/indie sewing and crafting to make it's presence felt at the show and rev things up a bit! Whadda-ya-reckon?

It would be cool to make it into the coveted "Cabinet of Excellence" (yes, that's its actual name!) in 2010 ...


Aside from that, we had a wonderful morning - we went to the animal nursery twice, rode on the miniature trains many times, rode on the lovely old carousel, went up in the the huge ferris wheel thingy (I was trying to remain brave, all the while being very scared of heights!), cuddled with Elmo, and danced with Max and Milly. It was a dream day for a toddler, and not bad for mum too!

Have a great Friday!

my creative space ...

My redwork quilt square is all finished and on its way to Kirsty to join all of the other wonderfully creative squares for the Quilt Project. I can't wait to see the quilt all put together! You can check out photos of some of the other squares here.

I have really enjoyed this project - the creativity and the colour. From this ...

... to this ...

Aside from that, the weather has been good in Melbourne, so renovations have been full steam ahead again. Not a lot time for creating ... hopefully next week!

Today, Little Mister and I are going to the Royal Melbourne Show (which starts today). We're looking forward to the animals, the showbags and seeing Elmo (!!) - I'm also looking forward to checking out the art and craft in the pavilions.

To see more great creative spaces (or to join in), drop in and visit Kootoyoo.

Thanks for dropping by - have a great Thursday!

an unlikely source of inspiration ...

On Saturday, we replaced the old and leaky roof on the back section of our house. It was a physically hard job, not made easy by erratic weather and wind, but we managed to remove the old roof and put a new colourbond roof back on - all in a day. It was a pretty crappy day, but I did manage to admire the colours, textures and interesting shapes of the pile of old tin I had stacked ...


I hope your weekend was a bit more fun, less strenuous and more creative than mine was!
Thanks for dropping by, and have a great Monday!

in need of a business name?

It occurred to me yesterday (while commenting on lots of lovely creative spaces on my favourite blogland day of the week) that there is an amazing source of fabulously original words just waiting to be turned into business names, blog names, nick names ... whatever! That's right, the magical word verification bank of weird words! My absolute favourite from yesterday was ...

flumbat

Feel free to use this gem and let me know what other crackers you come across! Have a great Friday, and thanks to all those who commented on my fabric designs yesterday - I was chuffed to say the least.

my creative space ... test patterns

This week has been all about testing some of my fabric design sketches (which has been fun, exciting and a tiny bit daunting, all at the same time!).

As a result, I've been spending some time working on the laptop, making the designs digital. I used some fabric (linen) computer paper to print them out on. I find this handy to get a "feel" for the design, although the colours translate pretty poorly from the screen to the fabric.

Here are a few ideas I'm playing with (feedback welcome) - I'm a bit into circles and lines at the moment ...






I also ordered some screenprinting equipment this week, so I will be able to start printing on the kitchen table soon - looking forward to that!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday's are my favourite day in blogland ... for more inspirational and interesting creative spaces, or to join in the fun, head over to Kootoyoo.

it's monday - new book, cutting out and up!

It's raining and the sun is out - my favourite!

I just got this in the mail - I've been waiting for it to be published and posted for a couple of months now, and I'm not disappointed. Bend the Rules with Fabric is right up my ally - a whole stack of projects where you can try out different surface design techniques!


This was all I got done as far as sewing went on the weekend, but at least my new top is cut out and ready to go ...


This morning I took little mister to see his first movie at the cinema (he went when he was a baby, but that doesn't count!). We saw "Up" and it was great - beautifully moving, very funny and entertaining for big ones and little ones. We had a ball with the 3D glasses too! Take your kids and/or yourself - totally worth it!

Have a great Monday!

Tessuti treasure!

A quick trip to Tessuti's yesterday reaped some lovely fabric for summer tops and a skirt ....


I think I'm going to make this square necked top first, out of the navy seersucker ...


Hope you're having a great Saturday!

I made a t-towel!

I found myself with a couple of spare hours yesterday (procrastinating from painting the front fence - too windy!!) while little mister slept. So, I quickly cut and sewed up a rectangle from the 100% organic cotton canvas (more like cotton drill - sews beautifully) I got at Amitie.


I am a big typography fan, so wanted to play with little "t"'s. I found one I liked (Arial Black), printed it out and made a template to cut some of the floral fabric. Then I used some double-sided interfacing and appliqued it on. What do you think of my t-towel?


Thanks for visiting - have a great day!

my creative space ...

Lots of **stuff** in my creative space today, but not a lot of action (!!) - redwork quilt square still in progress; lots of sketching; and some really pretty green organic canvas from Amitie with some pretty floral fabric in oranges and greens from Patchwork on Central Park bought this week (both hanging over the chair). I'm thinking of making some placemats or a table runner or tea towels with these fabrics ... just for fun!


I hope your creative space is a bit more productive than mine this week. Still, sometimes I think it's really nice just to have a creative space sometimes, even if you can't be in it as much as you'd like!

If you want to see more spaces, head on over to kootoyoo - maybe join in if you're not already!