finito

Nine Lives, my redwork piece for The Quilt Project is on its way to Kirsty.

I really enjoyed this project from start to finish and look forward to seeing everyone's different squares come together as one!

A couple of different pics are over here. If you would like to have more of a look you can.

cate blanckett

images from here and here

Cate rocks the granny square like no granny can!

Love it or hate it?

I see the quickest way to roll off the couch when you've just settled in for the night, granny blanket on lap, perhaps a cat and a cup of tea near by... to out the door in a flash when a distressed friend calls and needs you to leave said couch no ifs or buts about it! Comfort and convenience in one. No?

the end is near

Nearly there!

The stitching was finished last night. Unfortunately since I am quite new to this I wasn't aware until almost the end about how to make the reverse side neat! Oh well. You live. You learn.

Today this will be washed... hopefully dried and ironed. Tomorrow express posted to Kirst for Monday's deadline. Nothing like a tight finish!

from one generation to another

These all belonged to my nana. She is no longer able to put them to use as her body fails to keep up with her mind. They were passed on to me. And will be treasured!

blast from the past

Apologies for the crinkles! The iron is not my friend.

My handy Hobbytex work circa early 1980's!

My mum recently gave this back to me. It's a pillowcase sewn by mum and decorated by me. I remember it being a favourite. I didn't know it still existed so it was such a nice surprise. It looks a little different to how I remember. Check out those crazy red lips and eye lashes on Starlite and Rainbow Brite!

Each image was on either side of the pillowcase. The villain side. And the good side. I thought Lurky was cool because he always liked the pretty colours of Rainbow Land much to his master Murky's dismay. And Rainbow Brite was another favourite. Although, the only character I owned as a toy was Red's sidekick Romeo Sprite - he stole my heart!

I think the above images were made into transfers from a colouring book. Ah, the memories!

illustration of the sexes

The Smiley Family by Camelia Dorbin. Image from here.

Ever look at an image (for example) and think, 'Oh, I like that! I wonder what other work HE'S created.' Yes? No. Completely sexist? Maybe.

Well it's like when you speak to someone online or over the phone but haven't met them yet and you have a visual of what that person looks like. It comes from nowhere perhaps but it sticks with you and then you meet and BAM they are nothing at all like you imagined!

Sometimes it's a weird no match, other times close but no cigar and then sometime it is something better than your imagination could imagine and you are smiling on the inside (if not, the outside too but it might be a little awkward!).

Anywho. It may be completely wrong of me but when I saw a piece of illustration on Design is Kinky I pictured the creator as someone of the male gender variety only to find out after a little investigation this marvelous work was in fact by the female gender variety! In your face handmaderomance. In your face. Check out more of Camelia's work over here.

Camelia's line work reminds me a little of Nate Trapnell's style which could have triggered the gender assumption...

super stylin' smalls

Even though I don't have kiddlets of my own I subscribe to LMNOP, a free online magazine with the most stylish kids I've seen. When I originally subscribed I thought, 'Oh this will be great present inspiration for those friends of mine who do have kids.'

Who was I kidding! I love this for myself, utterly adorable and full of the most fabulous finds. Plus it looks good, as a graphic designer I can be a bit of a sucker for a pretty page.

now available at lark. seriously I could have hours of fun with these.

beats the plastic street mat my brothers had!

see the gorilla! i love him.

all i can say, 'i want! i want!'

the above images are from LMNOP issue 8

Want more?

Another super cute online children's magazine I can't resist is Papier Mache a relatively new publication. I'm looking forward to issue two. Check out the Papier Mache blog for more utterly swoon worthy finds for the smalls!

image from here

stitching mad

There seems to be a bit of a needle and thread theme happening over here of late, in case you hadn't noticed!

Oh well, what can I say, it's like when you are thinking of buying a new car and everywhere you look all you see is the one you want. You know what I mean? It suddenly appears everywhere, out of no where! Well what I'm getting at is, I spotted a sweet little book yesterday that's on my 'books to buy' list and it had a limited edition stitched cover.

Needless to say I couldn't resist.

Plus, it's packed full of interviews with 29 amazing peeps who 'make stuff'!

check out the handmade paper shopping bag it came in!

clockwise from top left:
snawklor, megan whitmarsh, kim wong and ana serrano

clockwise from top left:
dell stewart, victoria mason, beck wheeler and ghostpatrol

and can't wait to read about this artist, emily valentine

The creators of 'I Make Stuff - Volume 1' have a blog over here and online store here.

charley harper

image from here

If I was to do a needlepoint piece I would want to do this one called Limp on a Limb, by Charley Harper. But then some may tell me, 'Be careful, you are turning in to the crazy cat woman!' Perhaps. But I don't worry too much about what others think of me.

And then I saw this amazing Charley Harper piece made into a cushion over on thepurlbee.

image from here

I could do a bird instead of a cat...?

no computer days

Addicted to blogging? The internet? Was that a yes?

I know I am when I wake up and tell myself, 'No computer today. Seriously. Especially no blogs. You know how distracting this little habit of yours can be!!'

It never works.

Without fail I check at least one (who am I kidding, lets just say a lot more than one) website or blog every single day unless I am at my parents in the country who have no internet access, however this very rarely happens.

So here are some that without fail sneak in to my 'no' internet days;

The Age
Mieke Willems
Camilla Engman
Design*Sponge
Design For Mankind

...or perhaps just one more look at this, oh and again!

What makes your sneaky list?

here kitty, kitty

A few posts ago you saw a snippet of my idea for ‘The Quilt Project’. Since then there has been a lot of preparing and red stitching going on.

After selecting which sketches to go with I arranged them in some kind of order and drew them in a more identifiable state! This was then scanned and enlarged to the right size before being transferred onto the supplied calico.
This is the first time I've used carbon transfer paper for embroidery. It's amazing. So much easier than this tracing paper method I once used. Actually my old method was how I started my quilt project piece but finding it a little difficult I went searching for the carbon paper which, I ended up finding at Eckersleys. Other craft stores had some but it seems the darker shades are popular and they only had white and yellow paper left... not so good for calico!
Anyway, this is how things are looking. LOTS more to go. I think I got a bit ambitious with my design forgetting how long it actually takes for an amateur to stitch!!
Good timing - yesterday spotted via the WhipUp newsletter was a handy Pocket Stitch Book posted over at SewMamaSew. Perfect for me, I'm pretty new at embroidering, having only learned 'properly' at Brown Owls last year. Prior to that I completely made up what I was doing. Still fun.

Happy stitching if you're doing some!

gone potty

From top to bottom images from; sweetrice, littleredmercantile again for pic 3,
mongoliavintage and SentimentalityYour's

Many of you may have seen the adorable potholder displays Mieke Willems make instore which I have posted about before, and you may have posted them too! They make a lovely feature wall.

One day I plan to learn how to crochet something like them myself.

If you too like this look and are not so good with a crochet hook you could always keep a look out when op shopping or perhaps head to etsy where I found these beauties!

There are also some pretty crocheted pot holders listed over at Fine Little Shop.

welcome spring!

images from here

I am absolutely in love with floral arrangement company Leif.

Owned and operated by twin sisters in Utah. Leif uses all recycled containers for their arrangements, which are exquisitely organic in style. They also have their own blog, leifflowers.

Such a pity Utah is so far from Melbourne, although I will be bookmarking this one for wedding inspiration that's for sure!

(No. No wedding soon, doesn't mean a girl can't have an inspiration folder though.)

drumroll please...

...commenter no.21 - Carly from agirlandherblog

~ CONGRATULATIONS Carly some BIRTHDAY LOOT is heading your way! ~

A big thankyou to everyone who participated in my first ever blog giveaway, I've sincerely enjoyed reading all of your comments and meeting a few of you lurkers too. You know who you are. It's so nice to meet you!

Below are some action shots my lovely assistant took of the draw so you would know the giveaway wasn't rigged! We opted for an old-school method - numbers-in-a-hat style.

happy planet - challenge 4

Oh no I cracked! The mag challenge from Happy Planet - Challenge 2 came unstuck on Friday when I purchased The Age for the mag inside (Did you see it? Full page Pip, looking gorgeous!) and well, while I was there I picked up a copy of Frankie too! Oops. One month with no mag purchases is pretty tough for this gal. Having said that I've had more time to do other things I enjoy when I would normally be reading my mags. So, I think from all of this I have come to realise that my list of mags to purchase can be seriously culled to a select few. Top of the list for me - Frankie, Peppermint, King Brown and Wooden Toy.

Happy Planet - Challenge 3, went really well. My hair only got mistaken for a hand rail once, unidentified objects were stuck in my back, side and arm a total of 4 times plus I only experienced one delay, which was 4 minutes. Not too bad right? I ended up taking the train and not walking on all occasions except once, I car pooled with a workmate as Melbourne was hit by some pretty stormy weather. The big pro for me was not having to move my car during the day as there is no all-day parking near work. I think I might continue to take public transport from time-to-time. Sadly if it wasn't for the cost I would do it more.

Next fortnightly challenge - no meat Mondays and Wednesdays. This challenge was inspired by the campaign called Meat Free Mondays which I found out about over on the lovely Dear Plastic blog! I'm not the biggest meat eater but I have also never consciously considered how much meat I do eat. I look forward to seeing how this challenge goes.