apple of my eye

 so i'm joining in a little fundraising art exhibition

hosted by the framers where i do my ... framing, yep!

this is actually the first time in a long time that i have....

framed some of my own work

 do you remember this piece ?
was one of my pieces for our 'full circle' project

back last year .... well above is a sweet little water colour version

i'm quietly pleased with this outcome & it looks great framed up in white

the other piece ...

is a classic tree .... all silver trunked

a topic i love ....

works are for sale

in fact if you'd like to join me at the opening tomorrow eve

then you are more than welcome!

fundraising for the Mirabel Foundation

Art Exhibition is at the

Malvern Artists' Society Gallery

1297-99 High Street Malvern

Opening Night Friday 24th May

Open 25th May - 2nd June

Mon- Fri 11am-2pm

Sat&Sun 11am-4pm

more than 80 works of art for viewing & for sale

heart the craft: on b&w

heART the craft

a collection, or a single favourite image or idea

this is no.4

 home is where the heART is

isn't it?

love this 'pintrested' image

from 'kinderpendent' but can't find it's original source

great use of this fabulous ikea black & white fabric

i have a great stash of this ... just waiting

... i'm generally not into encouraging kids to 'colour in' someone else's image

but these images are so simple & they are kidd-ish without dictacting

that 'this-is-the-only-way-you-should-draw-a-house' .....

i love the creative play element as well

& they'd be simple enough to make it a learning sewing project

maybe mix it up & not use the 'traditional' primary colours plus green

yep ....

colour ... so yeah, here i am saying i like the way its used ....

sparingly with black & white .... um

generally i'd say that using colour in this simplistic way is conforming

& kind of sticking to the 'safe' side ...

or not taking advantage of the wonderful way that 

a colour responds to another colour

but i think these house graphics call for simplicity

.... might let you all 'in on' what i think about 

colour & using neutrals sometime soon....

(post on colour per request coming soon-ish!)

 

and when talking colour & environments for children

'well' .... i do have a few thoughts on that too

so anyway back to these funky houses ....

love all the colourful front doors

what colour is your front door??

we have a very conservative charcoal denim one ....

our previous home had a plum purple that i adored

my parents have a very happy bright yellow gloss

might change ours someday ...

but not yet .... will play it safe for a while longer!

you can always have a read on 

my thoughts re: children & drawing

over here .... that is while you're waiting for my

rant all about colour use!

 

a golden sewjourn

sewjourn certainly has a golden glow

went there with Karen & Lara

... met an awesome bunch of girls

Kathryn, Rachel, Tan & Megan

 different but just as lovely time away

the walking foot had an evening out

with a couple of quilts

one on behalf of my mum (little elephants just below)

is a wip - a post will be forthcoming

the other a real recent favourite (1st pic)

acidic stacked coins

&

then some secret Lorax piecing!

for a little boy who is turning 5 very very soon

he adores the Lorax ... both the Dr Suess' book & the movie

in fact, its the whole party theme!

stay tuned for this post too ...

'twas a rather grey day in Lancefield on saturday

all warm & cosy tucked in the studio

 .... everyone busy & machines humming

quite inspired by all the ideas really

a heartful thankyou to you all these girls ...

for both including me so warmly in on your special

sewjourn hideaway 

& also for all your encouragement & patient answers ....

you see ....

i'm a lucky girl .... as i have a new toy

my new janome overlocker

kind of a request for mother's day 

with some additional market funds making it possible

(excuse the very relaxed attire .... not loving this pic of me but keeping it real here!

still, a thankyou to Karen for capturing the moment!)

 i'm buzzing with ideas now

seriously had the most amazing time

learning & reminding myself how

satisfying it is to sew yourself clothing

that suits, that is a great fit 

& that really didn't cost all that much to make

 so my world has shifted

with a new appeal towards

wearing handmade that i've actually made

& for knits!! yep ...

two .... two Sewaholic Renfrew Short sleeve tops

had the advantage of trying one on for size last week!

.... here's a couple made by the lovely Karen ...

i made one silky purple-y (below)

& the other (not pictured) a deep purple/blue!

(i know i know did i say blue .... more purple-ish but yeah ... )

i made myself a Style Arc Laura dress

which fits me nicely & i will model it for you soon

what was so invaluable was Lara's stash of previously made garments

so generously brought along so that they could be tried on for fit!

here's her amazing Laura Star dress ..... yes ... 'nabbed'

& with her advice i tweaked it to my body shape

.... started off with a much longer hem line 

& then decided shorter was the way to go!

there were also some green comfy pants

or pj's really pattern by Make it Perfect

& there was enough of the grey&black knit fabric

left over from the dress that i made a

single layer version of the Style Arc Fay skirt

again i had the chance to try on Lara's & Rachel's for fit!

thanks so much ladies!

& the awesome spotty stretch denim above

is an unfinished A line skirt by Nicole Mallalieu

i also have another one of these started

so all i need to do is hop to it & perfect

the whole invisible zipper thing .... working on it!!

but these fit so nicely too ...

 sunday was a glorious shiny happy golden autumn day

a wonderful treat

a steep & very exciting learning curve!

love the journey

& enJOYed getting to know my

traveling companions for the weekend

gift-y goodies

 if you've not been to the Canterbury Primary School Art Show

make a mental note for early May next year

alongside the Art Show they host a Gift Shop of excellent quality

 its a 'by invitation' kind of thing .... was there last year too!

wonderful atmosphere

thankyou Canterbury families

for loving all my hARTylittlepeaces

 so from a few weeks back when most of these were still

little wip's .... here they are stashed in the gift shop!

love the pic above of the 2 girls studying each notebook carefully

mother's day gift perhaps??

yep ...

edit .... did i mention that all my painted brooches & dolly pins & clips

all SOLD OUT .... yep!

heART the craft - hello

heART the craft

a collection of favourite images & ideas

collection no.3

 pintrest-ed from here

originally from here

... loving her style

..... woah .... "hello"

love this

found pinned but was from here a while back i think

& then ....you had me at hello

simple clever classic graphics

tick ...... pinned ... but from here

there is nothing sweeter when you return huh!?

this is cool ... & clever & crafty

pinned ..... & from here

hello & home

roll those two ideas into one

= a welcome mat ....

purple & green

 so way way back ....

when we had a different address

i organised a block swap 

the idea was that it might be the perfect way

to keep in-touch with some friends

thus began the block swaps of 2009 & 2010

09 was all purple & green

here's the "how to tutorial"

it was all great fun & now holds some lovely memories

so what we all did ...

each month we had the 'homework' of sewing up 12 or so blocks

working with the block design & size & variations

the only rule was that we were to include one of 2 base fabrics

any other fabrics were to be purple or green of choice

we'd get together, rotating visiting one another's homes

there was show n'tell & lots of laughs

each time we always sewed an extra block ....

went into a box intended for our

Prayers & Squares at ABC

i was supposed to have gifted this a very long time ago

not sure what happened at the time

but then it was packed away ....

just last week i passed it on to mum

(my mum .... yep she's a crafty type too & she is a major part of P&S's)

last wednesday .... she arrived with purple & green blocks in hand

would you believe that ....

that very day there was a prayer quilt request in purple & greens!!!

not kidding ... a God thing i think!

so this lap sized prayer quilt was pieced together

for a special lady who played a part in our ABC's history

we hope you feel the love & prayers of all the peoples

from now & then from ABC Mabel .... you are loved

these photos are from our time during church yesterday

when the ties were tied ... & a prayer is said

i'm so pleased with this end result

it seems that it is all in God's timing

so a big thankyou to Katherine & Kylie & Sam & Louey

& Wendy & Nicole & Jo & Lizzie & Jenny 

i love the journey that was this block swap

we really should all get together with our 'finished' quilts!!

you can see a glimpse of Katherine's finished p&g block swap

quilts over here .... she made them into twin quilts for her 2 older girls

i know that Nicole has sewn all her blocks together

& here's mine .... um .... cough .... still not finished ...

however it is now all at least pieced together as a finished quilt top!!

i added another strip layer to each of my blocks ...

& then

the following year

there was the red & aqua swap

with a slightly different crowd of friendly faces

how i met my awesome quilty bloggy friend Bron ...

that's another story .....

amen to all the seasons of life

 

bit of acid, spots & some stacked coins

 what did you do last night?

9pm & i was a little .... well bored really!

footy just doesn't 'do it' for me ...

my stash of scraps is a magic pudding

seriously .... i work hard on using it & it multiplies

 decided on a variation of my 'free-styling scrappy patchwork'

not sure how ... it just evolved & i quite like working that way

so thus the stacked coins element

i know where this single bed quilt is going!

.... so i wanted something really bright to go with...

found this amazing large scale print in my hoarded stash
'Wildwood' by erin mcmorris for Freespirit westminster fibres

seriously i have whole pile of neatly folded caressed beauties

that i've hoarded ... happy just to look at all lined up pretty like

a wave of corageousness swept over me

crikey!? .... it was cut into .... black & white spots were added

you can't go wrong with spots & these are a great size ...

it 'works' ... now to find a worthy backing?

maybe a b&w stripey binding but we shall see

lots of wonky curvy soft machine quilted lines i think

perhaps a few lines of perle hand quilting stitches running across the stacked coins

quilt top made in a bit under 2 hours

quite enJOYed my friday night in the end

hmmm now .... the backing & then baste ....

lets see if i can get that far in less than 24hrs?

might even get on a roll & baste the others that are still a-waiting!!

yep .... enJOYing my journey ....

heART the craft 2

heART the craft

a current favourite image & idea

if you've been reading along for a while
you'd know i very much enJOY the journey
so this speaks to me
 
painted by a freelance illustrator, currently a london-er
meet Charlotte Trounce
found this work c/o pinterest

 love your work Charlotte
thanks for sharing
... i'll be reading along from now on

little wip's

 been a busy bee .... a-making

for the annual Canterbury Primary

up-coming Art Exhibition & Gift Shop

its by invitation which is a nice compliment

& i love playing a part

so lots of sweet funky little

fabric slip covered notebooks

& travel tissue packs

& cute little photo albums too

these are all great gift ideas

but i love the idea of the pocket photo books 

being given as the gift already full of 

someone's photographic journey ....

a party... a wedding ... great times with friends ... a destination

so here they are

as works in progress

now almost freshly finished

just awaiting swing tags ...

joining in

heART the craft

heART the craft

a collection of favourite images & ideas

collection no.1

been perusing pinterest

a feast lovely images for a 'fix'

if i'm going to be bombarded with visuals

i may as well choose what i like hey!!

top left - adding a pop of color to your kitchen? 

.... pinned originally from little bit funky

bottom left - creative globe ideas
this quote by Gandhi is a favourite for sure

... pinned by Nobiggie

right - embroider a trip on the map and frame

... by Martha Stewart