quilt tops

kinda joining in the top 5 lists

.... so going with the no rules thing

 here's my top 5 handmade tops .... plus a favourite parrot

..... & a short reflection

in vague calendar order

top left :: swing it sister

top right :: bamboo wonderland

middle left :: scrappy wip

middle right :: one a penny two a penny

bottom left :: party like a parrot

bottom right :: acid spotty coin stack

its been a big year of plenty of creativity

in the planning & execution

just not a mountain of quilting going on

lucky me acquired both an overlocker & steam iron

this year so this has spurred a re-newed passion 

to make clothing for me!

we traveled os & this always does something weird to my sewing focus

oh & if you missed it .... i started up a new business

so yeah .... not so much patchworking going on

but as always there are things happening in the background
i've noticed in going through my blog posts
& looking through images that i
have a true colour story going on
i did know this but its taken me a little by surprise :: nice to look at it all side by side
i'm very heavily biased to 'winging it' my way ... aren't i?
funny ... when you're in the midst of things sometimes you don't see it!?
(not intended as a bad pun but i don't mind a duality! he heee!)

oh & technically the one-a-penny ..... is not a quilt top
but i'd like to make one that way sometime ...

so wishing you all a happy and blessed

2014 ....  enJOY your journey

colourful crafty hijinks

weeks have sailed by

and i haven't mentioned

some crafty hijinks

hosted by Jodie & Gilly

in the sweet victorian country town

of ballarat ....

day trip with Karen & Bron

met up with a host of bloggers

lots of whom are quickly becoming great friends

that's the thing about blogging & reading blogs

there may not be a lot of time spent face to face

but when you do catch up you feel like

you're 'up with' what's been going on

most especially what's been in the 'making'
it feels a bit odd at first actually
but its good, very good

was the most excellent adventure

for a spot of indoor picnic-ing ....

chatted with Lara & Bec & Nicole & Breanna & Cam

& Cathie & met lots of lovely new faces

& we missed you Anna!

there were door prizes & raffles 

& all the performance of a stage-full of pass-it-on-crafty-goodies

took stuff

came home with new stuff

good stuff too!

thank you for sharing people

oh & there were some quick little workshops too

Jodie chatted about rag rug making

Bec ran us through hexies

& me .... little hands on workshop & chat

about using colour 

& being
brave
with colour on colour

tried to encourage everyone to choose the interesting road

suggested 3 colour combo 'recipes'

1 - choose any three colours all in a row 

from the colour wheel

2 - choose opposite colour on the colour wheel

complementary colours

3 - look at nature

the world we live in just never gets it 'wrong'

.... and of course

i always like to 'tweak it' 

.... add a little colour on a small scale that's subtle 

yet powerful to contrast it all

some
other
crafty
hijink-sters

thanks for a fabulous day everyone
looking forward to another

always a great day when you connect with other crafty/arty types
speaking of connecting
if you're reading here
i always love your comments
its just 'nice' to know who you are & ...
well .... connect! xo

light & colour

that moment when

the switch is flicked

and the 'light' goes on

i love that a-ha moment on a child's face

or anyone's for that matter

oh & i might have chosen a style icon

replicas they might be

Aero pendant lights x3

adore them

when i chose them a while back

i very nearly did colour but ....

i'm glad on this occasion i went for white

the tones are lovely & the lighting is crisp

but did you know

light is colour  .... yep - its that light spectrum thing

right underneath these pendants is of course

where all the action happens

some lovely little artists in the studio today

i've had a long love affair with matisse

& his cut outs ...

no lines... just cut

 oh & a spontaneous 'can i paint now'

5 mins before we should have been walking out the door

.... yes of course you can!!

"its a river with a face

i love the colours mum"

nice to have these moments in the studio with my boy

i'm hoping he will love being in there

i think he will .... 

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!

 

bold with little stitches

i am completely

enamored

with the vision of this quilt today

the styling the look the sense of

wonderful simple colour playing with colour

thanks for sharing style files

the humble pencil

never under estimate

the simple things

this is awesome

day 5 of 12: purple-ly pink

today is the 4th sunday of advent

we've had:

peace = blue

hope = white

joy = purple

& today is

love = pink

... each sunday the children have tied different coloured

ribbons on the tree to represent each one

... stay tuned for christmas day to see the whole effect ...

one of these advents i plan to make not the whole advent calendar of december

but 5 somethings 

.... for the 4 advent sundays & christmas day itself 

... an idea sitting in the back of my mind .... maybe next year ..??

i made this cute little tree a while back ... 

its covered in purple ribbons

with a teeny baby sized angel teddy on top

this other tree is covered in mexican pressed metal decorations

which remind me of days long past

when i used to work near 'market import' in armadale ...

i love the feast of colour that shop is ...

... do you know where i'm talking about?

very very mexican with a touch of europe ...

Meet .... Roy G Biv

By "They Might Be Giants"
Oh how I love colour ...
been a fan of these guys over time too
so if you've ever had
trouble remembering what the colours are
what order they come in
or how we see a rainbow
... well
after this i doubt you will forget ....
enjoy colour ....
spelt with a 'u'