A fury of bunting making

In a crafting fury (in a good way :), this week I felt inspired to finally make the bunting I'd been meaning to make for about a year. It's non-triangular (for some reason I wanted square, not sure why) but I like it so far.



In other crafting fury news, here are the latest elephants I've been making, one for a wee baby born very recently and the rest for the upcoming Sisters' Market I'm doing, called the Teeny Tiny kids' market, which is on Saturday November 7 at the Brunswick Town Hall (233 Sydney Road, Brunswick). Should be fun, and I'll have lots of lovely neighbours including Printspace, Metremaid, Lark and lots more.

Inspiration Thursday (on a Friday)

It was really sunny and lovely the other day (as opposed to today - rainy and humid and a bit ick) and the colours looked amazing as I was walking down the street.

Le Petit Chien

Isn't it funny how you start out with an idea about something, and then you sit down to figure the idea out properly and then it turns into something else completely(ish)?

Anyway, this morning I sat down to draw a really simple red outline of a sausage dog, with the possibility of it being a pillowcase cover (the pooch pillowcase cover contines...this is not the first or second but third). And then it turns into a non-red, two colour, non-outline Frenchy pooch. Anyway, not sure if this will turn into a real pillowcase cover, due to boring technical issues to do with high thread count & bleeding paint, but we'll see. Maybe a cushion cover?



Oh, and the idea is dedicated to Oscar the miniature Dachshund I met in the park the other day. He's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen, actually, and reinforces the fact that I *really* need a miniature Dachshund. One day...

Cutest thing ever

Photos from Yellow Owl Workshop

Are they not? I love you, Yellow Owl Workshop.

(Found via Distillate)

Stuff

In other news, as of the start of this week I'm participating in the Poppytalk Handmade Market, (an online market - sure beats hauling stuff around town!) which goes for a month. The theme this month is Indie Love, yay for indie design/crafty stuff.

It's quite an honour to be hanging out near such amazing folk, including Beehive Kitchenware, Hazel & Hunter, Inklore Design, Jewel Weeds, KG & AB, Matte Stephens, Repeat, Mummy Sam, Yasha Butler and sooo many more. I'm gonna go shopping right now... Oh, and here's my stall, featuring a couple of new things, and there's more new stuff in my Etsy shop, including baby vests, hair ties, cushions and more soon!



And here's a sneak-peak of some of the things I've been printing...corgi pillowcases, fun!



And cork coasters!

Inspiration Thursday

Hello blog, long time no see.

Can't believe it's a week since last Thursday, where I was too busy printing and running around to post some inspiration. And feel like I haven't had a chance since then to sit down at the computer and do something fun, boo hoo.

Anyway, what I would have posted last Thursday if I had time is this -



Yep, some weeds by the railway line. And something I think I ate the week before. Yep - ate. In a fancy restaurant, no less, choice of my foodie-stuff loving manfriend (thanks to Shannon for this appropriate description). In case you were wondering, yep they were tasty - even more so than when I used to eat such things in kindergarten (which I have distinct memories of, mmm!)

It's a T bag

Yep, not only is there a T towel, now there's a T bag, too, thanks to a wee collaboration with Matt of Mattt. The limited edition bag features charcoal ink Ts on grey denim (ie: perfect for those who like muted colours!) and is only available in Matt's shop or the markets he's attending. I was at Rose St last Saturday to visit a friend and saw one of them in amongst all the other bags, which was quite cool (forgot to take a snap tho, so stole this one from Matt!)



And in other collaboration news, some of my Volker Haug cushions (ie: cushions screen printed with Volker Haug's lights) are now stocked in Tongue and Groove in Collingwood. I haven't been to the new shop/studio, which is now off Smith Street (I think...though their website's yet to be updated) but loooved the old Smith Street store, so can't wait to drop by. Oh, and the cushions come in four different designs, as shown in the photos above, and in medium and large sizes.

And note the use of black and grey, rather than my usual rather bright colour palette...it must be a boy thing.

Little Tokyo Shops zine

How great - a wee zine dedicated to sweet shops discovered on a recent trip to Japan. Now I really want to go! You can buy the zine for a mere US$5 via Angela's Etsy store. And while you're out and about, don't forget to visit her lovely blog about Melbourne shops - Open (*love it*)

Inspiration Thursday

It's funny how you can walk past something a million times and not think it interesting, then suddenly realise it is. I did this recently, when walking up some stairs near the studio. Paint splatters / polka dots = pretty. Happy Thursday.

Open and now closed

Although I forgot to take a single photo of the event, the Open Studio has been and gone and was a speedy (2 hour) and exhausting and fun day. It was lovely to see some familiar faces in the crowd (hi Bianca and Tess and Shannon) and put some faces to the name/blog (lovely to meet you Yardage Girl and Pippi Creates and Sewhum). And hello to all the others who came along, including some lovely locals and, seemingly, my entire family! The place scrubbed up pretty well, too, although it's already a mess again now. Oh, and no more beer in the afternoon for me - I don't think it agrees with me and certainly made the cycling home a little more difficult than usual!

Fabric is in the shop!

I've put some of the new fabric in my Etsy shop, woot! The shop's been a bit neglected lately, so have put a few other goodies in there - hello fabric covered buttons, in a range of colours. So go crazy and make something - you know you want to :)

*UPDATE* Have also put some new Elephants & limited edition tea towels in the shop, which is neglected no more. In fact, it's probably never been so full and even goes to more than one page - wow!



Speaking of shops, how gorgeous is this one?


Photo courtesy of The Design Files

I saw the postcard for Ramona Tienda, a new shop in North Melbourne, at a cafe in Kensington and just knew I'd love it. And I do - it's so sweet, with a select range of lovely items. And thanks to Lucy's post on The Design Files, I now know part of the reason why - as well as being super talented in her own right, Ramona used to work at Wilkins and Kent (lovely furniture and gifty things *swoon*) and the parallels in style between the shops certainly shines through. It seems like there are more and more great shops being set up around town, I love it.

Holy moley, it's ready!

This morning I went and picked up the first run of fabric from the girls, so exciting! The first thing I did was cut and pack some of it up, so I could see how the new packaging would look. Fun! Only got two snaps in before my camera's battery died, but you get the idea.

Next: red. Can't wait for that, hopefully I'll have some snaps soon!

New stockist: Mattt

How great is this shop, complete with beautiful flowers! So happy that some of my elephants and 'T' Towels get to hang out there now, as it's my newest stockist - Mattt on Gertrude St, Fitzroy.

You'll probably know the bags even if you don't remember the name - they're everywhere (around Melbourne and the world), often featuring a panel of gorgeous hand printed fabric such as these beauties from Lara & Teegs from Ink & Spindle. And yep, that's him in the corner of the photo above, dutifully rearranging the product!

Although Matt's been making bags since 2000 and has been selling them at markets around town for probably about that long, the shop/studio only came to be earlier this year (the studio part is in the right hand side of the room, but for some reason I didn't take snaps of the excellent industrial sewing machines). Stock consists mainly of the bags, of which there's a great range of sizes and patterns, but Matt's also doing his bit to support local makers of things, so there's a wee range of other goodies (including some great hand embroidered hot water bottles.(

It must be so great spending all day in this a lovely, sun filled space, watching folk wandering past.



Mattt Studio & Shop
13 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy, 3065, Australia
www.mattt.com.au
11am–6pm Tuesday to Saturday

More Open Studio

As promised, here's a wee poster advertising the Open Studio event that's coming up this Sunday, 20th September, 1-3pm at my home-away-from-home, Ironside Studios. It's our first and possibly only open day, so don't miss out. Fingers crossed I'll have some of my newly printed fabric, along with other bits and pieces to show and maybe to sell.



And did I mention other highlights, including being able to see Jem & Laura's amazing spaces (count:three, one of which you can see here - amazing!), Volker's amazing lights, Heather's buttons (handmade!), Ben's bags, Sixto's illustrations and more.

Sunday Stash

All photos by Summersville.

After many months of putting off the purchase of some Summersville fabric, I recently decided I could no longer live without some. In fact, now that I look back, two of her things featured in my "If I had an Etsy Treasury" post of yonks ago. And no, still haven't got one!) Anyway, sooo happy when these arrived in the post, all the way from Suffolk in the UK. They're hand printed in great colours, lovely base cloth and cute coz they're little panels. I even got some magnets too, which look soo good on my fridge. Thanks Lucie :) Now what to do with them... argh, don't make me cut them up!

Happy Sunday, happy Sunday Stash.