"Good things come to those that wait..."

...and my son has waited for two years for me to complete knitting his cushion cover! :/ That certainly says a lot about both of us :)
The story of the knitted cushion cover goes like this:

"One day Mummy was in Spotlight and saw this awesome competition "knit something original, using our yarn, and enter to win something fantastic!" (well, that was the general gist of it...)
"Boy oh boy!" thought Mummy, "I can get my clever children to draw a motif which I will interpret into a knit pattern and then knit them both wonderful cushions!" So Mummy went home and told her two eldest children, who sat down and drew wonderful designs whilst She got out her "How to make knit patterns' book and began trying to figure out how to make the drawings work out in scale with the knitted stitches....
"When will my cushion be finished?" asked her 4 year old daughter.
"Well, we have to work out work out what colours we want first, then go to Spotlight and buy the yarn." Easy!
The children held up with their end of the bargain, with a wonderful Vampire girl and an Orc in Mordor being drawn with wonderful colours and lines and lots of lovely detail.  Now it was up to Mummy to finish the task they had set.
With the 'How to make Knit Patterns' book, graph paper, calculator and pencil in hand the adventure began.  Soon Mummy realised that she had taken on a bigger task than she realised, and a new respect for knit designers was born.  BUT she couldn't let her children down, those two lovely children with big shining eyes full of excitement and bursting with 'can't wait' juice... oh the pressures!
The designs were interpreted, and the yarn brought.  Receipts were kept in the hope that the cushions would be finished in time to enter the competition. Time passed.... needles clicked.... back to spotlight for more yarn... lucky same colour lot! (WOW!) .... needles clicked..... stiches undone.... needles clicked.... blister on finger.... needles clicked.... Da-Da Vampire Girl knitted, now to sew her together and the finer details.... needle threaded.... stitches sewn.... yarn cut! Sigh. Done. Smile... Now for number two...
In the mean time life was also going on.  Moving house, starting a new school, starting prep and 3yo kinder, settling into a new landscape... the needles were laid down for a break.  The competition ended.  Until one day "Mum, when are you going to finish my cushion?"
"Damn! I thought he had forgotten" thought Mummy, "Soon.... I just have to sew it together."
So the other day, about 2 years after it was begun, Mummy sat down with needle and thread and sewed the cushion together, adding details to the design, and stuffing an insert into it. Done.
"Thanks mum.  Are you going to do one for...."
"Arghhhhhhh!"

So yes, that's the story of the cushions.
I hope you enjoyed :)

what's up?

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged.... this sounds like a medical or spiritual confession!  I haven't been sitting on my laurels though, distracted perhaps but not slacking off.  I have actually been weaving, a beautiful weave called a double weave, and its looking good.   I am in the process of getting my large 16 shaft loom working so I can make some lovely fabric, and practice some weaves I can't do on the 4 shaft.
I have also came up with an inspirational 'poem' to base a fabric collection on which is fit to turn into upholstery fabric for "The Chair".... which I am VERY excited about!  I find things need to simmer away in the brain before any great revelation..... and the inspiration for "The Chair" fabric came at 3:00am after a sleepless night and a week of worrying about family illness.... but it's not a morbid design, rather a 'reflective' one.

"Take a seat and ponder,

It doesn't matter where.

Who you are,

Where you are,

and where to go from here."

 

I also have some other philosophical ramblings, but I think I shall keep them to myself for a while.... at my age who has time for philosophy! 

 





Unexpected Design

I know, I have gone a little off hilter with my goals but I have just finished a design to enter into a competition on Spoonflower... The theme was Geek Girl!  How could I resist? :)
Anyway, I did it and I like it so here it is!

 

You can support my entry by voting for it on the spoonflower page for the Fabric8:Geek chic contest on the 23rd April. :)
Thank you

Next design project

I have taken another year off my TAFE studies at Brunswick RMIT, but have a personal goal to finish setting up my studio space, and produce a new Toile-de-joir and co-ordinates. I have defined my brief, and it feels awesome to have direction, even self-imposed direction. I have this old chair in the shed, we used to use it in our old house in NthFitzroy, but the use is really showing, so it hasn't made it out of the shed. But it has a history with us, and I cannot bear to put it out on the nature strip.... which is where we found it in Thornbury... and my georgeous friend Bec picked it up for us and squished it into her car... in the rain... and we dried it out... and we loved it till I had to sew patches onto it.... SO the Toile-de-joir is about the journey of the chair, and the final result will hopefully be the chair re-upholstered in the fabric with some comfy cushions in co-ordinate fabrics to match.

Sumo Doorstop

When your'e on a roll... here is a doorstop I made a while ago. He's looking a bit used.... because he is! And what a great job he does. I have made this Sumo Doorstop out of scraps of calico & denim jeans, & he's been filled with those old legumes you find at the back of the pantry.... I've used ink and fabric textas to draw on the calico using techniques of a continuous line drawing in the detail of the blue ink. I was exploring the use of line in design, it was fun, relaxing and the outcome has been really useful.

I believe sustainability is important, especially in industries such as the textile industry, so making the most of the materials I have at hand, and thinking about how the fabric has been designed, printed and produced, what fibres the fabric contains, and where the materials were made is an important step towards making sustainability a factor in my textile design projects.

Cupcakes and Poodles bag

Well here is the photo of my bag!  I still love it, and it is travelling well.  As a prototype there are a couple of improvements I would make for the next one, but overall it's a great bag... not too big that I loose everything, and not so small that I can't fit those toys the kids decide to take somewhere and swear they will carry them.... know what I mean?  :0)

"Sugar & Spice and all things nice...

...thats what little girls are made of."  I have finally made something from fabric I have designed and had printed.  I brought a book on handbags from a school fete, and there was this cool pattern in it... so I made it out of the poodles and cupcakes fabric I designed as a coordinate for the Toile-de-joir fabric at TAFE...  I like it... :)
as per usuall I shall post a photo soon.....