This one time, on craft camp....

Actually it was pretty similar to past craft camps. Once again I ate way too much food, stayed up far too late, laughed well beyond the point of tears and made about half of the things I wanted to make, all whilst soaking up a huge dose of inspiration and advice and ideas from my fellow companions in craft.


I sewed


I painted lots of dots (on tea towels, for swapping)


I looked around


And we hit a new record- 12 sewing machines between 9 of us, although I think we only made it to 11 on the table at any one time.


Some things I made deserve their own little post, but for now I shall go to bed, because I do have some shut eye to catch up on....

In black and white

New cushion covers for the Easy Chairs. New, cheap, playful, easy care, Ikea cushion covers. C is quite taken with them ("ooh, fancy cushions!") and I like the way the swirls compliment the organic curves of the chairs, but we don't see them as a long term thing. Rather, more of a dry run for making some gorgeous (but not nearly so cheap) cushion covers with some lovely black and white wool (dry clean only) upholstery fabric that I found. Just need to save some pennies first. These will be fun in the meantime.



At least I can cross that off the to-do list. And while I'm at it add another dozen things to it, as seems to be the way. There are always so many new ideas emerging, begging to be done. I started trying to write a list of projects for Craft Camp this weekend, to help me pack what I need, if nothing else. As usual it's already too long (and still growing), and perhaps more eclectic than usual. It's going to be fun deciding where to jump in, and will be interesting to see which ones come into being...

Dressing up

We have a few new things in the dress up box. Some sourced from the op shop, some made and some planned to be made on Craft Camp this weekend.
This mask I made a few weeks ago now, but haven't managed to catch a photo of it in use. To be truthful, I think he'd prefer a pink fairy version, but perhaps one day he'll have an urge to dress up like a bandit, maybe once I've made a superhero cape to go with it...
To make it, I loosely followed these instructions from Ikat Bag, but I used cotton fabrics in lieu of felt, and used fusible web to join the layers together before top stitching and leaving raw edges.

February in the Veggie Patch

Forgive the lazy post. Gardening details on Flickr.

1. Feb in the veggie patch, 2. Feb in the veggie patch, 3. Feb in the veggie patch, 4. Feb in the veggie patch, 5. Loving, 6. Feb in the veggie patch, 7. Feb in the veggie patch, 8. Feb in the veggie patch, 9. Feb in the veggie patch

Loving

Some things I'm loving right now: eating peaches, harvesting slim pickings from the garden (and plotting for more productive seasons ahead), knitting socks (and plotting for the next socks- some serious motivation to get the current pair off the needles), being inspired to sew quick little projects that need blog posts of their own, getting organised for other projects that need doing, taking delight in our young man's delight at dress ups and creating and making, although we could give the terrible two tantrum fest a miss...

Happy Valentine's Day.

What I'm reading

One of the unexpected pleasures I've encountered in becoming a parent is the opportunity to read children's books. I'm truly grateful that C loves reading (fingers crossed it lasts) and fortunately our local library has a wonderful picture book collection (along with fantastic "Storytime" sessions which we get to every now and then) so we have a constantly changing selection at home.

Such is my love of the picture book I even started to entertain thoughts of writing and illustrating a children's book, but when Mum produced a couple of books that I wrote and illustrated when I was in high school (talk about a flashback to a forgotten memory) I decided I could tick that off my list of things to do in life (not only did I get a mark of 9/10 for "Kevin the Crab", but C seems to enjoy it!). Instead, I enjoy the opportunity to explore what our library has on offer, or linger in the children's picture book aisle of my favorite bookshops, taking delight in entertaining plots and characters, pleasing prose and rhymes, and appreciating beautiful illustrations and different drawing styles.

A couple of our recent library favorites are an old flashback- The Giant Jam Sandwich (more flashbacks for the older folk here) and a more recent book, The Curious Garden, inspired by the amazing High Line railway park in New York.

More inspiration than I can poke a matchbox car at..

Don't you love it when you stumble across a new (to you) blog or three, crammed with ideas and inspiration?

Yesterday I happened upon Made by Rae who aside from having a daughter named Clementine (!) is co-hosting what looks like a very interesting event this month- Celebrate The Boy - along with Dana of MADE. A whole month of boy related craft projects. A true feast of inspiration if the first couple of days are anything to go by. There's even a Flickr Pool to go along with it.
As if that wasn't enough, this post led me to discover LiEr's Ikat Bag, which offers plenty more kid's clothes and toys inspiration, including another good  chef hat tutorial and plenty of other things for the dress up box (I have to make some masks!).
Hope you enjoy it too!

Sustainable Living Festival

I just found out that the Sustainable Living Festival is on again (11th year!)  in Melbourne this month. I have a really good track record of missing events like this, but perhaps this year I can get along to something.

The main festival event is on at Fed Square from the 19th to 20th February, with exhibitors, talks, film, workshop and performances, but there are also a heap of local events (Program here) happening from the 6th Feb.

There is plenty to appeal to all-just a couple of things that caught my eye- a couple of clothing swaps, info about sustainable home renovating, a professional development session being run by Craft Vic on how to green up your craft business, a cheese making workshop (free for City of Port Phillip residents), and if you're stuck on the other side of the country, Perth has their own Sustainable Living Festival happening this month too. Spoiled for choice really!

Mad hatter

At the sewing machine this week I made a couple of hats.

First up, a new sun hat for C, using some leftover bits in the stash, and Nicole Mallalieu's Kid's Hats pattern (Bought from Kelani last year). I'd heard that Nicole writes very detailed patterns, full of tips and useful technical sewing know-how, so was willing to invest in an expensive pattern, especially given it has a range of sizes and design options (brim width and edge finishing, and crown on bias or grainline). It certainly is a great pattern, and once I'd figured out how to cut it from the scraps I had available (I had to add seams to the centre front), it was straightforward to stitch together -all finished in one evening. I made the large size (55-57cm) and with the second widest brim, in a bucket style (not turned up at the edge). I'm really pleased with it, but C thinks it's too big and insists on continuing to wear the (now) tight fitting hats I bought for him last summer. No doubt he will grow into it in time, and in the meantime I'm reassessing stash options to make one in the medium size.

Second up, a baker's hat (or chef's hat as it is also called, but as we've been reading In the Night Kitchen a lot lately, I'm inclined to go with the "baker" theme). I'm trying to make some headway on a dress-ups collection, and had added this project to my to do list the moment I saw Curly Pops tutorial (via Whip up) last year. So simple- I made it even simpler by omitting bias binding, sticking to a white colour scheme and using a velcro fastening. The second it was finished it was put on and C insisted we make some Oat & Sultana cookies again (I didn't disappoint him, and can report that museli is good substitute if you lack oats in your pantry). Next up I want to make a tutu, after he had great fun on the weekend dressing up in one that a friend made for her daughter- she gave me some sewing tips so as soon as I can decide which colour I'll give it a shot...