Craft Chaos Theory

This is craft central at my joint... tis not a pretty sight. Every so often i pull everything out and re-pack or re-fold or re-box or re-sort the stuff and usually it takes me a whole day, many cups of tea and something sweet. It's a way of re-finding things: ideas, materials, the odd sock.... unfinished projects... it's a magic cupboard, to contain all of that but boy, does it get out of control. And it's spawned many other craft holding bays/shelves/boxes/niches in other areas of the house. I do secretly dream of that special craft space, filled with benches and shelves and light and work tables, tea facilities and a cake trolley at 3.15pm, but it's not on the immediate horizen. But then i wonder, if i didn't have to do the sorting/folding/ finding/ thing would i miss that creative surge, that point of re-discovery which propels me off on another craft tangent or the re-kindling of an earlier idea? Dunno, but until i have a designated all purpose multi functional craft-polis, i'll stick with the quandary of craft chaos.

oldies but goodies

this is one of my earliest and most often looked at, read and re-read books. Ant and Bee. I loved their tiny adventures, the simple illustrations, the perfect pocket-size-ness. i think this was given to me in about 1965.

so slow

so much for autumn.... this heat is not conducive to much more than long cool drinks of lime cordial with mint and flopping on the couch. But i am managing each evening to sew, crazy but true. I'm making a backing (or a fronting) for a pieced wool blanket that i put together a few (maybe 4) years ago out of a bolt of pale green wool fabric that i found in an op shop about....10 years ago. It was $5 for about 12 metres by 20cm, just right to be cut into squares and machine pieced. I guess it's been on the back burner long enough and though i'd intended to machine sew the backing my sewing machines are not playing nicely hence the hand sewing. I'm using all thrifted fabrics, sheets, aprons, scraps, in large and small oblong pieces sewn into strips. It's surprising how quickly it's coming together and i'm almost halfway there... wait, no...i'm done! I just lay it on the floor and it fits, with a bit of tweaking and fiddling. Mind you , it may take another 3 years to join the strips and then, say 2 years to put the back and the front together, then there's binding..1 year........... a whacking great total of 10 years to make it...Thats ridiculous, you say and i have to agree, but somehow i love the slow burners!

twenty years today

This is for my mum, we love and still miss you very much. You gave me a love of books, the joy of using my hands and a view of the world through non-judgemental eyes. (and you weren't afraid to be seen in your bathing suit....)

spots + stripes

two things that figure in my fabric collection are spots and stripes, (and the combination of both...) and they come in all manner of colour and size. It is a simple design element, a dot or a line, but it is this minimal factor that i'm always returning to and utilizing. Perhaps as a child it was hearing mum get excited over a "hail spot voile'"or "pin stripe crisp cotton", that sparked my growing enthusiasm and generated a life-long fascination with all things fabric/craft related. I come from a family of stitchers, (sewing/knitting/crocheting/quilting...) and with that has come 'the knowledge'. Not necessarily expertise, (can't put a zip in to save myself) but i know fabric. I mean, how many people know what clydella is these days! Or Vyella for that matter. I remember going with mum to Buckley's to buy vyella to make shirts for us girls and possibly a piece of liberty for something special, something 'for good'! And now my sister Gina and i can rave for hours over an old floral apron or a piece of plaid, and of course, lovely spots and stripes. I like the way they work together or provide contrast with something more flowery or complicated. I like their uniformity, and the way colours becomes muted at a distance. Very useful. I have favourites (above and below).

And then i put them together. As i often say: you can never have enough...spots + stripes.