A camera, some cushions and a shirt walked into a bar...

Finally, a camera again! Just a little one, but it IS red. So it takes photos faster ;-)

Sorry peops but it is so hot here, I cannot be arsed bothered getting all prettied up in my new makes for you. In the meantime, by means of apology, here are the other things going down:

 Out in the Square is on 19 January - last year, I sold some cushions made of hunks and heroes fabrics, and could have sold twice as many. SO this year, I've MADE twice as many. In this higgledy piggeldey pile are 19 cushions. featuring cowboys, firemen, Hawaiian maidens, Frida Kahlo and many more. Lots of fun. And if they don't all sell, I will unstuff the remainder and pack them away for next year.

Aren't they a riot of colour!

Next up is the sensory experience of MrC's going-to-be-shirt. We found the green, ochre and black fabric in my fat quarter box, a perfect contrast. It looks a bit tooo black in this photo, but in real life, it does an excellent job of balancing this busy pattern and adding a touch of the masculine to it.

A longer shot taking in the pattern.
Seeing - thick lines, one size only, seam allowance marked in, takes me straight back to the first years of my sewing - WELL before this pattern was ever printed. Opening up this pattern and spreading it out was such a thrill!
Hearing - the instruction papers are so crisp, they make a wondrous rustle. The tissue rustles too, in a much deeper, more mature way than the young new patterns being born these days.

Smelling - Oh the smell! The dry, cuminy spicy scent of old patterns is one of my favourite smells. It smells of possibilities, like books do. things on paper are so exciting because they are only the beginning of the experience to come - the pattern yet to be made is like the story yet to be read.

Touch - the tissue is thicker, the paper thinner than new patterns. It is far easier to handle as it settles quickly, not floating all over the place like modern tissue. 

Taste - Aha! I am not nibbling on it to find out! Instead I will refer to taste in the sense of style, not flavour. This pattern is ornery, and yet it has the prettiest rose embroider transfer that I may have to try somewhere some time. With piping in the dark as well as cuff and collar linings, I think it will rock any party.

And now, to the cutting table! AKA the kitchen bench!! :)

The Liebster Blog Award

Janene at Oobop! has thoughtfully given me a Liebster award. Thank you so much! Liebster is German for "much loved" or "favourite" which delights my heart. And rather delightfully, she also gave one to Kat at Modern Vintage Cupcakes, whom I have yet to meet but lives in the same city as me at the other end of GMT to London. :)
The Liebster is for blogs with under 200 followers (although with a combination of blogger followers and Google reader followers even I don't know how many I have). Recipients nominate five other blogs to receive the award. So, these are my five picks for a Liebster.
Dressing Mrs Exeter - Mrs Exeter shares about everything from cleaning chandeliers to covered buttons. It's nice to read about the life of another middle-aged blogger!
Miss Ginger Makes - Verity looooves fabric and sells it at Greenwich Market. She is the busiest person I've never met and it is always a thrill to get a glimpse into her life :)
My Fat Quarter - Karen is a poppet with a passion for buttons and a talent for patchwork that blows me away. We sew together at least once a month and always laugh ourselves silly!
Sew 18th Century - Elisabeth loves the 18th C and her costumes are objects of perfectly accurate desire!
Marmota's Dress Diaries - Hana Marmota lives in the Czech Republic and blogs about costumes, op-shopping and exotic and unusual locations she gets to visit, like Estonia, which I very much want to visit myself, now!

Thank you again Janene, and thank you to all the wonderful blogs I enjoy following!

More Apron Happiness!

Just spent a weekend on a quilting retreat, but the closest thing to quilting I did was make these little Christmas stockings, because they have a bit of batting in them:

Dupion silk and Christmas fabric offcuts, all kinds of pretty sparkly trims, brought together to make these cuties. They now have choccies in them and are all bagged up for market!

No childish giggling please about this photo! It is Lesley (female) making her very own stocking. The stocking bug spread around our table, and quite a few more went home than arrived!

And there was a hat and some bags in a bag, but the best fun I had (besides the wonderful company!) was making two Christmas "posh pinnies." I can't stop myself, so many aprons in my soul that need to be made real.  

My beautiful soul sister* Sandra modelling #1: olive green and dark red cotton with a red/green shot organza frill, contrast fabric top cadged from Lesley (who has the most amazing array of Christmas fabrics I've ever seen!!) and an organza rose corsage.

Sandra having a look at the bottom of apron #2. Red/gold cotton with a gorgeous sleigh motif border fabric, cadged from Sandra, with organza trim, and a holly corsage.
The corsages have brooch pins on the back so they can come off for laundering, although because of this clever touch on the one the Embroidenator made me a few years back, I lost it! But she lost the one off hers too so we are even.
They need a bit of work - sewing the red jewel buttons on properly, putting brooch backs on labels etc.
*Sandra and I are constantly discovering how much we have in common. Our stashes are about 60% the same with a strong red bias, and this weekend we both like rieslings and gewurtztraminers over sauv blanc. I am convinced she is really my (slightly) older sister who was swapped at birth and am going to have to speak firmly to the Embroidenator about this... 

I'm totally and utterly Fabricated!

Totally and UTTERLY. What a huge day. Today was the culmination of 11 months' planning. Nearly 800sqm (8000sqft) of textile arts and crafts activity - exhibitions, vendors, clubs, demonstrations, classes, and a really top notch cafe. 36 stalls in all plus the extra things. We set up the tables, frames etc last night, and started again at 7am this morning, helping vendors and other clubs to unpack their cars and get set up so everything was ready by 10am. (To be perfectly honest and in a spirit of complete disclosure, I was useless and got sent home early the night before, as this coldy fluey thing is exhausting and I was just in the way!)
At 10am, there was a queue at the door! People poured in and it was like that most of the day. I taught classes in how to make a yoyo brooch (will do a blog on this, it's fun!) and there was felt bead making, needle felting, making a scarf using washaway, demos of every kind from embroidery, lacemaking, helping to put a quilt together, spinning, various knitting techniques, antique and vintage textiles; and supplies for every textile art and craft imaginable for sale. Except dressmaking stuff, not so much of that.
It was a busy, fun, amazing celebration of textile love. And we are already plotting how to make it bigger and better next time! And did I remember to take the camera? ARGH!!! So you will just have to believe me and hopefully someone else had more common sense :)
Update: Turns out of course lots of other people did! Including Jenny of Romany quilting.

Fabric-a-brac

What a morning! Today was the biannual Fabric-a-brac, Wellington's own stash rehash market. Sewists of all kinds take a table and onsell their bits and bobs - patterns, fabric, wool, trims, beads, haberdashery, leather, the lot. I reckon it is my fifth Fabric-a-brac, and the first time since my very first where I was only selling my own stuff. Even I cannot generate a whole table of unwanted stash by myself in six months!

My stall at 9am, before the public were let in. I'd already bought and sold fabric by then! Note the Elvis Christmas stocking draped on the piano behind my stall. More about Elvis later.

My stall at 12. I've let my neighbour encroach because I didn't have enough stuff left to even cover the table! and Elvis has left the building!
Elvis was a huge hit. My neighbour and friend Sue, bought him, but word had got out and someone turned up at my table to ask if she could buy him. I explained that I'd sold him to Sue, and we got him out to show her. The lady ended up convincing Sue to onsell him!
Anyway, I indulged myself just a little bit:

Gorgeous quality trims and wee rosettes from famous and fabulous Wellington designer Alison Blain whose table is my first port of call every time! The piece of poppy canvas was from my non-Elvis fancying side neighbour's stand. Enough to make a nice bag.

For the Embroidenator, a pile of dupion scraps in native NZ bird greens. She is making exquisite free motion machine embroidered birds for Christmas tree decorations. Not shown is a length of red/green shot organza and a whole roll of waistband lining tape for a mere $4!
Other highlights? I saw a young (early 20's) lass wearing a skirt in a fabric I remember buying in the early 90's, a strong and vibrant red and purple fabric reminiscent of Kaffe Fassett and Phillip Jacobs. It was very exciting to see it and it turned out that she had made it from a piece of fabric in her mother's stash. THEN, when I saw her with her sister and realised that her mother was a long lost friend I had bequeathed a huge pile of fabric to when I left Wellington, we realised it really WAS made from the same piece of fabric! Now isn't that just a little bit hilarious?!
A great morning was had by many - fabrics and bits found new homes and no doubt some will turn up again at future Fabric-a-bracs - such is the way of these things. As for me, as well as my small crop of treasures bought, I have a nice nest egg of funds to reinvest in long arm quilting, must haves and haberdashery needs, so I can keep to my zero budget :)

Cupcake College

Last Thursday's class was a riproaring success, everyone reports having a great time and learning things they can use. Phew :) 

 Me holding forth on some point of philosophy. Did you know that cupcake decorating is a metaphor for life? I didn't either until I did this class and had a captive audience! I can't blame the bubbles as mine was apple juice!

A selection of completed cakes. Didn't they do well!

Maz making butterfly wings our of white chocolate. Great concentration and steadiness of paw!
None of the photos show the pretty aprons I made for everyone properly, there is just a glimpse in this shot. Lots of cake happiness. :)
Anyway it was fun, everyone helped clean up afterwards, bless them, and we're doing it all again next week. :)

The things we do for sewing love...

I'm giving it a go. I feel slightly fraudulent as when I read the always articulate Zoe's reasons and philosophy for participating in a me-made month, I am not sure it's intended for lifers like myself. But I reckon it will do me a power of good to have to 'woman up' and wear at least one garment every day that I made myself. It will soon show up the holes in my wardrobe hehehe.
Anyone else game?
I don't promise to photograph every day's outfit but will do me best. Do aprons count?

Merino Madness!

As many of you will know, our beautiful Christchurch has inexplicably turned into Shakytown. One of the many issues the residents are facing is the cold. It's been snowing down there and snow below about 1000ft in New Zealand is a newsworthy event at the best of times. With peoples' homes being twisted and cracked from earthquake/s, it is hard to keep warm, resulting in increased power bills on top of the other hardships that insurance cannot compensate for. So unfair given everything else they have to deal with right now.
Last week, the Salvation Army put out a call for knitted wool singlets for babies, who are hard hit by this invasive cold snap. Now I do NOT knit - it's a left handed thing, it's my excuse and I am sticking to it! But I CAN sew, and so can the Embroidenator, and we have been mass producing merino wool undershirts and hats for babies.

An odd collection of colours, but the dark browns were such fabulous quality merino, I couldn't resist. The pixie hats are doubled, with red or yellow linings. Aren't they cute! I feel a bit like Snow White laying out clothes for the dwarfs!
Anyway this was the second shipment and I am all merino baby undershirted out. But I've used up nearly every offcut and scrap of merino that I have in my stash, which is wonderful! I did splash out for about 4m new, and between that and what I had I think we made about 20 vests and 12 hats. It is very, very nice to sew - we just used a slightly zigzagged straight stitch. No overlocking as it is a bit scratchy for baby skin, and I got construction time down to around 20 minutes per garment.
I'm quite looking forward now to making something bigger! Including a nice brown merino top I cut out so that I could use the scraps up. I hope I don't need any offcuts!
So tell me, is cosy, fine merino knit something you can buy in other parts of the world, or is it a kiwi thing? Most of what we can buy is NZ merino, some is Australian. Some is mixed with nylon which I avoid, but the pure stuff is around $30NZ a metre, which is about $25US or 15GBP. Most is 138cm or 150cm wide, and it is so fine and soft, and is very, very warm for its weight. Can you buy it in the fabric shops? I never saw any but then I was making a beeline for the silks most of my travels!

Sharing the cupcake love...

You know, I make no secret of the fact that I LOVE to make cupcakes, decorate cupcakes and feed them to others, although I rarely get to taste one of my own creations. They do taste good, I am told, and at work, at our annual craft market and at the odd event where I reliably turn up with a few dozen, they are anticipated by many.
It was neverthless a delight when someone suggested I teach others how to make and decorate them. But the idea appealed - after all, I have let hoards of children driven indoors by rain loose on the decorating materials at summer camp and survived to tell the tale. A small group of adults is a pushover by comparison. And it's a chance to earn a little bit of return on investment while also donating a chunk of the proceeds to my favourite cause, Wellington's Downtown Community Ministry.
And so, dear readers, this week I am teaching my very first class. Attendees will wear a cake infested apron made with my own fair hands, and be let loose on six cupcakes with a few of my decorating tips to guide them. It's going to be fun, not to mention interesting! And it had better work, as I have another scheduled a fortnight later!
If you had a chance to learn something about cupcakes, what would it be? I get asked all kinds of questions from technical ones I don't know the answer to, to ones that I am amazed aren't self apparent (which is the trouble with experience, you forget that once upon a time you didn't have it). It will help me to get prepared for thinking on my feet while making icing, melting chocolate (always perilous) and talking and fielding questions, all at the same time! Wish me luck xo

Warehouse chic - For So Zo! :)

The most fabulous Zoe of So Zo, what do you know? once posted about how much she would love to live and work in a warehouse. As I kind of do, I promised to post some pics that actually SHOW this about my living space. The ones I've posted before say more about my OTT tastes and penchant for red and gold furnishings (I think I missed an illustrious career doing interiors for Chinese restaurants and bordellos!) than the provenance of this wonderful space.
It was originally the Empire Spice Factory, and after a short and famous career as student living, was converted in around 1997 to eight flats, and we have the one in the front top.

This is an old photo as the decor visible through the windows isn't ours, nor is it that of the previous owner! I nicked it off a real estate website.
I am told by a friend who quite coincidentally flatted there "23 years ago when it was a studenty dump" (his words) that in certain weather you could smell the spices in the floor. I was so hoping this would happen still but alas no!
Anyway, I think our place falls well short of Zoe's fabulously evocative description:  "a sanitised, pre-converted trendy warehouse pad with its token ‘original’ exposed brick work wall and fancy lampshades installations" but it's not her ideal either: "a big industrial or ex-industrial space, all brick and concrete, with lots of light and air in which to spread out to live and create. Big areas [...] in which we would work and generate ideas and hang out and relax."
Zoe I love how you put words together! :)
In spite of not being an enormous industrial feeling space (requiring a LOT of heating, she thought practically) it does however achieve being a place in which I and other creative types hang out and create :) Several such sessions are in previous posts, but there are heaps more.

 But first some crazy ceiling shots to show how interesting this space is still. This one shows the skylight over the stairs and a glimpse of my costumes rack (shrouded in a white sheet to protect it from fading)

 Same view, different angle. I think our ceiling at its highest would be 6m.

 This is where the ceiling drops to accommodate the upstairs space.

 The stairway to (sewists') heaven!

BAAAD photo! This space is 6m by 4m at least, but with the DH lurking around on the computer in his dressing gown, and the place being a tip right now, I can't get a good all encompassing shot. But I have 4 tall cupboards for stash, lots of shelves for, umm, more stash, lots of bookshelves, and two big sewing tables so at least three of us can set up machines. A quilter's envy; design wall big enough to take a queen size quilt, the "big computer" and its desk (where I am now) and windows on three sides with views over the rooftops of one of the funkiest parts of town!
So, it is pretty darn fabulous. And I fought for it! :)
Like Zoe, a part of me yearns for the big industrial space to live, work and create in. But for now, I am chuffed as ever to finally have a home that works for us on almost every level, at a price we could afford. And I wish the same for you, Zoe, and every other creative soul working away on the dining table or in a dark nook somewhere :)

Charming Things I have spotted around Wellington

Every now and then I see an objet that jumps out from all the other gorgeous things in this prettiest of cities. For whatever reason - I find the connection of thought/mindset/preoccupation and what one notices quite interesting.

 Last weekend MrC and I had brunch at Floriditas, a gorgeous café on Cuba St. Everything about Floriditas is thought out to make being there a pleasure - the décor, the service and the FOOD. Our lady above sits on the end of the counter. Overtones of a chemise à la reine in her attire, which is what fascinated me about her.

 This is how they serve your boiled eggs at Floriditas - aren't Messrs Mallard and Reynard a delight! I did feel a little odd about bashing them over the head, but neither of them so much as flinched. And to see them in such harmony, unlike they would be in nature, and in a country where one of them has never caught on too, is also charming.

I saw this print on the wall of the Decorator Exchange in Kelburn - a charming little shop where you can buy second hand decorator objets - especially curtains. When Lady Kelburn decides that she is "bored with the Toile de Jouy in the Master Bedroom" after a whole three years and about $20k of Timney Fowler, her glorious soft furnishings may end up in this very shop. The print caught my eye as our dear American Duchess is plotting to take over the world of 18th C shoes, and it had such charming and amusing depictions of the most frivolous of footwear through the ages. The motto is, "Hurt not thy feet".
So, whether breakfasting, browsing or buying, there's always something divinely charming to see in Welly.
And now I hear there is a chance of spotting James Nesbitt or Richard Armitage; does it get any better??

Richard and James are both playing dwarves in the Hobbit movie. Thorin and Bifur respectively. Oh joy is mine to live in Wellywood!!

Put 20 November in your diary!

...but only if you live in NZ and quilt ;-)
20 November is Coast to Coast, a two-yearly event for quilters that incorporates a chance to show your work off to others, learn about quilty things, spend money on quilty things, and hang out with similarly daft persons without having to explain yourself. It's heaven! :)
I've set up a blog about it, that I'm updating regularly. If you can't make it then at least you can read about it! :)

The Quilt Exhibition 14-16 May 2010.

What a weekend it was. Like stepping into the past. Johnson Bros teacups and saucers lovingly preserved by the Horticultural Society, in which we served tea and coffee accompanied by home baking. People wandered and looked at quilts, some of which are FAR more modern than the tea service!

I exhibited three things.

1. Amish Dramish

So called because it is an amish block, but the Amish never used silk, in these colours, nor did they quilt dramatic art deco motifs in varicoloured rainbow thread! This quilt I made for some male friends, and I wanted it to be masculine, luxurious and in colours that match their decor. I am told I have succeeded! :)

2. Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is our bed quilt, it is 7' by 7' (212cm x 212cm) and has 61 fabrics in it. It is a friendship quilt which means that other people contributed blocks to it. In this case, I provided the fabrics and colour placement guidelines. It's called Moulin Rouge because it reminds me of those black and rose fringed silk shawls that remind me of Paris in the 1930's (Blame the movie Victor Victoria!) and because the placement of the reds forms windmills around the centre of each block, not that this shows up much in the finished quilt! :) It won first prize in the First Time Exhibitor category. Woohoo! :)

3. Cherries on the top

There was a challenge to make a bra bag, and this is my effort, made from two bras. Each side is a bra, with the top edges sewed together, and then sewed to one another along the wire line. The top opening is the armhole edge of the bra. I saw these cherry bras and couldn't resist. the cherries and leaves are made from PVC fabric.

 I was very proud of KayJay for winning with her gorgeous and witty entry!

We could have danced all night...

Anyone who follows the Dreamstress will know about the Art Nouveau Mardi Gras ball. I decided that as I have always loved Mucha's art, and I already had a dress with a Beardsley-like print in it, that I would actually go. (I generally prefer to costume others but not myself.)

Here is an excellently useful shot of MrC and I before, also showing the new window into our kitchen, from the hallway side!

Our beloved Dreamstress did an amazing job of putting together music for our traditional dances (although "gallope"ing is for horses, dear!) and I particularly enjoyed the reels - it was a VERY hot night so getting to stand and clap every now and then was a welcome reprise! ;-)

The ladies present, in all our finery, both historically accurate, historically inspired, hysterical, and modern but lovely :) Thank you dearest Dreamstress, for a wonderful night! And thank you to Mother the Embroidernator and florist for my fab hair flowers.

Craftageddon it

A while back, Joie and I noticed that those around us at work kept wanting to buy the things we make. So, we figured why not have a craft fair at work. Raise some money for a good cause, and make a bit of Christmas money ourselves. In the end, seven staff and mothers of staff signed up, and we got some reciprocation from a related department too. We had a fair at our office, then the following week I went over and helped run one at theirs. Together we raised $360 for the Downtown Community Ministry of Wellington
Here are some of the wares:

There was heaps more too. Don't you just love Joie's fishnet and red stiletto Xmas stocking, bottom left?!

Quilting Camp

They call them retreats but I can't shake the feeling I ought to be sitting in the Lotus position and ohmming at a retreat. On 4-6 December I headed off for a weekend of intensive creating, socialising, eating and shopping. Heaven!! Excellent company, inspiring things being created all around me.
In the one weekend I assembled an entire 25 block, two border quilt top:

Not a great pic, I used my camera. I also quilted a single sized top, made a coffee plunger cosy, a bag in a bag and a sheer throw to put over a buffet.

Recognise the blocks? The finished quilt is just over 6 feet square and will end up on the end of the bed of my friends Eileen and Robert.

myBlock, a project worth supporting

A wonderful friend of mine has been working her tushy off to get a project up and running called myBlock.
I can't really describe how it works and I don't need too 'cos she made a bunch of videos that explain it all! Here is a link to it:
http://www.myblockonline.com/
(Note: to watch the videos I suggest running them minimised and go make a cuppa, then replay. This prebuffers them no matter what connection speed you have. And yes, that IS me and MrC)
I've supported it, I AM supporting it, because I believe in the importance of community, and of connecting with people.
I also believe in Anne-Marie (aka Maz) who is in the main video trying not to look nervous (she tells me that she imagined she was talking to me not the camera when she did it, what a honey!) I think she did an amazing job with these and they are a project all on their own. They are about showing how important being connected is for people. :)
Anyway gotta dash, more later!