Special gifts for a special birthday girl

This set is a birthday present for a special little friend of ours turning 3 - and I hope she loves it.  The applique hearts are made from a gorgous textured Japanese 'Sakura' cotton and the bag is made from preloved refashioned denim.  The necklace is hidden inside the bag and is made with some beautiful freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals and silver alphabet beads... we can't wait to give it to her tomorrow...

More little taggy quilts

Here are some I finished today...

more sewing coming very soon.....

Recently I have been doing more painting than sewing - but I am now feeling the urge to start sewing again, especially since receiving this fabric yesterday! Isn't it beautiful!   It's great having the granny flat to do all my sewing in but it's a bit dark so I've been looking for a really good lamp so I can sew at night too.  We don't have a huge range of choices around here, and after trying unsuccessfully to get help from a local business over the phone, I found a great lighting shop online where the staff were more than happy to help me and I will shortly have an excellent new lamp and be able to see what I'm doing!


So... soon I will be much more productive with my sewing and looking forward to making some special new things in time for Christmas!!  I have already been out to the shed and found some old flyscreen so plan to make some groovy beach bags with that -  like Jacqui made in an earlier post.  So keep your eye on this blog for some new interesting things coming soon.....

Little Tag Play Quilt

I recently had a market at Calliope Historical Village, a few weeks ago anyway, and had a request to make a little soft quilt with ribbon tags for a baby to use as a comforter.  So anyway, it's taken me this long to get around to doing some and this is the first finished one.  The cupcake fabric is a soft flannel and cotton polka dots on the other side.  With 12 ribbon tags it makes it something I'm sure a baby would love to hold and feel.  I have 4 more ready to sew and hopefully they'll be in the Pod shop this week.  

These would be great to take shopping and in the car to keep your baby occupied, or to lay baby’s head on when on the floor.  They have a layer of wadding in the middle to make them soft and you could clip them to your pram and baby will be occupied by all the textures of the ribbons and the colourful patterns.  They are approx 28cm x 24cm.

Cupcake excitement

I have just ordered some amazing goodies made from felt for a certain little girl for Christmas....  Aren't they gorgeous! I got them on this blogsite.   They will go very well with some special things Ali Bird is making for me.

Super crafty friends

I had to share this totally awesome bag with you.  Made by my clever crafty friend Jacqui, it's made from recycled flyscreen and made to take to the beach.  I love it, and she has used the Echino 'Migratory Birds' fabric by Japanese designer Etsuko Furuya and her own funky bias binding made just before dashing out to the beach today.

  I think I might have to make one for myself too!

Kokeshi Doll painting/collage

These were really fun to do.  They are acrylic on canvas and using Japanese Chiyogami paper for the kimono.  There are also some rhinestones to make them sparkle and some white ink for Japanese words in the background.  The top one is 40cm x 50cm and the bottom one is 30cm x 40cm. 

paintings

I've been on a bit of a roll with paintings the past week - here is one of the latest ones. This one is 'Looking to Facing Island' which is opposite Boyne Island/Tannum Sands, and it's from the perspective standing on the beach at Boyne Island. It's 75 x 60cm.

Excited about buttons

I can't wait to get these Japanese buttons, they are from an etsy shop in Taiwan. I thought it was nice to find something in Taiwan as I lived and worked there for a year in 2001. One thing that Taiwan had lots of was very cute stationery - Chinese and Japanese. I bought a heap of it so will have to post some pics on here as I still have a lot.

Pottery pendant - a joint effort!

I love this pendant! My friend Penny, who is also a member of Pod Collective made the pottery pendant, one of many she has made. It was so hard to choose which one I liked the best! So I added some brown cord with a handmade teal glass bead, an amber Swarovski crystal and a round stone bead, then put it on a leather cord. So nice to have something made by both of us! Can't wait to make some more..

Finally I have done a painting!

It's been a while since I've done a painting, and seeing my sewing machine had to get serviced I thought I'd finish this painting of the Boyne River.. I really enjoyed painting, it's been ages and now I feel like doing another one!!

a Poky Little Puppy bag

I've been dying to make this bag and finally got around to it. So it's made from pages from an old copy of 'The Poky Little Puppy' Golden book and covered inside and out with PVC. I put some orange and white polka dot fabric with it for the handles and an insert which sits in the base and added a cute badge and glued on some coloured buttons. It has a velcro closure so your things won't fall out. Now I'm off to start on the next one....

A nice surprise

Someone was very excited yesterday when she got home from school to find a parcel waiting for her!

and look who was inside! It's Lily Anne - hand made by TullyKat Alley and what I won when I entered her Blog Competition!! How exciting. Lily Anne is so beautifully made and gorgeous and she is now much loved in her new home. Holly read her a story and put her in a special place in her room so 'she won't get lost'.

Thanks Samia - we love Lily Anne

You can see more gorgeous hand made dolls like this one at

http://www.madeit.com.au/storecatalog.asp?userid=1310
and check out her blog at
http://tullykatalley.blogspot.com/

Kokeshi Doll Glass tile pendants

just a couple of pendants I made recently..

The Poky Little Puppy

How can you not love the 'Poky Little Puppy'? Well I do and so does someone else I know (and her mum). This is her 16th birthday present. It's a purse and it's made from a page and a bit from an old Poky Little Puppy Golden book - covered in PVC inside and out and it fastens with a strip of velcro. Now my next project is a shopping tote made from the other pages... better start that right now! I am having such fun today!!

Collage on old atlas page

This is what i made today...

Inspirations

I love it when I see something and it gives me lots of ideas. Well i saw these groovy patterned papers on Tuesday and thought they would go really well with some cute owls so made up these cards. I am also on a run making baby blocks, they are such fun to make, I love choosing which pieces of fabric to use. I have only had positive responses from the babies who own one and their mums all tell me how much they love looking at their bright colours and feeling them. I recently found some Amy Butler button brads which are going to look great on a linen clutch purse lined in Amy Butler fabric.

I went to Calliope Markets last Sunday and the most significant thing was the amount of dust I inhaled and how much dirt blew around over everything. I got to meet some interesting people including a couple of ladies from Belgium who were travelling around Australia and who had been in Asia the past 4 months (lucky things!). I told lots of people about the shop at Boyne Island and my online shop and had a very nice bacon and egg burger. Thanks to Vesna and Jack who came and helped me for the day and made the experience much nicer, when you have some friends to chat to.

I am in the process of doing some shadowboxes and my next one is a vintage style little girl chasing after a bird or butterfly, not sure which yet!? Looking forward to doing that one.