knitting

I handed in my squares for Wrap with Love yesterday (yay!). I managed to make 5 in all, the stripy one my favourite. The big knit in is tomorrow when all the squares will be joined together and blankets formed. My daughter and I have also managed to make a simple scarf for her in some loud pink and orange wool bought last year. (Which might seem strange to all of you suffering in the heat on the other side of the world!)

Thanks to all the lovely commenters who have joined the giveaway (below). Its so nice to get such generous feedback from everyone, from old and new friends. I've enjoyed finding and visiting some new blogs and shops :-).

There is still time to join if you haven't taken the plunge yet, I will be choosing two people randomly on Tuesday. No word from the printer on the last tea towel. I do hope I can show you before Tuesday, but no matter if I can't.

Giveaway!!

I recently posted about my 100th sale (to the lovely Louise from artandghosts).
To celebrate I am having my first giveaway (and sorry its taken so long I've been sick).
Here are my tea towel designs in a number of different colours/cloths/designs (available now in the shop). To join the giveaway just leave a comment saying which tea towel you would like to win. I have one more printing to come, the Chrysanthemums in a turquoise colour, I will post it soon.
If you have any suggestions for more colours I'd love to hear them too.
I will be choosing one winner (at random) who will recieve:
* tea towel in colour of choice, 1 Ruby Slippers card, 1 Teapot design card.
And a runner-up who will have: * tea towel of your choice.
So please don't be shy, leave a comment. I will get names and addresses later from the winners.
And thanks to all the lovely lovely customers, bloggers, artists who have helped me to this milestone, it's been lots of fun :-)
I'll be choosing a winner next Tuesday August 5.

Sneak Peek!

I hinted the other day about new things turning up at the end of the week (for the giveaway). Well I picked up my new tea towel order from the screenprinters today!! I've had the Filigree and Chrysanthemum designs printed in a few new colours and introduced new UNBLEACHED linen tea towels too. I really really love these unbleached ones. This photo shows one printed with the Filigree design in red. Hopefully I can get some better pics to do them justice when it stops raining!

I had been dithering since my screenprinting course about what colours and designs to print, and then once I'd decided I had to find a printer, which was difficult because they are mostly set up for t-shirts round here.
Then I had to overthink it all and worry a bit!
In the end I got a couple of orders for the blue Filigree tea towel and was mercifully forced into action.

Anyway, its grey and miserable here today, and so I can't take proper photos. And there is one design still to pick up from the printers. Come back soon and I will post them all and will finally have the promised giveaway - I thought people could comment to say which is their favourite and I'll pick someone at random to win that tea towel and some other bits.

ink and spindle

Congratulations to Lara from Kirin & co, Bianca from Hollabee and Tegan on their exciting new venture, ink & spindle a fabric printing enterprise with gorgeous new studio space in Melbourne.
What a wonderful new business idea, lets wish them plenty of success ahead.
Visit their new blog to leave them some encouragement and read about their adventures so far.


It is great news too for all of us aspiring independent textile designers here in Australia. And I especially love their ideas for environmentally friendly printing and fabrics. Anyone who knows their work knows the beautiful fabrics and colours they use already.

I will be watching their progress with great interest. I've already joined the mailing list on their site to keep updated as things happen.

Good luck to ink & spindle!!

magnolias

Just outside the window from my desk is this beautiful Magnolia tree which is in full flower now. It is a relative newcomer to the garden. Like most of our plants it dates from after we bought this house three years ago. Originally the only plants in the small front garden were lawn and a large Camellia tree. The lawn has gone but the Camellia stayed, and I've come to love it. It attracts lots of little birds all year round and especially when its flowering. I can watch them through my window, close enough to touch.
I think the Magnolia is the cultivar 'Star Wars'. I'm not sure I like the flowers as much as the common old Magnolia soulangiana which has smaller but darker pink flowers. This tree does have really lovely leaves though, a lighter limier green than the usual and a wonderful round shape. And they shade the window in summer.

workspace

Yesterday I had to take photos of my 'workspace' for a couple of exciting projects. At the moment my workspace is a bit crowded, storage is an issue, which meant lots of cleaning and sorting and generally hiding most of the chaos and mess out of shot!
Luckily we are in the process of getting quotes for an attic ladder and planning to build a little studio in the roof! Which will mean I have a space of my own, it will be tiny but with natural light and a table where I can lay out my work, printing and such, and not have to pack it away in between. Luxury :-)
I have a lovely image in my head of white walls and shelves and sunlight streaming in!
Here is a little corner of my desk from my photo session yesterday. I love the repitition of shapes in this. These berries came from a Photinia hedge and are such a great colour.

p.s. I have been thinking about my giveaway - I have some new things turning up at the end of next week so I'm going to wait until then.

milestone!

I'm back from a lovely few days away, no snow but a wonderful time, lots of nature, bushwalking and lunch at a friend's farm, we milked a cow!
While I was away Flower Press notched up it's 100th official Etsy sale!
With outside orders, shops and everything else I sort of snuck past this milestone a while ago but I have been really looking forward to seeing the numbers turn over on Etsy. Feels more official.
Thats a lot of sales and a lot of lovely people buying my wares. Thanks guys.

To celebrate I am going to have my very first giveaway, soon, once I get my life organised. So watch this space.

hakea laurina

One of our amazing Australian natives, the Hakea laurina has the most spectacular flowers on a beautiful small tree. I planted this one a few years ago in our back garden and I've been (im)patiently waiting for it to flower. The other day I was delighted to notice a few buds opening among the branches. And they are as beautiful as I remember them. Another food source for all the nectar-loving bird visitors I love having in my garden and a spark of beauty in the middle of winter. The other day the paper described this as traditionally the coldest week of the year, coming soon after the shortest day (which in Sydney is not that cold, but we don't do winter that well!)
We are off to Bathurst in the Central West for a holiday with family and hoping to see snow on our trip. My kids have never seen it so it would be a wonderful surprise.

upside

It's funny, since I posted the entry before, about how I was feeling a bit down, uninspired and negative I have read two blog posts, from people I admire, both wonderfully talented, who seem to have been feeling the same.
Lara Cameron from Kirin Notebook posted here about feeling stressed and putting pressure on herself. And just now I have read an entry on Pia Jane Bijkerk's blog admitting anxieties about her work.
I am reminded to stop and smell the roses and enjoy the fact that I can be creative, which I really enjoy and need. And if that's not enough I can always laugh at the dog in her new winter jacket :-)

my tea towels are famous!

I've been having one of those weeks, I've had the blahs as we call them round here. A bit down and not very inspired.
This morning I woke up to find a comment from the lovely Leanne Graff saying my tea towels had been on the front page of Etsy (thanks Leanne!). I had a request for some custom tea towels and the sun is shining. I found the half finished tote bag I was making when my sewing machine broke down (things like to hide in this house!) and I'm off to buy some potting mix to pot up the violas we bought a couple of weeks ago. School holidays start tomorrow and we are going away for a week on Thursday. I think some new sights and catching up with friends and family might be just what I need.

fabric printing

The day before yesterday I finally found time to do some experimenting with my block prints and some different colour inks I had bought last week. Time consuming but lots of fun. I had to make myself use each colour and not just flit from one to the other, which I am prone to do!
I mixed the lighter mushroom brown by using some white and blue with the brown ink and I got another green by adding white. I want to get some yellow ink to make a real lime green.
While I had the brown mixed I used it to print a couple of tea towels for the shop. I really like the way they turned out and the seventies ceramic style they have. I love this turquoisy blue too and will have to buy a larger pot of ink (I'm using silkscreen Permaset fabric colour).
I got round to mounting my handcut stamp of three leaves on a wooden block which was for getting a clean print, with the unmounted block I always seemed to ink some of the surrounding cut marks and print them. I haven't mounted my star/flower shape yet and you can see the difference.
Some of these swatches are up for swapping on my Flickr. I wasn't sure I would have the time to do more swaps with people so I have left it till now. If anyone likes the look of them just Flickr mail me, first come first swapped!