Kellie’s not-so-nappy bag

I made this for my friend Kellie who is well on the way to having her second sprog. I took a few ideas from Ms Amy Butler, used a different series of pockets inside and added some bling in the form of Michael Miller’s Mirror Ball Dot in lime and metallic blue. The lining is black to conceal any mishaps… but it can just be thrown in the wash anyway.

A blank canvas + happy birthday to me!

Haven’t been able to add to the Xmas gallery lately because I’ve been busy with orders and also had to whip up a project for myself – the sun was hitting our dining room in the afternoons and so I’ve made some thick curtains so Mr A and I can survive the summer. I’m treating the curtains as a blank canvas that over time I plan to add a detailed picture to with hand embroidery and appliqué. We’ll see how long that project takes!

The other thing that’s been taking up my time is birthday celebrations. I had a spectacularly wonderful birthday with lots of treasures coming my way. My present du jour is a book that collects the best of the best of American illustrator Charley Harper’s work – Todd Oldham’s Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life. It’s totally amazing – thanks Mr A! I can also highly recommend Yoshitomo Nara’s beautiful children’s book, The Lonesome Puppy (this artist has some work at the Asia Pacific Triennial that opens in Brisbane soon). And then there’s the Elk ceramic earrings (both the bird and tree ones!), Boy Girl Party owl magnets, perfume, concert tickets, a gorgeous hand-painted Japanese bowl, a blood orange tree and a selection of teas. I’m a very lucky gal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Pussy and other news

I’ve been busy trying to keep up with Xmas orders, but in between other things I’ve managed to add a couple of new items to the Xmas Gallery. More coming over the next few weeks…

In other news, every November my friend Stephen Mok has an exhibition at Doggett Street Gallery in Newstead – this year’s is called Hello Pussy and it’s on until Saturday 28 November. You can also view it online – look out for the two yellow End Paper pieces that are coming home to our place! Here’s one of my other favourites.

A little owl

This little fella is for my friend Alison who is going to have her first baby very soon. He’s hand-embroidered, stuffed with fabric scraps and backed in blue ticking. Now I think I want a little owl for myself!

Sitting Flower

It was a weekend of markets for Mr A and I. On Saturday we went to the first Finders Keepers at the Old Museum – it was OK, but way too many badges. Yesterday we went to Mathilda’s Market at City Hall – it’s all about kids, but we were going because one of my favourite Brisbane artists Tsk Tsk had a stall. It was very hard to choose between all the treasures she had on offer, but I couldn’t go home without Sitting Flower – ain’t she pretty?

 

Cody’s disco bag

Every girl needs a bag… even if they’ve only just turned two! This is Cody’s disco bag, which has apparently been quite a hit. It’s lined with black because she’s more into crayons than Friday night essentials at this stage – probably for the best, really!

 

A special announcement

I’ve had a lot of people ask me what’s happening with my now traditional annual pre-Xmas exhibition, so I thought it was time I let you all know. I won’t be holding an exhibition this year, but over the coming weeks I’ll be posting pictures of a few limited edition pieces.

Here’s the first instalment – on location in our mock orange tree! These birds are all 18cm long and 13cm high, filled with fabric scraps (so they have a nice weight to them) and all have hand-embroidered embellishments. Each design is limited to an edition of three, except the figbirds (one edition only). To see the name of the bird and its price, hover your mouse over each picture below. If you want anything you see, you can either post a comment or email me directly and I’ll organise to get it to you.

I’ve set up a Xmas gallery page (look in the menu bar at the top of this page) where you’ll find more goodies as I make them. Make sure you check back regularly to see what else ends up in the Xmas gallery over the next nine weeks.

Now that’s embroidery

I picked up this fine piece of vintage hand embroidery for not much more than a song at the West End markets at Davies Park last Saturday. The mind boggles when you add up all the hours it must have taken to plan and execute – and it’s so neat! I love the colour clashes too. They certainly don’t make ’em like they used to.

Poppy Treffry brooch

Check out this cool embroidered Poppy Treffry brooch that the lovely Lesley from my work brought home for me from her glamorous holiday in Paris and London. Beats chocolate any day – thanks Lesley! I’ve just started doing some machine embroidery like this in the past week so I was doubly excited!

Recipe for happiness

In preparation for when I’m grown-up and want to make a quilt (scarily, that day is fast approaching) I’ve ordered a book called Quilts by one of the queens of quilting – Denyse Schmidt. Those of you who know me well will be familiar with her gorgeous retro-style fabric designs via a set of notecards I’ve been using over the past couple of years – and there’s more of those on the way because I couldn’t help myself and ordered another set! When I get around to quilt-making, I think I want to use this Mary Engelbreit fabric, which is called ‘Recipe for Happiness’ – how lovely is that?