Crafternoon Blog Party

Hi All 

Welcome to Bea Spoke Quilts

I have a thing for books & magazines, I have neat stacks all over the house (I seriously mean everywhere)and book shelves filled to the brim.

I like the look of them the feel of them and of course the content!

I use books for inspiration, they can help when I'm in a glut and stuck. I like to mix ideas, find new material to use and techniques.

I like books that revise simple techniques, they remind me to go back to basics. 

Not long ago Hardy Grant asked me to review two of the upcoming Crafternoon books that have been Edited by Kathreen Ricketson from Whip up.

Kids Crafternoon - Sewing

&

Kids Crafternoon - Paper

Kathreen has sourced specialist crafters from around the globe & given us 25 projects to choose from in each book.

These books are aimed at 7-12 year olds & will retail at $29.00 Australian Dollars each.

With the idea of going back to basics and looking at simple ideas, I'd argue that these books aren't just for kids! 

It has me thinking about a few of the projects and what I'll make next.

For this little review I made the

Cloudy Day Pillow by Claire Dollan

This is a perfect quick project and as Claire suggests you can hand draw your own shape.

I had these rectangles cut and hanging around, so I decided to join them and use it as my pillow front

for this type of project I wasn't to fastidious  about the joining process. 

I wanted my pillow large so I used Baking paper as my template and free hand drew my cloud.

for the back I used a piece of material I had been using as an example for a kids workshop in tie dying.

For stuffing I used two old Ikea pillows that had gone a bit flat and for a nice little touch I added some dried Lavender from our garden - If this was smell-a-net you could smell the lovely Lavender Cloudy Day Pillow :)
Perfect for a nice snooze.

The projects in these books are great for all ages like I said above. 


My 4yr old Daughter is wanting another cloud pillow and my boys aged 7 & 11 are eyeing off the ipod creature cosy by Holly Keller, If like me you have accidentally felted a good woollen jumper this is a perfect project! 

If you would like to buy the books check out Booktopia who deliver internationally or ask your local little book shop (I do like supporting local shops)

Check out what every one else is doing and saying on the Crafternoon Blog Party

1. 22 July Poppytalk
2. 23 July Picklebums
3. 24 July Little Eco Footprints
4. 25 July Beaspoke quilts
5. 26 July Maya Made
6. 27 July Checkout girl
7. 28 July The red thread
8. 29 July We Wilsons
9. 30 July Maggie Makes
10. 31 July Mmm Crafts
11. 1 August Domesticali
12. 2 August Floating Ink
13. 3 August Elizabeth Abernathy
14. 4 August Mommy Coddle
15. 5 August The Long Thread
16. 6 August Hannah Fletcher
17. 7 August Between the lines
18. 8 August Go Make Me

Thanks to Hardy Grant & Kathreen for the 


books and opportunity to review :)

Xx Siobhan

Skip to it

CLOTH Fabric is having a sale this weekend in Sydney

If your in town check it out

CLOTH Fabric

35 buckingham st

surry hills nsw 2010 australia

p:+61 2 9699 2266

f:+61 2 9699 1047

cloth@clothfabric.com

Some of my quilts are on display & for sale

Xx Siobhan

Melbourne in less than 48hrs

*warning swear word lower in the post :)

 last weekend my husband & I flew into Melbourne for the Victorian Cancer Council Art Awards opening exhibition. My Fabric of Life Art Work was selected to be exhibited.Lots of very inspiring work and challenging stories of cancer.If your around Melbourne go check it out.

The only advantage of getting up at 4:30am on a Saturday for a 6am flight from Sydney. 

if you look really really close you can see my name :)

 

part of the exhibition at 120 Collins St Melbourne.


We managed to pack in a fair bit of walking, although I hadn't been to Melbourne since having kids, I had been a fair few times before.
We enjoyed walking around, drinking coffee & eating lots of food. Not much had changed since we last had been, which was nice.

This is for one of my good friends who has Celiac Disease, not what you expect walking down the street but it was Fitzroy :)

 

Melbourne has some fantastic lane ways and art everywhere

Our Hotel - great view

the only thing we bought in the shopping capital of Australia is these two mugs! my new favourite in ceramics is Bison - check them out beautiful simple shapes and colour. I wanted to buy a mug in every colour!

One more week of school holidays.

I'm currently working out my teaching schedule for next term and possibly whilst I'm home I should be working on my huge pile of quilts that need binding :(

and patterns that need finishing and hunting down some editors that I need deadline info from............ back to normal kaos.
which funnily enough puts a big smile on my face - what would life be without the happy kaos.

Xx Siobhan

Quick One

Hi all

Just a quick one

Had to show you this link

my Favourite Artist David Bromley and Quilts have been Combined!!! check out this Blog Design Files based in Australia.

So great to see amazing quilts.

I have two of his paintings at home and I Love the colour and kids he paints. 

had to add in a Pic of what I'm actually working on! promise more pics to come

Xx