Indulge me :)

I'm reminiscing.

Having a flash back to the 90's

I should be finishing projects and cleaning/ packing for overseas.

but no...... 

The kids found one of my old University books yesterday in the shed, I've been looking for this book for ages!

Way back a life time ago I studied Fabric Design at the College of Fine Arts New South Wales & this was one of my subjects.

It has all my recipes in it for Vegetable dye. I knew I still had it - would have been handy two years ago when I needed it! and I was teaching a group of Yr 5 kids about dying techniques.

I loved it so much, its got me inspired to do some more fabric work. 

I've been pouring over my workbook - its brought back so many ideas and basic skills I had forgotten about.

It will all have to wait - I leave for London/ Venice/ Florence/Paris on Monday.

At the moment on top of my list is finishing sewing projects, I have a pile of quilts to bind and other projects to finish.

I'd like to come home to a clean creative slate :)

especially now I have an itch  to make some fabric and new quilts.

a few more cloud pillows for the kids to finish before I go - they are hot property in our house, very comfy.

 I also thought seeing I'm on the topic of me & the 90's - I'd show you a few non fabric related things that I love in my house that have lots of memories :)

I have piles of stuff all over the place, the hour glass is from Paris, the marble bowl is a present my mother gave to my grandparents when she was very young and the little bowl full of rocks & shells is all the places we have been and things the kids collect. The Celtic cross is from Ireland. The photo is of me - taken by my husband way back when I was 18 years old.

Boxes from Paris, whistle belong to my husband when he did a short stint in the navy, little cup is my husbands christening cup.

the plates are from my cousins grandmother when she was doing a clean out a few years ago & my husbands grandmother (she is 101 yrs this year!)

the rock is from a beach holiday & my mother brought it back for my son aged 5/6 who at the time was rock crazy, spiral of three from Ireland - bought on my trip overseas when I was 22 years old.

This bowl is from a Gallery I worked in in Dublin way back in 1997 - I cant remember the name of the ceramic artist but I love it, I have a matching rectangle plate in one of the pictures above.
The art work behind is a work made out of layers of paper and hand coloured it depicts a fabric shop in Vietnam.

I have so much other "stuff" all over the place collecting dust, but every little piece has a story and some special place in my heart. I guess that makes me a hoarder!

I'm off to try to complete some of my to do list.

Xx Siobhan

Scones with Jam & Cream

Happy Fathers Day 

I love a good scone, lots of recipes all over the place. I use the NSW Country Women's Assoc recipe, instead of water I use lemonade.

Enjoy your day whatever your doing :)

Xx Siobhan

little bits

 I made these a little bit ago....

they make good little storage bowls for all my sewing notions.

I keep meaning to make bigger ones - a bread basket for the table, so many other sizes & uses for them.

the absolutely most handy thing is - that they can be stacked and put away with out much fuss when I don't need them :)

Spring has finally hit our side of the world. 

Sewing & stitching outside in the sun whilst the kids play and swim is one of my pleasures, very much looking forward to it, not long now.

and now I'm all set and ready

 

no more losing pins and thread !

Enjoy your Spring evening

Xx Siobhan

OOOHHHH!

Nearly forgot to show you this one!

My head is in the clouds lately

A fair while ago I sent this baby to be machine quilted & I got it back again on monday

It's a combination of my text fabric which is for sale on Spoonflower & Liberty of London Fabrics.

here it is before being machine quilted

& Voila ! machine quilted and binding done.

 I try to make a habit of making my binding when I'm doing the quilt top, that way its all done and I don't have to scrounge for the fabric bits or accidentally use the last bit in another quilt forgetting I need it for binding!

I wind it around a paper roll and its stored all nicely till its needed.

for the back I used a piece of Liberty that was just the right size, its really soft and lovely.

The pattern is simple enough, it reminds me of floor tiles in old houses :)

Its a good lap size or cot size. I'm amazed at the variety of uses Text fabric has - It seems to match everything!

Xx Siobhan

Working & Design

My favourite bit of all this blog/ quilt thing is getting to work with people who make great fabrics.

through out this year I have been working with the talented people from Cloth Fabric and experimenting with the Working CLOTH quilting range and here are some of the results.

Some new and exciting stuff is happening at CLOTH, a new range of quilting fabrics as well as a beautiful collaboration between Julie Patterson & Lucy Simpson - a local Sydney Indigenous designer (looking forward to making an awesome quilt with that fabric!)

The Zig Zag quilt above is in the current Down Under Quilts Magazine issue #149

I'm so very impressed with the team at Down Under Quilts! they made everything look just perfect.

It has the full pattern/ details if you would like to make it.

I think at the moment especially with these quilts, I am making the material do the talking - the design and lines of my quilts are simple. 

The larges format of the images and the colour combinations are what makes the quilts special.

Keep an eye out for more quilts & patterns with Working CLOTH Fabrics.

& please if you make anything - send me an email! I'd love to see what you do.

on another note 

I'm teaching at Calico & Ivy Balmain thursday 1st Sept, nice way to see in spring :)

and I'm off to London, Venice, Florence, Rome & Paris in a week or so......... 

Xx Siobhan