Stitches Wrap Up

So I am back in Bathurst, and I still havent remotely organized my life upon my return from the Stitches & Craft Show in Melbourne. I havent taken photos of all the amazing goodies I picked up from the uber talented crafty chicks in the Incubator, suffice it to say I have a photography exercise for the weekend, and I am positively exploding with ideas (and the desire for a few crafty projects just for the hell of it! i.e. not a smidgeon of production oriented tasks in sight!)
The experience for me overall was positive, however I did find things a little slower in general than the Sydney Show last year (which is all I can compare it to!) ...with the exception of the Saturday which was a fantastic busy day for me and gave me the encouragement I needed to continue with my crafty obsession.

I managed to take a quick couple of snaps after I set up and for some reason after that my camera didnt get much of a workout and I missed getting pics of all my neighbours!



Hooray for the Wonky House (thanks Gramps!)


I'm so glad I managed to get the brooch kits together, they were very popular:


And the highlight for me was running the workshops and even though they weren't super busy it was awesome to see people making their own wonkies, especially younger girls learning to sew! Its official: when someone asks if wonkies are hard to make, the answer is NO!



Huge thank you once again to my tireless mother Mazzy for her help and support, its so much fun to have you at these shows. Even my Dad got a guernsey this year, driving all the way to Melbourne to pick us up on Sunday (and letting me sleep in the back while he drove back to Wagga until midnight!) I am so lucky to have awesome parents.

Another thank you to our friends Judy and Peter who let us move into their guest wing, and taught Mazzy and I how to be transit queens!

And finally, a BIG thank you also to everyone who came by and showed their support, I am so grateful. Thank you thank you xoxoxooxxo

More pics sooon, I promise!

Daisy Brooch Kits

I make no secret about the fact that I work best under pressure. I've always been like that. I am an awesome worker when I am juggling 500 things and a lazy lame worker when I have one task and a week to do it. I could be relaxing this week, obsessing over the final details for next week's Stitches and Craft Show. But noooooooo... instead I am madly finishing the pattern and kit for these little daisy brooches that I've been making...determined to add them as a product at my stand. (Yes the daisy obsession continues!) I don't have to do this. But if I don't I'll feel slack. I could have done this six months ago when I took a mini-craft-hiatus after almost killing myself with preps for the Sydney Stitches Show. But there was no pressure, so I didn't. So instead of having a relaxing week easing into my adventure to Melbourne, I will be in a mad panic, covered in bits of felt, printing kit covers on my trusty laser printer, lovingly selecting colour combinations of leather, felt and buttons (man is that part fun!)...reminding myself that its better to make the kits and not sell any of them than sit around wondering if they would have sold if I'd bothered to make them at all!

I So Heart Melbourne

Its true. So much so that when I'm there I have a permanent gigantic smile on my face that doesnt go away, even when I get into bed.
Anyway I have been a shockingly terrible blogger, but I have a half decent excuse: I have been in a crafty cyclone preparing for the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show. Yay! And I am very excited this year because I am running some workshops on HOW TO MAKE A WONKY! Putting together kits for this has been heaps of fun, and I even tapped into my stash of exquisitely sacred fabric, for the enjoyment of whoever might decide to come to a class!
I made all the faces already to save a bit of time (with no small amount of help from my awesome mother Mazzy who will again be my sidekick at the show):

Nearly 100 wonkies are packed and ready for their adventure south:

(those plastic buckets are the BEST for wonky transportation!)
And a few familiar wonky faces will be back: I ran out of "Lily Caroline" wonkies and kits at the last show, so I made a few more of her:


I must admit its been nice this time around not freaking out about how to display everything, organize signage, give aways etc. I did more than my fair share of freaking out for the Sydney Show in August last year. You know the drill, craft nightmares i.e. showing up at the venue with no stock.....thankfully I haven't had any of those...YET!

I am super excited to see all the other Incubator girls, Melbourne seems to be the epicentre of extreme talent in design so it will be humbling and exhilerating to be part of the Show.

Fun Treats for Easter

I managed to whip up these little treats for my niece Ivy and my nephew Jeddy in time for Easter. I bought the little kraft boxes at spotlight for a few buckeroonies and got out the Prismacolor Pencils. I've never made a secret of how much I love using them on kraft paper...especially the white pencil. And white Prismacolor Pencils make the BEST tailors chalk. I could never find a tailors chalk pencil that wasn't IMPOSSIBLE to sharpen (they always seem to break!) ...so I just use my trusty white Prismacolor Pencil. I digress.

Here are the tops of the boxes:


The sides:




And of course inside:


It was a mega challenge not to eat all the contents as I was colouring...however I did find the willpower because by the time I was colouring I had already bought a second bag of Cadbury Eggs after the first bag accidentally disappeared. How can you not devour those tiny little morsels? They're the perfect "oooh I'll just have four" size. And four is never enough.
YUMMY

No New Ideas?

An interior designer I worked with in Canada told me that in the world of design, there are no new ideas, and I disagreed. But every now and then I am reminded of where she was coming from...check this out:
I designed this little graphic a couple of years ago and at the time I thought it would be a fun silk screen print on a tea towel, or fabric to make an apron.

I think I blogged about it many moons ago because it ended up on a MOO postcard. Anyway yesterday I was in Spotlight and I found this:

Now I am certainly not claiming that there is some sort of intellectual property infringement going on here (heck they could say the same about me!). I didn't invent this style of graphics, there are probably hundreds of similar designs out there. I just think its interesting how similar it is, thats all. The cup shapes, the ring on the plate, the shape of the knife? It spins me out. I still think there is such a thing as NEW IDEAS though. I think we have to keep pushing ourselves to be original.

Mathilda's Wrap Up

Wow. I'm TIRED! Admittedly I got myself into a frantic flurry last week with all sorts of last minute tasks that were probably insignificant in the broader scheme of things, but hey, that's craft markets for you. All in all the day was a success. I'm not sure if having to travel to these kinds of events is all that feasible, it puts a lot more pressure on you to make the market a success if you are trying to cover the cost of getting there (especially if you factor in the travel time). And let's face it, if you are trying to run a business you have to factor these things. My business is more like a hobby on steroids as I have a full time job. But I'm still learning, and the marketing exercise and exposure is unbeatable, and its so great to see all the other delicious things on offer.
Meet Nellie, a new wonky using recyled fabric. There are only two of her on the planet:


A new display item for me was the wonky house, I wanted something to display the wonkies vertically, a flexible system for markets when the table is provided and I don't know before hand how big the table will be. Its always hard to get a good photo at indoor markets, but here is an idea of how the set up looked:

The clothesline ties between the post at one end and the wonky house at the other, so no matter what size the table is, I have a system to accommodate my goodies.

The hooks on the side of the wonky house came in handy for hanging wonkies in bags! (There's Nellie again)

And I launched the first wonky patterns! Featuring the wonky trio on the cover made with the lovely fabric from Ink & Spindle. I sold a handful of these patterns, one day I'd love to see some wonkies that others have made from my patterns and kits.

Huge thank you to my gorgeous mother Mazzy for your help, to my amazing friend Genius for everything, and of course Gramps for his exceptional wonky house building skills. xo Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Mathilda's Market in Canberra

I'm excited to be a stallholder at Mathilda's Market in Canberra at the end of February. But I must admit it has put me into a bit of a crafty spin....I am seizing the opportunity to create lots of unique pieces with beautiful fabric that I've been hoarding (some for years). I have such a hard time using it if I really really love it. But I did declare after the Stitches Show in Sydney to stop being precious about precious fabric! I'm focusing on wonkies and tshirts for the market, and am so grateful for the FABULOUS scissors I got for Christmas from my gorgeous Mum. They absolutely ROCK MY WORLD and yes, I am aware how nerdy that sounds. But they do.


And I must admit by far the most fun part about making wonkies is exploring all the different fabric combinations that give them their personalities...so many awesome fabric designers out there...


We all know that crafty chicks can never have too much fabric but I think I might be walking a fine line. What do you think?