Easter

Wow, how great is the Easter holiday break? Getting four days off in a row is just the best - you can wind down, relax but you also have time to get stuff done. And I did sooo much - I baked (non-religious) buns (super old recipe from me here) and a pavlova, hung out with friends and family, enjoyed the autumn sunshine, went to a (city) beach, did some house painting and weeding AND did lots of sewing - some more work on a quilt pattern I'm developing, and I made two tunics from Lotta Jansdotta's Everyday Style book, which I bought ages ago - they're so comfortable, can't wait to make more (though excuse the dodgy phone/mirror selfie!) And I got heaps of sleep, so I now feel totally relaxed. Happy Tuesday :)

Two-colour Sharpie patterns

When I get in a creative rut I like to try something new, to keep myself happy and push myself in other directions. Trying out a different technique of drawing/painting/colouring/whatever is usually a good way of doing this - just do something, anything, right now, as quickly as you can.

So when I felt in a funk yesterday I took time to draw a heap of patterns with a Sharpie, then scanned them and turned them into a handful of minimal two-colour patterns (my favourite). Happy Wednesday to you.

Hanging around home, part II (and I love photography)

I take photos all the time. So many photos that I need terabytes of external storage and have recently signed up for one year of cloud backup, but am realising it will take about a year just to upload all the data.

I got my first point and shoot camera in primary school and was hooked, taking little snapshots all the time and then eagerly awaiting the collection of prints from the chemist (maybe 24 frames, more likely 36 and always double copies!) Most of these photos were terrible - it was a very basic camera. But I still took it overseas with me when I was 23 and when it mysteriously disappeared a few weeks into the trip I was a little crushed. 

Before that, at university, I took some photography electives and learnt about 'real', ie: manual photography. This was pre-digital, so we developed our own black and white film and enlarged and printed our own work. We started out with the standard 35mm SLR camera, moved onto medium format and even experimented with large format (ie: cameras so heavy you can barely lift them and negatives almost the size of an A4 piece of paper). At this time I mainly used my Dad's 1960s SLR but also tested out his first ever camera, a box brownie, and his dad's camera, which had bellows in order to zoom. I guess it's possible that an addiction to photography is in the blood.

20 years later and I'm still addicted, still taking photos all the time, always learning about what works and what doesn't. And if a few days go by and I haven't taken any photos, I get a bit antsy. So following on from the other day's post, where I shared some photos of my home, here are some shots I took walking around my neighbourhood. They've got nothing to do with screenprinting or textiles but the images fuel my imagination for colour, pattern, shape and form, so maybe I'll share more of these kind of photos in the future. Happy Thursday.

New fabric and quilt WIP

I've had a busy few weeks screenprinting a big new batch of fabric, which has just been added to the shop. This process started out with me figuring which of my designs go with which ink colour and onto which basecloth. I also tested each of my custom-mixed ink colours on each basecloth (you can see the swatches below). That was the fun part! Then came trying to Tetris all the printing in my small studio (see image further below!)

Next is to start working on another quilt, to add to my WIP collection (why finish one when you can start another, right). Maybe I should aim small (like the last photo below) - a practical lap quilt that takes about three pieces of fabric and not too long to make. I've also been planning on making a quilt pattern and *big* fabric packs, so watch this space.

Hanging around home, part I

I've been hanging my house A LOT this year. Like all day, every day. I'm working full-time from home at the moment, which is new for me but I'm kind of loving it (except when I hate it, because I miss non-dog company.) And having a home-based studio suits me for now - although it's sometimes a bit squishy, I like being able to sit in the backyard, in the sun to eat lunch or work really early or really late and not have to worry about commuting in the dark.

Because I'm addicted to photography and haven't had time for any fun projects, yesterday I took some quick snaps around the place in the lovely afternoon light. Funnily enough, there is a plant in (or just out of) every frame!