My Creative Space

Right now, my creative space is filled with all the wonderful vintage fabrics I found in a dusty shop in Beirut. I'm hugging myself with delight and can't wait to start using them!

Before arriving in Lebanon, I had thought we would be able to find a fabric market - in the way that I seem to be able to find a fabric market in just about any city I visit.

Most Middle Eastern cities have an area where all the fabric shops are clustered together, and you can just go from one to another and lose yourself in the wonders they have to offer, as the hours go past unnoticed and your stomach starts to grumble and the sun sets slowly in the sky. Or is that just me?

After we walked around for a while, searching aimlessly, it became obvious to us that Beirut doesn't have a market in that sense. Perhaps because it's a much more European city, it's more like Australia, where fabric shops are just dotted across the landscape, with no particular rhyme or reason as to their location. We had found one around the corner from our guesthouse on the first night, where I bought (at vast expense) the incredibly good quality French indienne cottons in the bottom photograph, from a tiny French woman no bigger than a bird.

It was our last day in the city and we didn't want to waste time looking - so the White Witch and I went shopping for shoes, instead. As you do.

(She bought a gorgeous pair of soft suede ballet pumps with little grosgrain ribbons on the toe, decorated with a sparkly brooch. I wanted the same pair, but lucky for My One True Love and our magnificent shoe cupboard which is already full to bursting, they didn't have my size).

French indienne cottons

We began to make our way back along the Rue de Hamra, with the intention of catching a taxi back to the guesthouse and then the airport for our flight home.


Lo and behold, as we rounded a corner, a dusty shop caught my eye. And as I peered closer, I realised that one entire wall was covered with bolts of fabric.

Colourful fabric. Patterned fabric. Colourful, patterned ... ohmygod VINTAGE fabric! I may have let out an involuntary squeal at that point. I certainly clapped my hands together like a five-year-old, I know that much.

And so we dived in, and I pulled out roll after roll after roll of divine mercerised cotton from the 60s, polished cotton from the 50s, a 70s printed silk, wool and cashmere blends, tartan wool weaves, plenty of polyester/rayon mixes (ugh, I put those back right away), navy and red striped seersucker ... it was madness. The shop assistant thought it was heaven.

In the end I managed to pare back my selection to the bare necessities.

• The block green wool is going to become a sixties-style knee-length dress with rolled collar and short sleeves, very Jackie O
• and next to it, the heavy mercerised cotton with a cream background and green floral print; which perfectly coordinates with that green wool, is going to become a short box jacket to go over the dress
• and the same fabric in brown (top left corner) is going to become a giant elephant, a la Gerald The Elephant In The Room
• and the cream pinwale corduroy with purple and gold stripes, trellis and leafy print is going to be ... something, I don't know what yet
• and the loud fabric with multicoloured stripes and flowers comes in two weights - canvas and voile - so the voile is going to be a simple shirt and the canvas will be used for toys
• the blue, orange and black floral print is a good shirting weight too
• and the flowery brown, orange and lilac cotton in the bottom right-hand corner is just something I liked but I've no idea what to use it for
• And the White Witch bought some lovely things in pink tones as well but I was too obsessed with my own haul to photograph hers

And then - then we realised what time it was and we rushed out the door with our bags and caught a taxi with a totally pervy driver who wanted us to spank his hand with this weird wooden paddle and we had to get out in the middle of nowhere and then we nearly missed the flight to the airport, all because of the fabric, but that's another story .....

My Creative Space

So here's a cute little task I executed last night, in preparation for my first My Creative Space in weeks.

It's not original - there are plenty of this sort of thing out there - but I think my hippopotamus fabric is pretty unique.I love this material, it's so bright and cheerful. And who could resist all those tiny hippopotami with their mouths open? It looks like a game of hippo Pacman.

It took me a few tries to get it stretched properly through the hoops, and then I had the issue of what to do with the unfinished ends on the other side. You can't hem them, because then the material is too thick to clamp properly. And you can't leave them sticking out, because that just looks untidy.

What do you do with your loose ends?

I'm going to hop on over to Kootoyoo to see if anyone can help .... come along for the ride and see what other people are up to in their own creative spaces.

My Creative Space

Tea-towels! Souvenir tea-towels galore!

I have put together quite a collection in my three weeks here to date. I have some from Halls Creek, but most of these are from Kununurra.

I fully intend to put these to use when my dear sewing machine and I are reunited in a fortnight.

Cushion covers? Peg bags?

Perhaps a giant souvenir-tea-towel quilt cover?

Hop on over to Kootoyoo and see what everyone else is up to with their creative spaces.

My Creative Space

Well looky here, I actually have a creative space today! For the first time in OVER A WEEK. I know none of you are reading this though, because you are all at the Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne, you lucky lucky things. I curled up with disappointment when I found out I was going to miss it.

For those of you not in Melbourne and swanning about the show, you might remember my dilemma about what crafty thing to bring with me to Kununurra (known crafty spot that it is ..... not).

There were strong recommendations for embroidery (which I need to learn), crochet (which I need to learn) and knitting (which I will never learn because I am crap at it and my mum is excellent, so I don't need to.)

I was all set to choose embroidery, and then time got the better of me. I managed to buy a little book to show me how to learn the stitches, but I didn't even get close to buying the right needles, a hoop, or linen.

In a last minute panic, I shoved some scraps into my bag along with the necessary button-making equipment. So now in the evenings here, I'm going to make myself 200 buttons. I think that's achievable in the three and a half weeks I've got left.

My hands have been itching and tingling to keep busy, too, because I'm not used to being without my sewing machine. I gave My One True Love strict instructions to have it serviced while I'm away - it's the perfect opportunity - but I have this feeling that it might have fallen off his list of things to do. Poor machine, that means it'll have to wait until .... um .... er ..... Christmas? to have its service. Ah well. As my Greek tailor would say, What can I do?

My Creative Space

In a last-minute cramming of creativity before I leave for Kununurra next Tuesday (eep!), I am taking the opportunity to finish off a small pile of orders.

Here in the picture are four fabrics that I'm going to use for a series of matching doorstops - a lovely lady has requested one for each of the main doors in her home - I'm guessing three bedrooms and the main bathroom? Or two bedrooms, the bathroom and the back door?

Yesterday was the first time it really struck me that I'm about to go away for five weeks (yes, I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes) and the impact practically caved in my pre-frontal cortex. Five weeks .... without my sewing machine.

Gasp. I think the last time I had five weeks away from my beloved sewing machine was probably in the time before I learnt how to sew. Let us refer to it as The Pre-Creativity Period. It is an ancient time, lost in the darkened, spidery corridors of early Flickettysplits history.

Five weeks! So what on earth am I going to do in the evenings and on weekends? I mean, I know there will be all sorts of natural wonder to gape at, like the Bungle Bungles and the Diamond Mine and Lake Ord and the art galleries and all of that .... but that is not going to be enough.

I need something to do with my hands. Like a cigarette smoker, if I don't have something crafty in my hands, I'll eat instead, and then I'll be the size of a house when I come home, because five weeks of mindless eating is going to add up, that's for sure.

What are your suggestions? I'm thinking maybe I could use the time to learn how to embroider - all I'd need is a hoop, enough linen to toss out the really bad early attempts, a needle and some black thread. What kind of needle though? And what kind of thread? I don't know the first thing about what I should buy to take with me!

Help, dear fellow crafters, please help - I need your suggestions!

My Creative Space: the mammoth task continues

So, dear reader, last week on My Creative Space I outlined the mammoth task currently confronting me, which is: Make Five Weeks Of Market Stock In A Little Less Than 21 Days While Working Full-Time, Fitting In The Necessary Exercise, And Still Trying To Have Some Kind Of Life.

Well, okay, so I didn't put it quite like that at the time. But in truth that's the task. And I'm pleased to say that I have progressed, dear readers, I have progressed. Whoo hoo!

In the past few days I have made half a dozen cushions, I've completed four fiddly pencil rolls, I finished an order, I made the EXTRA baby quilt for the Amateur Actress's new niece and sent it to Canberra so quickly that I forgot to take a photo of it, and I ticked off four new family peg bags. I think that's a pretty good effort!

So, now all I have left are six pencilrolls, some more cushions, another quilt (sigh), some eye pillows and heatpacks, the matching doorstops and snakes, and extra owl, cat and whale toys ..... right, I'm going to stop listing things now in case it starts making me depressed .....

My Creative Space

There's something very different about my creative space this week. Something strange. Something unusual.

Can you guess what it is?

Yes, that's right ..... it's neutral.

There's nary a colour in sight. Starting on top we have a lovely pumice coloured linen, of the best quality. Then a charcoal Italian wool underneath, followed by a navy blue Italian wool in the same fabric, just a different shade. All sitting on a grey and silver textured upholstery piece.

Neutral. What gives??!

I'm the first to admit that I don't quite know how this happened. There I was, at the Laura Ashley outlet, hungrily pawing my way through thousands of metres of discontinued fabric at THREE DOLLARS A METRE - yes ladies, you heard right - and I came out with neutrals?

No colours? Not one? I must be sick.

(Actually, I am sick, today my throat feels as though it's being lovingly stroked by a chainsaw.)

It's the only thing I can think of that may have thrown me off balance. And it gets worse, too - guess what I'm wearing today. Neutrals. Grey linen pants and a black linen top. I don't even have a coloured necklace on.

It must be time to crawl back under the covers - clearly, something is seriously wrong.

My Creative Space

Look at my creative space. Just look at it!

Oh, I know it's cute (very, very cute in fact) but it is also bloody frustrating at times! See what he's cuddled up on? That would be my corduroy. My black corduroy. That I was trying to make a new Catticus with. Which he came up and sat on. And then stretched out on. And then went to sleep on.

Gah. Save me from furry babies spreading their lovely fur all over my lovely corduroy.

I couldn't move him though, could I ...

So it's just as well I'm a snot factory today and can't contemplate trying to do anything that involves sharp implements or needles of any kind.

I'm sew on hold ....

You really can tell how busy I am at work in any given period, without me actually saying so.

It's more what I don't say, in fact. It's the amount of blogging I don't do.

For example, this is only my second post this week since Saturday. And it correlates with a particularly busy period for me at work. I didn't even have time to take a photo of My Creative Space so that I could join in today!

I have a pretty good creative space at the moment, too. It's filled with all the projects I've got on hold until there's more time in my life next week. Sigh ....

• There's an embroidered cushion I'm working on in dove grey and pink - part of a new range of text-based cushions (watch this space)
• Some doorstops for the next Made N Thornbury market on May 2
• A dinosaur for my godson
• A headband for the Amateur Actress
• A baby toy for my colleague who's expecting a little girl
• A half-made bag in a Nicole Mallalieu pattern
• Some doorsnakes, because winter's coming up

I can't wait to keep going on these projects next week ... my cup runneth over! I feel like I'm brimming with barely contained creativity.

My Creative Space

Ah, it's that time of the week again ..... time for My Creative Space, courtesy of Kootoyoo.

My space is chockablock right now, with all of the lovely goodies I picked up at the fabulous Stitches and Craft show last Saturday. In the middle you can see a copy of Mixtape - I'm a subscriber now! - and on the left are two lovely Melly and Me patterns.

I'm going to use the pink and white patterned fabric behind Mixtape to make the flamingo I think. He has wonderful knobbly knees that are just crying out to be made up.

There's also three metres of new fabric from Anna Maria Horner, which is going to become a 1950's style dress with a scoop neck, seamed waist, and full circle skirt. It's going to be eye-poppingly bright in this teal and orange print, but that's the way I like it.

I love this guilty secret here, posted by someone on the Craft Secrets wall. This woman has stolen my identity! I'm constantly having to sneak new crafty supplies into the house so that My One True Love doesn't see.

I know I shouldn't feel guilty, as I have a specific budget and (usually) stick to it .... but the volume of it, people, the volume.

My fabric stash is so big that I fully expect to come home one day and find that it's eaten the cats and made a bid for independence out the front door. Watch out, rampant stash on the loose! I can see the six o'clock news headlines now. I'd have to shame-facedly admit that yes, I allowed the stash to get to this size. I knew it was wrong. I knew someday it would come back to haunt me. And I'd have to make a tearful apology to the Australian public, vowing to enter some kind of Fabrics Anonymous 12-step program.

I added to the stash considerably at the Stitches and Craft Show. Look at the expression of amazement on that Babushka's face there when she saw what I had done.

On the right hand side of the top photo you can see a darling Japanese print by Kokka, with pictures of a cute black cat doing cute things. All the text is in German, so it reads Die Schwarzen cat, etc. It's very cute.

And there are some delightfully bright ribbons - I've already used some of the orange one on Toof, in the post below this one.

See the yellow tape measure? It's NOT a tape measure - it's a ribbon! I absolutely loved this one, so I bought ten metres of it because I've never seen it before and not sure I'll ever see it again.
My stash philosophy, you may have guessed, relies heavily on quantity. If you like something, buy enough of it so that you don't get Fabric Regret, where you nearly have enough to make something lovely .... but not quite. It's happened to me often enough that I've started taking preventative measures.

I try to live a life without regrets, you see. And that is precisely the reason I need to convert our attic into an Amazing Stash Storage facility.

Onwards and upwards, o great stash of mine!

My creative space

Today I'm playing My Creative Space courtesy of Kootoyoo - hop on over to her blog and check out what other people's creative spaces look like too. Her space is always so much tidier than mine!

As you can see in the photo though, my creative space is also often occupied by a cat of some kind (insert resigned sigh here).

On this occasion it's Grimth, our third puss and second British Shorthair. That is, he's the same brand as Fatpuss, but a different colour - Grimth is technically known as a lilac, but he actually looks like a deep cream or very pale chocolate. It's because he's the product of a chocolate shorthair crossed with a blue shorthair, it produces a very interesting colour. And he's got stripes, too, though they're very faint.

Anyway, enough about the pussin. I'm actually here to talk about what's under him!

You can see a collection of printed fabrics underneath his growing bulk. These are a bunch of tea-towels I picked up in Mildura on the weekend. I'm going to make them into something ... I'm just not quite sure what yet.

But I think there's definitely an opportunity to capitalise on the Australiana kitsch embodied by these souvenir tea towels. What do you think ... tote bags? Cushion covers? Laptop cases? Skirts?

I particularly like the ones that have flowers and birds on them, though I also got a few with native animals - kangaroos, koalas, echidnas and wombats - as there's always a desire for that kind of stuff overseas. I think I like the bright, vibrant colours as well; they're so attention-grabbing, and they just scream SOUVENIR!!!!!!

Whatever I end up making, it's going to go in my new Etsy shop (which is currently under construction) - watch this space ......

The cutest culprits ever

I tried very, very hard to be creative when I finally got home last night after the stultifying training day.

First though, I went to my bedroom to placate my mobile phone. It took some effort, but after a decent amount of stroking and patting and soothing, I think it forgave me.

Of course, there was the moment at first when it refused to listen to me, went flat and shut itself off in a mark of protest, but this morning we seem to be back on an even keel again.

I've promised to always, always check my bag for it before leaving the house in the future.

After setting things to rights, I decided it was time to do some sewing as a way to decompress. But when I went to my sewing area (that's what I call the unholy pile of crap on the dining table where I keep everything I'm working on, and a good deal of stuff that I'm not working on but which seems to need to be piled up around me for total effectiveness) - this is what I found.

And he seemed very comfy indeed, all curled up on my fabrics. How could you disturb something so gorgeous, and fast fast asleep?

So I chose instead to work on a project that's already halfway through. And that's when Grimth decided to help me. He loves to help.

Look at him helping me here, with his little paw on the needle and his loving eyes gazing up at me, half-lidded.

You couldn't be angry though, when the culprit is so very, very cute. I decided to read a book instead.