Craftapalooza

5th blog birthday!

Holy crap! The 27th June was my 5th blog birthday. 5 years! An accomplishment I think. I'm impressed that I've stuck with it. I'll admit before Sondra (BS let's say!) the blog was a pretty major part of my life, but these days it's not as important. I still love it, love the feedback, love reading other blogs, love that it pushes me to try new things, given me some great opportunities, that I've met some pretty damn awesome people, but it's not as much of a priority as it has been in the past. My life with Sondra is my priority and the 3 fur kids we have. Crazy times, but good times. Anywho. That doesn't mean I don't love you all and I love craftapalooza, I'm probably explaining in a roundabout way why I'm not as frequent here as I have been previously.

So, here's to another 5! AND thank you. Thank you for dropping by and commenting, or lurking. I appreciate that you stop by. The pictures? Well that's my blog birthday cupcake with my Small Object celebration candle kid with no candle, yep I am prepared. Oh and yeah why not give away some apple pincushions, 5 of course. Leave a comment and leave a link to one of your favourite blog reads, it doesn't have to be a crafty blog, any blog that is one of your must reads. We'll draw it in the next 5 or so days. Good luck and thank again!

 

sunday stash

I'm a late to this group but figured what the heck I'll play too. After seeing Sarah's post on her fabric covered mouse mat I'd been obsessing about Suzuko Koseki fabrics. She's also the author of several awesome patchwork books. Link. Googling, looking on Etsy, I finally cracked it. Cottons & Linens in Singapore has quite a range, it's worth checking out the rest of the site. Their website is deceptively large so dig through and you'll find other yumminess. Link. The red fabric is Suzuko, the left Yuwa. Superbuzzy also has some Suzuko and you can get lucky on Etsy if you look regularly.

The fabric in the second picture is also from the Cottons & Linens site and is by Lecien. Check out other Sunday Stashers and also the flickr group.

 

the ugly good blanket

Finishing up this beast. Not quite a beast, but a very toasty lap blanket. Hexagons crochet using Attic 24's tutorial, joined after I had finished them not as I went, as I wanted to see how the colouring came out from each ball and sort them. Sorta. I love Noro yarns. This yarn is pretty forgiving, making it very easy to create the hexagons from the same yarn and not joining in any other colours. Nice and easy. They also crochet pretty quickly. The name of the blanket? I was showing Sondra, you know, wanting her to tell me how great it was and wasn't I clever and she looks at and says, with a look of confusion, "it's good bubs, but you know it's sorta ugly, but it's good, it's good". Funny. More details at Ravelry.

 

one

I signed up for Sarah's gocco swap "one". One screen. Gocco supplies are becoming harder and more expensive to find. Create a piece using one screen only.This was tricky to photograph as I used a metallic ink for the outer 2 rings. Titled "Anyone for Tea". Packaged using vintage magazine strips that have also been gocco'd. Thanks again Sarah, lots of fun.

 

and the winners are...

Comments numbered 17, Sue and Susan C, 69. I'll be in contact via email.

AND WOWWWW. Thanks you guys for entering the Sewn giveaway. Great to see you come out of the woodwork :) AND thanks to those of you that signed up for notification of apple pincushion pattern. I'm hoping to have it available in the next 2 to 3 weeks. It's about to head to my graphic designer to be made all pretty. I'll be in touch when it's available. Go and check out SEWN, it's just gone live.

Perth Upmarket this past weekend went OFF. Far out. West Aussies were spitting in the face of the global financial crisis. You peeps shopped. Great to see you come back and also to meet new customers. Thanks to Justine for organising a quality event.

So. That's about it. I'm still crocheting my heart out most nights. Oh and I'll also put together some apple pincushion kits to go live as the same time as the launch of the pattern.

Ok. Happy crafting! x

SEWN launch party

I'm a little late to this party, but maybe you guys are too? Have you seen Sarah Fielke's the Creative Director of a new sewers website "SEWN", to be launched soon? Sounds like it's going to be a great resource for sewers. Get on over to Sarah's blog to read more details and to also enter the competition to win stuff. BEFORE you skuttle off leave a comment if you'd like to go into the draw to win one of two apple pincushions, the picture below is an example, the two winners can choose their colour combinations and I'll make them to suit. So, two winners, randomly drawn on 8th June.

The pattern and kits for these apples will be available soon, promise. Complete the form below to sign up to be notified when the shop goes live. And, if you sign up, thank you!

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Photo: Jessica Shaver Photography

one woman workshop

Hi! Next weekend is the June Winter Warmer Perth Upmarket and we'll be there. Drop in and say hi, it's also a great opportunity to buy handmade. List of retailers here.

What you see below is my one woman apple pincushion making workshop. Over 40 of them for next weekend. I'm working on writing up the pattern so I can offer the pattern and kits in the future. I was hoping to have an online shop open by this market but haven't managed to. Next time! I have an offer at this market, every purchase over $30 goes in to a draw to win a craftapalooza pack worth over $65. Drawn on the day at 3pm.

Better get back to stuffing these buggers...See you there!