Green ribbons, tall mountains

 I've been experimenting with some new ribbons for my huia brooches and thought I'd try out some in my favourite colour, a mossy green (I have an embarrassing number of cardigans that colour).

 And I've been planning a painting of Mitre Peak, probably one of the most painted places in New Zealand, but after I visited Fiordland earlier in the year I thought I'd love to have a giant painting of it in my lounge.  I'm having a (legitimate) sick day off work with a cold, so I thought it was a good chance to steal some time and get started on it!

Crowns of glory

I had so much fun making flower crowns at Splore that I decided to make some for our band to wear.  We played up at the Coatesville Markets in the tail end of Cyclone Lusi on Sunday and it was good to have some red flowers to cheer up the grey day.  

 The dudes got flower brooches instead, which they wore with their Millicent Crow medals.

Posers

I'm tempted to wear my flower crown to work tomorrow!

Splore

I was lucky enough to work at Splore last weekend, in Sarah's wonderful Sew Some Love tent.  In our beachside spot we helped people make flower crowns, embellish their costumes, carve rubber stamps, make postcards and express their creativity.   

My workshop was the rubber stamp carving one...it was so great to see the different ideas people came up with and the patterns they made with their finished stamps (and that there were no fingers sliced with sharp cutting tools). 

Here's the crew of Sew Some Love ladies: L-R Laura, Sarah, yours truly, Erin.

 This was the view from our sewing tent...my next door neighbours sailed down from Auckland. 

I think I am a bit addicted to making flower crowns...my fingers are itching to make more, maybe some matching red ones for our band!

And here I am when I was 17, going to Splore when it was at Karioitahi Beach near Waiuku.  I think my 17 year old self would have liked to work in a sewing tent!

Monkey business

 I've been monkeying around making a couple more monkeys from Fiona Dalton's Hop Skip Jump book.  Over the weekend I kept finding monkey limbs and tails around the house:

 And monkey faces:

 Which led to the creation of the octomonkey!

Now they're in a much less disembodied state, just waiting for me to make them some trousers!

Kraftbomb

 When I got home from the Auckland Art and Craft Fair yesterday I felt inspired to make some more brooches, so I rustled up these ones.  They're made with the embroidery from an old linen cloth I bought a while ago from a great op shop in Putaruru.  It had seen better days but had been lovingly mended in places, and was lovely and soft.

 

 I brought them along to Kraftbomb and here they are with my huia brooches:

And here's the stall:

 

There were lots of clever display ideas at Kraftbomb, and at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair, and I spent a bit of time today dreaming up ideas for displaying my wares better.  I'm thinking of making some kind of shelving unit for my prints, maybe out of the vintage spice racks that seem to be accumulating in my car.  Now that could be an excuse for an op shopping excursion!

My Creative Space: Pinked

 I treated myself to a pair of pinking shears the other day and I've been having fun using them on fabric brooches.  I screenprinted some huia birds, sewed them to an old blanket strengthened with interfacing, pinked the edges and sandwiched some ribbon in between.  They've turned out quite military, I wonder what they could be medals for...

 I've also made some without ribbons - some round, some oval.  With their pinked edges they remind me of Shrewsbury biscuits!

Joining in with "My Creative Space" today over here.

Happy Thursday!

Multiplying

I made a whole lot more pouches with my huia printed fabric over the weekend and now I've got them in a couple of different sizes, and with different coloured zips.  

 Some have got red starry linings:

 And some have got beige spotty dotty linings:

And when I was making them I found a few dinosaur patches I'd made for some old pouches...I wonder if I have time to make a couple of dinosaur pouches before the Auckland Art and Craft Fair!

My creative space: huia pouch

The other night I sewed up my first pouch from my huia printed fabric and, after fixing an upside-down huia accident, here it is!

 This one's got a spotty dotty lining and some of the others are going to have red and white starry linings.

 And there are plenty more to make!

I'll be bringing some of these to the Auckland Art and Craft Fair and Kraftbomb, I'd better get back to the sewing machine!

Joining in with "My Creative Space" today over here.

Happy Thursday to you!

My creative space: embroidered pouches

 I've finally made some pouches from this skirt - it was a giant '70s wraparound number - and they'll be coming to Craft Country with me this Saturday.  They're lined with a former pillowcase and strengthened with a bit of interfacing.

I'm also working on some that are made from old curtain fabric with the best retro flowers, so fingers crossed I'll have those ready for the market too.  My next job for today is to brave the mall to pick up the Millicent Crow sign I'm having printed...wish me luck!

How about you, what have you been making?

Joining in here with "My Creative Space" today; happy Thursday!  

My creative space: red white and blue

 I've been itching to make some pouches out of my new printed linen and today I whipped one up to see what it would look like.  I was having a bit of a sewing rage day so I thought I'd just make one today, but I think I'll have a pouch-making production line soon!

Joining in with "My Creative Space" today over here.

Happy Thursday to you!