Knit one, save one

Save the children Australia are calling knitters to get those needles clicking in a campaign to knit 15,000 woolen blankets for distribution throughout India, Cambodia and Laos.  Each blanket will help a child stay warm and feel comfy and safe. Most importantly, the blankets will help to ward against pneumonia, one of the biggest killers of children under five in the developing world. You can read more about where the blankets will go, why they are needed, as well as find their simple knitting pattern  and where to send the completed 16 square blankets here

Iridescence of Colour

On my way to view the Top Arts: VCE 2010 exhibition in the NGV I detoured into the Indigenous Art Collection section of the gallery and was blown away by the work there.  At the moment there is an exhibition titled "Living Water: Contemporary Art of the Far western Desert".  The use of colour was energising and uplifting. It felt so good looking at such glorious art. The little book published to coincide with the exhibition says:

This living art form is a reverberation of iridescent colours, forms, textures and stories, both public and sacred, and of tactile sensations that point up transcendent powers sensed in country.......Far western Desert art is one of increasingly few contemporary art movements unashamedly focused on the practice of painting and the iridescence of colour, and whose most audacious practitioners are women. 'This is the art that, forty years after its eruption into the art world has become the most vibrant, dynamic and living art of the present, [that makes] other forms of painting look weak by comparison. '(Elizabeth Grosz ' Living art and the art of Life)                    -  Judith Ryan Living Water NGV 

 

Ginger Wikilyiri - Tjitji kutjara pitjangu yii - Nyii Ngampuka 2009

Tommy Mitchell Kurlilypurru 2009

Western Desert artists designs issue from their whole body - 'not just from fingers trained to hold a pencil'.  Having viewed the  dancing vibrancy of colour and pattern,  I felt truly joyous, somehow psychologically soothed, calmed and set free.

Blackbird Market

I was warm and toasty today minding my stall at the Blackbird Market.  Outside it was cold, wet and blustery with just the occasional period of sunshine.  Even the weather cant dampen the fun of Gertrude Street though. What a fabulous place to wander.

 

 

 

 

Blackbird Market is held the 2nd Saturday of each Month at The Workers Club, corner Gertrude Street and Brunswick Road, Fitzroy.

 

Numbat - a lesser known woodland creature!

On a recent visit to the Perth Zoo I encountered a Numbat and wondered why I had never seen one of these Australian marsupials before.  I was struck by her beauty.  The colours in her fur were vibrant - appearing orange with black and white stripes on the lower part of the body.  She seemed very happy foraging in her enclosure, oblivious to being watched, hoping and jumping and scurrying.  Numbats are endangered. Once found right across the lower half of Australia, they are now only found in a very small region of Western Australia. The introduction of the red fox has been one of the major causes for such small numbers of numbats. Loss of their woodland habitats has also exacted a toll. Numbats eat termites and are active in the day - making them even more vulnerable.  The Perth Zoo has a breeding program and has so far been able to release 100 numbats back into the wild.

The red fox, which destroys so much of our native wildlife, has been a popular motif in recent times.  I thought I'd have a go at adding a numbat motif to a skirt.

Using a photo I found on Google images, i sketched my version.

 

Then translated this into fabric and stitched it on to one of the skirt front pieces I had cut out before stitching up the skirt.  Here is the finished result.  I'm happy with it.  I wanted a soft, light approach that blended, almost camouflaged, with the rest of the skirt

Goodbye Kitchen, Hello World

I really enjoy taking fabric that has had another life and turning it into something new  - for example other clothes, tablecloths, bed linen or homewares.  Clothes made from tablecloths all have a name that begins with "Goodbye Kitchen, Hello World"  These are some of the things from this series:

 

 

A Merry Mishap

Some weeks ago I had an idea for a tunic that kind of lapped over at the back and which, I imagined would look great over leggings or tights and a jumper.  I drafted the pattern in three sizes - small medium and large and so enthusiastic was I that I didnt bother making a muslin first. I cut straight into some beautiful Echino linen fabrics.  Not once, or twice but three times. one in each size.  I sewed the first one.  Making some big blousey pockets.  All went well ... until it came time to test the garment on an actual body.  It looked suspiciously like an apron,  but still I was confidant.  On it looked dreadful  - like an old fashioned pinnie; a shapless sack.  I was so disappointed I cast the garment aside.  The only consolation was that I had only stitched up one.  The other two, I knew I would be able to use the fabric in some other way.  The completed one, though.... Normally, I would unpick a disaster and just start again but this garment had french seams on linen and a whole lot of binding. I couldnt bear the thought of all that unpicking.  So it stayed, sadly slumped in my sewing room for weeks.
One day I had another idea and got to it.  I'd cut the top off the pinafore, form some pleats, attach a waistband and turn it into a wrap skirt - with big blousey pockets.  And here is the result:

 

So happy with this result I went on and turned the other two cut out pinafores into skirts as well!

I've learned my lesson though,  next time I'll be making up new ideas in less valuable fabric in case I cant resurrect the disasters!

Green, to be seen

Look what I spied peeping under my clothes display at last Sunday's North Melbourne Market.  How good is that green!  Suits my Dora Ruby skirts, too.
It was a good day - beautiful outside, perhaps the last taste of summer  until next summer.  Makes me think I need to get a move on with making more wintry things.