My Turn!

I've realised I have spent so much time making things for other people that I have never really made anything for myself. The only thing I have for myself is the quilt I made when first learning to quilt. It was a square on square pattern I made as part of a class at Spotlight in Werribee. oh I lie, one more thing, a small lapghan, my first granny square project, that I've also managed to keep. So having said that I am starting to put a list together of all the things I want to make for MYSELF! I have been looking on the internet, googling images, flicking through craft magazines and visiting endless craft blogs and have been inspired by so many of the things I've seen.

Here is a list of things I want to make for myself

1. I am in love with quilts that have house blocks on them, I want to make either a wall hanging or bed cover with cute houses on it. Here are some images off the interent that have inspired me.

2. I have always loved cross stitch samplers and want to make my own 'Home Sweet Home' sampler that has flowers, a sampler house, birds and bees and rabbits as part of the design as well as an alphabet set of course. I want to frame it in a lovely antique wooden frame and hang it in the entrance of my home as people enter in. The above picture is off the Internet and just gives you and idea of the look I want, it is not the type of imagery I want though.

3. I want my own large size granny square blanket that I can throw over my couch and use as a blanket and snuggle under while watching television on a cold winter's night. I want it to incorporate a range of fun colours that will cheer me up on a cold day.

I love this one off the Granny Along flicker group site, who ever made it I love it!!!! It's so yummy looking and cosy.

4. I want to get back to painting and make some paintings that feature beautiful bunnies, I think maybe even a portrait of my dear bunny Charlotte. I just love the detail in the painting below. I think I would like to paint something like that or at least start collecting some 'bunny' paintings like the one below.

Even as I write this entry I am reminded of the quilt I need to finish for my sister's wedding, the beaded necklaces I have started to put in my etsy show, I will talk about that another time once I get it set up completely. And I've got to finish the children's cross stitch sampler for my friend's baby. I haven't touched it in 6 months and his first birthday is in September. It was supposed to be a 'birth' day present but I just haven't finished it.

Ahh looks like it will still be a while before I can start something for myself. Oh but I wait patiently for that day!

Finished Crochet and Felted Presents

Hi everyone I can't believe how longs its been since I last posted, over a month! There has been lots going on though. I am still in the process of cleaning my rental property but at least the new fence is up, the house is completely painted and the garden has been attended to. There was actually 4 truck loads of rubbish we had to take to the tip, can you believe it?! All that's left now is to clean and repair the roof and to build steps at the back door. I don't know when I'll be able to get new tenants but it is stressing me out financially.

Anyhow enough of that and onto crafty news! I have finally finished my boyfriend's granny square blanket and it looks pretty good if I don't say so myself. It is so warm and comfy. I've given it a wash with fabric softeners and it smells so lovely. I've also made two necklaces with handmade felt beads using the wool from my uncle's farm. These have been made as gifts for friends overseas. I've also finished the cushion covers for Axel's parents complete with zips which my mum helped me sew on.

Here are some photos of the completed projects. First photos is of the necklace I made for my Swiss friend Regular who I met last year as part of a Contiki tour of central Australia. I am going to see her as part of my trip to Germany- weekend stop to Switzerland yay! Second photo is of course a photo of the finished blanket for Axel.

I hope everyone is well and thank you for still visiting my blog even though I have neglected it to some extent. I promise I will blog more often now that I have finished reports for work and assignments for uni. I will be in Germany as of next Sunday and will stay there for four weeks so hopefully I'll be able to give you a bit of a tour of the country as I travel around and let you know what the recipients of my crafty presents think of them.

Take care and keep on crafting!

House Cleaning

I have resettled a little after the last post, thanks mainly to my beautiful bf Axel and his words of wisdom and the comments shared by Inger C at Hello Craft Lovers reminding me that there is plenty of time to be an artist as we never stop being one, it's something you can go back to at anytime in your life. I do have to say though I still feel like it is something I should be doing now when I am younger rather than older. I am scared domestic life, kids husband will really take over then and seal the creative envelope shut. But of course these are fears and not necessarily my future reality.

Anyhow I finally had my tenants move out of my house I lease and have started on the big 'clean up'. Now I know things could have been worse but at the same time the house was not left in the best of states and outside was worse, things broken and nothing I could actually claim. Very annoying. If there is anyone here from Melbourne I tell you John Kontek, Sunshine has failed to manage my property properly. They have not done one inspection over the last 3.5 years and have made appointments with us to inspect the property and not shown up only later to argue that they did not make an appointment with us. Ha! obviously we just dreamt up the date and time. And above all they have lost my last months rent by telling the tenants to pay after they move out. As if they are going to pay after they move out. Seriously why should I miss out on money if they want to be lazy and not do their job as they should. Anyhow I think I will take matters further with them. Not happy Jan!

Anyhow all weekend we have been painting and cleaning and this weekend we will start on the backyard. I need to get the roof fixed and painted and also put up a new fence. My parents have been awesome. Mum has helped me paint and dad is going to help with the removal of a broken down patio and the fence. The Garden needs a good clean up too, there is ivy growing on the side of the house that is about 9 feet tall.

I must say I will be happy when it is all finished, clean and fresh smelling with less out of control plant life and a 6'4 fence so nosey neighbours can't peep in. Oh must not forget all finished off with a non-leaking roof!

Fine Art in Contemporary Craft

For a while now I have been contemplating on pursuing and developing an art practice that incorporates crafts like crocheting and felting but in a way that is more sophisticated and is designed as fine art rather than just decorative craft. I was browsing at the local 'arty' book store in Yarraville and found a book called By Hand which presents the craft based artwork of a variety of artists. Every artist is also presented with their own artists' statement as well as 3 or 4 photos of their work.

The book is edited by Shu Hung and Joseph Magliaro, and those of you in Australia buy it off Amazon.com it's much cheaper, if only I'd known. The work itself covers a variety of media from cake decorating to freehand sewing even crochet in the form of granny squares!

Shane Waltener, Sweet Nothing, An intimate history of cake decorating, 2005

Coffee Maker M.I.M, 2001 Margarita Cabrera

I don't know what I am going to do... I have this urge inside to create 'fine art' again and not just make handmade presents for friends and family. I want to become serious about my art again but I am not sure if it's for all the right reasons. I am starting to worry that I haven't made serious art for so long that I have lost any chance of making it in the art world. Then I start thinking oh what a waste of time going to art school for 4 years and what will people think who have known me as a kid with a pencil in my hand? The problem is if I think about it real hard and look deep down and honestly about my desire to make art again it could all be because I still have a silly teenage idea that being an artist is cool and if I am an artist then I can be cool or 'interesting'. It's so stupid. I bumped into a ex lecturer and my honours year supervisor at the train station the other day. It was lovely to see her but at the same time at the back of your head you can't help but think maybe you failed her by not continuing to purse an artistic career.

I think back on my years at art school. I do love making art creating and designing. But at the end when I have an artwork finished and I think of the art world and exhibiting, the snobbery and academics that run the show it makes me want to slit my wrists. I am a miserable artists and a happy teacher who acknowledges that she is a daggy teacher who thinks she wants to be a cool artist. I sure am an idiot at times!

I think I will email that lecturer and make a coffee date...

Crochet Baby Hat fits a Real Baby!

Ah I am so happy, at Easter the other weekend I got to see if my crochet baby hat would actually fit a real baby. And to my surprise it does! My poor cousin's baby had to look like a dag for a while while I took him around to show off that I could make a hat that fit. Everyone was yelling at me to take it off that it made the poor baby boy look poofy. I think if he was a girl their reaction would have been different but anyhow. So here is a photo of baby Lukas modeling the crochet cap.

Maybe I can make him a nice blue one without the trimmings oh and without the flower hehehehe.

Doing it Old School, First Step: Wash Fleece

My house mate and I are back at it, that is making felt from ABSOLUTE scratch! and all by hand. I got some more fleece from my uncle's farm, this time the fleece is from a ram, which my uncle says is better quality. One thing it is is cleaner than the last stuff we got which I can now see was like D grade. We haven't done much else other than wash some of it, we have to get the carder back from the Steiner school and rent a whole heap of DVD's to watch while we spend hours carding the fleece.

Drying in the sun. Oh how Australian!

I haven't actually made anything for myself as yet but this time round I would really like to dry felt some little mice like I saw on another blog. Please forgive me I have forgotten which blog the image came from but I acknowledge that these mice are someone else's idea that I would like to copy for myself and not commercial reasons.

Are they not the cutest things you'd ever seen?! I want to put little glasses on mine and make three like the three blind mice.

It's Willow Time!

Ah finally I have made a Willow block made famous by many a Flicker groups which are dedicated to making bags and what-nots using this block. I fell in love with this block the first time I saw it on Granny Along and after searching the web for the pattern and asking others I finally found the book it came from and quickly snapped it up on Amazon.com, as they say, the rest is history.

I have had enough of looking at blue yarn and all the other projects I've made are in natural earthly colours so for this project I've gone for a more candy palette lots of colourful fun for the senses. I saw another bag on Flicker where the crafter used purple and mint green to make a German crochet bag using two different squares, one similar to the willow and the other a normal granny. I have chosen to do something similar but with different colours and a different block pattern. I wish I could remember what the crafters name was but this is a photo of the 'inspiration' bag. If anyone knows who made it please let me know.

And here are the first two bocks from my bag to be. I've used hot pink, jade green, orange and light pink for the border. I don't think mine will look as elegant as the other one, which is just amazingly beautiful and elegant but I hope it will look like a fun casual bag to do the shopping with in Germany because they don't have plastic bags at the supermarket you have to take your own.