Scrap Happy

What to do with all your trimmings.....wacky...love it. Image via Doreme Japan.

Dyson goes Steampunk

Here is a little bit of ha ha for you all...at the time it wasn't, but now I think we can all laugh at it...
The switch broke on my beloved Dyson DC01 -  the first Dyson vacuum cleaner made, and this was the limited edition Dyson De Stijl. Named after a pretty influential design movement in the Netherlands in the early part of the 20th century. This Vacuum had the hall marks of this design movement - or Neo Plasticism as it is also referred. The art movement that gave us Mondiran. What could I not love about this Vacuum cleaner when I bought it, bright purple, red and yellow, it had my name written all over it.

So, my dad offered to take a look, he's pretty handy. He couldn't find a replacement switch in the local electrical store, as you would assume, not many place carry parts for a Dyson in a regional town and not ever having contact with a computer would never think to google to look for one ($24.95 delivered if he did know) so he decided to 'make do and mend' and fitted a 1930s bakelite light switch to it.

Yes it turns on....And to make sure it really took hold, its been drilled through the casing and super glued on and he's glued up the old switch...so i'm stuck with it, literally.

Bless him....

Shiny Happy People....60s and 70s Warm Brights

As the weather gets colder I like to have bright happy textiles around. I have these lovely wool/cotton blends from the 60s and 70s, Clydella, Viyella and Marvella. Perfect for skirts and blouses.

Every year my Nana made me a blouse out of Viyella, that nice brushed twill, it was so warm. The little ditsy prints remind me so much of her and what she made for me with love. Enjoy!

The Geelong Quilt In 2012

Getting very excited about being a trader for the Geelong Quilt In this year.
This is such a great group of ladies who quilt away in all different styles. This year they are raising funds for Anam Cara House in Geelong. So your admission and all funds raised on the day goto a worthy cause.

The Quilt In this year has Linda Steele as the guest speaker. Linda is a renowned textile artist and teacher and has won many awards for her work here and overseas. And, she also hand quilts! Love a hand quilted quilt.

The Quilt in runs from 9.30 to 4pm and is at the Belmont Civic Hall on the Corner of Reynolds Road and the Princess Hwy Belmont.

To break with tradition I won't be stitching but reverse stitching, I will be unpicking a turn of the century monkey wrench block quilt. Tiny stitches from a treadle machine, this will keep me busy!

A Million Stitches

Such joy, a million tiny stitches. Beautiful vintage kantha quilts from Rajhastan. No two alike, loads to choose from. Various sizes and weights.
I will have these available for sale this weekend at the Brunswick Town Hall on Saturday the 28th and Camberwell Market on Sunday the 29th.
You will need to be quick, when I had these 3 weeks ago they sold out in an hour.

Animal Lacing Cards

While talking to a friend the other day about her new desire to embroider freehand with bright wools into card and paper, I remembered these. Did you have these as a kid too? Did it start you down a stitchy journey like me? With the blunt plastic large eyed needles and bright primary coloured wools. I love the graphics on these, my favourite is the Donkey.

Patches of Noro...the end is in sight

Last year while participating at an event I stumbled upon a stall selling lace weight Noro. (This is the lady who sells it). They were long days and I had a lot of time to kill and I had always wanted to learn how to crochet. The next day I fronted up with a how to crochet book and a hook, (size 1...!!!!) bought myself 2 balls of this lovely stuff and had a crack!
I started my first hexagon and realised I was putting the yarn around the hook the wrong way all these years when I had tried to teach myself before. I'm left handed so books can sometimes be confusing for me when i'm working things out. Never had much luck with right handers teaching me either, so I always thought crochet was hard and fiddly. After that realisation things got easier and I got on a roll.
So, now after about 10 months I have over 200 of these hexagons that are about 6cm in diameter and I am slowly sewing them all up into a grandmothers flower garden style scarf. Trust me to pick something laborious for my first attempt into crochet, but hey its coming together, maybe by the time I reach the 12 month mark it will finally be finished!

Geelong Quilters Guest Speaker this Saturday

I am the guest speaker this Saturday the 21st of April at the Geelong Patchwork and Quilters Guild.
Its at the Regent Street Masonic Hall in Belmont from 1pm.

I will be talking about my love affair with scrap quilts and finishing off old quilts, from finding old blocks and tops to sourcing fabrics and threads of the same eras. I will have a selection of fabrics from the United States from the 1930s to 1960s available on the day as well.

I will also be talking about my recent trip to India where I went to work with a Social Enterprise Stitching Group run by Textile Artist Fiona Wright. I will also have plenty of her Pukka Components available for sale on the day. These are packs of silks, hand looms and other interesting cloths and fibres and other goodies.

Cover Girl

What a surprise to get up on Saturday morning to be greeted by my silly mug peering out of the front cover of the weekend lift out of the Geelong Advertiser. Yup, I made it to cover girl for an article on local art and design based businesses.  It was such a nice surprise to be asked to be in this article alongside 4 other inspiring small businesses in my local area. The photo shoot was absolutely hilarious and loads of fun.....never in a million years did I think it would be on the front page!

Old Glory Flags and Vintage Quilts

The Old Glory flags are here, also Panama, Netherlands, Iceland, Greece and loads of Ensigns and signal flags. Many of these flags are from de-commissioned freight ships that are being dismantled and the others are World War Two surplus from the USA.
More quilts and quilt tops are available too.

The New Eye Candy

I have finally gotten around to photographing some of the new finds from my recent trip. (As promised for you PJ) I will be bringing a selection of these items to the markets over the next few weeks. More Kantha quilts are arriving (fingers crossed) by the end of the month.

Below are the most amazing hand stitched scarves, throws and wraps from some truly talented women from Bengal. I only have a handful of these ones left. The stitches are about 1mm in length and they are sewn into hand dyed silks. Thousands of stitches and hundreds of hours go into each and every one of these pieces, they are truly astounding and each one is unique.

 These wonderful scarves are from the Social Enterprise I went to work with. They are all silk and stitched in colourful cottons. They are reversible too and come with or without fringes. Tonnes of colours and styles and more arriving soon.

 Hand stitched quilt blocks from recycled silks.

Vintage Hmong embroidery and hand dyed Indigo resist cottons, purchased directly from the village ladies up in the hills. My suitcase was chock full.

I finally got with the modern age....welcome to facebook

I finally caved and set up a facebook page. Hopefully this will be easier for some of you to keep a track of whats going on and whats up for sale each week at the markets.
You can find it here...https://www.facebook.com/apieceofcloth if you want to 'like' me?
I hope its working, all this new fangledy stuff, really not my bag!

Going Direct in Vietnam

One of the things I have been really trying to do with my textile sourcing is to deal directly with the makers and the small businesses and individuals who work with textiles, or to get on a plane and go there and go find it. I only have 2 pages left in my passport and 23 countries later I am slowly ticking off my list of the textiles I want to have in my collection and to have available for sale. From French block prints from the Art Deco period to African wax fabrics. Admittedly I love American cotton prints and quilts and love travelling there finding them, but I have always had a soft spot for ethnic textiles too.

7 years ago after my first trip to Vietnam I fell in love with the textiles of Vietnams ethnic minority groups. The Hmong people. Black, Red and Flower H'mong especially. So when my partner had the opportunity to head to Hanoi to go work with the social enterprise KOTO - Know One, Teach One as a guest chef for a fundraising dinner, I jumped at the chance to spend time in Vietnam on my way to India.

We headed up into the hills near the Vietnam/China border with the hillsides covered in indigo plants and rice fields and with the help of a local guide headed to the villages to find weavers and dyers of these beautiful textiles. Hand woven hemp, Indigo resist dyed and hand embroidered. Even though I couldn't speak the language, we managed to muddle our way through me heading back home with a suitcase full.

Trying to work it all out

Working at the loom

The village is over there....

Canapes for the Fund Raising dinner