Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show

Hi there everyone! Hope you all had a great Easter (if you celebrate it) and are having a wonderful weekend.

My email account was hacked yesterday - I'm so sorry if you received a strange email from me. Well, stranger than usual. Hotmail was onto it fairly quickly and shut my account down - it was really hard for me to verify I was the account owner because I hadn't changed all my alternate contacts since leaving France. So learn from my mistakes here - make sure all your security details (phone number, alternate email, etc) are up to date as it makes account reactivation so much quicker.

But back to the crafting! The weekend before Easter I convinced Marg to come out again and we headed off to see the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show.

We met up at South Bank Parklands, with its gorgeous bougainvillaea arbour:

And then marched on to the Exhibition Centre (straight past the markets, no stopping, how's that for dedication):

I was still wearing a moon boot for my broken foot at this stage, so marching is probably a little over-exaggerated. However, we got there all the same.

There were 25 or so quilting/sewing related stalls (out of 100) which isn't a bad ratio.

We enjoyed looking over the exhibited items such as the Queensland Lace Guild display:

This was made by a man, baby! *said in an Austin Powers voice*

There were the Challenge Quilts which had to include this source fabric:

Lots of interesting techniques to study (but for the love of Liberty, don't you dare touch):

Once a Goddess, always a Goddess: Jeannie Henry

Plumage: Sue Byrnes

Fleeing in Fear: Lyn Barber

Egyptian Delight: Jane Rundle

We also spent some time perusing the Texstyle Exhibit, which showcased fabric based design projects created by Year 12 (graduating) high school students.

We loved this dress (for its techniques - we are both past our ra-ra skirt wearing days):

16th century Russia inspired dress with hand felted bodice and nuno felted skirt-

Brittany Thompson.

Nuno, you say? Why yes, the technique of felting loose fibres to a lightweight, gauzy fabric. And did you know it was developed in Australia?

Fabulous

After all the lovely fabric:

Textures:

Ideas:

Finally a use for all that bubble wrap

And seeing the guts of a Bernina machine:

We were very hungry and decidedly parched:

A late lunch on South Bank.

Then we wandered down to the Brisbane River:

And caught the ferry upstream:

Ye-olden-day version we saw from our modern ferry.

The Brisbane Customs House (c. 1889): it's not a French medieval town, but it'll have to do.

Dark clouds were brewing and a storm warning was issued. Marg's lovely daughter offered to drive me home, saving me a train ride. Or even a bike ride:

Great idea, although not sure if they get much use?

Lipton Ice Tea. Gee, that reminds me of something:



Oh Hugh, never stop dancing. Or taking your shirt off.

Have a great weekend, tout le monde!

P.S. I was doing nearly the exact same thing in Marseille this time last year.

French-style embroidery sampler

I showed a sneaky-peak of this embroidery a few months ago:

It's now finished and has been in its new home for quite a while:

I made it for Maaike who blogs at CreJJtion and who made this beautiful crocheted baby blanket for me when the baby was born:

Back when he was teeny tiny

I'm excited for Maaike as she has a new shop on Etsy offering crochet patterns and her gorgeous (and customisable) baby blankets. The perfect handmade gift for a new baby!

We visited Sara Louise in Le Petit Village this weekend, where I took lots of photos.

With those pics added to the ones from our Spring Trip, I have photos out the wazoo at the moment. I'm working my way through them and will have some up shortly.

There's nothing petit about the view

Hope you all had a good weekend - have a great Monday!

P.S. McSigh. Have you seen this? I feel like a French icon has been sullied. 

Kids' Carnaval

Springtime means Carnaval time! The maternelle and primaire schools in our village celebrated on Friday.

The kids get to put on costumes and enjoy a sugary, carbonated goûter (afternoon tea).

The younger maternelle students (aged 3-5) don't leave the school grounds; parents crowd into the schoolyard to watch their small parade and songs.

French mummy shoes seen at my daughter's school.

The primaire kids parade through the streets before arriving at the village square.

There was music and bags of confetti

and bright ladies on stilts.

The confetti war is still my favourite - 300 kids attacking each other and their teachers - amazing.

A little confusing if you're only 2 years old, though.

Other goings-on around the craft room:

Long strips to finish off the backing for the Flocking Chevrons quilt.

And playing around with the filigree beads and some floss.

Hope the week is being kind to you. A bientot!

Let's talk about inspiration...

Thank you for your lovely comments about the Modern Chevron Baby Quilt I posted a couple of days ago.

A few of you commented on how I found the idea for the design on a manhole cover and that got me thinking about inspiration and wondering where others found their own.

Obviously there is plenty to be found out there on blogs, flickr and Pinterest. Wallpaper is always a good one for patterns, as are rugs.

Sometimes the raw materials themselves provide the spark.

I bought these scrapbooking woodcuts and lovely wool felt/fabric fat quarter at the Marseille Craft Fair, not knowing what I would do with it. It's been sitting on my sewing table since then, where it will stay until I find some inspiration or it makes me feel so guilty that I put it away.

I also bought these charms and metal beads but I knew straight away that I would make some simple earrings with them. Just need to sit down and do it! (The little Eiffel Towers might become zipper charms.)

My favourite kind of inspiration is when something inspires me to create something else i.e. a bathroom tile layout to make a baby mat or a gay-friendly hotel bar to make a quilt.

I saw this window grill in Lambesc, it looks like a quilt block asking to be made. 

When you get an idea does it usually turn out how you planned? Better or Worse? Or maybe just different?

Do you guys get that Great Moment of Regret/Doubt that I do? It always strikes after I've cut all my fabric and before I sew it all together.  So essentially just when I need motivation the most. Way to go, muse.

It's Friday, woo hoo! Here's a cute little video from a series on one of the French kids' channels. It's stop-motion animation and just so clever. It inspires kids' creativity and helps them to eat healthier so wins all 'round! (If video below doesn't work hopefully this link to it will.)

MIAM ! 02 par Gulli

And a shout-out to the lovely Adina at Gluten Free Travelette for nominating me for a Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you!

Have a great weekend, tout le monde!

Le Fait-main en France

I love France. I love handmade. Don't even get me started on online shopping.

I thought I should share the joy so here is some France+handmade+shopping all smooshed together, courtesy of Etsy!

Isn't this just effortlessly French? 

One of the many stylish and thoroughly practical bags at Feyza's shop, ikabags. 

Coucou. Je te vois! Snowy the bunny would love to celebrate Easter at your house. 

Find Snowy and all his amigurumi friends here at Christelle's shop, à voir etc.

I love deep mysterious blues with a pop of colour... and there are three other matching prints.

Find marin fishes (and its friends) here at Aliette's shop.

Supercute Little Red Riding Hood felt brooches. Bonus: they can be used to distract children in times of crisis. BYO grandmama.  

Find them here at Patricia's shop, Memi the Rainbow

Gorgeous: a hand-painted recycled-glass bottle. This is why the world should drink more cognac. 

Find it here in Luliia's shop, Magical Space

I love me some photography and Marc Loret has plenty of prints for all you Paris-lovers out there. 

Find Entrée Place des Vosges in Marc's shop, Marco La Grenouille

Nursery art made from pages of French fairytale books? Oui et il est très mignon! 

Find the print here at Anais' shop, Galerie Anais. 

Pinterest fans, remember to click through to the item before pinning, so that your pin leads back to the source. Proper pinning is sexy.

Happy shopping, mes amis.

Come on Spring - you can do it!

Today it's windy and only 11℃ (52℉) but the weekend was glorious. Such a tease, this Provence weather.

We went for a bit of a family wander in the pine forest behind our home:

Fun to be had on the bikes:

No flowers out yet but there is still beauty in winter's leftovers:

And collections to be made:

This weekend I found myself without a quilt to work on. Flocking Chevrons is awaiting it's backing fabric and my Tangerine Tango needs basting spray (too many pivots in the quilting design to use pins and stay sane).

I ducked into Mondial Tissus to buy tangerine thread and these bias tapes and a ribbon made their way into my shopping bag. I foresee more spring skirts on the horizon for my little girl.

Seeing as I wasn't getting my craft fix I became an enabler:

Miss 6 received one of these French Knitters for her birthday the other week so I showed her the ropes. I had one of these (mine was called a Knitting Nancy) when I was 8 and I loved it. I've also made them out of a toilet roll with four matches taped to the top.



Did you get your craft on over the weekend? Or were you too busy out enjoying some sunshine? Either way, hope you had a great time.