Big Day Out

My design work has taken over my crafty side the past couple of days, hence the delayed post about my big Saturday out exploring homewares, furniture and fabric stores as well as the magnificent Magnolia Square.

I had my first ever visit to Patchwork on Central Park and it was like visiting a lolly shop, so many colours and patterns to choose from. We also stopped at Preview International Fashion Fabrics and had a chat to Paul who imports a beautiful range, his wools & linens are worth noting. Of course, I couldn't resist my fabric fetish and picked up few new bits for my collection, snaps below.

Magnolia Square. For anyone who hasn't been, all I can say is you must go. If you happen to visit the Melbourne market and the lady is there with her home made lime curd and mini meringues, make sure you stop by for a sample, it's a taste sensation not to be missed! I ended up with a big pile of cards as there were many talented designers and craft makers with great products to buy and inspire.

There were some surprise shops we stumbled across in our tracks and two that particularly took my fancy:
- Image Paperie, a fine paper supplier with some stunning hand made papers from around the world and the service to create hand made lamp shades from your chosen paper, at a reasonable price might I add.
- Fenton & Fenton - a vibrant and modern homewares store with a bohemian edge, ohh there where lots of things I wanted to take home.

And big thank you is in order to my dear friend Mel who so kindly chauffeured us around on our Big Day Out!

Red polka with splash of nautical

I love a little typography

Great texture

Wool with sweet detailed edging - I have some ideas for this!

Great to see a few hand made business cards at Magnolia Square 

Novice Conquers Cushion

First of all I have to say "Thankyou Melbourne for finally turning on some glorious weather", I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be a cold winter forever! This weekend has been busy and full of lots of things I love; a beautiful dinner enjoyed with my husband & friends at my fav Vietnamese restaurant Indochine, a day out with one of my besties exploring some great homewares & fabric shops and visit to a beautiful market. I will post more about my big day out later, but right now I have some very exciting news!

Yes exciting news alright, I have made my very first cushion. I know that to a seasoned sewer this is probably a very simple task, but to a novice like my self this is a serious feat. After one practise run, armed with some of my recently purchased fabric, my sewing machine and with the help of a great tutorial from Mildly Crafty (I could not have done it with out this tutorial), I have created my first ever home made cushion with a zipper. And the zipper is a big deal because until a few weeks ago I didn't even realise you had to use a special zipper foot let alone sew a cushion with a zipper. So it goes without saying that I have taken a couple of snaps to showcase my cushion masterpiece and I am one very happy and inspired sewer!