Follow the Birdy

It's that time again! This week on Thea & Sami's "follow-your-follower", I am featuring adorable bird designs from Marelle Shop. What a delight to discover more local talent in Brisbane. Yay!



I absolutely love this hand-cut paper bird card. I am a huge fan of the colour pink but other options are available.



The little blackbird is hand-sewn, embroidered and beaded.



Beatrice is just one of the little bird magnets that will help keep you organised. Visit the Marelle etsy store to purchase any of these and other cuties.

But wait, there's more excitement! The end of the month signifies my monthly mystery giveaway to one of my followers. Using random.org, follower no. 33 was randomly selected. That's Leonie from Melbourne. I had the pleasure of meeting Leonie at the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show earlier this year. I hope you have sewn something fabulous with my fabric, Leonie!

For your chance to win or be featured on "follow the follower" you may choose to follow this blog.

Thanks But No Thanks

Last week I received an amazing 3 blog awards. I would like to acknowledge the lovely people who thought my blog worthy of such recognition because they do have great blogs that you should visit. Emma Lamb is a textile artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland.



Fellow Brisbanite Amy has a blog that focusses on craft and design, check out Grey Grid Paper. Last but not least, good-time girl (she is an flight attendant after all) Helen's great blog Ruby-2-Go-Go should be checked out.



However, while I do appreciate that you may enjoy reading my blog, I have decided to follow Little Arty Crafty Crow's lead to make my blog a tag-free one.

It seems that there are more and more blog awards being passed around with more and more rules and with the request to pass them on to even more blogs than ever before. For example, one of the awards that I have received is asking to be forwarded to 15 more! More often than not, the people you may think of passing them onto have probably already received 6 such awards and are quite busy.

So at the risk of becoming an unpopular blogger, I say enough people!! I am the person that will always delete chain-letters and never forward them. I think they are time-wasters and I don't feel comfortable passing them on. They belong in the school-yard and that was a very long time ago for me. I feel the same way about blog awards.

So you will either agree with me in which case you will be happy not to pass on any blog awards or if you don't agree, then you will be happy not to forward any blog awards to me, the grumpy recipient who won't pass them on.

Thank you for understanding (or not).

The Graduates

Good friends Kym Frame and Gaye Lincoln were also part of my lovely screen-printing class last Saturday.  See my previous posts for more images.



Now, unless you have been in one of my workshops, you are probably unaware that successful participants get awarded with a certificate proving that they have become a "Screen-Printer Extraordinaire" at the end of the class. I haven't had to fail anyone - yet. I am such an amazing teacher that I can teach just about anybody to print.



Botanical themes never fail to inspire.  Kym experimented with printing negative and positive leaf images.



And how cute is this arty bird with interior cut-outs from Gaye?



Unfortunately, I won't be teaching any more screen-printing workshops for the foreseeable future as we are busy printing our own fabrics and will be setting up our new studio space soon.

If you are really interested in doing a class later this year, please email me with your best offer :)

Russian Red

I knew that Shannon Conaty of My Girl Design was handy with a sewing machine but who knew that she would come up with such adorable screen-printed designs? I am totally impressed!  These images are part 2 from last Saturday's workshop.



A red babushka doll printed onto a Russian tea-towel.  This little fact mildly amuses me.



A pink flamingo finding shade under a palm tree.



The very photogenic Shannon Conaty, in person.



Wendy McGregor was the other lovely designer screen-printing with us on the day. Wendy makes the most amazing leather hand-bags and I apologise to her for not managing to take more pics of her work and of her.  Wendy focussed on wallpaper motifs and designs. 

You can see some more workshop images over at My Girl.  Part 3 still to follow here.

Have a look at Wendy's beautiful, hand-crafted leather creations at Wendy's Purse Palour.  Both Wendy and Shannon sell their wares along with me at Brisbane's Young Designers Market.

Studio Becomes Craft Lab

I have made the profound realisation that by blogging less, I actually do have time for designing and updating my website. But as many of you know, blogging is addictive and I don't like to neglect my little blog for too long so here come the pics from last weekend's screen-printing workshop.


 
We had a scientist in the house! Can you tell from this screen-print? Danielle Smyth is one of my lovely blog followers and I met her at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show a couple of months ago.  You can check out the Craft Laboratory blog for more images of the day.



I love Danielle's adorable bird in the cage although in reality, caged birds make me quite sad as I think birds should fly free unless they can't fly. Penguins, for example, should be able to swim free.



More printing inspirations to follow.

Fresh Fish

Our "Loads of Fishes" tea-towels are now available for purchase in our on-line store.



Hand-printed on 100% natural linen, these make a lovely gift for a friend or for yourself. Choose from red or black print.



Delivery available world-wide and free shipping with Australia. Yahoo!



Stay tuned for our new Fish Fabric coming soon on 100% organic cotton.

Fête de la Musique

I will be a groupie tomorrow as my man's band is participating in Fête de la Musique. This is the largest international live music event in the world: it is held in 350 cities on the very same day. Performances are free and held outside of traditional music venues.

The Fête is dedicated to providing a platform for all people who love making music: whether you are a professional musician who has been playing for years or an aspiring performer who is looking for a chance to try out their skills.  All musical tastes are catered for, including Country and Western, Rock, Hip Hop and even Opera.

To find out if there is a venue in your city, check here.



The band, Bagunca plays afro-cuban and bossa nova music. They are not professionals but hey, it's free!  If you are in the Brisbane Queen Street Mall, come along at 2.00 pm and say hello. The program and venue details are here.

However, this blog is really about Thea and Sami so I am letting you that the tunics are now listed in our on-line store. We are printing more colours next week to add to the collection. Look out for upcoming yummy white prints on red organic cotton.

Not Your Everyday Softies

Whilst there are many adorable hand-crafted toys, I am thrilled to have found something truly original. These quirky and distressed darlings were unearthed from my own pool of talented blog followers

As part of my "follow-your-follower" series, I introduce you to Tasmanian designer Little Black Crow and her wonderful toys (not for children) that are distressed with coffee, tea, sandpaper, feature vintage materials and are sewn on a century old Singer sewing machine.



Each toy is one-of-a-kind and I love that each character has its own life story. Mandy the elephant can be seen busking outside the ferry terminus at Circular Quay in Sydney and is quite the balloon sculptress.



Laura bunny loves to to tell stories. One day while playing with her little bunny friends she told a tremendous tale, how she was orphaned when her parents where killed by a rhinoceros while climbing the Himalayan mountains!



Paul Bear is fashioned in a classic 1920's and 30's bear pattern.

To find out the rest of these toys' incredible stories and to discover more, make sure you visit the Little Arty Crafty Crow Blog.

Do you want to be featured as a blog follower or have a chance of winning my monthly Thea & Sami mystery prize? Become a Thea & Sami follower to be automatically eligible. Do it, do it now! If you are a current follower, you're just ahead of the game.

A Woman For All Seasons

I LOVE my new organic cotton tunic and have been wearing it for 3 days! I just don't want to take it off. It is just so incredibly soft, comfortable and showing off our hand-printed fabric is just an added bonus. Fear not people, I have been changing my leggings and top.



Now you know what we have been working on lately. Our organic cotton basics have been very popular and so through encouragement from my wonderful business mentor, Jane Hopkins, Thea & Sami has developed a range of trans-seasonal jersey fashions. Jane is just one of the hand-picked business skills mentors available through the QLD Small Business Solutions programme. If you live outside Queensland then I'm sorry because you're out of luck.

Named in Jane's honour, I introduce you to our "Play Jane" tunic made from 100% organic cotton jersey which beautifully skims the body and is available either printed or not. In keeping with our sustainable philosophy, the tunic is of high quality and can be layered and worn in several different ways; with a belt, without a belt, as a summer dress or as a tunic over a top and leggings for the cooler months. Best of all, organic cotton = no pesticides and no nasty chemicals, yay!

Our coordinating "Too-busy-to-shave" leggings and "Hug-Me" 3/4 sleeved, fitted t-shirts are now available in our on-line store. The tunics are now available on-line! Click here. The leggings and t-shirt are made from 90% organic cotton and 10% spandex to retain their shape. More colours to follow shortly.



The black "Play Jane" worn with a vintage gold braided (model's own and not for sale) becomes a sexy little black dress. Bring back disco, I say! And the best thing is that these beauties are machine-washable and crush-proof. Perfect for travelling.

Plain tunics will include black, red and green. A few people have suggested that we make printed leggings so that is the very next thing that we are doing. As a small business, we are very fortunate to have found a local manufacturer that supports us and will sew small batches for us.



More red. Since you all love red, you will be happy to hear that we have received a shipment of red organic cotton jersey so this will be added to our on-line eco-fabrics too. The "Play Jane" tunic in natural white features our "Marguerite" print. Worn over the ever-versatile "Hug-Me" tee or again, as a sleeveless dress with a belt. Which version do you like?



Are you now wishing that you could screen-print your own designs? Come and learn how but be quick because I will only be teaching one more Brisbane class and that is happening this weekend. There is still a couple of spots left but first in, first served. Book on-line at Screen-Printing Workshops.
Author's note: workshop is now full!

I See Red

Am I the only one who is seeing red? I seem to be using more red ink than any other colour lately. I have become obsessed with screen-printing red designs.

What joy! After having these 2 vintage armchairs in my studio for almost two years, I have finally fulfilled my dream of having them covered with Thea & Sami fabric. Emily Tappenden did a wonderful job of cutting and sewing the covers.



You may remember the original chair from a previous post. Lovely bones but really needing a face-lift. Ha, that reminds me of that old Aussie song "Nice legs, shame about the face". Am I the only one old enough to remember that?



Don't you love before and after shots?


This is the close-up of our fretwork print on hemp/organic cotton. Is anybody else loving the red because I really want to add this to our collection of eco-interior design fabrics?

Yay! Tomorrow, I am expecting our shipment of 100% organic cotton twill and organic cotton canvas.

Scary Dollhouse

Coincidentally, after posting my last entry about dollhouses, I stumbled across these photos of an abandoned farmhouse in Saskatchewan, Canada. Canadian artist Heather Benning tranformed this scary house into a life-sized dollhouse a couple of years ago.



The back of the house has plexiglass walls to create the doll-house view. I really like Benning's choice of pastel wall colours and 60's style furniture.

This is a very cool concept but I don't think I would be brave enough to live so exposed on a cold and windy Saskatchewan night.

Of course, the house was never intended to be lived in. The art installation will be left intact until the house becomes unsafe.



Photos were found courtesy of Rusted Mustard blog and more about the doll-house story can be found here.

House and Doll

Warning! Do not take your child into this store unless you are ready to spend because resistance is futile.



The House and Doll store has been in popular Oxford Street, Bulimba (Brisbane) for 6 years and it is filled with goodies that little (and big) girls dream of. Just look at the authentic Russian babushkas!



I can't tell you how many times I have looked into the store window and admired the doll houses and miniature furniture that I only longed to have as a child but alas, never did.



Store owner Simone is introducing a range of locally crafted goods into her lovely pink store and has been approaching independent designers for this purpose. This is all thanks to the power of the blog. So keep blogging people! I was also interviewed by a craft magazine yesterday but since that won't be coming out until September, I won't say which right now. Again, this was due to the editor visiting my blog.

Back to House and Doll, I was delighted when Simone invited me to create some Thea & Sami craft packs aimed at introducing young minds and fingers to the wonderful world of sewing. I dropped off two types at the store yesterday; one is our "Stuffed Fish" for making 2 fish toys and the other is the "Something Fishy" pencil-case, an easy fold-over variety. Both packs have easy-to-follow picture instructions and include all materials.

In the interest of being as environmentally-conscious as possible we have use bio-degradable cellophane packaging, recycled boxboard and included fabric scraps to be cut for stuffing the fish. Are we eco-pioneers or what? No nasty petroleum-based polyester at Thea and Sami.



To visit and to found out more about this gorgeous store, visit House and Doll.