The Last Market

It looks like skies are finally clearing as I am getting ready for the Young Designers Market today at Southbank in Brisbane. If you are in the neighbourhood, please come by and say hello. The Thea & Sami fashion clearance continues with the last of the Brisbane Skirts - nothing over $50! I have lots of fabric and scrap packs and lovely homewares for Mother's Day gifts or for yourselves.

I have decided that this will be the last market that I will be doing. I am seriously exhausted and need to start getting products ready for the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show. It's quickly sneaking up on us. Hope to see you today!

Colours of the Show

I love textiles and I love colour! Here are a couple of the Psycho Toys created by Luisa di Santi on display at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show. You have to see them in person to really appreciate their beauty.



Oh, how I wish I could crochet!


I also love these beautiful quilts cleverly displayed on the all-Australian hoist clothes line.



Sunday is your last chance to see it all. See you at the Stitches and Craft Show!

All in the Family

Saturday at the Stitches and Craft Show saw some family participation. Voyt Reich, my other half, quickly learnt the difference between linen and hemp to man the Thea & Sami stand while I showed a full house how to screen-print their own fabric designs.



I was delighted to see my young nieces visiting the show and having loads of fun in the Reconstruction Zone. 9 year old Eleni Samios spent hours in there and chose her own fabrics to sew this wrap skirt herself and demonstrated how to wear it to best show the coordinating floral panel. She also hand-made a small cushion with buttons. Eleni now thinks Brother sewing machines are the best and that the day was the most fun craft day of her life!



Younger sister Alexandra glued fabric patches and buttons on to her skirt (not quite finished here) created with help from the bigger girls in the Reconstruction Zone. Green is her favourite colour and she too managed to coordinate her outfit with success. Our crafting future looks bright, don't you think?



And this is Judy modeling our Fabulous Wrap Dress. The fabric is our Marguerite design, hand-printed on organic linen. She is an antique beauty from circa 1930s. When I told a group of school girls this on Friday, one looked at me and asked if I had been around since the 1930s? Geez! Do I look that old or is basic arithmetic just not being taught in school these days.

Sunday is the last day at the craft show. If you are in Brisbane, please come along and support independent design!

Indie Craft Designers

Big weekend ahead at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show so I thought I would introduce you to a couple of the neighbours.


 
How cool is the Scooter Girl display complete with side mirror at Ruby 2 Go Go? Perfect for showing off the Little Scooter Girl resin jewellery range.  This is the talented Ruby 2 Go Go aka Helen Berthold who amazingly also has a full-time job as a flight attendant.



There is no shortage of colour in the Queensland designers' stands. Made by Miffy has saucy aprons and patterns plus adorable little girls' dresses.



The lovely chest of drawers was temporarily borrowed from designer Louise Stuart's daughter's room. For a tutorial on how it was made, visit here.



See you on the weekend at the Craft Show.

Peacocks for Thea

I really needed a new day bag (who doesn't) and the lovely Alyssa of Lyssy May rushed this great denim messenger bag to me in time for the Stitches and Craft Show.  For this bag, the design has been hand-printed on the reverse side of the denim for the contrasting flap and the internal pocket.

I will be showing it off my new bag at Stand 156 as I am proud to have collaborated on this project with Lyssy May by designing and screen-printing the fabric; exclusively available only in the form of envy-worthy Lyssy May bags. See the new winter collection here.

Please note: that my bag was custom-made to be a little wider than the one available on the Lyssy May shopping site. You too can have bags customised. Try and do that through your local department store.  Contact Lyssy May.

Craft Kits

The Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show opens tomorrow - or should I say today! After weeks of preparations (and I'm still going) I think I am more or less ready. Unfortunately, I have forgotten a couple of things so will need to drive to my studio in the morning before the show but fortunately, the Brisbane show opens an hour later than the previous show at 10.00 am daily.

My mobile phone charger has also gone missing so if anybody has tried to call me today, you will know why I haven't responded. I will have to try and buy another one in the morning. Don't you just hate how every phone needs a different type of charger? I do.

Back to the show, on offer at the Thea & Sami stand are hand-printed fabrics and lovely tea-towels for Mother's Day gifts. New products include the "Loads of Fishes" craft packs and the "Mushrooms" hemp/organic cotton canvas fabric pack which also includes instructions to make the tote bag.

I had the pack covers and instructions professionally photo-copied and I love how well they turned out. In my rush, it was inevitable that something would be forgotten as I was still finishing off the file for the mushrooms pack this morning. I have omitted the finished size of the bag - it is 32 x 42 cm. The fabric is a generous 100 cm x 46 cm so can be used for other projects too.



The Mushrooms pack will be available in 2 colours - red on natural or brown on latte, see earlier post. The new finished size is longer than our previous sample. Don't worry if you can't sew as we will have some ready-made too. I will be listing these products on our website next week after the show. Otherwise, you can email me to enquire.

I have picked up the Show programme today and I can tell you that one day at the show will not be enough! There is entertainment galore including on-stage interviews with some of the exhibitors including Kelley and Kate of Peppermint Mag, the lovely girls from Ink & Spindle and yours truly. My interview is about the business and there is one scheduled for Wednesday at 2.00 pm and another on Sunday at 1.15 pm. I better look at those interview questions now.



Are you coming to the Stitches and Craft Show?

My New Toy

I never knew I would be so excited about an EFTPOS terminal but I am. This was delivered to our studio today and I had fun playing with it. Put immediately to work, two telelphone bookings were taken today for screen-printing workshops. I didn't even have the chance to post the new dates but the 23rd May class is now fully booked. Two alternate dates are now on the website for May.

So don't fret about running out of cash at the Show or lining up at the ATM, come and buy hand-printed fabrics and goodies at the Thea & Sami Stand (156). We will take your debit or credit cards with glee :)

And you've got to love the Blogging creative community. Kisses and a BIG thank you go to the lovely Shannon of My Girl who has volunteered to help at our stand next Friday and to model at the Lady Beetle Breakfast.

Something Fishy Going On

I love fish! I designed and screen-printed "Loads of Fishes" for the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show and Emily our resident sewing guru came up with ideas of what to do with these guys.


The linen/cotton blend is ideal for whipping up a pencil case.



How much fun are these stuffed fish? Available in 3 colourways, each craft panel will include Emily's easy-to-follow sewing instructions for making up your own.  We have hung ours up but you could also display them in a basket.
 


I'm thinking that you can even use our craft panel as a cushion front. Road-testing these at the Show will determine their future so come and save the salmon and gold fish at the Thea & Sami Stand 156!

Craft Labs

This is one of the vintage armchairs that I scored off ebay for $20 and keep at our Capalaba studio. Why is it here you ask? I have yearned for the longest time to cover it in one of our lovely hand-printed fabrics and was hoping to learn upholstery at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show. Realistically, I probably won't have the time but you lucky visitors should take advantage of all the amazing opportunities to learn new skills such as crochet, knitting, beading and fabric dyeing to name a few.



Some workshops incur a small fee for materials but there are free demos on offer too. I will be conducting daily demonstrations on how to screen-print your own 2-colour designs on fabric for personalised projects. Simply turn at the Learning Centre at least 5 minutes prior to each session. The times are as follows:

Studio 1 -Wednesday 1.00pm
Studio 1 -Thursday 12.30pm
Studio 1 -Friday 12.30pm
Studio 1 -Saturday 2.30pm
Studio 1 -Sunday 12.00pm



And so that you can go home and get printing, we will have small screens and squeegies available for purchase at our stand 156. If you look closely at the photo you will notice some printed fish fabric in the background but that is a story for another day so stay tuned.

Visit the Craft Labs and Studio page for the full programme at the Learning Centre.

Sewing Mamas = Cool Kids

Fresh Pets and Bones all printed today on organic cotton jersey. This soft fabric is fabulous for sewing your own cool kids' t-shirts, sleepwear or little dresses. What do you think about the coordinating white on black and black on eco-white? The eco-white jersey is hydrogen-bleached which is a much kinder treatment for the environment than chlorine bleaches. We may also print this design on our organic cotton/spandex jersey which would be ideal for leggings.

Also printed with purple ink on the green organic cotton jersey. The inks we use are from the Permaset Aqua range and are water-based and solvent-free. These fabrics will be listed soon on the Thea & Sami on-line store.



Any feedback is appreciated and these new designs will be making their debut next week at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show.

Our Cutest Fabric Ever

Today was an exciting day because we had new screens to play with. My goal was to have new fabrics for the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show and am happy to show off our new kids' design "Pets and Bones". The design is a collaboration between graphic designer Liz Christiansen and myself. Liz drew the adorable cat and dog motifs and I tossed them into a pattern that may be used in any direction.



We printed these on coloured cotton fabrics that I have had in my studio for a while so they are limited-edition runs just for the show. I have to point out that the ink colours are not showing correctly in these photos. The blue fabric has a chocolate print and the lime one has a striking purple print.

We will also be printing the designs on our organic fabrics, including soft jerseys, for sale at the show and through our on-line store once time permits. We are working around the clock to get ready for the show so please keep checking our blog for updates.



The best thing about teaching screen-printing workshops is that I get to meet wonderful, creative Brisbanites. This is the lovely, talented Liz, who I met last year when she brought her husband, sister and niece along to screen-print one Saturday afternoon. You may also remember my post about her son, cutie-patootie Rocco.



If you would like any design or illustration work done, please email Liz Christiansen at liz[at]neonelastic[dot]com

Feed the Piggy

Pssst!  Want to save money at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show but not miss out on buying yummy hand-printed fabrics and other goodies?  Then you must check out the Creative Savers Vouchers.

Print and download the Thea & Sami voucher to save 15% off any show purchase. Voucher can also be used for booking a day-long screen-printing workshop at our Capalaba studio.  Are you excited?!?

Voucher is valid until Mother's Day and for those who live too far away to make it to Brisbane, you use the voucher to purchase from our on-line store.  

Mushrooms Canvas Bag to Sew

The Brisbane Stitches & Craft Show is less than 3 weeks away and I can't believe how quickly the time is flying. Based on feedback received from the Melbourne show, we have been thinking of products that you crafty goddesses would like.



We have printed our Mushrooms print on an environmentally friendly hemp/organic cotton canvas (pesticide-free) and Emily, our in-house pattern maker, has come up with a simple tote bag project that anybody can recreate.

The kit will include simple-to-follow instructions with photos. The bag is modelled here by Emily. For those of you who have followed my blog, I can't believe it either as she is usually an elusive creature when it comes to being in front of the camera.

You will be able to meet Emily at our stand 156 in the Incubator Section on the Wednesday and Thursday.



I will be washing the bag this weekend to see how it fares and if it requires pre-shrinking. We will also be selling this fabric by the metre and will be listing it on our on-line store in the near future.

Keep checking or follow our blog as we have lots happening and are printing a new children's' fabric next week. That print will be offered in a baby-soft hemp/organic muslin & organic cotton jersey.

Sand Art

Looking through my computer files, I found these images that I had forgotten to post from the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show. This is an incredible sand sculpture that was obviously planned to take the entire 5 days of the show to complete. We had a perfect view from our stand and we could not even begin to guess what the finished creation would be until the very last day.

How many of us could bear to create something so beautiful and with such painstaking care knowing that at the end it will be totally destroyed?

Check out the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show website for fun and exciting things to learn. I will be demonstrating how to screen-print your own fabric designs for small personalised projects. This will be free in one of the studios, more details to follow.



If you are visiting the show, please come along to Stand 156 and say hello! As well as our beautiful hand-printed fabrics, we will be selling small screens and squeegies.

K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple Sweetie; the best designs are often the most effective when screen printing by hand. Susie Raz printed this vase with flowers on a hemp tea-towel as well as printing another design in 2 colours in this lovely fabric border (below). A simple design on a small screen can be used in endless ways and printed in several directions and colours to get a different look each time.



Gitta Siemund-Edwards gets the award for coming the greatest distance for our workshop. She is visiting Brisbane from Germany where she teaches craft. Of course, she didn't come all the way just for our class but I like to believe that we have inspired her a little. Gitta overprinted on an Ikea cushion to make it unique. That's Susie Raz in the background... I apologise Susie for not getting a better photo of you.



The simple lines (below) by Gitta are also quite effective. All of these type of designs are easy for anyone to do. If you are visiting the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show, I will be demonstrating how to easily screen-print at home.