Saffrons Blog

My new Bird Trees range is here. Yippee! I sketched  the original design last year in a moment of inspiration and it grew into this range. So I am really happy that they are finally printed and ready to inspire. I wrote a blog on this a while ago, you can read it here.


The new range consists of five new designs, one of which will be available in a few weeks.

Bird Tree: The feature design of the range. This was the original inspiration for the range, small pale green birds sitting on tree branches drawn with minimalist black lines. The birds look like they might be the leaves on the trees.The background is a lovely magenta sky filled with flying birds and white and pale green flowers caught on the breeze.
For many who have pre-ordered these fabrics wholesale commented this is a memorable design for its naivety and fun.


Little Birds: A sweet design of tiny birds floating around flower bubbles giving a sense of freedom. For this I chose purple, yellow, magenta and pink. I am going to a make myself a dress from this one for sure.



Bird Spot: A fun childish all-over design. The motive is a tiny bird resting on a pink bubble with a purple flower blossoming inside. It's a particular shade of green that I love called green oasis. The name says so much but to me, it is inviting, bright, fresh and very happy. To the background I added a small grey spot with some larger yellow and purple ones. This is the first time I have added spots to one of my designs. I like the use of grey so much that I added a stitch line around the bubbles. The large circles measure 6cm and are great for patchwork and applique.  
As I was ironing this to be photographed for the third time, I thought it would be a great design for a little girls rain coat. I will have to look into getting one of my fabrics laminated for the next Australasian winter.


Tree Garden: A fresh design and a new approach to fabric design for me. The design is in strips of patterns across the width of the fabric. The main strip has tiny trees on circles in a gentle shade of pink on a background that is a lighter tint of the green oasis. The other strip is a blossom patch and in between a random pattern of the bird shape in a band of magenta.
Colours include pink, magenta and black. This is a 50cm repeat, ideal for making skirts and pillows.


Coming soon: Blossom Patch. An all over design of blossoms creating a stripy patched pattern. This design is currently being reprinted as it didn't come out right the first time and we want only the best for everyone, of course. It  will be here in six weeks and I will show you a picture of the final version on fabric.

A few days ago I had a play with the fabrics and came up with a few children's clothing designs to show you how versatile this range can be. I can't wait to get stuck into making things!


Please leave a comment for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle.
The winner will be announced on August 2nd, 12pm.
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I was thrilled when I was commissioned to make a quilt for a girl using the Forest Elementals in purple. Jasmin asked for the purples and for not too much pink—a quilt for a baby girl. I had an idea when I woke up and wanted to try. So I drew a sketch and Jasmin told me to go for it. This is the end result.


I really like large stripes of fabrics. I cut up a variety of stripes from 25cm or 10 inches of the Elk Landscape to 4  inches using the other Forest Elemental fabrics and Kona cottons. The white  strips of fabric are consistently 4 inches wide. The fabric pieces were first laid out in a composition I liked and then sewn together using the bands of white in between to make the strips look like they're floating. Then I thought I should use some yellow and pink to warm and brighten it up and make it more girly. I just love pink, so I sneaked some in.

Next I bravely cut the strips that make up the quilt top in half. I gave myself one second to change my mind in which I took a picture but I wanted it in two halves, so slash, make no mistakes!

Then I flipped one piece to make the quilt more interesting, which also means the quilt has no up or down side.
I trimmed the two sides and then sewed the white bands to the inside and the outsides.


This is the quilt top before I quilted it. It was a  big quilt to baste. Seriously got my arms aching. I wanted the quilt to feel soft and welcoming so I decided to lightly quilt it. I hand stitched most seams in purple variegated Egyptian cotton, which is fabulously easy to use. Then added a few wavy lines on the machine.





The Dandelion Circles are a favorite of mine to back quilts with. I also sewed two pieces of the Fairy Lovehearts  into the back and changed the direction of the Dandelion Circles to create a simple pieced back. As it is a girls quilt I had to add some love hearts ohh and some pink. Good energy and all that love, you know.

Would love to know what you think! Maybe there's a kit in this.

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The downloadable PDF pattern of my quilted child's jacket is now up for sale in the shop.
And you can win one for free if you leave us a comment on my facebook give-away post here.



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Sometimes I think it is good to let the fabric do the talking, so I made a small cot sized quilt out of one piece.
I was given a small quilt this size for my daughter when she was born. It was her first quilt and I absolutely loved it. She still uses it today as  a blanket for her toys.

To make it  I simply folded the width of the Owl Nesting in half, sandwiching some eco friendly Matilda's Own Bamboo batting inside. I merrily hand quilted the three layers together with wavy organic lines while watching the ABC. Then bound it with the Trees Mignon. Done.

It is fun to have a small project which can be accomplished in a day. It gives me that lovely satisfying feeling, knowing I have made something new. This project makes me feel all fuzzy—I have a gift for a friend who has had her third baby boy in 4 years. It say's congratulations while at the same time welcomes a new baby and it feels great to surprise someone.

I think this makes a funky bassinet quilt. Definitely good for the very cold July days in Sydney.

From experience I know this small quilt will only cover a baby for the first four, maybe five months so I added a piece of fabric as a casing at the top, which can hold a  piece of dowel for it to become a wall hanging later on.


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I thought I should share one of my projects in its progression from start to finish. This Tree quilt started with a simple idea, trees in straight lines with the fairies as the leaves. It originated from a simple drawing I did a while ago.

I started with 4 fat quarters of white fabric as the center pieces appliqued with Fairy Circles fabric for the trunk and branches and a lot of assorted paper-pieced circles from the Fantastic Fairy range. Fairies love nature and so I aimed for an organic, earthy feel and the Tree Quilt evolved from there. Each fabric piece was pinned to the background fabric and hand appliqued one fat quarter at a time.



After I finished the middle panel of the three trees I thought for a while that the quilt was complete. I intended it as a smaller wall hanging, but soon I realized that I should make into a single bed size quilt. What to do? I experimented with lots of different borders and colours but didn't get anywhere.

At that stage I was calling in everyone I knew for advice. My mum even made me take the entire quilt apart at one stage. Thank goodness she did. I had realized I would need to wait for The Forest Elemental range in aquamarine and chocolate to arrive. Back in the cupboard for a few weeks.




Once the Forest Elemental fabrics had arrived I played around with what will go where until I finally decided on putting the fabrics in a strip pieced border on the sides. I just love the Elk Landscape design so I chose to use a 20cm strip of it at the top and bottom adjoined by a big strip of the Fairy Love hearts to suit a girl's bedroom. It's got a real strawberry and chocolate feel, the earthiness of the greens and browns contrasted by the sweetness of the reds and pinks. Organic yet girly.

In the end I think the aquamarine Forest Elemental fabrics worked in very well. And I was my fiercest critic for this quilt. I don't think I have ever laboured so much over a quilt!

To finish off the quilt was long arm machine quilted all over with big love hearts. Then it took me about two weeks to decide what colour to bind it with. In the end I choose the Fairy in Flowers for its light and random feel.



I always like to make a couple of cushions to go with a quilt so I made a love heart cushion, much loved by my little girl.

Then I had to wait nearly 4 weeks for the rain to stop to take some pictures to share the making of this quilt.
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The Sydney Biennale 2010 is always an amazing time of the year for me. I love art and creativity so I could not wait to get out and see what I could find. It's also a great thing to do as a mother explain all the stuff to Sequoia who actually got nearly all of it! These are some pictures we took on Cockatoo Island.

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Meeting so many successful Australian business women over the weekend inspired me. I felt complemented and humbled by the support they showed me. I feel fueled with energy and passion to have found new shops to stock my fabrics from Newcastle through to the Blue Mountains, rural NSW all the way down to Tasmania with even a prospect for a Perth shop.

I am so pleased the new range of Bird Trees has excited all the wholesalers agreeing that these designs are going to be great for the boys. So for me all round a very enjoyable weekend.

And thanks to Kathryn and Jim, Mel and Kate.


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