Saffrons Blog

I have put together a manifestation board and I was wondering why I did not do this ages ago, as it is so much fun, all the cutting, sticking and glueing. Although not a new concept to me I never actually got to around to glueing those precious wishes into a scrap book. I made time when we got back from our Europe trip as I had 1200 photos to leaf through. I put my favorite ones on the board for a repeat experience.

My mediation teacher Bec is going overseas for the rest of the year, so no classes which means my weekly bonding with my friends is also over. Somewhat in a tis I thought "be pro active" and I added a wish to my daily acts of manifesting-"new friends with children Sequoia's age", which manifested itself very fast.
Last Monday when I picked up Sequoia from pre-school I was so pleased to be invited for an afternoon play date. Now this is the first time this year, at the end of term three I might add, where we are going on a play date after school. So glad no wine came out as I would have stayed way into the night.  We all had a ball. Then on Friday I was invited on another and yesterday we were invited to play with the guinea pigs visiting a new house for the third time in a week. This time wine did come out!

I have written a manifestation for every aspect of my life, I recognized that there are quite a few beliefs to be broken before I become as skilled as Sequoia who has no beliefs to break.

Some wishes seem to manifest fast and others slowly. Sometimes it feels like its immediate. Any how it keeps me thinking and dreaming about the life I wish to create. How I want to be as a person.

Another cool thing happened in the last week. As I was looking at where we are selling our fabrics to around the world and I noticed there was no shops in Alice Springs, in fact in the Northern Territory.  So I put that out there and in the morning we had an inquiry from Alice. It was very cool. Baby steps indeed. I think though for me I just need to trust and allow, smile and feel happy.


» Permalink.

Post has no comments.

» Permalink.

Flaxen hair blowing in the breeze
It is time for the geese to head south
I have come with my mustard seed
I cannot accept that she will be taken from me
Tory  Amos

The lyrics of Tory Amos were in my mind as I drew these designs. She started me thinking about geese which followed with a magic image of a huge big golden goose which flew in at the tale end of a meditation.

It took me 4 years to find an illustrated collection of Grimm's fairy tales with illustrations as good as the book I grew up with. Now newly acquired it sits by my bed. I am in paradise reading those tales after so many years. The golden goose must have been read into my child hood memory, thought it is a whisper of a memory. 

The circle is an ever present element in my designs. Something to do with being Celtic? I certainly love to use it, draw it stitch it cut it. The circle is a wonderful element to play with.

I also like stripes a lot.. I do use them frequently in my sewing. So I want to play with uneven stripes, irregular in width and length. We will see what  do with them.

I have dropped these designs off to Leapfrog to make up into screens. I am going to mix paint and print them myslef. Yippee I will get super messy. I am planning on using green-those lovely soft shade of greens you might find in new shoots. I am thinking of lovely linen or hemp as my base cloth.

» Permalink.

It was fun to quilt, I stitched the owl nesting panel with pearl cotton thread in red and orange and creme changing each time I threaded my needle. I stitched in an line which reminded me of undulating rivers, keeping with the natural  feeling I am trying to emulate. If you like this line simply draw a line in chalk and follow the chalk lines. For the rest on the quilt I stitched it in the ditch, then followed the blocks in a echo stitching.

I backed the quilt with the Trees Mignon, so that the quilt is reversible. I thought the Trees Mignon worked best to back this one.




» Permalink.

My neighbor is burning off and as the pale smoke floats past my window I am dreaming we are living on a mountain in mist. Such is my imagination today. Wistful and delicate. Did not help that Anne of Green Gables was shown on Saturday night and I am Anne all over again. Luckily I did find my Gilbert.

I have images of last night’s Bangarra dance troupe performance to keep my thinking conceptual. Their fluid bodies in wonderful costumes and amazing music often had me on the edge of my seat. I feel as though I could fly as they did.

In one dance the dancers were painted—one black one white—and as they intertwined in gestures and movements the paint came off all over each other, smearing their costumes, legs and arms, their symmetry was poetic. I thought about the colour of skin and how little it should mean, as it is what is in our hearts our souls, one day we might all be able to see them clearly?

I am sketching nature. Drawing from my own little world again. This Australia I love. The ancient Bottlebrushes and Banksias sparked an idea. They are each so varied and different. I am aiming to make up a few new screens. Though they move around the page like a Bangarra dancer. Touching. They don’t want to be still just yet.

» Permalink.

Post has no comments.

» Permalink.

For this year's fund raiser for my Kindi. I put my hand up to make a couple of canvasses. I asked their teacher Kelly to ask the little ones, ages 4 and 5 to draw monsters, flowers, and fish. I cut out the drawings, added some funky paper and made up these collages.
I am also doing the face painting and Patrick the BBQ. It was so much fun and I have shards of paper everywhere. So much fun in fact that I made four of them.

Which one's your favourite?


Monsters


Fish


Flowers


Rainbow
» Permalink.

These wonderful fabrics are being played with by more and more people. As people see and buy them and then cut them up they are emailing me pics of their projects. It's been nearly three months since we started to sell them. Three months of selling yardage prints for me and I am still loving designing, sewing them and cutting them up.

This is one email I received over the weekend showing me how much fun she has been having with the field range. The squiggly flower and the parrots combined with the dandelions in pink and yellow are really happy. I love how the dandelion circles are creating another dimension and add a different colour to the palette cooling it.





It's those hexagons in hexagons, it's makes me think of Spring and fun. What a fun piecing project and no paper required. Such neat sewing. Oh la la! I am not sure how big it will get?

I thought as a special I would sell the fields bundle for a 10% discount just pop in the word play into the discount box to receive your discount.


» Permalink.

I was so glad to receive the new strike-offs this week. Small pieces of fabric with my designs printed on them. I can say that it feels great- lovely and soft and the colours are really warm and inviting. This design was reworked countless times before I felt it was finished. Which sort of went, ”don’t let me touch it any more, here Jim take it!”

The much-loved owl softie received so many e-mails asking for it after we ran out, so it seemed she asked to be reprinted.

I thought about the Owl design a lot. I wanted to update her, to personalize her. I thought about colours in particular. I wanted a brown owl. I was crazy about blue and brown together and liked the results, however  it needed some punch, some funk and it happened when I added the orange. I was looking for an old world feel, you know the wise old owl adage? This owl needed to be cute and wise and unisex. I feel she became wiser when we added the argyle pattern. The argyle funnily enough is inspired by my favorite socks.

Australia’s much-loved Koala inspired me during my frequent visits to Taronga zoo. Their Koalas have had babies this year, so sweet, who would not want to cuddle one? The mother Koala never holds their joey-the young Koala crawls out of the pouch and has to do all the holding so I wanted to show this! The shape of the softie is like the silhouette of a teddy-bear, while having the feel of a cuddly toy with unisex colours and super easy construction.

These fun softie designs, having been approved are now waiting to be printed. They are in the queue and I cant wait. So we should be selling them soon.

Here is the first sample of the owl and koala–what do you think?

» Permalink.

We landed in Sydney on Saturday met by my Mum. She is the best. It was a long and relaxing flight. We found a lounge in KL, read, ate and got our feet massaged. It was lovely.

On the way through Sydney's chaotically busy arrivals I grabbed a copy of Vogue Living Australia. The owl in tree fabric is featured. Yay for us. I like the article, could happily buy most of the goodies featured there. It's on page 66 if you are like me and want to see it first rather than casually discovering it.








» Permalink.