{won} sandbags and pear bags

Isn't it totally one of the best feelings when you win a little competition?

When the competition is not based on luck, but is based on your artistic and design skills, it's an even better feeling.

Recently we won best sandbag in the Boutique Market's Sandbag comp. (For those of you wondering, it sometimes gets a teeny bit windy on market days, and those marquees aren't too sturdy under a flutter of wind. It's either sandbags, or you're Dorothy!).

Danielle made these sandbags, which are the most amazing sandbags I've ever seen. During our chats we came up with the idea that houses would best suit who we are, so she made these two little ones up. Each wall of the house has a different scene, complete with a bike, a birdy in the window, some laundry fluttering on the line and of course a key at the door. Not forgetting to mention the hand carved brick stamping.

At the latest ABCD get together, I made some little pear drawstring bags to put into the take home gift bag that Steph + Kim organise. I spent the day stitching on pears and special meaningful words, and my little helper filled the bags with organic lavender or rose petals. All party goers voted for their fave gift bag treat, and we were voted number 1.

We will have limited numbers of both these types of bags (sand bags or pear bags) available for sale at our markets this weekend. And perhaps some more on our Etsy shop next week, if you're lucky.

And just to pass on the winning luck - be the first person to mention our blog to us at Saturday's BrisStyle market, and we'll give you a little pear bag as a gift from us!

*bottom image used with thanks to Kim from Udessi.

chook shed retreat

This week Ellie and I were lucky enough to spend a few mornings printing at a good friend's place to make use of her big tables and the beauty and quietness of the Australian bush. Libby Woodham is the artist/creator behind Tropical Merino clothing (more about Libby soon), and she resides at a fantabulous converted chook shed on about 20 acres of bushland at Mt Cotton in Brisbane.

Instructions on how to get there - drive down dirt road about 7km...keep going until you go over the dry creek bed, chook shed is on the left...

This place is an artist's retreat, full of massive canvases, shelves full of books, a sewing area, a painting area, big tables to drink tea around and a marvelous permaculture garden...jealous much? Oui!

We also had our lovely friend Erin join us (after having to teach the Sat-Nav who's boss), and we spent blissful hours absorbed in printing...

...having a spot of tea...

...and then Danielle screams because she accidently disturbs a huntsman spider - no - I am definitely more scared of them than they are of me! My favourite moment was seeing Erin's top after a few hours of printing - we're very proud (she assures us it was old)!

Come say hello and check out what we printed (and buy handmade for Christmas) at the Bris-Style and the Southbank Young Designer Markets this coming weekend!

juicy and comfy

Yesterday I made some cushions from our new fabric. I did the printing over the weekend, and wanted to see the new designs as cushions.

My little assistant and I went into the backyard and took a few photos.

This one was taken by the little one - I quite like it.

These cushion covers will be available for sale at our Christmas markets.* We'll also have kits so you can make your own cushions (and lots of other things too). More about that as we get the last bits packaged together.

Christmas markets are:

BrisStyle Indie Designer's Market 5th December 9am - 4pm.

Southbank Young Designer's Market 6th December 10am - 4pm.

GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) Twilight Market 11th December 4pm - 9pm.

Portside Boutique Market 13th December 9am - 3pm.

*If there is a particular design /product that you like, please let us know so we can try and make sure we have it for you at one of our markets. We will try our best to make things for you, but we cannot take custom orders as this time (especially is we haven't got the fabric printed).

lavender love

We've been a tad busy at Chez Selvedge as the silly season is upon us and there are several fabulous markets in December that we're busy preparing for. Lots of 'lavender love' goes out to Kristen Doran for giving us permission to play with her softie patterns (eeek - I hope we've done her proud). Ellie and I have been blown away by how supportive our Aussie network of designers and crafters are! We really are the lucky country!

I've been sourcing some great co-ordinating fabrics for these bunnies (lovely linens) and am trying to make them all a little different. I've also placed some organic lavender in the hands and feet of these little guys so that they smell gorgeous - nice and calm-inducing for kids or a great moth/silverfish repellant for your drawers (Ellie's idea - nice one partner!)! I still have to fill them with stuffing and an extra sprinkling of lavender...but please pop by for a hold and a sniff if you're at one of the X-mas markets in December (psst - look to your right to see when and where).

{design} Flower Press

A little while ago, I was the lucky winner of these beautiful tea towels. They arrived in the post just yesterday.

Hand printed by Susie of Flower Press, they have a marvelous feel and look to them. I love the realness and rawness of something made by hand. Not some mass-produced item, but where it has been touched many times by the artisian who dreamed, designed and created it.

Susie uses gocco for some of her (paper) printing, which is something that I'm terribly intrigued by (and must do more research into.....one day soon).

Her tea towels are hand screen printed onto unbleached linen or cotton, and come in a delicious rainbow of colours.

I must say I'm not jumping in to be washing up with these ones - as I really want to keep them for those extra special times. Thank you Susie for sending me these beautiful pieces.

Head on over to the Flower Press Etsy shop for some more lovely goodness.

other Finders Keepers creatives

We were joined, this weekend past, by many many wonderful designers and artists, and crafters and potters, and jewellers and sewers and...... makers of all things. What is it, do we call these people.

What am I? an artist? a designer? a sewer or seamtress? a printer? and maker? or... well, a creative. What fits best with you?

Across from our stall were our friends Kim and Renee. We know these two talented gals from our Boutique market stalls and other gatherings.

I spent the whole weekend spying Kim's beautiful pieces. Her new necklaces, made from the finest of porcelain with crocheted strands. And the most vividly perfect pinky-sort-of-coloured bowl {like the pink inside a shell, at my grandmas house} - that I knew I should have bought as soon as my eyes spotted it - it was gone not so many moments later! Kim uses doileys to impress onto her clay work, and makes simple and stunning shapes. And soft colours. Colours that your eyes want to look at over and over again. Almost like sugared almonds.

Renee's artwork captures detail and subtleties of nature and wildlife. I particularly love her scratchboard pieces; I enjoy seeing how she perfectly captures those sweet little animals with their puffed up wings, or sleepy heads. She notices little things, and is inspired by her surroundings.

We have some of her sleeping bilbys, which the kids love.

we were found; and they kept

Finders Keepers Brisbane is over. And what fun fun fun we had.
After a busy few weeks, and late nights/early mornings, we were ready. Well, ready as we could ever be!

It was really nice to have a few quiet hours setting up our stall. Most markets are rush rush at 8am. So, Finders Keepers was a good change.

When the doors officially opened at mid-day, the quiet ended. The mad rush lasted for a few hours. Danielle behind our stall talking and packing fabric into bags. Me out front talking and making badges and mirrors. I looked up and saw lines of people; everyone happily waiting their turn to feel our beautiful fabric or make a badge or talk about our patterns.

One lady told me her husband had been pushed out of the line. He didn't have those shopping elbows poked out far enough, and was taking up space! He happily waited until he could get a look in.

We met some fantastic people, had excellent conversations and totally enjoyed ourselves. Thank you to everyone who stopped by; for our friends, blog followers, BrisStyle gals, and our new Selvedge House friends. Talking about fabric and screen printing and our new shop will never get boring, especially when there are so many other interested and excited peeps out there.

Big big big thanks must go to my sister, Sylve, who came along on Saturday to help us out. Not only did she stay until the end (a very late and quiet 9pm), she also brought the best picnic lunch snacks to keep us going the whole day. {Sylve, you really should consider starting a catering business}. We had laughs and fun, the three of us working together.

And to Erin, a new friend, who we expect to spend much time and collaboration with, once Selvedge House is open. How excellent to meet someone and straight away be able to chat about similar things, and to know they just "get you" in that way. And, also, to have someone be able to jump behind the selling table and get it right without any assistance. (I used to be a retail manager, and spent many years training and working with other people + their incompetency.)

We'll try and bring you some more market wrap-up over the next few days. So many other wonderful creatives sharing the space with us. And such a beautiful location.

Can't wait until the next FK!

*Photo of us three girls is from Mark Lobo - who was the official Finders Keepers photographer. Check his site for more great pics.

a winner

Today has been a sleepy, restful day. Catching up after the long long weekend (and the weeks of prep before hand). I'll get back to proper work tomorrow (and sorting out paperwork, too). But today was a family day. 

I'm just popping in to announce the winner of our follower draw. For those of you who follow our  other blogs  as well (Craft Laboratory and Petalplum), you've received multiple entries. {And Gina, we love blog stalkers}.

So, after counting numbers and inputing into random org (no hat pulling today), we've come up with:

# 108 is Caroline from Maika Creations.

Caroline not only follows our three blogs, she also popped in and saw us on the weekend. Thanks heaps - I love seeing blog friend faces (even though I'm generally terrible at remembering your name and working out where I know you from! Please forgive me if my memory fails...). 

Please email us with your postage details, and we'll sent a little something out to you.

We are going to be doing bi-monthly follower draws from now on, so don't be shy - be a blog stalker (the nicest sort please!).

*Pear fabric photo was taken by Mark Lobo at the Finders Keepers on the weekend. A really friendly  and very talented guy, with a great eye. We'll have more photos later (or tomorrow), with a Finders Keepers wrap-up.