Bholu

Bholu is the inspirational company developed by Australian designer Jodie Fried.

Bholu products are designed in Australia and bought to life by traditional Gujarati women artisand from the remote desert communities of The Rann of Katchchh, Western Gujarat, India. The pieces are hand embroidered using traditional techniques. Bholu's philosophy is to create pieces we love and live with while benefiting the people they work with along the way.
The childrens range is particularly special as the designs come from young children in underprivileged slum communities. Bholu is proudly a fair trade company and part proceeds go back to the woman and their communities, along with funding education facilities for underpriviledged kids.


Currently stocked in Melbourne at Fragile, Sth Melbourne & Hub Furniture....or take a look for futher stockists here if you're in another part of the world.

Ann Wood cake toppers

How exciting! Ann Wood has just released some more of her georgous handmade wedding cake toppers. This is Sweetpea and Charles and unfortunately they have already sold... tears. But Honey and Joy, Sweethearts and Pumpkin and Sebastian are still up for grabs. Although they are a tad expensive (as thay are beautifully hand constructed) I just thought I'd share them with you, as they are a nice little lateral addition to a wedding cake.

Woolly Blanket Quilt

I finished my Woolly Blanket Quilt. The red section is made from old blankets that have been cut up into squares and sewn back together (this part was made by my mother. I found it in her sewing box after she passed away and wanted to make something beautiful with it). I finished it off with this lovely blue Woollen fabric I found at The Dancing Queen, interspersed with squares of the old blanket.
It's backed with an 70's sheet and the binding I made from scratch following Heather Bailey's Bind a Quilt tutorial. It's the very first time I've binded a quilt properly and Heather's instructions made it so easy. I've always found this a daunting task...but no longer! Thank you Heather.
It's so warm and snugly and I love it dearly. Finished just in time for the pending winter too.
If you would like to see a slideshow of Miss Woolly's other completed projects you can take a little tour here.

Socktopus.

This charming Socktopus is the creation of Clarity Miller of Blackbird Fashion. they are all made from recycled jumpers hence no two are the same. They sell on Clarity's site as well on Buy Olympia for around $US20. Which with the Australian Dollar going so well at the second (I think it's a $0.85 or so cents) you can probably afford two... And they can be friends!

Miss Woolly Bunting Instructions

New to our etsy store is the Miss Woolly Bunting Instruction Mailout. 4 pages of easy, instructions to create your very own bunting garunteed to spruce up any room..... or for those of you who can wait for the snail mail kit, you can order a PDF of the Bunting Instructions to be mailed to your inbox right here for only US$4.00
(I have no idea why the button is way down there...my html coding needs some sprucing! but don't let that put you off. I'll work on it, I promise).

Amy Butler Sale at Repro Depot

Super News this morning, Repro Depot are having a 20% off sale on all Amy Butler fabrics till the 28th of April. This and all the great craft books are one sale too! This includes my current favourites 'Denyse Schmidt Quilts' and Lotta Jansdotter's 'Simple Sewing.' Hooray!

Berroco Lucca Bag

This is the Lucca bag by Berrocco and you can find the free pattern here. It is knitted in Berroco Ultra Alpaca and you can choose out of 4 colourways. The pattern is suggested for Intermediate level knitters however they have a score of free patterns for the beginner here.
Take a look at this damn cute grow suit available in their current booklet!

Paint by numbers

I found this while nosing around other peoples apartments on Apartment Therapy. Do you remeber colouring in like this as a kid? Matching the numbers to the colours. Well, you can check out the finished result here.
I like the idea but maybe somthing more like this would suit. The pattern is from a vintage pattern book . Mmmm, all I need is an image, some graph paper, a colour chart and I'm on my way.

Handmade Nation

Look what I found! Handmade Nation -The Rise of DIY Art, Craft & Design is a documentary I've just found out about via Oh Joy. Faythe Levine is a documentary film maker who travelled all over the US and interviewed over 50 crafters for this great film due out early next year. You can find out more info here. Or head to the official site here. Or stay here and be really excited with me! But take a sneak peek here.

Make me mobile

These mobiles are hand made by frazier & wing. Each one is lovingly constructed from magazines, strung on monofilament and hang from a plexiglass disc.....taking around 8 hours to make. I'd love to hang one in the lounge room.

Commgarden

Commgarden is Fern Levack and Damion Fuller former owners of the label Kitten. Born from a trip to the countryside, Commgarden is a label of embrioderd pillows, printed chairs and jewellery all inspired by the relaxed atmosphere of the garden. Can't be a bad thing.

Ding Dong..., it's not Denise.

Not only is Miss Woolly's Worm Needlepoint Kit featured in the current edition of CRAFT: (the fantastic American craft publication now available to us crafters down under in print and digital subscription).... our 'You Can Ring My Bell' x-stitch chart was blogged about in craftzine here. So don't miss out. Get your hands on a copy from our etsy store now.
We're eagerly awaiting our next copy of CRAFT. Hooray for Miss Woolly. xox

Autumn Challenge

Being a fan of the See Eunny Knit blog I stopped by to see what she was up to and can across this great pattern for mittens. They're very smart and something I'd like to try out once I finish off the two quilts (here & here)I'm working on at present.

Today on Ebay

Things I found on Ebay this morning include, 70's vintage patchwork fabric.


This great Dutch vintage fabric.


& these super cute British vintage Owl egg cups.

Tiny Pinatas.

I love these tiny pinatas form not martha. Perfect for the next dinner party.

The Laundress

The Laundress is an New york based company run by Lindsey Wieber and Gwen Whitingthey who have created a line of luxury fabric care and specialty detergents to help the chore out of laundry. They have detergents for whites, darks and baby clothes along with swimwear, wools and denim. All of these products and more are available on their website along with comprehensive laundry tips and care instructions.

Which would have been helpful the other day when I managed to felt up one of my favorite scarves. Boo hoo.

They also have Ironing water too. I love ironing water!

Dolls Quilt Craze

I have been eyeing off these little Quilts ever since Hillary at Wee Wondefuls posted about the wall of inspirational Dolls Quilts ...way back. Then to my delight yesterday, thanks to Blair at Wisecraft, I noticed that Vicki from Turkey Feathers was selling her amazing Dolls Quilts over at her etsy shop.

Phew, it really is a round about topsy turvey blog world we live in.
Now that I've found them, I just need to choose which one is for me.

(the Dolls Quilt pictured above is available now in the Turkey Feathers shop but be quick...if you don't hurry, it will soon be mine).

Magazine time!

Ready Made Magazine one of my favorite craft/do-it-yourself magazines and it's from the US. Like my other current favorite magazines Martha Stewart Living,Blueprint and Bust . So I thought I'd share the love and give you all the links to them today. Happy reading!

Dear, oh deer

Here is a little X-stitch I did over the Easter break up at Echuca.
Now I am about to start on the Miss Woolly 'You Can Ring My Bell' design. You can purchase the chart for this x-stitch from our etsy store.


(above is a section of the Miss Woolly 'You Can Ring My Bell' x-stitch chart)

Jen Maestre - Pencil Queen

Jen Maestre is a sculptor with a fascination for pencils (which I can relate to). She also makes the most lovely jewellery for sale on her Etsy store.

Now if I could just get hold of a bunch of pencils and a big sanding device...

Shoulder bag tutorial.

I found this great shoulder bag tutorial over at tiny happy. It looks to me like the perfect project for the Easter break. Let's face it... every girl can do with a new bag.
Happy Easter everyone! I hope the bunny is kind to you.
Sorry, it's quite hard to read but this is a little Easter note I left out for the Easter Bunny many, many moons ago.

ta da!

As promised, here is the lovely little Poppy wearing Miss Woolly's Easter Bonnet. Isn't she super cute!

It's totally reversible...take a look at the flip side here.

Magic Bunny, because all bunnies are magical.

Analiese's shop on Etsy sells these georgous little magic bunny pendents. So cute for Easter and only US$6.00.

cheep, cheep

It's almost Easter so I thought I'd get into the spirit of things with a few chicks. The top tea cosy is available from UK company, The Black Rabbit, who specialise in unusual knitted decorative home products and gifts. The second is by Tamar Mogendorff....I know we have featured Tamar's work before but for anyone who missed it, be sure to take a look through her gallery. It's quite incredible. I especially love the deerhead.

I'm off to make my Easter Bonnet...using a pattern previously bought from Amy over at Angry Chicken. It was part of her mailorder #2...from way back in April 2006. I've been saving it up for this moment. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Oh, also take a look at Miss Woolly's baby booties featured over at the Beautiful Shoes blog. Sweet.

Alice Stevenson

Alice Stevenson is a freelance illustrator from the UK. I absolutely love her use of colour and thought I'd share her lovely site with you to provide this weeks colour inspiration for all your craft projects.

Foldarama

foldschool is a collection of free cardboard furniture for kids and they are totally handmade by you. The downloadable patterns can be printed out with any printer. Then all you need to do is follow the instructions and assemble a stable piece of furniture.