flea market finds

For Flea Market Finds this week I have some nice found objects.

 This smock dress is pure silk and fits me perfectly.

Look for me in this at the next Mulgrave Makers Market.

I do not know at what stage I suddenly turned into a pink lover....in my defense it has a leafy treelike print with birds and had me at hello.

These were in the very same case almost right next to each other at my local-fast-becoming-my-favourite-op-shop and screamed Eleesa. So I had to get these as a thankyou for all her support and encouragement with my recent foray into markets. I wouldnt have made it without her guidance as im a bit of a dufus when it comes to organising myself and getting 'out there'.

These buckles will go onto something I made for my son and a jacket and perhaps a handbag, plus the buttons will be perfect on some of my Little Tree Kids range.

I love having a supply of vintagey, weird and wonderful postcards for handwritten notes and there are too many for me to get through in one sitting at my local secondhand bookstore. Im even tempted to buy the ones that have already been written on. Especially shaky granny handwriting.

For those of you still unaware of how large these babies are, (and what one of you will win tomorrow),

scroll down...

Funny but MrTL just adored this mexican one and had to have it for his quilting. 

This one has also been snapped up by a dear friend who loved it.

Unbeknownst to me shes been struggling pin-cushionless for days/months/years!

It has vintage barkcloth sides and a pure linen base.

Good luck everyone with the draw ill be posting tonight at midnight!

P.S.  I have been asked if I could list these in my etsy store and will place some in there very soon for those who cant make it to the market and would like one. I will post worldwide, obviously.

saturday

I got up early as I really need to do some housework.

This is what happens when I sew for the day. Yep, I know that was Thursday.

Well it looks like I kept sewing Friday all day too, okay!

Maybe I should start with the bedroom.

I still havent got control of the market chaos in the studio since last weekend.

My sixteen year old has been re-building his skateboard on his bed.

Ive been ignoring the dishes all day.

This stuff belongs somewhere else

But ive just finished these right then, yay 

while making five teenagers banana pancakes and blogging about my morning!

Happy Saturday y'all!



op shop props

This morning MrTL and I went op-shopping together. Yes. You read right.

Thats Op-Shopping with a capital 'OH! Are you sure?'

Ahem. Thinks are definitely looking up around Textured Leaf Central.

To start us off today we have this gorgeous coat I found. I mean blanket. I mean coat.

This $5 blanket above will become a coat for me in this style.

We were supposed to be shopping for props for my market stall. I found this for $7 and

will do something with it so it looks more 'me'. I thinking aqua or red. Any thoughts?  My son wants it for a bedside table.

I was dropping off a teenager late the other night and parked next to a stack of firewood. So after looking sideways at the stack decided they looked like they came from a nice 'little tree'.

Of course I brought the rest home for old fashioned firewood.

Perfect for weighing down tablecloths at the market and great with little things perched on top.

Theyll send the look towards the scandinavian which I adore. While im writing this theres a funny crow outside making me crack up. I find the sound of crows in the early morning starts me giggling when im half asleep.

These were just waiting for me. The book in the background will be a great nursery bunting.

This quilt will come in handy for the new grandbaby. Its a Lazybones and was only $4!

The pillowcases are a lovely thick soft cotton linen. Wow I never find these, the feel of them makes me think of my nanna.

The best thing about having someone over to sew with you for the day is finding their scraps in your bin the next morning. Naughty Eleesa for throwing these away. I dont know what she was thinking, she normally uses every last little bit like me. But im guessing she was probably tired after all that sewing so ill give her the benefit of the doubt. These are going into my stash!

For any new people who have joined The Textured Leaf, please make sure you enter
my Pin-cushion Giveaway.

Have a lovely weekend!

P.S.  for those of you still around Kate has done a post with 4 favourite photos and I may just be joining in  posting my Favourite Four later this evening. For now im off to the bank to post a cheque ive been neglecting all week.  Come on Rustico!

happy hour

Animated gif maker

My Happy Hour for the week was going to be about the market until.....
Yesterday when Eleesa came over and we sewed all day together.
There was no competing with that! And of course I just had to turn her into an animation. So because today is Animation Friday over at My Poppet you get to see her in action. (This was the action I spoke of yesterday) Enjoy!

my creative space

If you plan to sew some clothes for you coming up to summer theres a challenge happening over at Hazelnut. Im in!

I had company in my creative space today.

  

You have to visit here tomorrow to see all the action.

Intrigued?

 I sent this off recently to Julie from Narioka as she won my cushion cover giveaway.

Today I was working on some new samples for kids bedrooms for the Little Tree Kids label.

Theyll be featuring at the next Mulgrave Makers Market.

Here for more creative people.

ive been holding out on you

Ive been holding out on you guys. These images were hidden in my private horde until I was ready to share. You must know by now how I feel about images. They can be held close to my heart, they evoke something in me I cant put into words. 

Some of these things are in my possession.

Some of them are not.

Some of them soon will be.

Some of them will take some time to build and plant and they are the places of dreams.

Some of them are full of meaning when thought upon.

(my favourite word this week...upon)

Some of them are reminders of my childhood.

Some will soon adorn my walls.

Images are taken from all over the place.

If they are yours please let me know so I can give you credit.

Im sorry for not cataloguing them in advance.

P.S.   I had to go look up the spelling of 'cataloguing'.

 Did you know 'carroty' was a word?

Before you look it up comment what you think it means for fun.

Sorry if you think this is weird.

I love discovering new words, dont you?

Im joining the Clothes For Me challenge over at Hazelnut for November.

my amazing day

                         I had the most surprisingly inspiring day today and it all came about
                               because MrTL lost his phone while riding to work sunday.

We were forced to spend the day on High Street, Armadale having lunch, perusing shops, browsing through galleries, getting inspired in general (we have big decisions to make at the moment) while waiting to meet the guy who found said phone. People are just plain nice sometimes, arent they?

What you dont know is that we had been trying to get around to doing this very thing for months now.

                                          So when I say forced, I really mean excited.

There were so many highlights today so dont know quite where to start. Lunch felt as if wed been transported to France again (the mr commented on this) as we ate on the sidewalk.

The ladies next to me were old friends catching up and I couldnt help overhearing their odd conversation about kids and life and Paris importing things from other countries and business and husbands, etc. Hearing this made me realise that I needed to arrange a time with my girlfriends and organise for us all to converge on High Street ourselves to enjoy the delights of whatever this street has to offer. Before lunch was over id messaged half of them and would call the rest when I got home, (yes im home now and ive tried ringing you). When you read this its up to you to call me as, like I said, ive already tried.

Where was I....So we were on the hunt for certain things to feed both our creative souls. You dont know our shopping history but, and im probably going to say this once only, but

WE DONT SHOP WELL TOGETHER.

Five minutes in and were arguing. It gets ugly. Its probably from some unidentifiable slight on both sides from way back and our expectations are too high/unrealistic. So in admitting this the setting must be as relaxed as possible with a twin purpose instead of us each having a separate goal.

I hope im making sense. I most likely am to those who have 'been there'.

I expect you to leave me a sympathetic comment. Thanks in advance.

I ended up chatting away to him, and he to me of our dreams for this and that and it was nice and even a bit romantic to find we could be on the same page if we relaxed a bit. Were both way too passionate and tend to compete. The market preparations of the weekend have really truly had an astounding effect on our relationship. I keep telling him how grateful I am for his support.

In the end I saw him off at the train station as he had to go to work. Then I promptly took myself into the first shop and started doing market research. I asked for a certain size clothing that I was pretty sure they dont have and I was right. Guess what size ill be making more of for Little Tree Kids?

The very next shop I went into was so 'me' that I felt right at home and hung out there for a while to get the feel of the place. The lady at the counter was so earthy and approachable that I jumped in and asked if shed be interested in seeing my quilts. I was completely honest, I used the words random, textured,

imperfect, whatever I feel like sewing on the day.

You get the idea.

She said yes!

Im just a little bit excited.

Thanks for listening to me babble on about my day.

quilt tutorial: part three

Were starting another row just like we did last time but im going to show you a variation on our now recurring theme. A different approach to this next strip, if you will.

P.S. If youve come to find the first instalment of the tutorial click the title of this post and follow back.

If anyone knows how to explain to me how to link them for the sidebar button,

youre welcome to enlighten me. Ive tried and have no clue.

step 1.   Place the strip down and cut out the base the same width, just as you did before.

 

 step 2.    Were still using the weird little pieces we had from before that we had stitched together to make a couple of rows. If you dont have any left then simply cut a couple of strips in a smaller, thinner strip to use here for this next big strip. Or just quickly run up a couple of fresh pieces. You want it random remember. Anything in the colour choice you made will be good. Go for it. Whatever takes your fancy today. Youll know immediately if its right. You want it to hit you. Dont overthink things at this stage.

step 3.     Here, as you can see, ive shortened the base fabric by half so that our first patched square is ending up sitting in the middle of the quilt instead of at the end like the previous ones. So slice your base fabric in half.

step 4.     Add the half you just cut off to the other side of your patched square like here and then sort out your random strip (or the one you just made).

step 5.     Stitch on whatever it is that your holding in your hot little hands and step back to see how its looking. Its very important for you to see where your eye leads you here. There will probably be something that annoys you and you need to fix it now.

step 6.    To my eyes there was too big an expanse of my base fabric

so im going to cut a split in it and add something.

Im choosing to add one of my big squares and then ill check the length of the new finished strip against the existing ones. They need to stay roughly the same length.

Stitch on and trim when youre happy with what youve chosen to add.

Here you can see the overall effect of how we went back and altered the

 previous strip to accomodate the new one.

This is the variation I was telling you about in the first step.

I think were about the halfway point here.  Congratulations!

Always love getting to halfway dont you?

shop update

Here are some dresses I made for size 6-10 for todays market.

This one has a gorgeous cross-stitched goldfish.

Ill be updating the shop this week with these and quite a few pairs of pants, (way too many for my liking,  im so sick of sewing elastic in). This one is my favourite because of the mexican feel to it.

A bit of broderie anglaise which ive been meaning to offer for a while and finally got around to sewing something from.

I like the use of mens shirting fabric here. Its so soft and airy,

not to mention the found bluebird embroidery.

I have a skirt in this fabric as deep indigo linen is one of my favourite things on this planet.

The chicken scratch tops were finished just in time.

If this cloth had been bigger it would have ended up being a top for me!

Keep an eye on the shop this week as I hope to be updating it everyday.

I had the nicest market day today. Great conversation from the talented Cintia of My Poppet to my right (I couldnt resist buying her wares), the effervescent Danielle of Curiouser to my left and my eye-candy of the day, gorgeous Eleesa of DorothyBills across the way.

Thanks ladies!