Saffrons Blog

Special moments, today my sister gave birth to a daughter.

Tonight my daughter asked me if I could go to sleep with her. I tucked my arm beneath her head and she moved as close to me as she could. Her 5 year old brain is full of questions and I try to answer them until she let herself drift off to sleep, I felt her body relax and her breathing changed into a lovely soft rhythm. I shed a tear of joy reflecting on the day's events.

My sister had her baby girl this morning, 10 days early. I have spent all day thinking about the new life in our family. My sister’s birth was remarkable; the baby was born in her home in a birthing pool, only one midwife and her husband there to help and reassure. The baby weighs 4.5kgs, she worked hard for it. I am proud beyond words. I would have been there but my sister lives in Margaret River, a long flight and drive away.

I thought of my sister and the amazing human being she is and this is what I love about her.

1.   That she has so many friends.
2.   That she has so much energy and still finds time to bring in her neighbour’s bins.
3.   That she loves the ocean more than anything and shares that with me.
4.   That she has so much patience for everything in her life, her son and family.
5.   That she left school to become a successful professional snowboarder and surfer.
6.   That even when faced with near death she found the power and courage to survive.
7.   That she has the motivation to push others to do their best.
8.   That she knows how to laugh. It oozes from her.
9.   That she makes me cry more than anyone else in the world.
10.   That she knows no obstacles ever. Nothing will stop her (at age 8 she could carry the water buckets to feed the horses when no one else could. Except dad who was at work).

So Dear sister, big congratulations for the birth of your daughter, I am so pleased for you.



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For my daughter's pre-school fundraiser this year I painted and "collaged" a canvas for each of the 4 groups. The teachers of each group created a drawing exercise with the children who in turn created these wonderful colorful texta drawings, which filled me with much joy.

All the drawings were carefully cut out hoping to keep the childlike nature of the drawings, such as the wavy lines. I then glued them to a painted canvas based around the colours of the drawings. I also added some beautiful patterned papers from Pulp, a creative paper shop up the road. I had a ball covering my studio with bits of paper and paint.

This first canvas has a lot of lovely family orientated drawings combined with fish. The children in this class are around 3-4 years old. I love the drawing of the two yellow turtles holding hands. Such wonderful relationships in this class I feel.



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It has been a while since I left Sydney, I am a girl who loves the open spaces of the country and being on the road for a drive. So I went up the coast to meet up with fellow quilters Kate Conklin and Rebecca Johnson both of who write blogs that I love to read. They also both design quilts and successfully sell their patterns nationally and internationally. Thanks for having me girls. It was a fun show and tell. Kate’s wheels got spinning when she saw the new Bird Tree range. I am so looking forward to her ideas for this fabric range as she's done amazing things with the Fairies and the Forest Elementals.
 
As we were leaving we started to talk about having a retreat where we actually get some time to sew and maybe even make a quilt! I think a night away would be great. Coincidentally on the fat quarterly blog I read this article on how to host a retreat. Maybe we will start small and build up.
 
Other some other interesting things that have happened this week:

My first work experience request, which I had to decline, mainly because my studio is a tad tiny.
Made a few cushions with my new fabrics.
I caught a cold and developed a very sore throat.
My daughter was an angel. Only mildly covered herself in texta tattoos.
Patrick had to cook for 10 days straight, do the school run and all my work as well as his own.
Got to read a book and watch a movie in bed. Pretty much everyday.
Discovered tinned peaches do not hurt my throat.
I was fast asleep by 8pm every night. I woke up at 8am, not the usual 6.
When tree branches hit electricity wires from strong winds they spark  in the dark night sky and fly so very far.



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Thanks everyone for entering such lovely comments, I'm very humbled and so happy you all like the new range. The winner of the give-away of the Bird Tree fat quarter bundle is Rachel Koopmans as chosen by the random number generator.

Congrats Rachel, hope you'll send us a picture with the finished project.



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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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