Knock, knock

Anyone home?

We went to Open House Melbourne on Sunday. I'm so glad we got around to it!

Open House Melbourne is a weekend of open buildings. Special places, amazing places, eco spaces, places not normally open to the public.

We queued for the State Library tour of the elephant lift (for moving around that spare elephant) - a 1920s wooden panelled lift with, we were told, idiosyncracies.

We peered over the bannisters at the compass rose on the floor under what once was a Foucault's pendulum. Pendulum now lost and, as someone said, probably holding down papers on someone's desk. Beautiful staircase.

Then down into the catacombs, surprisingly bright for channels running into dirt floored wasteland for dead office chairs. Everyone's favourite garage.

And out into the rain of China Town, for a tasty Grill'd burger and a gentle stroll down to Myer for the mural hall, sixth floor ballroom and hall for streamlined 30s types to affect a bored moue at fashion parades. Meh. Darling.

Playing with the mirrors in Myer's Mural Hall. 

Finally, everyone's favourite haunted tin shed -- the portable iron houses of the 1850s still in South Melbourne on a fascinating old street.

Portable iron house, c. 1850, South Melbourne. 

A lovely day. Three very different faces of Melbourne. Hurrah.

 

View from the freeway bridge as we leave the sunny city. 

Golden

A Big beautiful bag o lemons were given to me this week, each one perfectly yellow, fat and tight with juice. Smelling like lemon oil.

I'm going to want them in summer when all the lemon trees are sleeping, so here's what I did:

Slice clean lemons and layer in a sieve, with coarse salt sprinkled between the slices.

Leave overnight, over a bowl and under a teatowel.

Pack tightly in a sterilised jar, paprika sprinkled between the layers. Cover completely with olive oil.

And in about three weeks they'll be perfectly soft and not bitter. Amazing in salads and with roasted veg.

Time to plant some zucchini!

Peter pumpkin, pesto perfect

Isn't this pumpkin the most beautiful thing you evah...?

Well, I did. 

The blackboard in our kitchen advertises the crop of the moment: a beautiful bounty of cooking pears. 

Those who suspect the food processor is new would be correct. 

It made pesto shortly after this picture was taken.

We went to the Lancefield Farmers' Market yesterday and bought this from a guy who looked like a young Aussie version of Lourdes' Dad. We said hello to the beef lady and had a chat with the nice guy from Goldfields Farmhouse cheeses. Their white cheese is yummy and a staple on our list. (I learned how to make it at a cheese-making course I took from them last May, but you know what? It's easier to buy a couple of rounds a month...)

Past the guy from Red Beard Bakery who was wielding a hammer with intent (thankfully his intent was to hammer a tent peg) and we found a new stall, the Piper St Food Co., with wild rabbit rillettes - like the sweetest loveliest textured pate you ever had. If you see them at a market, try it.

We had all-important chatting moments, bought sheafs of summer basil -- one large green genovese bunch and a bunch of the purple that I couldn't help holding like a bouquet and sniffing all the way back to the car.

So the pumpkin? I think it's going to get roasted, hollowed out and the innards mashed with roasted home-grown garlic and a bit of cream, mashed back in and drizzled with basil pesto made this morning, and mmmmm I can hardly wait!

Travel to textiles, take away inspiration

Today was a day to be marked on the calendar.

No, not 'the day before Mr Tacc's birthday and last chance to buy a present', nor 'nice Saturday' -- today was the Open Day for the Textile Fibre Forum at Geelong.

Some of you may remember that I went last year and was startled and amazed at what I found.

The Forum is like summer camp for over-excited girls who love fibre. It's a haven of creativity, a fun week of intensity, an institution, a revelation, a colourful holiday, better than a trip to a resort, essential.

I heard it described as all of these things today as we wandered the grounds of the school, looking at what the talented participants had made over the course of a week of red-hot creative production.

It's a conference for fibre-a-holics, put on by TAFTA. On the last Saturday, each class puts on a display of their week's productions.

So this morning, bright and (far too) early, Karen and Sonia picked me up and off we went. A road trip. Whee! Watch me fall asleep in the back seat, get giddy with delight at being out and on textile treasure hunts again. (Thanks, Karen, for reminding me not to leave my coffee mug on top of the car when we drove away...)

It was one of those days.......

Distracting,

inspiring,

exhausting,
colourful.

There were beautiful, delicate  embellished pieces of felt:

In all sorts of colours.

 

Printed fabric, dyed and glorious.

 

Some had made clothes from the inspired textile pieces they had crafted.

If there was one thing I wanted dearly to wear, it was this dress/coat!

 (Don't worry, I'd wear black coverups underneath or it would not be art, it would be chaos in a bag.)

Speaking of chaos, getting crazy in the kitchen, one class made Domestic Goddess aprons for a frenzy of cake baking. These aren't tame little coverup aprons: they're definitely for the goddess who licks the bowl and loves it. Mmm!

 

Given the recent production around here of the Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame, I was partial to this cake-themed apron. Go, girl!

I love how the recipes on this apron randomly show through the blackboard-style scribbles.

Never ones to go without accessories, handbags were in evidence. These lovelies got nicknamed 'killer handbags' for their velvet-covered knockout-anvil style crazy beauty. 

Sort of wild and chemically pumped all at the same time.

(I wouldn't eat those strawberries if I were you, Bambi...)

The sun shone:

The traders kindly sold us buttons and felt, beads and yarn (well, would you resist?)

It was exhausting and inspiring -- and I was only there for 4 hours!

And now I'm going to go and put my feet up while I dream of colour.

Back to the mmm-market

Queen Victoria Market
Originally uploaded by Taccolina

I'm hoping that life will calm down a little now that the launch party has gone off as a success. You know, sometime in between work and studying and interesting projects, perhaps I'll have a little time to sew? Maybe I can start drawing again? (Caus heaven knows, I miss it a lot.)

I took the day off on Friday, and he took the afternoon: so we had a long leisurely lunch with a friend we don't see often enough. All three of us gleefully escaping from the usual hectic round of activity, sitting in comfy booth with milkshakes, parmas, burgers, big breakfasts and all the accoutrements of a good catching-up session.

Saturday morning, off to the market. Being completely and utterly ignorant of football and all things AFL-related, it was nice to go when everyone else was rushing off to the game/game parties/getting ready for game parties. Meanwhile, back at the bratwurst stand... 'A second coffee, dear?' Hhmm. Back home to finish the latest Lindsey Davis that I've borrowed from the library. And then some sewing.

Some weekends are about re-claiming the basics. Shovel out weeks' accumulation of clutter. Re-acquaint myself with my sofa. My sleep in. My sewing machine (sorry about all the dust!). My bag of library books. My dog on my lap.

I hope yours has been glorious, too. I've still got half a day of playtime left, so I'm off...

Please pass the salt and pepper...

... or could that be, the kitsch?


What delights! Our first stop in Amerrr-ica included a Saturday in Seattle, and while he went off to the Museum of Flight and the Flying Heritage Collection, I went to Pike Place Market.

Now, I admit that I am a spoiled girl, with Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market right on my doorstep, and so while I enjoyed Pike Place Market, it wasn't a life-changing experience (You see, I had that, in the Queen Vic, and I went back to the UK and applied for a visa. That's definitely life-changing.)


So, you can see why I wished that the girls of blogland and the TCB could be here with me when I hit the motherload of all salt and pepper kitsch. An entire shop devoted to crazy character salt and pepper sets.


(I'm sure they're used to women circling their windows and aisles, giggling quietly to themselves.)

But I wasn't sure if they'd want me taking pictures, so there are just a few.

B

Spoonflower fabric

Last weekend, I posted pictures of the first (and my favourite) of the three fabrics I got printed by Spoonflower. Here are the rest of them, and some thoughts about the process.


When I first signed up for Spoonflower and resolved to try it, I became frozen by the limitless potential. (What to do? Oh, what to dooo?) Sound familiar?

I explored what others were doing, and I hunted through all the contests on their blog (quite addictive, if you like voting each week on a favourite fabric design!)

It seemed that there were so many possibilities:
- Should I use it to print large swatches of my drawings onto fabric?
- To print computer-generated ideas?
- Or to transfer my existing (black and white) drawings directly onto fabric in quantities and width of yardage that it just wouldn't be feasible to do on the computer or with a stencil-cut screenprinting process? (If you were around last year, you may remember the glee and enthusiasm about stencils and screenprinting).

I sat down and thought about it, and I decided that the only way to go forward was to do a test. I like telling myself that spending money via Paypal is a test. It makes it feel so noble and elevated.

What I was testing with this batch of fabrics was the colour matching and the effect of different sort of designs. I chose three designs: one with a strong drawn black outline (the teapot), which I had coloured on the computer. The other two were scanned versions of my farmyard stencils, which started to look like a lot of fun when I repeated motifs and played with the placement.

Repeats
It took quite a while, fiddling about with the file to find the best proportions for a repeat (white space on one side of the image turns out to repeat across the fabric). Well, yes, of course it does -- but I found that the repeat was not quite what I expected, and half the fun of the process was tinkering about to get it settled so that I liked what I saw. So, for the folksy village fabric below, in the end I had a long, thin file, with each element in a line, staggered, and lots of white space to one side. When it repeats, it just looks like openly-spaced images across the fabric breadth. Hmm.

I had a small sample of the flying birds print, from a stencil. This one wasn't fancy: just one element, repeated across the fabric in a half-step format. I mucked about with the scale, and what I have got is small birds, perfect for button covering, badges and brooches, or for applique. I only ordered a swatch.



Colours
I had done some reading, and I was forewarned that the colours will be less intense on the fabric than on-screen, and also that the reds have a tendency to shift. I pumped up the colours on all of the designs, and I'm glad I did: the teapot fabric design on-screen is quite strong, but in real life it's lovely and soft, without the colours being flat. Big tick in the box for that one!


The village fabric, below, originally was designed with red, blue and green -- but the fabric turned out a very fine orange, blue and green in real life! Initially startled, I have come to rather like it. (Even if the apples do look a little poisonous.)

If I were serious about this, which I'm not (yet), I would get a colour chart printed, with its number references on each square of colour, so that by formatting my final artwork by colour I would have a real, live piece of fabric to match it against. -And I'd know what I'm getting.



There's quite a lot of discussion about this online, and I found it useful, even if the colour calibration of the machines themselves at Spoonflower is subject to change. There's some excellent resources on the Spoonflower blog's FAQs pages.


The verdict?
I quite enjoyed the slight uncertainty about what I would get. I sure ripped into that package when it arrived, a mere 7 days later! I wasn't investing in a lot of fabric or expecting to match it to existing projects or ideas, and so a certain degree of colour shift was fine by me.

As for designs? I feel that the strong outline of the drawings works best. No point translating one fabric printing medium (stencil) into production: better to play with drawings, colour them on-screen, pump up those colours, and take the risk.

I'm working on my next batch of designs as we speak... Surprised?

Winking by candle-light

Earth Hour was on Saturday, but I wanted to show you the event:


Candle light, good company, dinner and some wine. All the elements of a good celebration.

A peaceful moment in the midst of a frantic, computer-harnessed, crazy busy week.

Now back to it! Cheerio and pip-pip.

Around the world on a Great Melbourne Day

I love the way that this city is sometimes a playground. - Or, at least that's the way it feels. Yesterday's activity took us from Italy to the Lebanon, through the Middle East and then to 1970s Australia. Into the city and it's the 50s, before Portugal, Italy (again), and a dash up to handbag heaven. Oh, and a short stop in Korea. Finally, music under the stars with an Italian in Algiers, two Spaniards and an Austrian. All in Melbourne.

Coriander, parsley, spring onions, fenugreek, turmeric and lamb. Mmmm...

How did it happen? With a morning start at the Mediterranean Wholesalers (coffee and canolis), we explored north to the A1 Lebanese Bakery, which was our landmark as we hunted for a shop that would stock fenugreek leaves and dried limes. We've been inspired to try some Persian cooking, and tonight's dinner of lamb with quormeh sabzi is quietly simmering away as I type this, sending interesting and delicious smells throughout the house. Sure enough: a very kind shopkeeper helped me to find both fenugreek and dried limes. This is why I love Sydney Road.

Dried limes. They smell amazing! Tantalizing. Fantastic.

A quick dash to Fitzroy to say hello at Meet me at Mikes, where a special stash-tastic suitcase of 1970s ladybird books was the pick-up for this secret agent. (Two old guys stopped later on and said it was a cool suitcase. "1950s!" said one guy, "And it's even been overseas...")

Off next to meet a lovely friend for lunch, I hopped the tram and - ding!ding! - down to Federation Square, where a flashmob of swing dancers were cutting up the concrete, swing jazz style, to the sounds of big band in a beatbox strapped to the back of a bike. Swing Patrol, kids! Do we love it? We love it!

Can't you hear those grooves? This is not Melbourne, but it's the same gorgeous style. The Swing Patrol site is down, so this is a photo from the Calgary swing dancers.

(Just lookit all that water. Can you believe that's where I grew up??)

But I couldn't find my friend.... Hmm, she said she'd be at Fed Square. Up the steps, down the steps - hmm, one of the dancers is waving at me between twirls - it's her! Turning a neat toe in keds and gingham, having a blast. We settled in until the beats moved on up to Town Hall. I'm not a dancer, despite some two-left-footed attempts, but I enjoyed watching the action and spying the tourists whose open-mouthed delight made my day. There's nothing better than a mob of people spontaneously breaking into dance! (and me without my camera)

Journal Cafe at the City Library refreshed us with Portuguese Custard Tarts (Go there. Have one. I never liked custard tarts before meeting these beauties.) "Let's go handbag shopping!" said my friend - so it was up to Catherine Manuell to try on all of the bags. She didn't tell me she'd been haunting the place and that I was to provide final colour call between two favourites (see pages 4-5). We left with her new bag proudly on-shoulder.

Could it get better? A stop at an Asian stationery shop was pretty divine and only cost a dollar ten (that stuff is addictive) -- and then it was time to race home, pack a picnic, and head out for a free concert under the stars at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Two cups of coffee, free music, and thou...

Nan went to the opening night, 50 years ago. We snuggled under the stars as my lovely Melbourne day ended to the sound of Rossini's overture for "The Italian Girl in Algiers", Spanish guitar from Rodrigo (Concerto di Aranjuez), Albeniz, and Schubert.


We're a little tired today. But happy, oh so happy.

That cool feeling of detachmnet

Ah yes, Saturday morning.

Doesn't the end of the week leave you feeling all to pieces sometimes? Things just don't seem quite to match up. There's that - floaty - feeling around the head area.


Or maybe it's just me...


Stunningly scary artwork from the Dover Sampler . These two truncated tootsie-wagglers are from Famous Movie Dance Stars. Oh yes. Just what I always wanted.

Here's a link to the rest of the strange world of this week's sampler, in case you missed it. Its a doozy.

The steady hum of activity - sewing-bee style

What a day.

Nikki, I sweep off my hat and make a deep bow to you (scrap that curtsey nonsense) - you donated your week to organising today's sewing bee, and you made it possible for so many good people to find a way to bring colour and cheer to families affected by the bushfires.

What was the best bit of the day?

Serious discussions about yo-yos was fun.


And super sewing stars ready and willing to learn new skills...

... and producing gorgeous results!

That was ace.

The hive of activity and the contented hum of concentration as bags were constructed. (Spot TinnieGirl thinking hard).

The lovely cutting shop, with slices and dices turning out the bags lickety-split, and the sorting area, with the goodies laid out by age group and gender....

...carefully observed by a sofa full of dolls, waiting to go to new owners.

Meanwhile, over in the embellishment room, zig-zags and fusing made merry!

While the first bags were being built, we got to work on yo-yo hairbands, yo-yo embellishments, fused applique animals, cowboy hats, pirate ships, flowers, ice cream cones, butterflies, matruyshkas...


...and more onto t-shirts, bag fronts, pockets, flaps and ... oops, a bag lining. Ah well. Beccasaurus kindly stitched a yo-yo over my most serious oops. It's a design feature! (But of course).

But the best two bits?

One was the way that everyone who walked into the sewing/bag construction room stopped and said "Wow!" spontaneously.


Wow for the lovely hum of many machines running together. The quiet, determined activity. And the results, oh boy.

The results! The piles of bags were stacking up as we took our weary souls home. Fresh sewing souls were still flooding in the door, so I'm sure the pile of presents grew. Notepads, pens, t-shirts and a toy in every bag - at the very least.


I'm thinking of the donors and the recipients, the families and children whose little bags of fun have so much potential for healing handiwork (drawing, making and colour), hugs -- and a reminder that we were all thinking of them with today's sewing bee.

I met so many lovely people, and it was a wonderful day.
Thanks everyone.

I almost felt guilty...

For cutting them all off the bush. But with the forecast for today sitting at a scary 46 degrees (which turned out to be true) - I knew they would never survive. So I cut them, every one - and we have them indoors to enjoy and admire.


The very natty mat is a lovely gift from Potty Mouth Mama. I won her de-cluttering blog giveaway, and last week a parcel of delights arrived: trim and ricrac, vintage tea napkins (love 'em) and this little tablecloth - just the right size for our outdoor tables. The lime green piping is from her stash, too - just-washed and bundled before this photo. Thank you, Ms. PMM!

It's funny how the weather predictions last night made me tense. All this talk about the 'Horror Day' of untold temperatures, and dire warnings not to go out unless it was absolutely necessary. It made me somewhat edgy, so I was out in the garden last night, fussing over the tomatoes and the basil, topping up the pots with water from the bathtub (now that summer's here, our last soap-free rinses sit in the bathtub, getting cool and awaiting re-use as footbaths, dog splashes, and garden water). The vine Mr Tacc gave me a few years ago for my birthday is scorched and the beautiful red flowers have all dropped off. Our lemon tree soldiers on, with one hard green little lemon on the way. Many other plants have turned up their toes. This season is harsh.

Where I grew up, it was winter that you hid from. Staying indoors until we were crotchety and got chucked out the back door, snowsuit to the eyeballs, big mittens on penguin-flipper hands. Crunching through the crust on the snow - will it hold me or will I fall in up to my.... oof. waist? Blizzard days of all white: no school, home to draw and listen to the radio, read good books and bake. Snow days.

Me, circa 1994 - New Brunswick, Canada.

Here, I'm beginning to get used to the fact that summer is the killing season: the sun scorches and kills the garden, and we stay in to avoid it. Keeping inside, in the dark and cool, reading books, watching movies. It's all the same things, just the layers of clothing are different.

I avoided today's dire predictions - did go out - went to sit in the cool and craft with lovely new bloggy friends (hello!) and to stay in, out of the harsh weather, crafting in the cool.

Some things don't change much, but at least I didn't have to shovel my car out before I could drive back home. (And there wasn't a mountain lion under someone's car, which there was one memorable Canadian winter crafting day .... but that's another story).

Sorry Franco Cozzo, we recovered it

This weekend was a pretty busy and exciting affair. (No, not that kind of affair, although if there was any falling in love to be had, it was with the fabric on N's new chair!)

Saturday morning I answered a plea for help. As in, 'Help, help, I don't know how to re-cover this chair!' - This from my friend N (recipient of the slouchy scooters bag), whose chair in question was scooped up off the nature strip some time before Christmas.

Makeover required: old walnutty wood, nice carving, upright dining-room chair. Eek! What is this shiny slippery Franco Cozzo covering on the cushion? And this one underneath! And this one, too. Cough-cough -- the dust smells very -- well, dusty.

Rip, shred, measure, bash etc. and theres a lovely chair all long-legged and bold. N - send me those photos! Or I won't go for coffee with you again.... (likely.)


Saturday afternoon's delight was the Mixtogether! Thank you to those lovely girls, Justine and Nichola, we had a lovely time. I met many gorgeous bloggers whose names I've seen 'round the traps online, but it was such fun to sit and sew and chat and munch on strawberries. (Reports of me snarfing TimTams are exaggerated). And a few little things lept into my bag, courtesy of the addictive nature of the Amitie fabric hoard. Ahhh.

I was also stoked to win a prize - thanks to Blog Portion for the world's most amazing bag of goodies, fabric and ribbon - even incense to keep me nice and calm as I rip out my seams. I was a bit overwhelmed by the generosity, and then I won a doorprize, too - $10 at Amitie. I promise you, that will be gone before I'm 6 feet inside the door next weekend for the Thornbury Craft Bonanza (which meets in Bentleigh, on the other side of the city, but nevermind).

So is it any surprise that not much happened for the rest of the weekend? A little snoozing, a lot of reading, some photos and more.... Maybe I knocked myself out with all that craft goodness. Time for a little slow time in the garden, stitching in pretty colours and looking up into the tree.

Ah.