I'm not sure if I've mentioned here before that we have a pretty small house. The rooms are reasonably generously sized in inner Sydney terms, but we really could use more of them (2 bedrooms, 5 people) and we're feeling the squeeze as the kids grow. But moving house is not an option at the moment. I remember my SIL saying to me a while ago "think like a European and make good use of your space". Good advice. So we've been making a few changes here and there lately, involving trips to Ikea (of course!), some carpentary and many trips to drop off unwanted stuff at the local charity shop.
As part of that we've changed the layout of our lounge room and I couldn't stand the look of our tatty old cushion covers so I finally got my act together and made a couple of new ones.
I had been saving some lovely off cuts from Cloth to use in a Lotta-style quilt (still not game enough to tackle that one!), but decided to use them for this worthy cause instead. Julie Patterson from Cloth is my favourite Australian textile designer, I just love the way she captures the beauty of Australia and she also uses lovely fabrics - textured linens, cottons and hemps. Each time I have been to her shop I have picked up a scrap pack and drooled over her fabrics by the metre and also her new bed linen range. If money was no object I would have her things dotted all over our house... Yes, I can picture it now... an architect designed simple holiday house somewhere out in the bush (bellbirds singing in the background), plenty of wood, steel and corrugated iron, minimally furnished and beautiful soft furnishings by Cloth, ahh! Anyway, enough of the daydreaming ;-)
In this one I used a piece of Julie's Currawong print, teamed with a couple of others in sympathetic colourways and backed with oatmeal coloured linen.
And for this 2nd simpler design I used a lovely piece of white print on oatmeal coloured linen, added in a vibrant orange strip and a textured chocolate brown cotton. I teamed it with a piece of grey linen, which I kept thinking must be wrong as I was mixing warm and cool tones but I love the contrast and thought I'd just go with what felt right.
I'm looking forward to another trip to Cloth to re-stock on the scrap packs for that mythical quilt ;-)
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In other unrelated goings-on, I met up for the first time this morning with a bloggy friend, the lovely Fran from Lovely Little Sweet Peas. It was so nice to meet another like-minded craft nut and blogger and talk craft, kids, Etsy and all things in between :-). Fran has a great Etsy shop selling her fab kids art satchels and has also been selling them to local shops. Good on you Fran. And thanks for spending time with me and my 2 crazy littlies!
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Thank you Jo, it was so good to finally meet you and your two Adorable (not crazy) littlies.
ReplyDeleteI too dream of re-organising my two bedroom place Ikea fashion. Love both cushions and would surely be up for a visit to Cloth (I have never been)if you are.....
Sounds like a good plan, Fran :-)
DeleteLove the cushions and the fabrics are just gorgeous! It must feel great to get your place organised... I so need to have a big chuck out here! It's so excelllent that you've met up with another crafty friend... Yay :)
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it feel great to have a clear out Lamina - but I have to be careful not to bring a heap more stuff back in! I have to make sure I don't have the kids with me when I go or they just want to keep their old toys too, even if they haven't played with them in ages.
DeleteJust had a look at CLOTH and can see why you would choose the scrap packs. Beautiful fabric but....you do need a a fat wallet! Your combinations are great!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's such a hard thing Trudi - as producers of handmade goods ourselves we realize a product may be expensive to produce and deservedly has a high retail price, but it's still out of reach sadly. Still, it's nice to be able to use something that I enjoy so much, just in a small way.
ReplyDeleteYour cushions look great! We also have quite a few people living in my small house these days, we can ALWAYS trim a little clutter here and there, so I can relate. It's constant, and it's never done, but we try to keep at it.
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