my creative space 'screen printing holiday' & OPEN DAY this Saturday

Greetings all,

Well HOW lucky am i??  Last week I spent a whole day of giggles, laughter, lessons, business & fun with the wonderful Thea Samios of Thea & Sami screen printing magic, in Queensland.  Thank you Thea, i had a ball with you, i've certainly caught the screen printing bug!!

 Now this is one full on professional set up with mega printing tables, assistant Dan, wall fans, sky lights plus a custom design cleaning trough, it was screen printing bliss.

 Honestly, it was like watching magic happen, with this back & forth flowing rhythm of paint, screens, accuracy & perfection.  Oh, on the best quality linens too!!

 Sweet Thea doesn't like her photo being taken . . . what is more gorgeous than taking a bunch of images of someone as they work, to find they're laughing in every photo you download!!??

 This was jaw dropping beauty, honest & for true.

 Thea & Dan had both the 10m & 7m tables printing up a storm.

 Thea & i both love our maths & numbers so the accuracy & measurement is our thing.  Precision is key, especially with her detailed designs.

 Even watching the different runs dry at intervals was magical.

 Watching paint dry is fascinating, i can assure you.

 Then i got to play with some shapes i brought along to cut out & make into screens.

 So i made each of my children a new pyjama top.

 Look at these beautiful designs on the large screens.

 Want a piece of the action too??  Thea is holding a GRAND OPENING of this new studio & shop on Saturday 30th April, from 10a.m. to 4p.m. at Unit 1, 6 Jones Road, Capalaba Queensland.  Find out how fabrics are screen printed & pick up some beautiful original hand screen printed delights, including remnants.  There will be screen printing demonstrations at 11a.m. & 1p.m.  You will be made to feel very welcome!!  Please RSVP here. 
EDIT: new blog post about preparations here with news of a $100 Thea&Sami gift voucher to be won by one lucky attendee.

The remnants are AMAZING, quality, value & perfect for those smaller sewing projects.  I promise i left some!!

So i'm very ready to be back in my own studio after some fun & relaxation in Queensland (so much more on that later) & will be sewing my heart out to wrap up the school holidays & make good use of the huge array of new fabrics in my new cool vintage suitcase.  Happy Creative Space this week, i've been having a ball.  Love Posie

my creative space 'my new creative space'

Greetings all,
Da dah, my new creative space.  Sure i had visions of quirky ornaments & repurposed furnishings with beautiful finishes on a palate of pastel, even an inspiration board or art on the walls, flowers & a view . . . nope, this is a working studio & as functional as you can get!!  I can save that dainty dream for when we move.  This was more a quick fix, halve the studio space (yes, i used to have twice this much space, greedy me) & it feels great!!

Everything is so easy to access from shelves, pigeon holes & cabinettes.

Still not sure if i should move my sewing table into the centre??  At least it would hide the mark on the carpet, ooppss.

Voila, the fabric wall/ room divider.  Next time my husband is in town we'll move our 4 children around their now 4 bedroom options & finish off the other side/ the high schooler's bedroom.

This neat cabinette was $25 from Revolve, who knew i had so many pegs??  Acutally i know there are more in the garage, sorting sorting sorting - it never ends!!

Honestly, this was a HUGE & all consuming effort, i sorted every safety pin, needle & thread - total 7 garbage bags of things-i-can-live-without, so i'll make this a picture-post.  I have a lot of bulk to use up to free up more space (batting, wadding, denim & chunky blanket making materials) so i had better get busy before Winter strikes.  There is another book case & television storage cabinette opposite the sewing machine table, oh & a cutting table with wings next to the fabric racks, so more images to come. 
Happy Creative Spacing this Thursday folks, thank you Kirsty at Kootoyoo for hosting . . . but before you go, check out my latest G I V E A W A Y, just follow & comment, share the love & comment for extra entries, 'tis simple!!  Love Posie

snippets of my studio

Greetings all,
I have a love/ hate relationship with my studio??  I LOVE it when it's tidy, orderly, spacious & clear, i hate it when i have let it go . . . piles of fabric, piles of incompleted projects, piles of filing, piles of regret i wasn't tidier.  Right now, i'm in love with the studio.When i did a big clean last weekend, i changed a few things around, like . . . moving the replacement printer the burglars stood on & broke, into the study nook in the hall so now when anyone needs to print, it's central.  In it's place . . . an overlocker, now on it's own portable table.  It's so much easier to manage over locking all shapes & sizes with clear space.  We all know how PMT overlockers are, i overlock like i'm on egg shells chanting "please don't break the thread" - threading bobbins is annoying enough, but rethreading or changing the needle on an overlocker, oh, so frustrating & the interuption to completing your project is infuriating!!  

 . . . slowly working my way through these bolts . . .

 . . . one end of my studio . . .

As my business is a mega chunk of my home life & i'm the only one home during the week, i have the entire front of the house as my studio.  This shot barely covers 1/4 of the glorious space i have to be creative in.  I like working at this end, with the sun pouring in & 3 sewing machines at the ready, Mad Men in the DVD player, bliss.  I keep the ironing board up permanently too!!  Notice the no-more-burglar-grills on the window??
Time to cuddle up next to handsome soldier after a full day of sewing today while he ran the children around to sport & parties.  I should have mentioned in my last post he has already won a Husband-of-the-Year title, he he, it was a magazine competiton with a holiday & prizes, 10 years ago??  The state finalists included a fireman (who won the national title) also a policeman, a customs officer, a hairdresser, an engineer & of course, my soldier.  I sent in 25 words on why he's such a great husband & a shot of him holding our first baby in his UN Peace Keeping ensemble, they mustn't have noticed the rifle he had slung over his shoulder. 
Happy sewing everyone, love Posie

for the love of stationery

Greetings all,
Like most, i'm a big fan of stationery & packaging.  With Christmas markets looming, i have a few tricks up my sleeve for subtle customer reminders for seasonal gift buying - like laminating the sheets of gorgeous Christmas wrap from Kikki-K (double sided, love that) & hanging them from my market stall (so they can spin & show of both festive sides).  Aces!!
I couldn't resist the goodies from Typo too, those stacking boxes (set of 5) are not $25 for extra large, $20 for large, $15 for medium & so on, i got the LOT for $14.95!!  I'm going back for more today as they are fabulous for holding stock & this particular print has an international flavour with Eiffle Towers & Statues of Liberty in small reptitive print!!

Shock horror gasp, i spent Sunday tidying up my studio & there is a floor afterall.  I treated myself to a new sticky tape dispenser, note pads, clutch purse (totally unrelated to my studio) & to start my Christmas cards.  I have a market on Thursday, little 3 hour event at Canberra Airport (Brindabella Park to be precise) so i'm madly trying to make stock in the evenings after a fun day at Shop Handmade with Rachel.  It's hard to resist my husband so i'm doing hand sewing next to him (lounge craft) rather than being in my studio (& watching reruns of OffSpring, why Nina, WHY??)  I'm pretty torn, husband vs OffSpring & all.
Have a lovely week, i'm still only able to upload one image at a time, so expect single-imagey posts for a while.  Love Posie
PS thanks for your thoughtful comments to my last post - i think it's fascinating this whole teen thing.