In haste

I thought that bag of stuffing was heavier than usual.

Screen printing (love) or you can call me Buck.

On Sunday I attended and intermediate Screen printing workshop at Red Brick Gallery and had a ball! I have always loved the idea of screen-printing and of course some elements are similar to Mr Gocco (and you know I love Mr Gocco). This is not my stencil with very neat circles cut out- I have to admit I am more at home with a pair of scissors than I am with a cutting blade thingo- my curves were a little jagged in places.
This screen had had the design applied and the filler, then the design-y bit washed away ready to print. (also not mine)
Super cute two-toned rabbit printed on fabric
The delightful Laura (our teacher) with the screen all ready to go, pinning the fabric underneath. If you are local-ish (She is based in Melbourne) and you get a chance I recommend taking one of Laura's classes, its laid back and fun and relaxed but informative and Laura tells you everything you need to know. the FUN bit !!!! I could have easily become a screen-hog during this bit, it really is so much fun I just wanted to print and print and print.
The T-shirt. This design is Maree's, whom I met on the day. It worked out beautifully and she printed me one of her designs on fabric to bring home. Maree is the textiles teacher I wish I had when I was a kid.
This is a design that I took from the Ed Roth book Stencil 101. The plan is to use the screen print as a background to some embroidery.

I am mildly obsessing with a screen printing / embroidery combo something thingo, and have been for about a month...but if I try and put one more thing in this brain at the moment I am sure to have a meltdown. Why is it that the busier I am (and lo friends I am BUSY) , the more ideas I want to try out? It's like some sort of weird Creative hyper-drive... Remember Buck Rogers ? when he went through that coloured tunnel thing in his little rocket ? that's me guys - I am the craft equivalent of Buck Rogers.

(How embarrassment)

brain soup

bamboo framed crepe paper elephants, moving wings made from bamboo and animal X-rays, striped strong men unitards, purple pants to be hemmed, tie dying, stencilling, tomorrows screen printing class, giant cartoon styled weights, flamenco skirts, Mondrian dresses need facings by Friday for painting, bollywood costumes, painted muscle suits, more fabric needed for flouncy shorts, pink panther tails need to be stuffed, need to find wire to go inside tails.

Is it any wonder that sleep is an elusive beast these days? In amongst all that, one little voice has been quietly and persistently asking to be heard.

and for days I have felt like a harassed mother saying not now, not now, there is absolutely no time....but I guess it is now after all.

Sally by Master 16

Some not-overly consistent top stitching with crazy back tacking +

a little bit of who can be bothered joining up , I'll just sew right off the edge +

a uniquely placed tail with an extra bit of kink=

Sally, as made completely by Connor (master 16).For a boy who still struggles with the concept of dirty clothes going INSIDE the dirty clothes basket he pretty much nailed the softie making.

If you would like to get your mitts on a copy of the Sally and Smith pattern, just leave a comment telling me about the first thing you made that actually really truly worked!

Rant

You guys know that I work in a Primary school don't you? I'm the library-chick. Naturally those kids with a love of fabric or sewing or general craftiness gravitate my way at my school and I often have little friends eagerly waiting to show me their sewing or glueing or crochet on Monday mornings. I share my supplies with them and lend them my own craft books. Its a great gig. Then these crafty little kids head off to High school and to the wonderful world of the textiles classroom.....or not.
Now, I know this can't be true of every textiles classroom in the entire world, but man, I have so many kids tell me how much they hate textiles at school - how boring the projects are, how they have to all do the exact same thing with the fabric that the teacher chooses. Yes I know that the logistics of teaching means it can't all be a free-wheeling roller coaster of fun...but I just hate it when these kids seem so 'flattened out" by something they were so looking forward to.

(A Christmas present for me from one of my Grade 6 friends-made from a jumper Thanks Martin)

So I was discussing this kind of thing with a parent one day and she said - "You should make a pattern that Jess could sew-something fun that would help her learn some basics.". That planted the seed which I then ignored for at least 6 months.I kept coming back to this idea of a really super easy pattern, I thought about the size and the things that made sewing patterns daunting but for a long time it just felt a bit too hard. Then there erupted a small "discussion" in blogland, in the quilting circles mostly. This discussion raged over a lot of topics but one of the them really stuck with me. Some people seemed to be upset by people who write and sell easy patterns (they were talking quilting), they seemed equally upset by people who made ten or twenty of the same quilts and didn't try and grow or expand their skills.
So, you know I stopped and had a think about this for a while and I got a bit disgruntled about it all. You know I don't want to belong to a craft group (online or in real life) that is going to dictate what I must make, or what is too easy or what my next step must be. I was particularly perturbed by the idea that people should not be allowed to sell simple patterns of their own design. Seriously , no-one forces people to buy things. Yes, I have seen patterns and thought to myself "You hardly need a pattern to make that - its so easy" but that's me, bringing my crafty logic and experience and knowledge to that pattern; ten or fifteen years ago I would have needed that pattern to get me started. So, I then applied that logic to the idea of toy-making and my thoughts returned again to the idea of patterns for absolute beginners. (of course being told not to do something is a great motivator ) If no-one writes simple patterns ..... what happens to the people who want to start to make /sew/quilt create. Where will they start?
At that point I rounded up some new pattern testers, Evie (9), Sarah and Lucy (13) Indi (10) and Connor (16) Kate (32) and together we fudged and bumbled and created three new patterns. To say that working with these guys was fun is a total understatement. Apart from the incident with the hair all the kids were absolute stars. The finished products and the sense of achievement these guys had (yes even Mr too-cool proudly showed off his two dogs to the boys in the band) made me think that I was on the right track. And of course we are talking months and months and months here. Pickle, Sally and Smith and Gulliver from the previous post are the three new beginner-friendly patterns. Pickle is the easiest and I am talking seriously basic info. We cover right and wrong side of fabric, back tacking, seam clipping - all the things you need to know, then they get a little bit harder as we go on and add button joints to Smith and then some super stuffing and a teeny hat accessory for Gulliver. So there is a bit of a rant or a reason , or an idea about what I was thinking and where these new friends came from. I am pleased, really pleased to have made these and of course I hope other people like them too. I'll be banging on about them for a few more posts, with some giveaways and stuff and I'll show you the ones that the kids made as well.

A picture tells a thousand words ...or not

Pickle

Sally and Smith

Gulliver

Smith

Today is lunching, art shopping, visiting,

Tomorrow is teaching

So come back on Sunday for the rant. (I'll try to keep it to 1,000 words)

My heart

It's hard enough to lock them away in a box,

but it's when they try and escape

that it really breaks my heart.