Thursday 14 April 2016

There's always time for Wings



Something about having a baby gets my creative juices flowing.  As I was putting Ezra to bed tonight I realised the same thing happened after Lewis was born.  Ideas.  Lots and lots of ideas.

Maybe it's to do with all the time I spend sitting around feeding... lots of time to think...?  Or maybe it's something to do with the physical act of growing a baby - all those extra hormones or something...  Whatever the catalyst happens to be, it would be really nice if it could also find a way to create more hours in the day so I could actually DO something about those ideas.

What with a school run that takes close to two hours, a preppie, a three year old and an eight month old to chase around after, and a laundry that seems to have a science fiction level capability of growing dirty clothes, I honestly struggle to find the energy some days to even clean up the brekky dishes!  And then these creative ideas have the hide to dangle themselves in front of me, mocking me, jeering about the fact that I haven't washed my hair since the weekend (or was that the weekend before...?), and discussing whether my leg hair is yet long enough to braid.

In my frantic attempts to bring some semblance of order to a chaotic life I have dabbled in mono-tasking (it actually works if you can remember to do it), tried (failed) to go to bed earlier, bought a diary (I keep losing), and hung a rack in the laundry to house the school bags.  Winner! School bags are now homed (and I'm pleased to say the kids can actually reach their own bags - all they have to do is climb the mountain of washing underneath.)

But somewhere in the chaos, although I can't remember where exactly, just like I can't remember what exactly we did last night (ok, at all), I actually found time to make some Butterfly Wings.  Several pairs, in fact, but two particularly exciting pairs that were made out of the debut fabric lines of two ladies who have both been an inspiration to me on my own creative journey.



Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane asked me to make some wings for her booth at Quilt Market with her lovely and very aptly named 'Sweet Orchard' fabrics, and of course I said why good golly gosh yes!  And can I say, there is something a wee bit exciting about opening a parcel of fabric that you know only a few people in the whole world have been asked to work with.  And also a very big wee bit terrifying, because if I make one wrong cut I'm done for.  Sedef's fabric will be available to purchase in August this year! (September for Aussies - but remember, good things come to those who wait.  But honestly, I think they just say that to try and make us feel better about always getting everything later than everywhere else in the world.  All I can say is thank goodness for Netflix and Foxtel.).  Oh, and did I mention Sedef's writing a book?  It's called Quilt Petite!  What a great name!


And if you're wondering why there's no shots of Sedef's sweet little daughter looking at the camera (you probably weren't but I think it's the funniest thing so I'm going to pretend you were) it was because she was in a 'mood'.  And it did not happen to be a 'getting dressed up and wearing Butterfly Wings and getting photographed by her mother' kind of mood.  But then you probably already guessed that ;)
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The second pair of wings I made were a surprise pair for Amy Sinibaldi (of NanaCompany fame) and her littlest girl, Mia.  I recently made a pair of wings from Amy's debut fabric line 'Paperie' for a customer's wedding and fell in love with the designs.  

Parchment in Soft Grey makes a perfect base, Manuscript in Navy gives a nice contrast and a bit of pop!, and the remaining florals and geometric designs have the right amount of contrast to make the applique stand out just so - all in true Amy style.

In my hastily scribbled note to Amy I quoted a slightly adapted version of the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, which I felt was quite fitting and went something along the lines of:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, 
that a little girl, in possession of a fabric designing mummy, 
must be in want of a pair of Butterfly Wings."

Needless to say, I was pretty pleased to see Mia gave the wings a pretty good workout recently at the beach.  Head over to Amy's Instagram feed to see more!