Wonderful Wonderland

It's a cracking 41 degrees forecast today so a perfect day for staying indoors with the airconditioning cranked up and the sewing machine going. I trotted off to my local quilting store on Wednesday and found myself 2 Jelly Rolls of Momo Wonderland by Moda. It's been on my "would like" list for a while and to find them half price was fantastic luck!! Underneath the Wonderland roll is another of my "would like" fabrics of late, Rainy Days & Mondays by Riley Blake. It's super cute, with a modern yet retro twist. I love it!

So what to do with two rolls of fabric? I've been thinking about a Bento Box style quilt for a while now and thought that the Wonderland fabric would look lovely in one just like the gorgeous one below. The quilt featured below features another of my favourite lines of fabric, Flea Market Fancy. Drool......

Quilt by Red Pepper Quilts

In my journey through Flickr I also found this cushion that would be gorgeous in my room or my studio. So that idea is on the back burner if I have any fabric left over.

cushion by hanies

And lucky last is some fabric newly arrived from the US for one of my customers who was after fabric with records on it to show her kids that there really was a form of recorded music prior to CD's!! Love the retro, fifties styling of this Robert Kaufman print. I'm making up a couple of sunhats in this fabric so I will share when they are done.

Projects on the go

Silly Gilly is on a Xmas break for a couple of weeks. All of a sudden I have all this time to sew for my daughter and I!!

The first two of the fabrics for my daughter's Tea Party Skirt have arrived! Just love this pattern by Pink Fig.

I was lucky enough recently to score over a continuous metre of Flea Market Fancy tile print. So I am teaming it with another FMF floral print and am now on the hunt for a suitable coordinate spot/stripe for the pleats/handle/lining. I hear Hettie's Patch have a sale on starting Wednesday so I might pop there child-free and hunt for the right fabric.

Around The Block 2

I have spent a lovely bit of time lately sewing some blocks for Around The Block 2, a block swap I signed up for this year. Here's a few that I have finished this week.

New smock style

After three years of making smocks, I thought I would change it up a bit and trial a new style of art smock for the kidlets. What do you think? Do you think a pocket, as I include on my current style of smock, is a necessity on an art smock for children? Do your children use their pockets on their smocks if they have one?

This new style has elastic on the sides so it is much easier for children to put on and take off by themselves. Very important to foster independence in the kidlets, don't you think!?

You know it's Xmas when....

the silly photos start appearing!!

Our Banjo looks right at home with Santa. Although my daughter looks yet to be convinced.... Have you seen the latest Disney Xmas movie, The Search for Santa Paws? It features a Pyrenean just like Banjo!

Giveaway!!!!

I seriously almost fell off my chair when I read that Corrie is giving away 20 fat quarters of this beautiful line..... so here's my entry to her giveaway. Let's hope I win some!!!

I've been Lollipopped!!

I'm super-dooper excited to announce that I have been Lollipopped!! I'm going to be a stall holder at the next Lollipop Market at the Shores Function Complex, West Beach in SA, on Sunday 20th February, 2011.

So now I'm ready to get sewing, creating, designing and giggling all the way to February!!

Sun, sales and sweet!

Last weekend I participated in the local Prospect Fashion, Food & Wine Affair for the third year in a row. I shared the stall with Red Ted as usual and we had a really successful and fun time.

I stocked a larger range of fairy wear this year and thought I might share with you this gorgeous little girl who was lucky enough to have her mummy buy these fairy things for her.

Puppy Popsicle

It's a hot one here today in Adelaide. 35 degrees.

So what do you do with a dog that feels the heat?

Puppy popsicles of course! Fill a bowl with water and pop some chopped up sausages in there. I used some straight out of the freezer so they didn't break down in the water before freezing. Put the bowl in the freezer and serve it up when frozen.

Result: one very cool dawg.

The letter for today is F

F for fabricholic!!

After months of dropping whale sized hints, I finally managed to convince my husband that we should splash some cash on my studio. And wowser, it has made a difference!

New cupboards designed to fit whole bolts down the bottom and up the top if there's a need! Oh new cupboard, how I love thee!!♥♥ And the picture below shows only half the cupboard space. There's all my plain fabrics, books and notions on the other side.

This week I am madly making lots of new stock for the Prospect Fashion, Food and Wine Affair which is being held this Sunday at Prospect in SA. Come on down and say hi if you are in the area. I'd love to meet you. Any stock that doesn't sell at the market will be uploaded to the Silly Gilly site next week.

Happy Friday everyone. I'm off for yum cha at the Central Markets with my poppet. What a nice way to ease into the weekend!

We Have A Winner!

I recently announced the opening of my new online fabric store Sew Vintage. To celebrate I offered free fabric to anyone who commented on which was their favourite print from the store.

We held an official draw here at Silly Gilly with our gorgeous game show girl in her new chefs hat (more on that later).

Congratulations Diana, please email me with your snail mail address and I will pop some Transit fabric in the mail for you!!

As for the dashing chef hat my game show girl is sporting above, this week I received an order to make 6 chef hats and aprons for a local business. It was super fun making these and poppet got one too when I did the test run of the new pattern. Here's the hats waiting to be delivered today.

More fabric arriving from the US today. Lots of new retro children's prints to be popped in the store tonight! How exciting!

Spring has Sprung

With this gorgeous spring weather upon us, I've been inspired to finish off the front garden. We have taken the front back to the start and laid grass, paving and now the flower beds are filling up. Here's some shots of the garden this week. My David Austin roses are coming along very well!

Things have been growing inside too. More stock being crafted for my upcoming markets in November... Prospect Food, Fashion and Wine Affair and Goodwood Xmas Market - see over on the right hand side of this blog for details.

Don't forget about the giveaway I'm running to celebrate the launch of my new venture Sew Vintage!!! Pop over, choose a fabric and be in the running for free fabric!!

Around the Block 2 - Jewelled Squares

I have completed my first block for Around the Block 2. It is a block of blocks called Jewelled squares and boy they were fun to do!

This block is for Helen. She sent me all the fabrics and I had the fun of pairing them to make pleasing little blocks to put together. So much fun! Looking forward to sharing with you the blocks of mine that I recieve from the other members of the swap.

Pretty and not so pretty

Last month my daughter and I went skipping up to the hills for a photo shoot with a lovely and very talented lady called Kirsty Burns.

Kirsty has a fabulous natural talent for photography and runs an Adelaide-based business called Appleseed Photography. It was fun dressing Nevada up for the shoot and we even had the luck of a duck waddling by.... thought I would share some of Kirsty's gorgeous work with you...

And the not-so-pretty of today? This is what greeted me literally three minutes after I brought my 8mth old boofa of a puppy home from being groomed...
Why do I bother!!?

The Big Announcement + A Giveaway!

I'm super pleased to be able to finally tell you all about my new venture. It's been the big secret squirrel project I've been busy on for the last month or so.

As you may know, I love fabric. I also love fifties and sixties style and illustrations. Combining both of those factors into fifties and sixties kids fabric prints and I'm a very, very happy woman!

So to share my love of these things, I'm proud to announce Sew Vintage.... my new online store selling retro inspired children's print fabrics and vintage sewing patterns. Gorgeous prints from Michael Miller, Alexander Henry and more. Fabric is available in 0.25m increments.

Come and have a peek inside, find some gorgeous fabrics and stroll through the collection of vintage patterns from the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. I will be continually adding to the collection of patterns.... I have hundreds more to add in fact!

To celebrate the opening of my second online store, I am also holding a giveaway! The prize will be a fat quarter or panel of your choice of one of the prints below. Simply pop over to Sew Vintage, then come back here and leave a comment telling me which fabric design is your favourite and why. The winner will be drawn on Thursday 21st October. Giveaway is open to readers worldwide.

So pop on over, have a look and tell your friends! Free postage on all patterns! Cheap postage on fabric! And remember to come on back and check in now and then. I'm always adding more patterns and fabric.

Have a great weekend!!

Sneaky peeky

What's it all about?

Busy bee is me

Bit quiet on the Silly Gilly blog front.... it's been too long!

The Silly Gilly family headed off last month to our now yearly jaunt to Bali. It was a lovely 10 days of swimming, eating, drinking, sleeping and shopping. Bliss! We stayed at the same hotel we always visit when in Bali, the Melasti Beach Resort. Highly recommended. It's so nice to arrive and have the staff recognise you. We also spent a few days at the Hard Rock Hotel. Boyo boy this is a nice place and great for the kids with beach parties in the middle of the pool every day at 4pm. The shot below is poolside. It was hard staying here but someone had to do it!

Back home I've been getting the studio organised for next year. My daughter is off to school next year and I am beginning to feel various levels of excitement varying from mild amusement through to jumping up and down 'oh my golly gosh, think of the hours of sewing time I will have'.

It might be spring or it might be me clearing the decks for some serious work in 2011, but the studio has had quite the beginnings of a cleansing session. I'm even selling some sewing machines! Yes, that would be plural. Machines. I have too many ie, more than five, so am making some room and clearing the space. A new built in robe/cupboard is also in the works to replace my white melamine rickety ones I have at the moment. Much excitement there too! Custom built cupboards!! It doesn't take much to get me happy.

Many exciting preparations have also been afoot for my new secret squirrel project that I will be unveiling later this week.

And the sewing has begun in readiness for Prospect Food Fashion and Wine Affair which is coming up next month. Mark your calendar - Sunday November 21st - if you are in South Australia and and would like to come and see some Silly Gilly wares in real life and off the screen!

So pics of new products to come soon. Pics of the new cupboard coming soon too! And the big unveiling of my new project to come later this week, once I complete the finishing touches. How exciting!!!

It's snowing in Adelaide

6 month old Pyrenean puppy + dog bed = not seen before meteorological occurrences...

One's nice... five's a collection

It started off with the donkey. He was sitting, very lonely, on a garage sale table. A long-ago loved little decoration up for sale. I just had to take him home and keep him company.

Then I got busy. Life simply got in the way. I couldn't spend hours each day any more, talking to him and keeping his mind occupied with discussions of mining taxes and bird-eating snakes.

So I kept a look out for a friend for him. Just to keep him happy and banish the already surfacing feelings of abandonment. Alas, the op shop and garage sale circuit came up empty till one fine morning when amidst elbowing grannys and whining children I spotted mr zebra hidden, cowering, next to a towering stack of crockery. The garage sale had come up trumps again.

Back in the studio the new acquistion settled in just fine. But soon there were mutterings to be heard. Donkey and the zebra kept piping up that they were sick of the names that were beginning to be bantered around. Ass... equus... so off to Etsy I went to try to bring some semblance of civility back into the studio.

Within a week the donkey and the zebra had new friends join the fray. Brown dog resembling a Scotty Dog with a massive head and Bambi's startled distant cousin George. They joined the duo but with wary eyes and with their backs turned. It was starting to look like nothing could break up the quarreling...

But of course, when you aren't searching for something it comes and slaps you upside the head. In a jaunt to a local op shop this week, who should be poking their perky little bouquet up from underneath the counter but vintage Fisher Price Easter Bunny! Hastily and recklessly I purchased the festive cottontail and brought him home to break up the ruckus. Who knew if he would have success as he technically wasn't one of them. He was plastic and wood; he was a toy. He was pretty but boy o boy was he effective. Any and all dregs of any backtalk is long gone from the studio and all four vintage planters and one super-ace Fisher Price pull along toy now sit cheerfully in the sunshine on my windowsill.

One's nice. Five's now a collection and methinks more will be adorning the sills of the studio soon...