Africa love

I came across this today, Madeleine is a lovely and local crafty lady, but today on her blog I see she is raffling a beautiful quilt to raise funds for East Africa. The sentiment is beautifully put, and the quilt is equally beautifully made. I love her hankey blankets – not just cause I am a strange hankerchief collector – but also because they are really nicely done.

For a good cause and a good chance to win, enter here.

Handy bag

As part of Craft Victoria’s 40th Anniversary Celebrations Craft Victoria commissioned artists Dell Stewart and Adam Cruickshank to design a limited edition commemorative tote bag. The design features two hands, one drawn by Dell and one drawn by Adam, reflecting their history of collaboration in art and life, as well as a shared interest and support of all things handmade.

Available online here. The bag is designed to be customised and adorned with whatever crafty personalising touches you please. There will be a gallery of customised bags on the Craft Victoria website. Customise your bag, take a photo of it and email the image to Craft Victoria before close of business Friday 11 June to be in for a chance to win a prize.

I will post a picture of mine as soon as it's done.

friday

I dragged my tired and overworked boyfriend along to the Chicks on Speed performance. It started out with a talk and slideshow by Dylan Martorell, then they played, Dylan, with Alex and Melissa from the Chicks, all of them showcasing some pleasing hand made instruments. Most pleasing for me was the shoe-guitar feedback and the bum slapping beats, which reminds me of what I like about these ladies. It was funny, painful (look at that little red bum!) and pleasing and simple.


I also enjoyed seeing the lady from the plant craft cottage peeking out from backstage at it all. Which is another thing I liked about this, a rather incongruous bunch of things coming together in a productive and inclusive environment. Thanks Craft Victoria! It appeals to me, this bits of everything approach, as you may know, if you know me.

I really enjoyed it, and having visited the space a few times, it's nice to see it evolving. I was most excited by the tapestry theremin being woven on-site, and I fully intended to take a photo, but I am bad with photos, now I don't have a camera. (All photos by the man with a camera, Adam) Mostly I'd like to see it played, though I guess that will happen somewhere else, sometime later.

Later that night we drank too many beers and whiskey at home and rolled Wardy around in a barrel.