Winter Colour Fun and The Olive Tree Market

'Girly Balloons' 2009 Diana Jones

'Flying Bed Girl' 2009 Diana Jones

'Swing a Little' 2009 Diana Jones

Another month, another Olive Tree market. It seems to come around so quickly. For this wintry month I cranked out some cute and super colourful collages to lift the spirits of my fellow Novacastrians. Was absolutely freezing and after coming back from the snow only the previous day, you'd think I could hack the north coast Winter. But nay, am big cold frog wuss. After jumping and jiggling up and down for a few hours (I'm sure to the amusement of customers) it slowly warmed up and I had a great day with my fellow carnie peeps. But now I think the snot has set in for the week, those are the breaks I'm afraid. And for some more colour fun - my eldest sister snapped a pic of me, miss six and my younger sister at the BusDepot Markets in Canberra. Looking particularly colourful, we were browsing the most amazing stall. The lady made elaborate leather slippers with all different scenes and designs - amazing. The coat miss six is sporting I made for her a couple of months ago. I sort of stole this project from my elder sister as it was driving me nuts that she started the project and just left it sitting there in my sewing room. The queen of procrastination that I am I had to finish this project before I could move onto my other projects. It is a beautiful swing coat, lined in hot pink silk for that swishy, swishy feel the kids love.

Collage Number 4

This is collage number four in my ongoing collage series. This particular collage is an extended or over the top version of my first collage. I'm loving these collages as they give me the freedom of doing a bit of over the top crafting. In other areas I have to show a bit of restraint, but with the collages I'm just giving myself full reign to whack as much or as little things on them as possible. I love this collage and it sold at the market on Saturday. Last month was the first time I had my collages on sale and frankly found it very difficult to sell them, because I became very attached to them. Now I'm trying to look at it differently and am enjoying people's appreciation of them and can actually hand them over to their new owner. Ok, I'm still not completely at ease with giving away something I love, but I'm getting better at it.

The Collage frenzy continues

This is number 2 in the series. I feel many more backing up. Still haven't got a decent pic of the girly bird one, stay tuned.
Lil' poem for this one reads;
We're moving to the country,
To smell flowers in full bloom,
We're moving to the country,
Clean air and lots of room.

Ta-da Quilts for Boys

This is one of the two quilts (doona covers) I made for a lovely local lady. I just loved making them and just love the colours she picked. The quilts will end up in a couple of little boys rooms. The oldest of the boys, Lawson did some cute little pics of a person eating an ice-cream and I think the other one is someone fishing and I turned them into a screenprint. I think they turned out lovely and hopefully they will have them for years to come. The doona covers are made out of linen, some lovely striped heavy cotton and denim. It is very Country Road/Ralph Lauren inspired I think. I also made some personalised bunting with the boys names, but of course forgot to photograph. Geez the quilts were a bugger to iron though!

Here is a project I've been working on the past week. A textile collage. I had this idea written down for a long time and have finally got it in motion. All the material I used was in my big bag of "what the hell am I going to do with these scraps" bag. The bottom pic is a bit crap as I left it too late in the day to photograph the finished product, so I'll endeavour to get a better pic tomorrow.

I wrote a little poem that is woven into the collage it reads:

Little birdy way up high,

Spread your wings to find a nest,

Not in a cage or in a tree,

But in loving arms you shall rest.