{ Mu'Mu }

Be Afraid; Be *Very* Afraid...

I have discovered the joys of Mod Podge, have free wallpaper samples coming out of my ears and there are some bare surfaces in my house making me itchy. I think you know where this is going...

Sorry!!

Gosh, what can I say? Where are my manners? Sorry for just bailing out like that. Life just took over for a while, y'know?

So. Where were we? Well, I've been hit by the painting and decorating bug AGAIN - just corners of our home badly neglected that needed some well-earned TLC. Firstly, our old lobby area (you thought the bathroom was small? Oy...), which with a lick of paint, a new light fixture and some re-arranging of nooks and crannies, has now been officially designated the laundry niche. Yup. I got me a utility space. Kinda. More a futility space. But pretty colour.

I have some (new to us) furniture requiring several layers of paint pencilled in for these coming days, as well as various other things, and if that wasn't enough hopefully a shop update next week insha'allah.

Busy, busy, busy....

Have a great weekend, people!

x

On the Sticks

The new yarn from Calana Crafts didn't take too long to make it's way onto some sticks. I was just itching to get going with it. Settled on a pattern for a shawl, reduced the size of needles from 9mm to 3mm and am knitting up a shawl-cum-cowl for the neck {details on Ravelry insha'allah}.

Have I told you how much I love this yarn?

I do. A lot. Yellow and teal? Oh my.

Patchwork blanket

In one mad afternoon last week sometime I sewed together these six inch patches to form the top of a new throw/blanket for our bed.

The yellow quilt top blanket I made at the begining of 2009 has served us very well and looks really very attractive, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest, and well, I just fancied something new...

There is a mixture of floral prints, some I can't remember who by, but some Cath Kidston, Anna Marie Horner and Windham classics to name a few.

I have yet to finish it - I'm still waiting to find just the right sheet in a thrifting adventure for the backing, and insha'allah if I do then hopefully it won't take an hour to finish the backing and binding with perhaps ties to bind it together. As it won't have batting, it really doesn't need quilting.

So something new to keep the interior bright in these oh so grey days...

Simple Pleasures :: Colour in my Life

Simple Pleasures :: Colours in my life

Stash Building

Illness has stopped play in this little house; kids and Mama under the weather, but brightening our day? Well, a little love from the mailman. He rushes sweetness from the other side of the Atlantic to me as fast as he can (be bothered). Observe:

A couple of 'whatthehellwasithinking's and some scores. Altogether a nice bundle for the shelves.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go lie down... blergh.

The type of mail I like

It's good to wake to parcels like this. It puts a whole new boing in your step!

Fabric Love

Sometimes I just sit and stare at colour and texture and contrast. I can't explain it. It makes me happy...

This indie fabric is making my very happy - giddy, in fact. I know I say that a lot, but just check out some of these prints by Laurie Wisbrun over at Scarlet Fig.

I tracked her down (hm, that sounds quite sinister...) after seeing her prints in the Spoonflower Flickr Group, 'Spoonflower Fabric Designs'.

I think I actually *gasped* when I saw this one::

And this one might be coming to live with me::

In fact, they are all so gorgeous in such clever retro designs and beautifully modern colours that my biggest headache this week might be just how much to order...

She's a clever girl, no? People like this inspire me and crush me at the same time. On the one hand I am psyched and want to log onto spoonflower myself and start making things just as amazing. And at the same time I feel like I am already beaten by genius whilst all I can do is stand and watch.

But lucky for me, I can never get tired of looking at fabric, nor the legal high it gives me. And this little lot? I'd say it should be making me smile for a while yet...

New Collection :: Sneak Peaks - the one where I waffle...

Yeah. So. Sneaky peaks. Here you are. Some new shots of my new stuff. Just so you know, I'm tired, afflicted with hayfever, and a bit mardy today. I am also going to waffle and drone incessantly about this new collection, so if you don't want to listen about new designs and fabric and colour then, well, tough.

So. Here we are halfway through 2009. Did I say 'halfway through'? Can I just stop there and tell you that for me I feel like it should be the middle of March and omigodwhereismylifegoing and the end is neigh, the end is neigh etc. etc

Somewhere in Spring of 2009 I sat down and started messing around with designing some new things on paper - I played with colour, I dreamt of form and I found my groove with these shapes and colours you are about to see.

 

You know by now my love of mustards, honeys, golds and greys. It is a colour combination I love with a passion right now and it was only natural that I started there; also, because I envisaged an Autumn start to the new stuff and these colours scream Autumn.

I was drawn, after a few weeks' scribbling, to the hexagon shape, or rather the way I see it - the cube shape. There is something very Jungian about the cube; something very complete and satisfying {read "The Metapsychology of the Cube of Space: The Dimensions of Consciousness & the Structure of Human Experience" here if that tickles your fancy}.

Of course, this resonates with me on a spiritual level as a Muslim - 'cube' in Arabic is of course 'kaba' and the Kaba in Islam is, for those of you who have been living on Mars since the last ice age, the sacred centre in Makkah.

I've always been drawn to this image even before Islam; it is deeply embedded in me. In an abstract way, as Form, the symbol archetype is deeply meaningful. It is not surprising, then, that it made it's way into my work at some point.

What I find absolutely thrilling about this interchanging of the hexagon to the cube is the transcendence from a two dimensional shape to a three dimensional one, simply in way the object is viewed. Without any change in the object reality the inner landscape can transmute the information depending on viewpoint and willingness to see beyond the two dimensional limitations.

The black hexagon, or black cube, at the centre of the work is therefore no mistake or coincidence.

Being at the centre also invites the mind to repeat the pattern; patterns are integral to the way we as human beings function. We are pattern-seekers; we make sense of the world in patterns, and we form our mind out of the patterns we either believe to be there or invent.

Repeating the hexagon/cube around the black centre made the work dance, and spin, encircling, just like bees to honey. That is the notion that immediately sprang to my mind. A honeycombe pattern effect is therefore pleasingly reinforcing of this notion of bees encircling, and I have further reinforced this by adding a 'bee line' in hand embroidered stitches on some of the work.

 

Starting with cubes as the theme of this collection, I have worked the design into many of the pieces I aim to offer. It is something that I hope brings a coherence.

As well as being (hopefully) stylish and beautiful, another concern of mine is to make the pieces highly practical as well. User friendly - child (boy!) orientated - beautiful and practical. These are the things I am working on, bit by bit, day by day, up in my work space to be hopefully ready very very soon.

Did you read all the way to the end of that?

Aw, you're so nice...

Work Space cont'd

I've been trying to tart up the work space as it was looking a bit uninspiring in there. Still haven't received the work table and chair so contented myself with just adding pretty things to look at. And some of my favourite pretty things just happen to be a bunch of vintage sewing patterns from when prices were in old money (what does 4' 6 mean??)

And after covering the faces I decided to just stick the patterns up to see what they looked like before committing to buying frames. And I actually like it just like that. Still with the patterns inside! Maybe I'll get frames at some point but right now quite like the funkiness of the rough-n-ready approach.

My inspiration board is now back up and I've added a rail too. Being surrounded by pretty things and colours really does help me in many ways.

And some sneaky peaks tomorrow insha'allah!
xx

Space to work

It's been a busy week here so far. As well as general life and homeschooling and and and going on, I have also managed to shift a space in my work area to actually DO some work! I know! I can hardly believe it myself!

The room isn't finished yet; I don't actually have my work table or a proper chair to sit on - still waiting for those to arrive - and the space isn't really the way I want it - it isn't tarted up and things aren't where I know they'll be when eventually I start sitting down properly and working, but after carting a coffee table upstairs and finding a baby stool to perch on, some work HAS been flying off the machine. Oh yes masha'allah.

And can I tell you what having a dedicated work space means? Oh boy does it help to have your own space, a place where the machine can stay out; a place where no one walks past; a place where work can flow without interuption! It's glorious! I'm giddy with joy.

And better than that? Gifts of course! Something pretty to flutter it's lashes at me as I sit and sew and Twitter and blog - a present which now contain essentials of sewing paraphanalia - just too pretty to make dirty with caffeine, don't you think?