I’ve had this latest piece on my mind for about 2 months now and finally had the chance to put it all together. Again, it’s influenced by the current season (Autumn) and Asian themes.

On a 10″ x 12″ canvas board, I incorporated some straight stitching on the background fabric (which is embroidered with flowers/fauna) and used wool felt, various cotton fabrics, some toothpicks, and a friendship-themed note in Chinese that I picked up from Chinatown. You could read whatever you’d like into it but my intention was simply to portray a woman taking an afternoon stroll on a cool Autumn day, reflecting on a special friendship that has withered away with the passing of Summer.

I intend to make a few more of these, playing around with different background fabrics and fabric pattens for the woman’s kimono.

Here in Melbourne we’ve dived right into Autumn – the much needed rain has arrived, the winds have picked up, and the leaves are a fallin’. Autumn is my favourite season as I a much prefer the colder (but not wintry) weather and I enjoy the changing hue of the trees.

I decided to try an Autumn theme with a collage (while I take a breather from making softies!). I wanted to use a colourful backdrop and picked some of my favourite vintage-repro floral fabrics from my stash. I also wanted to use the opportunity to practice my sewing skills so I machine stitched in some basic patterns (straights lines and free-form lines, which can barely be seen in the picture). I then added the felt tree – a silhouette of many of the trees I see around my area – with the leaves just about to fall.

This was a very relaxing piece to make as I started off with a vague idea of what I wanted but didn’t have a firm picture in my head of the end result. I just let it all fall into place as I went along.

Some of the stitching did turn out to be a little bit wonky – especially the strand of ribbon I stitched in while paying too much attention to the TV! Oh well, just need to practice, practice, practice (and switch off the TV)!

I’m really loving the creativity and imagination embodied in some of the creations that are the result of “using of what you have” month. I found these to be particularly inspiring:

• Yukata Wallhanging
• Blue Bag
• Tanya’s Max
• Stripey Sweater Bag
• Gracie’s Bag
• Child’s Apron
• Diaper Box
• Multitasking Up Close

Hope they provide a little bit of inspiration for you too!

It was exciting to bid Chibi Kamiko adieu as she left for her new home in the U.K. She’s the first to leave the Chibi family and we hope she brings much happiness to her new family on the other side of the world.

At the same time, we’ve welcomed a new member into the Chibi clan – Kyra:

Kyra wears a cat-eared top made of soft suede twill, brown & pink polk-a-dot cotton tights (and matching tote), a wrap around skirt made from vintage Japanese kimono fabric, and an orange felt vest and scarf. Like Chibi Anya, she’s ready for adventures in the colder Autumn months Down Under.

I bought the most recent issue of the Get Creative magazine (Volume 2, Issue 6) and found easy paper-craft if you’re still looking for some last-minute ways to incorporate Easter decorations into your home.

This one involves cutting interesting paper into egg-shapes, sticking them onto poster-board of your choice, embellishing each egg, and then framing the finished piece:

This one is simply making use of different papers and embellishments to form Easter greeting cards:

And this one uses wooden or paper mache eggs, covered in washi paper to make interesting egg ornaments:

I’m still full swing in this softie-making burst. Here’s the newest addition to the Chibi family – Anya:

The challlenge with this one was not only to make it using what I currently have in my stash but to also go with the current Month of Softies theme which is “April Showers“. In the southern hemisphere, April does indeed bring showers and colder weather associated with the autumn season. So Anya is a little more rugged up than the other Chibis, sporting a wintry vest and scarf.

She wears a bunny-eared top of soft suede twill, tights made of vintage reproduction cotton, a belt made of circa 1970′s polyester (which used to be my brother’s shirt!) accented with one turquoise button, a felt baby blue vest, and a matching felt scarf.

This one was a lot of fun to make as I pushed my comfort zone just a little bit in terms of my basic sewing skills and I’m really happy with how she turned out.

Over this last week I’ve had a real burst of energy to create some softies. I suppose it’s another means to experiment with the fabric I’ve accumulated. This batch of softies is inspired by my daughter, Ava. When she was a baby, I loved dressing her up in jumpsuits that resembled animal costumes – she was so adorable in them! So what I’ve cobbled together are meant to be baby softies in animal rompers (as opposed to actual animal softies). In addition, one of our nicknames for Ava is “Chibi“, which I later found out is a Japanese term for “baby” – so I’ve decided to call these little softies “Chibis“.

Initially, I used a pattern for a cat that I had tucked away in one of my craft books. They’re made from circa 1970′s rayon polyester, felt and suede twill. Here’s the result:

Then I decided to experiment with my own original but simple pattern for softies and so Lulu and Kamiko were born!

Chibi Lulu is made from cotton fabric, including a vintage reproduction on the front, soft suede twill, and felt. She wears a cat romper and carries a little bag that can either hang off the shoulder or be tied around the waist like an apron. She stands 40cm tall.

Chibi Kamiko is made from Japanese-imported cotton fabric, soft suede twill, felt, and vintage Japanese silk that used to be part of a kimono (for the ears). She wears a bunny romper and also carries around a little bag/pouch. She stands 45cm tall.

The weather hasn’t been too great for photo-taking so it was a challenge to get the softies captured properly in natural sunlight – hopefully, they came out OK. Lulu and Kamiko will be available in my Etsy shop in the next few days.

With the hot Australian summer over, my husband decided to brighten up our little garden with some gorgeous purple and yellow pansies. I walk past this patch twice everyday and was inspired by their delicate beauty for my next range of collages. So here are my first two (out of five) completed collages in this range.

#005 “Pansy in Blue” and #006 “Pansy in Red”

Both collages are made from vintage reprduction fabric, decorative paper, ribbon, sequins and coloured glass jewels. I was tempted to play around with some ephemera but decided that a “less busy” look was probably more effective and suitable for the pansies. Putting these together was surprisingly very soothing after a busy day – the only thing that did bug me were cobbling the frames together . . . I’m thinking of replacing them if I can find a better option.

These collages are quite small and measure 6″ x 6″.

Hopefully I can complete the remainder (3 more collages) by the end of the next week and then I’ll put them up on Etsy as well.

First-up, I just checked in on Back-Tack for details on the 3rd installment and am SO EXCITED on what’s been revealed!!! If you don’t want to know what this Back-Tack is all about, skip to the bullet-point down . . . otherwise, read on. I’ve been itching to get into making softies again and have been mulling over fabric combinations, softie patterns, and the like over and over in my mind, and not really coming to any conclusion.

And then I skip on over to Back-Tack and guess what it’s all about – SOFTIES! And with a particular colour combo and pattern! This is just what I need to kick me into action. Hopefully I will be able to secure a place – I’ll have to wait until the 11th to sign-up. It should be interesting (if I get in) to see what I come up with given that I’m committed to use what I have this month!

And here are some other inspiring finds that I’ve stumbled across during my lunch-break surfing:

• I am particularly smitten with this collage made by Curious Bird – just love the mix of colours, patterns and the composition.

• So completely inspired by these gorgeous monkey softies created by Fiona of Hop Skip Jump. Their facial expressions are adorable as is their fashion sense!

• I’m in the midst of doing up a new room for my 2-year-old daughter and so am on the lookout for some inspiration for kids decor. These kids-room wall hangings made from new and vintage papers, designed by Kristina of Karkovski are so striking because of their simplicity and beautiful use of contrasting colours and patterns.

• Speaking of inspiring combinations of colours and patterns, check-out Bowie Style’s blog on Prints & Patterns.

Yay!!! Yesterday I received 2 of the fabric lots I bid and won on eBay. Here’s the first – vintage Japanese fabric taken from kimonos:

The fabric itself is quite soft – almost fragile. I have a few craft projects in mind for these but I’m not quite sure how they will hold up.

Here is the second lot – a large bunch of vintage fabric. Some of the pieces are incredibly generous in size and so I am stoked that I picked these up for a total of $9.95! I don’t think I could even come close to getting that much fabric for that price at any fabric shop in Melbourne. I’ve got a few ideas on what to do with these pieces but as I mentioned, some of the pieces are quite big so I’m thinking of making a few bags/pouches in addition to my original plans. Of course, lots of ideas but so little time!

I’m expecting one more lot of fabric to arrive in the next few days and then “Use What You Have Month” for me will truly begin in earnest – heehee!