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Posts Tagged ‘craft’

What would Jane Austen keep in her sewing box?

Posted in Design, Dress, Embroidery, History, Jane Austen, Quilting, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2012 |

I don’t have a huge collection of 19th or 20th century sewing tools, just a select number of things I have inherited or found at vintage fairs. But I have meet people who have a passionate love of collecting sewing tools, and they have some truly amazing items. But aside from that what would Jane [...]

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I can sing a rainbow….

Posted in Colour, Craft, Dress, History, tagged , , , , on February 10, 2012 |

Colour is so much a part of the world for me. I think that’s one of the main reasons I enjoy craft and design. The colour of new wool, the patterns on fabric or a 6 inch scrapbooking pad…… I used to really suffer sitting at a desk in a grey painted cubicle factory.  A [...]

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Should You Write A Craft Book?

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2012 |

I went down the traditional find- a-publisher route for my bestseller Jane Austen’s Sewing Box: that is, make a sample project, write a chapter, search for publishers who might be interested, contact, cross fingers and hope….. and I was very lucky to find the amazing Kay Scarlett who completely understood the vision, and took it to [...]

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Caring For Your Collection

Posted in Architecture, Design, Embroidery, History, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Source: Flickr – Maguis & David I have been greatly looking forward to the Ballarat Heritage Weekend - it looks like a wonderful opportunity to take a sneaky peak into some of the gorgeous Victorian buildings.  High on my list of ‘must- sees’ is the chapel at the Loreto Convent which I have been led to believe is [...]

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Sewing Early Sydney

Posted in Architecture, Design, History, Sewing Projects, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Book Review: The Colony By complete chance, I happened to be reading Grace Karsken’s The Colony: A History of Early Sydney when I heard her discussing the book on Radio National’s By Design. This one is by far one of the best early Australian history books I’ve read. I enjoyed her book very much, particularly [...]

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Victorian Christmas Decorations

Posted in Sewing Projects, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I have to admit I’m a bit of a fan of Christmas – but not the modern overly commericalised version that we experience today. I love the “old fashioned” Christmas with handmade decorations, simple-and not-too-many presents, definitely no Santa Claus and lots of yummy food. I think my Aussie view of Christmas has forever been [...]

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Huswifes and Needlecases

Posted in Design, Embroidery, Jane Austen, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Huswifes I love huswifes, they are such useful sewing accessories, just the thing to carry your threads, needles and scissors. They were also the thoughtful gift a Regency gentlewoman often made for friends and family too. Here’s a few photos and links to interesting huswifes.  Here’s photos of the huswife I made for my book: [...]

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200 Years of Decorative Arts

Posted in Design, Embroidery, Jane Austen, Quilting, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

At one of my talks earlier in the year, a lovely fellow crafter asked me about how she would  find out what kinds of craft her ancestors had worked. I pointed her in the direction of an interesting book on Needlework in Australia (Marion Fletcher, 1989), but another book is a bit of a favorite [...]

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