by the meter

i have finally added three listing in my shop for custom handprinted fabric by the meter. you can choose 100% cotton (quilting weight), 55% linen 45% cotton (on the light side of mid-weight) or 100% linen (heavyweight), then choose one of my designs and your ink colour. they aren't particularly cheap but they take me quite a long while to print and will be done with extreme love and care : )  i have had quite a few inquiries about yardage in the last couple of weeks, including my first "big" order of two meters of stormy weather, shown above, which was super exciting for me. hopefully these listings will make it a bit easier for people to consider all their options for a project and free up a bit of the time i spend answering inquiries (not that i mind, people! ask away!).

as i was printing this fabric on sunday night i realised it was exactly 90 days since i officially launched my handprinted fabric business. i call it a business but really, it is still a complete hobby at this point, every penny i make goes back into buying fabric and ink and screens and i can only work about 12 hours a week. but i had a good long ponder and a smile over how far i've come in 90 days, how AWESOME everything is going with maze & vale so far, how happy i am with pretty much every little thing in my life right now. i started this venture as a way to explore the things i am most passionate about (fabric, design, colour, handmade), i want to stay small but busy for the next couple of years while my kids are at home and hopefully by the time sophie enters primary school (still four years away), i'll be ready for some big steps forward. i want a business i can be proud of, that i can run from home or more likely, a local studio, in the hours that my kids are in school and still be able to drop them off and pick them up, make their breakfast, lunches, dinners, spend time with them. hopefully, these 90 days have been the start to that. thank you to everyone who is helping me get there, sincerely.

treasured

i've been getting some serious treasury love over on etsy the past couple of days, including the australia day one (shown first) which made it to the front page - so nice! : )

op shop tip offs

i've been dragging the kids around* to plenty of our local op shops lately, in search of frames for both screen printing and for a photo feature wall i want to create in our hallway. of course, i also have to peruse all the other goodies on offer. i scored big time today by finding the sugar bowl for this bendigo pottery design award set that i bought at the salvos on glenferrie rd about 6 years ago. it came with a sugar bowl but was missing the lid, i loved it too much to leave it and have been keeping an eye out ever since. and today there is was for $2.99, just the sugar bowl with lid, finally waiting for me.




and i found this hand turned wooden bowl last week for $1. seriously, does it get much better??

anyway, while hitting all these op shops, i keep finding amazing things that i can't use for whatever reason and totally want to share the news so someone can snap these things up. like the gorgeous, size 37, camper boots i saw at savers footscray last week for $9.99. i'm a size 38 and it physically hurt to leave them there. or the AMAZING, huge, hand pieced hexagon quilt top that i saw at the salvos in newport (kororoit creek rd) this morning for $14.99. so i'll be posting random op shop alerts (mostly for the western suburbs as that's where we are) on my maze & vale facebook page. go on over if you want the heads up!


*they love it anyway. mae actually asked if we could go to the op shop this morning, so we could "look at the toys".

oh and excuse the last post of NOTHING. i have no idea why it is there but suspect that sophie and the ipod have something to do with it : )

sunki dress by figgy's patterns

when shelley from figgy's patterns asked if i'd be interested in reviewing one of their children's sewing patterns, i jumped at the chance. i haven't been sewing clothes much lately and if i was going to spend the time, i wanted something that i could learn from. they have a few to choose from (and more on the way) but the sunki dress* looked perfect. mae is suddenly all about dresses and i've never quite been brave enough to tackle a zipper on a garment before or made anything with interior pockets. and yes, this pattern was indeed perfect. i had such a good time working on this that i lost track of time, enjoying puzzling over construction and details and making sure i followed the instructions properly. because it's a bit challenging, this one. but the end result is oh so satisfying. the pattern is concise and well written. luckily i'd read amy's review of the same pattern so i knew to look for the online pocket tutorial on the figgy's website, which helped enormously. the zipper went in perfectly and i'm excited to have this skill to now expand my view of possible patterns for myself. i totally recommend this pattern and will be making another one for mae in corduroy with long sleeves for winter, maybe even one for soph too as the pattern runs from 18 months to 8/9 years (that's value, folks!). and now i'm eyeing off their jacket pattern, too...

the fabric is 55% linen/ 45% cotton, screenprinted with my torus design (the same O from my XOX quilt - thanks for all the lovely comments, by the way!!) in mustard with an overprint of confetti in light pink and a couple of quill feathers stamped on with my original, hand carved stamp. the side panels are created using a screen i made last month, just small dots on the mesh so i can print an almost solid colour. VERY, VERY satisfying to sew with your own fabric, let me tell you : )


*the dress pattern also comes with one for leggings which i haven't had a chance to make yet but definitely will be soon.

dreamy

a little hipstamatic fun at the royal botanical gardens : )

introducing:: the XOX quilt kit

i am super happy and very, very excited to finally share my very first handprinted quilt kit! this quilt has been in the works for weeks, i probably spent as much time mixing and choosing colours as i did actually printing the fabric,  constructing the sample AND writing the pattern/instructions! i wanted to make it fairly unisex, bright and colourful but with colours that are just a little bit off the norm, that have a little character, a little depth, if you will. it is available as a complete kit with the quilt top squares plus custom printed backing and binding fabric or you can just purchase the squares for the top and choose your own backing and binding fabric. either way, you also get a little instruction booklet guiding you through the very simple steps to put this quilt together and this would be an especially excellent project for a beginner quilter.











maesey and i had some good fun doing a little photoshoot in the backyard yesterday while sophie had her nap. sophie probably would have been a more suitable model since the quilt is cot/crib sized but mae takes direction so well and really does love to have her photo taken : )


it feels so great to finally have this out in the world! x

destash sale is on

head over to my onegirl etsy shop right now to grab yourself some bargains! australian's get $6.95 flat rate shipping and, if you order from my maze & vale shop within 24 hours of making a destash purchase, i'll combine the orders together and refund your maze & vale shipping cost. plus i have quite a large bin of m&v handprinted fabric scraps that is growing by the day so i'll be throwing a few extra pieces in with each destash order. hoorays all around!

destash sale tomorrow

it's been a busy week photographing vintage patterns and oh-so-much fabric! i'm actually a little bit embarrassed at how much stuff is going into this sale... and it's really such a small portion of my stash... (i haven't even touched my bins of vintage fabric for this one) but the sale kicks off tomorrow night, 8pm melbourne time in my onegirl shop. hope you guys can help me lighten my load! x

updated to add: my apologies, north american folk, i realise that the sale launch time isn't particularly good for you guys as it's the middle of the night but this sale is probably only going to be really good for aussies anyway. overseas shipping on large quantities fabric can get pretty crazy while shipping within australia is very reasonable (and i'm offering a flat rate shipping rate of $6.95 anywhere in australia for this sale).

new fabric panels

some new designs in new ink colours on new basecloths and a new size for 2012!! i'm now printing primarily on premium quality quilting cotton, although i still have a bunch of linen/cotton offered up in the shop (and it also works fabulously for patchwork projects) and i'll still offer linen/cotton as an option for custom yardage (coming soon!). i decided to follow the lead of a couple of other handprinted fabric designers and offer my designs as panels instead of fat quarters. they are only slightly smaller (34cm x 42cm instead of 50cm x 50cm) but they are much easier and quicker for me to print as i don't need to match up repeats and so i can offer them at a significantly lower price. only $10 to nab yourself a nice chunk of handprinted goodness or $18 if you want to nab two.