sue spargo

there was some serious business happening in the perth shop a few weeks back, of which the gravity I only truly became aware of on reviewing the pictures shown below.

sue spargo came to town, and our sue spargo devotees came along to her workshops with full intent to soak up as many techniques and tips as they could.  pens were to paper, and needles to thread and fabric with much flourish, and the results were inspiring!

this was the first visit by sue and her sister wendy to perth, and her itinerary was tight, so a little sight seeing before the day's events and a balmy winter's night feasting outdoors in freo town were pretty much all the girls saw of our wonderful state... but we look forward to a return visit with an extended time frame.

textiles, fibre, colour and good humour were bounteous as we squeezed ourselves into the hollowed out fabric room.

'calico' staffers suzie and deborah participated also, so if you would like tips on sue's techniques drop by on their shop days for a chat.

many thanks to the country girls who visited as you added such a lovely dimension to the dynamic

and many of you I hadn't met yet.

thank you sue and wendy, it was a delight to have you both in my home and teaching in our little shop.  

thanks also to all of the 'calico' girls for your input and help in the planning and execution of our busy weekend.

I will keep you posted on the arrival of more fabric and threads from sue's studio for your ongoing textile adventures.

Spring is on the Way, I Think!

Just a few snippets from my week. From the top, a quilt in progress, made with the exciting new range from Liberty of London - Bloomsbury Gardens - not in stores yet, but hopefully September. Early ranunculus in the best shade of pink! Vintage chair from the markets - that little emblem made my heart flutter.  And lastly, a few of the new Rowan yarns we have in store, so much goodness with those new yellows.  Hope your week has been a sunny one too!

New Stock

Whilst in Paris recently, we took the opportunity to meet up with Sophie Digard, have a chat, be overawed by all the magnificent samples that surrounded us and of course, bring some of them back with us.  Both the Mosman Park and the Balmain store are now brimming with Sophie Digard pieces - you'd be lucky to find a better selection - many of which cannot be found elsewhere Australia.  Come and have a look for yourself.  If you can't make it to one of our stores, we have many of them in our online store. 

Summer Fetes & Puppet Shows

All week it was heads down as we strived for the afternoon tea party and the "puppet show" to follow. Delicious cakes, Jubilee tea cosy complete with corgi and the afternoon was bound to be charming.

Julie Arkell's bunting to inspire us all.  Made from scraps of precious fabric, lace and trim.

Deb's beautiful bunting.  Deb even managed to pull together some mini bunting for our fellow table mates - Debbie T and Clare.

 This is Maude. She is Deb's puppet, complete with knitted vest.  She had a story, it was quite gory - I think along the way that there was a Claude and well, she dispatched of him!

This is my puppet, Celeste.  She collects mushrooms in the Dordogne, amongst other things.  She is only partly dressed. Missing is her apron and velvet sash.

This is one of Clare's two puppets.  Yes, two puppets!  Clare was a dark horse, who claimed she had no skills to speak, employed a team of willing helpers (some of them Australia - nothing like getting the convicts to work) and yet seemed to trump us all and produce two puppets and bunting!  I guess, this was her fourth Julie Arkell workshop!

 These are Deb's Julie Arkell pieces.

The wonderful girls that work so tirelessly to produce amazing meals for us all and provide everything we require in order for us to have an awesome week.  Thank you girls!

Now, if you are intrigued and would love to look at some Julie Arkell pieces of art, Punch Gallery is a little iconic Balmain gallery and they have had Julie's pieces for many years.  They are on sale over the weekend - perfect chance for your very piece!

Happy weekend to you - next time I will include some links to some of the wonderful girls that we shared the workshop with and also - Sue Spargo was in Perth last weekend!  I'm sure Deb has some pics to share.

The Promise of More

And so I promised more, so that promise I shall fulfil!  From Paris, Deb and I took the 2.5 hour trip on the TGV train to Angouleme, down in the the south west of France, the Dordogne region. We walked Angouleme for a few hours, beautiful town it was, and were picked up a few short hours later.  A car drive through the idealic countryside and we arrived at Les Soeurs Anglaises and were greeted warmly by "The Sisters" - Katie and Susu, the wonderful girls who help Les Soeurs Anglaises  run seamlessly and by Julie Arkell herself. Yes, do have a good look at their website - its gobsmackingly wonderful!  But come back!!  Oh, the magic, it had just begun.  Actually, it began over a week beforehand, it just had stepped up a few notches!

This is Julie.  And quite often was in various states of laughter (thanks Clare)! Often these fits of laughter where when she had one of her puppets in hand.  Julie gave us a few great instalments of her puppet show, but I'm not sure we saw the end of it?  These puppets of Julie's were the inspiration behind the papier mache puppets that we would make in the days to follow.

 On our first day, we made these flowers.  All hand stitched with little scraps of fabric.  Living in this frenetic world, hand stitching flowers can seem like a slow task, but, with a little perseverance we settled into this task and quite enjoyed the process, often whilst drifting off into a daydream - our surroundings were stunning - beautiful gardens immediately around us and then countryside beyond that.

The pics below are from a little secret brocante that we visited.  We all came up with a bundle of goodies each and some.  Here is Deb, picking off the fleas that came with us!

Our evenings were fun.  This evening we were entertained by a great little band - The Soggy Dog Ends.  Here, Clare and Katie are stripping the willow or something similar!

I will return again soon with photos of our "Summer Fetes and Puppet Shows". x