Just when I have decided to get this blog moving in different directions, life has gotten in the way. I have too much on my plate. I am finding I have given up any time for me or my little girl in exchange for continuing this. I miss whiling away the hours with her. I need space with her when I am not thinking about what I have to do next, how to keep up, expand, fit more into the day. So, I have decided to take a few month’s break from this blog.

I will be back in a little bit. I am hesitant to go, even for a while. But while I am gone there is so much on this site to keep you going. There are over 250 tutorials that will keep you busy I am sure. While I am away from writing and posting, I will also be working on some site maintenance and upgrades.

Thanks for reading this blog, thanks for supporting me. I will miss the constant support, kind comments, laughs and connections.

Take Care and Have a Good Time……….

Mia

xxx

(Photo of Apron for May Apron Swap Uploaded by Painted Fish)

PS The May Apron Swap is still on! I will be posting about that when I see some photos on our Onehourcraft Flickr Group. So don’t forget to upload your photos when you are done, and please send your apron by June 15. Thanks.  I love the photo above of the first apron by Painted Fish.

Needle felted flower at Craftlog. Makes needle felting look simple.

World’s Longest Scrunchie at Allsorts.

Pom-poms and Luminarias from Martha Stewart. When I get time.

Homemade Sun Jar at Not Martha. Awesome.

Home Made Tofu at Bryanna’s Vegan Feast.

(Photo above: Machine-felted wool sample from The Thread Studio)

Onehourcraft’s Mia and Kate hit the Perth Craft & Quilt Fair today. What a day we had! So good, in fact, and so much to share, that we will bring it to you in a series of posts over the next week. We spent all day filiming, interviewing, taking photos, and collecting information on crafts, crafters and products we loved. We were hunting for stuff that was funky, new, innovative and a little edgy.

It was also awesome to meet some of our readers. Thanks for coming and saying ‘hi’. That made our day, and I am so sorry if hugging some of you (who I ‘know’ from the Net) was completely inappropriate, but it honestly felt like meeting old friends.

Tonight, we have for you, our list of top five exhibitors to visit at the Fair. Of course, you only have tomorrow, so get up early, wear more practical shoes than stiletto boots (good one, Mia) and get there, somehow.

A few tips – There was plenty of parking underneath the Convention Centre today BUT bring cash with you as the ATM machine was broken. Also, the cafe was a great place for lunch – they do fantastic wood-fired pizzas but bring your own drinks to the show, as a bottle of water will cost you $3.70.

Our Top Five Exhibitors are:

1. Miss Rose, Sister Violet. This is an exhibitor who really stands out with her charisma, her charm, her creativity and her incredible range of beaded fringes and velvet flowers. You will not miss this exhibitor. We were so impressed with the owner, Gabriella. Go to her workshop and be inspired!
2. Punch with Judy. This is the first exhibitor on the right hand side when you walk through the door. We know they have been around for a while, but fell in love with the pleaters and the many uses. And also with the owner. He talked to us about their products for more than half an hour. I can’t believe the number of uses for a pleater, from making rosettes to prairie points, flowers and shark’s teeth. The list goes on and a pleater is definitely on the wish list.
3. Sanshi Fabric & Fibres from Japan. Vintage Japanese kimono fabrics. Must I say more? We particularly loved the fabric reprints of old Japanese postcards. Exquisite. And I loved the cute button hair clips, made from kimono fabric.
4. The Thread Studio: We loved the colourful, inspired machine-felted and needle-felted wool samples here. I loved the felting machine. That will be on my wildest dreams list, along with a quilting machine, of course. We loved the needle-felting kits they had and thought that these samples could be used for a myriad of things, from brooches to wrist cuffs.
5. Patchwork on Central Park. This is a small exhibitor but it really caught my eye, firstly because they carried Anna Maria Horner’s new range of fabric, Chocolate Lollipop which I loved. My only question, why does it have to be that expensive?? We also fell madly in love with Aussie crafty designers, Melly & Me, who had some very cute softies and bag patterns for sale. My favourite product, and I wish now that I had bought some was the owl fabric by Melbourne designer, Kristen Doran.
   

To give a fair review, we also want to share some disappointments of the day:

• We wanted to see more young, innovative designers exhibiting. And would have loved to see more young people attending the show. One only has to browse the Net to see that there are loads of young artisans making incredible products.
• We wanted to see more NEW products. Mostly everything we had seen before. We were looking to wow you with new innovations, but no luck in that department.
• Exhibitors who did not know their products. There is nothing more annoying than talking to a salesperson who has very little knowledge about their product – it happened several times during the day.
• Beaded coathangers and beaded wire thingamijiggies to wrap around vases ‘to display near a bathroom window so that when the light streams through the effect is luminating’ (a direct quote).
• Husbands who whine. Why did they come?

Thoughts?

Go and enjoy!

Mia and Kate

Hi ya Perth Crafters,

If you didn’t get along to the Craft & Quilt Fair last year to see, amongst at least a weekend’s worth of other crafts, the beautiful Japanese Quilt Exhibition – make sure you don’t miss it this year! We went last year and had trouble leaving.

What could be better than the a whole exhibition room at the Perth Convention Centre filled with new crafty loveliness, innovative new techniques, great workshops? I guarantee that the place will be electric with ideas, excitement, brains planning new projects, new discoveries, exciting purchases and chats.

And we will be there as press. We will be there for most of Saturday, taking photos of people, interviewing the public, interviewing workshop coordinators, reviewing the latest techniques and products to hit the crafting market. If you see me, Mia (my photo has been splashed around enough on this site for you to know me) with a gorgeous redhead, a bunch of cameras, a video camera and a computer – PLEASE COME AND SAY HELLO! We would love to meet you! I love meeting readers of our site.

So come and join us at

Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre
21 Mounts Bay Road

See you there,

Mia and Kate

xxx

PS If you live in another capital city in Australia, the show will be coming to you soon. More details here on Saturday!

All people involved should have received their swap partner’s name and email address today.

Enjoy making your aprons.

Any questions or problems, please let me know asap.

Thanks

Mia

PS Sorry guys I can’t accept any late people. But please still make an apron with us. Why not a flower apron like the one above?

PPS Anyone got more great links to apron patterns or tutorials?

PPPS And Justin thinks he is bringing sexy back?

Last night we had our first workshop for OHC. It was really a way for Mia to test out a bag pattern and teach it to a bunch of friends all with very different levels of sewing experience. But everyone was in luck because they went home with a gorgeous bag. What a great night. So, busy, we barely had time to chat, with all the cutting out, pinning, sewing going on.

Photo above: Em, Mia, Rachel and Luciano the cat.

Photo above: Mia, Rachel, Em, Dale and Nicole.

Our night was full of surprises. We even had a very enthusiastic guy come along. Dale (who I don’t think has ever made a bag before) made his own bag out of brown fur with a gold disco pocket and made us all hot drinks!

Our next crafting night will be very soon. It will be to make aprons for our May Challenge and Swap.

Thanks to all my friends (including Rohana – sorry all your photos came out too blurry) for coming along and giving everything they had to the evening. I look forward to the next one.

Mia

xxx

PS The bag pattern will be available to buy very soon!

PPS Sending out swap partners on Sunday. I have lots of work to do!

Can read our new FAQ page, if ya like.

Mia

Hi ya onehourcraft readers and lovers, we are just writing a quick note to say that we are nominated in the Blogger’s Choice Awards in the following four categories:

We would love lots and lots of votes. Actually we would like to win. So please click on one of the images above, register and start voting.
Thanks, we really appreciate this!

Mia

xxx

PS Right I am done pimping my site!

‘Cooooeee’ is extreme Aussie slang for ‘G’day’ which is unextreme Aussie slang for ‘Hi’. I nearly had a heart attack last night when I managed to cause a fatal error on this website. I went to bed wondering if it was fix-up-able. Times like these when the thousand hours or so of work that has gone into it flashed before me and I thought, ‘darn I could have spent that time socialising’.

As it is, we are up again. And to answer the main question I have been asked today – yes, you can still enter our May Apron Swap (scroll down for details) – will leave it open until the weekend when I will sort it all. I have decided not to cut off numbers at 100 now I have a handle on this thing. I am so impressed that

everyone so far has actually read the instructions. Yippee. So enter now!

I learnt an important lesson. Maybe I can’t do everything all by myself. I know that php is a little out of my league after that fatal error (what a terrible thing to call it). So, if anyone knows a person who does GREAT work on websites and knows php and has a sense of design, and lives in Perth (I would like to sit down and have a chat), I need to know! The site needs things done to it that I am just not willing to try. Again.

Have a good day!

Mia

It is Wear an Apron Day! Apparently. Well that is just fine with us. We are into aprons this month at OHC. Is there another item of clothing in the world which conjures up more diverse images in the mind? For the average man, say ‘apron’ and they think french maid outfit, tiny black dress and white frilled apron. Say apron to me and I think Stepford Wives, kitsch, somewhat ironic, and absolutely useful and cute, all at the same time.
On that note here are some links to gorgeous apron patterns and tutorials to give you ideas for our May Apron Swap!

• Ruffle Apron at One More Moore.
• Nana’s Reversible Half Apron at My Longest Year.
• Suzy Homemaker apron tutorial.
• My favourite is the fifties half-apron tutorial at craftster. I can’t wait to try out those cute pockets.

Register quickly as places are filling up. We will leave registration open for a few more days. Check out details here!
Aprons Rock!

Mia