Away...

We'll be away from the 27th of April until the 5th of May. All shop orders will be posted as soon as we get back & organised again. Thanks for your patience!

If you are in Brisbane... please come and visit us at the Stitches & Craft show Incubator stall 160/161.

See ya!

Twitter

Hey peeps, Bee just put links down in the sidebar to each of our Twitters (sorry there's no I&S one, none of us cbf'd atm), so if you want to hear all about the inane happenings of our lives, then go ahead and follow us!

A hard workin' day at the studio

Bee, Jac and Teegs hard at work

Today we were blessed with the company of the lovely Jacinta AKA JacRan! She kindly offered to lend a hand if we needed it, so we took her up on her offer in exchange for a yummy lunch and some fabric of her choice to take home. It was fun to have a visitor for the day and some help with folding & packing fabric for the show- thanks again Jacinta!!

Bee decided to document the day with some photos (something we always forget to do). Here's some more pics:


Lara cutting charcoal birch (and trying not to get too much boob in the photo) (Teegs edit: haha, compared to the usual boob levels, mission accomplished!)


Teegs prototyping Lara's cushion kit instructions (with Teegs' boyfriend's dog Bella slinking around in the background) 


How about that? Two posts in one day. On both my blogs! A miracle.

A date with the dressmaker

Teegs having her winter coat toile fitted by designer Melanie Liertz

A few weeks ago Teegs and I were in the city doing some much needed wardrobe-updating which involved seeking out new boots and jackets to weather the impending, erratic Melbourne winter. It is indeed a well known fact that it is impossible to find the perfect winter jacket when you're looking for it, let alone one that's actually warm enough for cold frogs such as Teegs and myself (Teegs edit: Amen, brother).

Sooo, with Rudd Money on the way, we decided to put it to good use - when it comes to buying local there's nothing like getting a local independent designer to make you an 100% wool, fully lined, tailored jacket.


Teegs having her winter coat toile fitted by designer Melanie Liertz

Thus ensued a trip to the Nicholas Building to visit (Teegs edit: the very brilliant and spunky) Melanie Liertz, former studio mate of Mattt before he moved to Gertrude St. Teegs' jacket we are referring to as 'The Princess Jacket' as it's all pretty (Teegs edit: you mean 'elegant') and fitted, with lots of layers. Mine is more of a military-cross-duffel jacket but also nice and fitted (Teegs edit: it's totally awesome, and has a hood!).

Teegs edit: one more note on how bril Mel is - I suffer from Idiopathic Scoliosis and as a result, am completely twisty and unsymmetrical. For those of you who have ever made a shirt or anything with a bodice, you know its complicated enough making two sides that match - Mel has had to make every single panel independently, and has spent ages moving seams and adjustiung lengths so that when its on me, I look straight! Which is totally awesome for me, but has meant a ton of extra work of Mel - Thanks Mel!

My jacket slightly more advanced than Teegs', still trying to perfect the hood

Needless to say we're VERY excited about these (Teegs edit: Hells yes!!). It's the first winter that I'm actually looking forward to. (Teegs edit: Kinda.)

All's Quiet

Though it's the calm before the storm. Since not much is happening atm I'll give you a quick run-down of happenings since the last post.

We sent our latest batch of fabric off to the heat setters on Thursday morning, then spent the rest of the day printing Birch, Ginkgo, Wrens and Seeds for Mattt - yay! Then, after a quick stop at the local booze-arium, we headed over to Matt's funky, new Gertrude St digs for a housewarming dinner Lara had promised we'd cook for him!

The deal was, Lara got him the new Jamie Oliver cookbook (she blogged about it's awesomeness), then Matt picks the recipe and buys the food, then we arrive and in a whirlwind of amazing cooking skills, prepare and cook the food, eat, then leave him with the dishes. Good deal, huh?

Oh, I forgot to mention that Matt did prepare desert - at our insistance, he melted some chocolate and cut up watermelon and strawberries... Some of you might have seen Bianca's Tweet about the choc dipped stawberries, those that didn't can probably guess it's content.

So that was Thursday. Friday morning saw me feeling a tad on the "tired" side, but both Bee & Larz were irritatingly perky. Of course. Anyway, Bee and I printed another stack of fabric for Knufflekid and that was the end of the week

Lara headed off for a lazy weekend down south-east somewhere... She gets back today so I'm sure we'll hear more about it tomoz. She was recharging her batteries before we thoroughly deplete them at the Brisvegas Stitches & Craft Show.

When I asked Bee what she did over the weekend she said, "eh, not much, let me think, shopping, bummin', more shopping, watching TV and generally being happy about going to the Netherlands." So, fishing for content, I asked her what she bought, "TV, food and a dress." *sigh* Sometimes it's like pulling teeth, people.

Anyways, I thought I would post some pics of Bella today - coz she's all big now, but it turns out I don't have the right usb cable so the pics are staying firmly on my camera for the time being. Sorry.

Ok, thats the first longish post I've managed to sneak in, in a while, so I'd better go prepare myself for some minor wrath. See ya!

xx Teegs

Modish & Little Mary Moo

We've been a bit quiet on the blog, but things have definitely been happening in the studio.

Poor Teegs was sick for the last 2 weeks (Teegs Edit: I wasn't merely sick, the words "death" and "bed" spring to mind, so much so that when I crawled back to the studio for a meeting, dearest Bee - upon seeing me after the worst of it, I might add - exclaimed "OH my GOD!! You look TERRIBLE!!! I'm sorry but you DO!!" ...You're jealous of my loving friends... I can tell) so Lara & I have been printing madly to get everything ready for the Brisbane Stitches & Craft show. Thankfully, Teegs is up and running again (Teegs Edit: Hallelujah!!) and we have managed to complete everything on the printing list. We're super excited about our trip to Brisbane and can't wait to meet everyone up there. Thanks everyone for the accommodation offers... we got a little bit nervous about not finding anything so we booked ourselves into an apartment. Should be fun, the three of us on a girly trip! (Teegs Edit: Fun, yeah right! Bee forgot to mention that it's a 2 bedroom apartment, and there's 3 of us, so I'm putting it out there right now- dibs not sleeping on the couch! You two can rock, paper, scissors for the other bed :D )

Whilst blog surfing on my couch tonight I came across this on the Modish blog.


Picture from Modish and Little Mary Moo

Such lovely bags & purses, by Little Mary Moo!

Ooh and Little Mary Moo is in Brisbane... please come and visit us at the Stitches & Craft show :)

Away...

We'll be taking a little break over the Easter weekend. All orders placed during this time will be posted on Thursday the 16th of April. Have a nice Easter!


Picture courtesy of Stpcallnmewalter

The big Brisbane call out

Well, as we've mentioned a few times on this here blog, Ink & Spindle is packing it's wares into suitcases and heading to the Stitches & Craft Show in Brisbane!



We're excited and a little bit nervous - Brisbane is pretty unfamiliar territory (for Bee and myself at least) and we don't really know many people up there.

We also don't know where we can/should stay. The show is at the Convention Centre on South Bank, and we're not exactly rolling in it so we're trying to find somewhere to stay that's cheap but still accessible (we might hire a car). Or if anyone has a spare room for three lovely ladies.... ;)

Anyway if anyone has any suggestions they would be much appreciated!

P.S. - we wont be able to do any workshops in Brissy but we will be doing our 'A Home Based Craft Business' seminar. Dates to come soon :)

Update: Thanks everyone for your response. We've booked ourselves a nice apartment 5 minutes away from the show and will be staying a little longer to enjoy Brisbane :) Thanks Kelly, for doing the search for us.

The studio that Like Butter built

The last couple of days at work have been très fun, albeit tiring - Bee and I printed 100m of fabric in 2 days. But we wouldn't have been able to do it without our new toy:


Printing Birch in Deep red

Our new drying system! Built and installed by the very talented Like Butter (of course).


Printing Ginkgo in Teal

The new system is sooo good! It basically doubles our efficiency (or more) because we can hoist fabric off the table and keep printing without having to wait for the first run to dry.

And it looks so pretty, with the fabric hanging like that :)

We also had our first Open Studio yesterday - thanks to everyone who came along!! We had no idea what to expect, who might turn up and if they might buy things, but it went really well! Next time we'll be more equipped with more stock and maybe some tea and coffee and biscuits. And maybe a printing demonstration, but we have to think about that a bit more...

Natural unbleached linen/cotton

It's finally here, our natural unbleached linen/cotton basecloth! Beautiful plain fabric for you to use in your crafty projects... together with one of our gorgeous prints of course ;)


... in our shop now @ $22 per metre.

Studio Home Creative

The lovely Julia Atkinson from Studio Home Creative sent us an email this morning to let us know about a compilation she made for World Sweet World. Have a look at all these wonderful finds... just devine!

Thank you Julia!

Admin Tuesday - sounds exciting, right?

Where are the weeks/days/hours going? (Aside from being spent trying to avoid Facebook?) We didn't do ANY printing today... or ordering... or packing - neither did we eat lunch! In fact no one, not even you, called us (and yes, we are feeling unloved)! And already the day is gone.

So, what were we doing? Basically a wholefatlotofnothin'. Well almost. We spent the day dealing with our shop, photographing and editing and uploading and editing again... and then editing again... and weirdly, it's been a long day - usually we're all like "Holy crap! It's 6pm already! We better go home!!" but today just draaaaaaged. Gah for admin.

But the good news is we have put some brand spankin' new colourways up in the shop! We printed these ones specially for the Stitches & Craft show - and if you like 'em we might print them again. Coz there's only a few bits and pieces of things left.


Antique Keys in Plum & Cream


Antique Keys in Olive & Chocolate


Blue Wrens in Chocolate


Blue Wrens in Honeysuckle (a notoriously difficult colour to photograph)


Ginkgo in Olive & Teal


Bonsai in Snow


Acacia in Inky Blue


Bonsai in Robins Egg

P.S Did you see we got a mention in The Sunday Age M Magazine's cover story? What fun! Thanks to Pip for recommending us!

Ok.

So. We're back from the show, and we've survived our brush with fashion, and now it's time to return to the land of printing and blogs.

A round up of the show: we had THE best time! It was awesome getting to meet so many fab peeps, our immediate neighbours included Kristen Doran (K-Diggity-Dawg), Nicolle Mallalieu (Nikki-we'll-swap-you-our-allen-key-for-your-screwdriver) and further along the Incubator secion we had Jodie from vintage ric rac (y'know the crazy one, down there, the one that brings us food! The one with the zipper mouth monsters that say naughty things!), Leslie (who swapped with us and now we all have treasured Oobee's - mine is Leroy!), the gorgeous Audrey & Maude ladies, Louise & Cathy (I'm sooo making those fab softies any day now and I love my new tote!), Johanna from one red robin, with more fab peg bears... and so many other fab people that I'll be here all night if I keep going!!

I need Lara & Bee here to help me remember all the great conversations we had!

xx Teegs

Refabricated Salon Show...

We'd like to share some pics of last Tuesday's 'Refabricated' Salon Show & Exhibition. The exhibition is on until the 22nd of March, don't miss out on seeing heaps of lovely textile based artworks and fashion.


Lara, Teegs & Bee - having a well deserved drink at the 'Refabricated' salon show & exhibition

Seeds in Plum & silk blend 50's style skirt - designed by Teegs


Wrens in Plum & denim skirt - designed by Lara


Ginkgo 50's style skirt - designed by Teegs


Acacia in Inky Blue & Grey denim skirt - designed by Lara


Bonsai in Robins egg & natural linen skirt - designed by Bianca


Sumor & denim skirt - designed by Bianca


Ink & Spindle wall art

Photography by Marcel Lee

In case anyone's interested... we will get our skirt patterns graded so you'll be able to make them at home :) They're super easy!

Open Studio...

We've had so many requests from people about where we sell our products, whether we have a brick & mortar shop, or if they can come by the studio to see our range, that we decided to open our studio to the public. Yay!

We've only scheduled one date so far but we plan to setup a small section of our studio for retail purposes and have an open studio about once a month. The rest of the time we'll still be open by appointment, but we figure this is a good way to setup some sort of shop without being taken away from our work during the week. (especially now we're so busy... getting ready for the Brisbane Stitches & Craft show) (edit: We'll also be coming to the Sydney show)

Our first open studio will be on:

Saturday the 28th of March 2009, 10am - 1pm

Please come and visit our 'shop'. We're at Suite 206/10 Elizabeth Street, Kensington.



Cash, eftpos & credit card facilities available.

We're Back

But exhausted... also, our brains are functioning at a much lower level than usual, so we can't make with the funny's or the pretty's! More later in the week....

xx Teegs

We'll see you at the Stitches & Craft show...

Just a quick post to let you know that our shop will remain open whilst we're away. Your order will be posted on the 27th of March.

See you at (or after) the show!

tree-mendously awesome to the max

I came in to work this morning and as I walked around the corner to our entrance I was greeted with this amazing, spectacular, fantabulous sight at our front door:


Come to the Stitches & Craft show and look for Ink & Spindle beneath the big tree!

Somewhere between us leaving the studio at 10:30pm last night and arriving early this morning, the lovely and talented Jem from Like Butter delivered and set up our tree. We'd commissioned this tree for the upcoming show, the prerequisites being that it could stand on it's own, and also be dismantled into pieces that would fit in our car.

I had the honour of getting to actually design the thing (with some great art direction from Teegs) and it's amazing to see it come to life.

Thanks Jem!!!!! (in chorus from the three of us)

Book yourself a spot...

Bookings are now open for the Stitches and Craft - Craft Labs.

To book a Craft Lab, please visit the Learning Centre Booking Desk, at the entrance to the centre, or book through Ticketek Telephone Bookings or any Ticketek Outlet. Bookings must be made at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the session and you should arrive five minutes before your session starts. Please note tickets are limited, so the earlier you can book, the more chance you have of attending all the Craft Labs you desire!

So if you're interested in any of our workshops, book yourself a spot today. Don't miss out, because spots and workshops are limited.

We'll see you next week!

earth quake

we just had an earth quake and it felt like our quadruple brick building was made of jelly!

a quick Facebook check told us that it was felt all the way from Frankston to Ascot Vale (and maybe more!!)

... update: from Bundoora to Cranbourne too!

2nd update: s'ok, it only went for a few seconds, we're fine, nothing even fell off any of the expedits!