heart warming goodness

It's cold outside, so inbetween soup and coffees I thought I'd share some other warming things...

Firstly, I was walking down smith st the other day, past the in.cube8r gallery and I saw this dreadfully serious little owl staring out of the window.

It's made by Neptune's Necklace and I fell in love with it. I had to take it home. So I went in an purchased it. I'm currently doing my patriotic duty by spending my $900 on local designers and crafts people. I bought an AWESOME pair of pants from Manque the other day that are the most comfortable pair of nice looking pants I've ever owned. If you don't know about this designer, GO LOOK NOW!!! I desperately want almost every piece they make. Apparently these pants are a staple of their line, so much so they're not actually featured on the website! But they make them in a different fabric every year, and I'm hanging out for the next type...

Next in our lineup is this:
It's a medallion from a woven carpet of an old Masonic hall I visited on the weekend. Although they've redone the carpet in about the 80s, they treasured the old carpet enough to cut out a piece and frame it (hence the weird reflection on the top left corner from the glass). Imagine a whole room with carpet like this! Since the top has a black checkered pattern on it and the bottom doesn't, that makes me wonder if this design wasn't all over the carpet but instead was only the border, and if that was true, I wonder what the rest of the carpet looked like (see? The time spend reading that History of Textiles book was totally worth it!) There were a couple of old photographs of the rooms, but nothing showed the floor.

I'm thinking of making a tapestry based on this design. I'd love a recreation of an old craft work. In fact, I'm also making a quilt from sepia and white coloured material from old clothes. The pattern is based on a quilt in the The Gentle Arts. book. I'm all for using the knowledge and patterns of the past at the moment.

Last in our heartwarming series for today is this:
They're some of the many worry dolls that the ladies have made in the Knitting Workshop. This afternoon is the last class for the semester. We'll be making our favourite dolls into badges to sell at markets. It should be a fun afternoon.

If only I can find a jumper and my coat to wear...