greenolive

thank you & an SOS

The "Urban Type" design, all ready to be printed this weekend.

I was completely overwhelmed by all your comments and suggestions about what you would make from a greenolive textiles not-quite-fat quarter.

It was great to see some familiar faces and lots of new faces courtesy of the blog post from CurlyPops.

There are lots of great ideas – things I hadn't thought of – and feedback on the designs and the range was very positive. So thank you all very much. And, I hope some of you who visited my blog for the first time might come back every now and then.

Since you all liked the kids range so much, I thought I should tell you that both the Flutterby and My Bike designs will be printed on colours other than white. Here's a sneak peek at the other 100% linen basecloths we'll be printing on. I can't wait to show you photos on the final prints!

100% linen in white, hot pink, red, baby blue and big boy blue – all the colours in the Kids Range.

Oh, a winner. I haven't forgotten. I've decided to choose three winners, and will do this over the weekend. So make sure you pop back on Monday to see if you were lucky. I hope you are!

I'm sure you are wondering about the photo at the start of this post...well its the finished "Urban Type" design, exposed onto a screen and ready to print. It was the first design I did for greenolive textiles and I think it's my favourite. I have a real thing for typography, especially the old wooden type blocks that were used for printing many years ago. We'll be printing "Urban Type" this weekend in red, grey, black and silver inks on a range of basecloths. Yummy!!

An SOS

Angela from the Stitches & Craft Show emailed yesterday with an SOS. I'm hoping some of you might be able to help her out. 

She needs volunteers for the Craft Bar, a brand new development at this year's show. Her volunteers have unvolunteered themselves leaving her with a craft bar with no crafters!

The Craft Bar is a fun, free place where crafters can go and have fun with papercraft, sewing, knitting or embroidery. There are several crafty dishes on the menu, all you have to do is chose one. 

The volunteers (that's you) will be at the Craft Bar showing people how to do so some of the stitching projects.

As a volunteer, here's what's involved:

• working at the show for free, each day from 8.30am to 5pm

• free entry to the show

• lots of fun, the chance to meet people and share your passion for crafting

• small perks (not sure what this entails, but its sure to be great!)

So if you are crafty, have free time during the days the Show is on, and you would like to help out, contact Angela: angela.gualtieri[at]livingcreatively.com.au 

I sure hope you can, the craft bars sound like a great idea – I might even pop in to learn how to embroider – that's one of the few crafty bugs that hasn't bitten me yet.

calling all sewers

what would you make from your greenolive not-quite-fat quarter?

A close up of the Flutterby design from the Kids range, printed in red on 100% white linen.

If you were lucky enough to get your hands on a greenolive textiles not-quite-fat quarter, what would you make?

I say not-quite-fat quarter because these original hand-printed designs measure 35 x 45 cm, a smidge less than a traditional fat quarter (35 x45 cm = 13.7 x 17.7 inches for those of you who aren't metric).

I'm thinking softies, tote bags, cushions, small quilts, notebook covers, zippered purses...

A close up of the My bike design from the Kids range, printed in blue on 100% white linen.

What would you make?

Leave a comment with your suggestions and you'll go into the draw to win a greenolive textiles not-quite-fat quarter of your very own so you can make whatever you want.

PS: if you want to get your hands onto some of this fabric from the Kids Range or fabric from the other two ranges, come and visit me at the Stitches & Craft Show, in Melbourne, 11 to 15 March. If you aren't a local, I'll also be selling online (probably via madeit.com or my website.)

silk storage basket

the height of luxury

A recycled sari silk crochet storage basket – every home needs one!

I know I should have been screenprinting, designing my corporate ID or doing any number of things on my massive To Do list, but I just had to crochet this. A sari silk storage basket.

Why silk you ask?

Well, I had three skeins that I'd bought at Lincraft over 18 months ago while I was up visiting Mum in Brisbane. It was only as I knitted it into a moss-stitch scarf that I discovered it was the cheapie kind: too much black, over spun and a bit coarse. I promptly pulled it out, wound the silk into a big ball and put it away. I didn't know if I could be bothered with it. So it stayed wound and ignored for over 12 months.

I don't know what made me think of it, but this weekend I just had to make something with the silk. I decided to contrast the luxury and colour of the silk with the utilitarian nature of a crochet basket. You'll remember these baskets I made awhile back from left over yarn.

So, a silk storage basket – so lovely to look at. Now I just need to decide what to put in it. I'm thinking my tax receipts...

And now for something completely different...its now after 1.30 am Tuesday morning and I am up listening to the radio about the bushfire that is at the base of the mountain. The Urgent Alert has been downgraded to an Alert message BUT the fire is still not contained, and the winds are blowing it towards the mountain, with its sides covered in national park. The last CFA incident update (six hours ago) had it classified as large with 45 appliances in attendance. 

Tonight, for the fourth time in two weeks, we packed the car and evacuated, driving off the mountain in the opposite direction. Earlier in the afternoon around 3pm I could see the smoke as I looked from my office window out towards our mountain. My work colleagues and I watched while the smoked billowed, got blacker and then spread. Determining the fire was at Upway, in the near vicinity of the mountain, and a wind change was expected that would push the fire in our direction – I left work. My normal route home was unavailabe due to several road closures. My 45 minute commute became 1.5 hours, all the while driving towards the black smoke while stuck in heavy traffic. I watched multiple police cars with lights and sirens going rush past, in some cases mounting the footpath when the traffic blocked their path. Of all the close calls we've had this past few weeks this was the scariest. And what scared me most was that mr greenolive and I were separated, he stuck on the mountain without transport and me stuck in traffic, skirting around the northern edge of the fire.

Listening to the radio for the last 10 hours I've learnt that this fire is in the same location as a fire that caused devestation in the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983. I really didn't need to know this. And I don't need to be reminded about how fast the fires travelled on Black Saturday, catching residents of Kinglake and Kinglake West unawares. I'm feeling very unsettled, like the Dandenongs are just itching to go up in fire. And our luck is bound to run out. We've had three close calls so far, each fire in the foothills of the mountain. I don't want any more thank you. 

a little help from my friends

also known as market research!

I took my "mood boards" - a bit of a descriptive stretch, but let's call them mood boards shall we? - to work to get some feedback on the fabric designs I'm launching at the Stitches and Craft Show in mid-March.

We know I love them, but I'm biased aren't I? I wanted to find out what others thought, people who are not so obsessed with design and craft as I am. 

Well I'm very pleased to say that the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Ranges good. Designs lovely. The stories behind the designs interesting, endearing even. The colours great - but I'd also like that in dark blue please.

Three yummy mummies, two gen X, one gen Y and a token make - all demographics covered (sorry guys to reduce you to a demographic!)

So I'm feeling more confident about the launch of greenolive textiles. It seems the three ranges (yes, three) cover most tastes and demographics – even the blokes! Each ranges has a theme which carries through the designs, basecloths and colourways. They coordinated, but not in a quilty way, and I think that coordination is something that has been missing from local printed fabrics up to now.

More photos of the fabrics and the behind the scenes printing over the next week or so. I know you are waiting with baited breath!!

what does greenolive mean to you?

designing a corporate ID

This is my corporate identity without having a corporate identity – don't think its gonna cut it when greenolive textiles hits the stands at the Stitches and Craft Show. Do you?

I know its crazy. Me being a graphic designer and all. But I just can't design my own corporate ID. 

There was no joy when I tried ages ago. And there is no joy now. That's why I have a very basic and understated typographic treatment currently. But I don't think its quite up to scratch. Especially not for the big launch at the Stitches and Craft Show.

So that's where you come in. You can help me with this problem. I'm not really clear on the essence of greenolive. But I reckon, you, my faithful blog friends can fill me in.

What does greenolive mean to you? What words, characteristics or attributes do you think of?

I know I want it to be simple, restrained. Typographic. Not too tricky or fussy. Old school. And printed one colour (probably olive green) on some nice recycled stock.

Can you help? Pretty please? Do I need to bribe you with some fabulous screenprinted textiles?

Hurry up – I need to get stuff to the printer!

we've been busy!

very, very busy!!

One of the test prints we printed over the weekend. This design is from the tribal range – doesn't have a name yet....

Busy is an understatement. In between listening to the bushfire alerts on the local radio, checking the CFA incident website, and actually evacuating twice over the weekend, we managed to squeeze in a spot of screenprinting. About time too – the Stitches and Craft Show is just over three weeks away!

I'm still in design mode – and like a real designer I'm leaving things to the last minute. The designs are still not fully formed, but I have a good feel for the direction I want to go in. 

This one may look familiar to some of you, I showed you an early sketch in this blog post. And I haven't come up with a name – the names are the hardest part!

This inspiration for this range is Out of Africa mets big game hunter on safari. The range is quite strong and graphic, the designs have a primitive, earthy feel. They will be printed in rich brown and black on sand and brown linen. Yep, 100% linen. 

Both designs need some refinement, they feel a bit too big and not quite in proportion at the moment. We are madly tweaking behind the scenes in Illustrator. The original designs were done by hand, but this won't cut it when it comes to doing the screens.

All we've got to do now is refine the designs, order the yummy linen fabric, get the screens exposed, do the printing, sort out the packaging and then we'll be all ready to SELL OUT at the Show. (Finger's crossed!)

So what do you reckon? You like? What about 100% linen – yummy right? And, what about those names?

Give me some feedback, suggest a name, promise to buy them – leave me a comment with all or any of these and go into the draw to win one of each design in the colour of your choice!

PS – lots more pictures of the before, during and after of the screenprinting adventures of the flickr site.

PPS – just in case you are wondering – "we" means mr greenolive and I. We've decided the move into textile design means that he can be more hands-on with greenolive. It's much easier to get him to screenprint that it is to knit, sew or crochet. His official title is production manager. Mine is crazy uptight designer.

roving + spinning wheel = handspun yarn

a magical formula

The BEFORE shot: the Pigeon merino roving from Cloudlover69.

The AFTER shot: 2-ply handspun yarn. Two skeins – not sure of meterage.

I still haven't tired of spinning. I'm still amazed by the magic, the alchemy of the spinning process. 

You buy some roving. 

You spin and ply it. 

And you end up with this amazing, colorful, handspun yarn that is so exquisite that all you want to do it look at it, touch it, play with it. 

At least that's all I want to do. I can't bear to knit with it just yet, in case the finished object (let's face it, most likely a scarf in my case) doesn't do the handspun justice. 

All I seem to want to do is spin.

In fact, I'd be happy if you guys bought lots of roving and asked me to spin it for you. Hey, what about a two for one deal? You buy two rovings, I spin one up for you and I keep the other one. 

Whaddya reckon?

something soothing

Retreating from the hour-by-hour coverage, the pictures, the stories, the facts you just can't get out of your head, I find myself drawn to something comforting, something familiar.

In my case its Anne, my favourite crochet pattern made from left over dusky pink bamboo yarn.

The colour and yarn are just so soothing. So beautiful.

flutter-by

only 27 sleeps til the Stitches & Craft show!

I'm quickly running out of time – the days are fluttering by until the Stitches & Craft Show, 11 to 15 March.

I've got a huge to-to list and it looks something like this...

> sort out the fabric designs

> organise the screens

> source the base cloth fabrics

> organise the screenprinting

> design greenolive's corporate identity

> organise printing or business cards, swing tags, packaging

> photograph new designs for website, media kit and general promotion

> redesign the website

> write weekly blog posts about my preparations for the Show

> sort out the stall layout and signage

> decide on stall design, furniture, styling

> finalise pricing: retail and wholesale

> develop two projects sheets for Living Creatively website

> decide if I want to run any workshops

> anything else I have forgotten.

Oh, and don't forget to go to work every day!

Just in case you are wondering, the flutter-by (butterfly) has something to do with a range of kids fabrics I'm working on for the Show...interested?

still spinning

distracting myself

A bobbin of lovely green handspun single, spun on the new spinning wheel.

Thank you all for your comments and concern. We are safe, but are watching the fire at Gembrook closely. You can't help but be consumed by the fires, the havoc they have caused, the lives that have been lost, the effect this has had on the state and the nation. Radio stations are running emergency programming 24 hours a day. The TV morning shows start at 5.30am and broadcast from the worst affected areas for five and a half hours. The nightly news has turned into an hour and a half of bushfire coverage. We go to bed with an hour of live broadcast from refuge camps, falling asleep with horrific  stories in our heads. The nation goes to bed and wakes up with the bushfire tragedy. Authorities are predicting the death toll will reach 300. It currently stands at 183. As of this morning $32 million dollars has been raised for the Victorian Bushfire appeal. 

I've been distracting myself with a bit of spinning. It's keeping my mind and fingers busy and doesn't take too much concentration.

I gave the new spinning wheel a road test, deciding I should use should be something special, something memoriable. So out came the Loch Ness, this gorgeous green merino roving from Cloudlover69, one of my favourite etsy shops for roving. 

I have bought lots of roving from her, but until this batch, no green. Strange isn't it? Me being greenolive an all. To check out the other colours, see my flickr photo set. (They aren't all from her, but I've noted who I've bought fibre from.)

I was seduced by this green. And this bruised purple-blue roving caught my eye. So I bought both! I'm not greedy or impulsive, I just happen to think it makes good economical sense to purchase two rovings and save on postage costs.

The wheel and the roving spun like a dream! One bobbin spun, another to go, and then the plying – I'll let you know when I'm finished. I think it will be gorgeous.