they may be scraps for some...

...but not for others!

I've been replenishing my scrap fabric collection lately.

Found these lovelies at the Bowerbird Bazaar market from Surface Art. The first thing that comes to mind is a skirt for moi.... I think one of pieces is large enough to do a front panel... oooh....could be a goer.

Then I was super dooper lucky to win these Maze and Vale handprinted pieces by the clever Leslie Keating over on her blog. Oh yeah, I was pretty chuffed. She seems to always add a little extra to the package, like this a few years ago. Last week she threw in the linen circle brooch. So sweet. Thanks Leslie!

Goodbye and adios to this collection of toys. They're heading off to a new retailer here in Adelaide. Will let you know more when they are in store :)

Wishing all the mums and grandmas a lovely day for tomorrow xx

buying handmade for christmas

Last year I had planned to make Christmas gifts but my pregnancy fatigue had other plans! Just incase that happens again (oh no not the pregnancy bit... but the lack of production) I have a backup plan. Shop handmade.

Here's a couple of links showcasing great handmade gift ideas and beautiful online shops where you will be able to find something for everyone on your list.

Irene of the amazing Bloesem Blogs (seriously good reading) has put together her Bloesem Kids 2011 Gift Guide.

Magdalena Orlik has been curating this gallery of Etsy Designers and their shops on her Design Dot Team blog.


Happy Shopping!

#20 softies for mirabel

There's not been a whole lot of toy making going on at the moment, but these guys took priority. It was getting closer and closer to the "Softies for Mirabel" end of November deadline, so I think I've managed to allow just enough time to package and post them over to Pip in Melbourne. She will be displaying all of the donated creations in her shopfront window from Dec 1 - Dec 7, so if you're in Melbourne pop by for a gander. Don't worry, if you're not, you can check them out here.

The Mirabel Foundation is an organization that provides help to kids who have been orphaned or abandoned due to their Mum or Dad's drug addiction. All of the donated handmade toys will be thoughtfully matched up with the children and gifted for Christmas. Yay! 

(another item completed on the 40 before 40 list...)

fede in the press

HERALD SUN HOME MAGAZINE MARCH 13 2010

This is the first time my mug has appeared in the printed press which made it a very exciting experience for this little maker. The telephone interview was quite nerve wrecking and I'm sure I waffled and waffled.... and then waffled some more!! Nervous energy makes me babble. Lucky for me the ears of a professional waffle sifter were at the other end to make sense of it all.

I am very grateful to all of you folk from Victoria (home of the Herald Sun) who have made contact with me and/or purchased toys from my online shop. Your response has been overwhelming and very flattering.

Thankyou to Louise and Joanne at the Herald Sun Home Magazine for putting it all together.

I will be uploading new toys and a hand full of new cushions into the shop over the next few days - products of my recent "making" frenzy!!

Also to come are photos of last weekends fabulous Bowerbird Bazaar......

my talking fabrics

When I spend a lot of time in my sewing room my brain starts to go into overdrive. My fabrics are all sitting out on their shelves and simultaneously yelling out ....."pick me...pick me". Yes! You may be right - perhaps I am borderline crazy (some may say genius??) but it is infact working for me in a creative way. The only problem I have with these talking fabrics is that they all inspire me at the same time and then I get all confused and leave the room with about 100 new design ideas. I need 100 assistants to help put it all into action.

Never the less I have managed to work through a couple of new ideas which I plan to test drive at the upcoming Bowerbird Bazaar.

Cushions - back where it all started a long time ago. I'm feeling the love again and hope to build up a little range. I'm currently drooling over vintage pillowcases I find while thrifting and the panel cushion is my version of granny chic (with just a bit of masculinity to make it not too fru fru).

Rainbow Utensils. Mix 'n Match softies in plain colours. The buyer gets to pick the colour combinations of their choice. To give you an idea of their size the knife is about 30cm / 1 foot in length. All going well I will be making them available in my Etsy shop some time in April.

I'm taking the plunge

Do you remember when I was contemplating taking part in the Stitches and Craft Show? I did a lot of thinking about it and decided in the end it was too risky for a first time market experience. This year I plan to be a buyer and maybe then a seller in 2011.

images courtesy of Bowerbird Bazaar

Instead, I'm joining forces with the fabulous Fiona of Hop Skip Jump and will be presenting myself and my toys at the next Bowerbird Bazaar, held in Adelaide this March. I am very excited to be sharing a stand with Fiona, whom I have long suspected was separated from me at birth. See here for further explanation. A big hello and welcome if you have popped over from the other Fiona's blog.

The Bowerbird Bazaar is a relatively new design market, held for the first time in Adelaide last October (2009). It is the brain child of 2 local business women, Jane Barwick of In-Sync Design and Rebekah Cichero, of One Small Room. For pics of last years event see here, courtesy of

Denis Smith.

So what this has done is make me into a mad crazy deadline driven sewing mama. Go Go Go!

If you are local then you really must mark this in your diary. Come and say hi!

BOWERBIRD BAZAAR - Adelaide's Design Market

March 26th - 28th 2010

Queens Theatre, Playhouse Lane, Adelaide

It has also motivated me to attend to an item that has been on my to-do list for at least 12 months. A sewing tutorial to make a fede baby hammer rattle. I will be making them available for the first time at the market in the form of a sewing kit, with cut fabric included. All going well I hope to then make a PDF tutorial/ebook that can be purchased online. Here's a sneaky peek.....

and the winners are...

Chloe + Kaycee

Now the funny thing is that you both requested the same bird hammer toy! What were the chances of this happening? I think the only fair solution is to make a second hammer toy with the same fabrics. It's nice to know some of my designs can be equally popular with both genders.

Thankyou to all of you who took the time to enter the giveaway. While I'm feeling all festive and oh so generous I do have a runner up (this means everyone who didn't win) solution to offer. It goes like this...

For those of you who have fallen in love with the toy of your choice (and how could you not? :) I'm happy to reduce the selected toy price from $20 to $12 (plus the cost of shipping) for the remainder of the week, with Sunday 6th December 2009 the final day to purchase with this offer. This is the cut off day for international shipping orders before Xmas, so I can get them posted to you on the Monday.

If you would like to take up this offer please leave me a comment with your email address, or alternatively email me at: fee dot dyer at gmail dot com . I will require your Etsy Username (free to join if you are not currently registered) so I can adjust the listing to your reduced buying price.

If this all sounds confusing, it's really not, it's probably just my "I'm writing this at 1am" way of explaining it!

Time for zzzzzzz. Nighty night.

new packaging

I've managed to get one thing crossed off my list - new packaging. Yay! I know it's very simple but hey, that's me. Found these cellophane bags here on Ebay. These Etsy postcards are no longer available (I purchased them in 2008) but they are a great way of promoting both Etsy and myself as I've attached fede stickers to each one. The swing tags I designed and printed myself.

Maybe this means I am one step closer to biting the bullet and taking that stand at the Stitches and Craft Show in Adelaide in March.....

Last day today to enter the XMAS GIVEAWAY. One of these toys could be yours!

xmas giveaway

Ho Ho Ho

The festive season is here and I'm in the mood to giveaway fede toys to two lucky readers.

UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS TO CHLOE & KAYCEE - YOU ARE THE WINNERS!! See here if you entered

In fact I'm feeling so warm and fuzzy, I'm going to let you take your pick from my shop here (select your favourite $20 toy) and leave me a message with the details as listed below.

I'll be picking the names out of my Santa hat and announcing the winners here on Tuesday December 1st, one for a boy and one for a girl.

Please remember to leave me the following details

1. your name

2. the toy you wish to receive

3. is it for a boy or girl

Good luck!

four!

Made as a custom order by request this little golf club baby rattle is so cute! May it be the start of a new golfing career for the little New Jersey owner.

A range of Golf Club Rattles will be available in my Etsy shop soon.

meet biddi

She's from an older generation and has stories to tell. She's looking for a new place to call home. Biddi is really quite charming with her long woollen legs and big cheeky smile. There's nothing she loves more than a good cup of tea and a midday movie. If you're looking for a little bit of vintage she's your girl!!

baby tools to go

available now here

back in the saddle

Getting my sewing mojo back.

One for the girls.

One for the boys. Find them for sale here.

snap

I'm so excited. I stumbled onto a new creative blog and found myself absolutely and thoroughly entertained (yes I'm smitten). I wanted to share with you these incredibly adorable softies. Oh baby, it was love at first sight for me.

Anyway, what makes it really, really cool is that the author is from Adelaide (like me) and her name is Fiona (like me). SNAP!

Please drop over and check out her HOP SKIP JUMP blog. Fiona is a mum of 2 children (like me) with a boy and a girl (like me). She is a graphic designer (I'm an Interior Designer), a part-time toy maker (like me) and a lover of fabric (OK this is getting ridiculous now).

I think we must have been separated at birth. Spooky!

the runcible spoon

Runcible spoon.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A runcible spoon is a utensil that appears in nonsense poetry, which also uses the adjective "runcible" to describe objects other than spoons. It is fundamentally a nonsense word.

Edward Lear's best-known poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, published in 1871, includes the passage:

"They dined on mince and slices of quince,
which they ate with a runcible spoon."

Modern dictionaries have generally defined a runcible spoon to be a fork with three broad curved prongs and a sharpened edge, used with pickles or hors d'oeuvres, such as a pickle fork. It is occasionally used as a synonym for spork.

catching my breath

Whoa! ......life just ramped up to a crazy pace! I've been busy trying to divide myself in way too many pieces and finally came to realise it just ain't possible (if I wish to keep some sanity that is). Hence my disappearance over the last month.

In complete contrast to the current growing momentum, I have decided to slow things down with regard to fede and concentrate on the family / home renovation project until the end of the year. You know how it is when your head is just swimming with so many things to do you feel like you just aren't getting anywhere. I would rather do a few things really well than a lot of things just OK. Don't worry, I'm still very passionate about my work and will be back with a vengeance next year.

In the meantime, I do have some exciting news. My baby rattles will be appearing in a couple of new boutique stores over the next few weeks. One is local to South Australia, and the other in California, USA. Stay tuned as I will be posting soon with more details about these fabulous retailers and where you can find them.

ciao green

Farewell to green week (6 week Colour Challenge).... oh yeah it has been fun! Then again, how could it not be when it's my favourite colour. Having said that these utensils were a little more challenging as I find purple one of the hardest colours to work with. Mmmmm.... maybe we should have had a purple challenge week???

This coming, and sadly final week of the challenge will be another favourite for me - Pink. I'm sitting here looking at a pink & green stripe cotton on my shelf and it's calling out for a pair of boys pants. I know that sounds weird as you're thinking "pink"? for a boy... what is she thinking??? It's a dusky pink with racing car green. I'm hoping to give it a try. Firstly however I have to get around to see Mum to borrow a super easy pattern she has for boys summer pants. Elastic waste, 2 seams & cuffs. Sounds simple in theory!

I'd just like to say congrats to the other participating colour challengers who have joined me in this week by week journey. It has been great to share our interest in crafting/creating and give a little encouragement & inspiration to each other along the way. Thankyou all for your supportive comments, I have enjoyed reading each and every one of them.

Beading in the Dark

Treasurefield

Hot Fudge

Daisychain Jewellery

Wiccked

Glady & Cloudy

Bloesem Kids

Wow! I am very chuffed to find my Baby Tool Rattles featured today on Bloesem Kids (yes I am showing off a little now after my front page exposure on Etsy a couple of days ago). If you're always on the look out for new designs & ideas for the kids then head over to Irene's blog (she refers to it as B-Kids) as it's full of wonderful finds for little people. Irene is a wife & mum currently living in Kuala Lumpur but originally from The Netherlands. She also has a sister blog called Bloesem for big people which focuses on Interior Design products. Irene welcomes submissions for her daily features on both sites so if you have something you have seen or designed/created yourself you might want to make contact with her.

Thankyou for all of you who have popped over from B-Kids. Please enjoy your visit!

today on my desk

Given I didn't get back to post my red item (that's me trying to pretend I did one...ha ha) I thought I'd show you my work in progress for this green week.

My process (if you can call it that) for designing & making my toys goes like this:

1 Play with fabric combinations. I mean PLAY. This can be a very lengthy process. Generally I have a loose idea in mind as to the style of the toy. ie. it may be for a boy or girl, subtle or loud in colour & pattern, quirky or conservative. I am very easily distracted - I'll spot a fabulous scrap of fabric that I haven't seen for a while and head off on a totally unrestrained direction trying to figure out how I can use it. This is why the colour challenge has been good for me by tightening the parameters of my fabric fossick.

2 I usually will try to create a minimum of 2 toys at a time. Cut the fabrics.

3 Sew together inside out (leaving a 1 inch opening) and then turn out and smooth seams.

4 Stuff with fill, insert bell and hand sew opening (in front of TV)

The entire process usually takes me several days & nights as I get to do little spurts at a time. If I'm lucky I get an hour during the day while sleeping beauties have retired to their rooms, then an hour or two at night when the house is quiet.

I managed to get these 3 almost completed yesterday from scratch. Just a little hand sewing is required to finish (that's tonights feet up on the sofa job). My mind was still in the red week (feeling a twinge of guilt) but also thinking about the current green challenge. End product = green + red. I like this combination - it's fun and unisex.

Today I wrapped and posted this customised car cushion for Andre's first birthday present. Hope he likes it :) His Mum is a pretty funky momma and a lover of green hence the colour choices - check out her Etsy shop here.

late entries

Thought I'd quickly sneak these brownies in. Better late than never!

They're now for sale in store.

I've been a bit AWOL this week while taking care of sick babies, sick DH and being a little sick myself. I think it's time to disinfect the house and rid any remaining dreaded lurgies. In between the fevers, sick tummies, barking coughs & sandpaper throats it seems (as of this evening) we may have finally had some success with the clinching of this elusive house. Last I told you we had withdrew our offer but after 2 days of sitting quiet we couldn't help ourselves and decided to give it another go. Contracts are due to be signed tomorrow so can't sing yet. Hopefully all goes smoothly from here. I really want to get excited but will retain that emotion until the ink has dried...... then look out!!! I promise to share pics.

I'm sure to be a little distracted this week with a custom order in purple and a green cushion project to finish. However, I'm committed to be back in the week with a red entry. In the meantime be sure to head over to see what the other colour challengers are getting up to (see list in top LH corner of this page). I think we all enjoyed the brown week and I'm guessing that red might also be a fun one for most.