Open House Melbourne 2013

The Open House concept is great, once a year the doors are thrown open and for free people are allowed to roam the nooks and cranny’s of Melbourne you wouldn't normally be allowed or think to go.

Yesterday:
A relatively quite day for myself and my friend today. She won a ballot to go to one of the limited access buildings 'The Johnston Collection - Fairhall House Museum' and wanted to go to the 'Phillips Shirts' factory where shirts are still made today - and considering how little Australia still manufatures this IS something to note.



Phillips Shirts:
Wow, old building, a tone of vintage fabric, an enchanting story of success from post war Australia. What's not to love. And if you're interested in vintage clothing or a custom shirt set to stand the tests of time most definitely worth the visit.

Second Floor, 274 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

Open Wednesday - Saturday 10.30am - 3.30pm or by appointment.

The Johnston Collection:
While this is open during the week for booked tours we've had a couple of years to make it (since we first heard about the collection and thought of going) and still hadn't. Who knows when we would have made it if we hadn’t won the ballot.

The museum is in a heritage terrace house. The house and the collection was willed to Melbourne by William Robert Johnston (1911-1986). The display we saw had been organised by an artist and contained some of the collection and some of her work set out in a narrative. Unfortunately I was not enamoured with the artists work, all 'modern' and seemed largely to consist of layered photo manipulations and canvases painted with reflective metal stuff and distressed a bit. Basically dull. 

One the other hand the collection was interested as was the stories around William Johnston. As the 'guest' artist changes regularly and the collection itself is rotated I will definitely be going back at some point. Christmas at the Johnston collection sounds particularly good.

And Sunday!
I'd love to go to one of the Open House's held in other cities/countries but until then I'll continue to discover more of Melbourne year by year.

Fist the Lego Education Centre
...Meh.
It's mostly just  a shop with some Lego out the back for kids to play with. Later in the day everyone who visited worked towards building a Lego city but being early we got nothing.  I did manage to buy a giant Lego pencil so not a complete loss.

Boyfriend join'd us here. For the person who lives the closest to the city he managed to be the latest.



Next the Melbourne Water Headquaters
After a slight glitch when the headquarters wasn't where the map said it was we made it just in time for a tour. I was mainly in it for the vacuum toilet technology. People laughed when I said I was going to go there to flush the toilet. We'll I got the last laugh those things are freaking great. It's like a jet in the toilet bowl. I am not ashamed of laughing like a loon after I flushed one.

NAB Headquarters - crazies' steps EVER as seen in the photo. It's an amazing office, though the levels and open planning would drive me nuts.

Lifestyle Working Collins Street - mostly empty still, just did a walk though

and lastly the Aurecon Centre which made me feel like my workplace was working in the dark ages. Seriously shiny shiny office building. I want.

Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair 2013

Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair at Jeff's shed (The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre)

Yay a day off, and what better way to spend it than at the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair. It took me an hour to get past the first aisle. No photo's of the quilts on request of the artists I'm afraid - though by the time I got to that end of the show I was pretty exhausted.

Shopping stash aquired;
3x little scissors from the scissor man - boy is this stall popular (unfortunately used later in the day for unpicking some of my 'love is' sampler when I realised I was half a stitch out - cries.)

2x macaroon case kits from Patchwork Mariko Japan, adorable

and last but definitely not least
a neutral tone Alpacalicious - not your everyday granny-square crochet blanket kit by Prudence Mapstone. The colours are lovely and the wool (Frog Trade fair trade alpaca) is so soft. I want to crochet it for my dad. 
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I shall not let the fact that I can't really crochet stand in my way. 

A highlight of the show was the display of creative tea cosies by Loani Prior (the writer of 'How Tea Cosies Changed the World.' Below are some of my favourites though it's a hard call. Now I really want some tea cosies. Both modern yet traditional all mixed up with an incredible splash of creativity.

 

OMG, what was i thinking

So its my friends wedding in March 2014 and I decided to do a wedding cross stitch for her as a gift. After a significant amount of looking I came to the conclusion that the cross stitch kits just didn't suit. Too childish or feminine or something the bride might make herself. I wanted something special.

I eventually found a sampler I thought was lovely and promptly brought. I didn't really read the stitches required thoroughly...

I got it a month or so later and went OMG! So many different stitches, so many pages of instructions. I promptly put it back in the envelope it arrived in and ignored it for another month. It's a good thing weddings are planned we'll in advance because this is going to take me a while.

Started officially today.

I had to give up on the 'Alicia's Lace' row. I just couldn't conceptualise it and every stitch I put in looked wrong.

So the first row completed is the gold braid double running stitch. I somehow made it twice as long as it needed to be. After unpicking the extra at each end I'm happy with this line (as long as you don't look at the back which is a bit ragged)

The next line is a modified partial Rhodes stitch. These turned out pretty darn cute and the little cross stitches over the top in gold braid makes it sparkle. They were easy to count as well.

And the final line using a broad cross stitch covered by three vertical and three horizontal stitches. The vertical and horizontal stitches were done in a strand of Gloriana Silk #046 'fallen leaves'. All I can say is that this floss is so incredibly nice and soft and pretty. After an aborted start where my broad cross stitch was half a stitch out (thankfully noticed very quickly so minimal correction required) the line was completed with minimal fuss but ultra pretty.

Fingers crossed for the rest of the sampler. The hardanger part at the bottom terrifies me. Before this I pretty much did cross stitch only, this is so outside my comfort zone its not funny.

Cross stitch:
Love is...Patient by Thea Dueck for the Victoria Sampler.

The Collingwood Children's Farm

Chickens are evil! See above as evidence. Just look into that eye!

Today I went to the Collingwood Children's Farm with a mate, her partner and two kids. I figured it's a children's farm you need to take the children, who do I know with children?

And if I was going to steal her children I might as well invite the parents too :-P

After a rescue mission to the car park with change to get them through the boom to park. (Crisis Averted!) It was off to gawk at the animals like the city kids we is.

First the fowl;
Lotsa chickens of various breeds, leghorns (pretty boy's), black orpington's (big fluffy fatty eatin chickens, lay well too), Favorelles (crazy feather feet) to name a few. I'd like to claim that knowledge as my own but these ones were in labelled enclosures. The general chickens though were free to roam.

and lets not forget the ducks and the odd free range peacock.

They also have some cows, guinea pigs, goats, sheep, horses and pigs (very smelly).

We were there on the family fun day by pure coincidence. Down side was that unlike normal days we couldn’t feed the animals but we did get a tractor ride. Broooom!

As it was family fun day there was also a sausage sizzle, always a must.

With a busy cafe, regular farmers markets and located right next door to the picturesque Abbotsford convent (which also has regular and fantastic markets) this is a place I should visit more.

Googly Eye Earrings

Googly eye earrings. Because everything is better with googly eyes.

Made from 3 sets of fuzzy earnings brought from a second hand salvos shop (pretty sure they've never been worn) 50c each - I saw them and went "you know what these need? Googly eyes." I was totally right.

So a pack of googly eyes and some craft glue later I give you the fuzzy monster earring sextuplets

Australian Tapestry Workshop

Australian Tapestry Workshop (formerly Victorian Tapestry Workshop)

Every year Melbourne has an open house event which I greatly enjoy. Last year one of the venues was the Australian Tapestry Workshop. While this venue is open to the general public on other days I've walked past is several times and never made it back to take a look around. That's one of the good things about the Open House Melbourne it gets you into places you'd otherwise never see.

Anyway, if you're local or ever in Melbourne and like all things stitchy the Tapestry Workshop is one not to miss.

current opening hours;
Shop and galleries (including studio viewings): Tuesday - Friday 10am to 5pm
ATW office (for enquiries and deliveries): Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm

Address;
262-266 Park Street
South Melbourne Victoria 3205
Australia

They dye their own thread on site and are just plain amazing.

Werewolves, vampires and skeletons, oh my

Creepy Cute by NeedleNoodles

I did these little cuties for my sister. I turned them into brooches cos that's what she likes. For some reason I thought the zombie was a werewolf... I think I might keep calling him that as it seems to suit.

Stitched on plastic canvas backed with cream felt and a brooch pin glued to the back.

Finished product;

from left to right: werewolf, vampire, skelleton

Work in progress shots;