A weekend away with the girls

This weekend I'm lucky enough to be on a sewing retreat with 16 ladies up in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Most of the girls are making patchwork quilts or doing embroidery but I decided to work on some new necklaces using this luscious fabric.

It's vintage silk kimono and only has a few marks on it. I consider myself lucky to have found this one!

The colours are vibrant red, blue, orange, purple and green set against a white textured background. 

Lilies and dahlias (I think) feature....

...along with cherry blossoms and orchids. 

Fabric Pendants

I've lost count of how many fabric flowers I've made over the past couple of years and if I start to think and caculate the number I get overwhelmed.  So I won't.  Fortunately there's not too much fabric wastage, however, as every good fabric-a-holic knows scraps seems to appear out of nowhere and accumulate into boxes.

The new line that I launched this year are these fabric pendant necklaces.....using those pesky scraps but I don't want to call them scrappy when they looks this gorgeous!

The silver plated pendant base is 4cm in diameter and features a carefully selected piece of beautiful fabric. 

If you look closely you should be able to see a butterfly, a kimono-clad girl, a dragonfly, an owl and a peacock feather.  The peacock fabric has been very popular and sells out as soon as I make them.

These blue birds are one of my all time favourites.  The necklaces are sterling silver and are either 40cms (sits near your throat) or 72cms (hangs in front of your chest).

The photo below is the display at Soul Diva in Buderim.  I was in-store one day when the black and white one on the left hand side sold - needless to say I was rather chuffed to meet a real life MindiLindi customer!  Those of you who like MindiLindi on Facebook may have seen the photo taken of the lady wearing it.

Happy days.

Turtles

Six of us have just returned from a few days on Heron Island which is located on the Great Barrier Reef east of Gladstone in Queensland. 

It was hard work very relaxing and we were fortunate that the weather was perfect when the rest of the state was getting rained upon.

The main reason for us going was to see turtles!  We're right in the middle of the hatching season and hubby and I were on the look out late at night and early in the morning for hatchlings.  We took this picture at sunrise and it shows the sand marks the little turtles create when they make their way down the sand - we must have just missed them that morning!

This photo shows part of the egg shell near the recently hatched nest.  The shell isn't hard like a chicken egg, but leathery and pliable.

Later that night we went out and sat on the beach patiently waiting, waiting, waiting.  When we'd had enough we decided to go back to our room and amazingly found some little hatchings emerging just a few steps away from where we were sitting.  We were at the right place at the right time.  No photos of the actual hatchings as it was way too dark, and it's wrong to use a flash, but I don't need a photograph to remember this amazing sight - it was thrilling.  The way they scurried down the sand to reach the water was very funny and they all swam straight towards sting rays and out to the ocean.  I'm confident that out of the 1 in 1000 turtles that survive to adulthood these four will be fine....

This picture at sunrise the next morning shows the exact spot where the little ones emerged the night before....you can just see the friendly sting ray in the water.  I say 'friendly' because rays don't eat baby turtles.

Before we left for Heron Island I made some jewellery out of turtle fabric that I bought in Tokyo last year. 

Here's my friend Lyn in the foreground wearing the round petal flower in her hair, and another friend Samantha in the background wearing the pointed petal flower.

I wore the turtle pendant necklace below....in the background is the fabric in its entirety.

These pieces are a great momento of our trip to the beautiful Heron Island.  It's a wonderful place to visit and at the moment they have a great all inclusive deal so go and check it out yourself...especially if you like turtles.

Fabric Button Paperclips

I've found another way to use Japanese cotton and vintage kimono...aren't these paperclips with a fabric button on top just too cute?  I love bookmarks and have a stash that I choose from whenever I start a new book.  My stash now includes a few of these precious ones.

This blue and pink one is adorable and is vintage kimono. The fabric is quite textured which adds to its appeal.

This is also vintage kimono in green, orange and gold.  The squares with a dot in the middle is a popular and traditional Japanese design and is almost in every piece of Japanese fabric I have.

This gold, red and green one is also from vintage Kimono and is so vibrant.  Just like the pink and blue one above the fabric is textured and I'm pretty sure it's silk.

These ones are made with Japanese cotton.

I love turtles!!

And because I can't help myself here's another picture showing all of them.

Each giant paperclip is 10cms from the top of the button to the bottom of the paperclip and the button is 3.8cm round. Some of these are in my online store if you'd like to purchase one. 

Butterflies

Happy new year!  It's been hot hot hot here so today I stayed indoors, put a DVD on the tele and made lots of flowers.  Apart from the heat and humidity it's been a lovely day and I'm so pleased with the outcome.

I think this piece of vintage Kimono is very pretty and sweet.  I don't see much of the colour lime around so when I saw this piece for sale last year I snapped it up very quickly.  I don't know the history of this kimono, or what type of kimono it came from, but I'm guessing it belonged to a young girl who would have looked oh so beautiful wearing it.

The close up pictures below really show how gorgeous the design is.  There's lot of butterflies flying around. 
 

I love the texture in the fabric...it looks like clouds.

Now for the flowers...

 Some are pink and some are lime - this one has yellow and gold highlights...

If you look closely you can see butterfly wings hiding in the folded petals.

It's taken me a little while to cut this fabric, first I had to admire it for a few weeks before getting to work and upcycling it.  Now the flowers are waiting for someone to purchase them to give them a new life!

Enjoy your week my friends.

Vintage Indigo Kimono Flowers

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to purchase a gorgeous vintage kimono that has the most vibrant indigo colour.  I was in such a hurry to create flowers that I forgot to take a picture of the kimono before I unpicked it.  Oops.  Here's the panel from the left hand sleeve that I'm yet to upcycle...I did say it was gorgeous!

Before I show you how luscious the flower jewellery looks here are some close up pictures of the fabric.

 

Drumroll........here's the flowers I handmade ready to be worn as either a necklace, brooch or a hairclip.  As their creator I'm biased by their beauty!

I've taken these photos on my iPhone 3 - nothing fancy, no filters, just sunlight through the window.  It's the silk fabric and the vibrancy of colours that makes them pop and dance...well that's how I like to describe it!

These little lovelies will be in store soon...but if you want one of these for yourself let me know asap and I'll reserve one for you.  They'll make beautiful Christmas presents and each flower is one-of-a-kind.  Email me at hello@mindilindi.com.au if you're interested.

Have a wonderful day everyone - I am!

A wedding to remember

Recently I was asked to make coordinating necklaces for two bridesmaids to wear at their sister's wedding.  I was given a sneak peak of the dress so I could colour match, then chose several fabrics, made samples and sent them to the bride for her decision.  Here's the bride giving the necklace as a gift to one of her sisters. 

I think she likes it!

Here's the girls getting ready to walk down the aisle...

Isn't the backdrop of the ceremony breathtaking?

And some fun photos just because.

Thank you for asking me to accessorise the dresses - it was fun to do and I'm very grateful.

May your lives together be full of fun, love and happiness.