Autumn and spring at once: a dried sunflower head, the seeds pearly and hard as porcelain. And the first narcissus of the season which could be made from paper. Little delicate faces looking out. Isn't it amazing that those sunflower seeds are so geometric, so mathematical? Plants are very mysterious, in my opinion. Have you…

The HANDMADE symposium is happening this weekend in Wellington, so I've been getting organised for that over the last few days. I'm teaching a few classes, and (while I'm actually quite nervous about the teaching) I'm looking forward to meeting lots of crafty people and soaking all the handmade goodness and Wellington atmosphere. Aren't those…

I found the old folksy rose painting at my local opshop and decided I needed to hang it above my bedside table. It inspired a set of rose-pins, like the ones I made a couple of years ago now– from wool felt gathered and folded. I was drinking tea with my mother and grandmother at…

Okay, so they're not really wild at all, but I do much prefer the thought of horses running free across a plain somewhere. I decided I had to make this dress when I found the vintage horse fabric in our local Recycling Centre. It's a drapey sage-green cotton, with horses galloping along under a cloudy…

Three blue things arrived in the letterbox today.  A beautiful vintage fabric curtain, from Angela. It's the perfect size for my sewing-room window (how did you know?) Some fresh Heidi and Clara yardage. And a postcard made from one of Liivia's photos. Thank you all.  Happy weekend, lovely blog-readers.

Good afternoon. It's been a very long week here, but this afternoon the sun is shining through the living room window and all is okay with the world. My friend S brought this little jug of waxy-yellow wintersweet branches, aren't they delicate? Their scent is pretty divine, too. I'm feeling inspired by this beautiful painting…

I sewed up this pair of winter hats from the Japanese book I wrote about last week. (The top photo above is from the book.) The kids love hats with earflaps though it's rarely cold enough here in our winters to necessitate them, unless we venture up a mountain to find snow. I used some…

I found this vintage tablecloth in a nearby antique shop. It's drapey cotton, printed with little red roses. Keeping all the original hem-seams intact (which made it super-easy) I made K a new skirt to go with her red winter tights. Quite a handy garment to wear whilst watering the pot-plants, as it turns out.…

We've been eating a lot of these lately, they're feijoas from my parents' orchard. They really are 'green gold' to us- the children can make their way through a bag of them in an afternoon, if I don't intervene. In all my years eating them with a spoon, I've never cooked with them. But this…

On the weekend I received a box full of lovely old textiles from my friend Helen who lives in the North Island. Once my heart had stopped beating so loudly (there were some amazing pieces in there) I had a look through two British magazines she sent me: Needlewoman Needlecraft' magazine, from the mid 1950's.…