Unravelled Textiles

We've been quietly working away on stock for Unravelled Textiles over the cold Winter months. My sister (Be Gunn) is opening Unravelled Textiles (UT) this week at Middle Cove on Sydney's north side. She is passionate about all things textiles, yarn and art/craft in general so her shop will sell everything from vintage feedsack quilt tops to mohair and giant knitting needles. UT will also stock a substantial range of Dowry clothing, cushions and soft furnishings plus also our miscellanea including pincushions and needlekeepers. Here are a few piccies from our latest delivery to UT. Make sure you visit Be - she'll get you started on a project or just inspire you with her genuine enthusiasm.

Dowry Dolls for Lee Mathews

We were pretty chuffed to be asked to make some dolls for well-known Aussie designer Lee Mathews' Brisbane store. They sent some gorgeous off-cuts of their fabric so we could dress the dolls in mini Lee Mathews clothes. It was a lot of fun. They were displayed in vintage birdcages along with other found dolls. We've always loved Lee Mathews for her simple and pared-back designs made from natural fibres like linen gauze and fine cotton voiles. So we used vintage, unfinished doilies for the doll bodies and tried to keep their clothing casual. We were really happy with the result. And thanks to Lee Mathews for asking us to work on such a great project.

YAY Avalon

We had a great time at the Avalon Antique Quilt Show. Lots of money was raised for the Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation and the quilts were AMAZING. No photos were allowed of the beautiful old quilts, but I took lots of our stall. Loved visiting Avalon Beach and Sydney's Northern Beaches in general. Lots of lovely shops (hello Mark Tuckey, Table Tonic, Rust...the list goes on). Ate out every meal and generally tried to ignore the torrential rain! 

Some pictures of Dowry though below...

American Antique Quilt Show

The Avalon Quilters are presenting an American Antique Quilt Show on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd March. They will be displaying the rarely seen collection of Annette Gero and Trish Bloomfield. The show will be at Avalon Uniting Church in Bellevue Avenue, Avalon Beach. 

We've been asked to set up our Dowry shop there so come along and say hi. The raffle will be worth entering into - its for a Vintage American 1940s quilt "The Frances Wheeler Quilt". We love Avalon and are looking forward to a two day working holiday. We hear there's some great shopping up that way too (Table Tonic, Rust). Got loads of new stock to show off - like the patchwork sidetables, mushroom pincushions, Frida Dolls, mexican inspired X-stitch pendants etc...

We love embroidery

Yes, all sorts of embroidery. From graphic cross-stitch, to fluoro mexican flourishes. Well, particularly those two. We've been so inspired from some vintage textiles from Mexico that we've attempted our own. Think Frida Kahlo meets Sass & Bide?? Anyway, here are some results. Watch out for more of the collaboration pendants (and we're thinking bag dangles with tassels and pompoms too) with lovely Virginia from Ibis Beads. Her beads are made using the ancient technique of Faience.

Remember this old thing?

Remember a while back we were working on an old bedroom chair. It was quite the headache. Our poor upholsterer nearly gave up at one point with all the old tack marks. The back of the chair had to be rebuilt because the timber was so holey. It was also re-sprung. We've upholstered it in a beautiful, bright and naive tapestry we saved for 3 years and a French deck chair stripe. The chair is over 100 years old and obviously had many lives judging from the layers removed! What do you think?

New Stuff This Week

Feeling a bit inspired this week. Mum's beautiful new dolls just in time for Xmas, new fruity pincushions, and patchy pouffes. LOVE.