Making Merry!

Our big craft sale, the one we've been going on about for weeks, the one we've worked hard for all year (in between work, kids, families, home, other arty jobs and fun stuff) is on this weekend!
There'll be:
• Quilts, bags, soft toys, baby lovelies and other wonderful stuff by my best friend Jane. Jane has a fantastic eye for colour and her contemporary-style quilts are knock-outs. She loves to collect old and vintage kimono and obi silks and other fabrics, and these feature in her highly sought-after quilts.
Only the best-quality fabrics in linen and linen blends, many of which she imports, add an artistic quirkiness to Jane's designs and she mixes them up with Free Spirit and Kaffe — she's brilliant.
• There'll be cushions (to die for), greeting cards and gift tags by my best friend, Isme. Young as she is (14!), Isme has a confident eye for colour and pattern, and her cushions can feature up to a dozen fabulous fabrics — from Liberty to Echino and beyond — that all sing together superbly.
My friends, many of whom are accomplished sewists themselves, cannot believe the quality of her work — her cushions are plump, generous, top-stitched and fitted with invisible zippers, so you can use both sides.
• Seattle-born artist and now North Perth resident Nick (Lily's lovely boyfriend) has painstakingly designed (starting with miniatures), made and painted a series of amazing masks/headpieces for kids. Made from upcycled cartons and boards that are cut, folded, moulded and painted by hand, these are total originals and are purely for dress-up fun — though they'd look brilliant on a kid's wall. Because each is made so lovingly, there are a strictly limited number available, so don't miss out!• I'll have bags and a range of my aprons and tea-cosies, many of them featuring the now-famous Our Lady of the Immaculate Kitchen fabric panels I bought in New Mexico (didn't I have foresight?). There are aprons in a range of colours and sizes — even a couple of virgin-free numbers for men — and my tea-cosies are all free-motion quilted, padded, lined and tassled.
I've also made some papier mache birds to hang from your Christmas tree, or to give as one-of-a-kind gifts. I modelled each by hand so they are all different, then I dried them and then sanded, painted, sanded, painted, sanded and painted them in bright colours. Then I decorated each of them with a very fine brush and white waterproof ink.
• And there'll be much more. Jewellery, zines, other crafty lovelies and some surprises from Lily and her friends are all in order!
Details:
We're open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, at the courtyard garden behind 361 Fitzgerald Street, North Perth.
* Please note there is no access from the front gate on Fitzgerald; instead, walk past the real estate agency next door and around the corner into Raglan Road, and you'll see the courtyard entrance next to the agency carpark, off the short laneway. We'll have signs. so you won't miss it.
There is plenty of free street parking in Raglan.
If you are a Perth reader, please come along and say hello — I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. I've got short grey hair and purple glasses and I'll be wearing one of my aprons.
(If I've sent you repeat emails, or facebook event invitations, please forgive me. Lily told me yesterday that I'd done it all wrong so she did it again for me, so some of you may be already sick of hearing from me - sorry!)