It’s a Grrl!
I am pleased to announce the newest addition to the Radical Cross Stitch family.
Coming all the way to us from Sweden, or maybe somewhere in Africa… everyone say a big hi to Johanna!
We all know and love Johanna from the mighty Cross Yr Stitches blog. The Ninja and I decided that since one is an obsession, two is a conspiracy and three is a gang, we really should expand the crew a bit. We are also working on secret handshakes and passwords.
Johanna makes super ace cross stitch, and we thought she was absolutely deserving of a place in the community. Here’s some of Johanna’s latest bits.
We are also planning a fundraiser to get Johanna a new camera so she can take super cool photos of her finished stuff!
And I’m working on a special place in the Gallery for all of Johanna’s stuff so you can be even more inspired!
I haven’t actually asked her to do this yet, so I’ll do so publicly (sorry lady!). I’d love it if you could make you first post a bit of an intro and tell us a bit about who you are, where you’re from and what got you into radical cross stitch.
I also want to take a moment to say a big thank you to all the people who read this site. It is such a fun project and great to know that we are just a small part of such a vibrant radical craft community. I especially want to thank those of you who have been supporting the other media projects; hoopla and the craft cartel. Just so you know the zine is almost complete and the podcast is being edited as we speak!
We have some big dreams and visions for this project so stay tuned, keep conscious and most of all keep crafting!
Arohanui
Craft City Melbourne!
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. We are just about to touch down in Melbourne, where the local temperature is…….wait for it……..are you ready….eight degrees (groans and murmurs of passengers). We hope you enjoyed your time in Sydney, where eye contact only happens via reflective surfaces in bars, people like Bill Granger and Baz Lurhmann are heterosexual and it never rains. Stay warm.”
And hell, our craft shops and markets kick ass. Just to prove it
It’s a new blog from Pip and Gemma and it’s pretty damn cool. You can search by suburb which is great if you want to go on a crafty weekend expedition. Unfortunately searching Braybrook won’t give you very much. But I say YET! I will get my cool little craft shop in the old spice shop on Churchill Ave someday. I’ll show you all!
Back to Craft City, if I was you, I’d stick it in your feed reader right next to Underground Melbourne (which has gone strangely quiet but will hopefully be back soon). I can tell it’s gonna be full of gems!
Thanks Boo for the landing announcement!
Jelli-Genius!
I’ve written about Craft Cartel member Jellibat before and how super dooper clever she is. But hell, I reckon she has so surpassed herself with this one.
so you decided to head out into the Australian Bush for a relaxing day, it peaceful and all is quiet save a few chattering galahs.
you set up a lovely picnic under the shade of a giant old gum tree.
you then hear a strange rustling of leaves from above, you look up and see a shady looking figure block out the sun right above you..
then …
Plop! grab! agh!!
you’ve been attacked by a drop bear!
I laughed so hard! And it’s absolutely what they look like!
Go on, you know you want to.
Hey and yeah I know I’m real quiet at the mo. I’m super busy finishing cross stitch kits, writing zines, aplpying for a job, ******* *** **********, and looking after a baby who has her first cough. But after six years of blogging (I know!) I’ve learnt to not feel bad about it, almost.
The dirty end of town
If you looked at the front page of etsy you’d probably think it was all pretty cute and fashionable. Trendy no less.
But if you look hard enough there is some seriously cool stuff on there. Here’s some things I’d buy if I had a million dollars.
Firstly (and I can’t believe I’m saying this..) I just love this bag!
There’s other bags made out of this fabric too, but this is definitely my favourite. It’s from the wonderfully whimsical Baba Studio Prague.
Staying on the theme of bags, I’d love to go to the supermarket with this one
It’s from the communitea store and they also do it in a tshirt, although there was none in there last time I looked. And they’re really cheap. I reckon I’ll get one at some point. When the aforementioned million dollars turns up!
Next up staying on the tshirt theme is this hilarious tshirt from the Citalin store
Why change horseman in the middle of an apocalypse? Ha! Classic! Had me in stitches for ages. My partner thought I’d gone crazy.
Speaking of elections… it’s scary the amount of Obama craft out there. I’m not gonna put any on here but if you care about these things, do a tag search on Obama on etsy. It’s freaky.
I’m more impressed with this clutch
It’s made by the awesome genius at the jellyshoe rebellion store. There is so much cool stuff there, mostly thrifted and upcycled stuff too so super good for the planet as well as our souls. If I had the aforementioned million dollars I would buy EVERYTHING in this store.
Finally I adore this shirt
Emma Goldman is one of my favourite people ever (you’ve all seen the xstitch eh) and I love the piratey-ness of this one.
Its from the super cool KMStitchery Store which is your home for all your feminist hand cut stencilled recycled clothing needs! Of all the people selling on etsy this is the one person I would love to meet in real life. I reckon we’d get on like a riot!
So all of you people sitting at home thinking you wanna do something to save the planet. Next time you need to buy some new clothes or bags or whatever. Use a big of imagination and have a look and see what radical, recycling crafter you can support and buy something of them instead of from some crappy big box hell hole.
xox
RCS goes hi-tech
OK hi-tech is a slight exaggeration..
As previously promised, I was gonna put the cross stitch kits up for sale as e-patterns. So you kids who already have all your own bits and bobs and especially those of you conscious of shipping stuff all over the planet, can now rest easy. I’ve got the Patriarchy Heart Pattern and the If It’s Yellow Pattern in the Radical Rags etsy store as e-patterns to go with the Feminist Bookmark Pattern that was already there.
I’ve got a couple of new patterns on the way as well so stay tuned.
I’m also in the process of redesigning the kits. I’ve been investigating more sustainable ways of packaging the kits up. So I should be printing up new ones in the next couple of months and they will be super sustainable!
xox
Home Sweet Radical Home
Greetings Huffington Post visitors. How lovely of you to drop by. Do make yourselves at home and have a look around. If you’re looking for the pattern of this cross stitch, you can find it here.
I promised a finished cross stitch and now I’m finally delivering! I’ve been slowly working on this one for a couple of months now and I’m so happy to see it finished!
It’s is an antique (c. 1860′s) inspired floral border surrounding the text ‘Don’t Bleed on the Carpet’. I’ve subtitled it ‘if you’re going to die, do it quietly’. It’s meant as an ironic tribute to all those revolting home sweet homes out there. But it’s also my little tribute to al the amazing women in the world running households. It’s such hard work and as you know, thanklessly unpaid. But it goes on no matter what. Because it’s such important work. We all need somewhere where we can stop and be safe.
I think this piece is mostly dedicated to women living in war, who despite all obstacles still strive for a clean, tidy, safe space for their loved ones to rest before facing another day. The women who sew together rags for their wee ones ’cause they know how important it is for a two year old to have a cuddly friend. The women who dress in black and march for peace amid gun fire and tear gas. All the while carrying giant handbags with keys and snacks and hankies for small runny noses.
So to all the mothers of revolutionaries out there, I thank you. “Cause we all know they couldn’t do it without you.
———-
This design is also available as a kit and an e-pattern. The e-pattern is available now in my etsy store. I’m getting around to finishing the kits. Hassle me if you really want one and I’ll get more organised!
xox
In case you didn’t believe me
We had the most incredible holiday. I’ve got a whole pile of crafty tales to regale you with. I’m getting there. I just spent two weeks editing the photos!
I had to share that one with you. We saw it in the gift shop and I had to have it. There was about four of them, all different styles. And it was pretty obvious they’d been there for a while. Don’t think it was one of their more popular items. But WAY COOLER than a stubbie cooler eh?
Raaarrr!
Johanna at Cross Yr Stitches (our 2nd favourite cross stitch blog!) has just finished this super cool xstitch
the text is in portuguese & comes from the brazilian hardcore/trash band infect’s song cansadas the ódio. in english it would translate to something like “tired of hate & oppression, it seems like the anger is the solution”.
I think it looks great. The text goes really well with the image.
The woman symbol is a pattern I put up on the DiY page. It is a pretty old image. I’m not sure where it’s originally from, I think it came from the union movement somewhere along the way. I’d love it if someone could fill me in on that.. And I’d been wanting to stitch some text to go with it for a while, I was pondering a couple of Emma Goldman quotes. So nice to see someone else do it!
Johanna’s gonna stick it on a tote bag she made. I’ll post a pic up if she puts one online. I love the idea of making cross stitches for bags. It makes them so much more visible and useful!
I just finished a big long piece (pics soon) and it really does need to be framed and on the wall, it’s part of the joke. But I’ve just started working on a wearable project. It makes me happy when I’m stitching to think someone will be walking round with it on at some point. Although it won’t be me ’cause it’s too small. Oh well, maybe next time.
Crafty video
Check out this delightfully gruesome claymation video which has been made by the Trophywife Collective, New Zealand (how cool is that name?) for SideKickNic. The song is called Something In Your Eyes and is from his “first, latest, and best album- ‘Miscellaneous Adventures’.”
I freely admit that it made me feel a bit squeamish. I’m OK with that. It certainly has a hat tip to Greg Page and of course anything made in NZ with a bit of gore in it is inevitably inspired by early Peter Jackson. I loved the amateurish feel of it, especially the visible strings!
Most of all, it was fun, so props to all involved with making it!
Green Jeans
No not those tragic coloured jeans we got to experience in the early 90s. I had a purple pair! Lord please don’t let these come back into fashion..
No I mean putting jeans to a green use. Another Limited Rebellion has a story about how an organisation called Access Cotton is collecting those old jeans that simply can’t be fixed any more and turning them into insulation for homes in needy communities.
In 2006 they collected over 14 thousand pairs of jeans which is enough to insulate about 28 homes. They have been working with Habitat for Humanity and have been focussing on the rebuilding project in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina.
This is such a fantastic idea. Not only is it a brilliant use of a waste product. Especially since fabric is one of the least recycled materials in our society and also one of the most energy intensive to produce. But also because insulation is such a sound investment.
While I’m on the topic of insulation. A huge well done to the Greens and Labour in NZ for the announcement of the new state housing retrofitting scheme.
A whopping $53.4 million will be spent over the next 5 years renovating the public housing stock to make the houses drier, warmer and more energy efficient. As well as insulating 21,000 homes they will also spend money on draft-proofing windows and doors, wraps for hot water cylinders, efficient shower heads, lagging of pipes and, if appropriate, new energy efficient home heating.
This is absolutely brilliant news for public housing tenants. Not only will it improve their health and well being but it will also make a hugely positive effect on their utility bills. The Greens have estimated that the country will recover this investment four-fold over the next twenty years in energy and health savings.
Chur.