Leni and Rose

Popping in quickly…

2012-01-19T23:22:00.001+11:00

…taking a second to catch my breath
…pausing for a moment to collect my thoughts

Things are moving quickly round these parts. This space slows it down. Images of lately…

Happy Festive Season!

2011-12-28T23:36:00.001+11:00

Tomorrow at 6am, the man of the house and I are heading up north to do a little scuba diving off the coast of Cairns. It’s so exciting, but I’ll miss the girls like mad. We’ve never been away from them for more than a day – this is 4 whole days….Hmmm, not sure how I’m going to go about that…But besides that, it’s going to be a great diving trip. We’ll be on a night dive on New Years Eve!

Anyhoo, HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all! Hope your New Years is a fantastic one.

See you on the flip side!

Today is the day…

2011-12-13T11:37:00.001+11:00

Dead Poets Society is one of my all time favourite films. Centred around a single inspiring sentiment – “Seize The Day!”, it really sings home to me - make the most of everyday, make it the best you possibly can, for yourself and for others.

So today I have seized this moment and………

I just put up the Frankie and Swiss website!

Pop on over and have a look around! And say hi on the blog which I also just launched into the blogosphere!

Look forward to working with everyone and thank all those who have been on the set up journey so far!

{This is a little sneak peak of a project in 2012, a collaboration with Dawn Tan and Shelley Panton for the 2012 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. If you look closely, you can see the weave of this 100% linen, it’s really beautiful.}

Make Hey, sneak peaks and a doily dress

2011-10-29T09:42:00.001+11:00

Thursday night was a bit spesh – a few of us headed down to Readings in St Kilda to hear Pip talk about her new book and about crafty stuff in general. We all headed down to the park after for a little picnic! I met Vic for the first time which I’m super wrapped with after reading her blog for so long. SO good to meet people in real life that you feel you kinda know already. Know what I mean?

Mags from The Craft Revival was there as well – have you heard about Betty’s Place? A new shop opening in Elsternwick – we’re working together on a bit of a cool project at the moment. More on that to come…!

Also, a little sneak peak of the website. Tess to the rescue on this one! The web people who I had engaged (way back in early August!) were trying to head down a different direction that Tess and I had already decided on. – Like change the entire look and feel of my business! Tess and I thought this was plain crazy – especially as I loved the website she had already designed. So after waiting 9 weeks for the other web people and their attempted redesign (which was not what we wanted!), Tess arrived, like a princess in shining armour, and rescued the damsel in distress. She built the website in a few days and it’s exactly what she designed in the first place. I don’t know why it was so hard for the other people to do it! Anyhoo, I just have to populate it now.

…and the blog…

What else has been happening? Oh, the bro got married last weekend. Miss M and my sisters two were little flower people and looked gorgeous!

September Brown Owls pics

2011-10-08T13:50:00.001+11:00

Considering next Thursday is the October Brown Owls meet, better post up the September flicks! More here. Looking forward to next week so much, it’s always such a fun night with the gals.

Random lately snapshots

2011-10-02T22:46:00.001+11:00

Seems a little bit of hide and seek is being played here. A little pop in one week and then off I trot again for another few. Well thats a bit rude, isn’t it! It’s not to say there hasn’t been much going on around these parts though, there has. Lots of fun stuff, serious stuff, happy stuff and difficult stuff. Lots of Frankie and Swiss stuff. Some birthday funs:

1. Birthday parties! Miss M goes to a friends pirate party above and her own 4th birthday party below – a cupcake party with lovely Dawn Tan providing the art direction!

2. Dads 70th birthday. Has anyone ever made pavolva cupcakes? *hand goes up* Me! I make a mean pavlova, but as I was wisking away the pav for fathers day celebrations, I felt it was a little too runny. So into cupcake moulds the mix went. It was rather difficult getting them out in one piece but they tasted delicious!

3. Lots of F&S happening. But it’s the $^&&$ website that’s getting a bit %&$ – another 4 weeks I’ve been told. So I think I’ll launch a temporary blog in the meantime, even though it’s completely going to change in a few weeks! I just need to finish writing a few parts out. I still haven’t written my 1000 word blog interview thingy on the famous blog, or the 200 word one for another. Dawn’s pillowcases need ironing, about 5000 m of bias tape needs making (sorry, slight exaggeration there), a busy printing calender all week (but email me if you want to be an early bird and get onto some printing like Cam!). Anyhoo, all good, busy.

Someone give me a DEADLINE to get this temporary blog finished – it’ll drag on otherwise!

So, where was I…

2011-09-09T21:58:00.001+10:00

…little break in transmission there. A week of thanking the ladies now continues. Mary whipped up these cmky cushions on that Thursday night sewing sesh. They’re actually the colour charts that assist in choosing colours for colouring designs, but actually look great as a fabric all unto themselves! Mary also printed onto cotton, the most gorgeous drawing - her daughters artwork. I’m not going to spill the beans about what she’ll be then transforming the art fabric into – you’ll have to pop over to her blog and wait :)

Colour book cushions made by Mary from Chicken Flower Tots. cmyk colour book fabric from Frankie and Swiss.

And then there was Magdalena from The Craft Revival who made the cutest coasters I’ve ever seen. The looked so beautiful on the morning tea table at the Creative Womens Circle event. Magdalena has THE most exciting project underway, I can’t wait for the big reveal. It’s going to be so fantastic – and I got a sneak peak the other day. Lucky me!

Coasters made by Magdalena from The Craft Revival. Design by Clare from Victor Fox. Printed by Frankie and Swiss

And Cindy gets another mention as she also sewed pants and matching bib (complete with yellow button to match the yellow hanger, LOVE her attention to detail!) and a little dress. Adorable, so adorable! The lovely lady who designed the fabric is Jen Henderson, another fellow Southside Brown Owl. Such talented ladies, all of you!

Little people things made by Cindy from Bug and Pop. Design by Jen Henderson.

As reward for all their efforts, the ladies have picked out some fabric designs which I shall be printing for them next week! Thank you all so much gals! We should definitely do it again.

Oversized Floor Cushions - Epic Effort III

2011-09-06T20:31:00.001+10:00

Fellow Brown Owl and local twitter gal, Narelle, also joined in the fun last Thursday night at the sewing bee. Her project was sewing up these huge oversized floor cushions, aren’t they cool! The girls love them! As soon as we get into the studio, they all make a beeline and start jumping around. And the extremely talented lady who designed them is Clare from Victor Fox.

Floor cushions made by Narelle. Design by Clare from Victor Fox.
Printed by Frankie and Swiss.

I first contacted Clare about a million years ago, when this whole crazy fabric printing idea began, when she left a comment on my blog. I followed her link and came across the most wondrous world of illustrations, patterns, all pure eye candy. She designs for Kaisercraft you see, those lovely scrapbooking papers – yep, likely that Clare designed them. I have BIG plans in store for Clare!

Righto, more tomorrow :)

PS: had a major win today at work – have finally got colour book swatches sorted out. You know what that means? The final cog in the Florence set up wheel is now complete. She’s ready to go, ready to print for one and all. Finally, I say, finally!

Epic Efforts Part II

2011-09-05T21:44:00.001+10:00

…and the sewing bee continues! To come in the following nights are colour book cushions made by Mary from Chicken Flower Tots, gorgeous coasters made by Magdalena from The Craft Revival, illustrated oversized floor cushions made by Narelle, monkey pants and horse dress made by Cindy from Bug and Pop and some more cushions made my me!

And tonight is about Brianna from Rolling In Fabric, who last Thursday, gave the better part of a day to hang out at the studio and sew up quilted seat cushions for studio chairs that were in need. This is B in action!

Brianna also sewed up a little book for my nieces kinder. It’s blanket stitched at the side and Lily’s name is embroidered on the front page. The koala spends a week at the home of each family at the kinder and a story of his stay is then relayed back to the others at the kinder. Cute! And the reason we printed the photos onto fabric? Our studio paper printer ran out of ink!!!!

So tonight, I thank Brianna!

A Week of Epic Efforts

2011-09-04T21:55:00.001+10:00

Dress made by Cindy from Bug and Pop.
Design based on ‘Lemon Spaghetti’ by Dawn Tan.
Printed by Frankie and Swiss.

I know someone who stayed up until 1 o’clock in the morning to finish off sewing a little girls dress, and some monkey pants and a bib (more on this later). This was after a full days work. In the evenings prior to this (again after a full days work), she sewed up a beautiful dress. This is Cindy from Bug and Pop. I also know a very talented artist, Dawn Tan, an amazing person in general, who has been super enthusiastic about experimenting with her artwork in textile format. The result of our little 3 leaf clover collaboration is this mega unreal dress. That mannequin will not be wearing it for long, Cindy, Dawn and I are going to have to draw straws!

On Saturday, Frankie and Swiss hosted the Creative Womens Circle and it was amazing! (besides our new ebay vintage couch falling apart!). It was the biggest event I’ve held since my 21st and if it weren’t for the absolutely epic efforts of some amazing women who gave up their time to help me, I don’t know that it would have been!

Tonight I thank Cindy and Dawn.

Every night this week, I shall thank all of the amazing women who helped and show their amazing work to everyone!!!

Cheerio until tomorrow :)

A little bit of Douglas and Hope

2011-08-19T23:03:00.001+10:00

While Douglas and Hope will be closing their doors in the very near future, a little part (or rather large part) will live on in the Frankie and Swiss Studio. See that WONDERFUL antique shop counter? Well, it’s now going to have a second life as the cutting/packing table at F&S headquarters. I’m thrilled, I love it!

When I saw it on ebay, loved it straight away, saw the location as Fitzroy, thoughts immediately wandered to ‘it’s GOT to be!’. And it was. Cath herself emailed me about the purchase! Not sure if it will make it to the Studio in time for the Creative Womens Circle event with Shelly Panton (3rd Sept) but I hope so.

Other news, F&S website will be up and running in 6 weeks. Blah, not such a good timeline. In the meantime, I’ll start a blog I think and move all this F&S stuff over there. ESPECIALLY as someone totally WOW has asked me to be their GUEST BLOGGER! She said next week, but without a website it’s probably best to delay it? What do you think?

Holidays

2011-08-17T13:24:00.001+10:00

Perhaps 'sport challenged' is a good way to describe my level of expertise in physical activities. It was always me coming last in the sprints or long run or anything vaguely related to moving faster on feet than a walk. It absolutely must do with the apparent fact that I run like you'd imagine a duck would. Yes, a duck.

But there are 2 sports that I can actually do, and do rather well, if I might say. One is done about 12 metres under water and the other is done about 1700 metres in the sky. Diving and skiing. If I could swear here to add emphasis to the word LOVE, I'd say I bl%%dy well love them both.

My dad taught me to ski when I was a little tacker and now I'm teaching Miss M. A whole pile of us are here at Hotham at the moment, my little fam, my bro and his lady, dad and his lady, and my nephew. Would have been more, but the dreaded lurgy struck my sister down. Next year...

Does the 'me and Miss M skiing' video work below? Blogging from the iPad and testing out a new bloggin app!

We’re hosting a little get together!

2011-08-14T21:01:00.001+10:00

Frankie and Swiss is going to be hosting the next Creative Womens Circle event! It’s 3rd September, thats a Saturday morning. Shelley Panton is the guest speaker and I’m really looking forward to it.

AND, we’ll be putting a little tea and cake on afterwards, from about 1130ish I’d say? If you can’t make it to the CWC, you’re most welcome to pop down after!

I’m going to rope everyone I know into baking something yummy and I shall organise the tea.

Let me know if we’ll see you there!

The longer you leave it…

2011-08-13T22:23:00.001+10:00

…the harder it is. A lot of things are like that in my opinion. When you fall out of the habit, the routine or lose the momentum of that thing, it’s just plain old hard to get back on it. Same goes in this space here. It’s unintentional, a week goes by, then 2 or 3. The little niggle is there, must sit down, slow down, and write my blog. I usually like to spend a bit of time crafting posts, words chosen with thought. I try not to start sentences with the word “I”, although clearly this hasn’t been the case here. I spend time writing, rewriting until the sentences emerge, just the way I want them to. But these days, there seems to be a little less time to indulge in rewriting sessions.

So, today and for the next few weeks, I’m going to just throw words and blog posts out there, willy nilly. Random anythings, stuff, whatever. Totally whatever, whenever. Impulsive and reflective of that particular moment.

Apologies in advance if you’ve arrived at my little blog and are expecting non drivel – because for the next few weeks, perhaps that’s all that will be put here. Maybe not, who knows. I’m just going to go with it, the ‘who – what – why – where and whens” of my life.

Good, thats it then. I feel lighter already!

Righto, that said, we’re off to the SNOW for a whole week tomorrow, very excited! Cannot be without my internets though, so the ipad shall be coming with. Frankie and Swiss will wait until the next week and then it will be go go go in earnest!!!

Good Girl Flo!

2011-07-26T23:02:00.001+10:00

Quickly checking in to say Flo did a great job today – an amazing print on a beautiful creamy organic cotton/hemp blend. Good girl, Flo! (Did I mention we're going to have a little launch party? - details to come!)

Saturday at Harvest with Leila

2011-07-24T22:53:00.001+10:00

Saturday was positively indulgent – a whole day of making and chatting with amazing fantastic ladies. Leila Sanderson was our teepee teacher and Jess from Harvest was our hostess. A thoroughly enjoyable day with a gorgeous teepee outcome. Thanks ladies!

Remembering This Is

2011-07-22T21:44:00.001+10:00

A few years back, Angela from Three Buttons had a meme called “This Is”. Perhaps it was the routine of weekly posting I enjoyed, knowing that on that particular night I’d craft my words and pictures together in representation of that weeks theme. I liked the randomness of each weeks theme which was however underpinned by structure, and how I felt it brought me closer to a band of ladies I’d mostly not met – the sharing. “This is my current reading material”, “This is a recipe I want to share”, “This is my favourite thing in nature”.

I don’t think there’s a meme on at the moment (correct me if I’m wrong), so I’m thinking about beginning a blogging routine of my own. Something along the lines of ‘This Is’. I shall give this some thought over the next few days. I’d really like to do something like it again.

Photoshoot and the start of a new era!

2011-07-21T22:43:00.001+10:00

While it seems a little quiet here on the ol Leni and Rose blog, real life is moving at pace. So, where to start? How about with my first ever photoshoot! This is a sneak peak of an upcoming collab with public artist Rowena Martinich. We had such a ball running around the studio taking about a million photos! Rowena is quite an amazing gal – she’s showing at Design Made Trade over the next 4 days and has a solo exhibition starting next Friday. Get along to either if you can, really!

I went to the opening party of Design Made Trade on Wednesday night and it was fabulous. SO much amazingness on display. The Body Electric dance troupe, Penny Modra’s Collingwood Skipping Club were great entertainment, not to mention all the wonderful exhibitors. GO, you must!

Flo, our textile printer, is behaving herself nicely and I nearly have the businessy back office type stuff under control. Everything is so exciting! We had a studio visit today from a very famous designer (eeeeeeeepppppppp!!!!!) who was thrilled with the prints Florence did. That just made my day, week, everything. It’s so wonderful and validating receiving such great feedback. And after being Facebook challenged for a very long time, I even managed to set up a Frankie and Swiss page!

Even more excitement is the little launch party we’re going to have at the studio, an afternoon tea of champagne and cake! More on this in weeks to come.

Sooooo much more is in the pipeworks, I shall make sure I document it all here. I really want to have a record of this time – I think it’s finally hit me that it’s a pretty special era!

Come to Southside Brown Owls!

2011-07-07T21:14:00.001+10:00

The Southside Brown Owls post is up on the Brown Owls blog. Come along! We always have a super ace time.

Does anyone remember the Liberty hair tie kits I had when I was at the Stitches and Craft Show in 2008? The few I had left have been sitting in the sewing room ever since. Soooo, why not bring them along to Brown Owls I say! I’ll show you how to make the hair ties, not that it’s difficult. The little tool is in the packet as well as the Liberty fabric and buttons and hair ties. All there. So come along and make some hair ties!!

RSVP over at Brown Owls. Hope to see you there!

Oh, I forgot to mention…Gingerboy!

2011-07-02T11:22:00.001+10:00

SUPER excited about heading out to dinner tonight. AND being sans kids the entire night. My brother and his fiance offered to babysit the girls the entire night – yes, the entire night! OMG! is all I can say to that.

AND - you know what that means – SLEEP IN TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

All over the place rambles and Thursday night Craftings

2011-07-02T11:08:00.001+10:00

I really want to write about how full on the past 4 weeks have been – similar to the full body roller coaster experience at Luna Park….times four hundred. There’s been massive highs and massive lows. I could never have imagined how gut wrenching the whole experience was going to be. And the mass of technical knowledge I would need to accumulate in a very short amount of time. Dare I say it – there has been a moment or ten that I may have just questioned whether starting a business was a good idea…but it’s all good and despite roller coasters it’s all good and I’m happy. Actually I’ll be more happy when every last piece of the puzzle is sorted and complete and perfect. Actually, I do have a little problem with trying to attain perfection – and that most of the time this actually hinders me from achieving anything (if it’s not perfect I’m just not going to do it). So while I don’t have the 9 fabrics up and running, a website etc, I do have the linen blend printing nicely with great midtones and highlights. So, thats where I will start. And start is what the next step is. Just jump in and start.

Now, after that ramble, I am now going to fill this space with images of our Thursday night craft sesh’s.

Cindy from Bugandpop Shannon’s floss and embroidery Jude from Miss Yarnwrap Andi's hexies! Lisa’s knitted sleeve Narelle’s knitting

Flo and the Famous TeePee

2011-06-18T22:38:00.001+10:00

Little did I realise that my one claim to fame in my late 30’s life so far (besides that time I was on The Early Bird Show in 1985), would actually not even belong to me. No, my claim to fame belongs to my Teepee.

Yes, I have a very famous Teepee. I had already been a fan of Greg Hatton for a long long time, and when I found out that his Girl Friday, Leila Sanderson, was making the most amazing Teepee’s ever, I commissioned one immediately. For Christmas, for the girls. Ok, I admit it…for me. I fell in love with it.

Anyhoo, a few weeks ago, Leila called up and asked if I’d mind my Teepee being used in a Donna Hey magazine shoot?! Um, of course! I said yes, and the teepee was whisked up to Sydney. 7th July the mag comes out! I’m not sure why this is so exciting to me, but it is.

So. Leila also mentioned that she was running a ‘make a mini teepee’ workshop at Harvest Workroom as part of the The State of Design in July. Serious? I’m in! July 23. Looking forward to that so much. Would anyone else like to do it too?

Flickr image link

The Flo side of things is pretty exciting too. I want it to happen quicker though - I feel like I’ve been saying it forever “another couple of weeks”! I wish I could do everything myself but of course I can’t and it’s relying on others from interstate lands that is a bit frustrating. All good though. Flo is printing on 3 lovely fabrics in the meantime.

And lastly, while a proper website is coming, which will have lots of tips, a design and print class schedule and other stuff, here are the file specs in the meantime. I’ll post fabric widths tomorrow.

File types: EPS, PDF and TIFF
File size: 150-300 dpi final size
Colour mode: TIFF- RGB
EPS- CMYK
PDF- CMYK
All fonts converted to curves or create outlines, embed all profiles and use LZW compression only on TIFF files.

Ask me anything about it if you need!

The Arrival of Florence

2011-06-05T23:47:00.001+10:00

The past few days have flown by in a whirlwind of activity, organising, nail biting and excitement. Flo arrived on Wednesday, I was there at 630am to meet her. There was a truck, there was a crane, there was 4 men and me, there was 2 locksmiths to remove the plate glass door and there was lots of coffee.

There was a few tense situations, like the talk of the entire glass frontage of the building shattering when Florence leaned a little too much to the left. A few false starts and with 2.5cm each side to clear, she made it through the door opening and into the studio.

So she’s here! But not yet ready for her debut. She’s in hair and makeup at the moment. Jac and I are itching to begin our first project. And of course, we cant wait to see the designs coming through from all the super talented peeps around town :) Hello (*waving arms*) to all the lovely gals who have already emailed me! We’re super excited to be working with you!

In the next few weeks, I'll get the website up and running which will detail how this little textile studio is going to work. You know, file specs required, sizes etc. That kind of thing. So, here’s Flo’s email if you want to email her : florence[at]frankieandswiss.com.au. Oh, and here’s her Twitter : https://twitter.com/#!/FrankieAndSwiss

And thats it for now.

Frankie and Swiss Textile Company

2011-05-30T13:04:00.002+10:00

…In 2 days…

…about a tonne of equipment arrives in Melbourne and will make its way to our South Yarra studio. Until it enters the doors, it is merely a tonne of equipment.

…but as soon as she crosses the hearth, she is Florence. Our huge big printing beauty who seriously weighs a tonne. Could be more. Florence!

…I know there’s always teething issues when a new entrant enters a tribe (tribe consisting of my sister Jacqui and myself, being the ones who concocted this crazy idea up in the first place).

…we’re hoping all that is kept to a minimum and that Florence moves seamlessly into our daily lives as though she was never not there.

…in the meantime, lots to do, website and all. The blog is nearly done, the Twitterings and email are set up. There’s lots of lovely ladies that we’ll be printing with in the next few weeks and we can’t wait!!

The more the merrier I say, so do drop me a line {michelle[at]frankieandswiss.com.au} if you’re a bit curious!

Anyhoo, just putting everything into a neat summary:

I am Michelle Francis. My sister is Jacqui Swies. Our textile company is called Frankie & Swiss and we will on Wednesday of this week have the ability to print custom designed fabric!
Cottons, linens, it’s the natural fibres that we love and water based low impact inks are what we print with. Small runs, large runs, just as much as is needed.

Pretty darn excited with a good dash of freaking out as well…!

Kitty made me a cushion

2011-05-29T22:42:00.001+10:00

THANK YOU Kitty!

When I opened the parcel that arrived for the cushion swap and saw what was inside, the smile that grew on my face and stayed there for a long time, eventually ended up hurting my cheeks!

Thank you so much for putting such thought into what cushion you would make me and for using up your Florence Broadhurst stash. I truly am thrilled!

(…and in other news, there’s some BIG news – will be back to tell!….)