BrisStyle indie Twilight Market, King George Square Brisbane

BrisStyle indie Twilight Market, King George Square Brisbane Australia.

They came, they saw and they experienced, what an amazing night was had at the last brisStyle Indie Twilight Market of the year. Such a dense array of shoppers, but all had one common theme uniting them, a smile of joy as they discover new treasures at each and every stall.

Over 100 stallholders braved the impending rain to be rewarded by a clear starry night worthy of Van Gogh himself-just perfect for marketing! Set against the backdrop of the spectacular Brisbane City Council Christmas Tree in King George Square.

It was a handmade, art and craft extravaganza, I saw jewellery and heard jazz, cards and cushions, buttons and bags, bunting and brooches, prints and pincushions, and even, yes you guessed it a partridge in a pear tree!

BrisStyle, a not for profit incorporated association representing over 150 Brisbane handmadies and artists has played an important role in the growth and promotion of Brisbane’s burgeoning handmade scene. Stallholders at these markets are made up entirely of the very talented brisStyle members. With this in mind the talented folk at brisStyle always manage to put on a knockout array of stalls with a focus on handmade quality and variety.

These markets are totally everyone friendly, families, kids, prams and even dogs. With plenty of room to spread out and enjoy King George Square these markets can get pretty busy with browsing market goers and kids happily running around, creating a real sense of community, something that I believe plays an important part of what handmade means.

If you love hunting down the latest trends, general handmade goodness and supporting Indie business then you have to make it your mission to get to the next brisStyle Market, the 2012 dates have already been set and it all kicks off again on Friday the 24^th of February.

You can find all of next years market dates and out more about brisStyle at www.bris-style.com .

Story by Guest Editor – Emmaline Lamond

www.emmalinelamond.com.au

Mason jars are fun to craft with, use for storage or even use to hold gifts like baking mixes or sugar scrubs. But you can make your jars even cuter — no matter what you’re using them for — by adding a bit of cross stitch to the lid.

This idea comes from Gathered, and while they are showing examples of Mason jars used for storage in the craft room, you can use these throughout the house. I’m also thinking you could do this as a way to fancy up a traditional Mason jar sewing kit, since there’s already a little batting under the piece of cross stitch you could still use it as a pincushion.

The post walks you through how to make a cross stitched Mason jar lids and a link to a PDF pattern that includes six design options.

They’re not totally for beginners because they include cross stitch, backstitch, eyelets and Rhodes stitch, but if you aren’t familiar with those techniques you can either leave them off or there’s a stitch diagram in the PDF to help you.

Either way these designs are cute and relatively quick to stitch in whatever colors you like. It’s easy to turn them into jar toppers, or you could even just use the Mason jar ring as a frame rather than using it on top of a jar (I did this with a little Christmas tree cross stitch pattern I turned into an ornament).

They’re super cute in the pastel colors shown, or work in red and green for more of a holiday look if you’re using them for gift giving.

Check out the instructions and grab the free patterns for these jar toppers at Gathered. Once you start stitching I’m sure you’ll come up with all sorts of things you want to store or gift in jars so that you can make more of them!

[Photo: Gathered]

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