ATCs

Here are my first ATCs:



The blue ones are made from the strippieced remnants for the railfence block of my sampler.
I like it that you can use all sorts of leftover bits and pieces for ATCs!

Reverse Garbage

Yesterday Karla (the bookbinding artist) and I went to Reverse Garbage, a wonderful non-profit store (no affils) that sells 'industrial and commercial offcuts, overruns, left-overs, outdated stock and seconds'. Apart from timber, cardboard, paper, metal, tiles etc etc etc, they have lots of fabric, very suitable for crazy quilting or... ATCs!
So I had a ball collecting lots of scraps:



And I also found this wonderful sample book with fabric and wallpaper samples:



I am sure I can use the fabric for lots of things... and Karla has kindly offered to teach me some basic bookmaking skills to make a book for the children using the wallpaper.

I haven't done anything quilty since finishing the puffin last week, but I have been thinking a lot about the ATCs and have some ideas now that I hope to realize somewhere next week. Some kind ladies have sent me some ATCs so I now have an impression of what they look (and feel!) like.

In the meantime my sampler is a favourite with Hugo:



'I don't want to go to bed! But I will lie on the floor under my quilt.'

Finally, I would like to wish all the readers of this blog a very happy Christmas and a wonderful 2008!

Puffin

Here's the second mini quilt in my bird series: the puffin!



Not a bird you will find in Australia (or in The Netherlands for that matter), but one of my favourite birds ever since I saw it in Scotland years ago.

These mini quilts can be made in little time (a few evenings work) and are so much fun!
I plan on making an owl, an eagle, a parrot...
They will have to take turns hanging on the wall though; we haven't got enough space to hang them all!

The next thing I am going to do is probably not another bird quilt, but have a go at making some ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). I have signed up for an ATC swap in april, but haven't made any yet, so I need to practice. I'm looking forward to that - think it will be fun.

Comments on the puffin are very welcome; if you have any suggestions on how to improve the bird quilts I'd like to hear them!

Dutch quilt and more

At last I finished the Dutch quilt, that has been lying in the sewing room waiting to be quilted for months. I had already put a label on it and it says June 2007...
Looking at it now I realize how much I have learned since then!



I intend to make it into a pillowcase to put on the couch were I photographed it.

Thanks for all the lovely comments about the kookaburra quilt! It is now hanging on the wall, next to the Christmas tree:



I have started another mini bird quilt and hope to be able to show it here very soon.

Hugo made these farewell gifts for his Kindergarten teachers, using some of my scraps:



I meant to take the box of scraps to our Playgroup last week and let the children make collages, but unfortunately Ernst was ill, so we couldn't go. We'll do it sometime next term.

Last week (12/12) was our 5th wedding anniversary and DH gave me this beautiful book as a present:



It is the Sunset Book, made by Karla (a fellow Dutchie in Brisbane). She has more lovely books for sale on her site, which you can also find among the links on this blog. Do have a look!

Kookaburra quilt

I just finished this mini-quilt (25 x 35 cm), using the method described in this book by Susan Carlson.
I immensely enjoyed making it, especially the free-motion quilting, and I'd really like to hear your opinion!

Here's a detail of the quilting:

Bow Bag

Here's the Bow Bag!



Loved the pattern, very easy to make!
I'm really in a 'sewing-flow', so off to the next project!

Sampler

Yesterday I finished the sampler from the beginners course at The Quilters Corner:



I'm quite happy with it and Hugo loves it, so we have put it on his bed.
Hugo and Ernst's bedroom is starting to look very cosy with quilts lying on both beds and one hanging on the wall!

I have started on Monica Poole's Bow bag and hope to be able to put a picture of it here soon...