Brave New World, according to Linda

This was the first idea I had for a Brave New World quilt and I have decided to run with it - here is our world, nicely wrapped up as a present for our children and grandchildren. But we will only be able to pass it on if we take care of it, and that is where the recycling bit comes in - very appropriate!

In our family, we try very hard to reduce our carbon footprint and care for the environment - leave the car at home as much as possible, walk to school or ride a bike, take the train to work, refuse plastic bags, reuse rain water, feed food scraps to our worm farm etc etc etc - and to teach our children to do the same. They are very familiar with the mantra reduce reuse recycle! (thanks should go to Bob the Builder here as well)



The background of the quilt is an old cradle sheet, tea-dyed. The globe is part of an old pair of jeans, the green and white bits are from my scrap basket. The ribbon comes from a box of chocolates I got for my birthday last year. The binding is actually a leftover bit of another quilt's binding! The backing is from the scrap basket as well.

I really enjoyed this challenge and have decided to keep using recycled materials in my quilts as much as possible.



(cross-posted to Around the World in 20 Quilts)

Selvedge quilt

As I mentioned the other day, I have started a selvedge quilt. It is to be a quilt for our bed (finally!) and as I am not looking forward to quilting a queen sized quilt on my small machine, I decided to make it a quilt-as-you-go quilt. I am using the technique described here by Jan, who is doing a wonderful job making and collecting quilts for the bush fire victims in Victoria.

As you can see I have made 10 blocks so far, but I think I will probably need 6x8 blocks, so it will be a while before I am finished! My Dutch quilting friends have been very good in sending me their selvedge strips - thanks ladies! If you're reading this and you have some selvedges for me, please send me an email (click on View my complete profile, on the left) - I'll be happy to send you a fiber postcard or FQ in return.

Last week I received 2 ATCs, from Kathryn (ATWI20Q) and Margeeth:



They are both very beautiful; thank you!

Journal Quilt March

Here is my journal quilt for March. The theme was Life Cycle, which I found rather difficult. In the end I decided to look at symbols for inspiration. These Celtic knots may or may not represent the cycle of life- their meaning, if any, is far from clear. But they are beautiful and I enjoyed using one (but making a black quilt is not much fun!).

When I had almost finished this quilt I suddenly thought of another way to represent a life cycle. I may make another quilt using this idea... but then again, I may just go on with the journal quilt for April! The theme for that one is Human Figure - a very attractive theme, I think.

Results of the bird poll

(source: Wikipedia)

Peacock 48 votes
Penguin 27 votes
Flamingo 22 votes
Eagle 20 votes
Other 15 votes
Stork 9 votes

In comments and emails the following birds were suggested:
lorikeet (4x)
rosella (2x)
cockatoo (2x)
magpie (2x)
blue wren (2x)
pelican
brolga
emu
robin
galah
king parrot
bell bird
cassowary
malleefowl
swan
house sparrow
great tit

Thanks to everyone to took the time to vote, leave a comment or send an email!
The peacock is the obvious winner, but among the suggestions are some interesting choices. I want to portray a bird that I have actually seen IRL myself (which eliminates the brolga, bell bird and malleefowl) and that I have a special feeling for (which eliminates the house sparrow, I'm afraid).

The pelican is a bird I had been thinking about, I had almost included it in the poll. And the blue wren is definitely an option (it would have to be the superb fairy-wren though, not the splendid fairy-wren that I think is more beautiful but does not live in this part of Australia- and that I have never seen IRL). A quilt featuring several different birds is something I have considered, but I think I will stick to the 'single bird portraits' for now.

So... I'll probably start on a peacock quilt, but I haven't made up my mind yet, it may be another bird after all!

Yesterday I almost finished the journal quilt for March, but I ran out of black thread... I hope to buy some today and finish the quilt this evening. To be continued!

Postcards, ATCs and haiku

I have started a selvedge quilt (will show pics soon) and have asked the ladies on the Dutch quiltersmailing list for selvedge strips. As a thank you I will send them a FQ or a fabric postcard, and so I have been making some postcards. The one at the top was made with a stencil bought at a hardware shop.

This one is made from a piece of fabric that I did last year for the Playing with Paint class at Quilt University.



It inspired me to free-motion quilt a pear on another card, which I then coloured in with a gold Paintstick. It turned into this ATC:



And as it happens I have just signed up for another ATC swap... The theme of the swap is Haiku; the idea is to make an ATC relating to a haiku. I have looked up lots of haiku on the internet and found them to be very inspiring. But here the ATC was first, so I googled 'pear haiku'... and found (among others) this one:

pear season they say
does not begin til august
but how could i wait
(Pinch My Salt)

I foresee a lot of ATCs, postcards and perhaps even some quilts inspired by haiku!
And I confess... I have written my very first haiku yesterday! I wrote it in Dutch, which is my first language after all, and in Dutch is has the 5-7-5 rhythm. In English it hasn't, but that does not seem to be a problem. Anyway, here it is:

zomeravonden
veel te warm om te slapen
overal muggen

summer nights
too hot to sleep
mozzies everywhere

;-)



PS If you have selvedges you'd like to donate, I'd be most grateful and happy to send you a FQ or a fiber postcard too. Send me an email (see my profile) and I'll let you know my address. Thanks!

Bird

Thanks so much to everyone who has cast a vote so far!
While waiting for the results of the poll (still 2 days left to vote!) I may start a quiltlet featuring this bird - drawn by my oldest, Hugo (6). :-)

Poll

I want to start on another bird quilt, but I can't decide which bird to portray this time... Please help me by answering the poll in the sidebar!
Thanks,

More postcards, more ATCs

Although I promise myself not to (to have more time for larger projects), I keep signing up for postcard and ATC swaps. It's just so much fun to make and receive these little beauties!

This is the card I received in the Geluk swap at the Dutch Fibermail list. It was made by Marion.



And I just made this one for the next Fibermail swap; the theme is Escher. I really enjoyed making this card:



These are the cards I made for the ATWI20Q Seasons swap:



And these are the ones I received, from Chris, Jane, Celia and Chloe:



This is how I display the cards I get, on the bookcase in my sewing room (oops, in our study / guest room / sewing room). The photo was taken a while ago, there are other cards on display now.



On to ATCs! I just made this set, from some sunprinted fabric I made last year. One of them is to trade with Nikki Wheeler, but the others aren't spoken for yet, so if you would like to swap, just let me know.



This beauty was made by Karen Davis, aka Karoda:



And here is the one I made for her:



And finally, these are the ATWI20Q Seasons ATCs, from Chris Daly, Simone, Marian and Lynn. (I showed my Seasons ATCs here)



Thanks to everyone for sending me these little works of art!

Brave New World

I finished my Brave new World quilt for ATWI20Q yesterday. I can't show it here yet (we 'unveil' the quilts on March 31st) but here is a sneak peek.
I really enjoyed making this quilt. Chris asked us to use some recycled stuff in these quilts and it was great fun looking for suitable things.

The Owl Quilt

It's finished! And I'm rather happy with it. I especially like the quilting - the best free motion quilting I have done so far, I think. Here is a close-up picture:



I didn't think of the leaf pattern myself; it's in Dijanne Cevaal's book '72 ways not to stipple or meander'. I thought it suited this quilt very well, as did the branch pattern in the border. I would recommend this book to anyone who uses free motion quilting (you can order it at her website).

The next projects will be the ATWI20Q challenge and the March journal quilt. The theme for the last one is 'Life cycle'. Hmm, have to think about that...

Geckos and selvedges

I haven't done much sewing this week, as I spent most of my free time reading. I'm devouring the Jodi Picoult books at the moment - Nineteen minutes is a great book, well worth reading!

So the owl quilt isn't finished yet - I'm half way through hand sewing on the binding, hope to finish it today or tomorrow.

I did make a few postcards - the theme for the Fibermail card of the month was Geluk. This Dutch word can mean either 'luck' or 'happiness' in English. I decided to go for 'luck' and first thought of shamrocks, horseshoes etc. But there were some other members who had the same idea, so I looked for more good luck symbols on the internet and discovered that in many Asian countries geckos are seen as bringers of good luck. I love geckos - we have quite a few in our house and they are so elegant!

So I sunprinted a gecko shape on some bits of fabric and made these cards:



One is for the group, the other for a Dutch quilter who was kind enough to send me some selvedge strips. I asked for them on my Dutch and Australian mailing lists and a lot of people sent me their strips. I'm sending them a fabric postcard to say thank you. Here, this is how many strips I have got now!