More screen printing

Yesterday I did some more screen printing - it wasn't as succesfull as the first time, but still I had fun, and I really like the gymnast (I used to do gymnastics as a child and now Hugo is doing it too).

I have lots of ideas for t-shirts for the boys and their friends, and maybe myself - with their names, dinosaurs, diggers etc. A bag with a ballet dancer printed on it for a friend's daughter would be nice too... Ernst's birthday is on October 31st; Halloween - what about printing ghosts, pumpkins, witches etc on shirts for all the guests?

I also see lots of possibilities for postcards, but not many yet for quilts, althoug that may come. Today the third lesson in the online class will become available on the Quilt University website, it will be about thermofax printing. Can't wait! I can, again, really recommend this class with Lyric, just like her other one, Playing with Paint. Her surface design dvd is great too, she makes it all sound so easy and so much fun! (and it is!)

On Sunday I am going to the Textile Art Festival here in Brisbane, am really looking forward to that!

30

Just finished block nr. 30! Enough for a generous single bed-quilt, but I do want a queen-sized quilt... So will have to make some more. It won't be finished before we leave for the Netherlands (only 17 sleeps!) but I hope we will be able to use it this winter.

I have lots of ideas for the screen printing class, just have to find time to realise them... (and some supplies) More next time, it's bedtime now. Good night!

Screen printing

As I said in the last posting, I have started a screen printing class at Quilt University with Lyric Kinard. This week I had a go at it (with the screen I bought from Thea at the Stitches and Craft Fair) - and loved it!

The red swirl is my very first attempt, with a newspaper stencil, on some very cheap muslin, with some very cheap children's paint (because the screen printing paint I had ordered more than a week ago hadn't arrived yet - always the same story when I sign up for a painting or dyeing class!) As expected, the print isn't perfect but I loved the process!



Yesterday my Permaset paint arrived and I had another try. I made a freezerpaper stencil featuring a gecko (love them! we always see them at night on our dining room window) and the first print (on PFD fabric) was perfect!



So I printed some more and then ran off to find more fabric - a piece of my handdyed purple:



and a white t-shirt belonging to my 2-year old, Robbie:



I spilled a little fabric on it :-( ... but am sure he'll love it!

I did all this at night, when the boys were in bed, and afterwards I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking of possible designs to print... This is so much fun!!!

Haiku ATCs

You may remember that I signed up for a Haiku ATC swap I while ago. Last week I received 4 lovely ATCs. The first one is from Melissa in New Zealand:



This one was made by Jan in New Zealand:



A beauty from Michelle in South Australia:



And the last one is from Amelia in New Zealand:



Here are my Haiku ATCs - the photo is rather dark; I made it at night after finishing the ATCs and sent them off the next day... And I didn't keep a record of the haiku I used, how dumb is that?



This is an ATC made by Lyric Kinard, that I got when I ordered her Surface Design dvd. I did her Playing with Paint class last year at Quilt University (and thoroughly enjoyed it) and have just started her new screen printing class. Hope to show you some results soon!



I finished the Connections quilt for AQATW (the online artquilt group formerly known as ATWI20Q) but can't show it here yet. It will be revealed on the group's blog on June 30th - when we are in the Netherlands!!! (yay!! I am sooooo looking forward to that holiday!)

And I have started a new quilt - in an optimistic moment I signed up for Another Little Quilt Swap Round 3, and this little quilt has to be finished on July 20th, which is 11 days after we come back from the Netherlands, so I thought I'd better get going...

Journal Quilt April

Here is my journal quilt for April 2009. The suggested theme was Human Figure. I first thought of doing a self portrait or a portrait of one of my boys, but after my trip to the Torres Strait Islands, where I observed the tuberculosis outreach clinics, I decided to use an X-ray of a TB patient.

(In case you are not familiar with a chest X-ray: the white part in the middle is the heart. The lungs should be black (because they are filled with air) and all the white bits that I have quilted are parts of the lungs that are affected by tuberculosis. This is actually an X-ray showing extensive disease in both lungs)

Tuberculosis is a very old disease (evidence of TB has been found in Egyptian mummies) that is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality in large parts of the world. When it is caused by non-drug resistant bacteria it is easy to treat, although treatment must be continued for at least 6 months. Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a growing problem in many countries that needs to be addressed urgently. In the Torres Strait patients from Papua New Guinea, many of them with MDR-TB, are treated by an outreach team from Cairns. For a posting about my trip, go here (in Dutch, but with lots of photos) or watch this ABC news report (July 2008).

Hugo's Rainbow Bird Quilt

Yesterday Hugo (6) and I made this bird quilt. Hugo drew the bird (a Rainbow Bird, he called it) on a piece of fabric with Pentel Pastel Dye Sticks and I made it into a little quilt. I used glow-in-the-dark thread to quilt it, so it will make a nice wallhanging in the boys' bedroom!



It was great fun to make and I think it is a great addition to my bird quilt series! What do you think?



PS I was going to do a peacock quilt, but in one of the quilting magazines I saw a peacock quilt that took my breath away. I managed to find it online here - it was made by Rachelle Denneny and it won the second prize in the Professional - Pictorial category in the South Australia Quilt Show 2008. This is actually the quilt I had in mind - though I don't think I could have made it this perfect!
But there does not seem to be much point in trying to copy this quilt, so I may just skip the peacock (for now, at least)...

24

Twenty-four blocks done! That should be half of all the blocks I need for a queen-sized quilt - although I may stop at 36 blocks.

Yesterday I went to the Stitches and Craft Show here in Brisbane and really enjoyed it. In the last 2 years I went with Rens, but she is visiting the Netherlands at the moment. This year I met Mady at the Show for a coffee (she is Dutch too) while our husbands and children found eachother at South Bank quite by chance!

I bought a screen and squeegee from Thea and Sami and hope to have a go at screen printing some fabric soon!