Another bike print

Number four... A new quilt is in the making (or maybe two quilts).
Did I ever tell you I love screen printing? ;-)

Calligram postcard

As you may have noticed, I have added a Fiber postcards page to this blog (see tabs under the header). I love making and swapping postcards and have put my favourites on the page. This is the most recent one; the elephant card I mentioned here a few weeks ago.

This Dutch calligram fabric is now for sale in my Spoonflower shop; the English version will be added one of these days - as soon as I have received my swatches (I need to order a small amount of each fabric and approve of them before I can put them up for sale).



I have made some more calligrams and added them to my Spoonflower designs - the letters I, J and K are covered now as well! (thanks to Rebekka for suggesting the ibis - which is for Brisbane what the pigeons are for Amsterdam!) Will I be able to make Robbie an Alphabet Calligram Quilt before his 4th birthday in September??

If you are are looking for some special fabric and would like me to design a calligram on a certain theme (animal, plant, object...) for you, please leave a comment or send me an email - I'd love to give it a go!

Woohoo!

I just had an email that my quilt Balance 2 has been selected for inclusion in the exhibition PETITE Miniature TEXTILES at the Wangaratta Gallery!

Woohoo... I'm over the moon!

:-))

Forest

Since Sally showed her KISS quilt on her blog, I decided I can show my Forest here as well. Yes, it's another Lisa Walton handdyed fabric where I have let the colour in the fabric guide the stitching - just like the quilt for my mother-in-law. As some people suggested, I have added some satin stitching and it does indeed look very good.
Many thanks to Dutch quilter Aart who explained to me how to add my name to the photos!

I have sewn on the sleeve and the quilt now hangs in my sewing room:



I love these subdued colours!

It has been a whole week since I last posted here! We had some very busy days, with friends staying over for a few nights, a school fete, and another gymnastics competition (Hugo won a ribbon for fourth place on pommel horse!!! Photos on our family blog). I have worked hard on a bag for the Embellish a Bag Challenge - it is finished now, but I can't show it yet. I hope it will be selected to be exhibited here in Brisbane at the Textile Art Festival in June.

Don't forget that even when I am not posting here, I am posting a daily photo on my A Photo, A Day blog. I would love it if you would come and follow me there as well!

KISS quilt

Today I finished the quilt for Dijanne Cevaal's KISS challenge! Here is a sneak peek. The name of the quilt is Forest.
The challenge is about using only 1 or 2 coloured fabrics and just adding straight stitching, no embellishing or fancy stitches.
Does it look familiar? I used a piece of Lisa Walton's handdyed fabric...



And here are the new calligrams - I now have the letters A to H. Thinking hard about an animal that starts with an I...

Fabric for sale!

I'm happy to announce that my calligram designs are now for sale on Spoonflower! You can also purchase the Dutch Houses fabric in my Spoonflower shop.

I have made some more calligrams and will upload them in the next few days. My intention is to make an animal calligram for every letter in the alphabet and make an alphabet quilt for Robbie with the fabrics.



PS Thanks to everyone who went and had a look at my new photo blog, and especially to the people who immediately became followers. I will do my very best to make another great photo today!

New blog

I have finally set up something I have been thinking about for quite some time now: a daily photo blog. I try to really look at things around me while I go about my daily life and make photos that might be used as inspiration for my art quilts - or just enjoyed for a moment. To push myself into doing that more and to let you join in my beautiful surroundings here in subtropical Brisbane, Australia, I have set up this new blog: A Photo, A Day.

I would love it if you would come and follow me on my quest for striking images! I think the very first pic on the new blog is a really good one (it inspired me to finally set up this blog) - what do you think?

Book: Journey of Hope

Nothing to show today, so here is a book I recently purchased and highly recommend: Journey of Hope: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama. Full of beautiful quilts with a message - I quite like quilts with a message. My favourite is the one on the cover, made by Sherry Shine. (the quilt I showed here on the day of the election isn't in the book though)

Dijanne Cevaal has extended the deadline for the KISS challenge to the end of this month, so I'm working hard on that one. I didn't get an idea for that quilt until quite recently and thought it was too late to make it, but it isn't!

The quilt for MIL is on the backburner for now - she is away on holiday and DH is going to Europe at the end of June and will be able to take it, so it doesn't need to be finished for a while.

More calligrams!

The theme for this month's Fibermail card is elephant. So I thought... what about an elephant calligram? (olifant is the Dutch word for elephant)
I love the first one and have ordered a fabric test swatch from Spoonflower. I just hope it'll arrive in time to make the card...



I also made a bicycle calligram, using the word bicycle in lots of different languages:



Most words are similar to bicycle ('two wheels') - bicyclette, bicikl, baisikeli.
The Dutch word is fiets (pronounced as feets), a strange but wonderful word - maybe my favourite Dutch word!



PS Yes, I'm still adding beads to the quilt!...

You want beads?

You get beads!


(this one's in progress)

Thanks for all the comments! Okay, that was clear - the quilt needs a bit more. So I added it!
Let me say once again for those who skipped that part the first time - the fabric is not dyed by me, but by Lisa Walton from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. I subscribed to her Monthly Metres club for a while, and also to the Beautiful Beads club, so I have plenty of beads! I've never done any beading, but just dived in yesterday and had a lot of fun. To be continued...

The Four Seasons

The quilt for my mother-in-law is quilted and bound. The sleeve is waiting to be attached while I am thinking about adding beads. Not sure yet.
I would love to hear what you think of this quilt. Do you think she'll like it?
I have called it The Four Seasons because looking from left to right it vaguely reminds me of winter-spring-summer-autumn and it seemed a good name...

Here is a detail and these are all the threads I used in this quilt...