Here's looking at you, kid

Today we unveil our Animal Kingdom quilts on the Art Quilts Around the World blog. This is mine, hanging in my sewing room. I would like to show you how it came about.

I wanted to use my new large screen for this quilt and thought of an interesting animal shape to screen print. Of course - a zebra! I found this copyright-free image on the internet:



I cropped it and printed it in A3 size using Posterazor. I traced the lines on freezer paper and cut out the white shapes - about an hour of work!



I ironed the freezer paper stencil to my screen and got everything ready to print:



Then I took a deep breath, pulled the squeegee down a few times, carefully took the screen off the fabric and voilà!



Oh, the moment when you uncover a great print! :-)



I made a few more prints and then had to clean the screen - and that was the end of my beautiful stencil...

I chose the best of the prints, sandwiched it and quilted it with a black Aurifil thread along the lines, letting them continue in the border (using the original photo as an example). I used a facing finish for the edges of a quilt and attached a sleeve rightaway. Usually it takes me a while to get to that, but I really wanted to put this quilt up the wall!



I think this is my best screen printed image ever and am very proud of it! I uploaded it to Spoonflower where it is now for sale in a few different colourways (a regular black-and-white one and two pop-art zebras!).

The quilt measures 60 x 43 cm (23.5 x 17 inch). There was no size requirement for the challenge and I wanted the quilt to be large enough to enter it in my guild's quilt show in October. Afterwards it may go to my husband's office for he absolutely loves it! :-)



PS The title popped into my head while I was quilting this piece and I thought it fitted the bill...

Call for entries

This exhibition sounds very interesting, I have put my thinking cap on!
(actually the quilt I am working on at the moment fits the size requirements - but ice skating is not something that is often found Beneath the Southern Sky, I'm afraid ;-)...)



PS As you will have noticed if you read this, my blog is now at www.lindarobertus.blogspot.com. If you are a follower or link to my blog on yours, you may have to follow/link again because the old url, www.lindarobertus.com, is now directed to my website... Sorry for the incovenience and thank you for continuing to visit me!

Progress

DH took the boys to a park today so I could work in peace and quiet on my new ice skating quilt. I made some good progress and hope to finish the quilt in the next few weeks.



On my new website I used a photo of the Tuberculosis quilt I made in 2009 as a journal quilt with the Australian and New Zealand Art Quilters group. I cropped it so the stitched writing wasn't visible and realised that I actually like the quilt better this way. So today I chopped off that part and finished the new edge with a satin stitch.

Speaking about my website: I am going to rename this blog www.lindarobertus.blogspot.com and use the domain name www.lindarobertus.com for the website (with the blog integrated in it). I hope that this will work and that you, dear reader, will be able to find me again! It may take a little time for the url to work again though...



PS For thise of you who were wondering: my gymnast son won a ribbon for 5th place on high bar at the Queensland Gymnastics Championships yesterday! On Tuesday he will compete again in the Regional Team Challenge, as the number one of Brisbane North in Level 3 Under 9.

Busy

Long time no blog - I have been very busy since the last posting but haven't got much to show for it. I finished the Animal Kingdom quilt for Art Quilts Around the World but can't show it here yet... Too bad, because I am really excited about this quilt! I think it's my best one for AQATW so far. You will have to wait six more days for the unveiling.

I've also done some boring but necessary tasks like sewing sleeves on quilts... And most of all I have been busy with my family - DH was away for a week so I had to taxi everyone to taekwondo grading, band performance, gymnastics training etc... And take care of my little one who was sick again - it looks like he suffers from migraine, poor little mite, he's only four years old :-(.

This weekend my oldest is competing in the Queensland State Gymnastics Championships; very exciting! And next Thursday we are off for a few days camping at beautiful Wooyung Beach again (see photo above) - I am really looking forward to that!

New: website!

I have been working hard on the new ice skating quilt - it is now ready to be quilted. I think it is looking very good at this stage...

Something else has kept me busy in the last few days: I have set up a personal website! You can find it here - I would love to hear what you think of it.



We are having a spot of very cold weather here in Brissy and that made me buy some yarn... Will I really knit a scarf this time? We'll see!

Textile Arts Festival

I had a wonderful day at the Textile Arts Festival. The first thing I did was visit the State of the Art quilt 11 exhibition, where my Cycle of Life quilt looked very good on the black wall :-)). The other quilts in the exhibition were stunning! You can see all of them here.



Here is my artist's statement - I forgot to copy it to my computer and couldn't remember wat I wrote!



Down Under Quilts had a postcard competition and the postcards were on display - there are three of mine in the top right section:




And here is my loot - mainly books and magazines, one Paintstick and a gorgeous piece of fabric from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. I signed up for their Monthly Metres Club again - after all, I have used up some of their fabrics recently, so need some new ones!



My ticket to the Festival was also valid for the Scrapbook and Papercraft Expo, so I had a look there - not really my cup of tea, I'm afraid... By a lucky coincidence, the Lifeline Book Fest was on at the Exhibition Centre as well and I happily spent a few hours there. Found lots of books in the unpriced section to use for making cards (fairytale books, atlases etcetera).

All in all a very good day! :-)

A productive day

I've had a very productive Sunday! First I made a Sentimental Scarf. Inspired by Jennie's Yardage Design Scarf I used some of the blue fabrics I cut last year (yes, I think they would have made a nice quilt as well, I just didn't feel like making it). I backed it with some pale blue fleece.



It's called a Sentimental Scarf because there are some much loved fabrics in this scarf. The striped fabric in the middle for instance, I used that for the very first shirt I made for little Hugo - here with his father in a steam train in Kent, England, in 2004... (hard to believe that it is the same boy who won two gymnastics medals today!)



The pale fabric at the end is from a cute pair of pants that I bought for Ernst in Noosa, in the first year we were here (2007). Here he is with his brothers, on the left:



There's also a piece of fabric from a shirt we bought on holiday in Norway, and a lot of hand dyed fabrics... Sentimental Scarf indeed!

I also made a bag today. A while ago I saw a bag made out of a man's woollen jacket in a magazine. It looked really good. I kept my eyes open and found this woollen skirt in the local Op Shop last week. They had a belt in a matching colour:



It was quite easy to turn the skirt into a bag:



Here I am trying to photograph myself with bag and scarf in the only large mirror in our house ;-):



Oh, I also did some screen printing - here are the last two speed skaters:



Tomorrow I'm off to the Textile Art Festival here in Brissy. I can't wait!!! But I know what I'll be wearing - and carrying ;-).

Pennant for London

A while ago I read about Quilts 4 London - a project to provide every athlete at the 2012 Olympic Games in London with a quilted pennant. Of course I had to make one; exactly my cup of tea! I went through my extensive stash of screen printed gymnasts and found one that just fitted in the A3 sized template. I added a shadow, quilted it and voilà! Now I only have to add a sleeve and a label. I may make another one, it's fun and not much work!



While going through my screen printed fabrics I also found these four cyclists and pieced them together. This could make a nice small wall hanging, don't you think?



And I added a shadow to this ice skater - this one is ready to quilt now.

I have also, finally, made a start on the Animal Kingdom quilt for Art Quilts Around the World. About time, it needs to be finished at the end of this month! Will show a sneak peek soon.

My MadeIt picks

I was thrilled to be invited to be a Picks Editor at MadeIt this week. Here you can see (a few of) my favourite items on MadeIt (renew the page to see more). Fellow editor Rainbow Lollies chose my Dutch Houses stretched print as one of her favourites - thanks for that!

The photos above show the things I have recently bought at MadeIt - the Origin of Species teapot was a Mother's Day present from my dear hubby and boys. More wonderful teapots and cups can be found at Zinnia Pea.

The fingerless gloves are wonderfully soft and warm, and I was glad to have them on our camping trip last weekend! They were made by Lazy Jane, who has some lovely knitted items in her shop.

The turquoise pendant is from Dichroic Creations, and the pennyfarthing pendant from Creations138 - both have gorgeous jewellery.

I love MadeIt; it's a great place to find unique items - great for presents or for yourself!

Beach textures

We spent a lovely weekend camping at Wooyung Beach in Northern New South Wales. So no quilting, but a lot of photographing and shell seeking:



Self portrait:



;-)

More photos on my photo blog!