Burlap Bookmarks

Not much to show this week - very busy at work, plus a sick child and all the usual young family things. I did make some burlap bookmarks and added them to my Etsy shop. Books and coffee are a great combination, don't you think? Wouldn't these be the perfect gift for your book club members?



This is the part that is now left over from the first coffee sack (I have quite a few more waiting to be cut up!). Thinking about what to do with it... maybe use it for my last country quilt??

Japan

Yesterday I made this Japan quilt for the Australian and New Zealand Art Quilters group. Like Russia, Japan is a country that I have never been to but would love to visit. I used the Japanese flag, the outline of the country and the offical name of the country in Japanese to design my quilt.



I need to send off four country quilts in March, for they will be exhibited at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne in April. Although I have made four country quilts, I am not happy with one of them (Morocco) and another one (Blue Rose, my Barcelona quilt for AQATW) does not really go well with the rest of the series, I think. So I intend to make another one in the next week... if I can find the time!

What to do with an old coffee sack

A while ago I bought a few coffee sacks at Reverse Garbage, and this week I started cutting them up and using them in small projects. I made two hand-stenciled cards that I really like. The first one has been added to my Etsy shop, here.



I also made another Beach Pillow and added it to the shop (here), as it was really popular.



I hope to make some more stuff this weekend. I love burlap!

A busy week

It has been a busy week here, with ups and downs. The biggest 'up' was an email from Spoonflower, letting me know that my Dutch Houses fabric was chosen to feature in The Nate Berkus Show! Initially this didn't mean anything to me, but after some googling I discovered that Nate Berkus is a very famous American interior designer who has his own TV show. Okay... The episode was taped last Tuesday and will be aired in May. The Spoonflower people have promised to send me a link to the video online and of course I will share it with you! ;-)

It was my oldest son's 9th birthday on Thursday, so that kept me busy, and I have been writing an article for a magazine (!) which took up a lot of my time. Will tell you more soon!

Today I had to come home from work early to pick up my youngest from school, as he had a headache and was waiting for me on a bed in the school office... That was a 'down' but being home early meant I could add a new line to my Etsy shop, which I had been planning to do for a while: Printable Art.



A few of my calligrams are now available as PDF files that you can download and print at home (or in a print shop), and frame, or use as cards, birthday invitations etc. At this moment the Robot, Dolphin, Elephant and Flamingo are available but I will be adding more in the next few days.



Coming home today I found a parcel waiting for me... and in it was this gorgeous bag, that looks like a cute handbag but is in fact a Ketti Camera Bag! As you know I love to take my beloved DSLR everywhere, but not in the ugly black camera bag that I got for free when I bought it... Now here is a camera bag that you can be seen with!

(talking about cameras, I put a new photo on the photoblog and I would love it if you would go and see it!)

We have a busy weekend coming up, with gymnastics training, friends coming over and two birthday parties... But I hope to have some time to play with fabric, thread and maybe even paint!