Merry Christmas

This year I purchased a quilt in the SAQA Benefit Auction for the first time; Poinsettia by Canadian artist Anna Davison. I love it and it's hanging in our living room at the moment, next to the Christmas tree.

It's the perfect image for my last posting of the year as we are getting ready for our summer holiday at the beach. I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas (or happy holidays, if you prefer) and a happy, healthy, colourful and creative New Year. Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope to see you back in 2014!

Take care,
Linda

Poinciana Seed Pod

Yesterday was a productive day: I played tennis, finished a book (Watching You by Michael Robotham - have read all his books in the last few weeks and loved them) and made this small quilt, my submission for the SAQA 2014 Anniversary Trunk Show (and all this while it's school holidays!).
I have used a Poinciana seed pod as a stamp before, to make fabric cards, and have wanted to use it in an art quilt ever since.



Here's a detail pic. I like the combination of the organic shape of the seed pod and the straight background quilting. What do you think?

Handprinted Schoolhouse Fabric and Postcard Giveaway

Ever since I made my hand-stamped Dutch Houses fabric I have been thinking about other designs to print on fabric. A while ago, it suddenly struck me that it would be fun to create a stamp of one of my favourite traditional quilt blocks; the Schoolhouse. And yesterday I finally found time to do it:



I started stamping, and really liked it:



Here is the first fat quarter of Little Red Schoolhouse fabric - now for sale in my Etsy shop:



I also made a fabric postcard (10 x 15 cm / 4 x 6 inch). Because it's almost Christmas I am giving it away to one reader of this blog. If you would like to win it, leave a comment here and let me know which quilt block you think I should make into a stamp next. I'll pick a winner on 5 January 2014, as we are going away to our caravan in Wooyung Beach this weekend for two weeks. Good luck!

Wordless Wednesday

Snakes and Ladders Quilt

Suddenly realised that I hadn't shown this quilt here yet! I made it for the kids' issue of Down Under Quilts. Of course my boys had to try it out first:



They approved of it, and it ended up on the cover, with their bears and tiger! The boys are very proud :-).



(Isn't that pink Kombi Van adorable??)

The quilt now lives in Kenya, where the boys' little cousins are having lots of fun with it. That's what we do it for, isn't it?

St Martin's Church (Martinitoren)

Lately the Wordless Wednesday photos are all there is on this blog... I'm busy making lots of stuff but can't show it here yet - so frustrating! Well, I'll just show you something someone else made. Ali made this gorgeous lino print for me - it's inspired by a 1950s photo of Groningen, the city in the Netherlands where I went to university and where I lived for 12 years.



Ali blogged about the process of turning this photo into a linocut here and about playing with the lino prints here and here.

Thanks again for this precious print Ali, I will treasure it!

Wordless Wednesday

;-)

Wordless Wednesday

Piecing and quilting

There's a lot of piecing and quilting happening here at the moment, but unfortunately I can't show the finished quilts yet! Very frustrating. I will show some sneak peeks - the block above is part of a Dutch Quilt I recently made, using some Dutch farmers handkerchiefs my mother-in-law sent me.



Chevrons are everywhere, so I thought I should try them as well. The piece above is now part of a bag!



I played with some strips and made this block a while ago. It looks good, don't you think? I've made a few more now and will sew them together soon...



I am also experimenting with quilt blocks made from upcycled denim. In the last six years I have kept all the blue jeans from my sons, my husband and myself, so I have quilte a pile of fabric now. Let's make a quilt!



And last but not least, I am finally making an art quilt again! Here is a peek of a very small part of it. I will reveal more in four months or so...

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

More felted sweaters projects

I'm still in my felted jumpers/sweaters phase and yesterday I made this 'trivet' (or table topper). Cool, hey? Here is a view from above:



Much as I like them, I don't really need more than one of these things, so I've added it to my Etsy shop - you can find it here. I also made a smaller version of the Baby Blocks (or Tumbling Blocks) trivet I showed here a week ago:



I've added that one to the shop as well - I think it would make a great mouse pad!
And here is another one - this block is known as Card Tricks. It's a small one, I think I will keep it and use it as a coaster:



I've still got a pile of felt, so I'm not done yet! Any suggestions for quilt blocks I could make with felted shapes?

Tea House Cosies

I made these Tea House Cosies for Down Under Quilts. The boys love them :-).



Issue 160 is on sale now - it's my favourite so far. I wrote an article about house quilts made by our readers that has some stunning quilts in it. I love house quilts but have never made one so far - really should do that someday! (I'm waiting until we have our own house, I suppose...)



There are also some great Christmas projects in this issue, like the cute wall hanging on the cover made by Kirsty from Bonjour Quilts. Check it out! (and if you do, I would love to hear what you think!)

Felted wool and kids' art

A while ago a friend who was moving overseas gave me her (small) fabric stash. In it I found some woollen jumpers (sweaters) which I felted in the washing machine. Then I cut them up and stitched the pieces back together, as you do when you are a quilter... and ta-da!



 The back is made from another jumper:



I think this sort of thing is called a trivet, right? it is residing on our dinner table now where we could put a vase of flowers on it if we had any flowers (flowers are shockingly expensive here in Australia, compared to the Netherlands, so I hardly ever buy them). The boys, especially my middle son Ernst, are fascinated by the 3D shapes!

Speaking of Ernst, here is a painting that he made this week. It's called Robot Dog:



And here is a drawing of a character that he invented. He called it Triple Trouble - or rather Triplle Trubull ;-)



I just love his original artwork and am going to try to upload it onto Spoonflower and see if I can have some of it printed on fabric (as I did with another drawing of his a few years ago).

SAQA Auction

You may remember this little quilt, my donation for the SAQA Benefit Auction. I'm happy to say that it was sold during the first week of the auction. It's featured on the SAQA Europe/Middle-East blog at the moment, as they announce their plans for a gallery of auction quilts for 2014. Do check it out!

For the first time I have bought a quilt at the SAQA Auction. I will show it here when it arrives!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Upcycling for the school fete

A small part of this op shop find was turned into...



... a pencil roll!
I have a stall at my kids' school annual fete next weekend and am making lots of pencil rolls (plus some other stuff). Digging through my fabric stash to find fabrics that make good pencil rolls...



If you are in the neighbourhood, do come along. It's promising to be a fun day! (it's also my little one's 7th birthday)

Wordless Wednesday

Orange Peel Cushions

For Down Under Quilts issue 159 I wrote an article about Orange Peel quilts. I got so inspired that I decided to make some modern Orange Peel cushion covers - you can find them as a project in the same issue. Appliqué is not really my thing but I did enjoy making these covers. I used black and white fabrics from my stash - some are leftovers from the black, white and red log cabin quilt I made back in 2008!

Wordless Wednesday

Cycle of Life on a cycling blog

I just discovered a lovely 'review' of my Cycle of Life quilt on CycleStuff, a British cycling blog. The blogger, Simon Nurse, says, "It absolutely represents the evolution of a cycling dad. Tentative wandering on the tricycle. Growing confidence with stabilisers. Rough and tumble on the BMX. No fear on the mountain bike (until that first king size crash). The thrill of competition, then fatherhood, with all its highs and lows, complications, time demands and responsibilities."

This just made my day! I am so happy that someone likes something I made so much and that it, as he says, struck a chord. Of course this quilt is my personal favourite as well :-).