Handprinted fabric swap

Yes, these are Dutch Houses, but not the ones you know! These are stamped, not screenprinted. I made this fat quarter for the third handprinted fabric swap organised by Leslie Keating. But first I did a stamping workshop with Lisa Walton at the Stitches and Craft Show here in Brisbane on Friday:



We each got a square of this soft, easy to carve material and a fat quarter to play with. I carved a Dutch house and made a rubbing with an oil pastel stick:



I liked the process and the result, so I bought a large block and at home I made this stamp:



It is loosely based on this photo, that I took in November 2010 in Groningen, my favourite city in the whole wide world:



And then I just stamped and stamped!



For the swap I had to make four fat quarters, in the preferred colours of my swap partners:



This morning I folded them and bound them with a scrap of my Dutch Houses wrapping paper (Spoonflower offered wrapping paper for a short while last year):



And here they are, ready to be send off!



At the bottom of the pile is my quilt for the SAQA Benefit Auction 2013, which I also finished this weekend. (yes, I am feeling quite smug!) I am not showing it yet, as it will be part of the SAQA Oceania collection and we plan to do a blog hop later in the year where we will show the quilts.



I took this quilt, The Final Round, home on Friday; it was part of the State of the Art quilt 12 exhibition and returned to me by Suzanne, the curator. I gave her my SotA13 quilt in return - yes, one of my quilts was juried in! More about that soon.

The Final Round is now for sale in my Etsy shop; you can find it here. I like it, but I just don't have enough walls to hang all my quilts!

Wordless Wednesday

Laptop case

This week I got a new laptop computer and I decided to make a case for it myself (there are lots of lovely cases on Etsy, but the laptop wasn't exactly cheap and it's not as if I can't sew). I used a piece of fabric with large flower panels that I've had in my stash for years and lined it with a soft green fleece.



The back looks like this:



This is what is left of the fabric - I may use it to make a bag for the mouse and power cord.



I have another piece of this kind of fabric - hmm, what shall I use that for?



I need the laptop (and therefore the case) for my new job: since the 4th of March I am Consultant Editor at Practical Publishing for the quilting magazines (Down Under Quilts and Down Under Textiles). A dream job!

:-)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Aussie Baby Quilt

I just heard that the quilt that I made for our new niece in Holland has arrived, so here are some photos!



This is the third quilt I have made for a little niece - the first one was a Trip Around the World quilt, the second one an Irish Chain quilt. In keeping with this tradition I wanted to make another quilt using only squares. I also wanted to use fabrics from my stash where possible. Initially I planned to make a rainbow quilt, but after making Peter the Platypus I realised I could make a lovely Australian quilt with the Aboriginal fabrics in my stash (some were leftover from the Aussie Quilt I made for my eldest son in 2009, others from other projects like this sunglasses case).



I decided that they would look best against a white fabric (and had to buy that one). I was asked to make the quilt a certain size (approx. 100 x 75 cm, or 40 x 30 inch), so it would fit in the baby's cot. The squares are 2.5 inch. I quilted in the ditch and diagonally (does that word remind you of Harry Potter too?) through the white squares:



The back is a handdyed fabric from my stash:



Peter looked so good on the quilt that I sent them to Holland together:



Robbie was very sad to see Peter go, so I made a new platypus for him. He chose the fabrics, and called him Luke, after his hero, Luke Skywalker ;-)



And here is the gorgeous little girl on her new quilt!



:-)