Happy holidays!

Sunshine quilt

Just realised that I haven't shown you this quilt yet! I made it back in July, for the summer issue of Down Under Quilts.



It's a very simple baby quilt - just nine-patch blocks and snowball blocks, made with a bright orange fabric to give it a sunny look.



This is the cover of the magazine - it's available now at newsagents and online.



The quilt is now available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Tomorrow we are going away for a few days; camping in Noosa. I'm planning on making lots of photos to add to my portfolio on Shutterstock, which is growing steadily and starting to generate some income!

Ernst Denied Computer Privileges

A few days ago my middle son Ernst received a parcel from New Zealand. In it was this gorgeous mini quilt, called Ernst Denied Computer Privileges! It was made by Mathea Daunheimer, an American textile artist living in New Zealand, who, like Ernst, loves dragons and is working on a series of small pieces featuring 'inner dragons'. The series was born when her son called the first dragon Mummy Without Coffee (read more about it here on her blog). Knowing that Ernst loves dragons, she asked what released his inner dragon - well, not getting to use the computer usually does that!



Here is a close up photo of the dragon. Mathea first 'draws' the dragon on the fabric using free-motion quilting and then colours it in using textile paints. On her Facebook page you can follow her dragon-making process.



Mathea and I met online in 2009 and we finally caught up IRL in April, when I was visiting my Dutch friend in New Zealand. Thanks again Mathea, for this wonderful gift!

Vintage Lone Star quilt

As you know, I love Lone Star quilts, so I couldn't resist this beauty when I saw it on Etsy a while ago. Luckily it wasn't too expensive - probably because it has a few stains. It's from Ohio and thought to have been made in the 1940s. It is hand-pieced and hand-quilted.



Isn't it gorgeous?!

Stock photographer!

If you have been following this blog for a while you will have noticed that I enjoy making photos (I also have a photo blog).  I am happy  to announce that since a few weeks I have a portfolio on Shutterstock, a website where you can buy images, videos and music. Photos have to be of a high quality to be accepted, so I am thrilled to have reached this stage (quite a few of the photos I have submitted have been rejected as well, always with a reason which is a great learning experience).



Among my sets of photos is one with images of quilts. I hope to add a lot more to this one!

Messenger bag

A few months ago I made this messenger bag, using a lovely home dec fabric from Ikea  for the outside and a chevron quilting fabric for the lining.



The bag was  a project for issue 9 of Love Sewing Australia, which is now available at newsagents and online. I had planned to add the bag to my Etsy shop, but I liked it so much that it is now my everyday bag!



This is the magazine's cover - see that little superhero?



That's my youngest son Robert, modelling the superhero cape designed by Rachelle Page. He is thrilled to be in a magazine!

Key rings

Yesterday I whipped up these key rings - the one with the ghosts for my middle son, who had his birthday yesterday, on Halloween, the Dr Who one for my youngest son who is a great fan, and the one with the tennis rackets for myself.

I bought the ribbons and a key ring kit a few weeks ago at the Queensland Quilt Show from Craft Queen. A very quick project (they have a tutorial here) and they make great gifts!

Wordless Wednesday

Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2015: Thinking of Holland

This is my second entry in the Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2015, hosted by Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side, in the Art Quilt category. I made this art quilt, called Thinking of Holland, in November 2013 for an exhibition with the theme 'Living Colour'. It wasn't selected but it became one of my favourite quilts.



'Living Colour' immediately make me think of the flower fields in Holland (The Netherlands), my home country. We use to live close to those fields in the last few years before we moved to Australia and yes, they really are so very colourful. There are also lots of windmills in that part of the country and although a cliché, I had to add one as they have such a beautiful shape!



I also had to include a bicycle... It's what I miss most here in Australia - riding everywhere as a matter of fact (without a helmet!) and feeling safe because it is such a normal part of everyday life. The bicycle shape is the one I used in my Cycle of Life quilt (see blog header), it is based on a photo of my husband and our youngest son.



I densely quilted this piece with Aurifil threads and blogged about it here.



Do check out the other quilts in the Art Quilt category and don't forget to vote for your favourites between 29 October and 5 November!

Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2015: Lone Star

The Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side is on again! I am entering my Lone Star quilt in the Large Quilts category.



I started piecing this quilt in June 2013 and finished the top by the end of July. I had a go at quilting it, but didn't like the result and put it away. I finally picked it up again two years (!) later and this time I did finish it. The binding was hand-stitched on during a short holiday in Caloundra, a sea-side town north of Brisbane, so I went for a celebratory photo shoot there:





This quilt has been on our bed ever since it was finished. I love it and am so glad that I did not give up on it after all!



I originally blogged about this quilt here. Stay tuned for my second entry into the Bloggers Quilt Festival!

Wordless Wednesday

Starimekko

You may remember that a while ago I mentioned that I was making a quilt using Marimekko fabrics - more specifically the iconic Unikko (Poppy) design in different colourways. Well, here it is!



As you can see, it's another Lone Star - I loved making the red and white one and I'm not done yet with Lone Stars! For this quilt I used much larger diamonds to showcase the fabrics, and I added 1 inch white sashing strips.



While working on it I jokingly called the quilt Starimekko, and the name stuck...



I quilted it in a similar way to the other Lone Star quilt, using straight lines, although this time not in the ditch but about 1 inch from the seams on each side. Quilting most certainly is not my favourite part of the quiltmaking process...



The binding is made from yet another Unikko fabric (as shown here):



The back of the quilt is a large-scale Marimekko fabric called Hetkiä (Moments), designed by Maija Louekari. I like it almost as much as the front!

Starimekko is 68 inch /172.5 cm square. Here it is on our bed - such a happy and colourful quilt, don't you think?



I am planning to make a small wall hanging with the scraps and the selvedges of the Marimekko fabrics, so stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas tree skirt

Finally I can show you the Christmas project I made back in May! It is a tree skirt - the first one I have ever made. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and looking forward to using it in December. How lucky that we have just moved to a bigger house, and will actually have room for a large tree this year!



The tree skirt is one of the projects in the Christmas issue of Down Under Quilts (#172), which is now available at newsagents and online.



My equilateral triangles quilt is also in this issue - you may remember I made it back in April.



I really like this little quilt! I used six shades of green, plus four brown triangles to make sure you can see the forest through the trees ;-)



Sadly there are no babies expected in my family or among my friends anytime soon, so I have added the quilt to my Etsy shop. You can find it here.



UPDATE 2016: The pattern for this quilt is now available on Etsy.

Colouring in

Have you succumbed to the latest fad yet - colouring-in books for adults? I came across this book the other day and couldn't resist it: Fantastic Cities by Canadian artist Steve McDonald.



It's filled with gorgeous drawings of cities all over the world - Amsterdam, Melbourne, Paris, New York, Tokyo, you name it. There are also some mandalas created from the citiscapes. I can see myself spending quilte a few hours immersed in this book!



I've just finished a large quilt (will show it here soon) and as always after a big project I felt like making some small items. I had just sold a few pencil rolls to my first customer from Russia (!) so decided to make some new ones to add to my Etsy shop. One from this funky transport fabric:



And two from beautiful Aboriginal fabrics:





They would make a great gift for someone who loves colouring in!