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.