Melbourne!

Melbourne was fabulous, as always! Hugo struggled on his first day of competition but did very well on the second, with the fifth highest score on pommel of the day. He was very happy, as was his coach.



I had originally booked a room in Richmond, but the host cancelled a few days before my arrival because of plumbing problems. Luckily I found another room, in East Melbourne - even closer to the HiSense Arena! The room was clean, large, with a good bed, a beautiful handmade rug and a very friendly cat, Emmett. What more can you ask for?



Walking through East Melbourne I spotted some lovely details, such as this gorgeous art deco window:



And these beautiful wrought iron balcony railings:



On Tuesday, my gymnastics-free day, I took the train to Brighton to photograph the famous bathing boxes (more photos on my photo blog here):



And then travelled back to the City to photograph the street art. Loved this mural - very appealing to a quilter! (more photos here on the photo blog)



Last year when I blogged about my Melbourne trip, Meg left a comment and suggested I visit L'uccello on Swanston Street. So I did!



It is the most delightful fabric shop - thanks for the tip, Meg! I was very restrained and only bought one fat quarter :-).



On Thursday I took Hugo out for a couple of hours. Sadly it was a cold and rainy day, so we didn't go to St Kilda, but stayed in the City and visited ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) instead, which we both loved.
I flew back to Brisbane on Thursday night and Hugo came back with the team on Friday afternoon. This vintage Dick Bruna card from the 1970s was waiting for him - I discovered it a while ago in a Dutch Etsy shop and of course I had to snap it up!



And now life is back to normal. I have a few ideas for (art) quilts inspired by this trip, so stay tuned!

Off to Melbourne!

Tomorrow morning I fly to Melbourne, to watch Hugo compete at the Australian Gymnastics Championships at the HiSense Arena at 5.30pm. His second competition is on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday I'll take a day off from the gymnastics to wander around in the City and make lots of photos. I love Melbourne! On Thursday I'll take Hugo out for a few hours before I fly back to Brisbane (he flies back on Friday, with the team). Last year there was no time to do that, but two years ago we went to St Kilda, where I took this photo of him in front of the famous Luna Park.



Hugo injured his elbow during a rings routine 10 days ago and it has been a stressful time, with visits to the fysiotherapist, an MRI, and adjusted training sessions to let it heal. He only started full training again two days ago, but thankfully it seems to heal well, so we are hopeful that he will be able to compete on all apparatus in Melbourne. These photos were taken by photographers of Actionfoto at the Queensland State Championships in April.



I haven't done much quilting in the last two weeks, but when I was helping Hugo with his homework the other day I was pleased to see a quilt in his maths book!



I have designed a row for The Road Home Row Along, organised by Marian from Seams To Be Sew. I can't show it here yet, but stay tuned for the reveal in September. Of course the place featured in my row will be Holland! (the province of South-Holland, to be more exact, where we lived before we moved to Australia)



And last but not least, I am thrilled and honoured to be asked to be a judge at the Auckland Festival of Quilts in November. So looking forward to my third visit to New Zealand!

2016 SAQA Benefit Auction Quilt: Colouring In

I love the current trend of colouring in for adults and have a small pile of colouring books - ranging from a Tula Pink colouring book to a Game of Thrones one (A Christmas present from my hubby! But to be honest, I haven't filled any pages yet - I'm usually too busy sewing...). My favourite is the one on top - the small Mindfulness Colouring Book, with simple, often geometric colouring pages (it must be the traditional quilter in me). I coloured in quite a few pages of that one last year, while waiting for my middle son to finish his acting classes.



My eyes fell on that book when I was trying to decide what to do for my 2016 SAQA Benefit Auction quilt, and suddenly I thought of a colouring in quilt! I quilted a triangle grid that I would enjoy colouring in myself and wondered what to use for the pencil strokes. Then I remembered the spool of Aurifloss I recently received from the lovely peeps at Aurifil - as you may have noticed from the blog button in the sidebar, I am now an Aurifil blogger, and very proud and honoured to be one!



I wound a bobbin with the Aurifloss and turned the quilt around to sew from the back and fill in the triangles. For the top thread I used Aurifil 50wt threads in matching colours:



The pencils are appliquéd with the same threads. It was a fun little project that has now been sent off to the USA to be auctioned in September. You can see the other Auction quilts here - there are some fabulous little works of art among them!

Stay tuned for the SAQA Oceania Blog Hop that will take place in the weeks before the Auction, similar to the one we did in 2013!

One quilt finished, one quilt started

The quilt in progress that I showed last week is finished! (yes, I am left-handed)



I have entered it in an exhibition overseas and am not sure if I am allowed to share it in full yet, so I'll just tease you with these sneak peeks. I hope that all will be revealed soon - I can say that it is a very colourful quilt!



Meanwhile I have started on another quilt - a small one. This is going to be my 2016 SAQA Benefit Auction quilt!



Stay tuned for I will show more of this one very soon!

Playing Favorites: Mondrian's Lone Star

A while ago I heard about the 10th Annual Quilt Alliance Contest and decided to enter it. This year's theme is "Playing Favorites" and quilters were asked to make a 16'' x 16'' wall hanging showcasing their very favourite pattern or technique. In my case that would be a Lone Star!



When I was trying to decide what colours to use for this wall hanging, my eyes fell on the Gymnastics Cushion inspired by Mondrian I made for Hugo last month. How about a Mondrian-inspired Lone Star, in red, blue, yellow and white on black?



I quilted it with black Aurifil thread. The back looks quite nice too!



I did a quick photography session in the backyard and sent it off to the USA.



This little quilt is a donation to the Quilt Alliance and will be auctioned after an exhibition tour in the States. I'm thinking of making another, larger, Mondrian's Lone Star - maybe a baby quilt?