New burlap items

There is still a pile of coffee sacks in my sewing room* and I keep thinking about what to do with them. Do you like this fabric postcard? ;-) I have just added it to my shop on Etsy!



A loyal customer asked if I could make burlap coasters. Of course! I have sent a set of eight to her and this set of four is now for sale. (I've also made one for hubby)



This Burlap Cafe ACEO (ATC) has also been added to the shop - it was just a fun thing, to use up some small pieces of burlap, interfacing and muslin/calico.

I do love burlap! Any more ideas on what to do with it? I'm thinking aprons, bookcovers, Kindle covers... Would love to hear your suggestions! And would you be interested in a tutorial in how to make these cards and coasters?

* I need to get used to calling my sewing room a studio as I am joining the SAQA Oceania Studio Blog Hop in May! More info about this soon!

Red Work

The other day I saw some pictures of redwork quilts and I suddenly thought that printing my designs in red ink on white fabric might be a good idea... So on Monday night I did a massive screen printing session at the kitchen table (made 41 prints!) and yesterday at night (I work on Monday and Tuesday) I made a lot of Art Cards...



Today I was at home with the boys (it's the last week of the summer holidays here) and between gymnastics and the library managed to add them to my Etsy shop.



I also made some stretched prints:



... and a red-on-white Robot Calligram t-shirt! (the white-on-red Robot Calligram t-shirt is here)



This Dutch Houses ACEO (ATC) sold within 2 hours of adding it to the shop - wow! (I have added a new one, so it is for sale again)



I will be adding some of these items to the MadeIt shop as well in the next few days, but for now I am concentrating on my Etsy shop as I have almost reached the magic number of 100 items! I am already noticing an increase in sales - I have been to the post office five times in the last eight days!

A heart for Christchurch and more

Yesterday I made this small blue flannel heart for Christchurch. Evie is collecting them for the victims of the terrible earthquake. Since she seems to get a lot of pink hearts I thought I'd make a blue one! All the details are on her blog, if you would like to send one too.



And here is a card for the Recycling swap at the Dutch Fibermail group. I used scraps of fabric from old blue jeans and shirts from my boys, and some coordinating fabric from Reverse Garbage. I still plan on making a quilt with these fabrics (I posted a possible design here - but I think it's too ordered).



The Fibermail group also has a bookmark swap this month. I made this one with some appropriate selvedge words, and an alphabet fabric on the back:



I've also made some selvedge cards for the birthday list:





And finally, here are some ATCs that recently arrived. These two are from Jackie in Canada:



and this one is from Kate here in Brisbane. It took a while, but was worth the wait! ;-)



If you would like to swap an ATC or a fiber postcard, I still have some Dutch Houses cards left (in both sizes). Leave a comment here and I'll get back to you!

Thermofax screen, postcards and ATCs

After our very busy weekend I finally found time to do some screen printing - yes, more gymnasts! Sally in Hobart, Tasmania, made this thermofax screen for me (thanks again, Sally!):



She has set up a Thermofax Shop and will burn your images for you. I am sure I will make use of her services again!



In the last week I have received four cards from the Dutch Fibermailers. This gorgeous Mother and Child card is from Hannie.

And here are three birthday cards, from Ellen, Evelyn and Olga:



And an ATC from Janet in Canada - her very first one! I think it turned out great:



Here are my ATCs that are still available for swapping (the top ones are made with silk paper, the bottom ones with a thermofax screen):

Postcards and ATCs

I signed up for a birthday card swap at the Dutch Fibermail group. Here is the first card I made for an August birthday - please click to see it enlarged; I am rather happy with how it turned out and may make a quilt one day using this technique!
I'm looking forward very much to receiving 20 fibercards next month for my birthday!



I made this card for relatives in the Netherlands who just had a baby (it's one of my Pictogrammar designs at Spoonflower).



And these ATCs were made from the remnants of the silk paper journal cover. They are so soft!
If you would like to swap an ATC, just leave a comment. I also still have some Dutch Houses ATCs.

Postcards and ATCs

Today I received this glorious Elmer postcard from Tonny in the Netherlands (part of the Elephant postcard swap at my Fibermail group). It even came in a fabric envelope! I absolutely love it (and so do the boys).



And this is the Mosaique postcard I received from Ellen a while ago:



And the Mask postcards, from Jettie and Evelyn:



And here are some ATCs I haven't shown yet. The two on top are from Hannie, the other two from Astrid (both from the Netherlands):



These are from Mia and Cobi, also from the Netherlands:



And the last one is from Melly in the USA:



After writing the previous blog posting I felt so guilty about still not having made a 'big quilt' for Robbie that I dug up the play quilt top I made for him at the retreat in November last year. I have almost finished quilting it and hope he will be able to play on it this weekend, when I will be at another retreat! Yay!

More postcards, more ATCs

I signed up for two postcard swaps at the Dutch Fibermail group this month. The theme of the first one is Masks. With three little boys in the house this was my first idea - and they loved it. (I'm working on a second, quite different card)

The theme of the other swap is Mosaique and this is what I made:



Here is the Doors card that I received from Mia:



And here are the ATCs that I received after asking for swap partners a while ago. Clockwise, starting at the top left, they are from Linda, Diana in New Zealand, Delia and Nia. Thanks very much ladies, they are gorgeous!



I have made some more postcards and ATCs with my new thermofax screen. If you would like to swap a card, let me know!





PS Thanks for all the kind comments on the last posting. Robbie is doing very well - so well in fact that we have taken off the cast (it was a back slab, not a full cast). I'm sure the arm was not broken after all.
And the bike print is just a print - not a quilt yet! I do intend to make a bicycle quilt, but need to make some more stencils first.

Haiku ATCs

You may remember that I signed up for a Haiku ATC swap I while ago. Last week I received 4 lovely ATCs. The first one is from Melissa in New Zealand:



This one was made by Jan in New Zealand:



A beauty from Michelle in South Australia:



And the last one is from Amelia in New Zealand:



Here are my Haiku ATCs - the photo is rather dark; I made it at night after finishing the ATCs and sent them off the next day... And I didn't keep a record of the haiku I used, how dumb is that?



This is an ATC made by Lyric Kinard, that I got when I ordered her Surface Design dvd. I did her Playing with Paint class last year at Quilt University (and thoroughly enjoyed it) and have just started her new screen printing class. Hope to show you some results soon!



I finished the Connections quilt for AQATW (the online artquilt group formerly known as ATWI20Q) but can't show it here yet. It will be revealed on the group's blog on June 30th - when we are in the Netherlands!!! (yay!! I am sooooo looking forward to that holiday!)

And I have started a new quilt - in an optimistic moment I signed up for Another Little Quilt Swap Round 3, and this little quilt has to be finished on July 20th, which is 11 days after we come back from the Netherlands, so I thought I'd better get going...