Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2016: Colourful Pencils

Here is my second entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side: Colourful Pencils. Regular readers of this blog have seen it quite recently, for I made it only a few months ago.



It is inspired by an original art print designed by Melbourne-based graphic artist and illustrator Harper and Charlie. I saw this print last year in November and immediately thought that it would make a great patchwork quilt. I contacted them to ask for permission to make a quilt inspired by this design and was very happy when they said yes!



Colourful Pencils is quilted very densely with Aurifil 40wt threads in matching colours:



For the binding I used a lovely stripey fabric:



The quilt measures 31'' x 51''. It now hangs in my son's room - he loves the 3D effect. The pattern for this wall hanging is available in my pattern store on Etsy.



I am entering this quilt in the ROYGBIV Quilts Category (rainbow quilts). Do check out some of the other quilts in the Festival as well - there is so much eye candy and inspiration to be found!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2016: Starimekko

It's that time of year again: the Blogger's Quilt Festival 2016 is on, hosted by Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side. I am entering my quilt Starimekko in the Large Quilt Category (it is 67'' square).



I love making Lone Star quilts, and in July 2015, when I had finished my red and white Lone Star (which was one of my entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival 2015), I decided to make a more modern version. For that version I used the iconic Unikko (Poppy) design by Maija Isola for the famous Finnish company Marimekko in nine different colourways. I had been collecting these fabrics for quite a while - I bought most of them at the Finnish Etsy shop OttaShop.



I used large diamond shapes to showcase the fabrics, and added white 1'' sashing strips. The binding is yet another Unikko print.



For the back I used a large Marimekko print called Hetkiä (Moments), designed by Maija Louekari:



I quilted this modern Lone Star in straight lines through the diamonds, ½” from the seams, continuing in the white spaces outside the star, using a walking foot and white Aurifil 40wt thread. It has a thin cotton batting, so it's perfect for early spring nights here in subtropical Queensland.



After I showed this quilt on my blog and on Instagram, quite a few people asked about the pattern. It took me more than a year to write it down (much longer than it took to make the quilt!), but it is now available in my pattern shop on Etsy.




Don't forget to check out the other quilts in the Festival and stay tuned for my second entry!

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!

Spring 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival - Rainbow Diamonds

Amy from Amy's Creative Side is once again hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I am entering my Rainbow Diamonds baby quilt in the ROYGBIV Quilt Category.



I made this quilt in October 2014, for my brother-in-law and his partner in the Netherlands who were expecting their second child, but did not want to reveal if it was a boy or girl. I wanted to finish the quilt before we went to the Netherlands for Christmas, so suggested I make a rainbow quilt - good for a boy as well as for a girl! They liked that idea. In the end the baby, a boy, was born a few days before we left Australia. His parents and big sister loved the quilt :-)



It is made up of half-square triangles and measures 30" by 42" (76 x 107cm). The pattern for this quilt can be found in my Etsy store.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2014

Amy from Amy's Creative Side is once again hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. In 2013 I entered my favourite quilt, Cycle of Life, in the Art Quilt category. Now I have a new favourite, so I am entering this one, Fly Away!



Regular readers of this blog have seen it here recently, for I made it only a few months ago. It is inspired by a photo of my eldest son Hugo (11), taken at the Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne in May 2014, by a photographer of WinkiPoP Media (you can see the original photo here).



This is the largest art quilt I have made so far - it measures 95 x 131 cm (37 x 51.5 inch). It was densely machine quilted on my small Janome, which was quite a struggle!



The image is made using raw-edge appliqué on a whole-cloth background. For a detailed account of how I made this quilt (including all the unpicking I had to do!) click here.



This is Hugo with the quilt:



He started doing gymnastics in 2009, when he was 6 years old. He is now training six times a week and this was the first year he was selected to represent Queensland at the national championships in the Under 12 age group (the youngest category). I'm so proud of him! Here is a video of his rings routine - the photo was taken at the dismount:



Do check out the other quilts in the Art Quilt category and don't forget to vote for your favourite in the first week of November!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

Amy from Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I have decided to enter my favourite quilt into the art quilt category.

Cycle of Life was made in 2010, part of my sports series. It is a whole-cloth quilt, the background fabric is a handdyed piece from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. The cyclists are screen printed and their shadows are stencilled with a Paintstick using freezer paper stencils. The quilt is machine quilted. The dimensions are 48 x 107 cm / 19 x 42 inch.



I used photos of my sons and my husband to make the first three images and the last one. I am especially fond of the third image: my middle son riding his bike without the trainer wheels for the first time (see here):



Cycle of Life was juried into the State of the Art quilt 11 in Brisbane, a finalist in the Fall Expo 2011 at the Infinity Art Gallery, and was exhibited at the SAQA/SDA Conference 2012 in Philadelphia, USA.

As I said, this is my favourite of all my quilts; it hangs in our living room above the piano!