Weekend in Sydney

Last weekend youngest son and I travelled to Sydney, where he and his partner competed in the Luna Park Ballroom Dancing Championships. They did very well and took home two silver medals and one bronze!



You can watch them dance the waltz and the quickstep here:



We stayed with our Dutch friends in Sydney. They have two Cocker Spaniel puppies, so I crocheted a bone for each of them:



Happy to say that they loved their presents!



On Sunday morning we visited the Organic Markets in Marrickville where I bought this hemp twine:



Perfect for another market bag!

The last posting of 2017

While the movers are packing everything in our house, I sit in my son's room and write the last posting of 2017. Tomorrow we leave Sydney - first we go to Canberra where we will be until the 2nd of January, then to Girraween where we will be camping for four nights, and then on to our new home; Benowa on the Gold Coast.

Our one year in Sydney has been quite eventful. Some of us liked it a lot and are sad to move, others did not like it so much and are happy to leave. We are all happy to be close to our old friends in Brisbane again and we all hope that this will be the last move in quite a while! (we will make an exception for a move to a house of our own on the Gold Coast in 1-2 years time)

I am happy and proud that I managed to reach my goal of running 5 km in April of this year, and that I went on to do 10 parkruns (free weekly 5 km runs) - the last one early on Christmas Day!



Looking back at my creative endeavours, it has been quite a productive year. I only made two quilts, but they both did well: Sydney is currently in the USA for the World Quilt Competition...



... and Mondrian's Lone Star was featured in issue 19 of Make Modern:



I did do quite a bit of sewing this year and added some tutorials to the blog (how to make an oven mitt, a denim doorstop and a lined project bag):



Three patterns were added to my pattern shops on Etsy. There are now 18 patterns; the pattern for Mondrian's Lone Star will be added in January.



My love affair with knitting that started last year continued in the first half of 2017. I made my first (and second) pair of socks, lots of gloves, two scarves and a cabled cushion.



And then, in July, my mother-in-law in the Netherlands taught me to crochet... and I haven't looked back since :-)



Looking back at my creative goals for 2017, I said:

I hope to publish more knitting patterns after my first one, the Wine Bottle Cover!

No, that didn't happen!

I would also like to make more art quilts, and add some work to my sports quilts series.

Nah, didn't happen either!

And my final goal for 2017 is to design more patchwork quilts in Adobe Illustrator.

That also did not happen... I may keep my goals for 2018 more general!

I don't think I will be making any more quilts for a while. Maybe at some point in the future I'll get back to quilting, but for now crochet (and maybe a little knitting) is what I want to do. Eventually I would like to write a crochet pattern, but I think I still need a bit more experience and some more 'mileage under my hook'. (does that make sense?)

Most of all I hope that my family will be happy in our new home and that the boys will make friends at their new schools. That we can settle down and grow some roots again.

I hope you will continue to follow this blog and leave the occasional comment. Thank you for coming along on the ride so far!

I would like to wish all my readers a creative and colourful 2018!

Sydney is off to America!

Sydney is going to the US! I heard today that it has been selected to be judged at the World Quilt Competition 2017 and will hang on display during the event from 17-19 August 2017 in Manchester, New Hampshire. After that it will tour the United States and be displayed at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in September; at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in California in October; and at World Quilt Florida in January 2018.

I love it when my quilts go to places I've never been!

Sydney

In August last year we heard that at the end of the year we would have to move from Brisbane to Sydney, where my husband had found a new job. Understandably, our sons (13, 11 and 9 years old at that time) weren't happy at the thought of having to leave their friends, schools and clubs behind. They had never been to Sydney (1000 km south of Brisbane), so in the September school holidays we took them there for a family vacation, while also checking out areas to live.
The boys loved Taronga Zoo, which is situated on the shores of Sydney Harbour, and this photo of the giraffes with their fabulous view over Sydney became our favourite of the holiday (I showed it here on the blog in October).



Last year SAQA put out a call for entry for an exhibition called Textile Posters. I love vintage travel posters - here is my Pinterest board full of them - and decided to make a Sydney poster based on the photo of the giraffes. Chances of getting into a SAQA exhibition are very small, so I wanted to make a quilt that I would love to have hanging on the wall anyway!



And indeed, I heard last week that my quilt wasn't selected. I was a little sad at first, but it's hanging over our dinner table now and we all love it. Here are a few detail photos - as always, I used Aurifil 40wt threads for piecing, appliqué, and quilting:



The font used for the letters is Broadway - love the art deco feel!



For the tails of the giraffes I used black yarn:



I bought the giraffe print fabric at my local quilt shop, but all other fabrics are from my stash. I've shown the back here already, it's a funky Ikea fabric:



Here is the quilt hanging in our dining room. It measures 32'' x 48'' (81 x 122 cm).

The last posting of 2016

Almost two weeks after moving in we have more or less settled here in the Northern Beaches. It such a beautiful area - the beach is only a 20-minute walk from our house, and the views from the Plateau are fabulous:



All the boxes are unpacked, the quilts have come out and it's starting to feel like home!



Len's Quilt (The Log Cabin with a Lens, original pattern here) used to hang at my husband's workplace. Since he is not starting his new job until February, we can enjoy it at home now for a while:



My middle son's Dragon quilt is up on the wall again:



Yesterday I finally got to sew at my machine again - the first time in almost three months! I whipped up a zipper pouch, using a bit of leftover Marimekko fabric from my Modern Lone Star Quilt:



Today is for blogging, and reflecting on the year that is almost over. Like many people I am happy to say goodbye to 2016 - it was a rather horrible year, not just globally but on a personal level as well. I lost the job I loved, my husband's work contract ended and his new job meant we had to move 1000 km away from our home. We had to leave our rental house six weeks before the move and spent those weeks in a one-room apartment... Not fun. In the midst of all this our youngest son fell and broke his right elbow, a horrible complicated fracture which luckily is healing well, although he still hasn't fully regained the nerve function in his (dominant) right hand.

However, as the year is ending, things are looking up again for us. We love our new surroundings and enjoy life near the beach. The boys are a bit apprehensive about starting at new schools, but they have another four weeks of summer holidays first. I started running back in October as a way of dealing with all the stress, and although I have been struggling with injuries (Achilles tendonitis, shin splint) I am enjoying it, feeling better and losing weight.

Looking at the quilty side of things, it has been a productive and quite successful year. My Calendar was juried into the travelling exhibition a matter of time and Colourful Pencils was selected for the 2016 Modern Quilt Show Australia. My quilts for the SAQA Benefit Auction and Quilt Alliance Auction both sold. Being asked to judge at the Auckland Festival of Quilts was one of the highlights of 2016.



After losing my day job in February, selling my patterns on Etsy has become an important source of income. Luckily they are doing quite well! Here are all patterns currently for sale (ranked according to popularity - click to enlarge) - I hope to add a few more in the coming year:



Last but not least, I rediscovered knitting in 2016 - to the delight of my family! Here are a few of my finished projects (you can see them all, plus my works in progress, on Ravelry):



I am definitely planning to do more knitting in 2017, and hope to publish more knitting patterns after my first one, the Wine Bottle Cover!

I would also like to make more art quilts, and add some work to my sports quilts series.

And my final goal for 2017 is to design more patchwork quilts in Adobe Illustrator - I used it first when writing up the pattern for my Lone Star Baby Quilt and quite enjoyed the process.

I hope you will continue to follow this blog and leave the occasional comment. Thank you for coming along on the ride so far!

I would like to wish all my readers a happy, healthy, and creative 2017!

Moved to Sydney

We have moved into our new house in Sydney! Our street is called Boomerang Road - how Aussie is that?



We live in the Northern Beaches, a beautiful part of Sydney with a very relaxed vibe.



We are still unpacking boxes and putting together bookcases, beds and desks, but slowly this house is becoming our home. Finally, only a few days before Christmas, we have put up our Christmas tree. And look what has resurfaced!



I haven't had time to use it yet, but I'm so happy to see it again!

Sydney

Since we are moving to Sydney in December, we drove down there in the September school holidays to check things out, and to do the touristy things with the kids, who had never been to Sydney before. We all loved Taronga Zoo, and the photo above is my favourite from the trip. Of course the Opera House always looks great too:



We stayed in Narrabeen in the Northern Beaches, which is the area we hope to live in. So beautiful!



We drove home via Armidale, where we stayed for two nights, and did some sightseeing. The Wollomombi Falls were spectacular:



My husband and eldest son went for a walk together and saw an echidna! Hugo managed to take this photo with my DSLR:



I did a lot of knitting in the car (we drove more than 2500 km in 8 days) and managed to finish my Josephine Shawl:



Not too happy with the yarn I used - it does pill a lot, but I like the shawl!



And now it's time to start packing - in 3 weeks time, on November 1st, we move out of this house into temporary lodgings. The location is perfect (close to schools, gymnastics, hubby's work) but it's very small, so all our furniture, including my sewing machine, will have to go into storage until we move to Sydney.

So sadly no more quilting for me this year, instead I'll be knitting and designing quilts in Illustrator!