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!

1000 Quilt Inspirations

This week my copy of 1000 Quilt Inspirations - Colourful and Creative Designs for Traditional, Modern and Art Quilts by Sandra Sider arrived. How exciting!



I knew Speed, my little bycicle quilt, would be in it, but was surprised to see Black & White #3 and #2 in it as well:



And Balance 2, one of my personal favourites!



As the title says, the book is full of inspiration. There are no patterns or techniques and there is very little text (just a 2-page introduction) - it's just lots and lots of images of gorgeous quilts. I spend a wonderful evening going through it slowly.

I showed the book to a few non-quilting friends and they really enjoyed looking through it. A perfect coffee table book!

Good news

Yesterday I received an email telling me that my quilt Speed had been selected to appear in 1000 Quilt Inpirations by Sandra Sider, due to be published by Quarry Books in December 2015. How exciting!



This little quilt (A4 size) is getting a fair bit of limelight, for it was also featured in the American magazine Quilting Arts in 2011. It lives in Holland, as I made it for my uncle who loves cycling. I will have to get him a copy of the book!



More good news: a dear friend bought my Forest quilt and it is now hanging in her home office. That is making me very happy! :-)

Thinking of Holland

This quilt was made in November 2013. It was my entry for Living Colour! but it was not selected. I was very disappointed, as the theme really spoke to me and I knew immediately that I would make a quilt showing the famous flower fields in Holland. Initially I called it Flower Fields Forever, but I changed the name to Thinking of Holland, because it does really remind me of my home country.



We lived close to those fields in the last few years before we moved to Australia and, yes, they really are so vividly colourful! (here are some great photos). I had to add a windmill, cliché or not - they have such an attractive shape and there were lots of them where we used to live. And you will recognise the bicycle as the one I used in my Cycle of Life quilt (based on a photo of my husband and our youngest son).



I used my favourite Aurifil thread for piecing and quilting. The quilt is hanging over our dinner table and I am enjoying looking at it every day. But I am also happy that it is going to travel around Australia soon, as part of the World of Colour exhibition organised by Berry Patchwork. It is even going to Uluru! How I wish I could go and see it there!

Cycle of Life on a cycling blog

I just discovered a lovely 'review' of my Cycle of Life quilt on CycleStuff, a British cycling blog. The blogger, Simon Nurse, says, "It absolutely represents the evolution of a cycling dad. Tentative wandering on the tricycle. Growing confidence with stabilisers. Rough and tumble on the BMX. No fear on the mountain bike (until that first king size crash). The thrill of competition, then fatherhood, with all its highs and lows, complications, time demands and responsibilities."

This just made my day! I am so happy that someone likes something I made so much and that it, as he says, struck a chord. Of course this quilt is my personal favourite as well :-).

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!

Queensland Quilt Show 2012

On Wednesday I was at the Queensland Quilt Show, at the 2QAQ table with Glad, Sue and Jane. We demonstrated some techniques - I made this piece of burlap:



People kept asking 'But what will it be?' - I don't know yet!



The quilt show was amazing; there were more than 500 quilts! The red and white quilts from the Mount Isa region looked spectacular:



I had entered two quilts; Wooyung:



.. and my Zebra, which had been folded and looked terrible :-(



I discovered that The Final Round was also at the show, with the other State of the Art quilt 12 quilts:



I had planned not to buy anything but couldn't resist this book - I have been wanting to read it for quite a while:



I have almost finished it and will post a review soon!



I took something else home: Cycle of Life, which has been at a number of exhibitions and even a visit to the SAQA/SDA Conference in Philadelphia! It's been away for 18 months and I am so glad to have it back home! It is my favourite of all my quilts.

I had a lovely day at the show - unfortunately I had to leave early to pick up the boys from school. Hubby is in New Zealand at the moment, so I am temporarily a single parent. I had forgotten how much time and energy it takes when you have to do it all by yourself... which of course shows how much hubby usually does!

The Netherlands

It feels so good to be back in the Netherlands! We are having a lovely time with family and friends, visiting lots of fun places like Madurodam in the photo above - the Netherlands in miniature!



I saw this sign at the ladies' in a department store - too funny!



We also went to the zoo - zebras are so stylish!



I had a lot of fun playing with the photos in Picasa...



At the moment we are in Groningen, my favourite city in the world - staying with my BFF Hylkia (aka the Apple Tart Queen). The sign below says 'Free Eye Testing'.



Groningen is so beautiful!







Going to the market is one of our favourite things to do:









And cycling of course!



Yum!

Art Cards

I can't believe it's been more than a week since I last posted here! It is a very busy time, the last weeks before the summer holidays... We have had a Gymnastics Carnival, taekwondo gradings, piano concert, Kindy End of Year Celebration, school disco... And let's not forget our Dutch St Nicholas celebration (it's when we have presents), and a sad event - the 25th anniversary of the day my mother died (read more here). I haven't been feeling well and will be glad when the school holidays start.



As you will understand I haven't been very creative but I have made some new Art Cards to add to my Etsy shop, Blue Jacaranda. The shop is doing quite well, as is the one on MadeIt - something that is making me very happy. It's a nice idea that people like my items enough to buy them.



I have just received some new thermofax screens and hope to make more cards very soon.

Update

Sorry for being AWOL in the last week, things have been very busy here! I did manage to finish the quilt for Beneath the Southern Sky - here is a sneak peek. The quilt is hanging in our dining room at the moment and we all like it very much, so if it does not get selected we won't mind!

On Monday and Tuesday I was in Cairns to collect data on multi-drug resistant TB for my PhD. There was unfortunately no time for sightseeing but I did have a lovely view over Cairns and the mountains from my hotel room.



Tomorrow we are going to Straddie (North Stradbroke Island) for a weekend camping with two other Dutch families. Looking forward to that! Next week I hope to do some screen printing again. I need new prints for my Blue Jacaranda shop on Etsy where things are starting to happen... (23 sales in the first two months!!) And I have bought supplies for printing on paper with my thermofax screens (high-quality printing paper etc) - I can't wait to give that a try!



And last but not least: Cycle of Life is a finalist in the Fall Expo at the Infinity Art Gallery. Out of 70 entrants, 32 pieces works of art were selected, so I am quite happy :-).