Some serious screen printing

Today my darling hubby took the boys to the park, so I had a couple of hours to do some serious screen printing. I had managed to dye some fabrics yesterday and was ready to try out my new big screen. I decided to print some large divers:

The first print wasn't too sharp...

But the next ones got better and better. This is the third print; the fourth was even better but I am not showing you that one yet ;-).

I found that I don't like the big sqeegee and decided to use the old one, even if it is a bit small for the big screen.

With my old screen (which felt very small and nicely familiar after the big one) I made some ice skater prints for a new quilt:

I printed some Dutch Houses on fabric scraps to make postcards - they are a big hit in my MadeIt shop.

A while ago I found this smallish Poinciana seed pod (usually they are much bigger) and kept it to use for stamping on fabric:

It turned out beautifully!

I had a lovely day and can't wait to start sewing lots of new projects!

New quilt

See here the start of a new quilt - and the bath mat I bought especially for this purpose! ;-)

Update

Not much to show here - I am at the stage where I have designed two new quilts in my mind, have put apart some fabrics, but haven't done much else yet. It's been too hot in the last week to do much in an unairconditioned sewing room...

I did make these rubbings with a paintstick, just to see how it would look - I used these potholders!



I am also designing some new animal calligrams, but can't show them here yet. They may end up printed on children's duvet covers, pillow cases, fitted sheets, bibs etc - very exciting!!!

And another exciting thing is about to happen... All I will say for now is that at this moment three of my quilts are in the United States to be photographed!

Stamping, rubbing and stenciling

Today DH took the boys to the swimming pool, so I had the afternoon to play with fabric, stamps, stencils and paint! The piece above was made with the stencils I bought at the Textile Art Festival in June. I think I will use it for a cover for the Kindle DH will get on his birthday in January.



This one was made with a rubbing plate and a Paintstick, and the last one with a commercial stamp. Wouldn't that piece make a nice card for a new mum?



I did some more stamping, but the other pieces didn't photograph very well and I'm too lazy to try again...

Tomorrow, on the last day of 2010, I will look back on the past year. Tomorrow is also the day the self portrait quilts will be unveiled at the Art Quilts Around the World blog, so stay tuned!

This and that

I've finished the top for the Art Quilts Around the World challenge and sent it off to Melbourne. Time for a new project! Yesterday I took one of my bicycle prints and added the shadow with a paint stick. That has to dry now for 2 days, so I took a try out piece of painted and quilted fabric that has been laying here for months (since October, acutally - I posted it here when I had just painted it) and made it into a new case for my sunglasses:



I just saw that my Robot Calligram fabric won the 6th place in the fabric contest at Spoonflower - out of 116 entries, that's not bad, is it! Thanks to everyone who voted for me, I appreciate it! Next week the contest theme is Nautical - I might design something for that...

And finally, here is a very amusing video that I found on a gymnastics blog (no, it's not about gymnastics). Go and have look, you'll love it!



I wish they had one of those slides at Brisbane Central Station!

Queensland Quilt Show

I managed to go to the Queensland Quilt Show yesterday and see my quilt hanging there! Compared to some of the other quilts at the show I thought it wasn't very good - I still have a long way to go... But it was nice to be there, meet some people, and, of course, do some shopping!



I bought some paintstiks, angelina and paint, 2 stamps and a gorgeous red handdyed fabric from Lisa from Dyed and Gone to Heaven. All for the quilt I promised to make for my mother-in-law - I am going to start on that one now. I also attended a beading workshop by Lisa and signed up for her beading club! I didn't buy the Down Under Quilts calendar but got it from Deborah because I read her blog! ;-)
I also bought this book which has great stencils for projects for the boys (dragon, bicycle, robot, rocket) and for me (feathers, cityscape, mandala!):



At home I played with the paint, stamp and some older stencils:

Experimenting

I am experimenting with stencils and Shiva paintstiks. Great fun!

Shopping and playing

I realised I haven't told you about the Textile Art Festival yet. It was wonderful - I came home suffering from severe visual overload. Jenny Bowker's Collections Quilts were there - probably the most beautiful quilts I have seen so far. Stunning. The My Place Quilts were shown, a wonderful collection of quilts from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, among them the one made by fellow Art Quilts Around the World member Lisette.

I met some people I had so far only encountered on the world wide web, like Dijanne and Sharon, and some I had met IRL before, like Kate and Lisa.

And I bought lots of stuff... Beautiful handdyed fabrics from Lisa's shop, Dyed and Gone to Heaven. Lots of play things from The Thread Studio: rubbing plates, lutradur, Romeo, Starburst Spray... Some Procion dye and Lumiere paint...

And so I played! I used the screen printed pieces of fabric to try the rubbing plates, with a gold Shiva stick. See pic above and the next three photos. I like the violin with those curved shapes. I also like the two gymnasts, might do some more of these (without the rubbings though).



And I dyed some fabric. I love handdyed fabric. Once you have started dyeing your own fabric, commercial fabrics just aren't good enough.



Only 5 days now until we go to the Netherlands!!! We have been collecting Australian souvenirs for friends and family (you know, boomerangs, rain makers, koala cuddly toys etc), but I suddenly thought I could make some myself - bookmarks for my best friend and mother-in-law, made with my favourite Australian fabric:



(the small one was a cut-off and too cute to throw away, so I'll keep it. Don't know what I will do with it but I love it!)

Yesterday we went to South Bank. While the boys played at the playground I checked out the Young Designers Market. There I found Thea and her wonderful husband:



I couldn't resist buying her Brisbane skirt, so I can show it off in Holland! Isn't it brilliant? Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has one too!

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...