Australia issue of Down Under Quilts

Down Under Quilts 168, our special Australia issue, is now on sale. I am really happy with this issue - we feature Lucy Carroll, whose work I admire a lot, we have some great projects (love that Uluru quilt by Keith Wood) and share quilts from International Quilt Week Yokohama, the Canberra Quilt Show 2014 and A World of Colour.



My project for this issue are these Australia postcards - quick and easy to make, and great for sending to friends overseas!


(photo by photographer and textile artist Jolanta Szymczyk)

The magazine comes with a free fat quarter of this lovely fabric:



I had fun thinking of small projects to make with this fabric. Of course you could also use it in a quilt!

T-Shirt Print Cards

The other day a friend asked if I could make something for her. She had some old t-shirts she wasn't wearing anymore, but did not want to throw away because of the memories attached to them. Last year I had given her one of my Kookaburra Word Art Cards and she was wondering if it would be possible to make a card like that with those t-shirts.



I thought that was a brilliant idea! I cut the print out of the t-shirt and fused it to a piece of Fast2Fuse (what I always use to make fabric cards). For the back I used plain calico (that's muslin in the US) - she will be able to write some memories on it with a Sharpie or felt pen. I finished the edges with a satin stitch in yellow thread:



Her husband had this polo shirt from the university where he did his Masters degree that he wasn't wearing anymore:



I cut out the pocket and made this card:



She had some more shirts that I haven't photographed, but you get the idea. I think it's a brilliant way to keep the memories associated with those old shirts - and much less work than making a t-shirt quilt! (something I plan to do with Hugo's gymnastics shirts one day)
I am going to have a dig in our wardrobe soon!

New: Blue Jacaranda Newsletter

One more Blue Jacaranda message: I have set up a newsletter (whew, what a lot of work that was!) that will come out once month and keep you up-to-date with what's happening at Blue Jacaranda and other things you might like to know (such as that it is now jacaranda time in Brisbane!). If you sign up, you will automatically go in the draw for a beautiful Blue Jacaranda prize each month; this month the prize is a set of three Burlap Christmas Cards. And you get to choose the text on the cards!



You can read the first newsletter here, and also sign up on that page. Or use the form in the sidebar on the right.

On Wednesday I'll be at the Queensland Quilt Show - looking forward to that! Two of my quilts are hanging there. Will show some pics soon.

More burlap items

A while ago I lost my mobile phone case, so I thought I'd use the piece of threaded burlap that I showed in the last posting to make a new one. I made a nice case - but it's a bit too small! Silly me. Maybe a strap at the top will help.



I also made this burlap card and added it to the shop. Have you seen Barack Obama sing this song? My eldest and I love the video! (pay attention at the start - such a cute smile!)

New thermofax screens

As I told you yesterday, I had some new thermofax screens made. Remember this picture? It's a photo of a transformer station I made in Adelaide last year (I showed it on the blog here). I made a black and a white print and like how they look together... To be continued!



I also had some of my calligram designs made into thermofax screens. Here is a cute baby elephant:



A butterfly:




And that fascinating animal, the narwhal:


These items will be up in my Blue Jacaranda shop as soon as Etsy reopens! (the site is currently down for maintenance)

New: Flag Cards!

When I was making my Country Quilts for the Australian and New Zealand Art Quilters group, I thought it might be a good idea to make fabric postcards in the colours of various national flags. I finally followed up on that thought and here are the first two Flag Cards: the Netherlands (of course) and Ireland.



I've added them to my Etsy shop, thinking they might be just the thing for your Irish grandmother or to announce a city trip to Amsterdam to your beloved!

Flag Cards for France, Germany and Italy will follow soon, and after that I hope to add more countries. It's fun to make these cards and a great way to use up small scraps of fabric. I am not a hoarder but I do have trouble throwing away scraps of my precious quilting fabrics - especially the handdyed ones!



I didn't do any quilting on my day off, because I had a custom order - a mum of two boys in California asked me to do this series of three calligram cards for her sons' room. What a lovely idea that my creations will be hanging there, on the other side of the world, soon!

Gymnasts and coffee

Not much to show this week - I did add the large gymnast to the blue piece I showed here earlier, done in Paintstick. What do you think?

And I made another burlap coffee quote card and added it to my shop. I am so enjoying making them! (although cutting those freezer paper stencils is a lot of work...)



Sunday is Mother's Day and I have asked for some 'free' time to make the gymnast piece into a quilt. Hope all you mums out there will have a lovely day and be really spoilt!

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!

What to do with an old coffee sack

A while ago I bought a few coffee sacks at Reverse Garbage, and this week I started cutting them up and using them in small projects. I made two hand-stenciled cards that I really like. The first one has been added to my Etsy shop, here.



I also made another Beach Pillow and added it to the shop (here), as it was really popular.



I hope to make some more stuff this weekend. I love burlap!

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!

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.

New items @ Blue Jacaranda

I have just added some new items to my Blue Jacaranda shop on Etsy. Apart from the Dutch Houses, the Hippo Calligram is my most popular fabric design at Spoonflower and I finally had it made into a thermofax screen.



The Elephant and Bicycle Calligrams also continue to be favourites on Spoonflower so they are now available as Art Cards as well. Stretched prints will follow soon.



I tried something new - screen printing with three colours ink. It worked very well! I will definitely do that more often.



And last but not least, I have added this art quilt, Art in Motion, to the shop (find it here). Much as I love it, I really do not have enough walls to hang all my quilts in our house!

New thermofax screens

Yesterday I received three new thermofax screens from Linda Stokes - I had my Dolphin and Walrus Calligrams made into screens:



And also the Zebra design. I printed it in white ink on black fabric, like I did with the original design...



... and got a sleeping zebra! Hahaha. Using black ink on white fabric it looks better:



What about a pink zebra?



Since I was screen printing anyway I made some Kookaburra and Robot prints as well:



Here is the first Dolphin Calligram Card, now for sale in my Etsy shop:




I have also added some Dutch Houses ATCs (ACEOs) to the shop, so if you've always wanted one but do not make ATCs yourself here is your chance!



If you do make ATCs I'm still happy to trade, just leave a comment or send me an email!