Hugo's Gymnastics T-shirt Quilt

 I finished this quilt in August, but didn't dare send it to the Netherlands in the mail... So I waited until we traveled there ourselves, and on Friday, December 16th, the quilt finally arrived at its destination: Hugo's student accomodation in Wageningen!

He was very surprised, and loved it! He enjoyed looking at all the t-shirts that are part of it. So many memories!

I'm so happy with the final result!

T-shirt quilt top finished!

 Ever since my eldest son started gymnastics, back in 2009, I have saved all his club/team/squad/event t-shirts, knowing that one day I would make them into a t-shirt quilt. And that day has finally arrived!

After washing all the shirts (some of them had been in storage for more than 10 years!) I sorted them, and finally came up with 30 shirts that I wanted to use for the quilt. Here are the oldest (2009) and newest (2018) shirt from the collection:

I cut out the logos and ironed fusible interfacing to the fabric to make it easier to work with. Here is the initial lay-out of all the cut-outs:

Things got moved around a bit, as you can see in the first photo!

And now for the next stage, the quilting... That has never been my favourite part of the quilt making process, and still isn't. I haven't quite decided what to do yet - probably an all-over design. I am hoping to finish this quilt during the Easter long weekend.To be continued...

Gymnast

Here is my fifth amiguruME doll: my oldest son Hugo, the gymnast!



He's wearing his Queensland State Team uniform, in which he competed last year at the National Championships. Sadly he injured his knee there, so he hasn't been able to do gymnastics in the last 12 months (you can read the whole story here). He did start running at the end of last year though, and will run the half marathon with me in July!

Here I am with my boys:



Now it's my husband's turn to be made into an amigurumi doll!

Melbourne

Last week youngest son and I travelled to Melbourne to watch his eldest brother compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. Unfortunately Hugo injured his knee on the fourth apparatus during the first competition and was pulled out. His team won gold on the day and thankfully he could join them on the podium, crutches and all!



He had an MRI the next day which showed that his ACL was torn. Bad news, as this means he will need surgical reconstruction followed by 9-12 months of recovery. He's taken it in his stride however, and has signed up for a judging course, so he can still go with his clubmates to the State Club Championships at the end of June, and judge instead of compete. He also hopes to do some coaching this year. The brilliant photo below was taken by one of the photographers of WinkiPop Media minutes before his injury, high-fiving his coach after a succesfull rings routine:



Hugo's injury understandably put a damper on our stay in Melbourne, but Robert and I did get to do some sightseeing and met our Dutch friends for dinner, which was lovely. It was Robert's first time in Melbourne and he loved seeing the autum colours - something we don't have here in Queensland! (more Melbourne pics on my photo blog here)



I took him to Hosier Lane to see the street art, but he wasn't very impressed - he called it Stinky Street!



We did like this painting (more street art photos on the photo blog here):



Here is another kind of street art - an art deco mosaic constructed in 1933 by Napier Waller on the facade of Newspaper House in Collins Street (more art deco photos on the photo blog here, and some art nouveau photos here):



We really liked the cubes in Flinders Street:



There was even a crocheted one!



I had brought a ball of yarn and a hook but didn't do any crocheting. We did visit my favourite shop in Melbourne, Morris and Sons:



I bought some yarn as a souvenir ;-)



Love the warning on the label!!



All in all we did have a good time, but were happy to go home on Sunday (Hugo flew home on the same day with the Queensland team). Robert hopes to go back to Melbourne in December for the ballroom dancing championships!

New project

After finishing the Market Bag I didn't feel ready to get back to the Lone Star blanket, so have started another new project. This is Falbala, a shawl designed by Eclat Du Soleil. It's fun to crochet and I love the art deco-ish pattern!



I'm using Drops Cotton Viscose for this shawl, which is a beautiful yarn, but rather splitty. The reason to make a purple shawl is because I wanted one to go with my glasses! After wearing contact lenses for more than 30 years I am now back to wearing glasses full-time. The purple frame used to be for my reading glasses and I really liked it, so decided to have my prescription lenses put in. Loving my new look!



We have been living on the Gold Coast for four months now and it's starting to feel like home. My eldest son has once again been selected to represent Queensland at the Australian Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne later this month. This time I am flying down with his youngest brother, who is keen to visit Melbourne for the first time. Looking forward to that trip very much!



As planned my youngest son has taken up ballroom dancing again and last weekend he had his first competition with his new partner. It went very well (a third place, two fifth places and a seventh place) and they both enjoyed it very much. And they looked so handsome together!



Meanwhile my middle son is playing his guitar, helping to run a children's drama class and taking horse riding lessons. He doesn't like being photographed but I think he won't mind if I share this photo here!

Urchins

This morning I hopped on my bike and rode to Surfers Paradise to check out the Urchins.



The Urchins are two large crocheted sculptures, designed by Choi+Shine Architects and made by 80 Australian crocheters. They are part of the Festival 2018 that is currently held at the Gold Coast as part of the 21st Commonwealth Games.



I first heard about the Urchins when a crochet blogger that I follow, Snakewood and Grace, announced on her Facebook page that she had been asked to contribute to this project and shared the process of making parts of the Urchins. They are made of 3mm nylon cord - it's called extreme crochet!





The installation can be viewed in Appel Park in Surfers Paradise until Sunday 15 April.



I was very impressed and can recommend a visit if you are in the area!



Meanwhile my own crochet project, the Lone Star Blanket, is slowly growing:



I am crocheting a lot while watching the gymnastics at the Games - mostly on tv, but I also made two diamonds at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, where oldest son and I watched the men's qualifications and team final on Thursday:



(This was during the break between subdivision 1 and 2 - there was no arm room to crochet when the competition was on!)

Gymnastics duvet cover

A friend in Brisbane asked me a few months ago if I would be able to make a gymnastics-themed duvet cover for her son, who is an elite gymnast. They hadn't been able to find anything online, and she knows I sew and design, and have a gymnast son as well...



Of course I was happy to help. She really liked my blue Rings fabric, so I ordered 12 yards (!) from Spoonflower. It arrived a few weeks later, and the first challenge was to wash it and hang it out to dry!



I had never made a duvet cover before. It wasn't difficult, just a bit awkward working with those big pieces of fabric! It needed to be a king single size, so 180 cm x 210 cm. I was really pleased with how it turned out:



The young man received the cover yesterday as a Christmas present, and I was told he loved it. Here is a pic of the cover on his bed (used with permission):



Her son is a few years younger than Hugo, but if all goes well they will be in the Queensland team together next year. I can't wait!

Melbourne

Last week I was in Melbourne for the National Gymnastics Championships - my eldest son Hugo competed in Level 8 Under 14. Hugo did well and his team won gold, so he was very happy.



I stayed in South Yarra and spent quite a bit of time photographing the beautiful art deco buildings in this suburb:





More photos of these buildings on my photo blog.



I wouldn't normally go to McDonald's without the kids, but I took the bus to Clifton Hill to have lunch here. Isn't this building fabulous!



Afterwards when waiting to cross the road these two beauties passed by!



Of course I had to quickly check out the street art in AC/DC Lane and Hosier Lane:



More street art pics here on the photo blog.



I also found a yarn shop: Morris & Sons in Collins Street.



I bought some self-striping sock yarn and a beautiful screen-printed project bag:



I spent a lovely day with a Dutch friend and her little boy in St Kilda - more art deco, and, of course, the Luna Park:





This was my sixth visit to Melbourne - how come I never noticed the building with the café wall illusion before?



A few years ago, when I made my optical illusion quilts, I planned to make a café wall quilt. It didn't happen and now it probably never will... I would like to make an art deco quilt though!