Colouring in

Have you succumbed to the latest fad yet - colouring-in books for adults? I came across this book the other day and couldn't resist it: Fantastic Cities by Canadian artist Steve McDonald.



It's filled with gorgeous drawings of cities all over the world - Amsterdam, Melbourne, Paris, New York, Tokyo, you name it. There are also some mandalas created from the citiscapes. I can see myself spending quilte a few hours immersed in this book!



I've just finished a large quilt (will show it here soon) and as always after a big project I felt like making some small items. I had just sold a few pencil rolls to my first customer from Russia (!) so decided to make some new ones to add to my Etsy shop. One from this funky transport fabric:



And two from beautiful Aboriginal fabrics:





They would make a great gift for someone who loves colouring in!

Quilting retreat!

A week ago I was packed and ready to go on a quilting retreat! My friend Rens picked me up and we drove via Gatton (where there was a Christmas craft market) to Edmund Park, near Thornton in the Lockyer Valley. This was the view we had over the Great Dividing Range:



It was the same place as three years ago, again organised by Julie. It did look a bit greener then...



The beautiful jacaranda was in bloom again...



And there were still lots of wallabies:



Here is Rens, working on a quilt for a friend:



Apart from the Dutch post bag that I showed in the previous posting, I worked on three projects:



The blue squares are scraps of my favourite fabrics. There weren't enough for a quilt, so I made a cushion. I love it! (and so do the boys)



Remember the pencil roll I made last year from a kilt I found at the op shop? I gave it to a friend after she told me loved it (yes, if friends or family tell me they love my stuff there is a good chance they end up getting it!). I still had most of the kilt and one more clasp, so I finally made another pencil roll - had been planning that for ages! Think I will keep this one myself :-)



The third project I worked on is a quilt I am making for a friend. I will show it here soon in a separate posting.

See-through pencil roll

As you know if you have been following this blog for a while, I have a thing for pencil rolls. Last week I was buying some fabrics at Spotlight when I spotted (see what I did there?) this clear vinyl table cloth, and I thought, 'Would it be possible...?'



Yes it would!



Sewing it wasn't very difficult - although a bit weird, looking into the machine like this:



But turning it was a pain! ;-)



I am very happy with the end result  - think it looks pretty cool!



Here is the balloon ball I made a few weeks ago for our little niece in Holland. It was her first birthday yesterday and I was told that she loved her present!



:-)

PS Yes, I have finished my big art quilt and I love it! But I'm not showing it here yet - you'll have to wait a couple of weeks to see it...

Upcycling for the school fete

A small part of this op shop find was turned into...



... a pencil roll!
I have a stall at my kids' school annual fete next weekend and am making lots of pencil rolls (plus some other stuff). Digging through my fabric stash to find fabrics that make good pencil rolls...



If you are in the neighbourhood, do come along. It's promising to be a fun day! (it's also my little one's 7th birthday)

Aqua and Burlap Pencil Roll

The Burlap Pencil Roll I showed here a while ago quite unexpectedly became a big hit on Etsy - it has been on the front page twice and been viewed more than a thousand times since I first listed it on 12 August! (gasp!)
I have sold so many that it is now a 'made to order' item. It was also featured on the Illustration Friday blog (along with some other gorgeous pencill rolls and cases). Wow! what an experience! :-)



Today I thought I'd try a different design for a pencil roll. I used a piece of burlap that I had threaded with turquoise (thinking I might use it for a quilt but then changing my mind). I also added a 'flap' to fold over the pencils, so they can't fall out.



What do you think? I am quite happy with the latest addition to my pencil roll collection!



(not that I am keeping it - I still have the one that started it all and really, how many pencil rolls does a girl need? So it's up for sale, and remember: you still get 20% off by using coupon code ETSYVERSARY at check-out!)

Designing fabric

Yesterday I designed this fabric (and some more) on Spoonflower. I thought you might be interested in the design process. The picture above shows the fat quarter view (21 x 18 inch); below is the swatch view (8x8 inch):



To create this fabric I used a set of stacked boxes that we got for one of my sons when he was a baby:



I made a series of photos of the boxes, seen from above:



... and cropped and edited them with Picasa (free photo-editing software):





Then I uploaded the photos to Spoonflower and used their Change Colors tool to do just that:



Spoonflower allows you to view the following layout options for your design: centered; basic repeat; half drop; half brick and mirror repeat (go here and have a look to see what I am talking about). My Stacked designs look great in mirror repeat - or so I think! - because it gives them that log cabin-ness, but basic repeat also looks good:



If you haven't tried Spoonflower yet, do give it a go - it's so much fun! After you have ordered a test swatch you can also put your fabric up for sale, and earn 10% of the sales (Spoonflower gets the rest, because they do everything except designing - printing the fabric, cutting it and sending it to the customer). My Dutch Houses and Calligrammar collections supply me with a nice bit of pocket money every month.

When ordering your design you can choose from 10 different fabrics - among them basic combed cotton, cotton voile, cotton silk, cotton knit and silk crepe de chine. I had a fat quarter of my Colour Pencils design printed on linen-cotton canvas:




.. and used it to make another Rainbow Pencil Roll:


Do let me know if you have designed any fabrics on Spoonflower!

Burlap Pencil Roll

UPDATE 2016: The pattern for this pencil roll is now available in my Etsy pattern store.



As you may have noticed, I have a soft spot for pencil rolls. I love how colourful they look with all those pencils:



In combination with my ongoing love affair with burlap, this pencil roll was of course inevitable! (now for sale in my Etsy shop)



Weaving threads through burlap is fun:



Might do some more of that!

New items in the shop

Yesterday I made this colourful pencil roll, using two swatches of Spoonflower fabric that I designed: Colourful Pencils for the outside and Colour for the inside. I love how it turned out! It's up for sale in my Etsy shop now; you can find it here.



I also made this Dutch Houses business card holder, which will be added to the shop soon:



Today I did a screen printing session. The Narwhal is now available as a stretched print:



While I was printing I suddenly had a brain wave - what about printing on the legs of discarded jeans?



It looked great so I quickly got some more fabric and screens:




These prints will be made into art cards for Reverse Garbage. Remember the set of burlap cards I made for their gift shop, Reverse Emporium? I hadn't heard anything from them so assumed there was no interest... But when we came home from Europe there was a letter telling me that all my cards had been sold and could I please make some more!! Yes, sure! :-)

I am thinking of switching to using only recycled fabric for my screen printed items and quilts... However, I still have lots of commercial fabrics that I need to use up first, so maybe I'll just start a 'line' of upcycled items. Would love to hear your thoughts!