Crafty Easter

I'm being very crafty this Easter weekend. I've spent most of the day on this decoupage project: covering this old table with pages from an 1998 Brisbane Street Directory. It needs another two layers of glue but is already looking very good:



I got the idea from this British magazine that I discovered at the newsagent the other day:



I tried the technique on a wooden picture frame first, using some old sheet music:



I have also framed the Kookaburra and Robot calligram fabric and made another set of Vintage Fairytale Cards - all for sale now in my online shop.



And yes, I still make quilts as well! I have started quilting the new gymnastics quilt. Will show a sneak peek here soon. Now I'm off to apply the third layer of glue to the table!

Gymnasts and fairy tales

Here's the new gymnast - recognize the fabric? Yes, I'm making a WAG (women's artistic gymnastics) quilt now. WAGnificence?! ;-)
Getting ready to do another screen printing session soon...



I also made some more Vintage Fairytales cards for my online shop, Blue Jacaranda. Here are Sinbad and Cinderella, I hope to add Rumpelstiltskin and Ali Baba soon!

A good day

My youngest is at Preschool this year, on Mondays, Tuesdays and alternate Wednesdays. I am at work on Mondays and Tuesdays, but not on Wednesdays... and today was my first 'free' day! Woohoo! After doing the shopping and other domestic chores that had to be done I had a few hours left to play, and I managed to quilt these three gymnasts. I had intended this piece for SAQA's 2011-2012 Travelling Trunk Show, but it was too big, so now I am thinking I may send it in for this year's Benefit Auction. Once it is finished, of course.



This is a project from the book I showed you earlier, Playing with Books. Using an old paperback novel I made this business card holder. Adding the letter tags was my own idea. I absolutely love it, don't you? Here is the view from the side:



And last but not least, some NQR (not quilting related) news: today the first paper written for my PhD thesis was published, in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health! I am very, very excited about that! (if you are interested in 'Tuberculosis in the Australian Indigenous population: history, current situation and future challenges' you can find the article here. It is not very 'technical' I think, but maybe I'm wrong there?)

I am going to have a celebratory glass of wine with DH, who has just heard that he will be promoted to Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland :-).

Seth and Snow White

Here I am again - I forgot to show you this adorable robot, Seth. I won him in an auction for the Queensland Flood Appeal at BusyBsewBiz blog . Isn't he cute?

I won another item that I hope to be able to show you soon... DH and I discussed how much we would give to the Premier's Fund and I set my sights on these two auctions... and was lucky to win them both!



Here is my newest book recycling project: vintage fairytale cards! At the Lifeline Bookfest I bought an old fairytale book that had stains and missing pages... but lovely illustrations. I made five cards and envelopes out of the tale of Snow White, and put them up for sale in my MadeIt shop, Blue Jacaranda. Do you like them?

It's not as if I have time for another hobby... But I am really enjoying 'upcycling books'!

Busy

I have been quite busy in the last few days - I finished this quiltlet, Speed 2, for SAQA's 2011-2012 Travelling Trunk Show. Yes, it looks a lot like Speed 1, but in different colours, and I quilted it differently as I wanted to see the effect of those lines. The edges are not finished as the quilts will be matted and only 8 square inch will be visible.



I have also been doing something quite different. A while ago I bought this book and I couldn't wait to start playing! At the Lifeline Bookfest in Brisbane last weekend I bought a lot of books in the unpriced section (50 cents per book) and then I got going!



Pages from an old atlas were turned into postcards and envelopes (I've put a few up for sale in my MadeIt shop). Great fun! Some other projects are under way and will be shown here soon.

Meanwhile we are once more glued to the television, radio and the internet as tropical cyclone Yasi is making its way to Cairns and surrounding areas. Cyclones are always scary, but this one is so big and very, very frightening... Queensland has been through so much already this summer and now there is this monster cyclone...

I'm thinking of the people in Far North Queensland (especially my colleagues and quilting friends in Cairns, whom I visited in April 2009) and hoping they will stay safe.