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The Queensland Quilt Show is on this week - here you can see photos of the winners. Fellow ATWI20Q member Jane has won the third prize in the Professional Small Quilt Category. Congratulations Jane; well done!

I hope to visit the show on Sunday - if I feel well enough. I had minor abdominal surgery yesterday (a laparoscopy - nothing serious!), yet it hurts more than I had expected! But I do want to see my kookaburra and log cabin quilts hanging there!

Entered my quilt!

I have just entered my Rainbow quilt into State of the Art quilt 2009! I don't really expect it will be juried in, but I had fun making it and who knows... I won't show a pic here yet - not sure if that is allowed. There's no mentioning of it in the Conditions of Entry, but better be safe than sorry.

I did the last lesson of the Cotton Dyeing Basics class last Sunday. This one was about overdyeing. I used the solid pieces from lesson 1, as I was quite sure I wouldn't use them in a project. I made the red and blue pieces a lot brighter and more vibrant and am very happy with the result (the picture does not do them justice):



I scrunched up the yellow fabric and put it in some blue dye; the result, as expected, is a greenish fabric with yellow splotches:



The greyish piece dyed with leftover dyes was put in a purple bath and turned into a gorgeous blueish-purple mottled fabric:



The piece that was dipped into the 3 leftover dyes went into the red and blue dye again (not leftover though this time) and was turned into a very nice and colourful piece:



And finally I dyed a few pieces of a very cheap calico bought at Sp*tl*ght. Instead of purple they turned out a brownish red, with lots of white specks where the fabric didn't take the dye. A big difference with the fabric bought at the quiltstore. Which goes to show that good quality fabric is esential for dyeing, I guess.



This class was a lot of fun and I will surely sign up for the Quilter's Palette class in February 2009.

I have been able to cross a lot of things off my to do-list lately! (selvedge bag, 2QAQ quilt, birthday blocks) The next project will probably be the stellar quilt for ATWI20Q, but I also have a Carpet Bag and a High Street Messenger Bag waiting to be finished... Maybe this is a good time to do so!

Jacaranda!

As you know, I love jacarandas and I have decided I want to make some more small quilts on this theme. So I have made a lot of pictures of jacarandas in our neighbourhood for inspiration. Aren't they beautiful...

Bag from selvedge strips

I finally finished the bag I was making from selvedge strips back in June. Do you like it? I made the lining and straps from the green handdyed fabric. Here's the other side:



I think it turned out very well! I'll take it to the Queensland Quilt Show next week.

Yesterday I received these ATCs:



I had signed up for a swap organized by Diana from New Zealand. Her ATC is the one on the top right. It's beautiful - thanks Diana!

These are the ATCs I made for this swap, from the painted fabrics I did for the Playing with Paint class:

Birthday blocks

You may remember that I belong to a Dutch birthday block list. As the last member of the list has now had her birthday, I can show you the blocks I made for this list in the past year.



I am not going to sign up for this again, as I want to spend my precious quilting time on my own projects and besides, mail between The Netherlands and Australia too often goes astray (I still only have 7 blocks out of 12 for my birthday), which is very frustrating.

But it was fun to make blocks I would not have chosen to make for myself. I discovered I really like making crazy blocks, but I do not like applique at all!
Piecing the winding ways block (nr. 7) was a disaster, but I enjoyed the Chinese lantern and the house blocks.

I am also still waiting for 5 envelopes from the FQ lists... Something else I won't be doing again. Although I sent multiple emails about our change of address (one at the time of the move and another about a month before my birthday), quite a few FQs were sent to the old address, where they have never arrived, according to the new tenant... As we are still renting and may well have to move again next year (I hate the Australian renting system) I am not going to risk this again. Oh well, I hope I will be dyeing my own fabric mostly from now on anyway...

I have started on a quilt for the 2QAQ show next year - the deadline is October 30th, so have to work hard now! I am using my handdyed fabrics and so far quite happy with the results. The top is finished and I am thinking very hard about how to quilt it. I'm not going to show it here yet, as I am not sure if that is allowed.

Tomorrow I hope to go to the Quilt Indulgence Festival here in Brisbane. I'm looking forward very much to seeing the Quilts of Gee's Bend!

Fabric to dye for!

Well rested after our holiday, I had a ball last weekend doing lesson 3 and 4 of the Cotton Dyeing Basics course.
Lesson 3 was about gradations - producing fabrics in 5 shades from light to dark. I chose brown and was very happy with the results.

Lesson 4 was even more fun: dyeing the colour wheel! It was a lot of work:




but worth the effort: 12 gorgeous FQs!



I can recommend this course to anyone who would like to have a go at fabric dyeing, but does not want to do it without some guidance. No affils, just a very happy customer of Quilt University!

More dyeing

I managed to do Lesson 2 of the Cotton Dyeing Basics class today - this one was about making secondary colours (green, orange and purple) and making mottled instead of solid fabrics. It turned out very well:



Green and purple are my favourite colours, so I'm very happy with these half yard pieces!

This Sunday we are going on holiday - camping at this site - so I probably won't be doing anymore dyeing this weekend. We'll be back next Saturday; maybe I can do some dyeing on Sunday.
I'm going to take my sketchbook and am sure I will find some inspiration for the 'stellar' quilt for ATWI20Q in the night sky while we're camping!

Birthday

Last Thursday, the 18th, was my birthday. As you may remember, I belong to a birthday block list in The Netherlands. I had asked for blocks for a playquilt for the boys, with houses, trees, boats etc. Unfortunately mail at the moment takes a very long time to arrive here (if it does arrive, that is) and so far I have only received 6 envelopes out of 12. The blocks that I got are very nice though:



I also belong to 2 Australian FQ lists. I asked for black and white fabrics on one list and for Japanese fabrics and Australiana on the other list (on that list you get 2 FQs). I did not receive all of these yet either, so the problem seems to be with Australia post...

Here are the black and white fabrics (8 out of 12 so far):



And here are the Japanese and Australian fabrics (5 out of 11 so far):




Today I received a fiber postcard from Marloes:



She is a fellow member of Around the world in 20 quilts and made this card with materials from the tree quilt. Thanks Marloes, it's lovely!

And last but not least, I finally got my Procion dyes last week and on Sunday, while DH minded the boys, I did the first lesson of the Cotton Dyeing Basics class. This lesson is about making solid colours. I felt like a witch brewing potions when I was stirring the dark liquids in the buckets! It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun, and my first samples turned out quite nicely:




The red is a bit pale, but the blue and yellow turned out very well (the yellow looks like lime here but really is yellow IRL!). The pale purple fabric is made with the leftover dyes and the multicoloured one is dipped into all of the dyes.