Hats

I suddenly realized I haven't shown my monochromatic quilt for Art Quilts Around the World here yet! (the reveal was on the last day of June, when we were in Holland, that's why). Here it is: Hats.



It is based on a photo I took of my two eldest sons walking home from school in 2010:



I used pieces of fabric from an old school hat and shirt, and a handdyed blue fabric for the background. I love how the backside looks:



I made a postcard based on this photo in November 2010:



... and ever since I have wanted to make a small quilt of the same image, so here was finally my chance. I love this piece; it is now hanging in my sewing room studio.

Quilting magazines from around the world

One of the things I really like to do in another country is buy a quilting magazine! In the Netherlands I bought this one, Quilt & zo (Quilt etcetera), which had a lovely quilt made by my friend Petra on the cover and an article about Dijanne Cevaal inside! It has a mix of traditional and contemporary/art quilting articles.



In Switzerland I bought this German magazine (couldn't find any Swiss ones), Patchwork Professional, which claims to be for professionals and advanced quilters.



And indeed, it didn't have any articles about quilts to make, but technique articles and lots of profiles of professional quilters; among them Maria Elkins and Paula Chung, but also about this German artist:



... and about Russian artist Tanja Rottger - nice to read about people from outside the English-speaking world. No traditional quilts to be found in here. Just the sort of magazine I love!



And then we came home and I found my favourite Australian magazine in our mailbox. It's always fun to see your own article in print:



Robbie was thrilled to see himself in a magazine! ;-) (his brothers were a little jealous..) I was thrilled to see so many of my quilts in a magazine!



Which magazine is your favourite?

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!

Treasures from Holland

Of course I bought some fabric in Holland - I couldn't resist this gorgeous cow fabric! And I also bought some of the Delft Blue oilcloth again:



A good friend gave me some lovely fabrics, among them this beautiful postmark fabric:



My brother-in-law and his girlfriend visited Cuba in March and brought this lovely piece of lace home to give it to me in July. So thoughtful! They are expecting their first baby in January - have to start thinking about a baby quilt...



My sister-in-law gave me these sweet ribbons (lief is the Dutch word for sweet/cute)



And to save the best for last: my best friend Hylkia's hubby had this vintage Dutch post bag and he kindly donated it to me!!! I am so thrilled; I'm sure I can make a wonderful bag out of it.



This weekend I finally started my sewing machine again, after five weeks! I made a few small things for my Blue Jacaranda shop which I wil show here soon... Stay tuned!

Zürich

Here I am again, back in Brisbane already - I had hoped to blog some from Europe, but it didn't happen...We had a great but very busy time, I'm glad to be home and rest!

The highlight of the trip for me were the 5 days DH and I spent in Zürich, Switzerland, where he had a conference. It is a very old, very beautiful city and I took hundreds of photos. There are a lot on my photo blog (including photos of some interesting patterns I found on the streets!), but here are some more that I really want to show you.

I loved the houses in Zürich, and the ones above are my favourites. How about a fabric design Swiss Houses?? Below is a detail:



Quite a few houses had interesting details:





Seen in a gallery, made by Verena Vanoli, from bicycle tubes:



How cute is this?



Near our hotel:



Details of the Grossmünster church:





In a back street:







At night:



Tomorrow I wil show you the treasures I brought home from Europe!

The Netherlands

It feels so good to be back in the Netherlands! We are having a lovely time with family and friends, visiting lots of fun places like Madurodam in the photo above - the Netherlands in miniature!



I saw this sign at the ladies' in a department store - too funny!



We also went to the zoo - zebras are so stylish!



I had a lot of fun playing with the photos in Picasa...



At the moment we are in Groningen, my favourite city in the world - staying with my BFF Hylkia (aka the Apple Tart Queen). The sign below says 'Free Eye Testing'.



Groningen is so beautiful!







Going to the market is one of our favourite things to do:









And cycling of course!



Yum!