Bleeding Heart Market

Here I am in front of my stall at the Bleeding Heart Market yesterday.



The weather was perfect, the location was beautiful (the deck of an old Queenslander; the historic School of Arts Building in Ann Street) and my fellow stall-holders were lovely - the only problem was that there were so few customers!



There was very little signage to lead people to the market - we even took turns going out in the street to tell people about it - most were very surprised and happy to come and have a look. The few people that came seemed to like my products and I sold enough to cover the cost of the stall, but it was disappointing nevertheless. I don't think I will be back next month. Oh well...

This weekend I am trying to put some of the things I learned at the conference into practice. For instance, I am giving Twitter another go - if you would like to follow me, I am @lindarobertus.

Artful Business Conference

Yesterday and today I was at the Artful Business Conference. It was an amazing experience; extremely inspiring, stimulating and useful. The location was perfect (Portside Wharf in Hamilton, Brisbane - we even had workshops on the deck overlooking the river!), as were the speakers. Russell Allert (above) had great tips on how to use social media to promote your business which I will certainly put to use. His blog is extremely helpful too!



Jess Van Den's presentation was very entertaining and inspiring and Megan Auman had invaluable advice about pricing. I will definitely be working on that!



The catering was terrific, as was the view:



I also quite liked the lighting in the main conference room:



And last but not least, I met some lovely people who are in the same boat as I am - trying to get their handmade business up and running. I'm sure we will keep in touch and cheer eachother on!

So, two very valuable days but no time yet to reflect on it (and adjust my prices ;-)), for tomorrow I am at the Bleeding Heart Market in the City! If you're in town come and check it out!

Busy week

How lucky am I?! I have won a ticket to the Artful Business Conference in a giveaway at the Epheriell blog. It is on here in Brisbane tomorrow and Thursday! This is such a good moment, as I am still jobless, so lots of time to devote to my artful business, Blue Jacaranda. And on Friday I have a stand at the Bleeding Hearts Market, 166 Ann St, Brisbane. Busy week!

Speaking of jacarandas... In the next few weeks they will start flowering again, until the end of October. This is definitely my favourite time of the year in Brisbane - sunny and warm, but not hot and humid yet. I made the photo above a few years ago and am looking forward to making lots of jacaranda photos again this year!

Hoop-la

It's still very quiet on this blog... I am busy quilting the new quilt and, as always when I am at the quilting stage, not happy at all. I will probably feel different when the quilt is finished, but again I have that horrible feeling 'why did I spoil that lovely quilt top with this awful quilting?' :-(

So today, to cheer myself up, I tried something new; stretching screen printed fabric in embroidery hoops. Wouldn't these look lovely in a nursery?



They are in the process of being added to the shop...



And last but not least, here is a photo that I made last Sunday at the beach:



I'm very proud of my big boy AND of the photo! ;-)

Colourful Pencils

I have been AWOL for a while because I am working hard on a new quilt! Very exciting, but I can't show it here yet... In the meantime my Colourful Pencils design is in this week's fabric contest at Spoonflower: School Supplies. If you go here you can vote for as many of the designs as you like (including mine, I hope!). No need to sign in. Thanks!

More burlap items

A while ago I lost my mobile phone case, so I thought I'd use the piece of threaded burlap that I showed in the last posting to make a new one. I made a nice case - but it's a bit too small! Silly me. Maybe a strap at the top will help.



I also made this burlap card and added it to the shop. Have you seen Barack Obama sing this song? My eldest and I love the video! (pay attention at the start - such a cute smile!)

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!

Blue jeans prints

Remember I did some screen printing on the legs of discarded jeans? Here are the art cards and the canvas I made with the prints:



Looks good, doesn't it? They are part of a set of new items for Reverse Garbage. The plan is to bring them tomorrow, but my eldest son got sick today, so I might not be able to go tomorrow.

This morning I had a nice email telling me that my sports quilts are featured on the Quilt Inspiration blog. They asked me a while ago and I was happy to agree; it is a beautiful blog that showcases lots of quilt artists.

Robbie was proud to see himself on another blog: Blue Jacaranda is one of the sponsors of Tractorgirl this month. Do check out this blog; Julie shares her craft finds, has great design tips, beautiful photography and more.

Now I am going to switch off the computer and read my book - I'm reading Shadow of Night, part 2 of the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Witches, vampires, daemons, ancient books, Oxford, France... Irresistible!

Sunday

Today my friend Yasmin and I visited the Wooloongabba Antique Centre, where they have this ginormous shoe-shaped bicycle (or tricycle?). A note on it said that it was used in the Closing Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. My friend thought it also featured in the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Anyway, it looked awesome! Inside they had this beautiful little sewing machine. I've never seen one like this before! (unfortunately it was too expensive to take home...)



I bought this piece of vintage neon-green fabric:



Yesterday I made this small toy for my middle son - he drew it and I created it out of some pieces of felt and a few buttons.



(it's the Golden Super Leaf from the Mario games)

Tomorrow I'll show you the items I made from the prints on blue jeans fabric!

Eyeglass case

Yesterday I made this sunglass/eyeglass case, in a gorgeous piece of black and white Aboriginal fabric. It's up for sale now in my Etsy shop.

My contract at Queensland Health ended the 30th of June, so I am now unemployed. I am looking out for another research job and still doing my PhD part time, but in the meantime my Etsy shop is where the money needs to come from! Time to take it even more seriously than before. I am investigating a number of things that I can do to promote my shop and make it grow. if you have any suggestions or ideas about things I should sell, I would love to hear from you. Thanks!

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!