ATCs and postcards

The 2QAQ meeting last Saturday was very inspiring but also a bit of a disappointment, as the ATC swap turned into a 'grab and run', and I was left with 9 ATCs while all 12 I had brought were gone! It's nice to know they are in demand ;-) but I had really hoped to swap them 1 on 1... Fortunately the organisation reacted very well and 2 kind ladies came up to me afterwards and let me pick one of their ATCs, so in the end it wasn't so bad.

Here are the ones I got, there are some real beauties among them:



Last week I received my first fabric postcard, from Fran, in the 1 to 1 SCQ swap (I sent her the purple one I showed earlier):



(it's much more beautiful IRL!)

And today this gorgeous card arrived, all the way from The Netherlands:



Thanks Corryna, I love it!

I have made a few things in the last week that I can't show yet (they are for swaps and for a friend), but I am very happy about the way they turned out. Will show them here as soon as possible.

Next Sunday I am going to the Stitches and Craft Show here in Brisbane with Rens. There aren't many quilts on display (it's more about beading and scrapbooking), but still it will be nice to wander around and have a coffee together. Rens is coming to the retreat at the end of May as well. Gezellig, 2 Dutchies together! It is near Toowoomba and Caitlin and Sue have promised to come on Sunday morning and have a coffee with me and do some shopping. That should be fun!

PS I was too hasty, writing this posting. When we went out after I finished it, to pick up Hugo from school, I saw some letters in the mailbox (they weren't there earlier when I found Corryna's postcard - maybe the postman forget them and came back later??). One was from Jane, from the 2QAQ organization, with apologies and 3 ATCs that she made! That is so kind, I really appreciate it! Here's a pic:



Aren't they lovely?

And there was another fabric postcard, from Margeeth:



The colours are much brighter IRL - I love it, thanks Margeeth!

When we arrived at school, Hugo's Prep teacher told us that the children are currently studying Art. Today they looked at pictures in a book about Van Gogh and of course did a lot of painting themselves (Hugo loves that). I showed her Margeeth's postcard and told her about art quilts. She loved the postcard and asked if she could show it in class and if I had some more (and bigger) textile art works...Ehmmm... I think I will bring one of my mini bird quilts and maybe the Magic Quilt? (although that isn't really an art quilt of course - are the bird quilts, though?) Maybe the ATCs for the children to look at and hold? Or just a book on art quilts? Help! Please let me know your ideas! Here's a chance to teach 25 Preppies about textile art! ;-)

ATCs with dinosaurs

Being a mother of 3 boys, dinosaurs play a large role in my life. I can tell you a lot about triceratopses, spinosauruses and of course T-rex! So I thought it appropriate to make some ATCs featuring dinosaurs:



I've called them Dinosaur Days. And will take them with me to the 2QAQ meeting this afternoon, along with some other ATCs, hoping to trade quite a few!

Last Wednesday this arrived in the mail:



A parcel from my Angel, who is an angel to the boys as well! I've signed up for the Scquilters Mortals/Angels swap 2008, so I am an Angel to some other mortal as well. Lots of fun!

And finally I have had a go at fabric painting. I would love to make handpainted fabric, but that will have to wait until the boys are all at school. But I have bought some acrylic paint and some stencils and had some careful fun with that:



This could become a postcard, I think! (the other ones are all gone!)

Off now for a quick lunch and then to the 2QAQ meeting!

Bookcover

Ta-da!



It's finished and I'm really happy with it.
I used a thin cotton batting and a beautiful batik for the backing. I thought of meandering, but finally decided to quilt it with a variegated thread just following the grid of the weaving. And I finished the edges simply with a satin stitch, the same way I do the edges of the ATCs. I think it looks very good.



With the leftover bit I made a simple pencil case:



And now to fill my artist's sketchbook with useful drawings... ;-)

I decided not to make a bookcover from the other one, as I used a bit of leftover batting that was rather thick. I will instead make a bag out of it! I am now cutting the namepieces out of the FQs in my stash, to make the backside ;-).



And I finished the 2 postcards:



They are ready to be traded, and I have lots of ideas for some more postcards - just waiting for people to trade them with!

Postcards

This week I have started making some postcards, using scraps and fast-2-fuse. Here are the first 4 being made:



(can you see which colours dominate my fabric collection?)

After finishing the first one (in my least favourite colours), I sent it to myself to see if it would stand being handled by Australia Post:



It did:



(I'm still a bit nervous about sending one to Europe, though)

The second one is finished now as well:



(yes, these are my favourite colours/fabrics!)

The book cover is still waiting for batting and backing (I ordered some online). I have started on a cover for an A5 sketchbook as well, using the bits with the name of the fabric on them, that I have collected since I started quilting in 2006. I've ironed them on fusible webbing, like I did with the other cover. Now it too needs batting and backing, and then some heavy quilting:



I like it, what about you? (very suitable for a book, don't you think?)

In other words, I have been enjoying myself immensely!

If you would like to swap postcards, please leave a message or send me an email! (you can find my address by clicking on View my complete profile, on the left) I will definitely make some more - it's as addictive as making ATCs.

The camping trip was very nice, by the way. We went to this campsite - there are some pics on our Dutch blog.

Work in progress

Inspired by Caity's sketchbook (which she showed me at the 2QAQ meeting the other day) I decided to purchase an A4 sketchbook and make a cover for it. Again I am using the fabric-weaving technique; I have made 3 sets of ATCs this way but am not finished with it yet! I really wanted to make a bigger piece using this technique and this seemed a good project.



For the ATCs I have used Fast-2-Fuse, but here some fusible web product I had in my collection (don't remember what it's called or what I used it for). Now I need a thin wadding and a backing fabric, so I'll have to go shopping, how annoying! ;-)

That will have to wait until next week though, as we are going camping tomorrow until Sunday, in Kilkivan in the South Burnett region.

I also made some more log cabin blocks:



By the way, I guess if I wanted to enter this quilt-to-be in a quilt show, I shouldn't show pictures of it here, not even at this stage? Or is it not possible to enter it once it's finished because of the pics ont his blog??...

And today, I received mail from the USA - the ATCs from the Quiltuniversity class swap!



1 2
3 4

1 is from Suzanne, 2 from Jan and 3 and 4 from our wonderful teacher Chris Pascuzzi!

And last but not least, I have signed up for a quilting retreat at the end of May! A whole weekend to sew, sew and sew some more! Heaven! :-)

ATCs again

At the moment, my sewing room is being used as a guest room, so nothing quilty has been done this last week. Besides, we have been away for a few days, to Fingal Head and Mount Warning (for pics, see our Dutch blog), while the guests, DMIL and her partner, minded the boys.

Luckily I still have some ATCs to show:



1 2
3 4

1 is from Anne in France, 2 from Maree in Tasmania, 3 from Lindi in New South Wales and 4 from Tonje in Scotland.

Last month I participated in an Australian swap called Black and white with a bright button. All 6 participants had to make 6 ATCs, send 5 to the others and keep one. As everyone has sent her ATCs, I can show them here now:



1 2
3 4
5 6

Isn't it funny to see how everyone comes up with a different way of showing this theme?
1 is from Lindi, 2 from Dot, 3 is Fionie's, 4 from Sue, 5 is my ATC and 6 was made by Roselie.

I've signed up for another ATC swap with Cities as its theme, and for a 1 to 1 postcard swap. I haven't made any postcards yet, but look forward to trying that!

My ATC container is filling up nicely! (is that a correct English sentence??)



(here you can see what it looked like 3 months ago!)

2QAQ

I did go to the 2QAQ meeting yesterday and it was great fun. I met a lot of lovely people, including Caitlin, Sue and Dianne from Toowoomba. And quite a few people 'knew' me from my blog! How cool is that! ;-)

Apart from being a lot of fun, the meeting was very inspiring. I will definitely make a journal quilt, maybe more than one, and will think about making an art quilt for the juried art quilt show next year. I'm looking forward to the next meeting already! (they are every last Saturday of the month)

Apart from the meeting, it was a quiet weekend; just happily pottering about the new house. I managed to do some sewing as well: I finally made my Dutch quilt into a pillowcase:



And I made some more log cabin blocks. There are 32 now, so half of the number I intend to make. I love playing with them:



(I think I prefer the Barn Raising design, though. What about you?)

Sewing room

We have moved to the new house and are more or less settled in. It's a lovely house, with a deck or veranda in front and at the back, where we spent a lot of time!

There is also a large and sunny room that functions as a guest room, study and sewing room. I've already done some sewing, but nothing that I can show here yet (some birthday blocks and ATCs for a swap), so I'll show a few pics of the room instead:







The ATCs are almost finished - when they are, I really want to get on with the log cabin quilt.

This Saturday, I hope to go to the 2QAQ meeting at Greenslopes - the new Art Quilt group of the Queensland Quilters. I'm looking forward to meeting new quilting people!

Cyber Fyber ATC

This week I received the ATC that I traded with Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber Exhibition:



(you can see a better picture of it and read a description here)

This is the ATC I sent to Susan:



(it's very difficult to make a good picture of angelina!)

We are busy preparing for the move to our new house next Tuesday, so I haven't done much quilting this week (just a little work on a block for a birthday list). I hope to be able to continue with the log cabin quilt soon. I forgot to mention in the last posting that I have found (and bought!) some red fabric that has the same value as the one I'm using for the centres and I will use that for the border.

ATCs and log cabin

Since the last posting I have been rather productive. I made 3 sets of ATCs out of the piece of weaved and embellished fabric:



The embellished set - one of these has gone to Susan Lenz for the Cyber Fyber Exhibition.



The feathered set - all of which are still here, waiting to be swapped (so if you're interested, please sent me an email!)

And a set for the Quiltuniversity Class Swap, which I won't show here yet.

And I worked on my log cabin quilt. I've made 25 blocks so far, it is going rather slowly as I do not have much time for sewing (a few hours in the evening when the boys are asleep; sometimes a little time during the day when the little ones sleep at the same time - but I have started my new job and am working 2 days per week now). But I'm very happy with the way it is turning out:





It's like being in love; I can't stop thinking about this quilt in the making! I intend to make 64 blocks (8x8) and put 2 borders on it. But that may yet change...
I won't have much time for quilting in the next few weeks though, as we have found another rental house and are going to move next week or the week after that...

Experimenting

It's been a while since my last posting, but I have been quite busy. I have started something I have been wanting to do for a long time: a black, white and red log cabin:



The blocks are 3" square (7.5 cm), I am foundation piecing them. Unfortunately I started without looking how much of the red fabric I had (it's the border of Ernst's I Spy quilt) - there is enough for a lot of blocks, but not for a small border if the finished quilt is larger than 30 cm or so... I went back to the quiltshop where I bought it, but alas, they don't have it anymore. And they didn't know the name of the fabric, so I guess it will have to be a very small quilt - or a bag perhaps?

I'm also making a new set of ATCs - for the Cyber Fyber Exhibition (I've traded nr 24 with Susan) and for the ATC swap in my class at Quiltuniversity.com. The class is great, I'm learning lots of new things - and used some of them in this ATC project. First I weaved these fabrics:



(nothing new so far, I did this before - love how it turned out though)

And then I sewed on some nice thread, using my new cording foot, sewed on some feathers, some Angelina and used the Shiva Paintstik that I bought (with the Angelina) online at The Thread Studio:



And generally I had a lot of fun experimenting! I'll cut this piece in a lot of ATCs when the paint has dried.

And finally, I bought fabric for Amy Butler's High Street Messenger Bag. I'm starting my new job next week and really need a bag like this! (don't think it will be finished by then, though)