Progress

I've worked hard:

(click on the photo to enlarge)

Half the blocks are quilted now, so only 32 to go!

I've made a lot of other things as well in the last week, but nothing I can show here. Birthday blocks, postcards for a swap, a little something for my mortal...

It's winter here now and very cold in the morning (in our unheated, unisolated Queenslander, made of wood), so when the boys watch television they use their quilts to stay warm:


:-)

Quilting the log cabin quilt

I have started quilting the log cabin quilt with a beautiful variegated (black and white) thread. The Lee Cleland book proved very useful; it has a pattern for a log cabin quilt that I really like and I am using that, though a bit different than it is done in the book. It's hard to see in the picture, but you can click on it to see a larger photo.

I've done 10 blocks so far, so only 54 to go - and the border. This will keep me busy for the next few weeks!



PS A few people asked what I had done to win the prize at iQuilt. Well, I was one of the first 10 persons to send them an email and tell them what I would do with the samples - make fiber postcards for friends overseas!

Prize

I've won a prize! A sample pack of Bulurru fabrics, in a contest at iQuilt. The pack arrived yesterday, containing 9 beautiful 8" x 8" fabric squares.



While waiting for the library book on quilting a log cabin quilt and for King Tut quilting thread from The Thread Studio, I have sewed some other things. Like a crazy block for the birthday list. I always thought crazy quilts were not my cup of tea, but I had a lot of fun making this block! It had to be done in black, white and red, and of course I have a lot of scraps in these colours now. I can't show the block here yet, but it turned out really nice, if I say so myself...

I also made the second part of the bag I am going to make from selvedge strips:



From the remaining strips I made some postcards:



If you would like to trade a postcard, please leave a comment or send me an email (click on View my complete profile for the address).

Finished the top

Today I bought fabric for the outer border and finished the top of the log cabin quilt. The binding will be black.

The quilt is sandwiched now, but before I start quilting I want to read the book Quilting makes the quilt by Lee Cleland, that Jenny recommended after I asked advice on the Scquilters mailinglist. It's in the library catalogue and I have asked for it - hope I will have it soon!
I had a look at the book in the quiltshop this morning; it looked good and extremely useful, but it was very expensive, so I'll just wait for the library copy. It's quite cheap when you buy it from Amazon actually, but then it will probably take just as long to arrive here.

Postcards and ATCs

Thanks for all the comments on the log cabin! As I can't get on with it until I have fabric for the outer border (hope to buy some tomorrow), I made some fabric postcards that I can't show here yet, as I haven't heard if they have reached their destinations.

I can show you a very beautiful postcard that I received this week, it's from Sue in Victoria:



And this one that I made for Corryna, using some beautiful paper that was wrapped around soap a friend brought me from Fiji:


















Here are the ATCs I received in the past few weeks. These are all 'chocolate' ATCs:



12
34
56

1 is from Fionie, 2 is my own, 3 is from Delwyn, 4 from Jenny, 5 from Julie and 6 from Lynn, all from Australia.

These ATCs are all made from 'Different fabrics' (ie, not cotton):



12
34
56

1 is from Pam, 2 from Liz, 3 from Maree, 4 from Sylvia, 5 from Glenys (all from Australia) and 6 is my own.

After a last postcard swap that I signed up for (5 cards, due in July), I think I will not do any more ATC or PC swaps for a while, as I really want to work on quilts in the next few months. The log cabin of course, the ATWI20Q challenge and the Brisbane map quilt that I started last week (will show some pics soon).

Did you see it?

Did you see the mistake in the log cabin quilt? Did you?
I didn't, until someone sent me an email and commented on the 'playful touch' on the quilt! And once I had seen it, I couldn't NOT see it anymore. Strange...
I know there are quilts that have deliberate mistakes, but I corrected this one - it wasn't deliberate after all.
And I sewed a red border on it:



Now I need to buy fabric for a black and white border, and then I'll sandwich and quilt it... Don't know yet how I will quilt it and would be very grateful if you have a suggestion!

ATWI20Q is up and running!

No, it's not a typo - our new online art quilt group, Around the world in 20 quilts, has started on its first challenge! Caity chose the theme: trees. I have lots of ideas, but it will have to wait for a bit - I really want to get on with the log cabin now and I have to make some fiber postcards asap!

I brought all my current projects to the retreat, but worked on only one - the log cabin. Made 28 blocks to complete the 64 I had planned and sewed them all together. Now it needs a small red border and a larger black and white one. Then I will sandwich and quilt it, although I don't know yet how...
I've fallen in love with it all over again and can't wait to get on with it!

Back from the retreat!

Sewing again

Finally I managed to do some sewing again! I made 4 postcards for a swap at the Arts'ntheMail group that I recently joined. Can't show them here yet, but the theme is silver and gold.

I also started a new quilt and will show some of it here later. It deserves a whole posting to itself and today there's more to show.

This, for example: I now have received all the ATCs in the 'Cities' swap:


Clockwise, starting at the top left, they are Sydney: Circular Quay from Dianne, Sydney from Roselie, my Brisbane, Paris from Sheila, New York Snapshots from Sharon and My London from Sylvia.
Aren't they beautiful! (click on the photo to see a larger picture)

Yesterday this arrived:



A present from my Angel! Isn't she an Angel!
A beautiful, handmade sewing case (is that what it's called in English?) with scissors and purple thread (my favourite colour!), bubbles for the boys and for Dad ;-) and a 2007 Quilting Arts magazine!!! I have the last few numbers, but none from 2007, so am very happy to receive this. Thanks, Angel!
(just heard from my Mortal that she received my parcel as well!)

The online art quilt group is almost set up; I will probably be able to tell you its name and show you its blog next time! It takes a lot of my time setting it up, but I'm sure it's worth it and I'm looking forward to starting on the first theme - next week!

This weekend I'll be going to the quilt retreat in Toowoomba - don't know yet what I will work on, will just bring all my current projects! (which are quite a few...)

And the winner is...

The random number generator picked a number between 1 and 8 and it was ...1!
So Julie wins a fiber postcard! Congratulations Julie, please send me you address and I'll send the card to you! (as soon as it is finished...)

I can't show anything here today, as I haven't done any sewing in the last week... just a lot of emailing to the members of the new online art quilt group! There's 13 of us already; we have to decide how many members we want to have, as there are quite a few more who would like to join. It's wonderful to have so many reactions!

I miss the sewing, though... Oh well, in 8 days I will be going to the retreat in Toowoomba, organized by Liisa of the Quilters Corner in Keperra (my local quiltshop) and will be able to sew to my heart's content!

Because a blog without a photo isn't a blog (in my opinion, that is), here's a pic of my very first quilt - made in July 2006 for my oldest son Hugo (then 3 years old):



He loved it! :-) (you can click on it to see a larger picture; I finally figured out how to do that!)

Online art quilt group

As I said in the last posting, I find myself drifting towards art quilts. I have been following the blogs of Twelve by twelve and Art for 12 for quite a while now, and wishing I belonged to a group like that to develop myself (2QAQ is lots of fun, but too big to really work on projects together).

So... why not start one myself? I asked Corryna, Caitlin and Sue, who all said they would love to join such a group, and mentioned it on a Dutch and an Australian quilters mailinglist - and now there's 10 of us already! We would like to get started with 12 persons, so if you read this and would like to be a part of it too, please send me an email.

As every participant in the ATC 'Cities' swap has received mine, I can show it here now:



(it's a map of Brisbane...) I rather like it myself :-) and am now thinking of making something like this in a larger size.

Thanks for your birthday wishes on my last posting! I will keep the contest open for 1 week, so if you would like a fiber postcard send to your home (wherever that is), comment on Q's
birthday and who knows, maybe you'll be the lucky one...

Happy birthday to Q!

It's Q's birthday! One year ago I started this blog, the English sequel to my Dutch blog, De lopende band ('The conveyor belt', have a look at this interesting blog - that I found when I was searching for my old blog on Google! - for the translation of this Dutch term).

What a lot has happened in this past year. I went to hear Kaffe Fassett, did a beginners course at a quiltshop, went on my first retreat (next one is in 2 weeks!!!), made my first pictorial quilt, discovered ATCs and fabric postcards... And now I find myself slowly drifting towards art quilts, or fiber art...

As it is a birthday today, there should be a present... So I will let the random number generator pick one of the comments on this posting and that person will get a fabric postcard sent to her home (doesn't matter where that is!). I can't show you the postcard yet, as I have to make it first!

I can show you this one, though, that I sent to a very good friend in The Netherlands:



And these ATCs, that have all reached their destination - they were for mini swaps (6 participants in each swap) with Chocolate and Different Fabrics (everything but cotton) as their themes:



My ATC container is almost full:



And the postcards I have received so far look very good in my sewing room:



I will show more soon!

Lots of ATCs!

Yesterday I received my Cheer Me Up ATCs (made by and for Scquilters not going to the retreat in Perth, to cheer them up):



Aren't they gorgeous and cheerful?

Here are 2 of the 3 sets I made for this swap (I think I forgot to make a picture of the third...):



I am now finishing another 3 sets of ATCs for various swaps and have decided to give them a rest after that. I want to get on with my log cabin quilt, the medieval lady and maybe start on another quilt. I have an idea, but have to mull it over (over it?) a bit more..

Koala Bow Bag

Thanks for all the comments and emails about my medieval lady! (I have started to think of her like that now) After writing that posting I got cold feet and almost took it away again, thinking it wasn't very interesting after all... I'm very happy that some of you thought it was!

Today I went to the Stitches and Craft Show with Rens. We had a lovely time, saw some beautiful quilts and I bought beads to embellish the medieval lady. Maybe I can make a start on that tonight.

Here's a pic of the small bow bag that I made for Amy, my son Ernst's best friend. She turned 3 last Friday. She lives close to us, her parents are Dutch as well and at the end of this month they are going back to The Netherlands, so I made the bag in koala and kangaroo fabric, as a memory of Australia. She loved it - and so do I!

Who are you?

Something happened last night... I was going to make some ATCs for the 'Different fabrics' ATC swap that I signed up for. I played with my Angelina fibres (I love Angelina!), made a nice piece with all the coulours in my starters kit ;-) and found a beautiful non-cotton fabric to sew it on. First fused this to a piece of Fast-2-Fuse, that I always use for ATCs and postcards. Glued the Angelina sheet on it and at that point decided it looked much too good to cut up in 6 different pieces... Started to wonder then if I was creating my very first art quilt?! (although Margeeth said the bird quilts are art quilts as well!)

Started to stitch the Angelina on with invisible thread - that didn't turn out as I had thought it would, but as I stitched it became something that reminded me of a face...
Asked DH what he thought of it, but he didn't know - as I should have known! :-))

So - I decided to turn it into a face! I pinned a nappy liner on top (still have lots from when my boys wore cloth diapers!) and drew a face on it. Stitched the face on with the invisible thread, peeled the nappy liner off... and then it was time to go to bed :-(.

It still looked good in the morning! I asked Hugo (5 years old and the most creative person in this house) what he thought of it and he said 'Beautiful!' :-)
(Ernst (3) said 'It's a knight!' I had thought it was a woman)

I haven't sewn the beads on the eyes yet, but have decided that I will do that. Am still thinking if I will sew on beads or couch a glittery thread on the sides of the head to make hair. And can't wait to get on with it tonight!

Wow, this is cool, getting caught in a creative flow! Please let me know what you think of it, if you read this. I long for some feedback once in a while - which is why I started this blog, but there haven't been much comments lately. Maybe I should comment more on other people's blogs! (I will, I promise!)

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!