Handprinted fabric swap

Yes, these are Dutch Houses, but not the ones you know! These are stamped, not screenprinted. I made this fat quarter for the third handprinted fabric swap organised by Leslie Keating. But first I did a stamping workshop with Lisa Walton at the Stitches and Craft Show here in Brisbane on Friday:



We each got a square of this soft, easy to carve material and a fat quarter to play with. I carved a Dutch house and made a rubbing with an oil pastel stick:



I liked the process and the result, so I bought a large block and at home I made this stamp:



It is loosely based on this photo, that I took in November 2010 in Groningen, my favourite city in the whole wide world:



And then I just stamped and stamped!



For the swap I had to make four fat quarters, in the preferred colours of my swap partners:



This morning I folded them and bound them with a scrap of my Dutch Houses wrapping paper (Spoonflower offered wrapping paper for a short while last year):



And here they are, ready to be send off!



At the bottom of the pile is my quilt for the SAQA Benefit Auction 2013, which I also finished this weekend. (yes, I am feeling quite smug!) I am not showing it yet, as it will be part of the SAQA Oceania collection and we plan to do a blog hop later in the year where we will show the quilts.



I took this quilt, The Final Round, home on Friday; it was part of the State of the Art quilt 12 exhibition and returned to me by Suzanne, the curator. I gave her my SotA13 quilt in return - yes, one of my quilts was juried in! More about that soon.

The Final Round is now for sale in my Etsy shop; you can find it here. I like it, but I just don't have enough walls to hang all my quilts!

Wordless Wednesday

Laptop case

This week I got a new laptop computer and I decided to make a case for it myself (there are lots of lovely cases on Etsy, but the laptop wasn't exactly cheap and it's not as if I can't sew). I used a piece of fabric with large flower panels that I've had in my stash for years and lined it with a soft green fleece.



The back looks like this:



This is what is left of the fabric - I may use it to make a bag for the mouse and power cord.



I have another piece of this kind of fabric - hmm, what shall I use that for?



I need the laptop (and therefore the case) for my new job: since the 4th of March I am Consultant Editor at Practical Publishing for the quilting magazines (Down Under Quilts and Down Under Textiles). A dream job!

:-)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Aussie Baby Quilt

I just heard that the quilt that I made for our new niece in Holland has arrived, so here are some photos!



This is the third quilt I have made for a little niece - the first one was a Trip Around the World quilt, the second one an Irish Chain quilt. In keeping with this tradition I wanted to make another quilt using only squares. I also wanted to use fabrics from my stash where possible. Initially I planned to make a rainbow quilt, but after making Peter the Platypus I realised I could make a lovely Australian quilt with the Aboriginal fabrics in my stash (some were leftover from the Aussie Quilt I made for my eldest son in 2009, others from other projects like this sunglasses case).



I decided that they would look best against a white fabric (and had to buy that one). I was asked to make the quilt a certain size (approx. 100 x 75 cm, or 40 x 30 inch), so it would fit in the baby's cot. The squares are 2.5 inch. I quilted in the ditch and diagonally (does that word remind you of Harry Potter too?) through the white squares:



The back is a handdyed fabric from my stash:



Peter looked so good on the quilt that I sent them to Holland together:



Robbie was very sad to see Peter go, so I made a new platypus for him. He chose the fabrics, and called him Luke, after his hero, Luke Skywalker ;-)



And here is the gorgeous little girl on her new quilt!



:-)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Peter the Platypus

May I introduce you to my new friend? I made him this weekend - isn't he gorgeous?



The pattern is from Funky Friends Factory, a Brisbane-based Etsy shop. I discovered it a while ago and just had to buy it and make a platypus! Now I will have to get their Koala pattern as well, I think...

Today I happily spent most of my time making the baby quilt for our new little niece in the Netherlands. Half of the top is finished, I hope to do the rest tomorrow. I won't show it here until the quilt has arrived in the Netherlands, as I do want it to be a surprise. But so far it's looking very good!

New calligrams!

It's been on my to-do list for a very long time: draw some new calligrams. And finally I did, and had them made into thermofax screens. They arrived this afternoon, just when I had to go and pick up the kids :-(. When their homework was done and they were playing on the Wii I couldn't resist making a few quick prints. I'm very happy with the seahorse and the platypus, that fascinating Australian animal!



The mouse was a request from a friend. I love his tail ;-).



What do you think of the crocodile?



I also had this drawing made into a thermofax screen:



I can see so many possibilities with this one!

All these designs are also available on Spoonflower, for printing on fabric, wallpaper or as a wall decal. There is also a Shark Calligram design, that I haven't had made into a thermofax screen (yet):



The World Map design is available in six colourways.



Last but not least: Happy Valentine's Day! It's almost over here in Oz, and we (hubby and me) don't 'do' V-day anyway... but here is something you might like to pass on to your Valentine:

Copy and paste the following on Google:

(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

;-)

Burlap Pincushion

These days I post my new burlap creations (made from upcycled Hessian coffee sacks) mostly on my Blue Jacaranda blog, but I am making an exception for the latest one: a Burlap Pincushion! Relevant for quilters too, right? ;-) I stenciled the words PLEASE ENTER YOUR PIN on the fabric using a hand-cut stencil. The back is made from a scrap of black fabric and the cushion is filled with left-over bits of bamboo batting (cut into very small pieces), so it is truly a recycled object. (I have decided not to buy any new fabric this year to use in my quilts or other projects - there is still so much in my stash)



I am also trying to come up with as many ideas to use the Hessian coffee bag fabric as I can - last week I made some zippered pencil cases:





The next thing to try will be a Kindle case...

I hope to have some exciting quilting news soon, so stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday

The Tentmakers of Cairo

The text in this posting is copied with her permission from an email by Jenny Bowker and the gorgeous photos are taken from her Pinterest board. Please read this and if you can, help!

The Tentmakers are a group of men in Cairo who make spectacular applique. Nowadays most of what they make is intended for the walls of houses or on beds, but in Pharaonic, early Islamic, and Ottoman times it was intended for the inside walls of tents. With canvas behind it which formed the outside wall, the rich appliqué glowed with light on it, and was intended to amaze visitors to a leader's tent. Did you know that Cairo was originally called Fustat - which means the big tent? In Pharaonic times the tents were appliqued leather, now all the work is cotton.



You can read more text about them here.
You can see a short video made by Bonnie McCaffrey for Luana Rubin here and a longer one made by Bonnie as one of her wonderful vidcasts here.
And if you go to my Pinterest board on the Tentmakers you will see a lot of current work - and some that is much older and also some of the truly old tents so you can see how they were used.



The art has been slowly dying. Big pieces of cheap, badly registered, printed fabric made in China have poured into Cairo and people buy this rather than the real appliquéd pieces. On top of that disaster - tourism has stopped with unrest for the last two years. Without the work sold in exhibitions that I have been arranging in other countries they would all be gone by now - instead - stitchers who left are coming back and young ones are learning again. I am thrilled with the progress we have made and very happy with the AQS who committed to them for three years. But - it is still hardly documented at all. There is not one piece in the Cairo Museum or even in the Cairo textile museum. The best article I have ever found is in the Uncoverings magazine and there are no books. Older stitchers are dying and no history has been written.



Kim Beamish is an Australian who is making a film about the Tentmakers in these difficult times. He has given most of five days a week for the last seven months - or more. He has paid his own way to shows in England, and has had to pay for three more that have not even happened yet in France and two in America. He has become part of the street and the men are used to him and his camera.

The movie will not be made without funding for the essentials - the long and boring stages when the filming is done and the hard work starts. Editing, top level translation and the rest has to be done by experts and paid for. Please help. Even a little bit from a lot of people will add up to a lot - that is what crowd funding means. The link is now open and working. If he does not get to his total he gets nothing. Kim will spend the month hovering over the site and biting his fingernails.

The work is really special and the film is essential. Kim Beamish has a Facebook page for the film where he is putting up new images constantly, and there is a lot lot of historical input as well.

This is the link to support the Film - The Tentmakers of Chareh el Khiamiah. If Kim Beamish does not get this money the film cannot be made. Even tiny donations will help and big donations will help more. Please.

If you use PayPal it will ask you to preauthorise. It sounds odd but it simply means that when the total is reached the money will then be taken from people's accounts so it has to be done this way. Kim gets nothing if he does not reach his total and that is the way that Pozible works.

I am hoping a lot of people will have read this far and be willing now to help us. PLEASE send this on to as wide an audience as you can reach. The moment the total is reached the project will be assured. Until then it looks as if it might be dead in the water.

Thank you
Jenny Bowker

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday