Piecing and quilting

There's a lot of piecing and quilting happening here at the moment, but unfortunately I can't show the finished quilts yet! Very frustrating. I will show some sneak peeks - the block above is part of a Dutch Quilt I recently made, using some Dutch farmers handkerchiefs my mother-in-law sent me.



Chevrons are everywhere, so I thought I should try them as well. The piece above is now part of a bag!



I played with some strips and made this block a while ago. It looks good, don't you think? I've made a few more now and will sew them together soon...



I am also experimenting with quilt blocks made from upcycled denim. In the last six years I have kept all the blue jeans from my sons, my husband and myself, so I have quilte a pile of fabric now. Let's make a quilt!



And last but not least, I am finally making an art quilt again! Here is a peek of a very small part of it. I will reveal more in four months or so...

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

More felted sweaters projects

I'm still in my felted jumpers/sweaters phase and yesterday I made this 'trivet' (or table topper). Cool, hey? Here is a view from above:



Much as I like them, I don't really need more than one of these things, so I've added it to my Etsy shop - you can find it here. I also made a smaller version of the Baby Blocks (or Tumbling Blocks) trivet I showed here a week ago:



I've added that one to the shop as well - I think it would make a great mouse pad!
And here is another one - this block is known as Card Tricks. It's a small one, I think I will keep it and use it as a coaster:



I've still got a pile of felt, so I'm not done yet! Any suggestions for quilt blocks I could make with felted shapes?

Tea House Cosies

I made these Tea House Cosies for Down Under Quilts. The boys love them :-).



Issue 160 is on sale now - it's my favourite so far. I wrote an article about house quilts made by our readers that has some stunning quilts in it. I love house quilts but have never made one so far - really should do that someday! (I'm waiting until we have our own house, I suppose...)



There are also some great Christmas projects in this issue, like the cute wall hanging on the cover made by Kirsty from Bonjour Quilts. Check it out! (and if you do, I would love to hear what you think!)

Felted wool and kids' art

A while ago a friend who was moving overseas gave me her (small) fabric stash. In it I found some woollen jumpers (sweaters) which I felted in the washing machine. Then I cut them up and stitched the pieces back together, as you do when you are a quilter... and ta-da!



 The back is made from another jumper:



I think this sort of thing is called a trivet, right? it is residing on our dinner table now where we could put a vase of flowers on it if we had any flowers (flowers are shockingly expensive here in Australia, compared to the Netherlands, so I hardly ever buy them). The boys, especially my middle son Ernst, are fascinated by the 3D shapes!

Speaking of Ernst, here is a painting that he made this week. It's called Robot Dog:



And here is a drawing of a character that he invented. He called it Triple Trouble - or rather Triplle Trubull ;-)



I just love his original artwork and am going to try to upload it onto Spoonflower and see if I can have some of it printed on fabric (as I did with another drawing of his a few years ago).

SAQA Auction

You may remember this little quilt, my donation for the SAQA Benefit Auction. I'm happy to say that it was sold during the first week of the auction. It's featured on the SAQA Europe/Middle-East blog at the moment, as they announce their plans for a gallery of auction quilts for 2014. Do check it out!

For the first time I have bought a quilt at the SAQA Auction. I will show it here when it arrives!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Upcycling for the school fete

A small part of this op shop find was turned into...



... a pencil roll!
I have a stall at my kids' school annual fete next weekend and am making lots of pencil rolls (plus some other stuff). Digging through my fabric stash to find fabrics that make good pencil rolls...



If you are in the neighbourhood, do come along. It's promising to be a fun day! (it's also my little one's 7th birthday)

Wordless Wednesday

Orange Peel Cushions

For Down Under Quilts issue 159 I wrote an article about Orange Peel quilts. I got so inspired that I decided to make some modern Orange Peel cushion covers - you can find them as a project in the same issue. Appliqué is not really my thing but I did enjoy making these covers. I used black and white fabrics from my stash - some are leftovers from the black, white and red log cabin quilt I made back in 2008!

Wordless Wednesday

Cycle of Life on a cycling blog

I just discovered a lovely 'review' of my Cycle of Life quilt on CycleStuff, a British cycling blog. The blogger, Simon Nurse, says, "It absolutely represents the evolution of a cycling dad. Tentative wandering on the tricycle. Growing confidence with stabilisers. Rough and tumble on the BMX. No fear on the mountain bike (until that first king size crash). The thrill of competition, then fatherhood, with all its highs and lows, complications, time demands and responsibilities."

This just made my day! I am so happy that someone likes something I made so much and that it, as he says, struck a chord. Of course this quilt is my personal favourite as well :-).

Wordless Wednesday

SAQA Oceania Blog Hop

Welcome to the Oceania Collection Blog Hop!

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) has an auction of art quilts every year, and this year the Oceania members contributed 32 pieces to the collection.



The Blog Hop goes “behind the scenes” to reveal how many of these pieces came about.

A full list of participating artists is on the main SAQA Oceania blog HERE.

This is my auction piece, Black and White #3:



I love black and white quilts and optical illusion quilts. Black and White #1, also known as Op Art Quilt, was made in 2010, for an art auction at my kids' school:



Black and White #2 was made in March 2012. I had planned it to be my SAQA auction quilt for 2012, but it ended up being too large:



All of these quilts are made in the same way: the background is pieced by sewing strips of black and white fabric together. More strips are sewn together and from this fabric pieces are cut and appliquéd to the background with a satin stitch:



Up close this is easy to see:



For more inspiration, visit Susie Cujes and Maggie Gilbert who have already shared their creations.

Coming up soon are Linda Stokes on 15 August and Robin McGrath on 17 August.

Braided rug made with t-shirt yarn

Pretending I did not have enough projects to keep me busy (the Lone Star Quilt, a quilt for Down Under Quilts) I decided last week to make some t-shirt yarn (you can read how to do that here) and then started braiding a rug (braiding along with Cathy, a year and a half later).



This is where I am now, after many hours of braiding, sewing, unpicking, sewing, braiding some more etc. The diameter is now 60 cm (23 1/2 in) and I plan for the rug to be at least 1 metre wide. I am blogging in more detail about this project on my Blue Jacaranda blog and adding frequent updates to the Blue Jacaranda Facebook page, so do go there if you would like to follow my progress!

Wordless Wednesday

Lone Star sandwiched!

I spent a big part of yesterday afternoon on my knees, sandwiching the Lone Star Quilt. Ran out of safety pins after doing about 5/6 of the quilt and after turning the house upside down looking for more I had to go out and buy some! But it is done - now the quilting, not my favourite part of the quiltmaking process...