Giveaway Day at Dye Candy!

Fellow AQATW-member Chris has a giveaway at her blog Dye Candy. If you leave a comment you have a chance of winning one of her gorgeous handdyed fabrics or delightful Quilt Block Jewelry. Do go there and have a look! (and by posting this I have just tripled my chance of winning something ;-))

Yesterday I finished the 36th block of the selvedge QAYG quilt! Unfortunately I can't show a pic, for DH has taken the camera to Beijing where he is attending a conference this week.

Although I don't really want to make any more blocks, I must admit that the quilt would be just too short with only 36 blocks... so I will have to make another 12. Sigh. Oh well, better get on with it...

Inspiration

We're back in Brissy, and even though it was wonderful to be back in my home country, it is good to be home!

On our last day in the Netherlands we visited a pancake farm where this peacock was showing off for a peahen. I managed to get some good pics of him and immediately thought of my next bird quilt... I may do a peacock quilt after all!

I'm really looking forward to start making quilts again. I visited one quiltshop in the Netherlands (this one, in Zutphen) and bought some Den Haan and Wagenmakers fabric (Dutch reproduction fabric).

I've also brought back lots of selvedges, sent to my mother-in-law's house by several Dutch quilters (thank you!). So the first thing to do is finish the selvedge quilt. Then there is the quilt for my mother-in-law, some journal quilts and maybe a quilt for Robbie's 3rd birthday (September 15th)... And of course the quilt for Art Quilts Around the World - the new theme is When or where sea and land meet. A very inspiring theme. The unveiling of the connctions quilts was on June 30th, when we were in the Netherlands. Here you can see my Connexion quilt.

Something else I bought in Zutphen, on the market: this plastic-coated fabric:



It's cute, isn't it?! Meant for a table cloth, but I'm thinking of making a bag out of it...

It's too late now but tomorrow I will start sewing! :-)

Holiday at home

Here are some more photos from Zutphen - it really is a very beautiful town. Yesterday evening DH and I cycled to the city centre after putting the boys to bed (Oma was babysitting) and I took these pics. It does not get dark until about 11 pm now - how I love these long summer evenings!



This is the St. Walburgis Church, built around 1050 AD.



I love the doors of the Town Hall:



Today I went to the market with my mother-in-law and took some more photos:



Dutch strawberries are the yummiest in the world!



From tomorrow until next Friday we will be camping near National Park De Hoge Veluwe, so there won't be any postings for a while. Maybe I can post once more before we fly back to Brisbane on July 8th. (I don't want to leave!...)



PS Yes Thea, I have been wearing my Brisbane skirt! ;-)

Back in the old country

It's great to be back in my own country! Of course it's lovely to see our friends and family again after more than 2 years, but it's also wonderful to be able to speak my own language all of the time, to ride a bike without wearing a helmet and to see all the beautiful old buildings. The one in the photo above is the Menkemaborg, a 14th century castle in Uithuizen, a small village in the province of Groningen, where my father lives.

We are now staying with my mother-in-law in Zutphen, a very beautiful and very old city in the eastern part of the Netherlands. She lives on the edge of the town, near the fields and the woods.



June of course is a wonderful time to be visiting the Netherlands - everything is so green and the weather is lovely.



Last Sunday my friends had organized a surprise party for my upcoming 40th birthday (September 18th, when we will be back in Australia). I had not expected it at all, so it really was a surprise! I got this beautiful bracelet as a gift from everyone at the party:



And just one quilty thing to end this posting: my mother-in-law has asked me if I would like to make a quilt for her to hang in her living room, over the piano. I am very flattered and look forward to starting on it when we get back to Brisbane!



PS More photos on our family blog!

One more sleep!

Tomorrow we are going to the Netherlands!!! I hope they won't put us in quarantaine when we arrive at Schiphol Airport on Sunday morning - over 1300 cases of human swine flu now in Australia, and we all have a cold! (better not make any grunting noises, I guess)

I have had an earache for several days now, so went to see my GP yesterday who confirmed that I have a middle ear infection - very inconvenient, just before flying to the other side of the world! With antibiotics, painkillers and decongesting nose drops I hope the journey won't be too uncomfortable.



As you will understand, I haven't done anything creative this week, so no new things to show. Instead here are some photos of the place where I grew up, Appingedam. It's a small town in the north of the Netherlands, very old (founded around 1200 AD) and very pretty. The church in the top photo was build in 1237 AD (the tower was rebuild in the 19th century though). We hope to go to Appingedam during our holiday - I haven't got any family left there, but would love to see it again and show my children where I used to live.



I remember skating here when I was a child. Of course it's summer now in Europe and there won't be any snow or ice! It will probably be a little warmer than it is here in Brisbane now - this morning it was 2 degrees in our house when I got up!

I hope I will be able to post a few holiday impressions here. We are taking the laptop and camera with us, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Shopping and playing

I realised I haven't told you about the Textile Art Festival yet. It was wonderful - I came home suffering from severe visual overload. Jenny Bowker's Collections Quilts were there - probably the most beautiful quilts I have seen so far. Stunning. The My Place Quilts were shown, a wonderful collection of quilts from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, among them the one made by fellow Art Quilts Around the World member Lisette.

I met some people I had so far only encountered on the world wide web, like Dijanne and Sharon, and some I had met IRL before, like Kate and Lisa.

And I bought lots of stuff... Beautiful handdyed fabrics from Lisa's shop, Dyed and Gone to Heaven. Lots of play things from The Thread Studio: rubbing plates, lutradur, Romeo, Starburst Spray... Some Procion dye and Lumiere paint...

And so I played! I used the screen printed pieces of fabric to try the rubbing plates, with a gold Shiva stick. See pic above and the next three photos. I like the violin with those curved shapes. I also like the two gymnasts, might do some more of these (without the rubbings though).



And I dyed some fabric. I love handdyed fabric. Once you have started dyeing your own fabric, commercial fabrics just aren't good enough.



Only 5 days now until we go to the Netherlands!!! We have been collecting Australian souvenirs for friends and family (you know, boomerangs, rain makers, koala cuddly toys etc), but I suddenly thought I could make some myself - bookmarks for my best friend and mother-in-law, made with my favourite Australian fabric:



(the small one was a cut-off and too cute to throw away, so I'll keep it. Don't know what I will do with it but I love it!)

Yesterday we went to South Bank. While the boys played at the playground I checked out the Young Designers Market. There I found Thea and her wonderful husband:



I couldn't resist buying her Brisbane skirt, so I can show it off in Holland! Isn't it brilliant? Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has one too!

Even more screen printing - and some exciting news!

Yesterday I tried printing with a thermofax screen. Due to some technical problems I only managed to get 1 good print, but I will try it again tomorrow and I made the one print into a fabric postcard:



(I ordered the thermofax screen from Lyric's Kinard's website)

And what's the news? Well, my favourite Australian quilting magazine, Down Under Quilts, is going to publish an article about my Optical Illusion Quilt in their August issue!!! How exciting is that!!! (can you see me jumping up and down?) The quilt is actually in Sydney now, being professionally photographed - together with the Jacaranda Quilt, which will feature in an article in the same issue about spring quilts!

More screen printing

Yesterday I did some more screen printing - it wasn't as succesfull as the first time, but still I had fun, and I really like the gymnast (I used to do gymnastics as a child and now Hugo is doing it too).

I have lots of ideas for t-shirts for the boys and their friends, and maybe myself - with their names, dinosaurs, diggers etc. A bag with a ballet dancer printed on it for a friend's daughter would be nice too... Ernst's birthday is on October 31st; Halloween - what about printing ghosts, pumpkins, witches etc on shirts for all the guests?

I also see lots of possibilities for postcards, but not many yet for quilts, althoug that may come. Today the third lesson in the online class will become available on the Quilt University website, it will be about thermofax printing. Can't wait! I can, again, really recommend this class with Lyric, just like her other one, Playing with Paint. Her surface design dvd is great too, she makes it all sound so easy and so much fun! (and it is!)

On Sunday I am going to the Textile Art Festival here in Brisbane, am really looking forward to that!

30

Just finished block nr. 30! Enough for a generous single bed-quilt, but I do want a queen-sized quilt... So will have to make some more. It won't be finished before we leave for the Netherlands (only 17 sleeps!) but I hope we will be able to use it this winter.

I have lots of ideas for the screen printing class, just have to find time to realise them... (and some supplies) More next time, it's bedtime now. Good night!

Screen printing

As I said in the last posting, I have started a screen printing class at Quilt University with Lyric Kinard. This week I had a go at it (with the screen I bought from Thea at the Stitches and Craft Fair) - and loved it!

The red swirl is my very first attempt, with a newspaper stencil, on some very cheap muslin, with some very cheap children's paint (because the screen printing paint I had ordered more than a week ago hadn't arrived yet - always the same story when I sign up for a painting or dyeing class!) As expected, the print isn't perfect but I loved the process!



Yesterday my Permaset paint arrived and I had another try. I made a freezerpaper stencil featuring a gecko (love them! we always see them at night on our dining room window) and the first print (on PFD fabric) was perfect!



So I printed some more and then ran off to find more fabric - a piece of my handdyed purple:



and a white t-shirt belonging to my 2-year old, Robbie:



I spilled a little fabric on it :-( ... but am sure he'll love it!

I did all this at night, when the boys were in bed, and afterwards I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking of possible designs to print... This is so much fun!!!

Haiku ATCs

You may remember that I signed up for a Haiku ATC swap I while ago. Last week I received 4 lovely ATCs. The first one is from Melissa in New Zealand:



This one was made by Jan in New Zealand:



A beauty from Michelle in South Australia:



And the last one is from Amelia in New Zealand:



Here are my Haiku ATCs - the photo is rather dark; I made it at night after finishing the ATCs and sent them off the next day... And I didn't keep a record of the haiku I used, how dumb is that?



This is an ATC made by Lyric Kinard, that I got when I ordered her Surface Design dvd. I did her Playing with Paint class last year at Quilt University (and thoroughly enjoyed it) and have just started her new screen printing class. Hope to show you some results soon!



I finished the Connections quilt for AQATW (the online artquilt group formerly known as ATWI20Q) but can't show it here yet. It will be revealed on the group's blog on June 30th - when we are in the Netherlands!!! (yay!! I am sooooo looking forward to that holiday!)

And I have started a new quilt - in an optimistic moment I signed up for Another Little Quilt Swap Round 3, and this little quilt has to be finished on July 20th, which is 11 days after we come back from the Netherlands, so I thought I'd better get going...

Journal Quilt April

Here is my journal quilt for April 2009. The suggested theme was Human Figure. I first thought of doing a self portrait or a portrait of one of my boys, but after my trip to the Torres Strait Islands, where I observed the tuberculosis outreach clinics, I decided to use an X-ray of a TB patient.

(In case you are not familiar with a chest X-ray: the white part in the middle is the heart. The lungs should be black (because they are filled with air) and all the white bits that I have quilted are parts of the lungs that are affected by tuberculosis. This is actually an X-ray showing extensive disease in both lungs)

Tuberculosis is a very old disease (evidence of TB has been found in Egyptian mummies) that is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality in large parts of the world. When it is caused by non-drug resistant bacteria it is easy to treat, although treatment must be continued for at least 6 months. Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a growing problem in many countries that needs to be addressed urgently. In the Torres Strait patients from Papua New Guinea, many of them with MDR-TB, are treated by an outreach team from Cairns. For a posting about my trip, go here (in Dutch, but with lots of photos) or watch this ABC news report (July 2008).

Hugo's Rainbow Bird Quilt

Yesterday Hugo (6) and I made this bird quilt. Hugo drew the bird (a Rainbow Bird, he called it) on a piece of fabric with Pentel Pastel Dye Sticks and I made it into a little quilt. I used glow-in-the-dark thread to quilt it, so it will make a nice wallhanging in the boys' bedroom!



It was great fun to make and I think it is a great addition to my bird quilt series! What do you think?



PS I was going to do a peacock quilt, but in one of the quilting magazines I saw a peacock quilt that took my breath away. I managed to find it online here - it was made by Rachelle Denneny and it won the second prize in the Professional - Pictorial category in the South Australia Quilt Show 2008. This is actually the quilt I had in mind - though I don't think I could have made it this perfect!
But there does not seem to be much point in trying to copy this quilt, so I may just skip the peacock (for now, at least)...

24

Twenty-four blocks done! That should be half of all the blocks I need for a queen-sized quilt - although I may stop at 36 blocks.

Yesterday I went to the Stitches and Craft Show here in Brisbane and really enjoyed it. In the last 2 years I went with Rens, but she is visiting the Netherlands at the moment. This year I met Mady at the Show for a coffee (she is Dutch too) while our husbands and children found eachother at South Bank quite by chance!

I bought a screen and squeegee from Thea and Sami and hope to have a go at screen printing some fabric soon!

Selvedges

I have made another 2 selvedge QAYG blocks, so there are 18 now. Only 30 more to go!

Karen Griska at the Selvage Blog has been asking about selvedge stashes. Here is the pic I made of mine yesterday:



Today I sorted them by colour, to make life easier:





PS Do you like the new header of my blog?

Things are not what they seem

It's finished! And I thought this was a good name for an optical illusion quilt.
I'm not happy about the quilting in the border, but apart from that I think it turned out quilte well.

(in case you're wondering what it's hanging on:


The flag of our bike trailer (that pic was taken almost 2 years ago but we still use it like this) - it was the only thing I could find that was long enough!)

I also made some haiku ATCs with the fabrics I painted on Sunday - I will show them here when they have arrived at their destinations. And a postcard:



The next project will probably be the Connections quilt for Art Quilts Around the WOrld (the online artquiltgroup formerly known as Around the World in 20 Quilts...). And of course the selvedge QAYG quilt is waiting for me to finish it before winter...

Playing with paint

Last week in Cairns I bought a marbling set and some other fabric paints at the Cairns Craft Centre (great shop, wish we had one like that here in Brissy!). Today I had a ball playing with fabric and paint:





After the painted fabric had dried I did some stamping and stenciling:



And in the end I had some pretty pieces of fabric:




I will use them to make the haiku ATCs - they have to be finished this week.
The optical illusion quilt is almost finished, I just have to sew back the binding.
I hope I'll be able to show it hanging on the wall in the next posting!

Video

I just found this ABC news report from July 2008 about the TB-clinics in the Torres Strait, that perfectly shows where I have been last week. Do click on the video-link for a 10-minute video, to see the islands, the patients and the TB-team at work.

Back

I'm back from a really awesome (literally awe-inspiring) trip to Cairns and the Torres Strait Islands. There's a long story about the trip on my other blog - it's in Dutch, but the 30 or so photos will help you understand what I did up there.
On this blog I will just give some visual impressions.

Beautiful Cairns (view from the Esplanade):



I spent a lot of time in the air - 8 flights altogether, 4 of them in small aircrafts, where I got to sit next to the pilot and make lots of photos. Awesome.



In the health centre on Boigu Island I saw this whimsical work of art:



Back in Cairns on Saturday these lovely ladies (Robbie, Vi and Wendy) took me under their wings:



First we went to Rusty's Markets - lots of fresh (tropical) fruit and vegies, flowers and other colourful products - a feast for the eyes!





Then we visited 3 (!) quiltshops and I did my bit for the local economy ;-). After that, they dropped me at the Botanical Gardens where I spent my last few hours before going home. I love botanical gardens!






Thanks for all the comments and emails about 'the new quilt'. I don't have the time to answer all of them, but I really appreciate them! I'm trying to switch back to the mode I was in before I left, to finish it, but at the moment I'm still up there with my head in the clouds...

Quilting the new quilt

I spent a large part of the very wet Easter weekend quilting the optical illusion quilt. This is the result.

I don't like the quilting part of making a quilt. Every time I feel that I am ruining a beautiful top, and this time was no exception. I had hopes of entering this quilt in a show when I finished the top, but my quilting just isn't good enough. I took a leap and free motion quilted all of it. I think the pattern turned out quite well, but the feathers (yes, they are supposed to be feathers) in the borders did not. And the stitch length is very uneven... Oh well, I suppose this is the way to learn it - practice, practice, practice. Here's a view of the back:



Now I only have to add the binding and the sleeve, but that will have to wait 'till next week. Tomorrow I am flying to Cairns, where I will join the team from the Regional Tuberculosis Control Unit on their monthly trip to the Torres Strait Islands. I will be able to observe their clinics on some of the outer islands, where they treat patients from Papua New Guinea who can access health care on the Australian islands as part of the 1985 Treaty between Australia and PNG. There is a lot of TB in PNG and also a lot of MDR-TB (multidrug resistant). As you may or may not know, I was a public health physician in TB control in the Netherlands and I am currently working as a datamanager/researcher at the Queensland TB Control Centre here in Brisbane. I hope to do a PhD in public health/TB control someday. I have also been thinking of making a TB quilt for some time - it is an ancient disease that is still a major problem in the world today. I have some ideas but they have to ripen some more...

Anyway, I am looking forward to this trip very much. On my way back, I have half a day to spend in Cairns and I will meet some ScQuilters there who will show me around. I'm sure I will post some pics here when I get back (and some more on our Dutch family blog) so watch this space! ;-)