CREATILFUN

From dandelion to lotus

2012-01-23T14:11:00.008+01:00

I took a few pictures before cutting up my dandelion quilt.
I made a very quick sketch inspired by lotus pictures taken in Japan in summer 2010. As you know, the lotus flower is an important symbol in Buddhism.
With this sketch, I just wanted to get a rough idea of the colour distribution on the new quilt. I'm even not completely sure yet of all the colours I will use, and I also want my design to get much more abstract than this.
But now, I know how to cut up the dandelion, and I'm going to do it as soon as I'm finished with this post.
Then I plan to build my piece rather freely on the design wall. I want to get away from my landscape quilts where I had to follow my sketches closely and measure almost every piece of fabric.
As a little recreation, I couldn't resist playing a few minutes on the computer with my source picture. I saved these two versions. I don't plan to use them for this quilt but they might prove useful for another one.

Back to quilting

2012-01-21T14:48:00.007+01:00

Carla Sonheim's class is over. I had so much fun. I definitely need to keep this habit of drawing a little everyday.
Here's a picture of my desk yesterday night just before I cleaned it up...
And here's the little guy of the other day. I think he became a little gal in the meantime.
Now it's really time to start working on my Metamorphosis quilt. The deadline is February 12th!

Did you see the last exciting news about Twelve by Twelve? You didn't? Look here then. A 6-page article in Quilting Arts magazine. Nice, isn't it?
There's also an article about us in Patchwork- und Quiltjournal, and yes, it's official, I am a cover girl. ;-)
Ok, enough boasting for today! I am off to my studio now to try and cut up that rejected dandelion quilt.

Two more creatures

2012-01-19T13:12:00.007+01:00

An imaginary creature in watercolour and pencil,and a quick scribble of my beautiful boy...
Yes, we also draw real creatures in Carla Sonheim's class. :-)

Hello 2012!

2012-01-17T14:46:00.012+01:00

First post of the year, at last!
This week, I am having fun doing Carla Sonheim's Imaginary Creatures online class, as a belated birthday present to myself.
Here are some of the creatures I painted yesterday...
This class is wonderful. I'm so glad I finally decided to sign up.

I haven't started to work on my Metamorphosis quilt yet. But I'm seeing change and impermanence everywhere...
Yesterday evening, I somehow forgot a pot of rice on the stove... I can tell you that the lovely whiteness and fluffiness of cooked rice is highly impermanent... I'm not yet finished cleaning the ugly black hard stuff that's now sticking to my pot...
Anyway, one of the ideas I had for this Metamorphosis quilt was to transform one of my rejected quilts.
This dandelion was a candidate quilt for the first Twelve by Twelve challenge back in 2007. I finally made another one featuring a white dandelion seed head. But now I am thinking of recycling this yellow flower and using it for the new challenge.
I like this idea because it would involve many layers of metamorphosis.

Meilleurs voeux!

2011-12-31T11:14:00.005+01:00

A nice afternoon

2011-12-18T14:02:00.006+01:00

I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon working on my greeting cards.
I'm almost done with the fabric cards but I still want to make some paper ones. It's not too late, but I'd better hurry if I want to send them before Christmas.
While working on my fabric cards, I unearthed this little doll I made a few weeks ago.
It's just a small prototype and it was lying under a pile of Colorplay fabrics. Now it's smiling at me while I'm sitting at my desk.
And next is one of my candidate quilts for metamorphosis...
It's hanging on my design wall right now. And I'm just wondering... Shall I cut it up? Yes? No?...

From Colorplay to Metamorphosis

2011-12-16T11:08:00.015+01:00

The mini colorplay quilts for my fabric book are done. Well at least the tops are. I still have to add some stitching and hand embroidery on the last pages, and I also need to think about the way I will bind them into a book.
Another WIP in my studio is this red shirt that I want to finish before Christmas.
Only one week left, I know, but I think I can do it.
I've also been trying to think "20 by 12" for our next challenge and in order to visualize the size better, I've pinned this piece of hand-dyed fabric on my cork board...
As you know, the first theme is "Metamorphosis" and the deadline is February 12. I will probably have no time to start working on this new piece before January, but I've been thinking about it, writing down a few ideas. I also did some very practical transformation experiments. See...
from these elements...
I got this interesting looking material...
and finally it turned into these yummy edible objects...
More seriously, one of my ideas is to take one of the numerous quilts that I have never shown and to change it into something completely different. Not sure this is the way I will go, as I also want to make a 20x12 series.

More Colorplay

2011-11-28T17:33:00.010+01:00

This week, I plan to work on my small Colorplay fabric book, and at least try to finish the missing pages.

All my fabric leftovers were already nicely sorted by palette in little boxes, but of course, as my quilts are now living their own life in the States, I don't have them here anymore to help me in my work. So, I printed their pictures.
I did the "Brown Sage Blue" page a few days ago.
Now I've got the first eight pages. Only four more to do.
I feel I have to finish this before starting on the new Twelve by Twelve series. You might already know that we have decided to continue our collaboration but to change the size of our quilts. They will be 20 by 12 inches (vertical orientation). Gerrie has already chosen the first theme. It is "Metamorphosis".

Last week in pictures

2011-11-03T09:47:00.010+01:00

Lots of sewing,
a little gardening...
and some cooking...

In a few days, my friend Viviane will celebrate the third anniversary of her blog. She's kindly having a great giveaway. See here how to have a chance to win.

And, last but not least, the Twelve by Twelve quilts are on show this week at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Nine of the Twelves are there.
No, I'm not going, but if you are, please go and see our exhibit. And say hello to my fellow Twelves, and to my quilts too!

More autumn colours

2011-10-30T14:11:00.018+01:00

The weather here has been so incredibly sunny and mild for the season that I can't resist posting another autumn photo.
Last summer, I enjoyed reading Tammy's blog, especially her posts about ICaD, and I played along a little bit, in my own corner. I didn't feel like showing my index cards here and didn't post about them, but the other day, I found Tammy's blog again, with this post here, and I just couldn't resist making a little mess too...
This print is my favourite...
especially this close-up...
and this is what happened to the sheet of paper that what protecting my desk...
The watercolour marks under the paint splotches come from sketches I did for a new quilt. Here's a little peek at one of the sketches...
The quilt is well underway, but I can't post about it yet.

Bright autumn colours

2011-10-23T17:13:00.010+02:00

Today, I decided to add some orange yellow to my blue, pink and purple scraps. Then I spent some quality time with my good old sewing machine. It just came back from a check-up and it behaved really well. I wonder why I had been thinking of upgrading.
It looks like all these little scraps will soon become a baby quilt.
I also did choose my fabrics for another project...

Some art news

2011-10-16T15:17:00.012+02:00

At last, I found some artistic content again for my blog... :-)Little GD recently discovered the joy of playdough and she really likes it. She also made her grand debut at finger painting. This was a bit more chaotic and I was so busy trying to contain the mess that I didn't manage to take decent pictures. It will be for next week maybe.
In the meantime, I made it back to the studio. My rosebud quilt is almost finished.
Then I decided I had to do something about this...
I started piecing scraps together. Blue, pink and purple at the moment.
I've got a vague idea about what I want to do. We'll see what happens in the next days.
In other news, Gerrie, my fellow Twelve, will be on a radio show tomorrow afternoon, eastern time. See here.

I'm back...

2011-10-01T12:08:00.010+02:00

really...
no more travelling. I promise!...
Yesterday, I even spent 4 hours in the studio working on my pink quilt. Pictures soon.

No fiber content...

2011-09-18T14:53:00.010+02:00

... only a few pictures of one of my favourite cities... Lots of walking, sunshine, great food, good music. It was perfect.
Sewing should resume tomorrow, or even tonight. But, as I'm working on projects that I can't blog about yet, my next post might be about something else, cooking for example. ;-)

Focus

2011-09-01T10:38:00.014+02:00

This is the quilt I made for the Twelve by Twelve Orange Colorplay challenge.
Its starting point was a picture I took in Holland a few years ago. I was walking on a seawall path with fields on the left side and water on the right side. I liked how all the lines seem to converge.
This is why I named my quilt "Focus".
Focus is something I've been missing in the past months (years?). Too many interests, not enough time. I know I'm not alone here.
Here are some details shots of my quilt...
As usual, I hand-dyed all the fabrics.
Of course there were no mountains in my picture. There were trees instead, and the fields were not orange but green.
By the way, you might know that orange is the symbolic color of Netherlands because of its royal family Orange-Nassau.
And just for the anecdote, the Dutch orange color is often a bad omen for the Belgian soccer fans because the Dutch team usually beats ours. ;-)

To see all the other Orange quilts, please visit our Twelve by Twelve blog.

Quilting, and weaving

2011-08-28T15:32:00.008+02:00

I'm ready to start working again on this almost forgotten rosebud quilt.
It has to be finished in about 6 weeks, as I entered it in a show. So now, I really need to get going. Actually I had already machine-quilted it following the seamlines.
I haven't done much in the studio lately, except cleaning up, and then sorting fabrics, threads and yarns, and magazines and pieces of paper, lots of stuff, too much stuff....
I also tested some cotton, linen and bamboo yarns on my little weaving loom.
Pretty basic weaving, and a bit wonky, I know. But very relaxing too. ;-)
I think I'm going to weave a little scarf, for me. I've already measured the warp yarns.
There will be lots of quilting and some weaving in the next weeks.

Festival of Quilts

2011-08-18T21:01:00.015+02:00

I've been back from Birmingham for several days and my feet are slowly beginning to touch ground again after all that excitement!
Here I'm standing, between Helen and Diane, in front of the Twelve by Twelve exhibit...
Below are two pictures I took on Wednesday afternoon as we were hanging the quilts.
We had a great time sharing our quilts with lots and lots of people. Some of them were real fans and knew (almost!) everything about us. But of course many had never heard of the Twelve by Twelve adventure and we had to explain the whole thing from A to Z.
I didn't take many pictures during the show this year, but Diane has written a great post on the Twelve by Twelve blog, here, with more pictures and stories about the Festival.
Have a look also here, and here, and here... all nice people saying lovely things about the Twelve by Twelve exhibit. :-)
And now, I'm eager to go back to my studio. In the meantime, California poppies keep growing in my garden. Too bad my Orange 12x12 quilt is already finished. Reveal will be on September 1st. Stay tuned!

Focus on orange

2011-08-06T17:14:00.008+02:00

I'm still here... just have been busy, among other things, with this new obsession called orange... At first, I wanted to do something based on my pictures of California poppies. I tried several ideas but wasn't really happy with any of them.
So, finally, I gave up and decided to choose another source of inspiration. I went back to the drawing board and quickly found a more satisfying design.
I then started cutting, bonding fabric, stitching, quilting...
And I'm glad to say my orange piece is done. Now, I'm just waiting for the sky to clear up to be able to take some decent pictures of my quilt.
In the meantime, I've been cleaning up my studio, and also playing with another little weaving.
The colours are brighter in real life, but I can't take a better picture at the moment.
Where is our summer?

Orange again

2011-07-21T11:00:00.013+02:00

The fabric is dyed.
I tried a few splotches of dye mixtures on paper before throwing the fabric pieces in the dye baths because I was not really sure about the yellow I was using.
In the next photo, the fabric has been washed and rinsed by hand, and it's waiting for the washing machine to be free. (I wonder why I always decide to have a dyeing session when there is also a lot of laundry to do!)
Anyway, I think I now have enough orange fabric for my quilt.
But I am still looking for inspiration
in the garden...
and in my studio...
This is a little experiment I did some time ago using C June Barnes' book, "Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art".
Next is a tiny weaving... (the colours of the threads are a bit lighter in real)
And now, I am going to play on the computer with the poppies pictures.

Orange

2011-07-18T11:36:00.006+02:00

It's the new Colorplay challenge chez les Twelve by Twelve. I did some research last week, at the market and back home...
I don't have that much orange fabric in my stash. I think I'll have to do some dyeing one of these days.

Do you like appliqué? Especially Kim McLean's quilts? Do you speak Dutch? If yes, then you should visit this new blog that my friend Nicolette has started about two weeks ago. It's called "Kim McLean in Holland".

Armorica

2011-07-13T14:41:00.002+02:00

I started dyeing grey fabric before really knowing what I wanted to do for this challenge. I got a few nice fabric pieces, especially this one that I thought would be perfect, except that it was much larger than 12x12. I thus had to decide which part of the piece I wanted to select for my grey quilt. (It wasn't the easiest part of the process!)
Then I thought it needed a little more contrast and I added a 3 inch band of darker grey on one side.
I machine quilted the whole piece with straight lines, trying to emphasize the movement I could see in the fabric.
Next came embroidery time! I had picked yellow and green threads for this because I wanted to take inspiration from this picture. But after several attempts, I had to admit that I couldn't find a green that would show well on both fabrics. I turned to a variegated red-pink-orange thread that did work much better.
I'm rather pleased with the result. (It looks better and brighter in real life.)
Here are two detail shots of the quilt.
And don't forget that you can see the quilts of the other Twelves on our blog.

Labouring over grisaille

2011-07-05T15:38:00.000+02:00

The last days, and nights, involved going back to the drawing board,
unpicking stitches,choosing new threads, doing samples (again),
hand stitching,
sewing the binding, at last,
and finally, taking pictures...
I think I'm done with this one now.

Experimenting...

2011-06-26T11:08:00.010+02:00

Yesterday, I tried out a few ideas on the design board, with dark and medium grey...
and little leftover scraps of home-dyed chartreuse...
Then, this morning, I chose another approach, using Photoshop Elements and playing with layers. Now, I've got two designs that I like.
I will do some samples with fabric and threads this afternoon and see if they could work in real life.
In the meantime, I leave you with two pictures that were among my potential inspiration sources for a grey quilt. One taken in China...
and the other one in Brittany...

More grisaille

2011-06-23T10:40:00.009+02:00

I dyed 12 pieces of fabric in grey yesterday. This one is my favourite...
It reminds me of this picture I took a few years ago in Beijing hutongs.
Here are my other dyed pieces, nicely ironed.
Last week, I bought 4 or 5 very large cotton bedsheets in a thrift shop, and this is what I used as fabric for my dyeing session of yesterday. I am always amazed at how well this old fabric takes up the dye.
I have probably abandoned the idea of adding a dash of pink to my grey fabrics. Now I'm thinking green and yellow (or gold)...
Most probably because of this picture...
My biggest problem with the fabric piece at the top of this post is that it's about 20x20, which means I'll have to cut it up if I want to use it for the 12x12 challenge.

Grisaille

2011-06-18T21:08:00.013+02:00

I chose a few grey pictures in my photo albums and played with them on the computer. I rather like this one, after a few filters and effects.
But I'm not sure I will go this way, because it reminds me a bit too much of my BlueWhiteBlack 12x12 piece.
I also picked these two...
I think they have potential.
I've got a few more of these, but first I want to show you what I did this afternoon. While cleaning my studio this week, I found my old tiny wooden loom. I chose some grey thread and yarn from my stash, and today, I spent a couple of hours playing...
I couldn't resist dressing up the second piece as a smiling little creature.
I've been spending a lot of time with my cute little GD these days. Does it show?

Some news

2011-06-16T14:35:00.010+02:00

Two weeks ago, after posting my 12x12 "Spice" quilt, I decided it was time to sew the next pages of my Colorplay-inspired fabric book.
I cleaned up the studio and sorted my hand-dyed fabrics. Then I started to work on the "Eggplant" page... Two weeks later, I'm a bit embarassed to say that my table is still in the same state...
In the meantime, I wasn't completely idle... I took care of my little GD for several days, and I sewed a few "useful" items for the home and for myself, but I didn't manage to find the energy to do any creative quilting. Anyway, yesterday, at last, I crawled back to the studio and selected some grey hand-dyed fabrics for the next Twelve by Twelve Colorplay challenge.
The same fabrics with a few chartreuse pieces...
Note to myself: I could also add a dash of pink!
I think I'm back. :-)

The winner...

2011-06-05T11:15:00.007+02:00

La gagnante du tirage au sort est...
Chère Joëlle, dès que j'ai votre adresse postale, je vous envoie le livre!
And thank you to everyone who left a comment on my blog!
Today I plan to work on that black shirt that I started months ago...
I bought the fabric last year in Sapporo, and the pattern I'm using is from Burda.
Today it is supposed to rain, at last. But we only had a few drops this morning, and now the sky is blue again. The lavender is thriving with this amazing weather we've been enjoying for several weeks.

Sunset Tide

2011-06-01T13:35:00.006+02:00

A few weeks ago, I was sitting beside an estuary in Wales on a nice and quiet evening. The tide was out and there was an almost perfect symmetry between the far away mountain and the shape of the foreground rock. I did a quick little sketch because I knew I had to make a quilt out of this.
Back home, I did more sketches, simplifying the landscape until I was happy with it. This became my Spice quilt.
Here are some details...
I've had a hard time photographing this quilt. The colours seem to be changing all the time.
And, of course, today is the reveal of the Spice Colourplay challenge on the Twelve by Twelve blog.

Another giveaway

2011-05-30T11:09:00.006+02:00

I am giving away a copy of "Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge"!

J'offre un exemplaire du livre "Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge"!

The rules of the game are very simple:

You have to leave me a comment on this post, before next Friday June 3d, 8pm Belgian time. AND your postal address must be in Europe.
One winner will be picked randomly.
Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you.

Les règles du jeu sont très simples:

Vous devez me laisser un commentaire sur ce billet, avant vendredi prochain 3 juin, 20h00 heure belge. ET votre adresse postale doit se trouver en Europe.
Un gagnant sera tiré au sort.
N'oubliez pas de me laisser un moyen de vous contacter .

Almost done

2011-05-25T15:13:00.008+02:00

I'm done with machine quilting my 12x12. I've sewn the binding on. Now, I'm taking a little break and auditioning some spicy embroidery threads.
The baby quilt is almost ready to leave for Japan. I just have to add a small label to the back. The quilt is about 32 by 36 inches.
I've started hand quilting this table runner at my quilting group meeting the other day.
I think most of these fabrics come from Japan, but I remember I bought the border one in China 3 years ago.
Enough blogging for now. It's time to go outside and to see if my tiny baby rocket and lettuce are doing fine. :-)

Spice

2011-05-23T20:40:00.010+02:00

Here are some of the fabrics I'm using for my Twelve by Twelve Spice quilt...My quilt will have nothing to do with spices, except for the colours...
Last week, after lots of sketches, and also a few bad nights, I started cutting up the fabric and sewing the quilt top.
I'm doing an abstract landscape.
I even made a kind of pattern for this quilt because I wanted to stay close to my last sketches.
And today, I've been quilting...
I'm not sure yet if I'm going to use all these threads, but they sure look yummy, don't they? By the way, just in case you want to know, I don't like spicy food, but I love these colours!

Book giveaway!

2011-05-19T16:10:00.005+02:00

All details are on Jenny Doh's website, Crescendoh, here !

The giveaway winners

2011-05-12T19:59:00.000+02:00

Thank you everyone who left a comment on my last post. Little GD was here today after daycare...And she picked the two winners...
Congratulations Natsumi and Angela! :-)

A postcard giveaway

2011-05-06T16:21:00.011+02:00

At last, here's the giveaway I had promised as a celebration of my blogging anniversary!
To have a chance to win one of these rosebud postcards, all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post. You have until Wednesday May 11th, 6pm (Belgian time) to do so. Two winners will then be picked randomly.
And, next week, if all goes well, there will be another giveaway on this blog, this time only for my European readers.
Voici enfin le petit cadeau que j'avais promis pour fêter le 5ème anniversaire de mon blog. Pour avoir une chance de gagner une de ces cartes "Rosebud", il vous suffit de me laisser un commentaire sur ce billet. Vous avez jusquau mercredi 11 mai, 18h (heure belge). Il y aura deux gagnants tirés au sort.
Et, la semaine prochaine, si tout va bien, j'aurai un autre cadeau à mettre en jeu, cette fois pour mes lecteurs européens uniquement.
In other news, I'm starting to think about the "Spice" colour scheme for my next Twelve by Twelve quilt. Here are the fabrics I have selected so far...
Je commence à penser à mon prochain quilt Twelve by Twelve. La palette de couleurs est "Epices". Voici les tissus que j'ai choisis pour l'instant...
I've got an idea. I did a little sketch. It doesn't have anything to do with spice. But why not? As long as I use the given colours, I'm ok, right?
J'ai une idée, j'ai fait un petit croquis . Cela n'a rien à voir avec les épices, mais tant que j'utilise la palette imposée, pas de problème!
And, here's a picture I took in Wales, because I keep seeing chartreuse everywhere. This is just for you Gerrie! ;-)
Et pour terminer, une photo prise au Pays de Galles, parce que je continue à être obsédée par la couleur "chartreuse". Spécialement pour toi, Gerrie! ;-)

Back from a lovely little trip

2011-04-23T13:35:00.008+02:00

Did you know the weather could be this sunny in Wales?
Actually, each time I travel to North Wales, the weather is rather nice. ;-)
But this time, it was truly amazing!
Anyway, last Saturday, I met up again with my lovely friend Margaret, a.k.a. Digital Gran, in Llandudno. We first visited Stitch It, a charming little shop full of indispensable goodies, then Oriel Mostyn Gallery where we had a nice Welsh tea. (Thank you Mags!)
More pictures about this nice afternoon, as well as everything about Welsh cakes, here!

Fifth anniversary

2011-04-19T14:08:00.001+02:00

Today is my blog anniversary! I started blogging exactly 5 years ago by timidly posting the above little quilt.

To celebrate this properly, I'm going to have a giveaway on my blog in a few days.
Stay tuned! :-))

A nice weekend

2011-04-15T12:03:00.000+02:00

We've been so busy working in the house that I almost forgot to post these pictures of the last weekend. It was really nice, sunny, almost warm. Little GD came over and gave us a hand in the garden.
She did some weeding...
She looked everywhere for ladybugs,
and she did some nice chalk drawings full of energy...
In other news, here are a few blocks I made for the quilt I am going to send to Japan...
Next is a picture of the backside of my Twelve by Twelve Nénuphars piece. I took it when the quilt was almost finished, as you can see.
Have a nice weekend!

Nénuphars in Sapporo

2011-04-12T21:46:00.001+02:00

I had never really cared much about the colour chartreuse before this challenge. But when Gerrie picked it as our new colour scheme, I suddenly discovered that chartreuse was everywhere, even in my collections of pictures. I also found out that this colour was going well with many others and, eventually, that I rather liked it.
I chose a few photos that inspired me, some taken during my trip in Japan last year, and I finally decided to concentrate on water lilies photographed in Sapporo.
And here is my chartreuse quilt...
First, I hand-dyed many shades of chartreuse. (I've got a lot of chartreuse fabric in my stash now!). I added dark green and purple as I found these colours made a nice contrast with the light shades of chartreuse. The water lilies, flowers and leaves, are stitched through all layers. The quilt is completely quilted by machine except for the three little hand-stitched flowers on the upper left side.
Here are some details...
"Nénuphars" is the French word for water lilies. When I see water lilies, I often think of Claude Monet's Nympheas. I fell in love with them, and with Impressionism, 35 years ago in Paris, but I still have to visit Monet's garden in Giverny.

And now you should go and visit our Twelve by Twelve blog to see all the lovely chartreuse quilts the other Twelves have made.

Chartreuse hunting

2011-04-06T17:27:00.000+02:00

The weather is really too nice today. I stopped working at 3pm and went chartreuse hunting in the garden!
This little guy is growing where it shouldn't. I'll have to save it from DH...
This one too,... although it is not chartreuse.
On the quilting front, I'm almost done with the binding of my Twelve by Twelve quilt. I still have to add some hand stitching and then take the pictures. Here's a little peek at the back...
some scraps...
And just one more chartreuse pic before I go back in the garden...

I'm quilting

2011-04-04T17:33:00.009+02:00

I started quilting "Chartreuse One" this morning...
Not sure there will be a "Chartreuse Two" after all...
Today, I also quickly put together a rosebud postcard as a surprise gift for a friend.
I don't think she reads my blog.
In any case, as it's a surprise, she can't guess it's for her. ;-)

Today...

2011-03-28T22:00:00.010+02:00

Today, I've put my chartreuse fabrics on the floor, next to my other quilts from the Colorplay series. I always like to see how they all look together before starting to work on the new quilt...
I've got a design, more or less... (I already changed it several times).
Then I started to cut out the fabric pieces and I pinned them to the design wall, but I didn't stitch anything yet.
Instead, I played with my fabric paints and got some nice results.
There are at least two prints that I really like, but I don't think they would fit in the quilt I have in mind.

Almost ready to start sewing

2011-03-25T14:16:00.009+01:00

Here are the fabrics and threads that I selected from my stash the other day...Next are the results of my dyeing session of yesterday.
Most of these fabrics are less green and more chartreuse in real, but I gave up trying to get the colours right in this photo.
Yesterday, I had to go to my (local) favourite art shop, and I couldn't resist buying a few of these tiny fabric paint jars that might prove useful in the next days...
Back to the drawing board now!

Do you like chartreuse?

2011-03-24T16:14:00.008+01:00

I think that, now, I do...
Yesterday, I chose some fabrics in my stash for the next Twelve by Twelve quilt.. I didn't have enough chartreuse, so today, I spent a few hours playing with my dyes.
More pictures tomorrow. Now, what I need to do is go outside in the garden, as it is just too nice and sunny to stay inside.

More chartreuse inspiration

2011-03-19T20:36:00.009+01:00

for the next Twelve by Twelve quilt...

Two pictures taken in Japan last summer,
and then a picture showing that Easter is already in the shops.

Comfort quilts for Japan

2011-03-18T13:17:00.011+01:00

A message from Naomi Ichikawa, editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin:

I start to announce to the quilters to send us comfort quilts for the
people who are suffered. I would like to do it to the world quilters.

We will deliver the comfort quilts to the people who are very difficult situation.
Could you please help to announce it to the quilters?
We accept any size of quilts (baby to adult), new or unused.

★Please send the quilts after the end of April to:

Naomi Ichikawa
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
2-21-2, Yushima, Bunkyo-ku,

Tokyo,
Japan 113-0034

I will appreciate if you help me.

Naomi

Please, do not send the quilts now as there is too much confusion. Thanks a lot.

Japan

2011-03-13T11:53:00.003+01:00

Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts.

We are very sad and we don't really know yet what is the best way to help.
There are some links about how to donate online here, here and here.

We've had news from almost all our friends and, fortunately, they are safe. I also heard, from Jan, that Keiko Goke who lives in the affected area is safe too.

Chartreuse

2011-03-07T10:54:00.002+01:00

Our new colour scheme at Twelve by Twelve is "chartreuse".
I found a picture that I really like...I took it in Kyoto last summer and I can already see a few ways to make good use of it.
But of course, this word, chartreuse, always makes me think of Stendhal and his novel "La Chartreuse de Parme". I don't think I've got the book here. My copy must still be somewhere in my parents' house. I feel like reading it again.

Book Release Celebration

2011-03-05T09:34:00.006+01:00

To celebrate the publication of our book "Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge", we are having a little giweaway on our Twelve by Twelve blog, until March 13th.
If you would like to have a chance to win a copy of our book, just pop over to our blog and see what it's all about!
Twelve by Twelve Theme Series by Françoise Jamart

Pour fêter la sortie de notre livre "Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge", nous vous donnons la possiblité, jusqu'au 13 mars, de gagner une copie du livre.
Si vous voulez tenter votre chance, il vous reste maintenant à vite aller faire un tour sur le blog Twelve by Twelve pour voir de quoi il s'agit!
Bonne chance! :-)

(Et si, après avoir visité le blog Twelve by Twelve, vous avez besoin de plus d'explications en français pour pouvoir prendre part au tirage au sort, laissez-moi un commentaire ici sur mon blog avec un moyen de vous joindre par email.)

Snoozing at the beach

2011-03-01T15:17:00.018+01:00

As soon as I saw Deborah's colour scheme (Brown, sage, blue), I knew I wanted to do a beach quilt, and I also knew which pictures I would use as inspiration. I like the seaside very much, but here in winter it is so windy and cold that we don't go very often and I miss it.
I had to do several dyeing sessions before getting the soft shades I had in mind for this quilt. I then sewed a very simple beach view.
Next, I wanted to depict the seagrass growing in the sand dunes where I like to go and rest sometimes in the afternoon. I made a freezer paper stencil and printed the grass using oil paint sticks.
I found the marks were a bit weak. So the last step, after quilting, was to go over those marks with machine stitching.
Here are some close-ups...
I also wanted to add some hand embroidery, but I kept wondering if this quilt really needed anything more. So, after taking the photos (better safe than sorry), I added some tiny hand-stitched grass blades. But, really, I don't know if I'm going to leave them. (Pictures of this another day of the week, most probably.)
And now, I'm off to the Twelve by Twelve blog to see what the other Twelves have done with this color scheme.

I'm quilting and quilting

2011-02-26T15:24:00.006+01:00

I'm running late... I was sick this week and wasn't able to work as much as I would have liked.
But hopefully, I'll be ready for the next Twelve by Twelve reveal date. (It's Tuesday!).

A good mail day!

2011-02-24T13:57:00.009+01:00

It's here, at last! :-))
The book is already available in the States and Down Under, and very soon in Europe too, I hope.
I'm off to the studio now. I only have a few days left to finish my Brown Sage and Blue 12x12 quilt.
But first, I can't resist linking to this and this. Thank you Erica and Rayna!

Busy days

2011-02-20T13:08:00.012+01:00

I'm busy, and a little tired too. We are having cold grey days again. But look, spring is just around the corner...
I keep taking pictures often, thinking of my blog. Then I forget to post them!
This is a nice miso soup I had for lunch the other day. Miso, tofu, wakame, rice and vegetables... I'm pretending I'm in Japan. :-)
I've been working on my Twelve by Twelve quilt these last days...
The top is almost ready...
I've got a few other works in progress and my little studio is a real mess. I took pictures of it, but I'm not sure yet I'm going to post them here.
Did you have a look at the Lark Crafts blog? They have started a 12 days celebration of our Twelve by Twelve book. They are featuring interviews of the Twelves and there will also be a few book giveaways during that time. Don't miss this.

More fabrics

2011-02-12T10:12:00.007+01:00

I now have enough fabric to start working on my "Brown, sage, blue" Twelve by Twelve piece. No excuse anymore.
I like this one. I'm not sure yet if I'll use it in this quilt, but it's on my design wall and the more I look at it, the more I like it.
Next is a piece of paper on which I've tried to see how my dye mixtures would behave. I used a blue and a brown that I didn't really know yet, and I wanted to see how they would react with the yellow and the black.
In other news, I am patiently (hum!) waiting for THE book to arrive. It's real and it's beautiful, and it's even very cute! Look over here! :-)

Of ducks and fabrics

2011-02-08T13:28:00.008+01:00

I spotted these cute and very sociable ducks on my walk a few days ago...
Lots of interesting lines and textures in the next picture...
This week, I need to concentrate on the next Twelve by Twelve quilt (brown, sage, blue). These are the fabrics I've pulled out from my boxes yesterday...
As usual with these colorplay challenges, I'm not exactly happy with the fabrics I've got in my stash. I'm going to have another dyeing session tomorrow.

Brown, sage, blue...

2011-02-02T12:51:00.007+01:00

It is the colour scheme that Deborah has chosen for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge.
The sky is blue, the sea is blue,
the beach grass is sage green,and the wet sand is brown. This is just perfect. I can see a landscape quilt in my near future. ;-)
Of course, the next step will be to dye some fabric...

Waiting for sunlight

2011-01-12T13:26:00.013+01:00

I had a hard time setting to work with this colour scheme. It was so dark! Too dark for me.
As often when I'm stuck, I went through my photos and picked out a few that I found inspiring. There was an old one of blooming chives, taken in my garden, that I really liked. I wanted to do some hand embroidery for this quilt, and those small flowers were perfect.
I also found inspiration in a few of my other colourplay pieces for the general design of my quilt.
The fabrics are all home-dyed.
After all, this quilt doesn't look that dark, but I'm so ready for a happier palette! (Sorry Nikki! :-) )
Here are a few detail shots...
Go have a look at the Twelve by Twelve blog to see the quilts made by the other members of the group...

Done!

2011-01-10T17:44:00.012+01:00

My "Eggplant" quilt is done. Now I have to clean up all that mess I've got in my workroom... These are the prints that I didn't use... And these are some candy wrappers in assorted colours...
I didn't use them either, but I found them quite inspiring, and of course, I did eat the candies!
And now, here's a very tiny peek at my quilt...
The 12 quilts of the "Eggplant" colourplay challenge will be revealed in two days on the Twelve by Twelve blog.

Beginnings

2011-01-03T20:14:00.004+01:00

Today I tried the designs I had sketched for the next Twelve by Twelve quilt. Nothing worked.
I then printed some of my fabrics and got a few nice results but that didn't really help.
While looking at my other 12x12 Colourplay quilts, I had another idea and I quickly wrote down everything.
And this is how the studio floor looks tonight... Tomorrow, I'm going to start sewing.
This other project that I have in mind will have to wait...
And this one too...

Bonne Année!

2010-12-31T11:03:00.003+01:00

Even more snow

2010-12-28T07:01:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely white Christmas. Actually, we were snowed in on Christmas Eve. DH did shovel the snow away from our driveway, just in case, but we stayed home. Today, the street still looks like a ski slope, a beginner's slope, but still, not really great for driving.
We had this very strange creature on our terrace for a few days...
Yesterday, its head fell down and it doesn't look as bizarre anymore.
I dyed more fabric for my "eggplant" Twelve by Twelve quilt. I also did some sketches but haven't started sewing yet.
This is the "rust" page I made some time ago for my fabric book.
This is the sixth one. The first five pages are here...

More snow

2010-12-19T16:39:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was sunny again and we went sledging with little GD for the first time. That was fun.
Today, it is snowing and snowing. We've got a very nice layer now, and it's not over yet. It's very quiet outside, we hear no cars, no noise. I'll take more pictures of the snow tomorrow if it's sunny.
Last week, at last, I finished this WIP that had been sitting in my drawers for years. I had almost forgotten about it.
Tomorrow, I also hope to be able to do some fabric dyeing for the "eggplant" 12x12 quilt. I'm not that pleased with the colours I've got, especially the green.

Slowly...

2010-12-17T14:20:00.002+01:00

... but surely, I am coming back to life.
Yesterday night, we had a lovely little snowstorm, and today it is nice and sunny. I went outside this afternoon and took many pictures in the garden.
The other day, while trying to organize my files, I picked a few photos as inspiration for the next 12x12 quilt. This is one of them...
I also picked fabrics and threads. Now I am going to sketch some ideas I've had.

Cloudy sky

2010-11-26T18:19:00.009+01:00

November has been a little cloudy for me, not really dark, but not very sunny either. Between bouts of flu, tonsillitis, a dental extraction and a few other snags, I've not been very productive... I just managed to make two or three special gifts that I cannot show on the blog yet.
I also started sewing a new shirt...
Hopefully, December will be brighter.
We are expecting some cold weather and snow in the next days. I hope there will be some sunshine too...

Autumn Leaves

2010-11-01T14:49:00.008+01:00

This is the quilt I made for the new Twelve by Twelve challenge. This time, the colour scheme was "rust with a blue green patina".
Rust made me think of autumn leaves. That's why I chose several of my leaves photos as the starting point for the quilt. Mainly a picture of a pond in Japan, where I really liked the way the leaves were floating on the water.
I had to do several dyeing sessions to get the colour shades I really wanted to have. I also collected many fallen leaves during my walks, to find the right shape for the three leaves.
I did all the stitching by machine except for the few detached chain stitches.
This was a pleasant challenge to work on, pretty stress-free, although I've only put the last stitches on this morning.
Here are three close-ups...
Don't forget to visit the Twelve by Twelve blog to see the other quilts made for this colour scheme.

Last day of October

2010-10-31T15:55:00.009+01:00

Just a few pictures from today's walk...

A busy day

2010-10-28T19:43:00.009+02:00

I started quilting my new 12x12 quilt today.
I was planning to be finished with it by tomorrow night. (The reveal is on Monday). But that might be a bit optimistic, as I would like to do some hand stitching too.
Anyway, I've also started a very simple doll quilt for my little GD. It's ready to be quilted now.
I needed to find a project I could work on by hand at a guild meeting next week, and this will be perfect I think.

More rust

2010-10-21T12:42:00.007+02:00

My rust and blue-green fabrics are hanging in front of me. I've got a design. I did a rough sketch based on a photo of leaves I took last summer. Now, all I have to do is to start cutting and playing. This will be for tomorrow I hope. First, I want to finish the shirt I am sewing for me. (Pictures later, maybe).
This morning, it was very cold for the season, but so sunny. After those rainy days, I really like to see such a nice blue sky...
And here's a beautiful autumn leaf I picked up the other day...

Rust

2010-10-15T15:59:00.010+02:00

Here are a few pictures of rust I took some time ago as inspiration for the next Twelve by Twelve quilt. The colour scheme is "rust with a blue-green patina".
I found these candidate fabrics in my stash...
Not much, and nothing really exciting... So, this week, I played a bit with my dyes and I got this...
This is much better. I'm beginning to see a new quilt...

Fabric book

2010-09-26T13:16:00.015+02:00

Some time ago, I decided I would try and make a small fabric book from the leftovers of each 12x12 quilt in the Twelve by Twelve colorplay series. Each page would be about 7x7. Yesterday, I worked on the fourth page of the book, the purple and yellow one. And today, I did the lorikeet page.
J'ai décidé il y a un petit temps de réaliser un livre en tissu à partir des restes de chaque quilt 12x12 de la série Twelve by Twelve Colorplay. Chaque page du livre fera environ 18x18 cm. Hier, j'ai travaillé à la 4ème page du livre ("purple and yellow"). Et aujourd'hui, j'ai cousu la page "lorikeet".
Here are the five pages I made so far...
Voici les cinq pages que j'ai déjà faites...
and the related 12x12 quilts...
et les quilts 12x12 correspondants...
(a rather bad picture quickly taken this afternoon when it stopped raining for a few minutes.)
(la photo est plutôt mauvaise, je l'ai prise en vitesse cet après-midi pendant une éclaircie de quelques minutes.)
Tomorrow, I really want to start working on our new colour scheme.
Demain, je veux vraiment commencer à travailler à notre nouvelle palette.

Dead leaves

2010-09-19T14:26:00.000+02:00

The colour scheme for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge is "Rusty". I have no precise idea yet of what I want to do, but it makes me think of leaves changing their colours in autumn.
The first two pictures were taken in Japan last month. I know that it was in summer and the colours are not right for this challenge but I just like them.
The next photo is older. It was taken in my garden some years ago.
Now this leaf is really rusty, isn't it?
Terri, who chose this new colour scheme, also specified that it should be "rust with a blue-green patina".

Japanese paper

2010-09-17T16:06:00.007+02:00

The other day, I played with the washi paper I brought back from Kyoto. I started by making a few little books. I bought these sheets of paper at Suzuki Shofudo, a nice shop on Yanagi no-banba (close to Shijo and Karasuma dori).
Another lovely paper shop in the same neighbourhood is Kyukyodo, on Teramachi. Among other things, they sell beautiful stationary items and calligraphy supplies.
The indigo fabric pieces in the picture above are cotton shawls I found at the Chion-ji Temple craft market. They are from Wataya workshop in Himeji. The little white things on top are lace ribbons. They were cute and cheap and I just couldn't resist buying them.

Arashiyama

2010-09-11T10:18:00.007+02:00

Beautiful Arashiyama, North-West of Kyoto,
a bit touristy, maybe,
but sooo lovely...

A few bookmarks... and the book cover

2010-09-09T13:56:00.011+02:00

Despite some family constraints, I finally managed to spend a few hours in the studio this week. But before starting on a new project, I have to clean up this mess...
Il y a quelque temps déjà, j'ai promis à une copine (Coucou Béa!) de recommencer à poster aussi en français. Alors voilà... En dépit de certaines contraintes familiales, j'ai réussi cette semaine à passer quelques heures dans mon atelier... Mais avant de me lancer dans un nouveau projet, il faut que je mette un peu d'ordre...
I first tried to use up the smaller leftovers and decided to make a few bookmarks.
J'ai d'abord essayé d'éliminer les plus petits restes en faisant quelques marque-pages.
I made three of them actually. Now I still have enough scraps to make a small fabric book page based on my "Summer in Japan" quilt. That will be for the weekend. This morning, I also made a few small books using the Japanese paper I bought in Kyoto. More about this in another post.
J'en ai fait trois. Maintenant, il me reste encore assez de tissu pour coudre une petite page textile basée sur mon quilt "Summer in Japan" pour mon livre en tissu. Ce sera pour ce week-end. Ce matin, j'ai aussi confectionné trois petits livres avec le papier japonais que j'ai acheté à Kyoto. Plus de détails dans un prochain post.

But first, I am really happy to be able to show you the cover of the future Twelve by Twelve book!
Mais avant cela, je suis très heureuse de pouvoir vous montrer la couverture du livre des Twelve by Twelve!
"Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge" will be published by Lark Books in March 2011.
"Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge" sera publié par Lark Books en mars prochain.

At the seaside

2010-09-06T14:59:00.014+02:00

The weather was so nice this weekend that we had to go to the seaside.
We walked a lot, as always, and I began doing my homework for the new Twelve by Twelve colour scheme "Rusty". Terri mentionned that there also should be some blue-green patina with the rust. I still have to research this component...
We met a few ugly ducklings on one of our walks... And on Saturday, we had the visit of our little GD...
She's almost ready to start sailing with us... :-)

Summer in Japan

2010-09-01T17:13:00.001+02:00

This is the quilt I made for the Twelve by Twelve Lorikeet colour scheme...
It was not an easy colour scheme for me. It's not that I don't like bright colours, but so many of them at the same time in such a small quilt... And I must admit that this lorikeet green didn't really excite me. But I was confident some ideas would emerge during my trip in Japan this summer.
Actually, I found that Japan in August has many different shades of green. The one I liked the best was the bright green of the small rice fields. When I came back home, I decided my quilt would be a simple imaginary landscape based on the beautiful sceneries I had seen during my stay.
I also wanted my quilt to make reference to my mother as her weak health was a constant worry for me while I was away. I printed her silhouette several times on a piece of red fabric and placed it at the left of my landscape. I liked that quilt a lot but, in the end, I just didn't feel like showing it. So I replaced my mom's silhouette by a single leaf shape, a ginkgo leaf, as there are so many ginkgo trees in Japan and they are seen as a symbol of resilience. Here are some detail shots of the quilt...
Don't forget to visit the Twelve by Twelve blog to see the quilts made by the other members of the group.

Just in time

2010-08-31T15:30:00.008+02:00

I've finished my Lorikeet 12x12 quilt today, just in time. The pictures are ready too. Don't miss our big reveal tomorrow on the Twelve by Twelve blog.
In the meantime, here are two pictures that I took this afternoon in my garden...
(Sorry, no lorikeet around here.)

A one-day walk in Kyoto

2010-08-29T16:47:00.000+02:00

Heian Shrine...On Yoshida hill...
Looking down at Ginkaku-ji...
On the philosopher's path...
Lotus flowers, in Maruyama park (I think)...
Washing kimono cloth (yuzen) in the Kamo river...
Kiyomizu-dera at night...

Noboribetsu

2010-08-22T14:22:00.014+02:00

During our stay in Sapporo, we spent an afternoon in Noboribetsu volcanic area...
We walked several easy trails through the forest and also very close to the sulfurous ponds and geysers...
On the same day, we visited an Ainu village which was a bit touristy to my taste and where I was really sad to see two magnificent grizzlies held in cages. The museum was the part I liked the best. Btw, the small Ainu museum in Sapporo (in the Botanical Garden) is also interesting to visit, with lots of beautiful costumes and artifacts and old pictures.
Next are three more photos of Sapporo, before heading off to beautiful Kyoto...

Sapporo

2010-08-20T16:50:00.013+02:00

Here are a few pictures of Sapporo where we started our stay in Japan this time.
This one was taken on the campus of Hokkaido University...The next one is close to Susukino, the entertainment district of Sapporo, south of Odori Park. I liked how the bikes were nicely parked.
The next one is Nakajima Park, a very peaceful place...
And this is Toyohira river, I think...
Sapporo is a very modern town with an incredible number of fancy shops and restaurants. People are very friendly and the food is delicious. The weather was very nice, but hotter than usually (between 30° and 34°C ).
I discovered one of the best fabric shops I have ever seen... Four floors full of fabrics, haberdashery, knitting yarns and sewing books. Its name is 'Kanariya', and it's one or two blocks south of Odori Park, in case you ever go to Sapporo. I also liked the very big bookstore 'Junkudo' in the same neighbourhood. I couldn't resist buying a few books even though they were in Japanese...

(I'll try to post more pictures of my trip in the next days, but my mom is in hospital at the moment and I don't have much time and energy for blogging.)

Back home

2010-08-18T11:33:00.005+02:00

I'm back from beautiful Japan.
More about it very soon...

Lorikeet

2010-07-23T22:00:00.003+02:00

I found some fabrics in my stash for the new Twelve by Twelve colour scheme. It is "lorikeet" and it was chosen by Brenda.
Except for the red, the pieces were not big enough for experimenting, so I decided to have a little dyeing session yesterday...
I usually don't like green very much, but I'm rather pleased with those ones. I also dyed a piece in bright yellow, but forgot to photograph it.
Here's a photo of the towel I used to mop the spills...
I now have enough fabric to start playing but I must admit I'm not very much inspired by these colours at the moment. I wrote down a few ideas but nothing really exciting... Maybe I need a little break, or maybe I have other things on my mind...
Tomorrow is our 30th wedding anniversary. I can't believe time is passing so fast.

In the meantime, I took some new pictures of my turquoise quilt before parting with it.
I cannot get the right colour yet...

Turquoise, again

2010-07-19T11:50:00.007+02:00

Here's the finished quilt...Not a very good photo yet but I can't do any better. I'm not sure I like the undulating quilting lines although they look a bit nicer in real than on this photo.
There will be no quilting today as this little lady is visiting and I've put a grandma's cap on for the whole day. You can see that grandpa and old dog are on duty too. :-)

Turquoise

2010-07-18T16:17:00.013+02:00

The turquoise quilt is ready. I don't seem to be able to get a good photo of the whole piece today. I'll try again later. Here are two detail shots in the meantime...
I like the colours and design of the piece, but I'm not so happy about the quilting. Too busy and fussy for me I think.
Now I should start thinking about my next Twelve by Twelve quilt.

Turquoise quilt

2010-07-15T07:41:00.008+02:00

I'm still around... I just took a few days off...
Now I'm working on my turquoise quilt. I hope (and I need) to be finished in a few days.During my little break, I found some interesting things to photograph...
in the water...
in the sky...
and on the ground...
Ok, back to the sewing machine now...
Next is a little peek at my quilt. This was before I started quilting. Today, I am almost ready to start sewing the binding.

My grandmother's garden

2010-07-01T12:20:00.002+02:00

This is the quilt I made for the new Twelve by Twelve challenge. The colour scheme chosen by Karen was "purple and yellow".
I used two pictures taken in my garden as the inspiration for this piece, a picture of a lilac tree and one of simple little daisies growing in the grass. The fabrics are hand dyed and screen printed.
I especially like this lilac tree because it's a grandbaby of a tree which stood in my grandmother's garden when I was a little girl. I remember that this beautiful garden was full of vegetables, fruits, simple flowers and unpretentious shrubs and trees.
After quilting, I started embroidering flowers by hand here and there in the quilt, but I finally unpicked them because they just didn't really add anything. After all, I prefer to keep it simple, as it is now.
Don't forget to visit our Twelve by Twelve blog to see the other quilts.

Purple and yellow quilt

2010-06-10T16:42:00.010+02:00

I've been working on my purple and yellow 12x12 quilt this week. I did the machine quilting today.
Here's a little preview of the top...This is the back of the quilt...
Tomorrow, I'll begin with the hand quilting.
And this is a daisy print which didn't work out very well, so I'm using it as a sample to test my stitching...
Now, I'm thinking of using this nice piece of dyed fabric to make a second purple quilt. But I just saw that there is a crease where the colour faded a bit...
And these are fabrics I plan to use in my turquoise quilt. I've put them on my desk so I can think about it when I'm tired of seeing purple and yellow ...

News from the garden

2010-06-05T08:51:00.012+02:00

The sun is shining,it's hot,and, like every summer, my dog is shedding handfuls of hair...And now, quickly to the market to buy flowers, herbs, strawberries and rhubarb...
There'll be no sewing today I think.
Update: I'm back from the market... I bought a yummy cantaloupe too.

Purple and yellow again

2010-06-01T16:15:00.007+02:00

I burned five screens yesterday and framed them this morning. Here are some of the prints I got today, using these screens and also two older ones.
The purple and the yellow fabrics are for the 12x12 challenge. The turquoise fabric is for another quilt. I almost ruined a piece of my yellow fabric, but got another idea while doing this...
Now I need to pin the fabrics on the design wall and look at them for a little while.

Purple and yellow

2010-05-30T07:24:00.008+02:00

I dyed some purple and yellow fabric a few weeks ago, but I only have a very vague idea of what I want to do for the next 12x12 quilt.
Purple always makes me think of lilac. So I decided this would be a starting point.
I played a bit with some of my photos to prepare a few screens that I could use for printing the fabrics.
I'm going to burn the screens and start printing tomorrow. We'll see what happens.

A nice weekend

2010-05-26T13:52:00.011+02:00

The weather was nice and warm last weekend.
Everything is growing...
... everywhere...
Old dog is smiling to the sun.
The summer dress is finished... (But today it is raining...)
Now, these cute fabrics will have to wait for a little while...
I really need to get back to quilting,... first the turquoise quilt, then the next 12x12 piece.

Purple fabric

2010-05-19T08:02:00.008+02:00

I uploaded these pictures a few days ago, and then completely forgot about them...
Maybe I need some real vacation for a change.
Actually I think I forgot about my dyed fabric because last Sunday I became a grand-aunt for the fifth time!
In the meantime, I started sewing a new dress for me. Pictures in a few days... (maybe, if I don't forget about it.)

New fabrics

2010-05-13T15:41:00.011+02:00

I needed some turquoise fabric for a new quilt. And yellow and purple for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge.
Here's what I got yesterday after a few hours work...I was not particularly pleased with the dark purple pieces... I found them too reddish. So, this morning, I tried again. And here are the new results, washed but still wet...
This is much more like what I first intended to get.
And talking of new fabrics, while in France last week, I stumbled across two or three nice fabric shops. Of course, I couldn't resist and came back with a few meters of cotton and linen. (I'm afraid I forgot to photograph the linen...)
These are mainly for sewing clothes.

I am back...

2010-05-07T12:17:00.012+02:00

... from a little break in Loire-Atlantique...

Lava flow

2010-05-01T17:07:00.007+02:00

This is the quilt I made for the new Twelve by Twelve challenge. I first dyed some fabrics in the colours Kristin gave us for her Kilauea scheme. I then printed them with black paint. On the red and the orange, I did some monotypes that made me think of lava flow. A sort of mountain shape also appeared by itself on the orange fabric.
On the chartreuse fabric, I used a thermal screen made from a picture of water reflections. (I had already used that same screen on other fabrics before.)
It's mainly machine quilted. Almost no hand work this time.
Don't forget to visit the Twelve by Twelve blog to see the other eleven quilts.
I've made another 12x12 volcano quilt. I'm quilting it by hand and it's not finished yet.
But here is the small page I made for my fabric book...

Spring pictures

2010-04-22T20:18:00.011+02:00

On Sunday, we had a very long walk in the woods. The weather was really great and I took many pictures.And this weekend, I did some useful sewing for a change.
I made myself a little make-up bag and a tiny pouch.
I really love this red fabric that I bought last year (or was it the year before?) in a small shop in Holland.

Almost done

2010-04-15T17:54:00.010+02:00

Today, I've been sewing the binding on my 12x12 quilt.
Now, I have to add a few more stitches here and there, and then I'll be done. I've had some trouble with the quilting, didn't like some of it, and decided to unpick a small area. Now, I'm more or less happy with it.
I also did my little fabric book page. I'll show it later, after the Twelve by Twelve reveal date (which is May 1st).
Last week, I was very busy being a grandma. Little GD is almost walking by herself now, and she kept me quite entertained...
But I found some free time for playing with a lino block and I printed two or three small fabric pieces. I'll probably use them for postcards.

Rainy Easter day

2010-04-04T13:04:00.005+02:00

Easter Bunny visited our living room today. He left some chocolate eggs and biscuits inside. The garden is really too wet for an egg hunt...
I've pieced a new 12x12 quilt top.
There's a mountain...There's lava...
Now I must quilt it, but I need to think a little about this before starting.

New fabrics

2010-03-29T15:27:00.009+02:00

Today, I quickly printed some of my dyed fabrics for the Kilauea 12x12 quilt. I used black fabric paint and did some monotyping.
I don't like the last one, but I might nevertheless use tiny pieces of it in the quilt. I am still thinking of using Hokusai's work as inspiration.
I was at the British Museum last week. Unfortunately, my favourite Hokusai's prints were not on display. But I was really impressed by the new Great Court and I fell in love with the Assyrian wall sculptures from Nimrud.

A small volcano quilt

2010-03-18T15:58:00.010+01:00

Last week, I spent some time dyeing fabric for my next 12x12 quilt.
Then I sorted my boxes of fabric scraps and found some nice leftovers from an old red-orange-yellow log cabin quilt. I started to play, and here's what's left on my cutting table now...
I've quickly made a small "volcano" quilt. It's not really what I want to do for the 12x12 challenge, but it was a good warm-up, and now I'm having fun quilting it...
I hope to really start working on my 12x12 project next week.
Now, the weather is so nice today that I cannot resist posting a few spring pictures taken in the garden...
I know it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but today I'm really enjoying being outside...

Twelve by Twelve new colour scheme

2010-03-08T13:05:00.004+01:00

The next colour scheme/theme for our Twelve by Twelve group is "Kilauea". It was chosen by Kristin who lives in Hawaii. I must admit that if I think of Hawaii, I think of sandy beaches and huge waves, but not of a volcano. And if I think of volcanoes, I think of Hokusai and his prints of Mount Fuji...
Anyway, I looked in my boxes and found a few fabrics that could match Kristin's colour scheme. I decided I need to overdye some of the lighter ones. That's as far as I went up to now.
And about this new 12x12 colorplay series, I am thinking of making a small fabric book. One page for each quilt. I already made two pages using leftovers of the first two quilts. Let's see if I can carry on with this idea...