Stitching

The quilt top is ready.

Now I must decide how I am going to quilt it.

I think I would like to use more hand stitching than usual.

And here's a little tiny weaving that I made some time ago with paper yarns purchased in Osaka and Kyoto.

On the design wall

Another project on the design wall...

I can see some pagodas in this shibori fabric.

I think I've dyed those fabrics for one (or two?) of the 2012 Twelve by Twelve projects.

This is how it's looking now...

I've started putting the quilt top together.

November

Silent but not idle...
Here's a mosaic showing what I've been busy with...

I finished this small chartreuse quilt...

It's probably the last of my Colorplay scrap quilts.
Today I picked out these fabrics for another quilt, but except for the small chartreuse piece, they are not leftovers from the Colorplay series.

In other news, I started knitting a sweater with a beautiful new Katia yarn (it's the "Merino Effect" yarn).
I've put a new warp on my Louet loom, and I'm experimenting with point twill, and also using floating selvedges (and loving it!).
Last week, I did some book binding with a new great little tool, I spent as much time as possible outside, I played a lot with my GD, and of course I studied Japanese.

I've also been working on this quilt with the Japanese fabrics. I pieced a lot of blocks, but it suddenly got very boring, so I started adding smaller pieces. This is where I am now...

Do you see the two small textile pieces on the right side of the photo? These are Tambani embroideries that I bought at the Carrefour Européen du Patchwork in September. I want to use them for making two little bags.
You can read here about the Tambani Textiles project in South Africa.

Sewing again

I've been playing with my Japanese fabric scraps again and completely enjoying it.

Another Colorplay scrap quilt is almost finished. It's the chartreuse one. I'm almost finished sewing the binding on.

I'll take a picture of the whole quilt when it's done.
There are two more Colorplay scrap quilts waiting to be quilted. And also two completed quilts waiting to be put away somewhere, or maybe displayed on a wall, I haven't decided yet.

Next are two pictures taken a few days ago during a walk along the river Lesse. There is a kayak on the first one.

I did this river descent when I was 30 years younger... It looks very peaceful here, but a few miles further, it gets a bit wilder. I remember we had lots of fun.

The next photo is Dinant. Can you see the big colorful saxophones on the bridge? Did you know that Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant exactly 200 years ago? Many concerts and exhibitions in his honour are currently organized in Belgium.

The Tree of Life

I made this quilt last year for the Quilt Whisperers challenge which was initiated by Georgina Chapman and is based on this children's game. Several European groups took part in the challenge and all the quilts were shown at the 2014 Loch Lomond show in Scotland.
The basic idea is that the first quilter in the group receives a photograph and has to make a quilt inspired by that picture. She then sends her quilt, without the photo, to the second quilter who makes a quilt inspired by the first one. When she's done, the second quilter sends her quilt to the next one, and so on, until the last quilter. Of course, each quilter only sees one quilt. She doesn't know what the others have done. The results are often very different and surprising.
In Belgium, two groups of 10 quilters took part in the challenge. The quilts were shown at the National Show in Enghien 3 weeks ago.
Here's a detail of my quilt...

And here's the statement I wrote at the time I made the quilt: "I decided to keep the bridge and the tree, and to go for a colourful abstract landscape inspired by some of the quilts I made with the Twelve by Twelve international group. All my fabrics are home-dyed. I designed the tree and the bridge from pictures I took during my travels in Japan. While I was working on this quilt, sadly my mother passed away. The tree and the bridge then took an even stronger symbolic meaning for me, as the tree of life and a bridge of transition. The Japanese sign き, which reads as "ki", means tree and also spirit. "

It's over

The 2014 edition of the Belgian Patchwork Association exhibition is over. It took me a full day to recover from it, but I absolutely had a great time at the show.
There was a large variety of quilt styles both in the competition and in the different exhibits. I think all the visitors really enjoyed it.

In the room next to the Colorplay Twelve by Twelve display, there was a very moving exhibit dedicated to the quilts of Lutgard Gerber who was the guild's president from 1996 to 2005 and who passed away last year.

The weather was summery for the first three days. It turned a bit cooler on Sunday but it stayed dry, which is nice.
As you can see in the mosaic, there was even a little train going around the park and linking both sites of the show.  So much fun!

Colorplay in Belgium

I'm glad to report that the Twelve by Twelve Colorplay quilts are ready for they final show!

It's in Enghien, at the Belgian Patchwork Association exhibition.

Twelve by Twelve in Alsace

Here are a few pictures of the Colorplay quilts at the European Patchwork Meeting.

It was great beeing able to show the quilts there and to talk with so many people, and of course to at last meet Brenda in real life!

Back from beautiful Alsace

I'm back from the 20th Carrefour Européen du Patchwork. More to come very soon...

Reverie in Japanese

This is my "Reverie in Japanese". It didn't make it into SAQA's Wide Horizons, and I've learned a couple of things here.
First, I know I didn't send the best picture. I remember I was in a hurry to take the photo, the light was not great, and the quilt looks crooked...

And then, more important to me, I realized that I do not really enjoy making large art quilts anymore, at least at the moment.
I'm going to concentrate on what I like best, small, and colorful, art quilts.
Actually, although I like my quilt as it is, I can also see several smaller quilts in it. I wonder if I will have the guts to cut it up...

Fabric scraps and yarn play

I've been sewing fabric scraps again. Japanese fabrics mainly. Here's a picture of my design wall today...

Each block is a 4''x4'' square. The idea is to make a quilt for the sofa. Yes, I need to make many more blocks, but I'm going slowly... One hour of Japanese, 15 minutes of sewing, one hour of Japanese, etc..

During the summer, I started crocheting a ripple blanket, inspired by the lovely Lucy at Attic24. (Please have a look at her beautiful blog!)
I just wanted to finish up all my yarn leftovers, but of course I ended up buying some new yarn...

And now, I've got more leftovers, so I've been making these little granny squares...

I don't know yet what I'll do with them. Maybe a little blanket for my GD's doll.

Next are a few pictures of my GD's first try at counted-thread embroidery. First, she did straight stitches...

Then, half stitches...

I think she's almost ready for cross stitch.

Summer is over

I am back. Actually, I didn't travel a lot this year, but I took some time away from the computer in order to recharge my batteries.
Now it looks like summer is over already. It's raining cats and dogs, and it really feels like it's time to go back to the studio.

I made this little quilt top from dyed and printed fabrics.

It's about 30 by 40cm.

Last week, I had a little student. I introduced her to counted-thread embroidery. I took some pictures but I forgot to download them. It will be for the next blog post.
She also did her first weaving on my small rigid heddle loom.

She only wove for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, but I think she did really well.

Last day of June

Lots of colour and sunshine here during the last two weeks.
Watching the Belgian team playing at the world cup, one eye on the tv, the other one on my crochet...
A new warp on my loom, all bio cotton. The weft is cotton, paper, cottoline.
A couple of tentative small quilts up on my design board.
Machine-quilting my GD's quilt.
And, of course,  studying Japanese, reading and enjoying the beautiful weather in the garden.
I intend to keep more or less the same timetable in July.

Some news

This mosaic is a little summary of the last two weeks.
Weaving, quilting, crocheting, and enjoying the beautiful weather. The yarn I'm using for my crochet project is Tahiti by Schachenmayr. When I saw it in the shop, I just couldn't resist.

Yesterday, I finished the blue scrap quilt.

Although I intend to keep the vertical orientation, I think it also looks good like this...

I'm also done, at last, with my cottolin warp.
I tried several twill weaves and paid special attention to the selvedges. It's not too bad, I think.
Next time, I'd like to try floating selvedges to see how it works.

I washed the fabric. I still have to iron it and then to decide how to use it.

Probably some little pouches and also a couple of book covers, which means I will not see my carefully wowen selvedges anymore!
My loom is empty. For the next weaving project, I want to use the variegated paper yarn I bought in Kyoto a few years ago.
I've also got one or two quilt ideas percolating, but there's no hurry.

Done!

I disappeared in quilting land to finish my large quilt. It's done, and I'm trying to enter it in a juried show. I don't think I'm going to post it before I know if it's in or not, but here's another little peek at the quilting.

I've also been working on the collaborative piece with my little GD.

We started to machine-quilt it, but she quickly lost interest... She says it's taking too long and it's boring... She would much prefer to embroider it. I think I'm going to quilt it myself, and then let her try the machine embroidery stitches. She likes the flowers and the heart stitches of course.