January 2012 - a busy holiday time

 In December I signed up for an International Postcard Swap.   Of course I decided to combine fabric and drawing ... here are a few I have made a start on.   I have tea dyed some cotton fabric, then I ironed it onto freezer paper which stabilises the fabric enough to draw on with a Pigma pen.   Next I will do all the quilting stitches on the fabric and batting layer (remember to remove the freezer paper before putting the batting onto the back of the fabric).

 Over the holidays I did a bit of spinning ... here I am spinning a laceweight - fibre is Bond (sheep) which I purchased from The Thylacine here in Tasmania - she does some beautiful dying.

 This same fibre is now becoming a very long scarf/wrap ... still not sure how much longer I want it to be, currently about 2metres.  I just love how soft this is and how the colours blended in, all soft and greeny/greys.

 This is some of the fibre I have spun during January.
Top Left - from Fibrefanatic Designs  yellow/chartreause Merino
Top Right - from Ewe Give Me The Knits  this is Mandie's Licorice Allsorts fibre which I have plied with a black Merino to give it this more licorice look.
Middle Right is the Blackwood (Green) Bond from The Thylacine,
Very Bottom is my very own Merino/Silk/Cat Fur blend - some spun and some still in the Batt stage that I have carded together.  It is very nice too!

 That big lot of lemony/chartreause has become this gorgeous shawl, a nice weight for winter, and it is big so comes down past my elbows when I wear it.

 A close up.

 I made another little neck warmer scarf.   The first one I made of these went to one of my sisters ... I decided I still wanted one, so made another - it crochets up really fast - less than five hours I think.This one still needs to be blocked as the edges are curling up.

 Currently on the wheel,  this beautiful blue Falkland fibre ... I have spun this very fine - probably the finest I have spun a whole lot of top.   I get about 40 - 50 wraps per inch.   Can't you just see this in a very fine lacy wrap - the colour is beautiful.  This is also from The Thyalcine.

On my spinning wheel at the moment - the last 100g of this lovely fibre.

So you can see that I have been doing quite a bit of spinning and crocheting this month.   I am also trying to teach myself how to knit (continental style) - but am giving myself the whole year to do that because I want to knit socks - woolen socks are the best!

I have also been drawing more in my big Journal for 2012 and will post some of that next week perhaps.

Happy Tangling/Quilting for now ... Jane x

I know I have double posted this post on my other blog ... but wanted to share with you all over here too!   I have also done the binding on my brother's quilt and a couple of others that are destined for Quilters Companion in July this year. 

A little stitching

A beautifully green table runner for my mother ... I need to quilt and bind it before I can give it to her though.

The sun shining through this morning ... a beautiful day down here in Tasmania - we did have a very big frost this morning and now the sun is out - lovely.

This is a weeks worth of evening stitching ... making my paper pieced stars ... not too many to go now and I can start putting the quilt together.

I also did this little stitchery on the weekend ... I have had this lovely little pattern for quite some time ... sent to me from Iddy Biddy Designs in Qld as a little giftie ... it is very cute.

Two beautiful postcards came in the mail today from a swap I am in ... can you guess the theme - lol!

And a  couple of zentangles I have drawn last week - if you click on them you can see them better.  Don't forget ... if you want to learn how to draw these wonderful artworks I am teaching at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival 1-4October 2010 in Adelaide ... classes will book fast!

Another piece of eye candy ....  you can see more over at my zentangle blog ... janemonkstudio.blogspot.com


Now ... back out to the quilting room for me ... Happy quilting ...Jane

Postcards, Custom Quilting and Squishies

I have been making a few postcards ... and using  a bit of glittery stuff.

 "Solar Flare"

This was made from tiny left over bits from a quilt I made my son in 2003/2004 ... yes I am guilty of keeping small scraps - but they are neat in a scrap stash box.

I have also added some yarn and decorative stitches with zig zag on this one.

Another made from small scraps - co-ordinated though!

Keys anyone?

I like this piece of fabric ... I have a couple of similar bits - obviously from the same "range" and they make perfect postcards.








I also forgot to share my Birthday Squishies - these are from a group LPQ that some of us girls swap birthday squishies ... my choice was black and whites.

And these are my birthday squishies from the TasScquilters birthday swappers ... I asked for cream - and have a lovely selection of them now.  Thanks girls!

These are not birthday squishies but are Reproduction Fat Quarters that I purchased from The Quilt Patch ... They have a nice little range of repros now ... I think I have one of each now!  My repro stash is growing slowly but surely!

I did a little bit more on my Repro Wedding Ring Quilt over the weekend - I am loving the curvemaster foot on my machine - no pinning for those curves and they look good.

And now for some customer quilts that i have been doing ... This one has an all over pattern.

Don't you love how the backs look ... and that is backing fabric from Widebacks - beautiful beautiful. And I'm not affiliated - just a very happy customer (I also have the Widebacks sample book so my customers can see what they are getting before they order - a great way to ensure the fabric is right for the job).

More Wideback backs ... mmmm nice

This one is a custom quilt - feathers and swirls

This is the center of the back - I love the way the quilt block pattern on the front makes a lovely trellis look on the back when I have quilted it.

Yep - more Widebacks backing fabric.  The best thing about this is you can use the left overs in another project as the quality is the same as your normal quilt shop quality fabric. 









And that is a rather long photo essay of what I have been up to in the past week or so.    I spent some time on the weekend doing nothing other than spending time with my husband.  We went to the Evandale Markets just out of Launceston for a bit of a poke around - it was incredibly cold though.   We also went to the Cat show that was being held at Evandale on Sunday - it was really nice to see all the kitties - some of those British Blues are related to our two boys.  And the Cornish Rex ... oh my they are just gorgeously ugly cats - one day I might have one of them - they are so dainty.   We also went for a drive up to the Trevallyn Dam to have a bit of a look to see how much water was going over - only a little at the moment.   It was a lovely day to go for a drive.   Came home to a warm toasty fire.

Happy Quilting for now .... Jane x