Jens Arty Life

I am so excited! My samples finally arrived. These are from spoon flower where I have been able to put my artwork onto fabric. The small berry like pattern in a vine is actually the art work of my friend in Canada Linda Kinsella. She was the one who gave me the inspiration to start this project, and she will be working with me too. So the idea is to put our art on fabric (printed here on 8x8 samples, but will eventually been on fabric in yardage). And we will each sew some blocks, then swap half of them and make a quilt each. I am also designing the quilt (haven't gotten that far quite yet. I ordered the samples to make sure the quality was OK - to test it by sewing, washing and quilting them to make sure they were just like the fabric in the shops. So far so good, I threw a few commercially available fabrics in the mix to go with our very busy fabrics.... ...and then quickly sewed up a checkerboard piece... I'm sure happy with this and I can't ...

This double page is in my art journal, but is kind of a mix of art journaling and scrapbooking, as i wanted something a bit quick because for me the most important bit of this page is the writing (which I hadn't done when this photo was taken). On this page i wrote all the things I am proud to have achieved up to this date. There were big things on it like having a book published in Germany and some small things like 'I'm proud I am much better at finishing things now that I am older'. I used to be terrible at starting stories or art projects, or quilts, or embroideries and never finishing anything. Don't get me wrong. i still have UFOs but there are less of them and they have a MUCH higher chance of being discovered or my passion rekindled and the thing getting finished. ANYWAY...to make this page I used some scrapbooking paper, tore it in half, stencilled in a few layers in a colour to match the purple bird and flower on the paper, stamped a few messy circles...

I have just finished quilting this great double sided quilt for my customer Rhonda. Not only did it turn out great, this one has a bit of a story to it. In this photo you get a pretty good look at the butterfly motif that is all over the quilt.  Rhonda is a prolific sewer. She keeps me busy all on her own and all her quilts are double sided (because she makes that many tops). She was a high school teacher and is now retired and confesses she had a bit of a stash habit, buying lots of fabrics from sites when they are on sale. But I think the most amazing thing about this quilt is that it's not new. Rhonda has so many quilts which she gives to family and friends. This one was one of a bundle that was returned to her by one of her friends who has gone up North and doesn't really need quilts any more and it was a bit tired, but really only lightly used. So Rhonda pulled the whole thing apart and gave the tops to me to 'do my magic' as she calls it. It has h...

Well I've been AWOL again, but for a good reason. I've been at TAFE (Technical and Further Education - the Australian version of community college) learning to be a Medical administrator. I wish I didn't have to go work outside the home again, but the house is falling into disrepair without my extra wage to count on. But I am still stitching, even if I haven't been posting. I just finished work on my first semi colon butterfly for a quilt I'm making with my Canadian friend Linda. We are both doing some and then swapping half the blocks. I designed the semi colon butterfly after seeing many tattoos on the subject. And my daughter is getting one tattooed for her 18th birthday. The semi colon project is an incentive to educate the public and support those with mental health issues to help prevent suicide. When writing a story, the author uses the semi colon as a pause, but doesn't finish a sentence, continuing on instead. So the semi colon has become a sy...