Hello from Belgium

Françoise here.
Yes, I'm still blogging... from time to time...
When the last Twelve by Twelve series ended, I must admit that it felt pretty strange. A bit unreal, a little too quiet... There was even a feeling of emptiness sometimes, although we were still in contact by email.
Anyway, at first, I decided to try and use up all the little scraps of fabrics I had dyed for our challenges.
I made lots of small art quilts. I showed some of them on my blog. Others were never finished, and of course I could never use up all those scraps.
I also decided I wanted to spend more time drawing and painting.

About 4 years ago, I had bought a new weaving loom. With the end of the Twelve by Twelve challenges, I also had more time to experiment with this beautiful toy.
Awfully time consuming, and completely different from quilting, but absolutely enjoyable!

I am still making art quilts of course, dyeing and printing my fabrics, and sewing mainly by machine as before.
Some time ago, I started a new group with a few quilting friends from Belgium. We meet every other month, and at the moment we are working with themes, making two quilts for each theme.
Here are two quilts I made for this group...

I spend lots of time playing with my grandchildren. My older granddaughter is already a very talented artist. Here she was painting with different ocres I bought in the South of France.

And I still love to take pictures, mainly of nature,
at home...

and when I travel...

And, as I'm very stubborn, I carry on studying Japanese, making rather slow progress but still enjoying it very much.

This is all for today!

I still have to meet a few of my Twelve by Twelve fellows in person.
How about organizing a meeting for our 10th anniversary?

La vie de château

Our Colorplay quilts are all set for their final exhibition together!

At the National Show of the Belgian Patchwork Association, 2-5 October, in Enghien.

Report from the European Patchwork Meeting

There was a lot of buzz around the Colourplay exhibition at Carrefour Européen du Patchwork 2014.   Here are extracts from the official program and the Catalogue Prestige 2014: 

And our exhibition formed the backdrop for a news item on Alsace Matin television:

We were fortunate that Colourplay was displayed at Espace des Tisserands, the premier exhibition space in the village of Sainte Marie aux Mines with gallery-style white walls, high ceilings and excellent lighting:  

This is the view from outside.  Doesn't even quilt show have a saucisson stand near by?!
 
And here are some overall shots of the valley:

Inside our exhibit formed a colourful display:

On Thursday and Friday, school groups visited Espace des Tisserands and completed detailed assignments on their favourite quilts.  Several student chose pieces from the Colourplay exhibit:

THANK YOU to the many people who let us know how much they enjoyed our book and how our collaborative project had inspired them to start their own group challenge.  This is a selfie of Brenda with Anita Fors (left) and Gunnel Wright from Göteborg, Sweden who are part of  the Fria Tyglar/ Free Reins challenge group:

If you missed the European Patchwork Meeting and live near Belgium, you can catch the final Colourplay exhibition at Association Belge du Patchwork, Enghien, Belgium: 2-5 October 2014.

Bonjour!

La Cerise Sur Le Gâteau

It is wonderful to be here in France for the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay exhibition and Australia Quilts. However, "la cerise sur le gâteau" is to finally meet Françoise after 8 years of internet exchanges and seven years of collaboration with Twelve by Twelve projects.  Here we are together at a SAQA function.

For me, I have now met all the other Twelves.  And Françoise has met six.  Each time is a complete confirmation of the special bond of being a "Twelve" and I am turely grateful

Colourplay Installation at European Patchwork Meeting

Today was installation day at the European Patchwork Meeting.  Here is our blank canvas:

Here is hanging in progress:

The installation technicians were superb.  Very thoughtful and seeking to show our work to its best advantage;

The black background panels were designed to be placed on black drapes and carpet walls but they also work satisfactorily on the white walls.  These photos are from before final adjustments:

And in this photo, you get a glimpse of Helen's work in the adjoining SAQA exhibition - Wide Horizons:

I (Brenda) will be at the exhibition all of Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and Françoise will be around on Friday and other times.  Please stop by and say Bonjour!

Colourplay Exhibition: Alsace, France 18-21 September 2014

Come along to the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay exhibition at Carrefour Européen du Patchwork, Espace des Tisserands, Sainte Marie aux Mines, Alsace, France:18-21 September 2014.  Brenda will be there Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  Françoise will be there Friday and other times.  We look forward to seeing you!

Colourplay at the European Patchwork Meeting 2014

In just two months, the Twelve by Twelve Colourplay exhibition opens at Carrefour Européen du Patchwork, Alsace, France:18-21 September 2014 (sponsored by Aurifil).  This is your opportunity to view all 144 works in this series and to meet Françoise Jamart and Brenda Gael Smith.

Brenda is also teaching two workshops: Stacks of Improvisation is full but there are still some spaces in  .  :Serendipity Circles on Saturday, 20 September.   Come along and we can improvise together!

Colourplay at Carrefour Européen du Patchwork

Twelve by Twelve is happy to join Carrefour Européen du Patchwork in celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2014. Brenda and Françoise will meet up in Alsace, France and all 144 Colourplay works will be on display in from 18-21 September. In addition, Brenda is curating a special exhibit of Australian quilts and will be teaching two one-day classes - Serendipity Circles and Stacks of Improvisation. We look forward to meeting some of our European readers.

2012 Series by Françoise

Françoise's 2012 series reflects her love of all things Japanese and she is continuing her Japanese studies in 2013: She also bought herself a loom as an early Christmas present.  See the beautiful results on Françoise's blog.

Wagashi

Wagashi are Japanese sweets and I just love them. They are sweet, of course, and so beautiful. If you've never seen any, you have to do an image search in google, and you will see how pretty they are, almost too pretty to eat!
Actually "wa" means "Japanese-style" and "kashi" means "confectionery". Together they become "wagashi".
One of the big challenges in learning Japanese is to master the writing system. I now know my hiragana and katakana pretty well. But of course I am only starting to study kanji.
Anyway, for this quilt, I decided to print some fabric with the word wagashi written in hiragana:
わがし
I tried lots of things, made many test prints, and finally settled on using only the hiragana わ (wa). By the way, "wa" means "Japanese-style", but it also means "peace" and "harmony".

The flavours and shapes of wagashi are often inspired by seasons and flowers. This is why I added this sakura on my quilt.

Merci to my sweet Twelve fellows for this fun series of 20x12 quilts!

Sweet fabrics

I've been printing some wagashi fabrics for my Sweet quilt.

Only 10 days left before the reveal...