Coffee, please

It takes longer to get some coffee ready

than a mug rug finished.

Do you really think a mug rug must be rectangular?

Let´s say its a coaster then.

Cheering up

I´m not ready to work with beige & browns long enough to complete a bed quilt.

Need some color to cheer me up. 

A rainbow is needed to cheer me up right now.

I´ll be going back to browns and beige pretty soon, I hope, and get the bed quilt ready before Christmas.
.

An ambicious project...

... considering I´m a totally non skilled begginer.

It may look extra simple, obvious and uninteresting to most of you. However, there seems to be nothing either simple, obvious or easy about it to me! And I´m quite interested to find out how far I can go.


I´ve started getting pieces cut and sewn together yesterday evening. The challenge consists in having the quilt ready before the year ends mostly. 

How long do I have? 

A Christmas Miracle

The season made me get back to work and motivated me to improove the quality of my work. I´ve decided to master free motion quilting once and for all. It had always both fascinated and scared me.

I used to cheat but I knew I would, someday, do better than this.

.

I´ve watched videos posted by wondelful quilters. Once again I thank the generous people who share their expertise with curious beginners like myself. What a help! 

I´ve got two needles broken, tangled threads, many sections to undo but didn´t give it up. I was determined to master it. Now I can say I´m on the way to accomplishing this goal in the near future. 

Well, it may take me longer.

The important thing is: I´m having fun doing it.

This was my first trial. Doesn´t look good but it´s taught me quite a bit. 

 I´ve realized the coloured stripes should have been centered to start with,

although this has nothing to do with free motion quilting.

This second one has offered me quite a bit of free motion quilting practice.

Not perfect yet but it will look real good on my kitchen table. 

And last but not least a Christmasy piece. 

I tell you: I´ll get there!

Can´t do without it anymore!

Let´s do something!

let’s do something positive to reduce the hideous number of plastic bags being used - 1 million are consumed per minute globally - of which hundreds of thousands end up in the oceans.

the idea is to get together with people in your local community, drink wine and make reusable cloth bags (from old duvet covers, curtains from charity shops etc) and hand them out to the unsuspecting public for free on specified dates outside different supermarkets.

meet new people, do something marvellous for the planet and beat other pods (groups) of baggers with your morsbag tally.

go to www.morsbags.com to be a part of a wonderful thing!

p.s. non-commercial/ non-profitable - just full of beneficial things for everyone, especially whales!

Giveaway at Hartfelt Fabric Art!

Judy Hartman is gently having a giveaway of one of her works. All of Judy´s works are pretty, delicate and speak for themselves about their creator.

Take a look and ... go for it, like I did!

Treasures

Yesssssssssssssssss........... 

Straight from India they´ve come!  

I´ve got a Pukka Components´ Silk and Sparkle pack. The finest silk, organza in many beautiful hues and ...sparkles!  A Button Baubles pack is shown here too. Colors and textures just unbelievable.

I´ve got a pair of nervous hands to get started working with them. A thousand ideas came to my mind when I first saw them. Had to calm down a little before I´d start working!

I´m not sure I´ll use this piece in the project I have in mind. It´s so pretty I´ll show it anyway, though.

As I´ve said, I´ve got treasures.You can have them too. 

There are many items available at Pukka. 

It´s really worth a virtual visit  and a real purchase.  

What a shame! Such beautiful things and a lousy photographer !

Does anybody see a camera strip?

Long time no see!

I´ve been busy selling the apartment where I live while looking for another place to make it home and moving into.

I´ve kept track of your posts but I have not been able to do more than reading them. I´m also sorry for the delay in answering e-mails. I´ll be back soon, I hope. As soon as I can sit and write about the new home and all the sewing I´ll be doing in order to dress it up!

See you all soon!  

A tiny little gift...

... for great friends who are building a yellow cottage.

It didn´t take me long to put pieces together but I know they´ll make it last...

Frozen dog disdains funny cat

Thought Lua might like a new wrap...

... but she was way too cold to give up her favorite one!

It´s been so cold...

... it´s going to snow, people keep saying, with excitement in their voice. It´s going to snow, like it did before, in 1975.

Certainly hope not! We´re not prepared to it and, under the circumnstances,  I´m sure it wouldn´t be fun at all.

I´m lucky I can stay home. I don´t even look outside!

I work at home mainly, so, I´ve just gotten a bit of extra time and work done. Used a few scraps in small, quick and easy sewing projects.

Thought of a colorful towel to warm up the dining room.

It came out like this.

And something very simple to fit an antique silver tray.

I like the contrast!

Simple pleasures
(like a new look to an old tray),
 great joy!

Take a look!

 The sheep are made of old telephones and wires! 

Pay attention to the paws!

The artist´s name is Jean Luc Cronec. 

His work is being shown at the Frankfurt Museum of Communications. 

Quite an insight, isn´t it?

Quickies

A baby Owla for a baby girl ...

and a new rug for Lua.

Hope it smells good!

The feminine essence

I´ll be soon addressing or should I rather say sharing a series of talks about identifying, recognizing, enhancing, strengthening and living fully our feminine inner strengh and natural gifts.

At this time, immerse in this theme, I think it appropriate to illustrate this post with a picture of my beloved 20 yr old daughter and our Lua, an 11 yr lady daschund, which complete the regnant circle here at home.

Here they are!

Enjoying each other, as usual!

Creating, recicling, matching colours, imagining new shapes and looks, enjoying making and remaking ... all these are strong characteristics of the feminine nature. Most of us just can´t do without it and those who are, for one reason or another, unable to practice it daily must find their own way to put forward their criative urge in order to survive.

One of the most precious feminine characteristic is our sincere disposition for stimulating, encouraging, sharing and making other people grow/make it better/go on trying harder / evolve / echieve a higher level of expertise / help each other express our talent and get our ideals accomplished .This is something very clear and beautiful in the quilter´s blogsphere.

We´re so lucky we can learn from each other!

The Empathic Civilisation

more about "RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilisation", posted with vodpod

New look to an ancient chair

This chair dates from the early XX Century. British colonial style, I used to be told when I was a child.  It surprised me to see many of them, exactly alike, at the Governor´s Palace in Jamestown, Virginia, USA. I could then understand what "British colonial style" ment.


Of course at the time my grandmother was decorating her summer apartment in Rio de Janeiro, on the second building to be built facing Copacabana Beach, there were not furniture stores. Families ordered from catalogs and had them handmade. It probably took artisans a long time to get them done, but time ran slower by then, I guess. 


Most people would go for Portuguese or French style but not my grandmother. She was  way too independent to follow the main track. I myself have never, ever, seen anything similar in Brazil.  Maybe it´s been popular in Commonwealth countries. I don´t know.


Today I decided to give it a new look, different from the traditional upholstery renewed from time to time.  New make up, starting with blush, shadows...

And it came out like this.

I´m not sure I like it, though. 

It seems sort of a heretic thing to do, doesn´t it?

I decided to think it over.

I´ll appreciate your opinion and comments. 

Spring all year round

By this time it´s getting chilly in South Brazil, where I live. Orchids and pansies love the cold weather and, along with many other kinds, provide colour to the streets gardens.

I´ve be working on Nancy Halvorsen´s Garden Party panel and thinking how fortunate we are, in this corner of the world, to have flowers all year round. And also how exciting Spring is to those who live in snowy countries.

To all of you in the Nothern Hemisphere I wish a Merry Spring and a Happy New Year! Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac, the one that gets the astrological year started. A time for renewal, getting new projects going or promoting a revival of the dormant ones. A time for hope and confidence.

So... lets enjoy the energy of Aries and get it all going. Fast, as Aries demands.

Look at this!

Paper cutting!

A single red sheet of the finest paper, manually cut. 

(Made by hand....)

This was my own choice for the entrance of my bedroom

which I thought was lacking some colour. 

I´ll soon be showing more of this artist´s (pacient) work

and how he does it.

(Totally amazing!)

Let the mice in!...

The mini quilt is ready but, the "real" one is waiting for me to sew borders to it... That´s the worst part for me. The hardest one. Feel like quiting...

I´ve let the mice in... 

Hope they get the job done.

Cinderella complex, maybe...

A morning finish

And there it is, an "araucária" apliquée panel, a kind of pine tree typical of Southern Brazil. 

This wall hanging will be sent to a friend´s daughter who was born and raised in Curitiba
and has become a Swidish citizen.

I like the way it came out.
I´ll probably carry this idea on to other works.

My UFOs and a favourite

Some of these prints were brought from the US in 1994, when I took my daughter there to meet my "American Family".

Some of you may know I´ve been an AFS exchange student back in the 60´s, hosted by a lovely family,living  in Ohio. That´s when I saw snow and quilts for the first time. My American Mom has quite a few beautiful handmade pieces and I don´t have to close my eyes to practically see them on the rack she used to keep them. I wish to learn how to quilt real good so I can send her a Made in Brazil quilt. I think that will be nice and´ll be happy to do it. 

My daughter was 4 years old when we went to Ohio first and then Disneyworld. This should explain my having bought some of the prints. I didn´t work on them until now, though. We say "objects chase their owners", here in Brazil. I´ll be happy when these objetcs find theirs. It´s been a long long way since they exist and I have been keeping them. It´s about time for them to go.

But, the photo above doesn´t show all my UFOs.

Not at all. 

I have worked on an imported print, which maybe will look "out of date" to some of you, but looks quite new and special to me. I have been stitching it patiently and the more I stitch the more I like it. 

The stitching makes it look even more puffy and beautiful. 

I like it so much I´m not sure I´ll be able to sell it after it´s finished. 

Is there a fair price for something one likes a lot and has put the best of one´s energy into,

night after night?

What do you think? 

We are the World

Tempo is a Portuguese word for both Time and Climate. Time and climate both go on changing all the time,  both charge us with scars.  Even more so in 2010 which has just started and seems to tell us, reminds us, everyday ""there are no certainties". Way too warm below the Equator, more than average cold and snow above. Tornados, floods, drouts...

And the tectonic movements joined Cronus´ chorus line: no certainties for Haiti, Chile, Açores,  Turkey, Argentina, Brazil... Uncertainties everywhere on Earth.

This We are the World chorus video reminds us, in a very particular way, how transitory everything and everyone really is, and also that only love, compassion and caring for each other may ever comfort us along our uncertain path.

Trying harder

...on larger projects now.

... sure they´re not perfect (both quilts and pictures)  

but are coming out a litlle better than the first ones...

well...going back and forth...

... always attempting to do my best for the moment being...

It´s been a hard junior quilter´s life

but I suppose I´ve been doing some progress.

Enough for today

 I put these pieces together when I first started to quilt, a few months ago. I soon got interested in complex techniques, which of course I´ve not yet mastered, and this quilt was kept unfinished, on a shelf, for quite a while. Until today. It´s now complete and that´s it.

I had assigned myself another task for the day but I felt I had had enough of sewing. This way, I stuck to an old shabby mirror the pieces I had for an appliqué.

I decided it deserves to be displayed. At least for a while. 

I was happy to be able to hang it on a wall in my studio. I love recycled stuff.
It goes with the pale green couch beneath and, of course, the lap quilt will go back to the shelf where it belongs. 

"In order to keep progressing we must learn, commit and do - learn, commit and do and learn, commit and do." 

Stephen R. Covey is said to have said so. 

Quilters know it by learning,

 commiting themselves,

 and doing 

on and on and on... 

During Carnaval and the Olympic games...

...I haven´t done much. Just a little progress in stiching while watching Carnaval but not the Olympic skating contests. It´s so amazing what those people do on skates I can´t take my eyes out of the tv set. It seems to me they´ve gone far beyond the frontier of the Impossible Dream. 

I´d been ordered 6 placemats using a black and white cow pattern + a bit of red.  I´ve got them done and delivered.  Pleased to know they were appeciated and are being used.

I must get some other works finished. Challenging ones, I should say, although I´ve suggested them myself in a moment of insane presumption.

This afternoon I´ll be taking care of some little things I need for the house. New pillow covers to start with.  I´ll get them done quickly, I hope, IF I can get my eyes away from the tv set. Skating contest isn´t over yet, you know!

What is your idea about Brazilian Carnaval?

Yes, it writes Carnaval, and its unique.Can´t be translated. Can 

hardly be explained. 

Must be enjoyed.

If you think the main points of the biggest popular party in the world are naked women and easy sex of any kind, you´re wrong. 

This distorted idea has been disseminated by the midia and tourism agencies. Of course they are true - anywhere, any time, all over the world - and Carnaval in Rio is not an exception.

Maybe that´s why tourists from abroad become so surprised and fascinated with the party itself. 

Martinho da Vila, a reknown Brazilian samba composer, a proeminent member of Vila Isabel Samba School, calls attention to the many artists involved in the show in the lyrics of one of his songs, literally translated bellow by my friend 

Google Translate. 

"... Glory to those who work year round in joint effort.
 They are sculptors, painters,
 embroiderers, carpenters, glaziers, seamstresses,
 costume designers, designers and craftsmen
 People committed to building illusion
And we all have dreams..."

Each Samba School has an hour and a few minutes to show their year round work in a parade that takes place at Sambódromo, a boulevard specially built for this purpose. 

Martinho´s lyrics goes on :
"...One may be king, a pirate or a gardener
 For everything is over on Wednesday...
 At the crack of dawn the hills are colored
 Costumes worn on the avenue
 Become curtains, flags...
 reasons for living..."

 Each Samba School chooses a theme for the parade. My favourite theme last night was carried on by Imperatriz Leopoldinense Samba School (7th video in the link bellow), celebrating Faith itself and the freedom of creed in our country.
 In this country christians, jewish, budists, muslims, and other people freely practice their religion and live in harmony.
Here the best moments of yesterday night show.
 Must go!
 Tonight´s show is about to get started!