Three Kitchen Fairies

Hand quilting plans/ Planeando quilteado a mano

One of the projects I'll be stitching while my sewing machine travels from one side of the planet to the other is my SGQ. I saw it long ago as part of the SGQ support Flickr group led by Katy, Nova and Megan. I learned a lot about sewing curves with them!!

I think this is most be the most difficult quilt I've ever sewn so far.

I've been saving these floss for a while. It came as part of a swap, and I'm temped to use them to hand quilt the whole thing. I placed them on different quadrants of the quilt, and they seem to match most of the color of the rings. Should I go all colorful?? or should I stick with one color and get enough for the whole project?? Any thoughts??

Now in Spanish!

Uno de los proyectos que coseré mientras mi máquina de coser viaja de un lado del planeta al otro es mi Single girl quilt (quilt para solteras??). Lo cosí hace mucho con las chicas del 'Single girl support group', en Flickr lideareado por Katy, Nova y Megan. Con ellas aprendí muchísimo acerca de coser curvas y creo que hasta ahora este ha sido el quilt mas difícil que he hecho. Por mucho tiempo he estado guardando este hilo de bordar que me mandaron en un intercambio (o swap) y ahora estoy tentada a usarlo para quiltear a mano todo el quilt. Lo he colocado en diferentes cuadrantes del quilt y parece que combina bien con los colores de los aros. Qué creen?? se vería lindo si lo quilteo todo de colores?? o debería decidirme por un solo color?? Qué opinan??

 

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Recycled crayons/ Crayolas recicladas.

Last Sunday I made it a mission to stop all the packing and to-do's lists to spend some quality time with my girls. They have being asking for a craft to make, and cake to bake, a game to play, and what not. Luckily, while clearing our basement I found two big boxes of crayons that the girls weren't using anymore. I remembered something about chunky crayons I once read in a craft magazine, but we never actually got to make them then.

This time we gave it a try. I'd say that we peeled crayons for an hour and a half more or less. I also took the opportunity to take a few pictures. We had such a good time talking about colors, color harmony, opposites, and the 'they look pretty together" category. Since these young ladies are not nearly preschoolers anymore, they themselves decided we're sharing our forty something chunky crayons with our super cute next door neighbors who are only three and one year old, and with the rest of the little ones that come to our back door to play in the afternoons. If you feel like recycling your good old crayons here is the link I followed.

Now in Spanish!

El domingo pasado me hice a la misión de dejar de trabajar en la mudanza y pasar un rato lindo con mis niñas que me habian estado pidiendo hacer algo lindo como hacer alguna manualidad u hornear un pastel, jugar algún juego de mesa y mil cosas mas. Mientras limpiaba el sótano el otro día, tuve la suerte de encontrarme dos caja grandes de crayolas que las niñas ya no usan para colorear. Me acordé de unas crayolas redondas y grandes que alguna vez vi en una revista de manualidades y que nunca hicimos, así que lo intentamos. Diría que pelamos crayolas como por una hora y media más o menos. Aproveché para tomar unas cuantas fotos.

La pasamos súper hablando de los colores, sus armonías, sus opuestos y también de la categoría "se ven lindos juntos". Como estas señoritas ya  pasaron del preescolar han decido que compartirán sus cuarenta y tantas crayolas con las vecinitas de junto que solo tienes tres y un añito y con el resto de los chiquitos que vienen a jugar al patio trasero por las tardes. Dejo acá el link que use por si es que les dan ganas de reciclar sus crayolas viejitas.

 

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Tula Pink on my phone!!

I confess that when it comes to fabrics I'm weak, but when it comes to Tula Pink's designs I'm even weaker. I found that her fabric designs were available at Gelaskin, and I couldn't resist. I got a Tail Feathers  gelaskin for my smart phone.  It's all dressed up now! And no, I'm not being sponsored, it's just silly me.

Confieso que tengo debilidad por cualquier tipo de tela para quilts, pero cuando se trata de los diseños de Tula Pink me cuesta contenerme. Hace poco encontré que sus diseños están disponibles a través de Gelaskin en protectores para teléfonos celulares. Y bueno, me compré uno de estos protectores con uno diseño llamado Tail Feathers. Así que ahora mi teléfono se ve padrísimo!! Y no, no estoy siendo patrocinada por ninguno de los dos, solo es payasada mía. 

 

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Dear readers:

I'm seriously thinking that I should start posting in both: English and Spanish... Let's see if I feel the same way tomorrow.
Happy week to all my readers!!

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Quilts = home

If I look back into my childhood, I remember objects and toys that I wish I had with me because of it sentimental value. I remember some dolls; and my bright pink bedroom with all those dolls on a green shelf. Sadly, I didn't get to keep any of those things, different families have different circumstances. My family was the kind that moved from country to country in the years of great social instability in South America.

That's one of the reasons why I fell in love with quilts. To me a quilt is a portable sample piece of home. They're part of our daily life. My children drag them around the house to make tents and forts with them. We take them outside on summer days, and we cuddle up with them on winter nights. They're truly loved around here. 

Now that our family is in the move again [thanks God this time it's under different circumstances], my quilts make me feel assured that wherever we go it will be home as long as we can spread them on our beds; they're becoming a special devise. Maybe it's the time spent making a quilt, or the stitches made with so much love. A quilt is as homey as a homemade meal, is like a hug from a special friend, very comforting. I hope that when when the girls are all grown up and on their own, they will look at those tattered quilts as a piece of their childhood home to be comforted by them and the good memories of our time together, wishful thinking... In the meantime, I'll sew more quilts for them.

 

I finished this quilt yesterday. It measures 60" x 80" aprox. This time I labeled it to give it a space not only at home but also in time. Hopefully, I'll get better at making labels. Just today I learned via Twitter that labels are supposed to be attached before quilting!! so next time for sure. And the label reads: "The blocks for this quilt were made by 13 quilters in the USA between the years of 2010 and 2011. We're about to move from Ann Arbor, MI to Cordoba, Argentina. For my daughters Clara, Ofelia, and Isabel all my love. Mom."

 

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Here I go again, Covered in stitches.

This morning my husband noticed that my blog side bar was way down below the posts. As usual, I freaked out and I tried to fix it all by myself. I'm always like that, I want to be in charge and responsible of as much as I impossibly can. I tweeted about it with the required @typepad #typepad. Finally, Mr. 3KF figured it out. It was something wrong in the HTML part, a code that I didn't paste properly that displaced my side bar. So I had to delete the post, sincerely, looking through all the code was too much to ask from my always supportive husband. I contacted Typepad dubious that they would actually help me; they proved me wrong. They responded in a timely manner and they gave me the same report that the hub did: of the bad HTML thing I did. I have to say that I'm very pleased with Typepad costumer service.

I said I was going to re-post the Covered in stitches post but to tell you the truth I'm only going to give you the important part because I'm fed up with blog-HMTL-thing for today. The post was something like this:

"... today I want to talk to you about this contest that has bin tickling my creative self. Nicole from Follow the White Bunny is organizing a new contest on Feeling Stitchy.  It's called "Covered in stitches" and basically you have to use or created a book cover and embroidery it any way you feel like. You can see the rules here.

 

                          

                                  Source: blog.followthewhitebunny.com via Paloma on Pinterest

 

Since I'm packing and getting ready for my next adventure I won't be participating. But I still wanted to share with you some ideas of what I'd pick if I could participate. Check out all the book covers I pinned for you, I think they are all worth giving a try. I hope your feel inspired and give this contest a try. I'm dying to but I have to pack :)"

That was my post, and that's what happened today blog-wise.

 

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Sorry... I had to delete my last post due to technical problems. Hopefully I'll be able to re-post it after dinner. Thanks for understanding.

... more confetti

Let me tell you that your comments on my last post made me feel positively good. It makes me feel so happy to know that I can count on you for words of encouragement and support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! I really love our craft/quilting community, it never ceases to amaze me.

On a more quilt related note, let me tell you that I finally finished quilting my confetti quilt. The truth is that the test I did before starting the quilting looks better as a test than as the whole quilt. It was a bit difficult to control the squares size at the beginning. I think it will be a good idea to have one of those special sewing machine tables, that way free motion quilting would be easier to control, live and learn.

Then, out of the blue, my thread started to snap every so often, and finally it started to make loops in the back of the quilt. I played with the tension... I called my LQS, that's were I service my sewing machine. One of the ladies was kind enough to helped me over the phone, and I was able to adjust it enough to finish the quilt. Sincerely, I deserve a trophy for the patience to thread the machine over and over again until I was finally done. The back of the quilt is made of some fabric scraps and three different fabrics that my girls bought for my b-day last summer. They were really excited to see I was using the fabrics they got me for a quilt that obviously is going to be theirs to share.

My sewing machine is now being serviced and fixed. Tomorrow morning I'll dust off my first [old] sewing machine, and I'll start to make a scrappy bias tape, and hopefully this quilt will be finished by the end of the week. Yay!!

 

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The news

As November comes closer, my kitchen fairies, my husband, and I are getting ready for our next adventure. We're being relocated to Córdoba, Argentina!! It sounds exciting, but I'd be lying  to you if I don't admit that I'm crazy nervous about this move. This decision has lots of positive things such as the girls being immersed in Latin American culture. My husband will be able to grow in his career. As for me: I'll get to make lots of new friends and I'll rejoice in the fact that I'll be back to live in a Spanish speaking country; as well as to live close by family and friends. I'll get back to my culture, as I'll be also happy to make new friends. I took a minute to browse the internet and I found that there are quilters in Córdoba too. I contacted Liliana from Córdoba quilting. She wrote back so quick, that she made me feel already welcome.

There is so much to plan, and to get done before the moving company comes to get our stuff. The paper work got done tonight. We're cleaning our basement and listing a few items for sale. I also have to make sure I have enough sewing supplies to survive at least for one year. After that I have the certainty that my husband, my mom, and my BIL will be flying back and forth between the US and Argentina a few times a year so that I can get some fabric from the US. I can also have to rely on the postal service to get new fabrics and books. 

My sewing studio will be move to our new location, I won't be able to sew for a couple of months. In order to not go crazy (and therefore drive my man crazy) I'm packing my SG quilt to be handquilted in the meantime. I'am also packing my shells, and lots of embroidery patterns to stitch while I get settled in Córdoba.

As for this my craft blog. I'm planning to keep posting from my laptop. Somehow, after three years this blog has become one of my favorite places I simply can give it up, and give up being in touch with all of you. All I'm going to ask from you is that you send us some good vibes, wish us good luck, and keep visiting my blog as you usually do. 

Hugs!

 

 

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Shades of Grey @ Fat Quarterly

Fat quarterly and Daisy Janie teamed up to challenge 10 of their readers in a Shades of Grey fabric challenge. Each of us received a sampler of the new Shades of Grey fabric line by Jan DiCintio to make a craft/quilt design inspired by her new beautiful fabric line. 

I came up with a quilt pattern that later turned into a pillow. I had fun working with the design: I sketched it, them I made my templates and cut my fabrics. I played, and played with them until I found a nice balance between the grey fabrics designs and the solid fabrics that were included in the package… and saw it together. The pattern is coming soon here at 3KF.

My project is posted today at Fat Quarterly, and a bunch more lovely projects will be unveiled in the following posts. I highly recommend to keep visiting Fat Quarterly for inspiration, and maybe more challenges for its readers.

 

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