Three Kitchen Fairies

Quilting bee's and Swaps update.

After a nine day long vacation in Washington DC we all came home refreshed, renewed, and full of energy to tackle the day to day work, and activities. The down side to such a wonderful vacation is that we came home to an empty fridge, closets full of winter clothes to wear on our warm and wonderful Spring time, and to stand face to face with the mother of all laundry loads. Nine days of vacation turned into a nine day Spring cleaning marathon. I'm done thank you to the help of my fairies and my lovely, and understanding husband who helped me with last bits during the weekend.

So I'm back to normal and happy to be able to post again. During my nine-day cleaning marathon, I gave myself little breaks here and there and I was able to finish a couple of blocks for ATWQ and one more embroidery piece for Hoop up, stitch and send swap.

I wanted to try this tutorial for a long time and here it's my block for Brioni.

 
I'm also the bearer of good news this week. I made the last block fro Cindra's ATWQ quilt. Her blocks are done!! I was excited for her, but also for me because that meant that my quilt was next in line, but guess what? It got mixed up and it's more than three quilts away :( I'll be patient....

For her I made a paper piecing pattern that I'll be sharing with you soon. I want to make a tutorial to go with it, and I can't wait. I'll start working on it soon.

And my last crafty endeavor of last week was this:

This is my Hoop Up piece for Kimmie, she asked for sewing imagery: threat, buttons, scissors, that kind of stuff. I couldn't find something I wanted to stitch so I made this pattern. By the way, this pattern will be available for you soon!

One last thing to show you...

I got these six half yards of Nicey Jane from Freshsqueezedfabrics. You would agree with me that getting these fabrics was a must, don't you??  

 It's good to be back!  

From my treasure box.

 
The excitement of a finished project left me with enough energy for another one. This time a cute and useful little pillow. I will call it a "traveling pillow" since that will be the purpose of it. We'll be soon hitting to road to Washington DC. And a certain 9 year old girl around here is now free to ride without a booster seat. Still, there is a disadvantage to it as she will no longer have the head rest (or head piece) to support the head while she takes a nap.  We'll spend at least 9 hrs. in the car, so this little pillow was on call. For this project I went to my special treasure box, the one that holds the prettiest little things sent on the mail by bloggy and flickr friends, and my collection of embroidery pieces made by some awesome flickr friends, and by me too...and there I found this (already) embroidered piece: pattern by Nicole. The nesting dolls fabric was sent by Katy as part of her PIF, some lovely ric-rac from Lil Handmades.

The fabric in the back was part of a mini quilt swap with Tacha from Hanies. I mixed all these ingredients with some of my own stash, and there it was: the so called instant gratification. The recipient of this pillow jumped of joy to see that her mommy used "the special fabrics" for her pillow. I wouldn't make it any other way... so thank you to all of you who sent me all these pretty fabrics, and trims, we love every little piece.  And thank you to Nicole for sharing this lovely pattern. 

Inspired by Rothko

I took a couple of weeks off from the embroidery/ blocks swapping action. It helped me to clear my mind. I now feel refreshed, and willing to find inspiration in my partners' requests.

These blocks are for Megan (boutiquenutmegdesigns.) She asked for:

-lines only no curves please
-I would like 1 of the prints per block
-No raw edges please
-I would like each of the blocks to have some of the charcoal and some of the lime green in them
Everything else is up to you!

This is block number one. I had such a good time with it, I hope she likes it. Block number two was a total revelation. While working on block number one Mark Rothko's paintings came to my mind. I guess it was the warm colors, and the request itself which gave me room to be creative.

These would be more like a corner of bigger "Rothko interpretation" of his orange framed paintings. I find it quite amusing how these kind of blocks, the so called 'improv blocks' can be reminiscent of Abstract Expressionist movement, moreover when the blocks are mainly made with solids like these ones.

Block swaps, quilting bees, and embroidery swap

For some strange reason last December I signed up for a bunch of swaps and bees.  All the blocks have to be sent by March, and the stitchery pieces are due on April. Some other blocks are to be made withing a week or in its respective month. As much as I love to participate in this groups I think I over did it this time. So here I'm doing my best and not letting anyone down, after all I will be receiving pretty blocks too.

The last couple of weeks, I made five out of six blocks for the Three by Six Sampler block swap.

This swap called for 12.5 in. blocks. I could have done anything simpler than this '31 pieces' block but no. I'm not only impulsive but also complicated. I have this block on a quilt I made years ago. I don't even know were I have the instructions for it so I re-draw the whole thing to make my 12.5 in blocks. I'm happy with the result, and I truly hope that my partners really like their blocks. By the way, I don't even know what's the name of it, do you??

Two blocks for "Quilt around the world." I only managed to take one picture. And I'll be working on another  block for this bee tonight.

Last but not list my second (out of six) embroidery for the Hoop Up, Stitch, and Send swap.

 

I confess I learned my lesson. I as much as I love sharing my time and my sewing, next time I'll be more realistic about how much time I have to participate in swaps and quilting bees. Next post I'll show you how worth it all these has been. My blocks and embroideries made by my partners are starting to arrive in the mail. Everything is simply adorable.

Hunka Munka

I've been working on this embroidery piece. I get the feeling that somehow my mood shows in any handy work I make. This one is specially mellow, like this winter time, like the warm feeling of being in the couch stitching this after putting my girls to bed at night. 

 
I made this embroidery based on a illustration by Beatrix Potter. The little mousy's name is Hunka Munka, and the story says that she stole some doll's dresses to wear herself, cute isn't she?  This is my 'theme declaration' for the Hoop up! stitch and send swap, so I'm open to any vintage illustration embroidery, or anything my partners think goes well with this lady mouse.

Some more pretty illustrations...

I wanted to add this pattern as a freebie but I wasn't sure if that would be OK, because copyright issues. Besides the fact that I wouldn't claim any author's right over it, and that it isn't an actual embroidery pattern, I thought it would have been nice to share it as a pattern. What do you think?? I leave it up to you.  Just let me know, I can always add it as a freebie.
 
 
 

Swappity goodness

Originally uploaded by Quilt Dad.

Look at this!! Isn't cute?? This is one of the embroidery works that John (Quilt Dad) sent me. For this swap we were supposed to make one embroidery project for a secret partner, but John made two beautiful projects. SWEET!!

 

He also sent me this bird on a cup cake, as well as candy (already eaten,) and a bunch of those lovely post-it sticky note which I secretly hoard to stick them in every page of my "how to" books. Oh yeah!! I'm a total "how to" books person.  I've decided to make a pillow with the fairies embroidery. The "bird and cupcake" will definitely be a wall piece. John not only did a great work with the embroidery itself but also at combining matching fabrics around it. I just can't get rid of all the fabric outside the hoop.Thank you so much John!! 

I feel really happy with the outcome of this swap. Looking at the Hand Stitched Embroidery Swap group pictures you can tell it was such a wonderful swap. Everybody put great effort in coming up with amazing embroidery pieces, definitely worth a second round!!

Pure Joy

I'm happy and done with this project. It's my embroidery for the Hand Stitched Embroidery Swap. I enjoyed do much making this pattern, choosing the right embroidery hoop (I'm that kind of picky,) and stitching from a couple of hours at my heart's content.

The making of the pattern brought some other observations along such as my need to get in touch with my drawing skills. And needless to say (but I say it anyway,) I fell in love with it again!!!  I hope my secret partner likes it as much as I do. This piece is going to be especially hard to let go. The good thing is that this is a pattern available now.

Yes! So if you want to give it a try my Embroidery Pattern 1: "Joy" is available at my Etsy store. It's in the form of a PDF file for easy delivery thanks to Jose (Mr. TKF). I hope you love it as much as I do.

 

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

When you wake up to a dark rainy day, and still you have to go out with three little girls in rain boots, it feels like is not going to be an easy day. I dropped off my girls at their three different destinations and started with my list of errands. First stop the post office. There I was, the wind blew my umbrella's inside out and I'm getting wet. But to my surprise I got a little something in the mail that has totally made my day.

My teeny tiny quilt made by Hanies arrived from Berlin!! Isn't beautiful?? I thought it will take much longer for it to arrive. It took only one week. Thank you so much Tacha!! I love it. It's about 6X6 inches, really teeny tiny. Look at the back:

Incredible cute, and beautifully design. It's like two quilties in one. I love these little robots doing the head shoulders, knees, and toes routine. Tacha also included some cute hippo fabric in the envelope. I saw this fabric before but I never found it at my local fabric stores, I love it.

Now, I have to go back to my day. In my "to do" list:

 Some embroidery for the "Hand Stitched" Embroidery Swap, and then "Reading Workshop" at my daughter's first grade classroom.

Enjoy your weekend!!
 

Quilting, thrifting, and swaping.

The bears paws blocks are coming nicely along. I'm working on them during any tiny spare time that I can find. Although I know that I'm entitle to some sort of recreation or just a break during the day, I feel terribly guilty to sew the afternoon away while the girls are doing something else around the house. Then they go to bed, and I feel exhausted...I guess I'll have to work a bit more on my this issue and enjoy myself a bit more. I made these blocks like one or two per day. A total of nine blocks will be perfect for a throw size quilt, with a nice sashing added, and then the border. So far it's looking very fall-ish and very traditional for my taste. This is the first time that a quilt turns out so serious but I guess that's OK as long as it doesn't become the rule.

In the "findings" category today: not one or two but seven, seven yards of this quilters cotton fabric. I got it at the thrift store for $7. There is plenty for quilt backing, lounge pants for me, and even some for swaping if you're interested...

In the swap category: Yes! I made it in time for this swap organized by Ariel. I got my secret partner and I got to make my mosaic with my favorite pictures from flickr. I'm really excited about this one!! I'm planning on making my own embroidery pattern, and I also want to use a couple of pretty fabrics for this one. I also signed up for the Teeny Tiny Mini Swap organized by the famous quiltinkimmie. I got to swap with Hanies in Germany!! She has a lovely photostream, doesn't she?? I guess I just busied myself in terms of sewing.

I'll soon be back with a sneak peek for my swap partners, and more craftiness. Now, I'm going to get the girls from the bus stop and get started with dinner. Happy sewing everyone!!

 

Quilt Around the World

Happy Saturday!! I'm just browsing around flickr, looking at all your lovely quilts and quilt blocks, looking at all the wonderful quilting bees and block swaps that are going on at the moment.

I made this mosaic with some of the blocks I already made for Summer Sadie's Quilt Around the World . The group is already half way through!! Thanks to the encouragement and organization from her lovely host, the quilts in this group are looking amazing. I receive a package of blocks almost every week to work with it for a few days. I'm having so much fun planning what to make for each participant and looking at all the wonderful creations other participants have done. The down side of this quilting bee is that it will be done sooner or later...I was thinking that maybe I can participate in another quilting bee. But they're in such high demand that it seem impossible to be in time for signing up. Who knows when I'll catch a train like this again. I already check the list of "up coming" (or already gone) quilting bees, and the sign ups are already closed. So dear Summer Sadie: I'm hopeful that some day you want this group re-united to go for a second round

PS. If you have any information on up coming quilting bees, let me know, ok?? Who knows maybe someday I come up with my own quilting bee.