I have a dream, a silly dream, but a dream

Someday all these jars that I'm saving will be full of buttons!!! And from what I've seen, I don't think I'm the only one with an obsession for buttons...

Os meus novos quadros / My new paintings

Quando se tem uma cunhada que pinta, as paredes nunca estão vazias. Tenho tantos quadros que quando me apaixono por um novo, o marido pergunta sempre: e onde é que o poríamos?
Pois bem, apaixonei-me por uma colecção que retrata os bairros de Lisboa, é uma impressão em tela feita a partir de foto-montagens. Eu adooooro recortes e foto-montagens e alguns destes quadros partem de postais antigos e depois juntam alguns elementos característicos de cada bairro. Eu comprei o da "Baixa-Chiado" porque é a minha zona preferida em Lisboa. Depois nos anos ofereceram-me o do "Bairro Alto e Princípe Real", que era o meu segundo preferido. Depois voltei à feira de artesanato e comprei o de "Campo de Ourique e Estrela e Lapa" porque é também uma zona lindíssima e desde que trabalhei em Campo de Ourique fiquei-lhe com um carinho especial. Agora só me falta dois bairros e depois vou pendurar todos na cozinha - a única divisão até agora imaculada!!!

When you have a sister-in-law that paints, your walls are never naked. I have so many paintings that every time I fall in love with a new one, my husband asks: and where would we hang it?
Well, I fell in love with a collection of paintings portraying the neighbourhoods in Lisbon, it's a printing on canvas made out of pictures and scraping. I love that kind of thing and some of these paintings have in the background old postcards and then the typical elements of the neighbourhood are added. I bought "Baixa-Chiado" because it is my favourite place in Lisbon. Then on my birthday my friends gave me "Bairro Alto and Princípe Real", which was my second favourite painting. Then I went back to the crafts fair and bought "Campo de Ourique and Estrela and Lapa" because it's also a beautiful part of the city and ever since I worked in Campo de Ourique I hold it in my heart. Now there are only two paintings left and then I'll be hanging them in the kitchen - the only room in the house that was still paintings-free!!!

A minha contribuição / My contribution

Para o 1º Encontro de Patchwork em Portugal.
Achei que, já que quase ninguém gosta de roxo (não percebo porquê), bem que podia representar um pouco esta cor. Além disso, dois dos tecidos utilizados (o do centro e a moldura em roxo) foram-me oferecidos por uma das minhas parceiras na International Fat Quarter Swap de há uns meses, portanto achei que faria sentido doar o que me foi dado.
Fiz um bloco misto de log-cabin (a minha 1ª tentativa) e bricks, fiquei contente com o resultado!!!



For the first Patchwork Meeting in Portugal.
I figured that since almost noone likes purple (don't know why that is), I might as well represent some of that colour. Besides, two of the fabrics I used (the one in the center and the purple border) were given to me by one of my International Fat Quarter Swap partners, so it was only logical to give what had been given to me.
My block is a mix between log-cabin (my first attempt) and bricks, I'm happy with the result!

One of these days...

This will become a pillow.



This will be the perfect journal cover.



And this will be a toilettries bag.

Ric rac

I have recently inherited several meters of ric rac. It's vintage. Believe me, it belonged to the grandmother of someone old enough to be my grandmother. And I was its lucky recipient.



My favourite one is the yellow, because it's the brightest of them all, but of course that's the one I have less quantity of. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the other colours are pale green, navy blue, dark brown and deep burgundy (you can't imagine how many times I have wanted to say "deep burgundy", it sounds so much lovelier than "grená" or "cor de vinho" ahahah). There is also a pale pink one, which is not exactly ric rac, it's more like crochet, and it would look lovely in a little girl's dress, for example.
In the spirit of sharing, does anyone want me to send them some of this ric rac? If so, please tell me how much and of which colour(s). I'm also considering having another giveaway, in which I could include this and also some selvedges I have been saving.

Parenthood...

A work in (relatively fast) progress

This is the new baby quilt I was telling you about. Before piecing it...



And after piecing it.




I found that all these squares made a too square quilt (does that even make any sense?) so I had to add 4 more rows. So now there's a total of 300 squares of 5 cm, that have 4 cm after piecing, of course. Without the binding it now measures 60 cm x 76 cm. Is it too small to be used in a stroller? I have no idea...

I have already chose a flannel for the backing (something appropriately called "Bundle of Joy")and I'm using a leftover of bamboo batting. Now it's just waiting to be quilted. The question is:

how to quilt it?

If I make little X's, I'll probably end up with a very busy quilt, what with all the colours and patterns and all. The sames goes for free motion quilting, which by the way is lovely and fun but is it just me or the quilts loose some of that soft feeling to them? I have never been successful at stiching in the ditch, which seems ideal to me in this quilt, but man there's a lot of ditches around here... It scares me crazy! And I can't go with my usual quilting (1/4 inch to both sides of the ditch) because then the lines would be too close together, because the squares are kind of tiny (ish).

So, any suggestions?

I'm taking my time with this one (I started roughly a week ago) and having lots of fun. My mother has already seen it and liked it so much she even praised it to her guests on saturday (that was a first, the praise, not the guests), so I'm feel AOK with this. And of course I'm uber excited about finishing it, like I always am. Boy do I love some finished project!!!

Back on track

Estou de volta! Regressámos mais cedo do Algarve e agora temos estado aqui por casa sem fazer nada de especial, porque está demasiado calor para mexermos mais do que os olhos...
No entanto, confesso que tenho mexido um pouco mais do que isso porque arregacei as mangas e comecei uma nova baby quilt. Vai consistir em quadrados de 5 cm todos saídos do meu monte de restinhos. Neste momento já cortei 208 quadrados e tenho um calo na mão. O meu cortador rotativo precisa de uma nova lâmina (o que contribuiu para a formação do dito calo) e tenciono ir em breve À Dotquilts adquiri-la, aproveitando para comprar flanela para as costas da manta e levar o meu bloco para a iniciativa "Patch Solidário". Ainda não fiz o bloco, mas isso é só um pormenor... Fotos em breve!!!

I'm back! We returned from the algarve sooner and now we are just wandering around the house not doing anything, because it's too hot to move more than our eyes...
However, I have to confess that I've been doing a bit more than moving my eyes because I went straight to work and started a new baby quilt. It will be made of 5 cm squares entirely out of my scraps. So far I've cut 208 of them and got myself a blister in my hand. My rotary cutter needs a new blade (hence the blister) and i plan on buying it at Dotquilts, where I also need to buy flannel for the back and hand in my block for the charity that it's being organised. I haven't made the block yet, but that's just a little detail... Photos will follow soon!!!