And maybe some dots too...

Gotta love those dots!!!

Ok, so maybe a few new fabrics are allowed...

Who could resist these?

Scraps only!

A pillowcase swap and a quilt-along

Head over to That's Sew Mandy! if you are interested in a easy-peasy pillowcase swap.

And to Blue is Bleu if you want to participate in Audrie's fabulous new quilt-along.


I'll be in on both, or so I hope!!!

Upgrade

Então decidi dar outra vez mais uns retoques no blog. Agora tenho um slideshow do Flickr, mudei os botões de sítio, criei o meu próprio botão (estou tão orgulhosa por ter conseguido fazer isto) e acrescentei ainda mais links de blogs que gosto de visitar. Alguém notou a diferença? Não sei, mas eu gosto do meu blog e pronto.
Só não estou a achar piada nenhuma às fotos que teimam em desaparecer sem motivo aparente. Qual é a panca???

So I decided to do some little improvements on my blog again. Now I have a Flickr photo slideshow, I put the blog's buttons further down and created my own (I'm so proud for being able to do that) and I've added more interesting links to the list of blogs I like to visit. Did anyone notice the difference? I don't know, but I like my blog and that's it.
I'm just not finding it funny that some photos keep disappearing for no good reason. What's up with that???

It's official

I hate Picasa, Flickr and Blogger. I hate that my photos disappear and then I put them again (which is hard work given that some are on my laptop, others are on my computer at the office, others are from the Internet)... only to see them all disappear again!!! How frustrating is THAT? And of course they don't disappear all at the same time. One day it's 2 or 3, then the next day it's a different set... Urghhhh!!!

Do your blog's photos keep mysteriously disappearing...?

Oh Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!

In the beggining...





And then...







And now...

In theory...

My current favourite band, Muse, and my beloved Twilight Series belong together. But just in theory... I don't think I like this music that much :(

1º Encontro de Patchwork em Portugal

Está a ser organizado pela Dotquilts, a loja onde costumo comprar tecidos e frequentar aulas de patchwork. É uma iniciativa muito gira e com fins solidários, portanto fiquei imediatamente entusiasmada e pretendo participar. Mais informações aqui. (As inscrições são até dia 30 de Julho, portanto despachem-se!).

Organized by Dotquilts, the shop where I usually buy fabrics and go to classes, the First Patchwork in Portugal Meeting will be a fun event for charity purposes. I am very excited to be participating. More info here (in portuguese).

Moldes / Patterns

Tenho andado a pensar na questão dos moldes...
Tenho um molde para um avental, outro para uma mala e outro para uma bolsa, são todos da Amy Butler e adoro-os. Vou também receber como prenda de anos moldes para fazer vestidos, t-shirts e saias (escolhi-os, encomendei-os, é por isso que sei que vou recebê-los ehehe). Mas a maior parte das vezes faço uma peça do zero, ou seja, sem molde. Parece-me algo tão óbvio e natural, talvez porque sempre tenha visto a minha avó Aurora e a minha mãe a fazer o mesmo. (Lembrem-me de um dia contar a história da minha avó Aurora). Elas simplesmente olhariam para uma peça terminada, imaginavam como tinha sido feita - mais ou menos como a engenharia reversa -, e depois simplesmente faziam a peça. E eu faço o mesmo. Vocês não? E isso é considerado seguir um molde? Serei a única que não percebe a necessidade absolutamente imperiosa de ter um molde?

(photos from Amy Butler's website)

So, I was thinking about patterns...
I have a pattern for an apron, another for a bag and another for a purse, all from Amy Butler and I love them. I'm also going to be getting patterns for dress, top and skirts as a birthday gift (I chose them, I ordered them, that's why I know I'm getting them heeheh). But most of the time I do something out of scratch, without any pattern that is. It seems really obvious and natural to me, maybe because that's how I've always seen my gran and my mother do it. (Remind me of telling the story of my grandma Aurora one of these days). They would just look at something already made and imagine how it had been made - pretty much like reverse engineering -, then they would just make it. And I do it like that too. Don't you? And could that fit into the pattern category? Am I the only one who doesn't think a pattern is an absolute necessity?

And the winner is...

I did this the old fashion way. First I gathered all the materials I was going to need.




After writing all the names down in a sheet of paper (counting more than one entry when applied), I cut them into equal pieces.




Then I mixed it in a bowl. I was specially careful not to let a piece of paper fall on the floor because my all-too-willing-to-eat-anything dog was on watch.



Then I asked my husband to take one piece of paper without looking. That part wasn't difficult because he was playing some videogame which required him to shoot some bad guys and he was too afraid to get killed so he didn't even take his eyes off the computer screen.

And the lucky winner was...



Kelly!!!

And her comment was:

"That is such a lovely book cover! And it would be very helpful to keep your books in nice condition while they are being read.
It is hard to pick favourite books, as I'm sure any avid reader would tell you, however I'll tell you three books I have read which I loved!
- A Painted House by John Grisham. Not his usual style at all, but an excellent story!
- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. If you have seen the movie and have therefore judged the book based on this, erase that judgement from your mind! The book is far superior, with a richer storyline and a different ending. This book made me think a lot and cry buckets.
- The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. Since you live in Portugal I'll assume you haven't heard of the Australian author Bryce Courtenay. All of his books are great stories, but The Power of One was my favourite of all. You won't be disappointed!
Thanks so much for the opportunity to win!"

Congratulations, Kelly! You have won my first ever book cover! I really hope you like it. I'll be sending you an email asking for your address.

Thank you to everyone who participated. Your book suggestions were really interesting and I can't wait to put together a list and go shopping on Amazon. This giveaway was so much fun, I'm inclined to do this more often :) I hope those of you who are new around here and found my blog because of the giveaway will eventually enjoy what you can read here and visit me again.

The giveaway is now closed. I will announce the winner shortly!

The easiest crowd to please!

This is contagious

There are always some giveaways going on, including mine :)
But I just had to tell you all about the one Teresa is having... It's about books, of course!!! And she has always been such a sweet blogger friend ever since we "met" some months ago, you have no idea!


You just have to head over here and choose which one you would like (except "I am Huterite", that one is not included).

Comentários / Comments

UPDATE: Everything appears to be back to normal!

Deve estar a ocorrer algum erro com os comentários, porque recebo por email comentários que depois não aparecem no blog. Quem participou no giveaway que não se preocupe porque pelo sim pelo não vou contabilizar os comentários que recebi (e respondi) através do email. All righty?

There must be an error of some sort regarding the comments, because I keep getting them in my email but they don't show up in the blog. Those of you who participated on my giveaway should not worry, because just in case I'll count the comments I received (and answered) via email. All righty?

Only one day left...

...to participate in my giveaway. I want to remind you that it will be closed on July 7th at 23:59 (Greenwich Time). Good luck!

Latest additions

Sempre que aparecem tecidos com letras vou logo a correr comprar. Neste caso, o primeiro é um tecido que andava há muito tempo à espera que ficasse disponível cá e o segundo foi uma enorme surpresa, mas fiquei tão apaixonada por ele que comprei 1 metro! Tenho grandes planos para ele!

Every time there's a fabric with letters printed on it I run to buy it. In this case, the first fabric is one I have been waiting for a long time to be available here and the other one was a complete surprise, but I fell in love with it so that I bought 1 meter! I have big plans for it!

PS - O giveaway está a chegar ao fim, não se esqueçam de participar!

PS - The giveaway will be closing soon, so don't forget to participate!

Uh oh!

No outro dia, depois de ler um post da Crystal pus-me a pensar. A minha máquina andava a portar-se um bocado mal ultimamente (especialmente quando estava a fazer a prenda do giveaway), portanto decidi espreitar e isto foi o que descobri:

Just the other day, this post from Crystal got me thinking. My sewing machine was giving me a hard time lately (particularly when I was making the prize of the giveaway), so I decided to take a look and this is what I found:





Xiii!!! E isto é só ao fim de um ano de costura! Penso que a foto ficou desfocada porque a minha mão até tremeu com o susto! Aproveitei para também pôr um pouco de óleo, embora ainda não tivesse aparecido o aviso no visor, e notei de imediato que o barulho da máquina já está, digamos, menos barulhento! Há quanto tempo não limpam e põe óleo na vossa máquina?
Num abrir e fechar de olhos, a febre da manutenção estendeu-se à arrumação e tirei tudo do meu armário cá para fora para poder fazer uma triagem e reorganizar tudo melhor. Dobrei todos os tecidos melhor, dividi-os por mais prateleiras... Estou feliz com o resultado!

Yikes!!! And this is only one year of sewing! I think the photo is out of focus because my hands were shaking with the shock. I took the opportunity to also put some oil, even though the oil signal wasn't on the screen yet, and I immediately noticed that the noise of the machine was, well, less noisy! How long it's been since you last cleaned and oiled your machine?
In a blink of an eye, the maintenance fever became an organising fever and I took everything out of my closet in order to make some triage and reorganisation. I refolded all my fabrics and divided them into differente shelves... I'm happy how it turned out!

PS - Não se esqueçam de participar no meu giveaway!!!

PS - Make sure you don't forget to participate in my giveaway!!!

Mr Mail Man: I LOVE YOU!

I had wonderful surprises in the mailbox these last few days.

I received the patterns I ordered from Sew Mama Sew as my birthday gift. But... I have to wait until after my birthday to open the package and starting cutting.

And Crystal from Sonnet of the Moon sent me a wonderful flag quilt after our email exchange about the soccer world cup. Portugal had just been eliminated so I was in serious need of national pride. And she was the sweetest, she also sent me these amazing scraps!!! When I saw two packages I was like: "What...?" And after opening them I had a huge grin. (I have to take better pictures of these gifts, though, I wanted to hang the flag in a tree or something but didn't want it to get dirty, so it didn't work out that well ehehe and I wanted to show you all the amazing details but the photos got too blurry)

And my latest Amazon order has also arrived: books 9 and 10 of The Sookie Stachouse "mexican vampire soap-opera" Series and "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner", even though I've read it online (in case you haven't, you better hurry up because it will be online only until next monday). So lots of vampires for me in my near future!!! (By the way: haven't decided yet how much I liked "Eclipse").

PS - I'm enjoying everyone's book suggestions on my Giveaway (still going on for a few more days) and I know that I'll be making a new Amazon order soon...