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Sunday 31 March 2013

Happy Easter


Happy and Peaceful Easter


Ella & Lucy's Easter biscuits, with Love and Peace



Tuesday 26 March 2013

I love Suzy Ultman's fabric!

Suzy Ultman's fabric: Love at first sight!


I couldn't resist Appleville:

(photo from Around the Block play mat free Pattern at Robert Kaufman)

I'm using it to make a quilt for Ella's bed. I like Appleville (the central panel) so much I'd like to cut it up and transform every "frame" into part of a mobile for a baby, but I only have just enough to make the quilt and a pillowslip Ella wanted to go with it!

After Appleville I completely fell for Little Kukla. I adore Matrioskas (or Babushkas) so how could I resist this? Impossible...


It comes in two colour ways: retro (more orange) and bright (more pink). And as if this wasn't enough, all the other fabrics of the collection are fantastic:

  


I've made a play mat for Lucy, that fits the bottom of her playpen (which is actually a toy deposit!), combining them with some polka dot fabric I already had in my stash. Haven't got a decent photo of it yet! For the moment I'll show you this, a Kukla garland:




When I saw the laminated version (Little Kukla slicker) I stashed that too! I'm planning on making a child's apron with it.
And now she's come out with Suzy's Dollhouse and I love this collection too!


With the panel you can make dolls: there's another free pattern at Robert Kaufman. There's one for every taste, more classic or very funky. There are twelve fabrics in this collection.

                                                                             

My favourite is this one:


I went with an Erasmus scholarship to Holland when I was at University. The Dutch are sooo friendly and they have incredible good taste, so this reminds me of Dutch houses and how I enjoyed living there. I also like architectural fabric too, which means this is another one to put on my Wish (I could buy) List, together with the whole collection!


p.s. all the photos of fabrics on this post are from Robert Kaufman.


Wednesday 20 March 2013

More news from Quilt Italia Lombardia meeting

Sunday afternoon at Francesca Miglierina's shop Tessilesa in Laveno Mombello the members of Quilt Italia Lombardia met for a chat, a demonstration and coffee with cakes...

Domenica pomeriggio presso il negozio Tessilesa di Francesca Miglierina a Laveno Mombello, le socie di Quilt Italia si sono incontrate per una chiaccherata, una dimostrazione e café con dolci...


We also followed a very interesting demonstration by Francesca during which she showed us how to make a special bag for carrying our work in progress! The shape reminded me a lot of the bags that are used now for putting cakes in when taking them to a friend's house. This bag is full of useful pockets for patchwork tools. The design is by Daniela Zamboni who is a Delegate for Quilt Italia in the Marche.

Abbiamo seguito anche una dimostrazione molto interessante di Francesca che ci ha mostrato come creare una speciale borsa porta-lavori in corso! Mi ricordava molto per la forma le borse che vanno in questo momento per portare in giro dagli amici le torte. Questa borsa è piena di tasche porta attrezzature patchwork. Il disegno è di Daniela Zamboni delegata Quilt Italia nelle Marche.




Sunday 17 March 2013

Heart Comfort Cushion - Cuscino Cuore per aiutare le donne

This afternoon at Francesca Miglierina's shop Tessilesa the members of Quilt Italia Lombardia met for a chat, a demonstration and coffee with cakes, of course!

What I was really impressed by was a Swiss lady's talk about a project she's launched in Switzerland to help women who have been operated for breast cancer. I have looked this up on Internet and found some interesting links:

In Italy by Quilt Italia Lazio:


The idea is to make a heart cushion, which has a precise shape and weight, to donate to women who have just been operated for breast cancer. The particular shape and size of the cushion helps to soothe the pain caused by your arm resting on the area that's been operated on.

The project, which started in the States, was introduced in Europe from Denmark by the Heart Pillow Project:


Our Quilt Italia group is contacting local hospitals to see if we can help too... Let's hope this idea keeps on spreading.

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Grandma's Cosies from Mollie Makes

Grandma made these fantastic cosies from Issue n. 21 of Mollie Makes:


Ella hasn't stopped using her Mug Cosy ever since it was given to her!




And I'm using the gloves every day because they are really useful and comfy.
 Thank you Grandma!






Saturday 9 March 2013

More Mug Rugs


Here are some more laminated Mug Rugs, this time made using Michael Miller's Khaki
Vintage Ironwork laminated fabric, with a more geometric trim.


The back is made using a linen mix fabric and it actually goes very well with the tone of the laminated fabric. the contrast in texture between the two kinds of material is also very interesting. 


New patchwork magazine!

"Love Quilting & Patchwork"? Then you should have a look at this new magazine!


 It's what I'd call fresh! Great graphics (reminds me a lot of the CrossStitcher), very clear and colourful. There is a lot of information about new fabrics and their designers. Hence the subtitle of the magazine: Sharing your passion for fabric!

There are also a lot of projects and ideas, for different levels and results. I really like this one and I'm going to try it out, maybe with some completely different colours...


It's really good value for all the projects included, like a book practically. This is the spring edition, I hope it's not going to be long for the next one!


Tuesday 5 March 2013

The Power of the Mug Rug

Mug Rugs are everywhere! They come in all shapes and sizes, all colours and made with as many different techniques as you can think of. Thanks to their size, they're quick to make (not like some quilts!) and you can use a technique that on a bigger scale might look boring or too kitsch. And, let's admit it, small scales are soooo cute! Oh, I was forgetting, they're actually useful too!
And now Mug Rugs are starting to invade Italy! At the moment they are considered more as a sampler than what they are really for, but this is all rapidly changing. When we'll have solved the name problem that is. It's a bit long to call them "piccole tovagliette per tazza" (little tablecloths for mugs) and it's definitely not as catchy as MUG RUG, is it? Soon we will decide to adopt the English term and everybody will immediately know what you're talking about.

In the meantime I would like to give my own little contribution to the Mug Rug cause and this is it:


a Mug Rug made using laminated material (Michael Miller's laminated Pink Belle Rose) means no tea stains to remove, you just wipe it over. At the worst you get the crumbs from all those biscuits you're eating stuck in the trim, but a good shake will see to that! With the same fabric look at the different effects!


Here's a photo of the reverse side in case you're wondering. My colleague Emanuela kindly lent me her mug, it just looked so right! Thanks and... enjoy your tea (or coffee!).




Sunday 3 March 2013

Afghanistan Inspiration (part II)

As I promised in my last post about the exhibition "Afghanistan Inspiration", here are some photos of the event and the fantastic quilts on show. The main exhibition was at the Museo Internazionale Design Ceramico in Cerro di Laveno Mombello. Each quilt made by a European quilter englobes an 8 x 8 cm square embroidered by women in Laghmani, north of Kabul. The squares enable these women to improve the financial situation of their families. The exhibition shows the incredibile quality and versatility of these embroidered squares, promoting the self-help project of the DAI (Deutsch-Afghanische Initiative, German Afghan Initiative).







And here is a detail:


In the Laveno Mombello Library there was another exhibition organised by Daniela Cassani (then Delegate for Quilt Italia in Lombardia) and here are some details of quilts on show:

 


Details from Daniela Cassani's own beautiful quilt:






To finish off, here are some photos from our Raku Laboratory held by Atelier Capricorno, during which we produced Raku pieces for our Water and Lake Project quilts (Progetto Acqua e Lago) and also some very nice brooches for ourselves!