Little Azalea by Denise Fishbein para a Free Spirit Fabrics

As some of you may know, even tough I'm a constant fixture at my favorite fabric shops, I always like to pick 2 or 3 fabrics to buy in bigger amounts, to serve as a sort of inspiration for my work every year. And early Spring is the time I usually do it, sort of a birthday gift to myself.

This year, I chose fabrics from Little Azalea by Denise Fishbein for Free Spirit Fabrics and I'm happy to tell you they have just arrived are are gorgeous!

I was a bit nervous because this year I was unable to attend the showing, so I've ordered from a catalog, which is totally not the same thing!

But they are just as expected, lovely, colorful and I believe,much different from previous years, which says a lot about myself and my personal growth.

And, for some reason, they got me thinking about trying to make clothes for the first time... which is absolutely crazy to me :)

So, what do you think? Did I do well? :)

I'm just a freespirited girl... :D

It's THAT time of the year again, the time when I choose the fabrics for the year. I must say I've never struggled so much to pick fabrics as I did this time. Ohh, if only my budget allowed :D

Here they are, the main fabrics for 2013. :)

Brand new supplies!

Oh how good it feels! I'm in a polka dot state of mind :)

Oh, and by the way... ::: Ah, e já agora...

I got my new fabrics :)

recebi os meus novos tecidos :)

Coming my way ::: A caminho de minha casa

Each year I like to buy some fabrics to feature most of my work during the year (yes I know, you're probably tired of seeing the same Amy Butler and Jeanean Morrisson's fabrics over and over again. Don't worry, most of it is either over or just about).

It worked out so great last year, I felt much more freedom, being able to try new things without worrying about having enough fabric for it. Also, I was able to sell them on Etsy, except when I started to see it going, I decided not to share, it was a really weird phenomenon, turns out I'm really possessive about my fabric!

Anywaaayyyy, I've decided to give it another try. This year I had to be a bit more cautious, so this is what I ordered:

Cada ano eu gosto de comprar tecidos para fazerem parte da maioria dos meus trabalhos ao longo do ano (sim, eu sei, provavelmente já estão cansados dos mesmos tecidos da Amy Butler e da Jeanean Morrisson vezes sem conta. Não se preocupe, a maioria ou já acabou ou está a acabar).

Correu tão bem no ano passado, senti muito mais liberdade para tentar coisas novas sem me preocupar se tinha tecido suficiente. Também vendi algum no Etsy, mas à medida que o vi a ir, decidi não partilhar, foi um fenómeno muito estranho, aparentemente sou muito possessiva com o meu tecido!

De qualquer das formas, decidi tentar novamente. Este ano tive que ter mais cautela, este foi o tecido encomendado:

These first 3 fabrics are from Valeri Wells Karavan collection and I have to say, I wish I had the entire collection. It's warm and cosy, delicate and fierce, I truly wish I had it in every color!

So by now, I bet you're wondering. What?? No Amy Butler?? Really? Yes, I though the same, I just had to have my Amy fix. I have to say, most of her Lark Heirloom was a bit to aggressive for what I usually do, but this one I fell in love with:


Os primeiros 3 tecidos são da Valeri Wells na colecção Karavan e devo dizer, gostava de ter a colecção inteira. são quentes e acolhedores, delicados e fortes, gostava mesmo de os ter em todas as cores!


Nesta fase vocês perguntam-se. Então?? Nada da Amy Butler?? A sério? Eu sei, pensei o mesmo, tinha que ter a minha dose de Amy. Devo dizer,a maioria da colecção dela Lark Heriloom é um pouco agressiva para o que uso normalmente, mas apaixonei-me por este:

Most of the fabrics are blue, I know. What can I say? I was in a blue mood! 

Can't wait to get them :D

A maioria dos tecidos são azuis, eu sei. Que posso dizer? estava num dia azul! 

Mal posso esperar por os receber :D

WIP: Animals behind the Wheel Baby Quilt

Hello.


I finally managed to photograph the projects I've been working on. It was like 23:45, so the lighting is kind of bad. Sorry about that...
I think I've shown you some pictures of this baby quilt before. Well actually I've shown you the first version, before I decide to toss than one aside and start fresh. I love the way it looks, it's actually the second time I've even free-motion quilted just about anything and I still get very very nervous.

Once I finished the piecing I decided it would look amazing stippled, really crinkly and soft. I tried it and gave up, than I decided to straight quilt it with my walking foot. Again, didn't like it...
By that time I was thinking I was never going to finish this quilt since it was the second time I had tried to do it and I was on my third try at quilting it! Then I just decided to go back to the original plan, only this time I would do it with white thread, which I dreaded to try, because every fault would show on the red backing.

I think it turned out great. It just looks really snuggly and comfortable. I love it! I love the fabric, thank you Mr. Ikea! :)
Oh yeah, here are the pictures!

 Olá.



Finalmente consegui fotografar os projectos que tenho estado a trabalhar. Eram umas 23.45, portanto a luz é má, lamento…

Acho que já vos mostrei algumas fotos deste quilt de bebé antes. Bem, na verdade mostrei a primeira versão, antes de ter decidido colocá-la de lado e começar de novo. Adoro o aspecto dela, é a segunda vez que uso free-motion quilting e ainda fico muito muito nervosa.

Quando acabei de coser as várias partes, decidi que ficaria bem assim, muito encarquilhada e suave. Tentei e desisti, depois decidi que iria usar linhas direitas e usei o walking foot. Novamente, não gostei…

Por essa altura pensei que nunca acabaria este quilt, já que era a segunda ver que a tentei fazer e estava já na 3ª tentativa para fazer o quilting! Então decidi voltar ao plano original, mas desta vez usei fio branco, que temia tentar, porque todos os deeitos se notariam na parte de trás com tecido vermelho.


Acho que ficou óptimo. Parece realmente confortável e aconchegante. Adoro! E adoro o tecido, obrigada Sr. Ikea! :)
Ok, aqui estão as fotos!

Originally I was going to do the squares, with the blue and the green fabric to frame the pictures of the driving animals. Then I thought it would look better to just do white stripes all around them (yes, I know there's a better expression for this, but I forget). The white wasn't doing it for me, because the fabric with the animals isn't really white. Then I decided, since the fabric has a lot of plain fabric, without the animals, I could just use that, but then I realized I was wasting so much fabric, and how great would it be to just cut stripes from the fabric, regardless of it being plain or with pictures, that way it would make it much more unique and not wasteful at all! And there you have it...

Originalmente, ia apenas fazer os quadrados emoldurados com o tecido azul e verde. Depois pensei que ficaria melhor com uma moldura branca em volta. O branco não estava a funcionar, porque o tecido com os animais não é branco. Então decidi, uma vez que o tecido original tinha imenso tecido liso, sem animais, que poderia usar esse tecido, mas depois percebi que criaria muito desperdício, e que se calhar ficaria bem se cortasse apenas tiras desse tecido, independentemente de ser liso ou com bonecos, assim ficaria muito mais original e sem desperdício! E aqui está ela…

All I'm missing now is the binding, which I already have prepared (wops, didn't take that pic), it's from my favorite white and red fabric, so it should connect the front and the back just perfectly.

Also, I expect to finish the pillow for the Sew Mama Sew Contest by today, so wish me luck! :)


Tudo o que me falta agora é o binding, que já tenho preparado (wops, não tirei essa foto), é do meu tecido favorito em branco e vermelho, por isso deve unir perfeitamente a parte da frente com a parte de trás.


Para além deste projecto, espero terminar a almofada para o Concurso da Sew Mama Sew, por isso desejem-me sorte!

IKEA fabrics inspire me ::: Os tecidos IKEA inspiram-me

Everytime I think of new projects, I'm immediately drawn to IKEA fabrics. This project I'm currently working on was born out of my need to use an IKEA fabric I fell in love with... You'll probably recognise it :)

Sempre que penso em novos projectos, sou imediatamente atraída para os tecidos IKEA. Este projecto em que estou a trabalhar nasceu pela minha vontade de usar este tecido IKEA pelo qual me apaixonei... Provavelmente reconhecem-no :)

I think I'm making a baby quitl, but I'm not quite sure yet! :) I know it's been challenging because the drawings have completely different sizes, but I'll work something out. Makes me want to have children just so I have the perfect excuse to keep making baby quilts ;)

Acho que estou a fazer um quilt para bebé, mas não tenho a certeza! :) Sei que tem sido um desafio porque os desenhos têm tamanhos completamente diferentes, mas logo arranjo uma solução. Dá-me vontade de ter crianças só para ter a desculpa perfeita para continuar a fazer quilts de bebé :)

New Arrivals ::: Novas Chegadas

Hello!

Remember the fabrics I ordered that I was so excited about and then when they finally arrived, two of them were MIA and another one had been sent instead? Well the correct ones have just arrived :)

Olá!
Lembram-se dos tecidos que encomendei e que estava tão entusiasmada mas depois quando chegaram, dois deles não vieram e em vez deles mandaram outro diferente? Bem, os tecidos certos acabaram de chegar:)

Already I'm having very mixed feelings between wanting to make something with them and not wanting to cut them.
This makes a total of 6 bolts of fabric I've bought this year, so I hope this should keep my busy for some time, unless it sells out on Etsy and then I'll just have to buy more fabrics, how great would that be? :)
The Wall Flower from Amy Butler's Lotus collection is so precious!! And it costs more too!

I'm becoming more and more convinced that I would be very happy to live among fabric :)
These fabrics shoul be listed on my Etsy Shop shortly. I'm loving that I get to add a couple of things to the list everyday. Makes me happy to see I actually manage to find some time to do things I love, makes the burden a little less heavy.


Automaticamente fico no dilema de querer fazer alguma coisa com eles e não querer cortar o tecido.
Recebi neste momento 6 tecidos comprados este ano, espero que me mantenham entretida durante algum tempo, a não sr que se vendam todos no Etsy e aí terei que comprar mais tecido, seria fantástico! :)
O tecido Wall Floers da colecção Lotus da Amy Butler é lindo!! E mais caro!

Estou cada vez mais convencida que seria muito feliz a viver entre o tecido :)
Estes tecidos vão ser adicionados à minha loja no Etsy brevemente. Estou a adorar conseguir adicionar artigos diariamente. Fico muito feliz por ver que até consigo arranjar tempo para fazer as coisas que gosto, torna o fardo um pouco mais leve.

Spring has arrived!!! ::: A Primavera chegou!!!

Well... no... not really.
It's actually getting colder and colder. I got out of the house at 4ºC this morning. Granted, I know a lot of you are getting snow and below zero temperatures, but we're a freakin mediterranean country ok? We're not supposed to freeze! We're the country people from up north visit and walk around in t-shirts during winter time!!! Well, not right now!

But that's beside the point. The point is, yesterday I had some lovely fabrics waiting for me and they are ALL about the spring!

Bem, não, nem por isso.
Aliás, está cada vez mais frio, saí de casa esta manhã e estavam 4ºC. Eu sei que onde muitos de vocês estão está a nevar e têm temperaturas negativas, mas eu estou num país no mediterrâneo, ok? Não é suposto congelarmos! Estou num país que as pessoas do norte visitam e usam t-shirts durante o Inverno!! Bem, não neste momento!

Mas pronto, a questão não é essa. A questão é que ontem tinha tecidos lindos à minha espera e são totalmente primaveris.

Granted, the order was all messed up. I did not order Amy Butler's Cypress Paisley in Lime, I ordered it in Red and another lovely Wall Flower in sky from the Lotus collection, I was kind of bummed...
But now I think it all goes really well together, so I'll just wait and see if it was fate.
There is another Amy Butler fabric, which is Paradise Garden in Wine also from the Love collection and then I have 2 Jeanean Morrison fabrics from the California Dreamin collection, namely Santa Rosa Orange and Catalina Blue. I just love these names!

Just looking at fabric makes my mind go a million miles an hour, particularly if it's strong colored and the design just pops. I'm just not sure I'm ready to cut into it yet, right now I'm just happy looking at it.

All of this fabric is available on my Etsy Shop with Free Shipping to all Europe and very low costs for everywhere else.


Efectivamente a encomenda veio toda trocada. Eu não encomendei o Cypress Paisley in Lima da Amy Butler, eu encomendei em Vermelho, assim como um dos meus tecidos favoritos, o Wall Flower da colecção Lotus, confesso que fiquei um bocadinho chateada...
Mas agora acho que todos os tecidos combinam bem, portanto vou ter que esperar e ver se estava destinado a ser assim.
Recebi também outro tecido da Amy Butler, também da colecção Love, chamado Pradise Garden in Red. Depois recebi também mais 2 tecidos da Jeanean Morrison da colecção California Dreamin, nomeadamente o Santa Rosa Orange e o Catalina Blue. Adoro estes nomes!!
Olhar para os tecidos põe a minha mente a mil à hora, especialmente se as cores e os padrões forem fortes. Só não sei se estou preparada para começar a cortar, neste momento fico contente só de olhar para eles.

Todo este tecido está disponível na minha loja no Etsy com portes de envio grátis para a Europa e a custos muito reduzidos para o resto do mundo.

Yesterday was a long day... ::: Ontem foi um longo dia...

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in some time for shopping. A great shop was having a great fabric sale and I got very carried away!
Also I've been meaning to by a new cut mat,as I decided it would be a good idea to iron on top of the one I had. Well, actually I didn't really notice it was under the fabric, but stil... Anyway, it was time for a new one, the one I had was way too small and this one is perfect!

As for the fabric, I restocked on some of my faves and also added some new printes to my collection.

Ontem consegui arranjar algum tempo para fazer compras. Uma óptima loja estava a fazer uns óptimos saldos nuns óptimos tecidos e eu entusiasmei-me demasiado!
Também estava a precisar de comprar uma nova base para corte, visto que decidi passar a ferro em cima da que tinha. Bem, na realidade não me apercebi que ela estava debaixo do tecido, mas mesmo assim. De qualquer dasformas, estava na altura de comprar uma nova, porque a que eu tinha era pequena demais e esta é perfeita!

Quanto ao tecido, voltei a comprar alguns dos meus tecidos favoritos que já tinham acabado e adicionei alguns novos padrões à minha colecção.

A morning well spent ::: Uma manhã bem passada

Hello.

Well, this day is turning out great! Do you know those days when you have a list of things you want to see done and not only do you get to do them, but it all just fits so well, minimum time waste, just perfeclty sincronized, like some sort of dance? That's the kind of day I've been having.

Plus I got this little baby in the mail:

Bem, este dia está a correr lindamente. Sabem aqueles dias quando temos uma lista de coisas que queremos fazer e não só conseguimos fazê-las, mas encaixa tudo lindamente, com o mínimo de desperdicio de tempo, com uma sincronização perfeita, como se fosse uma dança? É esse o tipo de dia que estou a ter.

Para além disso, recebi esta maravilha no correio:

Don't you just lovee yummi fabric catalogues?? This last picture could easily turn into a quilt. Love it!!

Não adoram catálogos de tecido deliciosos? Esta última foto daria facilmente num quilt. Adoro!!

It's hard work, but somebody has to do it...::: É um trabalho difícil, mas alguém tem que o fazer...

Yesterday I got a visit in my shop, lets just say the reason was totally non-work related...

Ontem recebi uma visita na minha loja, digamos apenas que o motivo não estava de todo relacionado com o trabalho...

I felt completely overwhelmed, there was just to much to choose from, too many decisions. I could't make up my mind! Now that I've taken some time to think about it, it is time to have fun... :)

Senti-me completamente assoberbada, havia demasiadas opções, demasiadas decisões e eu não conseguia decidir-me.
Agora que consegui pensar um bocado no assunto, está na altura de me divertir... :)

Brand New Year, brand new projects :::: Novo Ano, novos projectos

Hello!

I hope your Year has started in the best possible way. For me, there was a lot of rest and some sewing, of course. I've missed it, seeing as I haven't sewn a stich since ending all the Christmas gifts. I have a lot of new ideas, just not enought time to get them done. 

Olá.

Espero que o vosso Ano tenha começado da melhor forma possível. Para mim, tive muito descanso e um pouco de costura, claro. Já tinha saudades, já que já não cosia um ponto desde que terminei os presentes de Natal. Tenho muitas novas ideias, mas não tenho tempo suficiente para as terminar.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying spending time with my fabric, I am most inspired by colors and patterns and sorrounding myself with fabric does the trick.

What most inspires you?

Entretanto, estou a disfrutar do meu tempo com os meus tecidos, o que mais me inspira são cores e padrões e rodear-me de tecidos surte esse efeito.

E a ti, o que te inspira?



Exciting Day Ahead!

Hello!

So yesterday I managed to quilt one of the two lap quilts I have to finish for Christmas. I also managed to add the binding to it, though I wasn't able to finish the hand sewn back. I thought of machine sewing it, but frankly it was just too late to be sewing, also I love the look of a hand sewn binding, well not all of it is hand sewn, just one side, you know what I mean! I love the finished look, the fact that there is not a stich in sight, just love it!

I took pictures but now I lost the cable so I hope to find it today. Again, very late in the evening for me.
Today I hope to spend a lovely afternoon with my mom and my sister and do a bit of shopping. One of the items of the shopping list is my Christmas Gift, which this year will be... FABRIC!! I'm giddy with excitment, can't think of a better way to spend shopping time than looking at fabric. Except of course if they dislike fabric I love or vice-versa. That would be very depressing, as I sometimes feel like an alien already due to my extreme love (ok obsession would describe it also) of fabric...

I'm sure it will be a GREAT day. Hope yours is too!

A few new purchases and bit of cleaning up

Yesterday I finally managed to go to the quilting shop I've been meaning to go for weeks now. The people there were amazing! I'm so happy I now have my rotary cutter back, I've been missing it like crazy. Also, they told me that the reason I have such a huge problem with cutting fabric properly might have something to do with me being left handed and so I should have the blade from the rotary on the other side of the handle. It might also be that I'm just really clumsy, but I've noticed I have to ´put a lot more effoirt into cut than what I see other people doing.
Still have no clue how the blade just stopped cutting. Maybe I need to put up huge posters around my table saying KEEP CLEAR FROM MY SCISSORS AND CUTTERS PLEASE, since it seems people think I'm joking when I say you can't cut anything other than fabric with them and they keep turning up ruined... It's also the problem of having a workstation that's basically a desk on the living room, in plain sight and reachable to just about anyone that need to borrow a scissor for whatever...

But anyway, it was great to get to know a new store, we have so few! I think most of you would be shocked with how behind Portugal is on this subject. I count about three shops somewhat close and we're talking about Lisbon!
From what I've seen so far, Moda fabrics are the easiest to come by, although from what I understand you won't find the same collections in different shops. Each shop buys a collection they know the other won't have. Amy Butler is very difficult to come by. You'll find a couple of fabrics from the latest collection and that's about it. Don't even get me started on Anna Maria Horner, I've never seen it on sale in any of the shops I visited, they don't even know what I'm talking about.
I don't mean to sound disrespectful,  it's just really frustrating to try and do something different without having to resort to online shops and, of course, huge delivery charges. And even when you do find designer fabrics, they'll cost above 12 euros per meter, it's so expensive!! Everything quilting related is expensive or nonexistent. I had to order freezer paper online, it's impossible to find, and if you do find it it will be in a quilting shop and it's, of course, expensive...

Thanks for letting me rant for a bit, really needed it! :)
I bought a couple of fabrics, from Free Spirit I think, and I bought flannel for the first time. I bought a really conservative kind, but I have a project in mind that I think will be perfect! Mostly, I just feel like holding it and never letting it go, but it would look weird to come to work holding a piece of flannel, I think...
I also bought my first piece of interfacing. I can't wait to finally get the time to try these new materials, I'm very excited!

They're not really meant to go together, I just buy as I like and then I get home and start mixing fabrics and seeing what I like.
I also decided to do a bit of cleaning up of my workspace and my fabric box (Yes it still fits in a box). I am becoming increasingly worried I've managed to pass on my fabric obsession to my younger cat Nico, as he seems to love sitting on the fabric and as soon as he sees an inch he jumps on top of it. I bet he'll be a great designer when he grows up.

 It's beginning to look like a proper stash. A smalish stash anyway...

My scraps have outgrown the small scraps recipient and are now in a bag. Yesterday was also the first time I actually put some scraps to good use. I have one last minute quilt to make and am almost out of the 12 Days of Christmas fabrics I've been using,. But then, all of a sudden, as I rummaged through my scraps I managed to find like 5 great pieces I had no idea I had! So yay for scraps! :)

And this is THE BOX. It contains all the fabric bigger than a scrap. The batting is in a huge bag, but with the projects I have until Christmas it should rapidly decrease...

Cravings [Blogtoberfest Day 27]

Hello!

I hope you like the changes I've made to the place. I needed a fresh outlook.
What I also need is to buy fabric. It's been way too long I've bought anything new and spending my days looking at amazing projects and fabric cabinets from all of the other very talented bloggers I follow isn't helping!
But I am about to invest in a new sewing machine and truth be told I already have fabrics for the next 5 projects I have linned up, so I don't really need fabric, but I really REALLY want it... To hold new fabric in my hands, to imagine the possibilities, it's just all too much, particularly knowing I wont be buying new fabric until December at least. It's just too cruel!

The story of this particular fabric...

As you know, I'm just starting in this quilting/patchwork business and so I didn't have any fabric stash. however there is one fabric I decided to incorportate on some of the quilts which has a very special meaning to me.


Can you guess what this used to be?

 This fabric used to be a cotton kimono. When I was about 7 or 8 not really sure, but I know I was really small, my dad went to Japan, I remember thinking how exotic that sounded. On the day he returned there was actually a power failure so we had no electricity. I remember opening the presents he bought us by candle light in the kitchen :) He bought me what I think was my first watch. It was really cool and I could see all the different time zones in different cities of the World. He bought us a portable cd player which was unheard of in Portugal at the time. I know I had never heard of it at least. Wasn't really that portable, we couldn't move it much without jumping the cd... And he bought all of us some kimonos, of course. My mom's was blue silk, my sister's was cotton pink and mine was red. I loved it, made me feel really fancy. I used it years on end until I was for some reason polishing my black shoes and managed to stain it really bad in the front. Also I lost the belt, my sister and I were always tying each other up trying to see who could get free the fastest and belts were a must. So a few months ago when I was talking to my mom about possible fabrics I could use for the quilts she remembered this old number, kept on some drawer.
It was much harder to cut than I thought. The fabric is old, it's really soft so each time I pulled a side, it gave. Some of the squares I could use, some were too bent out of shape, so I'll just have to save them for some next project. Funny thing is, out of all of the fabrics I'm using, this has the best feeling by far, it's so soft and comfy, just like a quilt should be. :)

[Blogtoberfest Day21]

Hello!

I must say I haven't had much news, or ate least not many I can blog about. I've been busy quilting as you know. I've been doing two at a time, they are completely different and at different stages of work, so it's been kind of hectic..

Sneak Peak

As we enter the last 10 days of Blogtoberfest, I have to say I had no idea how hard it would be, I failed miserably, days just seemed to merge, I sometimes was very surprised to find out that my last post actually wasn't from the day before, but much older than that. I here pledge to make a much bigger effort from now on, not only for the next Blogtoberfest, but also during the whole year!

Scrappy Tuesday [Blogtoberfest Day 5]

So today is a very important holiday in Portugal. It marks the 100th brithday of the Portuguese Republic and there are dozens of events going on all throughout the country. I, of course, am working, as I do every single day of the week... I so miss holidays and weekends and staying in bed until late in the day... This sucks!

Ok, now that I took that out of my system, I'd like to introduce you to my very own first scrap jar!

I haven't had a lot of projects yet, ergo not that many leftovers. I wonder if I'll ever get to use these, I certaninly hope so, must be one heck of a feeling to use these scraps most people would throw out. But all the blogs and pages I follow have really inspired me in all sorts of ways. I admire your creativity, your drive and have learned much from you also. Including how to be less wastefull...
Regarding yesterday's sandwich, I've managed to continue to work on it, even though I don't have that much progress to report.
Yesterday I used the spray glue as I usually do, but somehow I think I did something wrong. Don't really know if it has to do with the fabrics used or the fact that my batting is diferent from what I usually use but it didn't really stick. So I decided to pin it as well, though with the use of the glue it wasn't necessary to pin as much as I would have to otherwise.

Can't really show you any pictures at this time, but I will. Very soon :)

Now on to the quilting. My most dreaded step. First of all because my sewing machine doesn't do free motion. So I'm forced to do straight line quilting. Which would be fine if the lines would indeed be straight, which they usually aren't. I think I'me more experienced now than the last time I quilted, but I'm still nervous... Anyway, I've got my lovely seam ripper now so it should at least be quicker to undone... That's the spirit! ;) Wish me luck!

Oh!!

My precious!

... by the way, in the meantime I managed to buy some new fat quarters... I'm out of contrrroooolllll!!!