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Monday 29 April 2013

verykerryberry and sewsweetness

We just won a giveaway at Kerry's verykerryberry!!! Hip hip hooray! Not only are we pleased about the prize but also because we won it on one of our favourite blogs! We won the possibility to choose three beautiful patterns from Sara Lawson's sewsweetness patterns. These are the patterns we've chosen:

Dot Dot Dash Bag

Paper-pieced Sunrise Clutch

Soda Pop Bag

We are sooo happy! Now which one do we start with???

Sunday 28 April 2013

To Boston With Love - Bunting Flags

We have decided to participate in the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's initiative:
Abbiamo deciso di partecipare all'inizitiva del Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild:



It's an effort to bring peace and love from all over the world to Boston and I think it is also an important sign of hope. You are never alone, there is always someone thinking of you.
E' un tentativo di portare pace ed amore a Boston da tutto il mondo e penso che sia anche un segno molto importante di speranza. Non sei mai da solo, c'e' sempre qualcuno che sta pensando a te.

All the flags will be collected, tied together and strung into bunting (banners) to be displayed in Boston in a public exhibition probably in early June 2013.
Here is a peek at the flag we're making, it's not quite finished but we have to hurry up to send it off in time! You're still in time to make one too, just click on the button to find the instructions.
Tutte le bandierine verranno legate insieme ed appese in festoni, che saranno esposti a Boston durante una mostra pubblica probabilmente all'inizio di Giugno 2013.
Ecco un'occhiatina alla bandiera che stiamo creando, non è ancora finita ma dobbiamo sbrigarci a spedirla in tempo. Sei ancora in tempo anche tu per crearne una, clicca sul bottone per trovare le istruzioni.


With all our love and lots of hope.
Con tutto il nostro amore e tanta speranza.

Saturday 20 April 2013

More of A Lovely Year of Finishes and LoveLy Baby Quilt

As I posted at the beginning of the month, I have joined "A Lovely Year of Finishes" hosted by Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs and Shanna of Fiber of All Sortshoping to finish my LoveLy Baby Quilt. I'm not doing so well at the moment:



So far I have ironed everything (this is already an extremely difficult task...I always have time problems and have to keep the iron far away from my Toddler!) then, using my "Quick Results" method, I've sewn front and backing together, with the wadding on top of the front piece, right sides facing, leaving an opening for turning the quilt the right side out. During this process I sandwiched three ribbon tags, from my ribbon and trim stash, on one side. I found a really pretty heart ribbon that matches perfectly.


Problem number one: I sewed the ribbons and trim to far out, the tags are too long and I don't like them like that. So I am now unstitching them. I just have to sew them in again but it's a bit fidgety getting them straight and not making them move while you're sewing. Sigh...
Problem number two: I decided quite quickly how I was going to quilt the LoveLy Baby Quilt. As the fabric already has a lot of small patterns, I just want to quilt "in the ditch" around the wide border, right to the edge to make the corner squares stand out. I also want to quilt hearts on the four central solid pink squares. Here is where I had my second problem: I wobbled a bit, so I'm undoing that too because it keeps catching my eye!


Problem number three: when I finished piecing everything I noticed there was a tiny cut in the corner of one of the central solid pink squares. So I thought: I am not going to undo it all again to fix it! This is the solution I came up with:


I'm going to crochet two or three hearts to sew on to this area of the quilt, as an extra girlie touch too! They are so cute. I saw them in Eline Pellinkhof's beautiful book "Stitch and Sew Home" and fell in love with them (and practically everything else in the book!). I really like Eline's giant cross stitch murals, they're brilliant. She is also designing some really interesting fabric, I'll write about that soon...


The problem is I've only just started learning how to crochet from my friend Cinzia (Angelina) who is patiently trying to teach me! I've only done flowers so far and I have to translate the terms into Italian otherwise we don't know what we're talking about!


Problem number four: I've been carrying the quilt around, hoping to have time to do the unstitching, so it needs ironing again! Double sigh! 
Do these things just happen to me or is there somebody else out there who has the same problems? Will post again at the end of the month about this quilt, hopefully with good news!!!
My Button


Sunday 14 April 2013

Promote your sewing and craft: business cards and stickers

If you want to promote your sewing and craft business, improve your packaging or just make your gift wrapping more unique then don't miss moo.com.


They have the most incredible selection of products that can be customised in all sorts of different ways. They have modernised business cards and made them artistic and fun. My favourite are MiniCards, which are half the size of a normal business card. These are the ones I had made using a special offer (I only paid for the shipping). I couldn't resist trying the offer as it was so cheap, I've always liked business cards!


The packaging they use for the MiniCards is really cool. A very solid box protects your MiniCards through shipping and the graphics really invites you to open up the box!


The box can be used to display your cards and there are even dividers included.


The MiniCards are made of stiff card and the matt finish I chose is really professional. If you want you can use different images on all the cards in the same box. I chose a photo Daniele Di Ciccio took: a detail of a purse I made using Japanese fabric.


This is the back of the card. As I'm going to use them for wrapping up presents I've adapted them like this:


And this is how I was thinking of wrapping up a present...


I would really like to try the StickerBooks too, the stickers look useful for closing packets and decorating cards. And stickers are really fun anyway!

Craft Stickers


                     




Friday 12 April 2013

Quilting Gallery - Cori Dantini fabric quilt

At Quilting Gallery the voting for the Springtime Quilts in the Quilter's Show and Tell closed on Monday 8th April. I must have been sleeping when I read this because I thought you could carry on voting until midnight today, sigh! Sadly I have not been in time to ask you to vote for a stunning quilt I saw had been submitted (I voted for it!). All I can do now is invite you to go and have a look at "You are a seed" by Kris at her blog Sew Sunshine.


It's beautiful. I love it. The flowers pouring over the edge, the panel and the echo quilting. Really brilliant! I would also like to thank Kris for revealing to me Cori Dantini's work. I had no idea who she was until I saw this quilt. I bought some packets of fabric from the Filomania stand at Bergamo Creattiva last year because I thought they were beautiful and now I discover the fabric is designed by Cori Dantini.  



Her drawings are breathtaking!



Tuesday 9 April 2013

A Lovely Year of Finishes and LoveLy Baby Quilt

I have decided to join "A Lovely Year of Finishes" hosted by Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs and Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts because it's about time I finish this Baby Quilt:


I've decided to call it LoveLy Baby Quilt because:
  • it's full of hearts, in all shapes and sizes
  • the challenge is called "A Lovely Year of Finishes"
  • most importantly because my Baby is called Lucy and so LoveLy is short for Love Lucy!!!
As you can see from the photo, it's not even ironed at the moment! The reason is that I had to wash it because I didn't like how I had started quilting it (Ella didn't like it either!) so I decided to start all over again and to do this I had to wash it or you could see all the holes left by the stitches I undid (very long and boring job). I started making the quilt last year for a quilting course. I started quilting it during the course while holding Lucy on my lap as she had come to have some milk. It was quilted in straight lines through the middle of each square, horizontally and vertically. Half way through I realised I didn't like it quilted this way and that it also ruined my central square, my favourite one. The fabric in the central square shows my favourite childhood sweets, which are impossible to find in Italy: you know, Love Heart sweets.
All the fabric, a part from the solid pink, comes from "Sweetheart - Valentine Bundle" I bought from Fabric Rehab. They have some fantastic bundles, I often go and check what's new. They're original and good value.

Next post about LoveLy Baby Quilt after the 15th of April, hopefully with some progress!!!


Saturday 6 April 2013

Sewing in Fashion and Design

I expect you have noticed that lately sewing (and craft in general) is inspiring Fashion and Design. Here are a few products that have caught my eye, I think they're great.

I'll start with an Italian product: Il Centimetro

A really fun bracelet that reminds you of... a tape measure of course. From the vintage yellow tape measure colour to all sorts of different colours, the leather is really thick. My Italian half has to say that Italians really know how to work leather! The quality is very high and the price is low! When are they going to make a ring?


Another Italian product I just read about in Molly Makes Issue n. 25 is this super modern version of the super old sewing box: Sewing the world by Seletti




I have always loved my Mum's wooden sewing box. I think it belonged to my Grandma Ella, I have to ask Mum. Nonna Clara had one too, who didn't have one then?! It has always fascinated me: how it all opens up and the treasures hidden inside. The funny thing is, I was admiring it last week then a few days later I saw this one Seletti is producing. It's a brilliant idea, the design is a little bit on the dark side, but why not? I really like Seletti products anyway, I have a weak spot for their design ideas.

My third favourite sewing inspired product is this: Disaster Designs' Needle and Thread Overnight bag

and this is the Needle & Thread purse
 Not bad at all... They have a lot more in the series but these are definitely my favourite two. So what do you think?


(photos one and two from producer's websites, Disaster Design photos from littlewhitegloves.com and thealternativestore.net)



Thursday 4 April 2013

Quilting Gallery - Quilters' Show & Tell

Vote, Vote, Vote! 

From tomorrow morning please vote for my "Spring is coming" quilt at Quilting Gallery's Quilter' Show & Tell! The theme for the week starting from Friday is "Springtime Quilts". It's an interesting event, a chance to see what other quilters are up to. It's easy to vote and you can vote for more than one quilt (the number of votes depends on how many entries there have been). You also get a chance to win one of the prizes offered by the sponsors. Absolutely free of course! So go and have a look and you might even win something!



Vota, Vota, Vota!

Da domani mattina per favore votate per il mio quilt "La Primavera sta arrivando" al Quilters' Show & Tell di Quilting Gallery! Il tema della settimana, che parte da venerdì, è "Quilt Primaverili". E' un evento interessante, un'occasione per vedere cosa stanno combinando altri quilter. E' facile votare e puoi anche votare per più di un quilt (il numero dei voti che puoi dare dipende dal numero dei partecipanti). Hai anche la possibilità di vincere uno dei premi offerti dagli sponsor. Tutto assolutamente gratis, naturalmente. Vai a dare un'occhiata e potresti anche vincere qualcosa!


Wednesday 3 April 2013

Spring Quilt

Spring is coming and so I had to get out my bright springy quilt. I got it out yesterday actually and today is the first really warm day we've had (it worked!).


I made this quilt after following courses by Francesca Miglierina and Roberta Sperandio. They taught me the butterfly "crazy" cutting technique and I thought it was great, really clever. I wanted to add some flowers but as I hadn't got an example of a "crazy" flower, I asked Daniele Di Ciccio to draw one for me, a very schematic one, and then I transformed it into patchwork. Really fun. I've seen houses, trees, stars made with this technique and they all look good. A bit like a child's drawing transformed into patchwork. A way of drawing that will last in time and you won't grow out of.