Baby Lucy

You have met Ella and here's Lucy! She is a year old now and in this photo she was just two days old! She's sleeping snugly under the baby quilt I managed to make for her just before her birth.

Here we were still in the hospital and you have no idea how much this quilt cheered me up. It was wonderful to wrap her up in it as we moved around the ward. This quilt makes me think about the joy of playing... 

When I'll get round to ironing it I'll show you what the other side looks like because there's a surprise!

The fabric, many will already know, is "Sherbet Pips" by Aneela Hoey for Moda. I fell in love with Aneela Hoey's fabric as soon as I first saw it and in the meantime have also fallen for "A walk in the woods" and "Sew Stitchy"... Now she's out with Posy and I really like "Story" and "Ditsy". I hope one day to buy a "Sew Stitchy" charm pack because I have this idea for making a sewing bag for patchwork blocks.

You must go and see Aneela Hoey's blog comfortstitching, I've been reading it for a while now and, even though I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, it's as though she's let you become her friend and shown you inside her house.

Creattiva Bergamo and my favourite stands (Part 2)

Creattiva Bergamo is coming up in a few days time, so I better get a move on and tell you more about my favourite stands...

There's Fuxia di Morelli Pamela from Firenze (Pad. A n° 12, 14), who sell fantastic felties. The girls at the stand are really nice and they'll give you good ideas on how to use all the materials they sell. I fell in love with their lollipops and fairy cakes:

This is what I made with some of them: a Candy Mobile for my daughter Lucy to look at while I'm changing her nappy!

Filomania (Pad. A,Pad. B n° 69, 113, 115, 117, 119, 81, 83, 85, 87) are also extremely helpful, I had a lot of questions to ask them about laminated material and they took time to explain things to me even though there was a crowd at their stand. They even gave me for free a pattern for a bag they had on show there as an example and that I really liked. 

For kits I like To-do, they always have something interesting and easy to make. The Decoupatchwork kits are good and the patterns are original. Go and see their on-line catalogue. This is a felt kit - I adore a Matrioska (or Babushka)!

My latest find so far is DottyRose: don't miss them if you like Tilda, because they have a very wide selection of her fabric (new and old collections). 

They also have other fabric which at the moment I cannot find anywhere in my area such as Minky Dot Cuddle Dimple fabric. It's so soft you just want to cuddle it and make something for a baby out of it.

I hope I've given you some ideas and that now you really want to go and find your own favourite stands!

Creattiva Bergamo and my favourite stands (Part 1)

If you're going to Creattiva Bergamo for the first time (from the 15th to the 17th of February, see my previous post) or still haven't decided whether to go or not, then let me tell you about my favourite stands.

Let me see, where can I start? How about Savoir Faire "il salotto delle idee", which is also a shop in Bergamo (see this blog for some photos of the shop). A very nice and helpful group of people working there and I think it's a family run business. They stock Kaffe Fassett, which is really hard to find around here. In fact I still haven't found a shop selling this fabric and am always looking at what's on offer on Internet. Look at this lovely packet of fat quarters - Curio by Basic Grey for Moda - in a pretty little bundle...

You must not miss the fantastic stand of Manfred Gerhardt (from Germany - Pad. A n° 171, 173) with the most incredible selection of fancy trims and ribbons I have ever seen. His stand is self service (unbelievable!) which means you can hang around forever looking and looking again to your hearts content! Just remember not to get carried away!

I must mention Roberta de Marchi from Lecco (Pad. A n° 77, 79): the stand is beautiful to look at and the choice of linens is really good.

For good value in my continuous search for self cover buttons at a decent price I like Le Coccole di Maria Gio (Pad. B n° 186, 188). Well I won't show you a picture of those, we know what they look like. Instead I'll show you this:

You can make necklaces or bracelets with this jersey strip or... I haven't decided what yet but I'm sure one day I'll think of something and it will be just what I need!

2nd part of this post coming up soon!

Coudre c'est facile and my Christmas decorations

I haven't shown you my Christmas decorations yet... I know it's a bit late, but anyway you might like to see them and they're not that "Christmassy"!

As you can see from the bunting, it's been a bit windy lately! The birds are not "flour of my sack" as you'd say in Italian, that is I didn't create them from scratch. They are from a pattern in the magazine Coudre c'est facile, issue n. 15 Novembre/Décembre 2012:

It's a really good French magazine with all sorts of projects from clothes to the brilliant "Le Carnet du Net" showing you some great creations to buy (or just look at!) on Internet. The explanations are really clear even for somebody like me who can't speak French. If I want to be sure I've understood everything right I ask my Mum if she can translate it for me!

Anyway, coming back to my birds, I used the pattern in Coudre to make them and some country style Christmas fabric and I'm quite pleased with the result. I would really like to make one with the wood stand but have to ask my Dad if he's got a branch of silver beech to cut for me! I wouldn't mind making some for Easter too, choosing a suitable fabric.

You really have to see the next issue of Coudre c'est facile because there are some very pretty Liberty purses I'm itching to make, I'll show you in a future post.

And, to finish off, who doesn't like Candy Sticks? A little bit of Washi tape saves me from drilling a hole in the front door! This masking tape is mt deco by Kamoi Kakoshi Co., Ltd (www.masking-tape.jp).

Creattiva Bergamo, Quilt Italia: Kazuyo Horiuchi and Marta Olivieri

I've done all my chores and I think I deserve to relax a minute writing on my blog. Creattiva Bergamo is coming up soon: from the 15th to the 17th of Febuary. This time I won't be going though because, to be honest, I'm totally skint! I'm sorry not to go because this Craft Fair is really good! It's my favourite one up to now. There is so much to see, I've been twice but neither times did I manage to go round the whole fair! I probably stop at too many stands!!!

Last time I went to Creattiva Bergamo was in October 2012 and I absolutely have to show you this quilt that won first prize (in the traditional category) of the International competition organized by QuiltItalia with the Fiera di Bergamo: Kazuyo Horiuchi and her Tabidachi (The departure):

and here's a detail, absolutely beautiful (and so precise!!!) 

And here is another quilt that caught my eye (I couldn't photograph all of them, could I?!). It's called La forza del desiderio (the power of a wish ... oh dear it doesn't sound quite right translated like that) by Marta Olivieri:

Quilt Italia is going to have another exhibition this year too at Creattiva Bergamo and the stands are not just Italian ones, there is so much variety, so you really shouldn't miss it if you're anywhere near!

Quilt Italia e Tessilesa

A proposito dei miei lavori, stavo sfogliando il bellissimo giornale di Quilt Italia (numero 4 - inverno 2012) quando il mio occhio cade su una foto e mi dico: queste sono cose che ho fatto io! 

Sul tavolo della mostra show and tell del corso di Roberta Sperandio (quanto mi è mancato il tuo corso autunnale!) c'erano dei miei lavori da completare e, in fondo al tavolo, uno finito. Il fiore non vedo l'ora di inserirlo insieme ad altri fiori in un runner. Chissà quando avrò il tempo d farlo! La foto in realtà è nella pubblicità per il negozio Tessilesa di Laveno Mombello di Francesca Miglierina. Francesca è una miniera di idee ed iniziative. Sta diffondendo l'amore per il patchwork!

A proposito di Roberta Sperandio andate a vedere l'incredibile risultato dell'iniziativa Mille Colori Emilia. Quiltiste siete grandi e Roberta ci mette un'energia che nessuno riesce a resistere. Complimenti a tutti!

CrossStitcher - themakingspot

I haven't shown you this yet, it's CrossStitcher, one of my favourite magazines. This is December 2012 issue (number 260):

and inside they published my buttons in the Reader Gallery! 

(See Buttons galore! for better photos!)

I'm really pleased, it was a very nice surprise and made me feel good! 

Thank you very much.

If you want to see more about Cross Stitcher then visit http://crossstitcher.themakingspot.com. There are lots of free charts for cross stitching and they're always really up to date with trends.

They work with Mollie Makes magazine, which is another beautiful magazine. The graphics/photos are fantastic and the projects really inspiring. Go to http://www.molliemakes.com and have fun!