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!

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!).

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!

  

Lago Maggiore Quilt - Afghanistan Inspiration

In my 13.08.2012 post I said that I would show what I've been up to in the year I stopped writing this blog. Recently my Lago Maggiore Quilt has come into my hands again and now I'll explain to you why. Here are some photos of my quilt:

The quilt was originally made in occasion of an exhibition called  "Afghanistan Inspiration" in 2011, a touring exhibition that stopped on Lake Maggiore too, thanks to Francesca Miglierina from Tessilesa's hard work. She in fact not only organised everything to make it possible for "Afghanistan Inspiration" to be exhibited in the Museo Internazionale Design Ceramico in Cerro di Laveno Mombello, she also had quilts on show in all the town's shop windows and asked her students to make quilts dedicated to the theme of water and the lake (Progetto Acqua e Lago). The quilts had to be 150 cm long, 15 cm wide.

My Lago Maggiore quilt uses different techniques such as "Shanghai" for the beach part with covered buttons applied as stones and Raku stones too. The central part of the quilt uses a cut-out technique to represent the waves on the Lake. In the top part of the quilt the mountains are made using the "tagliatelle" technique and the sun is a crazy log cabin that expands into the sky. Using a lot of Shantung fabric reproduces the effect of the sun's light reflected on Lake Maggiore's landscape.

The "Shanghai", "Tagliatelle" and cut-out techniques were all learnt during Roberta Sperandio's fantastic courses. The crazy log cabin I learnt from Aneela Hoey's "Crazy Scrappy quilt a long" (see the button on the right!). The Raku buttons were made (one was made by Rossella!) during  a laboratory organised the day of the opening of the exhibition at the Museo Internazione Design Ceramico by the energetic Atelier Capricorno. It was a great experience making pieces to add to our quilts using this ancient technique.

Thanks to Sabrina Colonna, Delegate for Quilt Italia in Lombardia, some of the quilts from the project Water and Lake were on show at Quilt Italia's stand at Bergamo Creattiva from the 15th to the 17th of February. There's some photos of the stand on Sabrina's interesting blog, well worth reading! 

I will post some photos of the "Afghanistan Inspiration" exhibition soon with works from all over Europe. Visit oneearthtextiles for more information.

Feedback

I am very pleased to see that Fuxia from Firenze, I spoke about in my second post dedicated Bergamo Creattiva, named my blog in their Facebook page. I see they have come up with some other very interesting novelties for Spring/Summer, an explosion of flowers:

A very creative group!

I have also received an interesting mail from Marsha at The Country Schoolhouse about their Twister templates, I spoke about in my pinwheels post. If you look on Google Images you'll find a lot of quilts made with these templates, with different effects. I'm looking forward to making my Pinwheel quilt! Marsha wrote to me that "the books that go along with it do help to answer some of the questions that come up and give you a lot more ideas on projects to do.  They go in a sequence where one book builds upon the skill of the previous one....so they increase in difficulty.  I did it that way so people could be more challenged as they go on if they want to be.  I also like to include ideas so people can work on doing their own patterns too."

Here's a photo of the template in case you've never seen one. It's very sturdy and... clever! They come in different sizes too. In my area Tessilesa sells them, even on-line.

Lucy's play cube

As I was speaking about Aneela Hoey and how I love her fabric, I remembered that I made another special present for Lucy this time using "a walk in the woods" for Moda:

It's a play cube with some ribbon and trims from my stash. The "handmade with love" ribbon came as a gift with an issue of CrossStitcher and the pink polka dot ribbon is from Greengate. In a future post I will tell about this very special (and ever growing) stash I have!

Luckily Ella personally picked the fabric to use for each side of the play cube because there was so much choice I was having difficulty choosing. And this is the result: a very soft and pretty play cube that "lives" in Lucy's bed.

In case you're wondering, it's been snowing today!