Visiting foreign countries

Today I have been visiting a foreign country. Let's see, do you recognize it by some of its inhabitants?

(Noreen the keen is mean to demean - rumors go that she's having a bad tongue)

(Raphaella, a fallen angel, that picked up human habits, started smocking, drinking beer, sometimes even she doesn't believe she once was an angel, because nobody believes her)

(a ghotic missie that was happening there with her rainbow friend)

(a thing)

(another Halloween thing)

(Chilperic, another thing :)))

a W.I.P.

(exhibition pannel)

(the mother of them all ;)

Ooooh! I almost forgot! She is Agatha, and she came home with us, very determined about where she is going to live from now on.

All in all, I was visiting Falushtain, the land of dreamed stories, a mysterious, curious and wondrous realm. Go visit too!

p.s. This means I went to the hand made event that is taking place these days in Bucharest :))) and I met Anca, and her puppets.

Soul Cake

Tough it is not crafted by me, this is a carol that has grown very dear to my heart, part because of the singer, part because of the lyrics... Halloween is not (yet) a tradition in my country, also all saints day, but the simplicity of the words, the pureness of the request... has touched a part of my heart.

and there is more: a recipe of the beautiful soul-cake:

Soul Cakes are an echo of the sacrificial foods of the Celtic festival of Samhain held in early autumn. These little cakes were traditionally set out with glasses of wine on All Hallows Eve (31st October) for the souls of the dead. On All Saints Day (1st November) children would go "souling" calling out "Soul, Soul, for a Soul Cake: pray you good mistress, a soul cake".

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup caster/superfine sugar
4 cups plain flour, sifted
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon allspice
3 tablespoons currants
a little milk

Method

- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
- Beat in the egg yolks.
- Fold in the sifted flour and spices.
- Stir in the currants.
- Add enough milk to make a soft dough.
- Form into flat cakes and mark each top with a cross.
- Bake on a well-greased baking tray in a hot oven until golden.


and the lyrics...


A soul cake, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
A soul cake, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.
A soul cake, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,

God bless the master of this house, and the mistress also.
And all the little children that round your table grow.
The cattle in your stable and the dog by your front door.
And all that dwell within your gates
we wish you ten times more.

A soul cake, a soul cake............

Go down into the cellar and see what you can find.
If the barrels are not empty we hope you will be kind.
We hope you will be kind with your apple and strawber’
For we’ll come no more a ’soalin’ till Xmas time next year.

A soul cake, a soul cake, ......................

The streets are very dirty, me shoes are very thin
I have a little pocket to put a penny in.
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’ penny will do.
If you haven’t got a ha’ penny then God bless you.

A soul cake, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
A soul cake, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.

"God bless you!"

Seasonal crafting

After a short question, a week of wandering all over the internet and a brainstorming session with the kids, my felting tools have been put at work. This is the result.

And I've been caught in action :))))), during the photo session.

Pinky

... is ready. My fingers hurt. A lot. I'm happy, but I won't be doing this pattern for a while, I can assure you.

Next, I've started already inventing other projects... but I still think of old ones. I surprised myself today of revising the "to do" list: it became shorter by two, and longer by so many :))))

The complete mess

This:

...should look like a decent cloth by the end of the week. I haven't decide yet if I will add batting (and try free motion on the sandwich) or if I will just be content with the upper cloth/inner cloth construction.

I've decided to enter this adventure after strolling the whole town and not finding a suitable winter coat (or at least to my liking) and after seeing one (on someone) that looked like this.  

Do I make any sense?

Bonding

After struggling, re-doing, thinking, and some more thinking, matching and querying, it is finally ready: the baby girl quilt with sunbonnets destined to be the child's most precious cloth.

I'm happy with the way it finally came out. The binding comes from Holland, fabric I bought 5 years ago. I didn't feel it matched any project till this one, when it was "the perfect match".

One of the girls "had" to have a cat. It was too small to make it an applique, it would have been a disaster. Then I thought of making it with felt, wool and needles, but would have it resisted the high temperature wash, the wear and tear a baby quilt gets? I didn't think so, therefore I've came up with embroidery as last resort. My little girl noticed, when it was finished, that the cat should have had also eyes, because, from the mustache, you could see it's looking to us, but I thought it would have been too much. She agreed when I explained it's too small to be able to make beautiful eyes, and she concluded: the cat is blinking like a lot of people do when you take a photo, and we caught it with her eyes shut! I just love her when she draws such logical conclusions...

Haloween....

Speaking about crafts, these days we've been busy. Here's a sample. (more)

The busy crowd....

And beside that, I've had special orders:

So.... Happy Haloween!!!