custom order

Soon after the delicious present series, I've got a custom order. It had to be a girlie pink bag, but not pink, but pink, but colorful... just like the story: "a color that is not any color, but is not the color that it is".

I hope I was up to the challenge... by now the little one should have received her pink bag that is not pink.

Lollipop with flower

It's called lollipop because is sooo sweet. And with flower because, yes, it has a flower. It had to have a flower. You know, it was just asking for it. So I've made it. There. Lollipop with flower

I must say that the fabric selection was made while Andreea Maria was born. This is the quilt that saw the day of the light in the same time with the little one. Long and happy life I wish them both, the quilt and the little one! May God bless your every day, Andreea!

Exhibit numer... ;)

I still owe you some photo's, from exhibition works. Here they are:

The Magenta

The Iris

The Zebra

The Zebra is about four times bigger than the Iris, which was the try-out for making the Zebra, and is one group theme, interpret the work of Victor Vasarely, a famous visual artist.

The Magenta play is part of a group play, where, together with my friends from "Peticelul romanesc", we've exchanged some pieces of fabric and we tried to make something original out of it. I wanted a "tree of friendship", unfortunately, my quilted tree is barely visible, and I was too upset about my not-working-free-motion-quilting to keep on reinforcing it... Long sad story, my tree of life is just some bubbles over strange squares. Well, I supposed it has to do it for the time being.

presents... part 1

Sometimes, looking at a pattern makes it get stuck in my head. Like it wants to become, but not just yet.

Then, a certain fabric strikes. And, from the clash of pattern and fabric, new ideas emerge.

This was the case of these beauties, that were born last Saturday.

These are going to be presents. The people who will receive them do not know yet ;). Please, don't spoil the secret!

My first exhibition!

EXPOZITIE

Patchwork & Arta Textila
29 mai – 11 iunie 2010

Casa de Cultura Traian Demetrescu, salonul Medieval
vernisaj 28 mai, ora 17

Str.Traian Demetrescu, nr.31, CRAIOVA 200395
Telefon: 0351413369, mobil 0723919750
e-mail : casa_cultura_traian_demetrescu@yahoo.com ; office@cctd.ro
http://www.cctd.ro/

This is a group exibition, a group of enhtousiastic, fabulous, extraordinary women, that I had the chance to meet through our common passion: the pieces :). The group is called : "The Romanian Little Patch", and is guided, with great care and inspiration by Mrs. Smaranda Bourgery, a truly fantastic person, that shares her great knowledge with us, the less gifted ones.... Thank you, Smaranda, for that you are doing for us!

I managed to pull out two quilts, but, unfortunately, since I've been sewing till 2 o'clock to finish them, I did not get the chance to take a photo. You have to wait untill:

a) somebody else publishes photo's from the exhibition, or

b) the quilts are coming back and I can make nice photo's :)))

Bye!.... I'm going to long in front of my computer, waiting for news from the "exhibition comitee"....

How to make a kanzashi flower

These are 2 ways of folding the fabric square, in order to obtain the original Kanzashi flower, and a pleated variation. The red folded petal is the pleated variation, whilst the green is the original. Here we go:

Take a 10 cm square. (can be any size you think you can handle, it also depends on the fabric structure)

Fold in half. Iron. This is the only fold that needs ironing.


Fold in half again, keep fold towards you.

Take the corner and fold it back to you, leaving it a bit aside so you have a pleat at about 2-3 mm from the point.




... the rest of the story is available on my website, http://quibi.ro/how-to-make-a-kanzashi-flower-cum-sa-faci-o-floare-kanzashi/
For the time being, it is only in Romanian language, but the photo's are quite self explanatory. Should the need arise (i.e. you as for it in a comment or something) I will make it in English too.

Have fun crafting! 

Long time no see...

...says an old saying. Well, you can imagine I've been busy. Not busy, but super busy. Cause we cannot just stop everything we're doing, do something else and them resume. No, that would have been to nice.

So we moved to a new home, while still going at work (and my work is just some sitting-behind-the-desk thing, but hubby is a bit more delicate subject... he has to perform surgery every now and then, let's not go there, OK?), celebrating the move with a huge box robot, having a kids party (the middle one turned 10, thank you ;), having open house for all friends and a zillion other things.
I've been busy doing curtains (and believe me, we have some windows :))) ) arranging a bit a space where I can spread my creative skills (call that my studio), fixing a tone of small sandwiches with paste of this or of that for whomever entered the house, fixing kids their favorite foods, buying plant and not forgetting to water them :P.Now I'm shortly leaving to visit some friends for a day or two, and that is what caused this post and some (more) work to do. Because I cannot just learn a new technique by doing just one thing. No sir! that is not me!. I've seen the famous Kanzashi flowers and I've fallen in love with it, so what better excuse and opportunity to make some than the visit to friends? They will receive one, I get to learn something I like, what better deal can be?
So I started cutting "just" some colors... (I wanted them rainbow, not just plain one color, hm... maybe that was a tad ambitious?)Maybe from the other side?


Hm, it still looks an awful lot! Never mind that, I've started pleating.
And sewing (how do you do a surgeons knot??? I could not understand that from my surgeon at home, since he can only do it with his instruments... I'm not going to tie knots of string with a surgical instrument! No way!) ... To make a long story short, this is the result:

The green one is the pleated version, the other two are the originals. I've been using 10 cm squares, the flowers are about 5-6 cm big.
'Til next time!