Dancing Squares and busy days

Hello! Not long ago I told you about my new version of the Wonky Squares. I finally bound it! It took me a bit longer than usual. A quilt that small I’d normally bind in an hour sitting in the sofa in front of the TV but the reason for the extra time was that I have been on my own with Hana and Conor for the last 2 weeks. I had planned to finish a few things while I was on my own but as the days went by I could feel my energy levels dropping at a tremendous speed and by the second week I was going to bed straight after them… So I think it’s been a huge achievement to have this finished! In the end I went for a dark red -burgundy colour for the binding. I had a very dark blue and a black but it was a bit too dark.

Oh Conor… This little Button of mine is pretty busy, I was so used to Hana being so quiet and content (but of course I didn’t have any other child around beside her). I could have lots of things done with her around. But let’s say Conor needs to move about more, he’s into something all the time, although he is really good… He started to walk about 3 weeks ago and now is flying! I suppose he’s just doing what any boy of his age should be doing, and, in fairness, I can’t really ask him to stop acting like a one year old, can I?

He won’t stay still, his new obsession is throwing things down the toilet and climbing onto the sofa to walk from one end to the other… You have to constantly watch him, unlike Hana… so yes… my hands have been really full and we’ve been trying to be out as much as possible and do lots of things while the man of the house was away. And that didn’t involve much sewing, but still I manage to treat myself one day… So what did we do? Here’s my wee man, looking very tiny among these huge trees!

We have this park nearby, Coole Park, which is amazing and I absolutely love. I don’t know if you’ve heard about Lady Gregory, but maybe you’ve heard about George Bernard Shaw or W.B. Yeats… You can read more about it here. If you ever come to Ireland, to the west of Ireland, I recommend to visit this spot, it’s beautiful any time of the year, whether it rains or it’s foggy or the sun is out. There is this autobiographic book of short stories written by one of Lady Gregory’s grand-daughters, it’s a nice short and easy read that I like: Me & Nu.

Then, one morning I packed up the children and drove up to Tuam to meet Roisin at The Quilt Shop, in Shop St. I have been following her via Facebook and finally I could get a spot to go and visit the shop. She’s lovely and so helpful, she had been keeping some yardage of flannel for me to make some PJ’s for Hana, and I was low on wadding too, so I had a good excuse for the trip. And oh… when you go in and see all these colours around you… I could contain myself and focus on what I really needed, but it was HAAAAARD… You can see in the photo above a bit of Conor’s rainbow star quilt ( ahem, yes… still in progress,  I want to add a border and something else…but I have the backing now!) Can you spot the stripy fabrics on top and beside it? I was trying to choose which one looked better as a backing and Hana found the right one. I won’t reveal anymore of it and hopefully it won’t be long before it’s finished… Roisin has a great stock of fabric and notions, she also runs classes and I just wished there was a shop like this much closer to where I am. Although I generally get my fabric online, it’s nice to be able to walk into a shop like this… I’m sure I’ll find another excuse to drive up to Tuam. It’s funny though, many Irish people I know here were a bit perplexed when I told them I was going to Tuam…  “Tuam? going to Tuam? what for? there’s nothing there!” well… there is a Quilt Shop!!!

Then, “the quilter’s widow” came back and brought me a few goodies. He’s a musician and works abroad pretty often. He spent some days in the USA, in the East Coast, and then flew to Canada. He spent a whole week in Goderich, Canada, were there was a Celtic Festival he was taking part in, and guess what? He called me saying he had found a quilt shop in the Main Square and if there was anything I needed. Yeeha! anything I needed? mmm… the whole shop maybe? I couldn’t really think of anything there and then and told him I needed some of those stickers for my Omnigrid rulers. Then I sent him an email with a more detailed list of things but it was too late :-(… He got me three random magazines besides what I asked , which was really nice of him.

And well, no worries… as he’s going back to the States in September and I hope he’ll come across some other quilt shops. If there are any readers here from Tenessee, Virginia, N. Carolina… I might ask you for some tips on quilt shops soon…

Knitting and crochet

I have listed these lovely dresses in my Etsy shop… if they’re successful I think I’ll be making them in different sizes and accepting custom orders… I might do a tute for the crochet ones 🙂

Do you ever knit and crochet? I like it because you can take your work anywhere and sit comfortably with people around you. The sewing machine, although I LOVE her, isolates you in your room… plus you can’t take her with you wherever you go. If you do knit or crochet, what do you like making?

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He llistat aquests vestits a la botiga d’Etsy. Si tenen exit en fare mes i fare varies mides. Potser m’animo a ensenyar un tutorial per fer-ne un de ganxet. Vosaltres en feu de mitja o ganxet? Tot i que no en faig sovint, m’agrada perque t’ho pots endur a tot arreu, seure comodament amb algu al voltant. Pero amb la maquina de cosir, tot i que m’encanta cosir amb ella, et quedes aillada a l’habitacio i no te la pots endur enlloc…

Que es el que mes us agrada fer de punt o ganxet?

Quilting again

Remember this quilt? The “Wonky Squares” that a friend had commissioned me for her nephew? Well, it’s one of my favourites. I like that it looks so simple, there’s solids and it’s so colourful.  It is quite successful among readers too…

A while ago I was asked to write the tutorial, so I did.  I didn’t make it exactly the same, because I want my quilts to be unique, but the technique is the same. The top has been ready for ages! but I just couldn’t find the time to quilt it and the space in my sewing room was a bit restricted as well. I have a few other tops queuing up, so I hope to have them done over the next few weeks.

 

It’s a bit wrinkled because I had to turn the fabric so often with all those zig-zags!

Now I only have to hide those treads and make the binding. I’m still deciding what colour should I use. What do you think? The backing is an apple green, although you can’t really appreciate it because of the light (it’s raining today…). Should I stick to solids for it? or maybe I could use a small busy print…?

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Recordeu aquest quilt? El “wonky Squares” que una amiga em va encarregar pel seu nebot? Es un dels meu preferits. M’agrada perque es veu molt senzill, sense estampats i amb molt de color. Tambe te bastant d’exit entre els lectors…

Fa temps que em van demanar si podia escriure el tutorial i aixi ho he fet. Ja fa temps que el tenia fet pero mai no trobava el temps per encoixinar-lo, i tampoc hi havia gaire lloc… No es exactament el mateix, l’he fet una mica diferent i mes petit perque m’agrada que els quilts que faig siguin unics, pero la tecnica es la mateixa.

Esta una mica arrugat perque havia d’anar girant-lo tnat sovint amb tantes zigazagues… Ara nomes falta amagar uns quants fils i fer la beta, pero encara estic decidint quin color fer servir… El darrere es de color verd poma, ben viu. Quin color penseu que aniria be? Segueixo amb colors llisos o potser que faci servir algun estampat petit? que farieu vosaltres?