A swap sent and a swap received

Again, as always, another long stretch between posts…

I have been enjoying the good weather, since school days came to and end (and I can’t believe they’ll resume in 10 days!). We’ve been out and about, cycling, swimming, gathering pebbles and shells… and collecting and neglecting big piles of laundry, leaving pots and pans to be washed at the end of the day, if not the next day…

Oh yes, we’ve had a great time.

I was busy making cards and sending orders to customers, I’m so grateful I get to sell my work on Etsy and now in a local craft shop too! It is, really, so nice to hear what people say and how much they like what I make. It just keeps me going! And in between of all this, I was making the gift for my Big Stitch Swap partner. The project had to have a good amount of hand stitching done, it could be a bag, a zipper pouch, a mini quilt… When I received the details about my partner, she mentioned she likes mini quilts, so this is what I made.

I draw a dragon fly onto the fabric, inspired on a mobile I have. My partner said she likes anything scrappy and colourful, so I opted for nice warm fiery prints to frame the embroidered panel.

I was using different stitches that I’ve been learning from this site. And I was making it up all along. Mins you, you can get easily carried away with the embroidery and the hand quilting!

I like these interlaced stitches that let you play with different coloured threads.

I couldn’t resist to throw in a few French knots…

The hand quilting… I suppose those Sashiko coasters I’m making are helping me to get a steady regular stitch, but still, it is not the same when there is batting in between, so they are not as regular as I wanted them to be.

I liked those spirals…

I used a variety of Anchor and Fabra & Coats threads for embroidery and DMC perle cotton n.8 for the hand quilting.

And for the border, I was using three colours, yellow, orange and red, alternating different arches (also irregular because I couldn’t do it any other way!)

I didn’t mark any lines for the quilting like I did for the embroidery, so I can see now that it is a bit wonky all over the place, but I think it adds to the charm of being hand stitched all over.

It was so hard to part with this mini quilt! I will make a similar one for my sewing room… There were a few people interested in buying one off me too, but I think that will have to wait for a while 🙂 there is a lot of work in here…

I was thrilled when I received my swap gift from another participant, I just love it so much! I think I was very lucky to get such an amazing piece of art too. I will show it to you next time and I promise it will be very very soon.

Have a great week!

Crafty night and a giveaway

Hi there! I think I’m getting back on my feet with this blogging bug!

First of all, pop over to my Facebook Page to enter a giveaway, you’ll be in for a chance to win €15 to spend on El Petit Taller Etsy shop!

I had a great time last Wednesday at the crafty night. I didn’t bring any stitching though, but I had a pile of paper and my ink pen instead. I am working on a logo for El Petit Taller… One of the crafters is a graphic designer and she’ll help me to digitalise my drawing. I’m so excited about it!

I’ll show you the amazing work that another crafter is working on… She took some paper, stuck the old pages of an old dictionary, draw the silhouette of a woman and now she’s stitching on it. It’s fantastic to see her progress bit by bit.

Hola! Primer de tot us dire que podeu participar al meu sorteig a la pagina de Facebook, on podreu guanyar €15 per gastar a la botiga Etsy de El Petit Taller!

Aquesta setmana va haver trobada de “crafters” pero aquest cop no vaig portar cap agulla. Vaig agafar una pila de papers i el meu puntafina i em vaig dedicar a disenyar un logo per El Petit Taller. Una de les crafters es disenyadora grafica i m’audara a digitalitzar el diseny. Tinc ganes de veure com quedara tot!

Aqui us ensenyo el sue una altra crafter esta creant. Va agafar un paper enorme, hi va enganxar pagines d’un diccionari vell, una mica de pintura, hi va dibuixar la silueta d’una dona, i ara l’esta omplint de puntades… oi que es fantastic?

Mes cosetes la setmana que ve. Aqui el temps segueix igual de nefast…paciencia!

Working on my New FO wish-to-do list

It’s been a very busy time around here lately. The Little Button was pretty sick for more than a week, the nights were veeeeery hard and it was even harder having to go to work in the morning… And he was teething as well, so you can imagine…  Then, thankfully I had a few days off and could prepare Hana’s birthday party, her birthday crown and do some sewing too. I had a good amount of alterations to do among the projects I really wanted to work on.

Hi ha hagut molt de moviment aquestes darreres setmanes per aqui. El Botonet es va posar malalt durant mes d’una setmana, les nits eren horroroses i mes horroros era haver d’anar a treballar al mati! A mes, li estaven sortint dues dents mes, ja us ho podeu imaginar. Menys mal que despres vaig tenir uns dies lliures i vaig poder dedicar-me a preparar la festa d’aniversari de la Hana, la seva corona i tambe cosir una mica.

I’ve been able to do a lot of progress on several things, but the one I’m really enjoying the most is Conor’s quilt, which I had in my NEW FO Challenge WIsh-to-do list. I have made 4 stars so far and I’ve bought some DMC Perle cotton thread for hand quilting it. Now you know why I’ve been taking up some embroidery projects lately, I’m just practicing for the big day!

He pogut avançar bastant en alguns projectes, pero el que mes m’esta agradant es el quilt que li estic fent al Conor, i que tenia a la llista de coses per començar al 2013. Ja tinc 4 estels i ara toca fer-los ballar, inclinant-los dins d’un altre bloc. He comprat fil perle de DMC per intentar fer l’encoixinat a ma. Ara ja sabeu per que estic fent tants brodats ultimament, m’estic entrenant pel gran dia!

I hope to have this quilt finished by his 1st birthday… I still have 6 weeks to make it happen.

Espero tenir-lo acabar per al seu primer aniversari! Encara em queden 6 setmanes!

Here’s his new 2 top teeth!  Les dues dents de dalt que tant malament ens ho han fet passar…

A Patchwork Finish, Embroidery Progress and an Offer…

Wow! Lots to talk about today!

Pol’s quilt is finished and has been sent away in its own little bag. I used some charms from School Days mixed with some other squares of Kona yellow and green. I had a backing in mind for it, but when the top was finished I didn’t quite like the combination so I run to the local fabric shop and found this argyle from Tanya Whelan.

El quilt del Pol ja ha volat cap a Catalunya! La tela es d’un charm pack de School Days i el darrere es de la Tanya Whelan. Vaig anar a la botiga de teles volant perque la tela que habia triat en un principi no em va agradar un cop el davant estava acabat.

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Would you like to see my embroidery progress…?

Voleu veure les noves puntades que he afegit al mostrari…?

I added a few more stitches to my sampler hoop and I’m so happy I finally know how to make French knots!!! So many times I had tried by reading instructions and ended up with nothing… but now I know you have to hold the thread with your other hand while you pull the needle out.

Per fi ja se com es fan els nusos francesos! Mai no me’n sortia i amb aquestes instruccions tan clares ja els se fer.

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Now, you remember I tod you I used to cross stitch? I was doing some spring cleaning and I found out a pile of Jeremiah Junction Cross Country Stitching patterns that I know I won’t use anymore. I have 29 of them and you can see some of them here below:

Recordeu quan vaig dir que fa temps feia punt de creu? he estat fent neteja i he trobat una pila de patrons de Jeremiah Junction Cros Country Stitching. No els fare servir mes. En tinc 29 i aqui en podeu veure una mostra:

I will gladly send them to any of you who would like to use them.

I will make 3 sets, two of 10 patterns and one of 9, or depending on the demand, 4 or 5 sets. I’ll take photos of every single one of them so you can see and choose. Just leave a comment here if you are interested. It will be on a first come first serve basis.

Si algu hi esta interessat, els hi enviare. Fare dues piles de 10 i una de 9, pero si hi ha mes demanda, faria piles mes petites. Nomes cal que deixeu un comentari dient-me si els voleu i ja em posare en contacte amb vosaltres. Fare fotos de cada un dels que tinc per aixi poder triar. El primer que escrigui triara primer.

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Wow! ok so, 5 7 it is! Sorry for those who haven’t got here earlier! It would be quite a bit on postage if I made smaller sets, I hope you understand… I’m going to contact those I have selected and let you know what’s available. 

New Stitches

I used to cross stitch a looooooong time ago… I think it’s the second thing my mum taught me craftwise, knitting was the first. I made a good few cross stitched projects, but the only one I took with me when I came to live in Ireland was this one. I like it, three colours only, on linen. I think I got the pattern from one of my mum’s Burda magazines, hence the German…

Fa moooolt de temps que ja no faig res de punt de creu, pero es una de les primeres cose que la meva mare em va ensenyar, a part de fer punt. He fet bastantes coses en punt de creu, pero l’unica que vaig portar aqui a Irlanda es aquest quadre fet sobre tela de lli, en tres colors. Crec que vaig treure el patro d’una de les revista de Burda de la meva mare, per aixo esta en alemany…

I always hand sew everything up until 5 years ago when I started to learn how to use a sewing machine, so the only stitches I know well are the backstitch, cross stitch, chain … Oh yes, and the runner stitch for hand quilting! Actually, now that I’m thinking of I also know the blanket stitch…so that’s not too bad after all.

Anyway, it hasn’t been until recently though that I’m admiring hand embroidery, especially when Natalie from SEWING ROOM SECRETS popped in here one day and I discovered her newborn blog. She makes these cute things, mixing embroidery with appliqué, just look at this, this and this, and she’s also a quilter!

Then I saw this project she’s working on, from Lilipopo‘s lovely patterns (which you can find in here).

So now I’m definitely trying some embroidery, who wouldn’t after seeing all this! Natalie was very good at leading me to Sarah’s Hand Embroidery Tutorials where you can find AMAZING tutorials for all kinds of stitches. So I took a hoop and started trying all the stitches that Sarah teaches in her site. What about you? do you cross stitch or do embroidery? Would you show me your work by adding the link in a comment? thank you!

I’ll show you what I’ve done so far…

The fern stitch on dark red and the algerian eye stitch in yellow.

The ray stitch in light green and the fan stitch in purple. Above I made a border with an interlaced running stitch, combining three colours.

Sempre he cosit tot a ma fins fa 5 anys quan vaig aprendre a cosir a maquina. Nomes se uns quants  punts, el recte, el de festo, el de creu i el de cadeneta. No esta tan malament…

Fa unes setmanes vaig descobrir el blog d’una nova seguidora, la Natalie, de SEWING ROOM SECRETS, i ultimament estic admirant els brodats que fa. Mireu aixo, aixo i aixo, i a mes fa patchwork tambe!  Pero aleshores, vaig veure aquest projecte que esta fent ara, d’un patro de la Lilipopo on podeu trobar-ne mes aqui. I be, despres de veure aixo… doncs ho vull probar! La Natalie em va dirigir cap aquesta web, on pots trobar tutorials de tots els punts imaginables! Aixi que he agafat l’aro de brodar (o com se digui!!!) i he decidit probar tots els punts de la web. De moment he fet aixo. No traduire els punts perque no tinc ni idea de com es deuen dir en catala…ho sento! Ja anire ensenyant el meu progres a mida que vagi fent.

I vosaltres? feu punt de creu  o brodats? voleu ensenyar el que feu? deixeu un comentari amb l’enllaç per que ho pugui veure! gracies!

These are not very well made diamond eyelets…

The one on the left is a mistake, but it turned out to be a lovely pattern! I wanted to make the stepped running stitch but I didn’t realize I had to alternate the running stitches. The one on the right is a variety of the parallel running stitch.

So I added a line of running stitches to alternate with the red ones, but then the stepped running stitch wasn’t working that well because it needs a wider space between the two lines…

On the left there’s a variety of the parallel running stitch and on the right the whipped running stitch.

I’ll show you more next week!