Just a quick hello from Prague to post my Farmer's wife progress for this week.

Block 4 and 6 were easy enough for me to be able to stitch them before leaving on holiday.

I am so pleased with the nautical weathered look so far. 

It has been fun doing progress report with Kathinca and Marga, and I look forward to catching up to them when I get back.

Hoping you are all having a great time and have a fun weekend planned ahead!

Kisses from Prague,
Valentina and her handsome beloved.
:)

Summer fun

escaping the heat of Nicosia
and going to the forests of Troodos

There's been splashing in cool pools and hiking up and down mountains. And it has been a lot of fun and adventure. But Mama and Dad are tired! ...and need a quiet break, only for a few days, in Prague...
Yes, we'll bring you lots of presents, and yes, you'll have lots of fun at Yayia's (grandma)...
:)

Enjoying the beautiful nature trails in the Troodos Mountains. 

Oh I cannot tell you how I am looking forward to this 4 day get-away: My camera is packed, I have my walking shoes on, and a good book in my bag... and Hubby all to myself!

It was a great incentive to get my 36-patch blocks done.

If you are interested, you can see all of them on my Flickr set. Okay, I still have 2 to go from the 72, but I always like to leave some blocks till after I lay them all out. Being a king size quilt, there might be some colours that want a bit more support, and having some unfinished blocks gives me that option.
I also had a brainwave for the centre of the quilt. I took an orphan block from a project I decided long ago no longer to pursue, and I think that after some tweaking it might just work.

what do you think?

I send you my love, as always, and look forward to sharing Prague with you.
    Now, I'm off!
             
             :)

                Valentina

Late summers in the mountain villages
enjoying the grapes, figs and cold watermelons...

Sad news and new beginnings

I am shocked and heartbroken at the news of Marieke's passing away. We shared the Klosjes quilt journey together and many One Flower Wednesdays. We also shared many stories about raising young boys and will never forget seeing a picture of her Klosjes quilt in Quilt&Zo magazine. I was so proud of her. Imagine this was just her second quilt!
Marieke... like we say in the eastern orthodox church: May your Memory Be Eternal. And through your quilts, the work of your hands, I hope comfort will be imparted to your husband and sons.


This past week has been such a buzz of excitement with Nadine, Elena and Kathinca in planning and getting ready for Farmer's wife. So after deciding on fabrics, preparing of templates and late night piecing, I have my first two blocks. Kathinca had graciously invited me to join her and Marga to report our progress on Fridays. But I never thought I would be showing them to you, this morning, under such sad circumstances. But seeing that I had chosen dutch colours and 2 boys for the second block, I can only say: Marieke, these are for you!

I will close the comments out of respect, and hope you can instead go provide some quilter's comfort to Marieke's husband and sons here.


I am so grateful to have friends like you, and days like this makes quilting so much more relevant and important.

Summer days

Despite the bumpy start, this summer is turning out to be one to remember. The boys do not start school for another 3 weeks and with the soaring temperatures here in Cyprus, there is still a lot of summer to be had.
:)
I am well, and very happy- Thanks again for all the lovely emails and comments. Your love, concern, friendship (and countless jokes!) mean the world to me. :)
So, where have I been and what have I been up to? Plenty!

Thanks to some friends that always seem to get me into trouble-- yes, YOU! :), and me being in a fragile convalescent state (ahum! ok, maybe I am exaggerating a wee bit... :) I have fallen into temptation.
...

Despite my better judgement and steadfast resolve, I have found myself working obsessively on a new project-  blush blush...
The problem is that I have been having way to much fun to be repentant, and have been having a great time working on my sewing machine again. It's been like being on Quilting Holiday! LOL

I think, I better show you:

These are some of the 36-patch blocks I have been making through Amanda Jean's Quilt-Along. I made the mistake of reading through her very interesting assembly tips, and it became a case of : humm, I need to try this... Famous last words!
She encouraged us to go through our stash ruthlessly, at least that is how I interpreted it. And so my naughty streak took over and before you know it, I was slashing irreverently through my Den Haan & Wagenmaker Dutch Chintzes. Yes, that I have been keeping in the Holy of Holies section of my stash, you know that place... LOL

Oh, but it was so liberating and so much fun. I had been collecting these fabrics for ages, and I am so happy that I allowed myself to see them in a new light; like combined with stripes, polka dots and funky prints.

I soon realized that I could cut an extra strip of fabric and make a second, smaller 16-patch identical quilt. The perfect gift for Nadine, who will be celebrating a very special birthday in december. :)
The funny thing is that many of these fabrics we either bought together last year in Provence or swooned over. So having her be part of the process has been a gift that keeps on giving. :) And she's happy!

There is also a certain Farmer's wife that has been making an appearance around here. My friend Elena brought it up, I refused and gave her a lecture... sorry! :) Michelle caught me off guard with her blocks. I swooned. Amanda and Angela have been having the QuiltAlong.  I had been doing my best to ignore it. Then the Flickr Group, which I have been avoiding... So leave it to Nadine to start sending me pictures! Soon Book Depository delivered the book for free, I fall in love with the cute size of it: it's square and about 1 1/2 the size of a CD... ooohh! Then Kathinca sweetly invites me to join her and Marga to report of fridays... and I can't stop dreaming of what flavour I would like this quilt to have...

What is a girl to do? If you can't fight them, join them, I say!
:)


Which means that from straying I now need even more resolve not to abandon 'Jane', 'Camelot', and 'In my Garden'... oh yes, and my kids! :)

speaking of kids, last week I spend quite some time with my perpetual summer project: my charm hexies. The centre star is done, but not completely stitched together yet. This has made it easier to take along. And these Hexies have gotten around! :)
Now I am stitching 'white' hexies around the outer diamonds, like this.

Once I am done with this part, I hope to stitch them all up into a giant hexagon. I have plenty of charm hexies left, which will fill the background and give me a square quilt. Hopefully by next summer. :)

Sending you my love, and loooots of hot summer sun for those of you that feel you might have not gotten your fill,
Valentina
:)


By the way: have I ever shown you this? The Ultimate Patchworker's floor! Can you imagine? :)

floor in a greek souvlaki and gyro place in the food court at the Mall!

Stitching Camelot

Hoping that uploading this post will not be thwarted by the rolling blackouts we are still experiencing all over Cyprus, so I will make this a quick one.
I have been home for a week, and apart from the drawback of experiencing a painful allergic reaction to one of the medications I was sent home with, I am recovering and feeling more like myself every day.
Thanks for all your well wishes and gorgeous e-cards, I am so grateful to have friends like you. :)
Even though I still feel wobbly, I have been stitching to my heart's content. This has not been the summer I was expecting, but all things considered I have rested and I am stitching;  so I am not complaining, :)
Ok, ready for a "ta-daaaa" ?  Here's Camelot!

Not the best of pictures, but you get the gist! All 16 Camelot blocks and connector squares have been carefully hand-stitched into place, and I love the result.
I have been cutting tiny triangles from my left over scraps, and have been stitching these little cuties:

These Half-square triangles that will be 1 1/2" squares when finally stitched together.

Thank you for visiting my little stitching corner, and looking out for me, :)
as always, I send you my love,
Valentina

Maybe a better picture, and the colours more true, flapping in the sea-breeze... LOL
:)

Reflecting...

I am on an unexpected break, connected to an IV drip. A nasty Strep bug has sent me to hospital last thursday. Thank God, the worse is over and I was admitted right on time. Now the soaring fevers are gone, my kids think all these tubes coming out of me are cool, and I am making the best of my alone time, enjoying my private room and catching up on my naps. :)
Not the vacation I was hoping for, however a great time evaluate things and be grateful for the happy domestic chaos that is my life. 
Too bad I cannot stitch! :) However, there has been lots of quilt-y plans and things to report.
And I have a new appreciation for pin-cushions! :)   
 -- as you can imagine 'parking my needle' will never be the same...
:)

I, like all of you, I'm sure, have a file marked: Inspiration. Here I collect ideas of designs and colour-combo's that I would some day like to translate into quilts of my own. I have been revisiting this file these days, on my laptop, since I cannot do much else, and notice the trends that emerge in my 'likes' and my 'OMG's... I think it is important to notice that there are designs that are timeless and colours that keep recurring. I love trendy quilts, you know I do, and I love playing around with colour, however there are the classics, those quilts that I have to make. Many of which are simple geometric designs and very Amish in flavour, so I expect a shift for fall and winter.

The other thing I have to share are thoughts on my work schedule. The experiment of this year is working. Last year I tried: monday is for this, tuesday that, and who can forget wednesdays hexies! however, it doesn't work for me, and my time demands. I realized I need to focus on one project at the time. This is how I work best, and fastest. This is how Klosjes got done, and this is how I was able to stay focused on Camelot. There are many minor projects that flutter in and out of the main focus. This makes for a very boring blog, I know. But it makes for a happy quilter, as I feel I am moving forward in my stitching. 

Lazy stitching by the sea-side: a wedding gift for a special friend.
the other images are from their magical wedding celebration

This has also made me look at my stash differently:  Organizing according to colour and style. As you all know, I am a scrappy quilter. I rarely buy yardage, and rarely meet a fatquarter I don't like. But I have stopped trying to adopt all the little lonely fatquarters of the world. These days they only come home with me if they can strengthen the cast at home, are in a colour that I do not already have, or can add that 'je ne sais quoi' to a quilt. This has had some very interesting results. A far more effective and harder working stash, and an interesting new way of choosing fabrics for new projects. Now I use the 'basket' method'. Once I decide the flavour I want my new quilt to have, I go shopping in my stash. I load my basket with the colours I would like to use. If there are colours, textures or yardage missing, I enjoy shopping for them. But what I have noticed is that my projects have more cohesion and internal harmony, as all the colours already live happily in their basket until the end of the project in question. Then they move back to the main stash or to their designated scrap bin.


I have also come to embrace my shift towards hand-piecing. Like most of you know, these days I need to be portable, doing most of my stitching around my kids' activities. I like the pace of it, and I have become more precise in some ways and much more forgiving in others. Nothing like hand-stitching to bring you back to the basics. And for me, it is has meant a deeper savouring of our craft. My quilts have always been stitched diaries of my everyday experience. How much more now that they travel with me through the mundane and extraordinary. Teaching me that 'every stitch counts', and that 'slow and steady wins the race'. But most importantly, it has thought me to evaluate if this is a quilt I want to commit my time and energy to... The butterfly has turned into a caterpillar, and I like it! Because now, instead of me being the butterfly, my quilts are.

Camelot is at the point of getting assembled. Dear Jane is being enjoyed on the side, and 'In my Garden' needs some attentive TLC. My summer plan was to dust my charm hexies off the shelf and press for the finish, since I am not far from the final assembly there as well. So I am looking forward to being discharged in a few more days and take up needle and thread again.


Cyprus is in the midst of national mourning due to the tragedy that happened yesterday. We are in shock as a nation and grieving the loss of life and ready to face the sacrifices of restricted electricity and water in hot summer ahead. 

So, this puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
Thinking of you,
Valentina

Oh June...

Where have you gone? :)

 There were parties, end of school celebrations, little stars strutting their stuff on stage, and plenty of  last minute quilt making.

The boys' teachers really deserve a thousand stitches each, and I was so glad my cramming payed off...
I got 2 A+ for my finals, and the boys were so proud when they presented the quilts to their teachers: Pointing out fabrics and explaining colour-selection... Oh, I was so proud of them!
:)

Also in the midst of the chaos those creative juices did not disappoint. This little IKEA LED lamp was transformed into the perfect quilter's companion, with pincushion base and everything! I am still surprised how it all came together and can't wait to make one for myself.

I started my Contemporary Jane. And the Camelot blocks have been set into their backgrounds. :) Can't wait to see them come together...

It is great to recount some of the stitching that was done in June, despite the whirlwind around here.
I am off the to beach for a few days to mark the official start to our summer holidays and for much needed rest and unplugging. And hope to be back soon, so I can finally do some web-surfing of my own and catch-up with you, dear friends.
Enjoy your week, whatever and wherever you are, and let there be stitching!
xox
Valentina