HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!

Happy Holidays to all my friends !! I wish all of you had a nice Christmas and enjoyed your dinner with your loved ones .  I had a busy time trying to cook all day ,I made my pumpkin pies and my sweet potatoes which I can't go without and of course we had a nice big turkey with all the trimmings.  I am the only woman in the house so I had my hands full ,woke up at the crack of dawn to accomplish my task. I was so exhausted at the end I slept good and a little bit of wine with dinner helped,everything was delicious .  I had  a bit of time to decorate a small tree ,but I forgot to take a photo of it can you imagine.   I really wanted to show off some of my Hallmark collection of decorations which I collected while living in the states back in the late 80's .  I used to get in my car and visit all the Hallmark shops in my area and sometimes travel further to other cities the day after Christmas to get them half price . Yes I was a junky so I have about 4 boxes of them and just wanted to show some ,is anybody else out there a collector ? 

On the FMQ I finished a quilt in that manner around the trim of this quilt ,and now I will be sewing the binding by hand . I am really getting the knack for it and am trying out different stitches, how do you see it, well I am still a little shaky and there all plenty of areas that are not so smooth ,but as a whole it doesn't look so bad.  I wish to all the best  and a Happy New Year !! and plenty of quilt finishes.

SAVE THOSE TRIMMINGS

I was looking at blogs last week and came upon Angies blog  and she had a real interesting post on ways to use the trimmings . So I thought it was an awesome way to put all those little pieces to use.

What I did was gather all the little tiny pieces and  sandwiched in a piece of what we call it here Tull I can't seem to remember the English word for it,but you can use organza let's say ,anyway I just ran some stitches through it .  I love the way it looks at first I didn't know how to implement it in a project . Then I thought I could shape it into any shape I want ,so I made a heart and snipped the edges around it , tied them and added little ribbons ,added a little applique heart in the center and walla.   Now it can be put used as a decoration on a bag,pillow,tee shirt, even a wall hanging adding blocks around it I am sure you creative gals can come up zillions of ideas. 

I finished the binding on the spider web quilt and now I am quilting a quilt for a friends grandson while in the store . I hope you all save your little trimmings and use them in any creative way you wish and share it with me ,wish you all a nice Sunday I am on my way to the flee market today so I'll have some photos to share with you.

QUILTING

Hello and a good morning to all I wish all of you and nice Sunday ,I have not posted in a while ,first I would like to show you my new hand made leather thumb thimble ,there is a leather shop near me ,they make leather goods and they through out there scraps,I happen to be walking past the trash bin one day years ago and noticed a big bag of leather scraps and of coursed I took them thinking I could used them for something one day .

So I cut out the pieces into a shape that I thought it would work used a thick black polyester thread and stiched it up and it works wonderfully it really helps me push the needle through the fabric and then it is much easier to grasp the needle and pull it on the other side now I will make another for my finger that helps quide the needle underneath  ,I am really pleased that I thought of it .

I am quilting this quilt that I have been commissioned to make ,it is large 80 x 99 in. I hope I finish it by Christmas .

Here is the whole quilt on my sofa I chose a light blue border for it I think it goes well on it.

I even found some letters with her initials on it that makes it a bit personalized for her ,

After deciding that I wasn't up to fmq the large quilt I thought I better work  at fmq . I tried various methods in controlling the quilt better practicing on a panel I found that wearing my white fleece gloves that my dear friend Michelle sent me, they not only  keep my hands warm when it is cold out , they really help me grasp the panel and I am able to make smoother stiches I also use some hand cream  ,I even thought of putting glue stick on my fingers ,but I haven't tried that yet ,for now I am doing ok.

I really didn't have a specific pattern in mind you really don't have time to think when the needle is moving .

I plan on making some templates for fmq and I will be posting them of  course ,but I think I am progressing.

I tried different designs as you can see, I really am trying to get the motion of meandering, I am more of a structured person so it is a bit difficult for me.

I will be working to become better at it ,I got a helpful tip from a blog friend whom is great at it her name is Kheli  she advised me that it really helps to starch the top first  I will do that and believe it will help thank you Kheli.http://khelikarma.blogspot.com/ . Another thing I have been having some issues with is  thread tension and am working on that .  I thank you all for stopping by and leaving suggestions and comments ,wish you all many hours of quilting a crafting and try to make a leather thimble for yourself.

SPIDER WEB QUILT

Hello to all my quilt friends out there I hope all of you are doing  well ,I have been dragging my feet to make a post , my mouse wasn't working ,so I just got a new one and it makes it easier to click on the view of my photos so I know which ones to post  that was the main problem  makes it difficult if it isn't working.

 As you can see I am making a spider web quilt which I had seen on Marit's blog ,she has a wonderful tutorial,I got  excited about it and started it many months ago .Recently I pulled it out and said YOUR NEXT   I used all my little strips by organizing them from short to long and longer and sat down watching TV and pinning them on ,so when I had them pinned I just sat down at the sewing machine and sewed them up.

 My husband Tony has become interested in quilting ,he likes the design of this quilt  when put together ,he got up from the couch and walked over to count how many triangles I had made ,for him to do that says something.

I trimmed and trimmed, and as I trimmed the underneath end of the triangle I was thinking they can be used to make a quilt ,there were so many of them let's see 32 triangles and each one has 2 that's 64 WOW!!

Viewing an this angle you can see how many ,I think they were not all there when taking the photo,but I was not really counting while working  in the end there were 32 half square triangles .

Here I have put a dark blue border ,hubby Tony helped me choose, he even knows what jelly rolls are LOL

So here are the ends  I cut 2 inch strips of solids and just randomly sewed them on the sides sort of a log cabin , I can't wait to sew them all up .

I have brought the quilt to my Shop and I spend my free time quilting, while rocking in my chair ,people can see me through the window and wonder what I am stitching.

I am quilting by echoing which is easy enough. 

Last ,but not least as some of you know I have an art and frame business and I just wanted to share with you some vintage stitchery that a lady brought in to be framed , here I am choosing what color matting to use ,but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo before the customer picked them up ,they looked real nice she was very pleased .  I also  have been busy in my shop trying to make enough room to  make a little studio in which I can work on quilts in my free time,that will take a little while longer. And something that I would like to mention to International quilters is that my spell check hasn't been working I can't figure it out ,it used to work ,but lately it hasn't if anyone knows what I need to do please let me know.  I hope all of you are doing well and make something creative!!

ARTS AND CRAFTS IN ATHENS GREECE

Hello to all my friends , excuse me for bieng away from blogland for sometime now ,but I wasn't in a very good mood lately ,it might have been the social unrest ,the economy,the summer heat and another reason could be that my sewing machine had a problem all summer and that didn't put me in a very good mood since I couldn't sew ,but that didn't  stop me I did some hand stiching and I since started on a quilt that I have been commisioned to make for a friend which I will be sharing with you very soon .

I would like to share with you the first Arts and Crafts show that took place  just last weekend and obove is the ad.  It was held downtown Athens in a beautiful pink classical building .

There were booths set up with all sorts of hand crafted items for sale ,I visited some and I would like to share with you.

This booth belongs to a young lady by the name of Dimitra and she has a site called http://www.petra-psalidi-xarti.gr/  which means rock, scissors, paper ,she makes all sorts of beautiful items that are so interesting, as you can see.

She makes beautiful bags and garments ,she also offers classes in her studio on costume jewelry,sewing classes with all sorts of materials.

Then I met another lady by the same name ,Dimitra and she makes some cool stuff ,to me she had the best little corner which I hung out for a while and we chatted about sewing projects. She has a blog it's http://www.tobaloma.wordpress.com/ and the word baloma in Greek means patch and she does alot of it in her work.

This is the only quilt I saw at Dimitras corner,and it was the only one in the  whole show LOL,that gives you an idea of how popular quilting is here.

She also had some awsome potholders made from vintage sticheries ,I bought the second one's from the first row.

Dimitra also had plenty of real pretty aprons ,she said that they are popular and that she makes them easily and quick since she has had plenty of practice.  She uses plenty of applique  on her aprons and  uses the fusible paper.

                      

She also had plenty of bags many shapes and sizes.

I sure had fun looking over her items and I hope to see her again ,but unfortunaly she lives on the Island of Crete .

This is the Kangaroo craft booth and Mrs. Sofia which is in red has a shop downtown Athens and she has all the clover products and is the distributor for all of Greece ,she carries all sorts of yarns and tools , when  I spoke with her and she mentioned that they are getting ready to start quilting classes again this year, one day I will visit and make a post on her shop and  classes.

Some  costume  jewelry that I saw ,there was plenty of it and I just snapped some photos  to see.

The lady at this booth  had painted items like trays , boxes ,candles and  clothing ,she also sells the paints and teaches classes on the  technique that she learned in the united states.  ,she had a nice booth and enjoyed looking at her items. 

This is another booth with jewelry that I included for last.  I hope you liked this little tour ,I hope they keep having these type of events ,and maybe next year I might have a little booth that is if I can finish something .  I wish you all well and thank you for stopping by.

DEER PAINTING

A big HELLO to all my friends ,first of all I must say I haven't been feeling so well ,could be the weather change along with the allergies that continue to bother me,but I really wanted to make a post today.

I was reading Cyndis blog one day http://bluebirdswing.blogspot.com/and she has deer in her back yard now that is so cool ,my mind went to a painting that I had found one day actually sticking out of a trash bin it is large so that is why I could see it . I of course took it and I cleaned it and put a frame on it ,it is so beautifully done it even has the signature of the artist I even looked it up in the Greek Artists Ecyclodedia and he was noted in it. I plan of taking it to our country home and hang it over the fireplace I noted in my comment to Cyndi that I would make a post about it so Cyndi here it is.

This lower right section could be a painting itself.

He is  starring right at us!

A friend of mine gave me an old curtain that she would like for me to make a little quilt for her so I decided to make it using a triangle template that I had made a while back.

I had a piece of hard plastic and measured and cut lines into it ,It makes 12 blocks each one 9.5 c.m. so I just cut the fabric along with a solid pink that I thought matched it fine and put them together and just drew with the pencil through the lines.

And then I sew 1/4 inch on both sides of the lines and cut on the lines I have plenty cut up now and will sew it up for her I will give it to her to quilt by hand it will be a throw size for her sofa ,now I have the triangle cut , really haven't decided how to put them together I shall play first before deciding.

And then of course I have made a batch of potholders and played a bit with a couple by adding a little triangle in the corner for a better grasp. That is what I have been up to and since I moved last month ,I am still putting up curtains and organizing I just do a little at a time I really don't want to tire my hands , I wish all of you a nice Sunday and make something pretty and creative. xoxo Theodora