The party is over!

The party is over! We had a great time with all the friends of A & B Creating.
The weather was perfect. After the heatwave the temperature dropped and it  was lovely on the balcony. In the beginning of the evening our loyal "students" were the first to arrive. Three quilters and two ceramists !!!

 

The Ceramic Department made some lovely jewelry, especially Maria Tzoulogianni is an expert in ornaments.Here she is explaining to her friends how she makes them.

  Margarita, one of the ceramists, is looking at a present for her daughter.  So practical that we all have cellphones who make pictures and are able to send those all over the world.  Now her daughter can make her own choice!

 

Let me show you some of the ceramic hangers, that were made. The pictures are not very good unfortunately. The colors are much brighter!!

 

Emmy was more interested in the bags, especially this one with the embroidery.

 

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Barbara's son Jorgos was the discjockey. He and his girlfriend selected music from the old vinyl LP's Barbara and I have. 

 

 

My daughter Alexandra and her friend Nandia sitting in the kitchen

 

Even our bags are handmade by Barbara's mother Tineke. She makes them from recycled magazines, calendars and other nice prints. 

We want to thank all of you for joining us at the party, whether you were there in person or just read about it.  

 

Summer time at A & B Creating

Next Sunday, the 14th, we will have our End of the Year Party at A & B Creating. We are getting ready to have a lovely evening on our balcony with all our friends, friends of friends, acquaintances and whoever would like to join us!!! 

We love summer in the country, a vintage summer, with beach bags and shopping bags adorned with English Paper Pieced hexagon flowers.

 

 Cushions for on your balcony in vintage fabrics, patchwork, giving you the ultimate country summer feeling!!

Put you cellphone, keys and money in these little zipper pouches, who go perfect with the beach and shopping bags.

Sun hats, sun cream, flowers everywhere

 

When the bags get dirty you just throw them in the washing machine and there you go again, clean and fresh

Barbara prefers this one

I am more for the stripes and gingham squares

Which one do you like most??

This bag has a little pouch to go with it.

Want to take you laptop or kindle with you? 

Join us at A & B Creating, P. Chrysikou 37 in Sparta

on the 14th of July, as from 7.00 p.m.

 

Have a cold drink, a glass of wine, a good time, in a lovely atmosphere at our center. If you don't know us yet, just come and find out what we are doing in this lovely house with the enormous avocado tree in front!!

Can't wait to see you!!

Fabric garden

I love my garden, which still needs a lot of work to be done, but it is so hot and humid out there, that I prefer to sit in my basement and sew garden blocks. Some patchwork, some appliqued, embroidery, you name it. My goal, at a certain moment, who knows when,is to have a beautiful big arty garden quilt. 

These are just some blocks that I stuk on the design wall. I started years ago and stopped. I think, though, that I will continue, I must be able to make an addition every now and then!!!

 

The bird is coming along, I nearly finished the quilting. It is going to be a cushion. The chicken is ready and can be used as placemat, wall hanging or e.g. cover for the laundry basket.

 I am sure my grandkids like this hen, but at this moment they will get these aprons. The dwarfs picking apples, washing their doggy, fishing. All outdoor activities. 

With some of the members from the Quilting Bee Sparta we are making summer bags to sell at  the bazaar at A & B Creating. Also there we use flowers, hexagon EPP flowers!!

 

The bags are ready. I just don't have any pictures yet. Next time!!

Birds and chicks and butterflies

As A & B Creating is going to celebrate the end of the season, with an evening event we are getting ready to make some more summer bags, placemats, wall hangings, cushions and other little things. 
Summer means, countryside, seaside, lovely little towns and villages in the mountains. Wouldn't it be nice, for instance, to have a little bird cushion on your balcony!

 

 The patchwork bird is ready. It isn't a cushion yet, because it needs some borders, but I am working on that! There will follow other different birds. They are in my head, not yet anywhere else!!!

 The chicken is going to be a placemat. So nice to have breakfast in your garden with a soft boiled egg, freshly squeezed orange juice (I have a summer orange tree in the garden!) and some toast. I think I need a range of chickens!!

As I was looking at my animal blocks I also came along this butterfly. I made it years ago. I was, and am, planning to make a garden quilt with all different techniques, patchwork, applique, embroidered pieces and more. I did some work on that but it became quickly a UFO. There will come a day, when I'll continue. Don't know when, don't know where!

You will ask:"what happened to the Farmer's Wife Sample Quilt?" You started, and now?? Well, I managed to sew some more blocks. Pinned them on the wall and am thinking which block to make next.

So many projects to choose from! Difficult, what to do first. I really need more time in a day!!

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book is standing in my bookcase for a few years now. First I was planning to make the whole quilt in bright modern colors, I made, I think 4 or 5 blocks, 6" blocks!! Very tiny!!!! So then other, easier things took over. I even lost the blocks, must be somewhere, but I can't find them.I made pictures of the blocks, but they are in a cloud and I can't reach them. Will take me some time to figure out how this cloud works!! I prefer to sew.

I decided to start a new project. The blocks are now 12" square, quite a difference! I plan to start a quilt along QAL at A & B Creating in autumn, so the colors are according to the season. I might make a whole quilt, or maybe just a tablecloth. Time will tell! I have a few more blocks, but no pictures. But I will keep you updated. 

Last October I wanted to make a winter backpack for myself. By January I managed to choose the fabrics from the stash I have. Well, it is finished!!!! The temperature outside was 35 degrees Celsius yesterday. Too hot for a woolen backpack. But..... I am ready for autumn!!

I love the elephant. I just had this tiny piece of fabric somewhere. Elephants seem to be such nice and intelligent animals. 

This is Tineke. Her bag is made from batik fabric. She used to live in Asian countries and still has clothes from when she was living there. The backpack is from recycled material. It used to be a skirt! A lovely second life for this beautiful fabric!!

As we are talking bags now, we are going to make more at A & B Creating for the bazaar we are planning. This is the first one! Patchwork shopping bag.

And I will still be using my elephant backpack till autumn!! It has been in the washing machine regularly, but now it has seen it's best days!! I have to make a few more backpacks, they are so handy!!

Catching up!!

One of my projects was to make things with pieces of embroidery. Some of the pieces I bought in the second hand stores I visit regularly and some I bought at the annual fair in Mystras. There used to be a stand with beautiful embroidery from Russia. The vendor had new and used pieces. 

 She also sold pieces with holes or stains, very cheap. As you know, it takes a lot of time to embroider, so new work is very expensive.  Second hand though is very cheap. The above piece came from a border with holes in it. As a small wall hanging it gets a new life! More Russian embroidery below.

 In the second hand shop I found this piece. It had been framed because I could see the rusty dots from the nails. I had it for quite some time, thought that it was a bit too much, but finally I managed to use it and I am very pleased with the result! I think that I found the perfect border and even appliqued some flowers which I cut from an old duvet cover!!

The next cushion was made for a friend. She embroidered this piece as a sampler when she was elementary school age. That was about 50 years ago!!

For the children's room this wall hanging. One of the quilters got it in de second hand shop. It had the name of the baby and the date of birth embroidered on it too. I removed that, put a border around it and it has a new life. How I love recycling!!!

On Wednesday I am teaching a class on how to choose the fabrics to recycle your old embroidery pieces, the ones you made, your mother or grandmother made. This will be fun and the result will have an emotional value too, when it is a heirloom!!