I was invited to join in a moment I just could not spend any time preparing for the event. So I decided to keep it all as simple as possible and see how it goes.

It will be a two days event held in my town - Friday and Saturday. This means I have 3 days for preparation from now on and then a day for arranging and 2 days meeting people.

It is a challange. It will be fun once I do the preparation and get to the actiual show. I am curious to see how I will handle it and what will be the final result.

I now have a clear plan for all the swaps. And no time to make it. I will be hardly able to work on them in the next 10 days. The good thing is I will probably be fast in the making as I have them all ready in my mind, including the package, which will be similar to the one on the picture.

I pieced a small quilt top today and I am happy I did. My machine is happy too as it got a nice massage before I started using it today. She deserves some spa from time to time. And I am anxious to start working on my swap creations but I had to sew some other things first.

I played with this set of fabric pieces figuring out what to use them for. I have not decided what to make with them yet. These are just part of the samples and I have too many ideas for them.

This is an evening picture again. And I have just noticed the bright thread that was photographed there, but I will keep  - it absolutely authentic with the thread.

My customers sent me this marvelous picture of the wedding quilt they ordered few months ago. We came up with the design together. They knew what they want. I have not met them or the wedding couple and enjoyed the prоcess a lot. It was all made with great care and packed and sent just in time for the wediing. I knew it was well received. But when I received this picture and have a look at it now, with the lady wearing natural colours and really great soxs … It all looks so warm and natural. The quilt has a life of its own. And I am happy I was part of its very beginning.

We have a warm autumn here with summer /or summer-like/ temperatures lasting almost until the end of October. We call it gypsy summer. Usually the gypsy summer saves a few days for November. The last two were some of them.

The picture is taken in the cold period, but the grass is still birgth green now. This is one of my favourite alleys in the Sea Garden of Varna.

We have market economy, stock exchange, strong currency and low unemployment rate now. Plus one of the highest economic growths in the region, due to high foreign investment rates and stable currency /as an effect of the currency board/. The health care and education systems are functioning worse than before. The accumulated pension funds were lost in the first transition years of capital accumulation right after the change. We can travel and visit the EU countries with no special documents as we are part of the EU. Wages are getting higher, private, SME and NGO sectors are growing. Still the economy is vulnerable as it depends on foreign investment to preserve the growth and the investors are suffering from the world financial crisis.

Nov 10th is not a very important date now. But I would not be able to blog without it. So I thougth I would take some time and mention it here.

A picture taken few weeks ago. Today the light was similar, but I did not take pictures by the sea. It was very windy. This is the price we pay for the refreshing summer breeze.

There are almost no green leaves on the trees now. A few cold windy days changed the lanscape a lot.

My kid borrowed my desk this week. So nothing crafty to show now  but the constructing aids I made. Only 3 shown here, but I made a lot.

It is not a great photo as it was taken late in the evening after all the boxes were ready and filled with the bricks.

It is the white country on the old map shown here /the only map showing almost all of Europe that I found - it is really old and the colour coding is quite out-dated, but you can see the location/.

It is in Europe, on the Balkan peninsula /South East Europe/, west to the Black sea. It is a small country with great history and beautiful landscape situated on the crossroads of various routes, cultures and interests. This proved to be a great chance and more than great trouble.

We have 4 seasons, great mountains /and vegetables and fruits/. Lots of resorts /too many in the last few years/, amazing history and cultural and folklore treasures, and a post socialist transition economy, suffering a substantial brain drain /plus negative population surplus for a long period right after the democracy introduction /1989//…. Bulgaria is a European union country, but not a euro zone one yet.

We use Cyrillic alphabet, which is similar to the Russian /that you can see on some Japanese fabrics/ but has less letters. The Russians added some new letters after adopting the Cyrillic alphabet.

For more details I am coping some of the Wikipedia info below. If you are curios about my country, feel free to ask.

“The state of Bulgaria [bʌlˈgɛiɹiə] (Bulgarian: България, transliterated: Balgaria,[1] pronounced IPA: [bəlˈgarija]), international transliteration Bălgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Република България, Republika Balgaria, pronounced IPA: [rɛˈpubliˌka bəlˈgarija]) forms part of the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. It borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the River Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east.

Bulgaria includes parts of the Roman provinces of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. Old European culture within the territory of present-day Bulgaria started to produce golden artifacts by the fifth millennium BC.[4]

The first Bulgarian kingdoms on European soil date back to the early Middle Ages (VIIth century). All Bulgarian political entities that subsequently emerged preserved the traditions (in ethnic name, language and alphabet) of the First Bulgarian Empire (632/681 – 1018), which at times covered most of the Balkans and spread its alphabet, literature and culture among the Slavic and other peoples of Eastern Europe. Centuries later, with the decline of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 – 1396/1422), Bulgarian kingdoms came under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 led to the re-establishment of a Bulgarian state as a constitutional monarchy in 1878, with the Treaty of San Stefano marking the birth of the Third Bulgarian State. Following the Young Turk Revolution Bulgaria declared her independence from the Ottoman Emipre in 1908.[5] After World War II, in 1945 Bulgaria became a communist state and part of the Eastern Bloc. Todor Zhivkov dominated Bulgaria politically for 33 years (from 1956 to 1989). In 1990, after the Revolutions of 1989, the Communist party gave up its monopoly on power and Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and free-market capitalism.

Currently Bulgaria functions as a parliamentary democracy under a unitary constitutional republic. A member of the European Union since 2007 and of NATO since 2004, it has a population of approximately 7.6 million.”

You can find more on the Wikipedia link mentioned above. All the 5 information sources used in the copied text are listed there too,along with many others.

The other has no sewing involved so its almost instant gratification swap. I will start working on all the swaps tomorrow to make a very busy week more interesting.

Wish you a nice and productive pre-holiday week!