авторски пачуърк създаден в България : patchwork + gifts: handmade in Bulgaria
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I love this little thing. Making it for a little lady was great honour. Really!
It feels sooo special to make something for a little princess.
I choose the style, draw the pattern and the pattern pieces myself, making it all starting from scratch was another great moment in the making. Little flowers for the hair… the embroidery… magic…
Felt so happy with it, I wanted one to stay on the wall permanently…
Little simple beauties! Make you feel like living in a dream…
Tags: baby gown, christenning, dress, gown
It is sooooo hot here… I am dreaming of refreshing rain.. like the ones we had in June… though I know it will than lead to unbearable humidity again… The rain drops on the left are part of July shower.
It is hot! One feels like having a week in a much warmer place… The water – sea water- is really hot – 30C. Noone thinks it was this warm before… And to make it scientific… no record available either – 27C is the highest level before 2010.
So I am having great fun swimming, diving, soaking, swimming, etc… Unexpected summer vacation in the middle of a hot, hot summer. The worse thing is the humidity. The air is so humid, people feel like melting… sweating, showering, swimming and starting again… until the evening breeze.
I am knitting now. No really active sewing these days, just some little projects or finishing jobs.
My special day in the middle of June. Started like this – fragrant red roses. And ended with even more roses.
I am now longer growing in the physical aspect, ignoring the scales from time to time… Getting younger is not quite right too, so getting wiser hopefully fits the day.
MidJune was midweek too this year. Yes I am using the Midsummer idea – love it.
It was a lovely day and hopefully the beginning of a lovely year. I have some gifts to pick up myself too, so the start feels good.
No baking this year – such hot weather lately. So I picked a nice tall cake and saved some hours by the oven. Or just put them off for calmer evenings LOL. Plus I even managed to find a place for my car in a busy hour just a few meters away from the pastry shop in a busy crowded area with no parking lots – the birthday luck.
Eggs, baking, flowers, washing, etc… standard Easter preparation activities.
The baking was done a day before Easter and the egg painting was finished just a few minutes before midnight… But it was fun! Maybe the latest hour my little helper and me have ever painted eggs for Easter…
Here are the results of both baking and painting. I painted just some of the eggs. Little hands did the rest of this job. I also prepared and participated in baking just half of the Easter “козунаци” /kozunatzi/ the traditional sweat Easter bread with milk, eggs, lemon, almonds, raisins.
They were delicious. Every room had their lovely aroma… They are long gone now and I am dreaming of baking a second batch…
Here are new pot plants I had on Palm Sunday here. Palm Sunday is flowers celebration here and it is my name day too. Its name in Bulgarian is “Цветница” / Tzvetnitza/, coming from “цвете” /tzvete/, which is “flower” in Bulgarian. I won’t be wrong to write Palm Sunday in Bulgarian is actually Flower Day 
.
So in the Flower Day, and my name day /my name is the name of a flower too/, I received some flowers and bought some flowers and prepared my balcony for the late spring and summer. The summer bulbs are not visible growing yet, but the hyacinths are gorgeous – pale pink and hot fuchsia. With adorable, fantastic aroma.
I will show you some other flowers I received on this very day pretty soon. No pictures yet.
Tags: flowers, Holidays, Palm Sunday
It is the second day of Easter today! The greatest Christian holiday and the one celebrated for 40 days too. Happy Easter!
Painting eggs and making Easter breads we call “козунаци” /”kozunaci” in Latin alphabet/with milk, eggs, raisins and almonds is only part of the celebration here. We did not go to the church to go three times around it at midnight. It was a long day before it, baking for Easter.
But we were out of town for some hours and visited lovely places and relatives. Having a lovely day on a holiday, when one is expected not to work is a blessing!
This year Easter is really early, but spring seems to have come earlier too. The parks and meadows are covered with flowers. I counted more than 10 in the city garden the other day. We saw storks yesterday, so we could hang our martenicas on trees now.
Birds are singing. and we heard a cuckoo. We saw some butterflies and geckos, some swallows too, The fields were green, rivers full of spring water. Gardens covered with flowering tulips and hyacinths. The sun was shinning brightly all day. Just little clouds here and there to add some interest… Short-sleeve day in the country after the cold days by the sea…
Tags: Easter
It is March the 1st – the day Grandmother Marta comes and gives everyone a martenitza.
No, its not my relative. It is a lady with a very special job similar to Santa Clause’s.
And here are some of the martenitzas we made on Sunday to give today. These are twisted white and red threads.
It is an old Bulgarian tradition wishing good health to people and cattle, by giving everyone a martenitza on March 1st. It is worn until the person sees a stork or other migrating bird. It is then tied on a flowering tree.
Decoration options are unlimited. The twists on the picture are just the base. Pompoms, tassels and bows are the simplest ones.
This is the last patchwork made in 2009.
A custom order for a table runner. Love the colours on it. It is Christmas like, but too much Christams in there. It could a nice Valentine or just a stylish red and white table addition.
I have made a few table runners with similar look – same pattern, different colours. This is the boldest. The contrast between red and and the whites is really strong and the red vivid. But the white/ecru combo softens it and adds style.
The back is burgundy deep red with ecru quilting on it.
More pictures on Flickr. A lot actually. I took 100+ pictures and changed most to “private” not to bother people on Flickr… The first time I do it.
The table runner will be added to my etsy shop as another custom table runner tomorrow.
Tags: Christmas, ecru, patchwork, quilt, red, table runner, white
Here is the Christmas shawl. Before blocking. But you will get a good idea of how it looks. Yes, it is better after blocking and it would be good to have some after blocking pictures… but I did not take any apart from the folded one here.
The weight is the thing I really love on this one – it is approx. 50g. And it is warm too.
Knitting it was meditative activity – fast, easy to memorize, soft and great colour.
This is the fisrt really lacy shawl I made. It was soft and shapeless I was not sure it will block well, but it did block just perfect. More pictures on Flickr.
I am planning new projects with this yarn. Have not chosen the colour yet…
