St. Valentine day is in four weeks. A good time to get started about its preparation. In Bulgaria it is a double holiday - the adopted western St. Valentines day - celebrating love - and the local folklore day of wine and wine pruning. St. Valentine's day is on another day in the Orthodox calendar used by most of the Christians in Bulgaria. So I started these hearts as my first creation for the holiday of all the people in love. Or people who like good wine. They will become small useful thing. I do not love the idea of making something cute for the cuteness itself. It is very important to find a good reason to use it and not just put it somewhere to collect unneeded piles of dust...

This is a special print. It is cute, but not too baby-like. Makes me smile and has ladybugs on it! The best thing about is, it not has ladybugs on it, but coordinates with another quite different kid print... No little one around to sew something for with it and it is the only reason I am not having many meters of it... Made a little bad sheet with it for the appliques quilt, which was backed with the coordinating print.

I had a hard week and needed something to cheer me up. It came in my Inbox right on the hardest day - a Doll Quilt Swap confirmation. Yay!!! I am in! Sadly, it was not enough to make up for the hard time, but was a lovely, wonderful surprise... I had forgotten about the sign up timing at all... It might seem way too strange to be happy and announce it as news about something as simple as a swap... I know! But Doll Quilt Swap is so much than a swap and I am so happy, I am taking part in its tenth round! I need to make a mosaic, do some research, make some choices, make a quilt and than send it a stranger... And it is magical in every little detail. I felt a little nervous about this round - the 10th and the chances not to get in. It is crazy as I am too busy to make it... Yet, not making it in would feel not really good. Planning a mosaic now...

Do you like it? Pure Joy in the middle, the spring around and crafty bits among it? I do! Find it inspiring in a gloomy day, one of many, in a row... Flickr is the spring of inspiration for many people, including me. I am going to share some of the images there, I find inspiring with you here. Enjoy them! And here are the small letters for big credits and thanks for the authors of the pictures:1. pure joy, 2. mixed fibers, 3. spring dress, 4. Untitled, 5. Moss Green Elephant, 6. Repurposed Golden circle pendant necklace with rhinestone, 7. Pink Ranunculus Pincushion, 8. #621 綠啄果林, 9. Up in the Air, 10. Herlev Station, 11. Summer in a field of yellow, 12. The Flittering Flowers :-), 13. Untitled

Here it is - a baby quilt I made for a little girl. It took me so long to make it, she was able to grow and is not exactly a newborn now. Hopefully it will be liked a lot just as I loved making it. This is the quilt I mentioned sometime ago - inspired by a favorite on Flickr /one of the greatest simple quilts there in my opinion/ So here is the process story. When I saw the quilt I was sure I will make one like it. Not the exact plan, not even similar prints, but something with similar impression. As I saw a chance to make it for a baby, I wanted all edges finished and none of the frayed. I also wanted the flowers more baby-like - no vague ideas, but accurate flowers. I wanted it tactile - little ones love touching and exploring everything they touch. Thus the 3-D element was added. The palette was another challenge - wanted it fresh, crisp, flowery, pastel, not too curly, not too flowers-intensive, not too modern... I had some pre-cut squares in pastels, decided I want an old-fashioned roses print in the quilt and this was the quilt recipe. Then just mixed and matched other ideas around the squares and the print. I rarely choose white for background as I do find off-whites and ecrus more natural, relaxing and usually more stylish. It this case however, I white was a must to bring more air, so the white joined the fabrics. The original plan was to make a quilt and a bed sheet. I tend to use the back of quilt for a kid print and decided to use two coordinating ones for the back and the bedding. Finally a little hand quilting detail, added a princess silhouette to one corner of the quilt. It is the first time I do it. I think it will be one of many times - turned delicate and interesting.

Here are the newest additions to my stash. All bought this week and all bought to replaced fabrics I have already cut and got sewn into something. Big plans - expect them all getting sewn into new things this month. Hopefully they will in the next weeks. The first Sunday stash this year is number 40 + 1. Seems a good reason to keep posting every week and counting the week and not skipping posts like last year. New Year resolutions... LOL

The first week of the year is almost all gone. I was sewing, quilting. embroidering and knitting this week. A very promising new year beginning, I think. Blogging got a little bit neglected due to camera exhaustion and will be back here as frequently as usually next week. In the meantime - by the end of the day- I will put the final stitches on 3 projects started this week. Other 4 got finished during the week. Oh, and the big Valentine sewing and crafting starts tomorrow! Wishing you a lovely new week!

We celebrated Christmas and look forward to get all the errands in time for New Years Eve. Hope you had a lovely enlighten and warm Christmas and wish you a Happy and prosperous New 2011! I can now show you my Christmas patchwork potholders with their little embroideries /quilted actually/ and my second pair of socks /coming soon with the third one/. The sock were ready in time, the size was OK but I mostly happy with the timing. Have just finished a new quilt too - washing it now. Looking forward to the new year and new week and the beginning of a new project. Sewing and hand quilting today felt great!

A post to make up for the things I have posted in Bulgarian only in the last couple of weeks. And mainly explanation of the pictures posted along with Bulgarian text previously. As weather got cooler, I started baking again. I missed this during the hot, hot summer weeks... Making bread is a colder part of the year ritual here. It feels the air with the most comforting domesticity spirit you can get. Especially for some flour and baking... I usually rotate 3 main recipes but the cold weather made me stick to the cheese and oil one mostly. Delicious! I also played with binding - lovely experience and great time spent among the colourful scraps and FQ piles... Sewing for Christmas - potholders, bread baskets and such... I made some other little projects in the meantime. December was a really busy month and I had some things to deal with, so making a full-size quilt did not happen this month. I took part in a charity event - making a quilt to be sold at a market. And was left with a test star in a difficult, old-fashioned style. It became a little table topper. Waiting for binding now. And it was planned to be a pillow... Well, as usually patches and tops have a live of their own and opinion what to be made out of them too. LOL Regarding the process, one had an opinion of its own on quilting too. It did insist to be quilted in the cabbage style. I know it is called feathers, but believe me it feels like cabbage. And I know its due to my lack of serious feathers experience lately... I was about to choose a modern style quilting, but feathers happened... Happy I did not allow it to become an UFO. Found a couple of UFOs this week and decided to make them quilts in January. First New Year resolutions this December!

I realize now, I've written no post in English since Dec 7th! Writing independent posts in both languages - Bulgarian an English seems to have a minor hiden disadvantage in busy periods... So here is what is new here: We had snow! It was a beautiful snowy afternoon last Thursday. It all got white and wintery in half an hour! And I was driving at this time... I am sewing a bit and knitting a lot! Longing for a good pair of "my" sock for quite a long, I finally did finished my first pair! Number two is in progress now. Hopefully all done tomorrow. Christmas lists are almost done - still need wine and cookies, but ready with gifts! Just need to pack and buy some spices and wine... I have a little special something - mini patchwork quilt to play with on Christmas /here it is -  with some rambling in Bulgarian about it, blog post in English will be here for Christmas/ and... it is said we expect a warm Christmas this year. Which will definitely not keep me from baking! LOL Did I shout loud enough how happy I am with these socks? Well, despite the size error... LOL