In the afternoon

 

Can you see my late afternoon visitor? Here they call this type of hummingbird a beija-flor (literally = kiss flower). The picture is not very good, but I simply love the short visits he brings to our balcony at the 8th floor of the apartment building. At night, while we are enjoying our dinner, he comes by to have a sip of the sugar drink from the special feeder.

This is a picture of our view we have from the house: over Ibirapuera Park towards the Avenida Paulista. I am very lucky to have this view as most buildings are facing each other and you look up to other sky scrapers which are much higher than our building. A bit like on the first picture. During the day, the sky changes from colour over the park, from blue to grey to dark blue, and it is never the same.

With every stitch we make, our fabric creations change and the intensity of the design becomes stronger. I have been playing with the BSR from my Bernina and I think I worked it out. A few things are still a question mark, but I will found out sooner than later how to work best with this special stitch. Time to pick up my books and study some Portuguese...
Ciao from Brazil, Hilde

Cushion talk

While the geckos are waiting to be needled down, I started another small project. Because that's what we all do, isn't it?
My mother in low has been looking around for new cushion covers and could not find something she liked. She wants two for her bedroom and I think she needs another two for the sofa in the living room as well!

For her bedroom she wanted blue and grey, but I think a little bit of red will be just the eye catcher the cushions need on top of the quilt that is already there.
Taking out these Civil War colours is just a feast! Although I am not used to working with these colours, I do like them a lot. I just drew some lines within the measurement of 40cm (16") and worked it out from there.

In her living room the colours are more classical, and these beautiful fabrics are just a perfect match.

The design for these two are from the book Oh Sew Easy Pillows by Jean and Valori Wells. When I left Singapore, she give me this lovely book. Lovely and simple designs for a 'stylish living'...

Next step is quilting the cushion fronts before attaching to the backs. Hmmm, I would like to continue right now, but there other things waiting to be done. Like going to the post office to get these Siggies posted to Holland and the States!

By the way: mom, if you want some too, just let me know! Ciao from Brazil! Hilde

Geckos are marching in

After ironing on the Heat'nBond to the fabric on Tuesday, work sort of stopped. Other things had to be done in and around the house.

Yesterday I started cutting out the gecko figures. What a tedious work! All those curves and little toes... Meanwhile I watched "De Wereld Draait Door", a popular Dutch program, via internet on my computer. It keeps me up to date with what's going on back home.

Today I ironed the geckos to the top and I like the colour combination. One of my many boxes was holding the Bernina BSR tool, I had to do without while being in Holland. Yes, bee-girls, I found it again!

Now I have to have a go with it, but it is such a long time ago I have used the BSR for the last time! As I want to applique the geckos with a free motion stitch, I better practice first on another piece of fabric.
Ciao from Brazil! Hilde

What to do with it

This UFO has been laying around for almost 6 years. It was made within 24 hours, and I liked it at that time, but something was missing so I put it away...

It moved along from Singapore to Vietnam and still did not get a closer look. This time around, when this one came out of one of the removal boxes, I thought I better have another look at it.
My design wall from Clover is still hiding somewhere so I put up a flannel sheet on the wall. Well, what to do with it...

Shall I make curves in the rectangular design with my rotary cutter? Nah, too complicated...
I would like to add some more contrast with darker purples, reds and yellows...

Applique! Okay, so this UFO is going to be a background from now on.

Next step is which kind of applique would I like to do? Something on my sewing machine it is.
Because this top is square, the applique could be something of a round shape, a circle... a Mandala!
In Hindu and Buddhist religious art you can find some beautiful circles of repetitive figures. There are many books where you can find designs for coloring and meditation, and can be used for quilting as well. The book I have is Mandala's by M. Gauding.
But I am not going to meditate and sit still, no, I want to work with my fabrics!

Going through my stash of Kaufman's batiks I choose a few to make more contrast.
And while selecting the fabrics I knew what I was going to do: geckos! A design of a circle of geckos which a lady in Singapore, Brigitte Lee, once gave to me.

 

As I do not want the background to be covered too much, I let the geckos make a bigger circle without being connected... oh well, that's the plan so far. Let's see where this takes me! Hilde

Cut the cord!

Cut the cord!

To get back into the swinging sewing mood, I had to cut the cord. This is something I hesitate doing! I way much more prefer buying a new cord with a different plug attached, but that means I have to wait, maybe for a couple of weeks, before I can sew. With all other electric appliances I couldn't care less, but with my Bernina....

Every time we move, we come into the same situation: the plugs do not fit into the wall sockets because of their differences in shapes. This time, it is not only the difference in the shape of plugs and wall sockets, but the difference in electrical output as well! All our electrical appliances are for 220V - 50 Herz, while here in Brazil the output is mainly 110V - 60 Hertz.

Halfway the operation

Well, can you imagine how much I love my Bernina?! This Rolls Royce of a sewing machine you can just plug into the wall without even blinking and to worry if it will blow up or not! With it's build in transformer it sews all around the world! It's only a matter of 'cutting the cord' and change the plug! Take a deep breath and just do it!

I did it and I can tel you that the operation is accomplished! My Bernina is sewing again! And I feel already much better!

It is whrooming again!

In the meantime, a new washing machine has entered the house and that was finally the end of doing the clothes by hand! Pffew, it took a few days to get the stack of linen washed and back into the cabinets.

During the past weeks I had to change my mindset that washing only can be done with warm water: here in Brazil most machines do not heat the water and all programs are with cold water. In the kitchen area there is no hot water output, unless you install a special machine. Hmmm, well, I will adapt to this new concept and boil some water if the pots and pans are very dirty, but still, it feels a bit strange.

Siggy output

While telling you all this, I almost finished some Siggies. Since moving to Brazil, I get a lot of requests from other collectors overseas. I better finish them today and put them in the mail as soon as possible! Hilde

Something to share

The following link to Tokyo International Quilt Show (click here) I found on Isa e Kika's blog. Pictures are taken by Robots-Dream's.
I sort of ran out of energy after the moving and cannot get myself to do some sewing work. Watching this show brings back some energy and inspiration to hopefully get going again soon! Hilde

My new sewing & box-making room

Welcome in my new art-room!

After one week of hard work all 324 boxes, including beds, tables, chairs, etc, almost everything is unpacked and has a new destination in the house. Every item goes through our hands and that makes it so much work. Because the apartment is much smaller than the house we had before, we have to decide what can stay and what has to go. It would have been so much easier if we had known where we were going when we packed the house in Vietnam. But that has not been the case and all furniture has been in storage for almost 19 months.

Some people who passed by the street, took card boxes and left all the wrapping paper on the street, what a mess it was! Fortunately it did not rain!

Our apartment is on the 8th floor and two items, the sofa and one cabinet, had to be 'air-lifted' because they did not fit in the elevator.


This was my room at the beginning of this week, and now it looks like the picture above. I know, it is still a bit messy with loose cables from the computer and TV, and not everything in its final place, but I am so happy to have it all around me again!

 

My cabinet with fabric covered boxes made to measurement. Inside are beads and ribbons and tools for box making. On the two bottom shelves crates with fabrics. To the right of the cabinet are cardboard sheets, enough for the coming year. To the left are rolls of bookbinders linen. 

All these colours make me happy every time I am in this room. It is time to get sewing, I have a few Siggies to make and send them overseas! Hilde