Thursday, March 15, 2007

And before the week is over...

Just a few of us, but once again, a pleasent meeting.
Michelle brought photocopies for all of us to make dolls since we are participating in the Dollies without borders project. I think it will be nice to have a bunch of similar looking dolls sent from this group to Africa. I just wish we had a bit of flexibility in terms of the looks of the dolls. It looks like they want us to make dolls that reflect the kids that will receive them. But either way, I am sure they will all be unique and special to us and to the kids receiving them.
And here is Michelle working on her fisrt doll already!

Claudia and Marcela were busy chatting, sewing and cheking some books out.

Watch out girls! you may end up looking like this...

Pilar got inspired again and got back to sewing after a few days of not knowing what to do.

Amisha as always busy with her many projects.

Hawa, our new member started making a bag. She worked like this the whole time we were there! she will finish it soon, no doubt!

And even I pretended that I too was working....


Regardless of keeping my little one our of his...space ship???


Happy crafting and see you on Sunday!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Two weeks of busy crafting

I brought my camera 2 weeks ago to our Minerva's meeting and didn't have time to post about what we did that Sunday. Then again we met this past Sunday and we had more crafting, showing, eating and chit chatting.
Two weeks ago we had to meet outside of one of our commons room because there was a party going on inside. It turned out really nice. The breeze was blowing and it was refreshing to be outside talking about crafts. Then the rain made an attempt to show up but only by the time we had to leave anyways, so it turned out to be a wonderful afternoon.

Teri showed us her quilt made out of pieces of patchwork made by her students, donated by them and created finally by her. She is having some large figures appliqued on top of a patchwork background. Really beautiful.



Michelle came with her monster quilt. It looks like we learn something from that quilt every week. Really inspiring.


And this week Clara was our teacher. She took a class about how to make diamond quilts or star quilts, those classical beacutiful quilts that have so many possibilities. I had tried to work with this diamonds in the past and now I realize that I was using prehistoric methods to cut the pieces and even to design the diamonds. It is so much easier when you know how to use the ruler!!!


This past Sunday we met again, but this time in the indoor commons room. We were a lot of women, and some children. Some (mine) looked like they had taken a wisky right before the meeting, really hyper.
I think Camila was the most productive of all. Not only she had already cut all her fabrics that she bought the other week in Trenton but she had also sewn them together forming this amazing looking quilt!


She had formerly made another quilt when she first started in this "business" that was using the log cabin design and it looks this pretty:

She said she was going to use the black patchwork for the back of this other quilt, that way she doesn't have two huge quilts to bring back to Brazil.
Yanina was getting ready for her trip back to her country next week and she brought the fish quilt she made for her niece. Amazing right? even better when you look at the actual patterns of the fabrics, all full of cute fish....


This week was very special too. Just a few days earlier it had been Pilar's birthday. We wanted to let her know that this was a great day and that we didn't forget. We all signed a wonderful Denyse Schmidt style but Claudia-creation fabric card to let her know what an special person she was and how happy we all were to share some goodies with her and all the other members of Minerva's circle. Claudia was our master of ceremonies.

And here is the birthday girl. Happy birthday Pilar!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Dollies Without Borders Project

I have emailed Madeline from Dollies Without Borders to see if she would be able to attend one of our meetings to demonstrate the doll construction and tell us a bit more about her project. Marcela's employer, Holbrook Travel, has also contacted her about how they can get involved.
I will let everyone know what I hear, in the meantime you can visit the website which has more information and patterns for the dolls: http://www.dollieswithoutborders.com