Minerva's circle

Claudia, Clarita, Gaby and Maria Emilia

2009-09-23T11:08:00.004-04:00

Hi Minerva friends:
I had been here for a month and I couldnt see guys, I felt so bad...I had been really busy taking my quals and moving my stuff and now it is time to leave Gainesville and start my research in Ecuador, my natal country. But I cant go without tell you that I really have good times with you, I learned a lot about crafts and enjoy it :-), but most important I learned about courage, persistance, respect, friendship, kindness and generosity. You really are going to be in our hearts(my mom, my sister and I). You have a home in Ecuador, come to visit us.
We are planning to start a branch of Minerva Club in Ecuador, my mom is really into it, I will sent pics if we finally make it.

Thanks again for everything
Claudia

Apple crisp

2009-09-20T23:24:00.007-04:00

Once again our Sunday's meeting became a bit more crowded than many other Sundays this summer. We had a nice crowd and we enjoyed our time together...so much that we didn't realize when 6 pm went by...

It is hard to appreciate, well it is impossible actually in this picture, the wonderful hand quilting that Teri is doing in her quilt. You can actually see it best when you look at the back of the quilt..she is going to have entertainment for a while, it is so intricate and beautiful!

And as usual Gladys brought some fruit and I decided to try a dessert that a friend of mine taught me. It is quite sweet but quite delicious as well. Everybody loved it and they asked me to post the recipe here...here it goes:

Ingredients:

4 apples

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup of water

1 cup flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick of butter)

Put sliced apples in pan (don't need to peel them)

Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle oer apples

Pour water over apples

Mix flour, sugar and butter (warm 30 sec) and crumble with a fork

Sprinkle crumble over apples

Bake 40 min at 350 F.

Enjoy!!!

I wish I had a picture to show!!! but It was good so it was gone before too long!

Good old friends!

2009-06-28T22:14:00.002-04:00

Today we had a brief meeting at Minerva's. It looked like most of us had other things to do. We had though, the pleasent visit of our friend Clara, who used to live here and used to come frequently to our meetings. She is so talented and such a nice person that we were all happy to see her and impressed with her creations, as always.

As for the rest of us, we were catching up with crochet, dress making, crosstitch and me...well I guess I'm just the webmaster and the one who yells at Luca while he runs wild in the room with his friend Akiko.

And this is something from a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't had a chance to post about it and I will do it now. Juanita, from Ecuador likes doing crosstich. At first she started with a towel, with a pretty decoration of cherries and she finished it so quickly that now she is into another intricate project. This is how her first project came out. Nice uh??

One memorable day

2009-06-21T22:59:00.006-04:00

Today I went to our quilting meeting with no much enthusiam. I knew most people woudn't be there because of father's day and it just makes it hard for me to come and entertain my son while there are no other kids his age for him to play with. But to my surprise, so many of my friends came and also a new member, which made it even more interesting! I am happy I ended up going, it cheered up my day. Luca was a good boy and he had fun just as usual by himself.

He is the one who took this picture of us, before he dropped my camera and almost broke it (I think is back to life now!).

Proof that he had fun, look at his dirty feet!

And everyone else did too!

Bridgett working on a dress:

Teri working on her quilt top:

Her beautiful quilt top made of clothes by the great grandmother of her friend, and ancient piece of work!

Gladys teaching our new friend Zahra how to crochet flowers. She is a fast learner!

The proof here:

Farewell to friends

2009-06-01T11:29:00.002-04:00

Once again, we have to say goodbye to some wonderful friends that have been recently joining our group. Three women and a little girl that have filled us all with joy and shared so much with us that we will miss them and hope to see them again (very soon Lisseth) in the future.
We had a little party for them that turned out to be bigger than we expected, lots of kids, another party of nice friends outside and wonderful treats to share. But the best of all, great friends and an emotional farewell. Thanks Claudia, Maria Emilia, Carmen and Lisseth for being the way you are and see you soon!!

Clarita from Ecuador

2009-05-19T22:23:00.003-04:00

Our friend Clarita taught us many things while she was here with us. She also learned some, among others, patchwork and quilting. She barely had time to make too many projects here but she managed to continue back in Ecuador, to teach it to other and to make wonderful things like these that she just showed us this week. Congratulations Clarita! Enhorabuena Clarita!

Meringue cake!

2009-05-11T09:50:00.007-04:00

Hello!
Yesterday we had a different type of workshop at Minerva's circle. Pilar taught us how to make meringue cake. Not only she had all the instructions in English and Spanish but she also had a bunch of tricks under her sleeves! We were a nice crowd, hosted by our dear Gladys in her home. We learned how to make meringue and how to put the cake together. It was really amazing! So soft and creamy and light and fluffy mmmmm way to go Pilar! Thank you for being such a great teacher!

Tada! this is how it looked at the end...amazing right?

Here the cook and the host, smiling as always :)

And since we had such a beautiful cake we took the oportunity to celebrate the birthday of a beautiful and much loved woman, our dear friend Gladys. Happy birthday to you!!

And the bags are being finished!

2009-04-01T14:22:00.003-04:00

I know Clarita will be very proud looking at these pictures of her daughters...

Even Claudia is getting the computer ready for the soccer game :)

Teri always comes with some surprise in her hands!

And it was a very lively, busy and productive day. It was one h after or session adn we were still there enjoying ourselves.

The little ones also had fun.

Jose Antonio modeling for my little baby sun hat. I wee too small for him.

Carmen recited some thought about what it is to be a "mujerona".

The kids had fun and got pretty dirty, good sign of fun.

Cata almost done!

And the advanced student Gladys did it! She finished the bag in two sessions!

More bagssss

2009-03-22T23:12:00.003-04:00

I had my second bag workshop in Minerva's circle. the fist was held last year around February and some of the same girls were there. I can tell you that this time most already knew what they were doing because we got to the middle of the workshop in just one meeting! Last time it took us about 5 weekends! Now, some of them used the sewing machine for the first or second time so to all of you keep up the good work and you will be very happy with the results!!! I guess it helped that we were a smaller group and also that Luca was enjoying aa nap with his grandparents instead of running around.
We will have more of this next weekend!

Easter eggs

2009-03-16T22:10:00.003-04:00

This week we had a guest coming to our group to teach us something totally new for us. Easter egg decorations. Maria is from Slovakia and she knows how to make these wonderful eggs. We had a great time and the results are amazing! Thank yo so much Maria!

Emptying the eggs. Good job Gladys!

Not doing anything we are not supposed to do...

Concentrated artists:

Our teacher:

The results:

100 posts! and a celebration

2009-03-12T10:53:00.001-04:00

It was Pilar's birthday again (can you believe it's been a year since that wonderful party??) and we celebrated in Minervas a couple of Sundays ago with cakeS and friends and a few little gifts. Happy birthday Pilar and our little web connection also has a 100 post birthday! Congratulations!

Meeting at Lake Alice

2009-03-10T09:56:00.002-04:00

This Sunday was great. We couldn't meet in our regular meeting room so we decided to go to the lake instead. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and it was as pleasant as it could be. It is always a pleasure to meet with all my friends, we have such a great time that I am eager to get to 4pm on Sundays to see them all. Luca was sleeping all the way to I was able to do something productive! We will meet again there next Sunday until the weather becomes too hot.

Carmenes pretending they are working:

The truth, we were just posing for the the picture:)

New week, new faces

2009-02-17T14:34:00.003-05:00

We had a younger addition to our group, Akiko was learning how to make needlepoint with the help of her mommy.

Everybody else seemed to be deep into the embroidery project that carmen (from Bolivia) is teaching us.

And great sweets for dessert. Teri brought the best mango key lime pie ever! sold in Publix :)

And Gladys showed us what she is working on for a while now, a crocheted throw. Just amazing.

Embroidery Sunday

2009-02-09T10:55:00.002-05:00

Hi again!
This Sunday there were many of us joining for good company, good food and some crafts too!
We have started some embroidery , that Carmen from Bolivia is teaching us. Here she is showing some new stitches to Lisseth.

Teri finished her new scarf! She made it so quickly! And it looks lovely!

Pilar and Cata enjoyed looking at magazines, nice recipes and nice patters too!

MArcela, Lisseth and I were working hard on our embroidery projects.

We now have a new database that Marcela prepared for our group and Teri was looking over our profiles. Bridget joined us in this group this Sunday.

Gladys was an advanced student and had her embroidery finished!!! And they were reading and discussing yummy recipes with Pilar.

Marcela made a super cute purse to put all her cosmetics. Nice fabrics from ikea.

And closed it looks like this.

And this cute jacket was knitted by Pilar for our new youngest addition to the group...she and artist....

Here he is, Jose Antonio and his mommy, the artist.

Under the sun

2009-02-04T21:17:00.002-05:00

The fact that we had no place to get into didn't stop us from sewing, chatting, and being productive this past Sunday! Only the cold weather was a bit annoying by the end. But we still had a great time and were probably more productive than usual.

And don't ask questions here, just so you know, outside there are no toys and you have to entertain the boy so he doesn't get tired of these crafty women. You do what you need to do to make him happy...

Minerva's Christmas Tradition

2009-02-01T22:39:00.005-05:00

Yes, it has become a tradition, our secret santa has happened already 3 years in a row and I think that must be a tradiction! It is for sure so much fun, not only because of the amazing creativiness that it forces all of us to bring to the group but specially because it is one of those unique days in the year that most of us gather. We just missed the 3 friends who from far away also exchanged their creations. We missed you! And specially for you I post these pictures today, to show you what happened to be a wonderful Secret Santa party in the middle of January.

Memories of Past Quilting!

2008-12-29T10:53:00.004-05:00

Hi Quilters,

Happy New Year 2009! I am hoping to start posting on the blog. Here are some pics I want to add to reflect upon our abundant and rich experiences in Minerva Circle. The quilts and quilters are a tapestry of diverse and magnificent talent! Enjoy!

Christmas ornaments workshop

2008-12-11T23:40:00.001-05:00

Another successful workshop. Good friends, fun, and beautiful outcomes! Thanks Claudia! More than one is addicted to making stars and Christmas trees now!

Friends

2008-12-03T08:46:00.008-05:00

I have been meaning to write this post for a while, and now that we received a very nice comment from one of our members who is now overseas, I decided it's about time.
Sometimes it is hard to keep this group going, we are so many members, and from different places, different villages or apartments, and we have different responsibilities in our lives, that it is hard to keep committing to this group, since this is just a hobby or a social meeting in a weekly basis. But someone has to be on top of things to make sure we don't let it go, we don't let it disappear. I try to do that, keep up with emailing, with the commons room, organizing workshops, etc, because I am not a student and I am not working either. I do have many personal responsibilities but I try to work around them. I think this group is important, it is for me, and I know it is for so many others.
I love the feeling of sharing knowledge without expecting anything back. And this is going on here a lot. There are so many woman that have so many things to share, that otherwise maybe one would never get a chance to learn that it makes an amazing opportunity for all of us to be "touched" by someone special. I also think that it s a nice and warm support group for many. I have seen so many people coming by, like Clarita, that didn't expect to have any social activity during her stay in Gainesville, but in turn, she ended up making some nice connections with a lot of people. The gratitude that she showed in her comment in the "Random" post shows it all. It was a privilege to get to meet her. A humble and friendly woman who had lots to share, not only crafts, but also affection. Those friendships stay and will remain in our memories, like many others that came and left before her. Thank you for participating in this group, it is wonderful to be a part of it.

Random

2008-10-28T21:21:00.002-04:00

This Sunday was a bit of random activities. I continue to do my thing, tatting.
Gladys a bit of everything.

A new member! Kathy is learning how to knit for her little son. She brought him with her, he is so cute...

This is him, Edrian.

And Luca of course, getting dirty, troublemaker..

Pattern making

2008-10-23T17:37:00.004-04:00

Last week, we had Clarita show us how o read a pattern and how to make it! It was very interested and as you can see from our faces, we were very concentrated! We didn't finish it so we will be continuing this coming Sunday.

But that wasn't all! Little John, Teri's son, was working in his quilt! Yes! Unbelievably this little boy is hand quilting a beautiful quilt that he has been working on since he was 7. You see! Not only a child but also a male can do this!

There was also a little bit of tatting. You can see the little pieces flowing out of my hands, still as addictive as 2 weeks ago. Today I got black thread to make my imagination go crazy with all this tatting :) Thanks Clarita for sharing such precious knowledge!

Tatting

2008-10-14T20:47:00.003-04:00

Tatting...what a difficult and challenging this to learn! but once ge got it! it is so simple! Just one type of knot and two steps to it. You just have to have all your fingers working with you synchronized and once in a while you need to take a deep breath.

It was so much fun, and I am addicted to it! I do it every single minute that I am waiting on something since it's so little and I can carry it in my purse!

Clarita was a great teacher! And she left pattern reading and making for next week, which is good because it is too much information all at once and I would really like to learn both.
Thank you so much! We will proudly pass this tradition along to more people who might enjoy it!
Thank you so much Clarita!!

Zippered pouch workshop!

2008-10-08T15:13:00.002-04:00

After a long time holding my promises up in the air, finally I got to teach my "students" how to make something with a zipper. Yes! We finally had a zippered pouch workshop and I was overwhelmed by the large number of hard working and crafty students!
It was so much fun and the bet thing was that we finished our projects! Our pouches were finished by the end of the afternoon and everyone went home with their little trophy...YES!
The best thing is the students, the companionship, the friendship and the surprise visits!
Thank you all for coming and I hope you can make many more in the future!!!

Here are some shots of our busy afternoon. Enjoy!

Front:

Back:

Amisha (surprise visit all the way from NY)!

Our youngest crafty member, Maria Emilia:

New members: Alina and he daughter:

Ivonne working hard:

Claudia 1:

Pilar and Cata:

Claudia 2 and Galdys (it was so nice to see you two back!)

MMMM soap!

2008-09-29T13:29:00.003-04:00

I never thought I would be interested in making soap, but Carolina gain made it so easy for us that we had a great time creating a piece of soap and on top of that, a nice little present.
The soap making wasn't from scratch like some our friends do! It came from a kit, but allowed us to create nice designs with colors and shapes of our own taste.
We first cut pieces or colored soap that she had previously made at home.

Then we mounted it in a mold and prepared the embedding soap that was going to surround it. We added aroma and color to our taste and then we let it cool off.

In the meantime, we learn how to wrap presents with fabric. This is a very Japanese thing. When I lived in Japan this is one of the first things I learned. People don't use lunch boxes but rather, take a beautiful fabric and wrap it up leaving a handle so it is easy to carry. It is an art! I loved doing it for this project. We also stamped the fabric, the paper that we put on top of the plastic wrapping and the little bags of bath salts that were part of this present.

We were happy with our creations. Thanks again Carolina for teaching us a fun project!

Paper cube

2008-09-29T13:26:00.003-04:00

Last Sunday, we had our second workshop. It was something new to a lot of us and it was a lot of fun.
Carolina was our teacher. She is really good at doing things with paper and she taught us how to make a paper cube, which looks like origami, to put pictures around it. Kind of like picture frames in a cube.
We had some new guests and it was a lot of fun creating something so new and simple! Thank you so much Carolina! It feels good to create new things :)

And as always, there was some quilting going on!

#3 Soap Making

2008-09-28T18:42:00.003-04:00

We made soap for this workshop, and we also wrapped it in a Japanesse wrapping style. Here are the instructions. All you need is a square piece of fabric. This wrappings are also great for when giving a wine bottle as a gift. Click on the image to enlarge.

#2 Photo Cube

2008-09-28T18:31:00.003-04:00

This was the second workshop. We made a really nice cube that you can see on my blog http://caro3600.blogspot.com These are the ladies that were there that day plus my grandma on the right who was visiting. :o)

First of the season

2008-09-25T00:00:00.003-04:00

Here it was, our first workshop of the season started with hand quilting a lot of new faces, all of them happy :)

I'm the only one that doesn't seem to do much, but I did finish my shirt.

Clara made her first nine square! Amazing!

Even the little ones found entertainment.

A true little artist, showing us, Pilar's doll little heart.

The quilter, the thinker :)

Card workshop

2008-09-03T16:17:00.004-04:00

Last spring, around April, we had one of our workshop meetings, this time taught by Pilar.

We learned how to make fabric cards, very personal and that can even match the present or wrapping or just serve as a nice detail all by itself.
There were many of us, including some new members.

Teri became and expert with her sewing machine.

And Gladys even made one with her little friend Pablito.

Even my mom participated, she really enjoyed making something new and felt very proud too!

As you can see we did good, nice and easy project!

We are back for the fall!

2008-09-02T15:06:00.002-04:00

Hello!
Officially the summer holidays are over. We all get back to our routine, and nonetheless, we get together again, like every Sunday of the past 2.5 years.
It is so nice to get together, even if it's just to try Teri's new cookies or Gladys delicious melon or if it's just to talk. We had a great time and we hope for more during this coming semester.
Luca came along, he likes to try whatever is made, a quilt or a doll dress, even if it is just on top of his head....

Gladys did good. She is knitting shoes for some of our dolls, amazing uh? She promised me some in black for my disco looking doll.

Teri and Cata were there too. Teri made some delicious oat meal cookies and she actually worked on her sewing unlike the rest of us:)

Pilar was amazed with what you can do with gator fabric!

We ate, laughed and talked about the past and the future. Lot's to look forward in the near future.

Directions

2008-07-14T02:51:00.002-04:00

Click on image to enlarge

This is an image of the map to Corry Commons. To see this for yourself, you can search "Corry Commons" on the University of Florida website http://campusmap.ufl.edu/

Monster Workshop

2008-06-02T00:12:00.013-04:00

Last Sunday we had a blast!

Michelle showed us her wounderfull Moster quilt, that she made last year.
She create her own monster and we learned how to applique.

here some of the ones we made...

Monster Madness Sunday June 1st

2008-05-29T17:20:00.003-04:00

Hello all! I am looking forward to holding a Monster Madness Applique Workshop this Sunday June 1st. During the workshop you will be able to make one square. At the end of the workshop you will have only one square, but you can take it home and use it as part of a quilt, a pillow, a bag, a wall hanging, or anything else you can dream up! I will bring the following:

Instructions and 1 monster pattern (an original) for each participant.
1 piece of white Background fabric for each person and a bunch of scrap fabric.
HeatnBond Lite
two ironng boards and one iron
my sewing machine
various colored threads and some yarn and other random materials for embelishments.
one cutting matt, rulers, rotary cutter, and scissors
I will also bring examples of some other patterns and books which you are welcome to use during the workshop if you are not interested in making a monster square.

If you are able to bring any of the following it would be great: sewing maching, thread, scrap fabric, scissors, iron, ironing board, and any other items you think would be good for embelishing your square.

If anyone has any questions before hand feel free to email me!

Michelle Daniels

michelledaniels@gmail.com

Apron workshop

2008-04-18T23:35:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday was the first session of the Apron workshops and at my place! I was lucky enough to have everybody around to my house and to start an exciting new workshop. Gladys showed us how to make them and it looks like must have made many in this life because she is an expert!

Teri came late but cached up to all of us, at least me!

Claudia and Cata used my living room as cutting area. My apartment is not too big, but cozy, right?

Yanina doing some finishing touches.

Pilar and I were blown away by the super overlock machine that Gladys owns. We just loved it! Actually Claudia was in line too and we did the finishing in all our aprons, we want a machine like that!!!

And Pilar with her gator apron, she is the latest acquisition by the University of Florida:)

We will have more on this workshop on Sunday morning, looking forward to see the finish products!

Card workshop

2008-04-16T15:17:00.003-04:00

Workshop’s Calendar Updated 4/8 x Marci

2008-03-21T15:47:00.004-04:00

We are very happy to invite to who wants to come to our free workshops, we provide the materials and of course good food and good chatting.
In most of the workshop there are 10-12 spots available. So, please contact us if you want to enroll in one of them.

Already done:
2/10 >Teri >Handmade Quilting

2/17 and 2/24 > Carmen .> Bag making.

3/16 > Tere > Cover booklets.

*Thanks to you the pioneers!

Coming workshops:

3/23 > Carolina > Scrapbook cards > Please bring 20 theme pictures. Thanks Caro!

4/6 > Pilar > Fabrics cards> Thanks Pilar It was GREAT

HERE The Followings:

4/13 > Gladys > Apron Making

4/20 and 27 > Marci > Doll Marathon.

5/4 > OPEN

5/11 > Mother's day> No workshops today

5/18> Michelle > Applique's Techniques

and....MORE TO COME>>

Workshop # 2: fabric cover notebooks

2008-03-19T21:32:00.006-04:00

This Sunday at Minerva's circle we had a pleasant surprise, Amisha, who used to live here and is a part of our group, came by while she is spending some vacations in Florida. It was great to see her again and to have a nice chat with her while sewing and making new projects. She also got her presents from her secret Santa, Teri. A nice bag and a nice bowl among other nice things.

One of our new members, Tere, was so kind on Sunday to show us how to make a beautiful fabric cover to a plain looking notebook. such a nice present and so easy to make! and also it required very few and inexpensive material. Thank you so much Tere! We enjoyed it a lot, and I gave mine to my mother in law and made her happy.
Here are the pictures of all of us with our notebooks.

Here are the pictures of all of us with our notebooks.

And this is how they looked. I am looking forward to learn some new things, this was so much fun!

Fantasy Party

2008-03-14T11:06:00.010-04:00

I celebrated my birthday with Minerva's circle.
I decided to have a different birthday party and I enjoyed too much with my Minerva's friends.
We also played some games, very fun games!!!
We had a great afternoon two Sundays ago.
We ate delicious food (I promised you some recipes .!!), and we had some prizes for the winner and the loser in the games.
Was a unforgettable Birthday!

They are guessing the pocket smell

Very focused like an exam!!

Birthday cake!

Wokshop day 2 and counting

2008-02-17T23:05:00.003-05:00

Today was our second meeting at our bag workshop. It was a nice afternoon as usual and the girls are really enjoying making these bags. I think we all learn in the process and this can help us in the future when we start making some different things. Many of them struggle and then get through it, and I know, because I have been there before, how satisfying it is to have your final piece, something that looks simple, but actually has so much work behind. These women are making amazing and creative bags, and I am looking forward to the final product, we will take pictures and show them soon, I think next Sunday will be our final day for the bags. Then we will start with aprons...
Some images here so you can see how concentrated they all were. I was running around like a butterfly, I was thinking there should have been a fixed camera with a shot per minute and you could have seen me flying around here and there around the room, stopping a couple of time to send someone to times out...

New workshop series!

2008-02-06T16:27:00.000-05:00

Minerva's circle free bag workshop coming up!

When: Sunday February 10th from 4-6 pm at Corry Village commons room

What are we teaching? How to make a bag!

Materials will be provided but if you have two favorite fabrics you would like to use, bring 1/2 a yard of each

We will be using sewing machines. So if you have a sewing machine you bring it too! Otherwise bring just yourself :)

There are only 15 seats available, hurry up and make reservations with Carmen.

More workshops coming up!

New members, new classes, new energy

2008-01-26T23:56:00.000-05:00

Last week it was a very busy day at Minerva's Circle.
Lots of us showed up and there were all kinds of activities going on, knitting, Teri teaching hand quilting, hair dressing (yes, I cut Yanina's hair), old projects (yes, my very old quilt from 2005), new members (welcome Saraswate), good students, and modeling (that was Luca who likes to try all quilts on). It was overall a busy and fun day with a lot of projects in mind and a lot of good times ahead of us. Some pictures down here:

and Santa landed, with a bag full of crafts...

2008-01-15T14:21:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we met for our Secret Santa presents exchange. What a fun meeting!
Many of us were able to show up, despite the last minute change of meeting time and place.
I was so happy to be back! The drive from North Carolina is long, but it was worth every single mile to be again surrounded by wonderful friends.

Finally we started the opening of the crafted presents, with Luca's help:

and the Santa's crafted gifts continue:

We really were having a lot of fun!! And there's more:

After all the Secret Santa gifts were revealed I was surprised by a sweet "speech" by Tery presenting the cutest card offered by everyone to me!

That really was heart warming! Thank you all so much, you really are special and I treasure your friendship.

When Teri mentioned "from all of us" I suddenly remembered the little gifts I had sewn for everyone!

I made a little booklet with flannel pages for each Minerva's Circle member to carry their pins and needles easily. I got the idea from the book "Last minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts", by Joelle Hoverson. I really like the book, it has nice ideas and most of my projects and gifts are "last minute" kind...

What a great meeting!

One Sunday afternoon

2007-12-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

We had so much fun in our metting,... here, Carolina our new member

Carmen showing us the quilt for Hawa's baby....

Marcela showing gifts from Carolina, She made them for every one of us...

Thank you Carolina for the beautiful Christmas cards ....

Seems like Scrapbooking is a lot of fun!

Yanina and her wedding pictures...that we couldn't see....next time yanina...

Carolina showing us her art....scrapbooking master :)

nice job...

Sra. Gladys doing flowers as usual, she has a list of request from all of us..

we like to include her flowers in every project!

Marcela's mairmaid finally done

Proud Marcela, it took like 5 month to finish this mairmaid...and still adding shells from Tery and adding more ...jeje..

We had a nice and fun meeting!

Claudia showing us her guy's Quilt projet, everyone gave her ideas and opinions about her nice quilt....as usuall we always ask for advice and ideas..

That's why we love Minerva's

Secret Santa

2007-12-11T13:07:00.000-05:00

It is that time of the year again! Thanks for including me. We had so much fun last year and I bet you guys will have a blast again. Be sure to take lots of pictures so the Minerva's 'expat' can see all the beautiful things you made!

Here are some pictures from last year.

Thank you!

2007-11-19T17:35:00.000-05:00

Ladies,

I just wanted to thank you all for your wonderful hospitality. I have gone to only a couple of meetings and already I feel like I have known you all forever. You are all so nice and sweet and I just can't wait to learn how to quilt and teach you girls a thing or two about scrapbooking. Here's is my blog if you want to see more : Voila! Scrapper Junky

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Caro :o)

Minerva's circle is alive!!!

2007-11-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

Yes! We are still meeting and this Sunday was a busy day. A nice day to sit outside of my apartment and enjoy the company of nice ladies interested in crafts, sewing quilts...eating, cooking....we had a new member with us, who likes to make scrapbooks. They are really cute and something many of us have never explored before. Her name is Carolina, to add one more name that starts with C in our group ha!
The only one missing in this picture is me, even Luca was there.

Some of the food we brought, my transformed recipe of Pilar's pistachio cake into a lemon cake...not bad for being experimental..

And some nice stuffed eggs that Gladys and Carolina made. Really delicious!

We also have to announce that Teri defended her Thesis successfully and she did a great job. She wrote her thesis about our group and community building and it was very interesting seeing us as research material. Congratulations Teri!

And last but not least, one of our members got married on November 17th! Yanina and Jorge got married at the beach and then we celebrated this special day here in Gainesville with them. Congratulations to both of you and we wish you many happy years to come!

It's been a while

2007-10-22T15:45:00.000-04:00

What's happening with this group? I have been missing meeting with all of my crafty friends lately. We do see each other in different occasions but for some reason we all have been quite busy with other things these past weeks and our meetings are quite lonely. Last Sunday I was all by myself, but at least Luca was with me and I made part of his Halloween costume.
But I do have some pictures to share from another week. We don't get much done, but we do enjoy some nice food together and good chats. And the kids have fun too.
As you can see from these pictures, the commons room has been painted blue. It does look better, although they need to work on it some more. It is kind of plain still. They have some ugly plastic flowers in baskets that I vote they should be removed from there, and we should make some mini quilts so that it warms up the room a bit. We are trying to get some funding from the university for that. What do you think? Here are some pictures of us:
Pilar...the gate keeper

Flor, on the top of the picture those ugly flowers

Mathew, thinking about his Halloween costume

Pilar again and her butterfly tattoo from the butterfly festival, very stylish, and I opened the blinds in the back and you can actually see some green while sewing, isn't that nice?

Luca, Tarzan-like and searching for the scissors

Me. I have been working on my mom's quilt, and not just getting it out and back in the bag, I have actually worked on a new border, that still have a while to be finished, but I am one step further.

Visiting Gainesville

2007-09-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

Last year, when we started Minerva's Circle, we were about a dozen girls from all over the world. Life in an university town is very dynamic, people finish their degree and go back to their coutries or they find a job somewhere else. Now, there are Minervas in Brazil, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee. New members are joining, keeping high the spirit of friendship and craftness we all share.

Pascalin, Pilar, Carmen with Robert, Terri, Claudia and Flor with Matthew. Just like the old times... Well, Robert and Matthew are so tall!

We all were very interested on the new store Claudia found out.

Here I am trying to work hard.

Terri working on her grand daughter's quilt.

Matthew says 'Cheeeeseee'.

Claudia showing her new treasure.

I am the one in Tennesse and after 6 months away I had the fortune to go back and sew with the girls again! It was so nice to see my friends and share our stories. I can tell it is hard to find girls like you! You are all precious and being friends with someone like you inspire me. You are all fun, good mothers, workers, wives, and good friends. And you all cook delicious food! I miss you all.

I have a suggestion: Can we have the Sunday meeting sometime here in Knoxville?

Amisha

2007-08-13T10:48:00.000-04:00

Sunday's afternoon was filled with emotions. At first because -like never- almost all the Minerva's girls (living in Gainesville) were there. And we had a very good reson to come to this reunion. But before telling you more about it, I invite you to see the advances in each of our works:

Yanina and her king size quilt, a piece of art made by hand. We all agreed once it's finished instead of putting it on her bed, she should put it on a museum.

Gladys and her lovely knitted blanket.

Amisha completed her promise and finished her red & white quilt. She also did the apron that Pilar is showing us... beautiful, right ?

Later on the reunion, Yanina talked for all of us and gave Amisha the wall hanging that we had prepared for her with so much love and care as a good-bye gift.

We feel great that she liked it (she was admired how we chose her colors. That means we know her well).

She said she doesn't think of hanging the quilt but instead she will bring it everywhere, she would fight a cold New York and her long studying nights with it.

Amisha, you're an admirable woman. We're sure that you will get all your academic goals and will come back even stronger to fight for your ideals. Good luck on this new journey.

With all our love and friendship from Minerva's Circle.

Camila's Quilt

2007-07-17T18:30:00.000-04:00

At Minerva’s we are a little sad because another friend is leaving us....
Our sweet Camila is in her home country by now.
We all will miss you.

We had a busy week trying to get the quilt ready on time for her, and we did it.
I do not how but we were good..
Here are some pictures of the process….

Here is the final result. All of us made a single square and then we put them together.

We used her favorites colors...I know she love it.

Camila now must to figure out which belong to each of us….I challenge you…it will be difficult.

.... and 30 hours later we got this beautiful quilt

We surprise her at the restaurant with our farwell gift, we all know that she will enjoy it.

With a lot of Love from Minerva's ...

We will miss you...We wish you the best and we hope too see you some day...

This is the back of it....with all the quilting in each square.

I took the liberty to include this wounderful letter that she send us... she really touched us with this....

Dear Minervas,

You have no idea how happy you guys made me by giving me that precious quilt!
It was an amazing surprise (completely unexpected!) and it is definitely the best gift someone could get. Carmen said that before and now I can confirm it. It's priceless!!!!
I'll treasure it for life and will always remember you guys and the good times we spent together.

The quilt is the most beautiful I've ever seen. The colors are perfect! My favorites by far!!!! I'm sure I'll never get tired of looking at it… ha ha
These four years were a very important part of our lives and this quilt is definitely one of the best memories I'm bringing from the wonderful time we spent in Gainesville.

It's a pity I didn't have the chance to see you guys before I left. But at the same time it was good because I hate to say goodbye.

You guys are an awesome group! I'm very proud to be part of it, even being so absent in the last few months.
I hope Minervas will last for years and years and many new people will have the chance to enjoy and experience it!

Please keep me in the email list so I can follow what's going on. I'll keep in touch as well and as soon as we get settled I'll send you guys our new address, so we can receive lots of visitors… he he

Soon I'll send you the pictures we took on Saturday!

Beijos (kisses) to all of you! I'll miss you guys!!!!

Love,
Camila

New crafts at Minerva's circle

2007-07-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a busy day. A big group was there and new faces! well, not new, we had actually seen them on our anniversary party and we were very happy to have them with us. And also, we had anew craft going on, Michelle taught us how to make those crystal magnets for the refrigerator. So easy! and such a nice result! We should post some close pictures the next time, but this is how some of the busy girls looked working on it.:

Pilar brought her sewing machine and showed Gladys how to make curves with it!

And this is the result! nice ah?

And so did Michelle, she made these golden stiches that really amazed all of us.

It was a fun meeting once again. I brought my fabric to make a new skirt and I discused about it forever with Flor. I didn't bring Luca, the mascot, so I though I was going to get a lot done but guess what! you guessed...I did nothing else than being in good company and having interesting conversations. But I got good ideas and soon this skirt will be ready to wear.

Minerva's circle first anniversary

2007-07-06T18:53:00.001-04:00

It was more than a year ago that it all started, but only now we realize what a special year has it been, that we need to have a celebration. It actually started years back, when Teri introduced some of us to the quilting world. Hand quilting. It was summer of 2004, when Gisele said that there was a class being taught in one of the villages about quilting. I was hesitant about it, sewing wasn't my hobby even though I had made some clothes here and there. I even forgot to go to the first class and I missed the day that we were getting the fabrics and the instructions. But since a couple other friends were also going I thought it was a nice idea to attend to the following class and of course to learn how to do hand quilting. I had no idea what I was getting into, in fact, I didn't realize until weeks later. The teacher, our friend Teri, was very good at explaining things and not only that, she was so excited about it that she got all of us excited as well. She was also very inspirational and let us create and enjoy ourselves with the process of making something out of just pieces of fabrics that didn't mean anything. I made a baby quilt for my niece in Spain and in the meantime at home, I started another big quilt for my little sister. What amazed me the most was that because of those classes I started hanging out with more friends from different countries and it was even more interesting meeting, every day I would learn something new. And the following year came along and we joined another quilting class, we met some new friends, and we shared good moments together. Then we started with the blogs, the other crafts and the craziness of internet. That was mainly Gisele and I. Then the 2 of us got together in one of our homes and started sewing together. We would have Teri or other friends once in a while but it was mainly the 2 of us. Then we joined a knitting class, and met some new people, like Clara. And the group started growing. Then we decided to really get together and do it. Pilar and Claudia that had taken the second quilting class were really into it and they started coming every Sunday. So we decided to get a common room to fit everyone. And then new friends started joining and it was just an amazing experience. Not all of them came every Sunday and not all of them quilted, but it didn't matter. The important thing was that whoever came was welcomed and was free to get inspired by others and enjoy each others company. At least that's how I felt. And that's how I still feel. Even having some of our friends living out of Gainesville, it really doesn't matter. We are all part of this magical circle. Congratulations Minerva's circle for a wonderful first year!

More about last Sunday

2007-06-27T11:09:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in the previous post I hadn't had so much fun in a long long time as in our last meeting. I don't know what was in the air but we were all laughing and having a good time. I just wanted to share some of those moments with everyone else.

I don't know when Clara finds time to make this beautiful but most importantly, perfectly made quilt top for her daughter! It looked beautiful!

The mascot of the group, aka Luca, was wearing the t-shirt I just made for him from a drawing that my friend Soraya designed. He looked really cute with it on.

Amisha was trying to get a balloon for Luca and this was not easy. We had a good laugh until she got it!.

Pilar didn't even need to take her pants off! She was sewing them right on the spot!

Claudia showed us her new creation, a bracelet she made in a jewelry class.

Marcela was posing too with her new three bags, she has been very productive with these bags lately, they are nice...

Michelle played with Luca and his balloon.

And while everybody was talking...I was doing some flamenco moves....

And for next week we are announcing our first Anniversary celebration! Hurra! We will have a very special event, here goes the announcement!

You are invited to the First Annual Minerva's Circle Anniversary Party!

When: Sunday July 1, 2007, 4pm-6pm
Where: The Mcguire Commons Room, on UF Campus
Who: Anyone interested in quilting, sewing, crafts, or anyone interested in someone interested in quilting, sewing, crafts, etc.!
Why: to see what Minerva's Cirlce has been up to during its first year, to share inspiration, to socialize, to encourage new members, and to eat yummy snacks!
There will also be door prizes made by Minerva's Circle members!
See the linked flyer for more info and directions.
Please pass this on to anyone you think may be intrested.

Happy birthday and see you soon!

2007-06-25T23:23:00.000-04:00

At minerva's Circle we are celebrating something most of the time. This past Sunday it was a special one. I think I haven't had so much fun in a very long time. It was a speacil day for Minerva's, we were celebrating a birthday and a farewell.
After her 3 week long trip to China and Korea, Amisha came back with a birthday in her hands! Actually her birthday was today, but we wanted to make sure we remembered and gave her a nice card that Pilar made.

This time too, we wanted to say goodbye to a good friend and member of this special circle. Clara, from Portugal is moving out to North Calorina, and after a great year of quilting, knitting, chatting, and sharing a special friendship with her, it was time for Minerva's Circle to say goodbye, or rather, see you soon.
Michelle made sure we were all color coordinated with the fabrics, bright and colorful, just like Clara. We made 9 blocks and all of them were quite different. We put black sashing and black back and quilted in yellow so you can see it clearly in the back. I think she liked it. We all enjoyed making it and some of our members didn't participate because we did it in a rush, but all their hearts are in it too.
Clara, we hope you enjoy this wall hanging and that you remember all your friends from Minerva's. We will have to visit you and see how it looks in the wall of your new home. Best of luck and warm wishes from Minerva's circle. More pictures here.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS RECIPE

2007-06-08T17:54:00.001-04:00

Since we went to the Blueberry Picking the other day, I was so excited about baking them and turning into muffins. So, this is the recipe I got from a book (*) that my friend Denise left me before she went to Chile around a year and a half ago.

Makes 12

1 ¼ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar (I recommended 1 cup instead)
2 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 cup fresh blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F

2. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or use paper liners

3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl

4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Add the melted butter, milk, vanilla and lemon rind and stir to combine

5. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. With a large metal spoon, stir just until the flour is moistened, not until is smooth.

6. Fold in the blueberries

7. Spoon the batter into the cups, leaving room for the muffins to rise

8. Bake until the tops spring back when touched lightly, 20-25 minutes (for me 20 min were enough). Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before unmolding.

Enjoy baking -and off course tasting- this yummy muffins!

(*)Baking. Easy – to – make home bakes. Carole Clements (contributing editor), Hermes Ed., 2001.

A Gifts Sunday

2007-05-08T21:23:00.000-04:00

Our last meeting was a gifts Sunday!! Amisha brought delayed gifts for every one who had had birthday; everything handmade and we are very happy and very surprising...! Receiving delayed gifts is a lot of fun!

Amisha continue working with her red quilt..... thank you Amisha for your presents!!!

Claudia is very excited with the dolls and she made one very special.

Michelle finished her baby quilt and in our meeting she make a label, look that it is beautiful!

It seems that the dolls that Minerva's circle will be sending to kenia are done.

These are the last dolls from Carmen and Flor.

A few weeks ago I received another gifts by mail. That was a surprise too. They were sent by Giselle and are handmade. A beautiful pin cushion and a seeds wall hanging.

I received this apron. It is terrific!! and i'm scared to use it for cooking it could get spoted

Here is Claudia and her new gift bag. She, the bag's queen add a beautiful model for her stock. She looks happy! don't you think?

There are all kinds of dolls

2007-04-29T23:46:00.000-04:00

We had a good laugh today showing our dolls that will be sent to Africa one of these days. Some are sexy....with funky hair color and classy necklaces...some are loooong, with a flamenco flare....some are boyish looking, but with beautiful smiles....some are ready to clean a house yet cuties...and some are following Tokyo latest fashion...hehehe

As for me I received a late birthday present but beautiful! Claudia made me this mobil with three wonderful stars...The white one represents my Luca, I am the red one, of course red, and the big center one is McNair, such a precious present, I love it!

Yanina had the latest top fashion made by her! ON! We were all impressed with the finish, it looks very professional and it fits her perfect.

Flor was working on a skirt/pants with a beautiful fabric she got for her wedding and following one of Yanina's own patterns. Something typical in Argentina.

Claudia showed us her new hair style, made by her hubby, cute :)

As you can see most of the girls were working hard, Pilar was eating just for the picture, she did make some improvements in her pants that she will showcase in coming editions.

And Luca was also a member today, he did a performance on the piano today, he is a natural already in the Maguire commons room.

Have a nice week you all! I will be seeing you in 3 weeks!

Walking around the lake

2007-04-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

We are lucky to live very close to each other for the most part. This week we decided that to cheer our spirit up it would be a good idea not only to craft but also to do some exercise. With all our children together it is really hard to arrange something that would work for all of us. This time, 4 moms and 6 children got together and went for a walk to the lake here at the university. It was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed very much seeing the wildlife and talking to our friends. There is always so much to talk about.... And here is us, I am just missing in this picture:

And today is Teri's birthday! Happy birthday Teri! I wish you a wonderful day and many more to come.

Later alligator!

Camels, dolls and quilts

2007-04-23T21:16:00.000-04:00

Today was a quiet quilting day at Minerva's circle. We had a great time as usual, and for me it was specially quiet because I came alone. Mr. Luca was playing outside with my neighbors so I was the most productive I have been in the longest time. And we don't have a picture to prove it!
But we do have pictures of other productive ladies....Clara made these cute camels, the one on the right with the funny head shape, we weren't sure if it was a bird or a camel, but for sure both of the were cute!

Amisha and her baby quilt, she is in her last section, and she is getting ready to move on :)

Pilar, Flor and I got together one day to make dollies without borders. Pilar was the most advanced of all and she even got to make some fancy to this female African doll. Too big right now, but she had all these tricks in her head to make them fit just perfect.

Yanina and her lovely doll, she made the most beautiful hair and face! I really love it because it looks quite realistic. Very cute, and this one with the legs attached directly to the body.

And our special guest. The cutest and most talkative of all Eyram.

Dollies Without Borders Day!

2007-04-15T20:38:00.000-04:00

Today we had the pleasure of having Madeline Austin, of Dollies Without Borders join us. A number of Minerva's Circle members donated dolls, and there are more to come!

Madeline took a fancy to Marcela's dollie. It seemed hard for Marcela to part with her.

Madeline brought a slide show of some of the doll makers at work. The best part was seeing pictures of the dollies being delivered in Africa. It made it much easier to part with them.

Yesterday Marcela hosted a doll making party at her home. Here Madeline is holding the dolls donated by employees of Holbrook Travel where Marcela works.

Here is the basket of dollies Madeline left with. She said that before the dollies are taken to Africa she will bring the entire lot of them one Sunday for us to see.

Here is Marcela with her dollie.

Here I am with my dollie and camel. The camel is quick and easy, but the dolls are so much fun to decorate and accessorize! The patterns for both can be found on the Dollies Without Borders website.

We were glad to see Teri today! Amisha was working on a crib quilt she is donating to be auctioned off for Planned Parenthood.

Pilar and Yanina show Madeline some of the things they are working on, and explain a bit more about Minerva's Circle!

Hope to see everyone next week! Don't forget the Friends of the library book sale starts on the 21st! Hope everyone has a great week. And if you didn't make it this week, be sure to ask Carmen to show you the wonderful gift she received from Giselle. It is a book of her blog. It is something I am sure Carmen will treasure always!

Another week...a new metting

2007-04-06T10:09:00.000-04:00

As the Beatles said 'it's getting better all the time'...here are the photos from last sunday:

Yanina, finally back from Cordoba...we missed you!
Thanks for bring the alfajores, yummy...

Ermitte stopped by to say hi and see what we were doing...why don't you join us some day?

Carmen and 'Luca pelusa'...the handsome boy from Minerva's

Awa and Pascaline made the most beautiful dolls...

This supposed to be more conversation and less work...but that's the best part.

See you in two days!!

better late than never?

2007-04-04T09:37:00.000-04:00

hi there!
well, i am a lax poster here for sure... realizing that "tomorrow" is starting to mean more and more "next week"! so sorry for this, girls. looking at these photos and posting them, i am missing you all and hope that you had a good meeting this past sunday.

so a little blast from the past... our march 25 meeting....

i just love this photo of flor, flipping through a craft book. isn't she cute? :)

marcela is busily working away... she has been making the most amazing cute dolls from thrifted fabric, stretchy t-shirts and wild dresses with ribbon hair and turbans.

clara, knitting a firey scarf in a style that i thought was so interesting and different from what i had seen before... she loops the yarn around her neck and purls every stitch. i love that there are so many ways to knit, and we all produce the same knitted fabric... so many paths! i really want to try this way, it looks fun :)

claudia and her lovely springtime fruits bag! watermelons and lemons and limes...

michelle has made a wee version of melissa's tiny happy shoulder bag, so cute in pink. i think that this pattern is an initiation rite into minerva's circle :)

dineo is piecing this lovely star pattern in earth tones...

and one of our favorite little persons at minerva's circle.... hello luca!

see you all soon!

And before the week is over...

2007-03-15T21:39:00.000-04:00

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!

Two weeks of busy crafting

2007-03-08T14:54:00.000-05:00

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!

Dollies Without Borders Project

2007-03-07T15:02:00.000-05:00

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

Mission Trenton

2007-02-26T23:10:00.000-05:00

We had been talking about this shop in Trenton, a town about 45 min away from Gainesville, which is supposed to be a huge local-type of fabric/quilting store for the longest time. I can't even remember who told us about it, but it was probably Gisele who knew and made it so appealing. And Gisele was also one of the few of us who didn't come this Saturday on our mission to conquer the fabric store in Trenton. Needless to say, we thought about her and all our other friends who couldn't make it this time.
Time just disappeared while being surrounded by abundant amounts of colorful fabrics classified by colors, tones, themes, styles...I could just see each one of us focusing in a special area of the store. It took a while to see the whole store and then we had to do a second round to start selecting what we wanted, and then again, one more scanning of the area to make sure we didn't miss a hidden treasure. So much to pick from, so hard to decide! It was fun to have all our peer quilting friends to give us advice while we were trying to decide among 5 different rolls of fabric. Exciting thinking about new projects too. And we even got to socialize with other fanatics of quilting while we were there. To finish up with a wonderful morning, we sat in the little cafe of the shop and had a wonderful lunch while we talked about our findings and our excitement of being there.
For sure this was a special day to me, and I am sure, to all of us.

The bright section, one of my favorites!

Marcela was checking out all the beautiful bags...

Clara proudly showing us her findings.

The best shop keeper...Luquita.

From left to right, Camila, Michelle, Teri, Carmen, Luca, Pascaline and sitting in front Amisha, all ready for our lunch!

Lots of fun in Claudia's huge van!

Same here in Carmen's car.

And of course, the green bags are the proof of our purchases, and also our happy faces!

FAREWELL GIFT

2007-02-16T14:12:00.000-05:00

Almost a week ago Gisele left Gainesville to start a new life with her family.

We wanted to give her something special so she could remember those moments we shared at Minerva's meetings and beyond that... all about the strong friendship between all of us.

And this is what we got:

And the label at the back:

Gisele, all the best for you...

See you around:)

Happy Birthday Claudia!

2007-02-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Parabens! Happy birthday!

Last week we celebrated Claudia's birthday. She is a very dear friend and we all prepared something to make her feel special.

I decided to bake my famous"Rolo de Coco".
Here is how I make it:

I use 6 eggs, about 2 cups of sugar, a tbsp of butter and 2/3 of a 14 oz pack of coconut.

Mix everything adding the coconut as the last ingredient.
Pour into a tray lined with parchment paper.
Goes in the oven at 350 F for 20-25 minutes.

Turn it on a piece of parchment paper (or cloth) sprinkled with some of the leftover coconut.

Roll it using the parchment paper (or cloth) to mold it.

Et voila'!

And here is the table full of yammy stuff for us to celebrate Claudia's birthday!

Pillar made a cute DS card "discard that we all signed for Claudia.

It was a really nice meeting! We had fun, ate and had a lot done. In fact, it was one of the busiest meetings I remember. Michelle brought the "monster" patterns and everything we needed to make them, including lots of cute fabrics! Thank you Michelle.

Michelle's "Monster crib quilt" is "monsterly" cute!

Amisha is almost done
with the quilt. She was wearing a beautiful skirt (as usual) the surprise was... she made it herself! Good job Amisha!

Claudia brought one more
of her "bag creations" and
Pillar made a backpack.

Flor was helped on her knit project by Amisha and Yanina.

And thank you to our guests for join us in this most pleasant, entertaining and accomplishing meeting.

Monsters, monsters everywhere

2007-01-28T18:21:00.000-05:00

It is a monstermania! Michele contaminated all of us with her cute monsters. She is so generous to teach us and share her beautiful fabrics. Thank you so much, Michele!!
We had so much fun tracing, cutting and ironing mouths, teeth and tails. And we learned something new! What else can we ask for?

Here is our teacher in action.

Claudia is working hard!
Terri's monster is almost done.

Yanina is working on a baby quilt for her niece.

Pascaline is also working hard.

Here is Marcela's monster. Cute or what?

You can see, we all had fun!

Have a great week y'all and see you next week!

The more the merrier

2007-01-14T20:44:00.000-05:00

It is so much fun to have new people joining our group! Today we had Jennifer and Michele, hopefully they will come every Sunday because the more the merrier.

Jennifer was working hard on a baby quilt until she had a call to deliver a baby! Michelle brought so many nice things to show us. Wonderful books and beautiful beautiful applique blocks. We were all amazed with her technique.

And here is Claudia with her new bag. Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is one of the blocks Michelle is working. She is making a monster quilt and all the monsters are very cute. I think it is wrong to call them monsters! They are adorable!

And the title of Madre Teresa of the fabrics doesn't belong to Amisha anymore. Teri bought a box full of fabric to give away. Beautiful fabric! And I feel guilty to take them because I just spent a lot of money buying fabric this weekend. Teri is such a sweet woman. Well, better start a new project...

Ps 1. Thank you Amisha for the delicious chocolate cupcake!
Ps 2. We miss you, Carmen!

Coming back to the Sunday meetings

2007-01-07T20:58:00.000-05:00

My sister's back pack

Yanina and the niece's bag

it's reversible!

the Giselle fabrics

Today I enjoy coming back to the Minerva's circle meeting!!
New year...new things...and new ideas!!

Giselle showed us a bag that she make for a friend, that was cute!! and she brought beautiful fabrics, and she was looking for ideas to make different things..... we had many ideas because the fabrics were awesome!! and now we are waiting for the result!!

Flor showed the pictures of the baptism of Matthew. He looks so nice and happy with the cloths make by his mom!!

Yanina brought a niece's bag, it is reversible and looks very nice!!

Tery finished her big quilt, that complete is very beautiful and I think that is a inspiration for all of us. It's hand made and it was a hard work, 76 hours in total!!

I showed pictures of my sister's back pack. I'm very happy with this work and I guess that will make one for me very soon!!!!

See you next week!

Secret Santa

2006-12-23T09:38:00.000-05:00

Before Carmen left to Spain, we had our Secret Santa. I was so excited, thinking of what I was going to make to my secret Santa. I know the girls, they are all very creative and I was curious to see what they would make.

We had a great time, of course!! As you imagine, all the gifts were so beautiful! And we know each other well, it was not hard to come up with a present. It is very inspiring to be in a group like ours. I really cherish our friendship.

I took Flor. I made her a small black purse, a head band, a pin cushion and a small Christmas tree wall hang.

Pilar got a notebook from Camila. It had a nice quilted cover.

I got the most beautiful Christmas ornaments from Claudia.

Claudia also made a small ornament for all the girls. She is so sweet.

I wish you all a great Christmas.

No more hidden business

2006-12-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

Hi There!!

Now that we don't have any more secrets to hide from Carmen, it is time for us to start posting about our Sunday meetings. It is holiday season and many of us are traveling or busy, but one can always count on Pilar! She never forgets to get the keys of the commons! Thanks!

Flor never told us she is a professional seamstress. Here is the outfit she made for her son's baptism. Without pattern!! Using a sewing machine from 1949! (I can't tell you where she got it!!). It looked amazing!! Very very beautiful!! I wonder what she will make next.

Amisha is back knitting.

We had a guest, Paz. Can you guess who her sister is? She came all the way from Chile to surprise Pilar, who opened the door yesterday and almost had a heart attack to see her sister. Isn't a great Christmas present?

Here is our key master. She finished her baby quilt. It is gorgeous!

Have a great week!

Brand new

2006-12-05T18:48:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,
This is my first posting to the blog. Thank you Carmen for your invitation. It came at a time when I needed to see a "spring" in the desolate desert.
I had a really bad accident on my bike last week. I suffered a mild concussion. I went to Shands and they gave me a brain scan. I hit pretty hard. And, unfortunately, I did NOT have my helmet on! I will forever wear one now. It was a difficult lesson. Now, when I look at all the riders without them on the streets... today I yelled, "Please wear your helmet!" But, I'm afraid, no one will listen. They have to learn their own way.
Thanks again for the invite. I am computer iliterate, however learning my way now! Thanks to you I can blog. This week is the first time I put together a powerpoint. I have done three of them now! (It's been a busy week!) I hope all of you have a blessed and wonderful holiday season. I hope you make lots of wonderful homemade things that bring joy to all.
All my love in quilting,
Teri

Las Mosqueteras

2006-12-04T09:01:00.000-05:00

This is a picture from the day we gave the quilt to Carmen.

(Carola is not in the picture because she was in Brasil with her family)

It is realy nice be part of Minerva's Circle.

We have a lot of fun: yesterday we have our

Secret Santa game and everybody got amazing gifts!

Thank you for all these wonderful Sundays!

And thank you to everybody in this world for all the nice comments you leave in our blogs!

Thank you very much for all your support!!!

We wish you all the best for the New Year to come.

Happy Christmas!

Las mosqueteras : )

Amazing Friends

2006-12-02T00:32:00.000-05:00

I have often mentioned about my quilting group of friends here in Gainesville. We are like magnets and attract each other despite of our many cultural differences. We enjoy and respect each other and we have built up an amazing friendship. Something very special.

He mencionado varias veces sobre mi grupo de amigas de costura aqui en Gainesville. Somos como imanes y nos atraemos unas a otras a pesar de nuestras diferencias culturales. Disfrutamos juntas y nos respetamos y hemos conseguido crear una amistad increible. Algo muy especial.

After the terrible event of losing my husband over 3 months ago, our group became even stronger. We were all hit by sadness one way or another and what my friends, not only this group but from all over the place, did during those days, weeks and months was an amazing demonstration of friendship. This group of friends got together the Sunday after my husband’s bike accident in my friends home, and I made the effort to get out of my home to get away from the phone and visits coming to my house. It was such a nice and warm environment. We all talked about our crafts, listened to each other and enjoyed desserts as usual. I also poured out my pain and they listened. The following day a group of us went to the fabric store to buy fabrics, all of this helped me keep my feet on the ground during that first week.

Despues de los momentos tan terribles al perder a mi marido hace mas de tres meses, nuestro grupo se hizo aun mas fuerte. Todas nos llenamos de tristeza de una manera u otra y lo que mis amigos, no solo este grupo sino que de todas partes, hicieron durante esos dias, semanas y meses fue una demostracion impresionante de amistad. Este grupo de amigas se junto el Domingo despues del accidente de bici de mi marido en casa de mi amiga, y yo hice el esfuerzo de salir de mi casa para alejarme del telefono y de las continuas visitas a casa. Fue una reunion muy agradable. Hablamos de manualidades, nos escuchamos y disfrutamos de los postres como siempre. Tambien solte mi pena y me escucharon. Al dia siguiente unas cuantas nos fuimos a la tienda de telas a comprar telas, todo esto me ayudo a mantener los pies en el suelo durante esa primera semana.

Then I went for a month to my sister’s home. I needed to be somewhere else, with my family for a while and I enjoyed some days of peace and quiet. I came back and my friends were here ready to take me out to lunch or to come to entertain me and my son. Then it came Sunday. Our weekly meeting. Exciting because some of the girls had been out of town, and also because Yanina and Camila were celebrating their birthdays. And so we got together at Clara’s home and we had cake opened presents and then the BIG surprise.

Entonces me fui un mes a casa de mi hermana. Necesitaba estar en otro lugar, con mi familia durante un tiempo y disfrutar de algunos dias de paz y tranquilidad. Volvi y mis amigas ya estaba dispuestas a sacarme a comer o a venire a entretener a mi hijo. Entonces llego el Domingo. Nuestra reunion semanal. Muy emocionante porque algunas del grupo habian estado fuera, y tambien porque Yanina y Camila celebraban sus cumpleanhos. Asi que nos juntamos en casa de Clara y comimos tarta y abrieron regalos y luego llego la GRAN sorpresa.

They had all come together, while I wasn’t around, to make me what I think is the most beautiful present I have ever received. An amazing quilt made by 11 amazing friends. I couldn’t believe all that work was there in front of me, to cover me every night and to make me remember that I have all these wonderful friends here to make sure that I don’t feel lonely. And of course the quilt is so beautiful. It was made with 12 blocks (3 x 4) out of which one was made out of stripes with the signatures of each one of them. Those stripes also match with the block that each of them made. I had the task to find out who made which and I did pretty good because I know their styles and taste by now. But it is so beautiful, I can’t stop saying that, because each block is so different but they are all very well coordinated, and combined. And then when they described to me how they got organized to do this, how excited they all were, how they had to get together everywhere possible during weeks, how they exchanged so many emails to decide on details about it, how they picked the quilting, how they learned about each others machines, how they took several hours to decide which color to pick for sashing…then it even made it more beautiful. All is left to say is take a look and you will understand a bit of what I’m talking about. Thank you my friends, I love you all very much.

Todas se habian juntado, mientras yo no estaba por aqui, a hacerme lo que pienso que es el regalo mas bonito que jamas he recibido. Una colcha incredible hecha por 11 amigas increibles. No me podia creer que todo ese trabajo estaba delante mio, para cubrirme cada noche y para hacerme recorder que tengo todas estas amigas maravillosas aqui asegurandose que no me sienta sola. Y por supuesto la colcha es tan preciosa. Esta hecha de 12 bloques (3 x 4) de los cuales uno esta hecho de tiras con las firmas de cada una de ellas. Esas tiras tambien coinciden con el disenho del bloque que cada una de ellas hizo. Tuve que averiguar quien hizo cada bloque y no me fue mal porque ya conozco sus estilos y sus gustos. Pero esque es tan bonita, no puedo parar de decirlo, porque cada bloque es tan diferente pero todos estan muy bien coordinados, y combinados. Y luego cuando me describieron como se organizaron para hacer esto, lo emocionadas que estaban, como se habian juntado en todos los lugares posibles durante semanas, como se habian intercambiado tantos emails para decidir cada detalle, como habian decidido como acolcharla, como habian aprendido mas sobre las maquinas de las demas, como les llevo varias horas para decider de que color hacer los bordes y entre los bloques…entonces aun se volvio mas bonita. Lo unico que me queda decir es que lo veais con vuestros propios ojos y podreis entender un poco de lo que hablo. Gracias amigas mias, os quiero a todas mucho.

Oven Mitt, Halloween Ghost and the Art Festival

2006-11-05T12:49:00.000-05:00

Hello!
After a few blogging attempts, here is the oven mitt!
My daughter wanted to try it on as soon as it was ready, she seems to be looking for her little fingers lost inside the big mitt.

When I picked some of Amisha's nice pieces of fabric, I promised to myself that I was not having them mooved from one shelf (Amisha's) to another (my own!). They arrived at the right time as we were going to visit my parents in law the next weekend: I used the fabric to make this oven mitt for Grandma.

The pattern was from the book "Denyse Schmidt Quilts" and the idea of using it also came from Amisha.
I owe a lot to Amisha on this project. Thank you!

and time goes by.......

and.... it WAS Halloween, last week!

BOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Did this ghost scare you?

My son was scaring mommy (wearing the costume that she had sewn for him).

and yesterday.......

it was the Gainesville Art Festival!

And here is the youngest Minerva's Circle member, focused on her art project.
Teri was there, being the most inspiring and enthusiast host!
Congratulations Teri, you make art feel like the most confortable and fun place to be!

Back to blogging

2006-11-01T10:17:00.000-05:00

Life sometimes takes unexpected turns. Things happen and shake us really hard. For a while I have been sad, confused and upset. I have been thinking a lot about life and its meaning. I try to understand but I come to no conclusion. At this point, I find solace on different things and people. Of course, my son. He is part of me, he is my life. But my great inspiration is my friend Carmen. With her, I started sewing and blogging. She is a great friend, like a sister and our friendship has been keeping me sane. And now, I look and her and find strength to cope with the pain and keep going. Her positive attitude, her strenght and determination is an example for me. Carmen, you are a wonderful human being and my blog is dedicated to you.

And here is a picture of the light boy. That is what he wanted to be for Halloween. Can you tell he was eating chocolate?

new faces

2006-10-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

is it wednesday already? october whirls by and i am here to report on our sunday minerva's circle meeting. very little work to show from me as i got back from my conference sunday morning, and sadly a needle and thread is not airplane-friendly material! it's too bad really, as that long flight would have been a wonderful time to work on the flock of triangles quilt. much knitting but no sewing! it was great to sit and sew and relax with everyone on sunday, catch up, and see the new amazing work. first from shradma, who is new to gainesville and to our group... i think this is her 2nd or 3rd meeting. this weekend she brought her current project, a cute summery top:
she also brought these wonderful projects she made as a young girl in school. this is a sweet baby bib-- all the sewing is by hand, and the center fruits are individually appliqued and embroidered. her stitches are so tiny and delicate... it's very beautiful.
and here is another project from when she was a girl... a girl's smock-style top, with wee buttons in the back. click on the photo to check out the applique and embroidery! i especially love the girl in the corner, holding a basket on her head. as someone who tries embroidery on and off without much success, i'm so impressed with her delicate work. it inspires me to go back to my sublime stitching kit and finish the tea towel i started a year ago!

i hadn't seen pilar in a week and suddenly she had made a new quilt! this confection is made all in soft flannel, front and back, in soft baby colors. very sweet and a great quick project... she is going to tie the quilt rather than sew it at the corners of the squares. i love that idea and there's 2 more babies coming up... since my fingers have been sore for more than 2 months now on the triangles, i'm thinking tying will be the way to go for the next one.
ciao chicas... see you next week!

Our Sundays meeting

2006-10-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

I can't say enough how much I enjoy meeting my crafty friends on Sunday. It is amasing how productive they are! Every week they bring new and beautiful things to show. I need to keep up with them, so better make this post short and go back to work...

Amisha is our fabric philanthropist. She brought us a lot of beautiful design fabric to give away. How sweet of her! And she cooked a deliciuos chocolate cake. Thank you, thank you Amisha!!

Clara made a great bed cover for her daughter's bed.

Claudia finished her big blanket. She said Pilar helped her. Isn't great to sew together? The blanket is amasing! So colorful and happy. What a great color combination!

Pilar is finishing the 'Tiny Happy' bag. Almost all of us have this bag. Well, one of us made bags for the whole family!! The bags are easy to make and they look great.

And here is another blanked from Claudia. I love the design and the the colors. As you can see on the picture, I am not the only one.

See you next Sunday!

better late than never

2006-09-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

well... here it is sunday again, and i am very very delayed in posting photos from last week's meeting of minerva's circle. many apologies to my fellow quilt-and-sewers... i will try to be less of a slacker next time :) there were some marvelous creations at our meeting, and we had a new small person join us-- teri's son! he is already quilting at age 8 and was sewing away on a lovely patchwork piece. clearly he's good genes from his mama! here he is with teri looking on...
amazing, no? it made me think about when i learned to do needlework from my grandmother... i was in elementary school and i loved it. she taught me to crochet, quilt, sew, even tat lace! (the lace-making didn't last, though :) )

the super-productive gisele and her cozy halloween flannel pajamas for her son...
she was also working on 2 new mini-moopy dolls that were so, so cute. the fabric choices were so bright and colorful and she was embroidering some very expressive faces. here is one and the second is in progress in her lap.
flor is making some pants here , i believe, and is also trying to work out a pattern for a baby-holder that will go into a shopping cart. that's her little one in the stroller next to her... he is getting so big and is extremely adorable.
yanina is working on another pillow (or wall hanging? the memory starts to go when you wait this long to blog!)... a floral geometric design that she invented herself. i'm amazed by her ability to sketch out complex designs and make them a reality!
and clara is now the official goddess of applique. this is a finished bag for her son, to carry library books home in. all of those sharks are hand-cut and appliqued, and the details (teeth and eyes) are sewn on. we were all in awe of this bag! she sketched the sharks from a children's book that her son likes, cut them from soft blue suede-like fabric, then put the sharks together with "algae" fabric for the bottom and shimmering green threads. and check out the bag handle... it's padded so the heavy bag won't be uncomfortable to carry. this rocks clara!see you all this afternoon!

Birthday cake and more...

2006-09-03T09:12:00.000-04:00

My son just turned five years old. He is so proud of his age!

He loves animals
and for the last year and a half
his passion
has been "sharks".
So, after having a
Tyranosaurus rex birthday cake
for his third
and fourth birthday,

he wanted a shark cake. I had no clue how to make a shark cake.
Then I had an idea. But when I woke up on his birthday,
I had given up and was going for one of those
nice cakes from Publix.
That's when my son interviene: "Mom, let's go
do the icing and decorate the shark".
What could I say?
Well, we had fun and we did it.

This is what we did.

We were so happy that we started
throwing ideas around to add to the cake for the party.
So, while I stayed home baking and decorating, the kids with dad and
the grandparents went "shopping" for a boat and a fisherman.

When the cake was finished we all
gathered around and laughed. My
husband asked me if I was making the cake for
my son or for me, as I was having
so much fun (specially while making the waves...).

The kids loved it.
They just wanted to play with it.

I can't emphasize enough that this project was only possible because my son would not let me give up. I guess we all need that kind of input, once in a while.

As it was the beginning of school,
I decided to sew these little pencil bags for the children.

Just before leaving to Portugal, where we spent four wonderful weeks with our family, I made this pillow for my father. I could not show it to my friends because I left that Saturday, so here it is:

2006-09-01T15:35:00.000-04:00

We are so immenselly sad for tragedy hit amongst us.
In our hearts the deepest sorrow.
Conforting words and tears fall short of power to relieve pain.

"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief"

Aeschylus

"The pain passes, but the beauty remains"
Pierre August Renoir

the sunday afternoon quilt and dessert society...

2006-08-22T15:47:00.002-04:00

this is what my husband calls us! he is always wondering what delicious treats we are munching at our meetings... this time it was lovely fudge brownies and a great cream cheese and spinach dip. and we were very busily working away...

look at the adorable spiderman pajamas that pilar has made for her son! she made the pajama bottoms with her new sewing machine, then appliqued a piece of the same fabric to the soft cotton top to make a set. she also told us very funny stories about her son in the pajamas-- she was loosening up the waistband on sunday so they wouldn't pinch him!on the blue pajamas, she also made the pajama bottoms on the sewing machine then added a strip of coordinating fabric to the top as an applique. they are very cute pilar!

gisele was working on her lovely blue and yellow quilt... right now she is doing a very pretty scalloped quilting around the edges.

and carmen finished her baby quilt on sunday during our meeting! i love the colors in this quilt-- orange! :) she quilted it all over, following the circles, so there is a bubble pattern on the back. it's very cuddly because the orange fabric on some of the squares and the binding is a soft fuzzy velour-type fabric... so nice!

and here is claudia with maria from chile, who was new to the group. she has made amazing progress on her quilt since last week... she is piecing these squares together with a green binding in between each block. it's hard to tell here but she has made a strip as long as the couch!

for my part the baby quilt was put aside in favor of the wee bunny, and carmen and gisele helped me position his ears and make him cute!

oh, i also wanted to share with you all the recipe for the banana bread i made a couple of weeks ago. it is very easy and tasty... i bought a big bunch of bananas yesterday hoping that some might go a bit squishy by the end of the week so i can have banana bread :) here's the recipe:

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

mix all of these dry ingredients together. then add
1 c. mashed banana (i use 2 or 3 bananas... however many are sitting around!)
1 tsp. vanilla (i tend to splash a bit extra in too)
2 large eggs, and
1/2 c. oil.

mix only until everything is mixed and wet-- don't beat or overmix. pop into a loaf pan at 350 degrees for an hour and there you go!

Tissue holder tutorial

2006-08-17T12:54:00.000-04:00

I have made a couple of tissue holders to give as presents. I think they are cute and practical and a nice little and easy to make, quick gift. So I wanted to make a tutorial and share how I made it with all of you.
This are two tissue holders I made recently:

And here it goes the tutorial:
1. Cut two pieces of fabric, one for the outside and the other for the lining. The dimensions should be 6 inches x 7 inches.

2. With right sides together, sew a 1/4 inch seam around the border leaving 4 inches open in the longer side.

3. Open the seams of the side you left open and iron.

4. Turn right sides out and iron again. To make sure the corners are nice and pointy I use a chopstick to push them out.

5. Fold it with lining side out so that the 2 sides overlap 3/4 inches.

6. Sew it in the sides, this time leaving only 1/8inch seam allowance.Turn around and push corners out again with a chopstick. Iron again and voila! there you have it!

Quilts and so much more

2006-08-15T15:13:00.000-04:00

Another week passed with a nice Sunday Meeting. It's our time to share with friends our project's progress, taste delicius food (everybody cooks really good!) and have a great conversation.

Amisha's baby quilt is growing pretty and faster.

Pilar is so happy with her first spider man pijamas
that she made with her new sewing machine.

Ana Clara is finally back from Portugal (and she looks gorgeius!). And next to her is Laurene who showed us her creatives photos albums that she is decorating every month for her 5 year old daughter. WELCOME!!

Tery has a lot of work to do yet, but the quilt is so great as it is...

And look at this cool hat that Flor made from her baby boy.

Gisele, we have no photos of the summer top you made from your old dress, but everybody saw you wearing it this sunday and it's fantastic.

About me, the 'bag girl', I finished a bag (ja, ja, ja!!) that will be a birthday's present for a girlfriend (so it's secret).

Sunday afternoon......working and working!

2006-08-09T15:45:00.000-04:00

Our last Sunday meeting was very productive. If I'm not wrong it has been our fullest meeting, we were 10!!

And then, we could see many hands working.

Tery was with us, our teacher, and always we learn new things with her.

And I...kidnaped Carmen and she tought me how to use my new sew machine!!

An other Sunday very productive!!!

Tery with her beautiful big quilt

Camila already has half of the bedspread!!

Camila shows her beautiful yellow bag

Carmen finished her baby quilt too!!

Yanina with her first cushion finished!!

Claudia shows her new bedspread proyect

The socks made by Amisha

Amisha with her baby quilt with orange triangles

My first Pokemon Pillow

2006-08-09T10:37:00.000-04:00

Mi 8 year old son -Gabriel- is a Pokemon fun. He loves everything related to this characters.
In my last visit at Joann store, Gabriel and his brother Santiago found this amazing Pokemon fabric; so I spent my 40% off coupon on it to make this pillow.
So let me share with you the hapyness of my child with his new 'made by mom' pillow!!!

Baby quilt is done!... and Meringue Tart recipe

2006-08-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

I had finished the Elizabeth baby quilt, she will be born this week, everybody waiting for her ! and she has taken her time....

I liked so much the baby quilt, the colors combination resulted funny and the embroider are not too bad.

In the pictures there are details of appliques: the sun, the butterflies, the flower, the bee.

He terminado la colcha para Elizabeth, ella nacera esta semana, estan todos esperandola y si que se ha hecho esperar!.
Me gusto mucho como quedo la colcha, la combinacion de colores resulto alegre y los bordados no salieron tan mal.
En las fotos se ven los detalles de las aplicaciones: el sol, las mariposas, la flor, la abeja.

And the promise...the Meringue Tart recipe!

Meringue Tart

5 egg white
1 cup sugar (250 grs)
5 tbsp. sugar powder (confectioners’ sugar)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. pure corn starch

Beat the egg white until it is hard. Add the sugars’ cup, by tbsp. When this is good incorporated, add baking powder, corn starch and sugar powder, slowly, with wood spoon.
Prepare the cake pan, with butter in the base and put a circle of paper to fit the base of the pan. Above this, put the meringue, without touching the pan on the borders.
Preheat the oven to 325 F and bake the meringue for 5 minutes at this temperature and then, low the temperature at 200 F and bake whit oven a little open (put a spoon in the oven door). This is for 50 minutes else.

The cream is a little box of heavy cream, beat to hard and put a 1 tbsp. of sugar and 1 tbsp. of vanilla.

When the meringue is cold, put above the cream and above this pieces of strawberry or raspberries, to covering the surface. Maintain refrigerated.

If you do other meringue, put over this and you have a meringue cake that is bigger when you need for more people.

Y lo prometido... la receta de la Tarta de Merengue!

Tarta de Merengue

5 claras de huevo
250 gramos de azucar granulada (1 taza)
5 cucharadas de azucar flor
1/2 cucharadita de polvos de hornear
1/2 cucharadita de chunno

Batir las claras hasta que esten duras, agregar el azucar granulada por cucharada. Cuando el merengue este firme agregar el azucar flor, chunno y polvos de hornear e incorporar suavemente con cuchara de madera.
Preparar un molde, enmantequillar el fondo y poner papel sobre este y los bordes. Poner el merengue sin que toque el papel de la orilla. Poner en horno pre calentado, horno mediano, por 5 minutos, despues de esto bajar la temperatura, bien baja, y abrir la puerta del horno levemente, dejando una abertura con una cuchara entremedio, esto por 50 minutos.

La crema se hace batiendo crema liquida hasta que este firme, poniendole un poquito de azucar y unas gotas de vainilla.
Cuando el merengue este frio, poner encima la crema y sobre este frutillas (fresas) o frambuesas cubriendo toda la superficie. Mantener refrigerado.

Se pueden hacer dos merengues y colocar uno encima de la crema y fruta y te queda una torta (pastel) de merengue mas grande, para cuando necesites para mas gente.

Quilts, pillows, and tons of bags

2006-07-31T22:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had a busy quilting/crafting meeting. It is nice when so many of us get together and talk like if we hadn't seen each other in years!
It's amazing how many new projects we have all together! and of course we also have our long big huge projects that keep us entertained for months.
Yanina finished her fish quilt, so cute!

Claudia, the bag girl is making a bag for a friend.

She is also made another one for herlself. She said "this is the first one I have made for ME from scratch!" It is so nice! And it really amazes me where does she find all those colorful fabrics, she says in Walmart but I just don't seem to look with the same kind of eyes! Because I never find them!

And one more for herself. The white circles are pieces of paper that she uses as a guide for quilting.

Yanina is into pillows now. And she likes to make the patchwork part like a puzzle. She had all these tiny pieces that she arranged into 4 flowers that will form the front of a very nice pillow.

And she cut pieces in paper of two new projects. As I said, she is fast!

Gisele made this beautiful quilt some time ago but it still needs to be finished. She decided to work on an old project rather than starting a new one (unlike me that I never finish my projects, well, hardly ever).

Amisha joined us for the first time. Here she was explaining about the quilt she is starting to make. It is simple, just rectangles, but it has many different fabrics in orange and white. It looks really nice.

And Camila was cutting fabrics for her big "storm of the sea" quilt. Here they are admiring Gisele's quilting bag.

As for me I am finishing up a quilt that I cannot show until it's all done and in the hands of its future owner.
And of course we enjoyed delicious food! Pilar made this amzing strawberry merengue pie that she promised to post the recipe soon. Gisele made Bruno's banana cake, also amazing, and also brought some egyptian treats, like baklaba. Amisha also made a delicious banana bread.

Great fun! I am looking forward to next Sunday!

How to make labels

2006-07-28T10:43:00.000-04:00

The first craft blog I ever read was Dona Chita, by a Brazilian woman who makes wonderful softies. She calls her softies 'Kokoro' (heart, in Japanese). She makes small little labels for them and I thought it was such a great idea. I decided to make labels for my softies.
Here is what you need:
T-shirt transfer paper (about 9 dollars for 6 sheets at Wall Mart), ribbon, iron and a computer with printer.
Using a graph software, design your label and print on paper to see how it looks and adjust the size, so it matches the size of the ribbon. Once it is the way you want, print on the transfer paper (my printer has a T-shirt transfer mode, that means it prints backwards).

Cut the strips and iron it on the ribbon.

And sew on you softies

Great news!

2006-07-27T21:50:00.000-04:00

I thought I will just share the good news. Gisele and I won the whipup "whiplash" contest we participated on! Each of us made a bag, then posted it in our respective blogs and sent the entry to whiplash. I was really surprised and happy when I saw that both of us had won. Gisele presented the tutorial on this bag and I presented this cocktail purse. I am so excited and I am looking forward to see what are we going to get on the mail. We will keep you posted!

Once again Sunday fun

2006-07-26T00:32:00.000-04:00

Once again we meet last Sunday. And once again we had a good time. I would say that for a change we were quite productive!! We were just 4 but we hadboth projects to show and projects to work on.
Pilar, almost done with her baby quilt showed us all her progress.

Yanina had a bunch of scraps from a lady that makes seminole quilts. They are really amazing pieces, very intricate with many small pieces. This is a style I would like to try one day.

Amazingly she is working on her second quilt already! in two weeks!!! She is learning how to hand quilt and most likely she will come with it all finished next week. She is fast! Gisele is finishing her baby quilt, looking great.

And I was quilting but I also finished this bunny, named Patricia. Do we look symetrical in the picture?

Crazy frames

2006-07-24T12:21:00.000-04:00

Since a couple of weeks ago, we organized a kid's farewell party for Mexicans girlfriends. In that occasion we did a craft activity for the children. Each one had a photo frame to decorate and to bring home as a gift. It was so fun that I decided to repeat it at home. This is the result of a nice afternoon where Santiago, Gabriel and me collect some stuff from the playground and combine colors to decorate the frames and these lovely towels hungers.

Marcos locos. Hace algunas semanas atras, organizamos una fiesta infantil de despedida para unas amigas mejicanas. En esa ocasion hicimos una actividad de manualidades para los ninhos. Cada uno tenia un marco de fotos para decorar y llevarselo a casa como regalo. Fue tan entretenido que decidi repetirlo en casa. Este fue el resultado de una agradable tarde en la que Santiago, Gabriel y yo recolectamos algunas cosas desde la plaza de juegos y combinamos colores para decorar los marcos y tambien estos amorosos colgadores de toallas.

Fruit Pie Recipe (fruit's kuchen)

2006-07-23T15:22:00.002-04:00

This is the recipe for the fruit pie we ate last meeting;

Fruit Pie Recipe (Fruit Kuchen)

Dough (crust)
* 1 butter stick (or margarine)
* 100 gr granulate sugar (1/2 cup)
* 1 egg
* Flour (approx. 3 cups)
* 1 tablespoon baking powder

Cream
* 1 can Nestle cream
* 2 eggs (separate white from yolk)

Beat butter or margarine, put sugar spoon by spoon, when this is cream put an egg, finally add flour with baking powder. The flour must be enough to do a soft dough.
* Grease a pan and dust with a pinch of flour
* Put the dough up to two fingers height in the edge
* Put in oven (350 F) up to dough is cooked (not golden)

This pie can go with many fruits, I preffer sour fruit and you can mix with a little sugar, but can do with strawberry, raspberry, apple (with cinammon and sugar), banana, peach, plumb, apple moose and what you preffer!!!

Cream:
* Beat two egg whites and add two sugar spoons, do a meringue.
* Add Nestle cream can and 1 or 2 yolks. Stir softly.

Put fruit over the dough base and in the top the cream. Put in oven only for goldening. (Broil in oven for a few minutes)

And that is it!!!

Good luck and sweet afternoon!!
Pilar

Esta es la receta de Kuchen de frutas que comimos la reunion anterior, la receta ahora va en espannol para las manos argentinas que la solicitaron:

Masa:
100 grs. de mantequilla o margarina
100 grs. de azucar granulada (1/2 taza mas o menos)
1 huevo
Harina suficiente para que quede una masa blanda (aprox. 3 tazas)
1 cucharadita de polvos de hornear

Crema:
1 tarro de crema nestle
2 huevos (separar clara de yemas)

Preparacion:
Batir mantequilla, agregar azucar por cucharadas, cuando este cremosa colocar el huevo entero, y finalmente la harina y polvos de hornear, hasta que quede la masa blanda.
Engrasar un molde de kuchen y ponerle un velo de harina. Colocar sobre este la masa dejando dos dedos de altura en las orillas. Hornear hasta que la masa quede cocida sin que se dore.
Este kuchen se puede hacer con muchas frutas, yo prefiero las acidas a las que les puedes poner un poco de azucar, pero puede hacerce con frutillas (fresas), frambuesas, manzanas (con azucar y canela), platanos, duraznos, ciruelas o lo que tu quieras!

Crema:
Batir las claras a nieve, puedes ponerle un poquito de azucar, agregar el tarro de crema y las yemas y revolver suavemente.

Poner la fruta sobre la masa cocida y sobre esta la crema. poner en el horno nuevamente pero solo el tiempo suficiente para que se dore la crema.

Y esta listo!
Buena suerte y dulces tardes!
Pilar

Bags, bags and mor bags

2006-07-20T14:13:00.000-04:00

I found this tutorial to make a cute bag in tiny happy. It's so nice and easy that I have alredy made 3 of them. The first and last were made using kitchen towels! It is nice to find cute fabric like this in unsuspected place and be able to use it for a very practical bag like this.
This is my first bag, with the kitchen towels. I use it everyday.

This is the second one, I will send it to my sister in Spain. I think she likes these kinds of patterns.

The last one is for my friend here who liked my bag and thought it was practical. She hasn't seen it yet but I hope she likes it.

And my friends Camila, Clara and Gisele also made a bag like this. It's quite popular around here :)

A funny meeting

2006-07-17T20:37:00.000-04:00

Carmen's baby quilts

Yanina and her Pitagora's quilt

Camila with her beautiful project

As usual we have had a very funny quilt afternoon.
Everybody was surprised with Yanina's quilt, who is part of the group since last week and already have her first proyect almost finish!
Carmen presented her baby 'quilts, one pink and the other blue, that for sure will make the babys very happy.
Gisele and Claudia have brought their new mini mooppys all with different eyes and mouths, they look very happy.
We had been talking a lot about secrets for sewing machine that by the iniciates, like me, will be very useful.
I had coocked some fruit pies (kuchen) to give a sweet flavor to the afternoon, that, I think we has turned "motor mouth" and we talked about every think...., well, definitely we had a superb afternoon (lo pasamos SUPER!).

Yanina's quilt

2006-07-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

Hello, this is my first quilt. Yesterday I got all the pieces together for our meeting but then I did not have anything to do at Pilar's house!

The first thing I did after the meeting was go to buy the batting! Then I spend the rest of the day preparing the backing.
Today I brought my quilt to the office and I show it to everybody here. You can be sure that UFIC is proud of all of us!

Now I have two projects in mind and one of them has to be ready in one month: it is for Jorge's cousin's baby. This baby name is Albany Valentina and will be born in Caracas next August. I have to rush! I am planning to quilt a lot of little fish. Jorge love fish and fishing!
(07/18/2006 - This is what I am going to quilt for this baby!)

The picture is not too good because I took it with the web camera on mi desk. I do not have much space but next year we are moving to the HUB. I will hang my quilt in my new office and the other project I am thinking about: a view of the Cañada in Cordoba, my city in Argentina.

I love to quilt with you,

Yanina

Pilar's Baby Quilt

2006-07-10T21:46:00.000-04:00

Estoy haciendo un quilt para la bebe de una amiga que nacera en un mes. Decidi ponerle aplicaciones y para avanzar rapido pense que seria mejor ponerlas con maquina. Yo nunca habia cosido a maquina, pero contaba con la ayuda de las expertas Gisele y Carmen.
Esto ha sido genial, ya que yo supuse que ellas me harian el "trabajito", pero como buenas "profesoras" habian decidido ensenarme en unas horas y....no me quedo otra!!! las aplicaciones ya estan hechas y yo ya aprendi a usar la maquina!
Estoy FELIZ y creo que se me a abierto un mundo con todas las cosas que quiero hacer, de a poco les ire contando y mostrando, mientras algunas fotos del aprendizaje......y un millon de GRACIAS a las profesoras!!

Finally Done!

2006-07-10T15:15:00.000-04:00

Last sunday I finished my first big quilt. It took me almost seven months of HARD work, but I'm very happy how it's looks now. The colors I used on it was my sister's favorites because this is a wedding present for her.

Tomorrow this big quilt will be on trip to Chile. I hope it'll arrive on time and safe.

El domingo pasado termine mi primera gran colcha. me tomo casi siete meses de trabajo duro pero estoy muy contenta como luce ahora. Los colores que use son los favoritos de mi hermana porque este es su regalo de bodas. Manhana esta gran colcha estara de viaje hacia Chile. Espero llegue a tiempo y sana y salva.