There are all kinds of dolls

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

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

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!

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

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?

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...

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

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!