November workshop at Patch-Mania

November is the month of the year that we have to think about making and buying Christmas presents for our loved ones. 

5 and 18 November I will be teaching these two very cute bags at Patch-Mania.

 

Another Quick & Easy project will be taught at Patch-Mania on 22 November.  These flowers can make your clothes, bags or hair to stand out.



Matryoshka and clutch with metal frames will be repeated and try not miss.  They are great to have in your wardrobe!

New bags and suddenly winter

Suddenly, Portuguese winter arrived in last Sunday.  Today I drove in heavy rain for for a couple of hours but without meeting accidents.  Although, FM radios were announcing that many motorways had several accidents.  My speed was 70 kmh instead 120.  You can guess how bad weather was.

Anyway, winter has to arrive at one point and it arrived quite late.  Serra da Estrela mountains had snow.  Lisbon areas had rains. Normal.  Poor trees needed some water after several months of not having any drops.

I got inspired recently and made new bags which I will teach at Patch-mania. 

And even I managed to start making a twister quilt. It was easy to sew 5" patches together but I took me three nights to solve the puzzle. I might start sewing tomorrow morning unless I see some problems.  Wish me luck!

Tomas Transtroemer and Lisbon

Swedish poet Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. Here is Portugal the news received with great admiration because he wrote a poem about Lisbon and Funchal. Here is the poem.


Lisbon


In the Alfama quarter the yellow tramcars sang on the steep slopes.

There were two prisions. One was for thieves.

They waved through the grilled windows.

They shouted to be photographed.


‘But here,’ said the conductor giggling like a split man,

‘here sit politicians.’ I saw the façade the façade the façade

and high up in a window a man

who stood with a telescope to his eye and looked out over the sea.


Laundry hung in blue air. The walls were hot.

The flies read microscopic letters.

Six years later I asked a woman from Lisbon:

‘Is it true, or have I dreamt it?’