Hello and goodbye

From now on you can follow everything Esquilo at Esquilo Handmade.
Here is the link:
http://esquilohandmade.blogspot.pt/

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Bread... wood fired... heart warming

The day we baked bread. It was hard work to say the least, preparing everything for the big production. There was lot of waiting around for things to grow, to mix, to heat and bake. But the end result was delicious bread that will last us for weeks. I played the assistant role and I have to admit I spent most of the time amazed by the ritual of the whole production wondering if alone I could reproduce it... hmmm.... no chance. But that is ok.

There was a time here in the village when there were community ovens, mostly we think for the lack of firewood and also lack of time required to fire up the oven, and it was actually a great exercise in the sharing of resources. There was the person that owned the oven who could also be the same person that looked after the fire and the oven, and there was someone to collect the wood. You just had to agree what day to bake in advance and bring your bread ready to fire. In exchange you left a bread and the yeast mix was passed on from baker to baker as an eternal common between many a loaf of bread. Needless to say there is bread and there is bread, some better than others... ours turned out spot on.

Super color... Super Spring...

A super color start to the Spring and some new inspiration for good things to come. A trip to the south, another to the north. This log cabin patchwork cushion is a very beautiful gift I received today made from recycled curtain fabrics. I love it.

Soon I´ll be in full swing again making all sorts of things. I´ll keep you posted.

Twinkle twinkle big star

A new blanket, now finished and enjoying a very happy life. This project was as much fun as it was very time consuming. But I also learned a lot from it. I learned to be more patient for one, although that still needs a lot of work. And I learned from my mum that undoing is also doing, meaning that at no stage of the process if I was not happy with the result I did not hesitate to unpick and undo. I guess sometimes you just want to get to the end and ignore mistakes so you get there faster, but when you spend so much time doing something like this, which took me the best of a month to complete, it is definitely worth doing well and taking your time. After all, every time I finish a big project I always think... oh.... it´s finished... that wasn´t so bad.

All the fabrics I used were found from markets or second hand shops, some I had had for years. It was interesting to see them marry so well and to watch the quilt grow accordingly. Fabrics just sort of materialised as I wished for them which is something I enjoy in projects like this, how they just sort of grow. The hardest part for me was the quilting because I don´t really like using a thimble and so after a few days of hand sewing I hand a little hole in my finger, and a sewing callous of sorts, ouch. I started with a drawing which I roughly followed and that was quite handy just to get all the proportions right but I soon put it aside and just made the whole thing up as I went.

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:-)

Hello again.
It has been sometime since I posted, sorry. I have been traveling and thinking and making things like patchwork quilts and wool socks with my sock loom. But there are bags still in the making and for now these two are available for purchase from my Big Cartel store. I have been thinking about making more things, not just bags, and turning Esquilo Handbags into Esquilo Handmade... I think this makes more sense. So i´ll keep you posted on a more regular basis from now on... promise. Let me know what you think.

Mushrooms, hazelnuts, stone path and one quilt

Autumn has finally arrived and the leaves have turned to gold. There are many simple things that make me happy and this last week was full of them. A visit to the countryside, collecting Saffron milk cap mushrooms, picking hazelnuts, making a stone path and a quilt to match the colour of the leaves.

Percy Power

Percy Power says it all really, so if you are thinking of starting a little garden or just making yours a little happier then Percy has the right advice for you, just take a few minutes to listen. This purse is travelling North as we speak I hope it makes someone happy somewhere in Italy. A little Autumn garden cheer.