Once again, this is actually a Christmas project and will be gifted to someone who adores dachshunds. I just wanted to get it done and out of the way… before I forget!

This design is from the same Slovakian crochet designer as highlighted. Check out her patterns here!

The post A doxie amigurumi first appeared on Angie Padilla.

So even though Christmas is still a bit in the future, I have finished a little gnome…

and a matching elephant.

These designs are from a Slovakian crochet designer. Another favorite of mine. Check out her patterns here!

The post Another gnome, and a little elephant first appeared on Angie Padilla.

Evenings watching TV have been the perfect time for some crochet gnomes. This little gnome is actually a candy dish… the hat comes off to hold quite a few little chocolate Easter eggs. And, of course, a few crochet Easter eggs complement the gnome. I have come to love this designer’s patterns, so clear, with step-by-step photographs and excellent instructions.

My seven-year granddaughter loved this gnome so much she asked ma to make her a smaller and slightly different version.

I also remembered these Easter egg ornaments, both crochet and quilted, that I like to hand from a tree branch.

Several years ago I designed some simple bunny cushion covers to use during the Easter period.

In time however, I have found them to be quite boring, so I decided to pull up the file and add some floral designs to the original bunnies. And I have to say I truly love the results.

So much so, I knew I had to take the covers apart to applique the new floral designs onto them. I haven’t had the time to work on all six designs, but was able to finish two of these covers for this year’s holiday season.

I also prepared a short reel of the process behind making one of these cushion covers. Check it out here!

The post Easter Projects first appeared on Angie Padilla.

All of these projects will be posted in the next few weeks/months at The Applique Garden, and will also be finding their way to my online shop.

Space Cats

Teapot Garden

Once Upon a Castle

Capybara Days

This has certainly been a happy time drawing.

The post Still drawing… and enjoying it! first appeared on Angie Padilla.

These three projects are available right now at The Applique Garden. The first two will soon be available for purchase through my online shop.

Here are my funny Chicks in Skirts.

Whispers of Spring – delicate and romantic

And this oh, so cute baby quilt. This one is available now for purchase: Woodland Dreams

The post New projects… a lot of drawing! first appeared on Angie Padilla.

This last week I was able to make these two fun little gnomes.

The pattern is from Mufficorn, a Ukranian designer. I really love her designs, and am planning on making more further down the line.

The post Valentine Gnomes first appeared on Angie Padilla.

Over the last few days I’ve been working on a couple new covers for Valentine’s Day, and I have now uploaded the patterns to my online shop. I hope you like these!

Rose Heart Cushion Cover

The Loving Tree

The post Valentine Day’s Projects first appeared on Angie Padilla.

My house is truly a “patchwork” house. Seemingly mismatched windows and doors, and leftover cabinets from three different kitchens house all the goodies in my sewing studio/office. I will have to give you a tour of that space sometime. Today it’s about the current conundrum I had to deal with in my kitchen. You see, the architect who designed my kitchen measured all my appliances, and adapted the cabinets from what had been my mom’s kitchen to fit the new space. Here is her drawing and how the kitchen was set up: (note the brown narrow cabinet in the middle picture… a lovely pull-out spice cabinet that I absolutely love!)

As you can see, the appliances were meant to fit in exactly… and they did. What a pretty kitchen, right?

That is, until I started having trouble with the refrigerator. Time to replace it. And not so easily done. You see, the one I had was shorter than what is available now in the market. The only ones I could find were much too small. What to do? Well, one of the things about living in Ecuador is the talented artisans still willing and able to do skilled labor at an affordable price. So I called my carpenter and along with his young assistant they came to my assistance. I am always amazed at what they are able to do with only a handsaw, a hammer, and a screwdriver. After much hemming and hawing, we reached the conclusion that the only way to resolve the problem for my much taller refrigerator to fit in as to cut the top cabinet. They actually cut the cabinet while it still hung on the wall!

And moved my lovely spice cabinet to the other side of my small pantry cabinet (turning it around to open up now in the opposite direction). The new refrigerator would certainly fit in now.

All that was left now was to touch up with paint and put everything away. My lovely granddaughter is visiting for a few days, and is a whiz at organizing, so went through all the contents of the spice cabinet, throwing out any old spices/condiments, leaving everything nice and neat.

Now isn’t this pretty?

The one and only refrigerator we found that could work in the space is now in place. However…. there are still issues that make this an eyesore for me. I guess at some point the white stove will also have to go (although I love it!) because the silver, white, silver of the appliances looks very odd to me. But an even bigger problem for me now is what to do with the space above the refrigerator. It looks so odd! Ideas anyone?

The post The problem with custom kitchens first appeared on Angie Padilla.

Over the last few months I have received quite a few inquiries about including templates in my patterns for applique using embroidering machines. I see there is more and more interest in this type of applique, and have realized I need to address the issue. This, however, is not an easy feat. I use Electric Quilt software to draw my designs, and the templates that I am able to print in that software do not fit the requirements needed for the type of templates needed for machine embroidery. Let me explain with the illustration below. I am using the three “petals” shown in the circle of this flower design. This is what the templates look like when printed directly from Electric Quilt.

Note, however that the top edges of piece #1 will be tucked under pieces 2 and 3. And the top points will also be placed under the next piece to be sewn down. No issue at all if you are hand appliqueing or using a domestic sewing machine. But this is a problem with an embroidery machine, where you don’t want the pieces layered, but with all sides butted up against each other. I figured out how to do this using Adobe Illustrator. See the difference in the templates?

And here you can see excess fabric if using the Electric Quilt templates.

In addition, nowadays a lot of people use electronic cutters to speed up cutting both templates and fabric pieces. I can think of Cricut, ScanNCut, Silhouette… In some cases you can open up pdf files directly and proceed to cut. When that is not the case, you will probably need SVG files. So I have been trying to figure out the best way to do that, too.

The last three days I have spent hours and hours figuring this out. Turns out it is A LOT of work. But I think I will give this a try with this year’s BOM projects, and see if this is useful for visitors. And, if so, if it is worth investing time in offering these templates as additional files.

For the time being, I have been able to put together 3 zip files with both pdf and svg files for the first block of each of this year’s BOM patterns. If you are interested in any of them, they are available here.

For now, enough with all this time on the computer. I am ready for the weekend to begin. Maybe some knitting for a change? And a movie?

The post Learning new skills first appeared on Angie Padilla.

Back in November 2023, while on my way back home driving down the Panamerican highway I was rear ended by a delivery truck that lost its brakes and sent my car spinning, eventually hitting a pole in the highway median, which actually saved me from further harm. To this day, I don’t know how I walked away from this accident. The fact that I did so is truly a miracle.

I will not go into further details of the accident itself, other than to say my car was totaled and I had to be rushed to hospital with several broken bones and other injuries. Not the prettiest picture, but here I am, trying to heal lungs that were hurt from the pressure of broken ribs.

In truth, much of what happened in the following weeks is still a haze. My whole body was badly bruised, which eventually led to complications with the worst one on my right leg. I developed compartment syndrome and in the following months I was in and out of hospital for several surgeries, aimed at saving my leg.

I eventually was allowed to go home and continue my recovery there… what a relief! One of the happiest days when my daughter and son-in-law drove me home!

I still had several more surgeries down the line, but my wonderful family set things up so that most of my recovery could take place at home.

My pets certainly helped in my recovery process… a cat who wouldn’t leave my side, as well as a velcro Golden Retriever always watching over me. Not the best pics of me, for sure… in my defense, things were pretty challenging and combing my hair was certainly not a priority. Lots of bandages, but at least I was home, being taken care of by loved ones.

I spent many weeks in a hospital bed… but I was home.

Then came several months of physical therapy, especially to regain mobility in my right arm. I’m at 80%. Unfortunately, I will not be able to drive again, and it is hard for me to stretch my arm and reach things up high, but I am able to live independently again and accomplish most normal activities.

I struggled throughout the year to regain control of my right arm, so work was pretty slow. But doable. Getting back to sewing would take longer. I slowly started sewing/quilting again towards the end of the year (2024). I am extremely fortunate to be able to sit here and write all this now. Life is good, and mine in particularly is pretty rosy.

As we begin 2025 it looks like I have regained my mojo. I am looking forward to new projects this year, and hope to be sharing more. That will be little by little, as I continue to heal and gain strength. But I am happy to be back.

The post Back in the saddle… again! first appeared on Angie Padilla.