Quilt Cave

This was, for 2008, the last All Day Sewing day in the Quilt Cave. It was pouring with rain all day, perfect for sewing with friends.
Amalia has been working on her unfinished projects over the holiday, these two baby quilts are almost finished.

Ann and Regina were working on their "long term" projects, who says we have to race anyway!

Anita's sampler quilt sandwich. Anita was surprised to see how many safety pins were needed to baste this quilt.....

Working at the cutting table. Ana & Amalia decided to make more complex blocks so they can learn more little 'tricks'. I think they were feeling inspired seeing Anita's project.....

Ana's Ohio Star

Ana's other block, after making these two blocks Ana better understood the importance of contrast.


Ta daaaaaa,... it was tricky but it was worth it!... another bread bag?

After making her sandwich, Anita sewed 9 x 6" squares together ready to make a mini Square Dance quilt... here she is marking the top with the template.. a fiddly job!
.... she had to get all the pieces cut out as everyone wanted to see how to do it . This will be a cushion.

Regina, very happy to have her tree sewn together. She went on to make the trunk and sew on all the borders. This project will be ready in plenty of time for Christmas... 2009!! he he he

Birte's Christmas Quilt

Birte sent this picture of her latest quilt. It was finished just in time for Christmas.... which is just as well as it is a Christmas quilt!! he he
You can also see Birte's Paper Pieced Christmas Tree in the background.
The quilt looks lovely Birte!

My Snowman Quilt

I made this quilt in Mexico City in 2004. It was pre-my Bernina, so all the appliqué work is done with a tiny zig-zag stitch on a very old singer sewing machine. It took approximately 24 working hours to make each block picture, swapping threads and bobbins to make sure all the stitching matched, as close as possible, to the fabrics. This project was made almost entirely from my stash of fabrics, including all the borders. The only fabric I bought was the snowman flanel I used for the backing. For the quilting I stabilized the whole thing by stitching in the ditch of each picture and it's frames, then hand stitched lots of snowflakes within the blocks to keep everything secure, so the back is also covered in stitched snowflakes too.
I think it was called Snowman Collector. Here's each block in more detail.












It's really cute, isn't it.... I usually have it hanging on my wall during December and January but as we are moving house again soon, we decided not to drill any holes, why make work when it looks great on my daughters bed!

Quilt Cave

Oh dear, I have to confess, yet again, I forgot to take pictures in the Quilt Cave yesterday. There was so much going on that the camera just escaped me.
This is the begining of the morning, it does look like a scene from a playschool with all the kids drawing and cutting out shapes to the glue onto pictures...... the ladies are tracing their pattern pieces onto the freezer paper and the Steam-a-Seam. We did reverse applique, needle turn applique, blanket stitching, zig-zag stitching, freezer paper foundation applique, the very easy stems (which I will try to post about one day) and last, but not least... improvising! you know.... when you don't quite get it right, make it look like it was meant to be that way!! a very usefull lesson! he he he Amalia, Ana, Anita & Sofia all took home a 'vase'. Hopefully they will finish them at home so that we can get them quilted and photographed for the blog.

Regina joined us, she was working on her paper pieced tree. Here she was so happy because the tree units lined up perfectly, at the end of the day her tree was almost finished. Ann W. also joined us, we were very challanged trying to get her new bias binding foot to work....I think we cracked it, but in the time it took us she could have finished binding 4 placemats by hand.. he he he.

Appliqué Allsorts

I made this today, it incorporates many different ways of doing appliqué, both by hand and by machine.
My favourite bit was the flower stems, I used a very simple method that I have never tried before, I will definitely use it again as it was much easier than making tiny bias strips. For the flowers and the pot I used freezer paper methods and some 'under wonder under' (He he )
All will be revealed tomorrow in the Quilt Cave.

Ladies, if you are coming tomorrow, this is what we are making!
Please bring your fabric scraps and a piece of fabric for the background that measures at least 16" x 20".

Kiddie Cars

My Kiddie Car quilt top is now complete and ready to be sandwiched. Some cars have a little "poof" of smoke behind them as they roar around the track.... not too fast though as each corner has a big stop sign.

I have some great fabric for the back of this project, but for now it will have to wait.

Tomorrow in the Quilt Cave we will be doing hand and machine applique, so I have to prepare the demo for that.

My Round Robin

This is the block I made to start my Winter Round Robin, a 4 1/2" paper pieced Christmas tree... I put it into a brown envelope with my name on it at the begining of October and didn't see it again until this week.
Each week we all added different stages to the each others blocks, including embroidery, writing, embellishing and 2 weeks with applique. This picture shows more detail than the previous post, probably because it wasn't me, but Ursula, who took the photo... he he he

Round Robin Reveal!!

We IWP Quilters had our Christmas party yesterday. The food was fabulous, the company was, as always, a hoot, we swapped arty Christmas cards and played my favourite white elephant game... fun fun fun...

The highlight of the day was the Round Robin Reveal. It's amazing the way these projects have turned out, every one individual, and very Christmassy, considering it was a "winter" round robin project.

Ursula's

Therese's

Sally's

Regina's

Jutta's

Garen's

Arabela's

Anneliese's

and, last but no way least... mine, which I love, thank you ladies.

And here, our Therese with her latest fashion accessory!!!

Quilt Class

Quilt Class was fun today
Ines joined us, the centre of this huge quilt has now been stabelized using the trusty walking foot. Ines came to learn free motion quilting ready to do the pieced blocks and the huge borders...

Left to right this is ... Anita, Amalia, Ana and Ines. There was a shot of them all posing pretty, legs aloft, but I wasn't quick enough to shoot it... shame!
Ana's own creation... lasagne in the middle with a pieced border, the fabrics are from a "Jelly Roll" bought at Patch-Mania in Oeiras. Lovely colours, Ana quilted it today.

This is Ines practicing free motion quilting, she did very well and will be an expert in no time... which is just as well with that huge quilt waiting...


Our "Blue Lady" came to visit too. these two projects are hand quilted. with gold and red thread.
a closer shot of the lovely redwork.

Well, that was the last quilt class at Arco Iris for December, I think we will be back to lessons on 7th January.

There is always the Quilt Cave for All Day Sewing.... Next week, 18th December and Monday 29th December, check the Quilt Cave Calander (top right) for any changes.

Quilt Class Cancelled

Quilt class didn't happen today so I came home early to do some sewing of my own. Seems the ladies are all busy preparing for the one day of Christmas... Bahhh Humbug!

I started working on this quilt more than a year ago but found it very much draining my artistic thoughts... whatever they are...
Anyway,
as I shall soon be moving AGAIN, I decided that I should like to move into a new home with no UFO's. I am on a mission to get them all finished as soon as possible.
The quilt is from this book, it has lots of lovely projects for kiddie quilts.