Packing fun....

I am slowly packing up my fabrics getting ready to move house. It's taking a very long time to do as I re-fold and re-discover fabrics almost forgotten. Planning projects as I go, my head is so full of ideas now, for a change!

I found an Amy Butler bag pattern in a drawer and stopped packing to make it... obviously.... here it is made with fabrics that I bought at Paula's last week.

back to my packing...

My Mum's Lace

My Mum sent this photo of her next project.

She is pricking out the pattern in this picture... only about 3000 pinholes!
The pattern is called Fleur and uses 33 pairs of bobbins which she already wound, so everything is now ready to start.
She will be using Finca No. 40 thickness thread. Mum says "It feels nice although I haven't used it before". She started the pattern on Wednesday night at lace class, but hasn't done enough to show us yet..... watch this space......

All Day Sewing

The morning started with tea, coffee and cheesecake... in the kitchen..... funny, is this becoming our new custom? This time the cheesecake was made by Jutta, it was delicious.

getting closer to the work now, Therese has all her chunky churndash blocks sewn together again, this time they are all turned the right way. She still insisted on unpicking one row to sew it on to the side to make the quilt more square.
Jackie and Arabela, our expectant mothers, laughing along with Therese, no-one tells a tale like Therese!!



Soon Jutta was hard at work making millions of half square triangles....







Ronny was here to visit from Holland, it was just like old times...






Ronny was making a very complicated childrens game, the bright work belongs to Susan, nearly finished now... and a great view of Arabela's baby talking to Alda... ha ha ha


Lunchtime... we had a fabulous feast, Pot Luck lunch is always fun with so many nationalities, we did miss Luisa's spring rolls though!!



After lunch and Arabela finished the top of her baby quilt, really for her baby this time.



Milly also came to visit, here she is talking with Jackie and Therese.
Jackie, left, is stitching the binding on her kaleidoscope quilt.



This is the teacher quilt, now quilted and finished, that Arabela bought in last time.

Quilt Class

We had two new ladies join us this week.
Lucilia, here in pink, has so many projects already planned, her head if full of ideas for quilts, she already does brilliant embroidery and hardanger work.....
Anita, to the side of Lucilia, has been watching the blog from a distance and could no longer resist the temptation to join us.


Paula saw many chickens at our Quilt Show and figured out how to make one for herself.....
Here she is preparing paper to show Noemia how to make them, seems all quilters love these cute chickens.

Dorila couldn't stay for class toady, she teaches art and had a student waiting for her. She has been doing her homework though, her baby quilt top is complete.


Rosario and Alda completed their table runner tops today, they pieced the backing they will start quilting them next class..... if the batting and walking feet arrive in time? This photo is Rosario's work.


Sofia was tying off the ends of the many threads from her quilting, she said that in the future she would save this job for the winter months, it was hot enough without being wrapped in a beautiful quilt!!


Lucilia's strips were a perfect 5" she got all the blocks cut and here is planning the lay out.

Pick of the week... these fabrics for only €4 per metre!

MORE FABRICS!!!!!

Today I received a telephone call from Park dos Tecidos. I have been asking them for almost four years to pleeeeeease stock 100% cotton quilting fabrics.
Well, they have just, yesterday, received a shipment of fat quarters. I went to visit with the fabrics today (he he he just to visit!).

The owner allowed me to take photos to share with you... free advertising too eh!
The fabrics are all top quality, lots of Hoffman. I hope you will visit if you can, if the fat quarters sell well, he will stock more!

Giant Daisies

I love this.......

A few applique daisies... that was my idea. They are all stuck on with sticky stuff, I will sew it with lovely blanket stitches later.

Happy Scrappy Houses

Rooting through my stash this morning, I found this great brick fabric, perfect for some of my chimneys.
I decided only to make a small wall hanging for this project, here's the top finished..... but I do have an idea forming ... not sure how to go about it yet... but I won't let that stop me.......

A lot of these fabrics are Brazilian cotton.
The bright green with big white daisies has been a favourite of mine since I bought it in 1999!
When I lived in Sao Paulo I bought lots of these fabrics.
I didn't much care for them then, but it was all we could get. Now I use the Brazilian fabrics all the time.
Fernando Maluhy & CIA is the manufacturer. I checked out the website earlier and they are still producing the same fabrics today, plus some other lovelies of course.

Quilt Class

My goodness it was hot in Quilt Class today, we were all melting. You can see the fan in the background... it is only June... and from now, the temperature only goes up!!!

Noemia cut all the strips for her next project. It's going to be a railfence quilt with 6 strips per block. Noemias's first project was the hand pieced table runner so this will be her first machine produced quilt.
Here she is pondering the Spanish writing in her book.

As we work with inch rulers we just translated it from centimetres.
This is Magda putting the finishing stitches into her third bock.
Dorila is making this baby quilt with perfectly matching points... she has a very cunning way of achieving them!!!

Dorila and Carolina working and chatting.

See the cute dog fabric? this is going to be a quilted bag.

Katja continues to hand quilt her log cabin quilt. Here she is designing her next project, a floor cushion for her boys using Thomas the Tank Engine fabric.

Cristina has her second project in progress already.... I think it's a secret though.

Licinia worked away in the corner making patchwork curtains for her cottage.

Happy Scrappy Houses

This morning I was up well before the birds.
All my jobs were done early too... 'freetime'!!!
I have the binding to handstitch on my "Chunky Chocolate To Dye For" quilt but I will save that treat for later. I decided to make 'a' trial block for my "Happy Scrappy Houses" quilt.... as you can see I made two, "I love them" ... I have 5 more cut .... I will get back to them right now..... I will take them to show at Quilt Class this afternoon.

IWP Quilt Group

Oh poor Therese....
She had worked so hard to get all the Chunky Churndash blocks made, then spent the entire 'all day sewing' day (5th June) making the hour glass blocks. She went home happy and proud that day. Carefully over the next few days she sewed the blocks together, taking a lot of care with her block placement. She wanted to make sure that all the scrappy fabrics were evenly spread out, and concentrated really hard to achieve this. When it was all sewn together she went running to Sally's house, to show her.....

This is Sally, Therese's friend and neighbour and a fellow quilter. Here she is explaining to us how she had to tell poor, delighted Therese that her hour glass blocks were all turned in different directions. She had concentrated so hard to get the chunky's right, she had not paid attention to which way up she had put the hour glass blocks..... Sally says "it was like bursting Therese's happy bubble!"


So, Therese here is showing us the pile of (quote...bloody) blocks all "un-sewn" every last one!!!
She was so angry with herself that it was funny, funny, funny...
I know we shouldn't laugh at the misfortune of others ... but on this occasion, even Therese was laughing after she told the story a few times... she says we all learn from our mistakes... let's hope so Therese!!! he he he


At this point, I remembered to tell my ladies that I was fed up with eating plums, so I handed out carrier bags to each one and off we went to the garden. It was very entertaining, as one plum was picked, 20 more fell from the tree as they were all so ripe.... not any more though... not one plum left on our tree now! Thank goodness!!


Arabela had given the children in her son's playschool class, a piece of fabric with some paint, coloured pens and directions of what to do to make a signature block for their teacher. This is the quilt top that she made with all the blocks. What a very sweet gift for any teacher?
Arabela needs to have it finished for next week.


Ursula has been working on this very special window for some time now. It is her own design and is now making the applique 'bird of paradise' flowers to give it a 3D dimension.


Jutta's son and daughter -in-law have just had their 4th baby, This baby quilt was finished just in time...
Irene is making a log cabin quilt in these fabulous rich colours.

Quilt Class

A very busy and fun day at Quilt Class today. No new ladies but we did have one lady who came only to see what class was about... by the end of our morning she had chosen her fabrics to take home to wash, ready to start her lessons next week.

This is Paula with a very sweet quilt made for friends who will be celebrating their first wedding anniversary soon. It is a mini Scrappy Bargello with applique that Paula has stuffed to make it 3D. The cake with is embellished with lace, it's lovely.


This in Marina, Rosario and Alda. They are getting their things ready to start work.





Sofia has finished quilting her bright log cabin quilt and today trimmed it all, here she is joining the strips to make the binding.



Ines continues to work on the sampler quilt. Today she added borders. In the meantime she is working on this quilt for a friend's new baby .

Noemia made this table runner using the blocks from the Block Party book that I love.

Noemia with her log cabin quilt, she has been working a lot recently.....
Today she bought in another set of blocks for yet another project, we chose a very nice sashing fabric and a great fabric for the binding... I bet it will be finished ready for next weeks class....
This is the quilt that Noemia was cutting out at last weeks class... already in a sandwich ready to be quilted!!


Here is Rosario with her Christmas Railfence table runner, it looks three dimensoinal in this picture?

And last, but definitely not least.... this weeks Special Offer Fabrics. €4 per metre.