Moving House

The packers arrive tomorrow (Wednesday) so we will be busy for a few days. This might be the last post for a while.



This is Jessica's postcard, now a book marker. She is very proud of it.



Today I will pack up the remainder of my sewing room here. I then have the awful task of setting up my new sewing room.... he he he, oh poor me!!!!

Fabric Post Cards

I have family here visiting. Most days have been beautiful with bright blue, cloudless skies. Yesterday was not so good so 'topping up the tan' with a good book was not on the agenda!
I took my 3 nieces into my sanctuary to make fabric postcards.


Out came some of my scrap draws... it's not like I don't have enough to share!

Emma's

Emma's

Megan's





Jessica also made one but it went to bed with her as a bookmark, I will get a photo when she rises from her slumber!

August PIP Camp, day 2

Regina with an almost finished bauble, she used very shiny gold and silver fabrics ...

Therese quilted her huge Chunky Churndash quilt, next time we see this quilt I bet it will be finished.... am I rightTherese???

Anabela finished all 10 of her paper pieced baubles, this is the last one....

All 10 placed together.....

proud Anabela taking her own photos, probably for her blog,

Ursula is placing pins as guidelines for the star quilting in the borders....

close-up of Ursula's quilted presents under the tree....

Irene hand stitching the binding on the back of her Rail Fence table runner..

Ta Da!!! first project finished!

... and look at this perfect label!

Ursula is planning another UFO PIP camp for 5th & 6th of September, check out her blog for details... http://pipguild.blogspot.com

August PIP Camp, Day 1

For August we had our PIP camp in the ministry centre. 10 ladies attended... even though most of Portugal is on holiday for the month of August, especially this weekend as it was a national holiday on Friday.
This was a UFO camp........

Milly worked on her Christmas baubles...... Milly likes to have all her stuff around her, she says it makes her look really busy!

The sewing machine is a Bernette, available for hire at PIP camps. Milly and Regina shared this one as we only have two.

Regina also continued to work on hers...... (a few of us wanted a piece of Regina's skirt for our patchwork!... but that isn't where we cut it, the split was already there... tee hee...)

Ursula quilted her Christmas tree with shiny gold and bronze coloured threads...

Anabala worked on her baubles....

Ann continues to work on her Irish Chain, this is a huge quilt and Ann has used a silk peach coloured fabric, it gives a very luxurious look to the project...

Bette is very happy with her paper piecing, this machine was kindly lent to her by Ines from the Patch-Mania quilt shop.

Cathy , working on her Christmas baubles and loving the project, her machine is one of the two we have at PIPs available for hire.

Irene was quilting her first project, a Rail Fence table runner.... almost finished and time for coffee!

Birte's Quilt Show

I recieved these pictures today from our Birte.
She has been participating in a quilt show in Germany.
This is Birte with her Chiclets quilt. This was the first one she made with her new Bernina ... approximately a year ago.



This is the Kaleidoscope that we saw in an earlier post, but here you get to see how big it really is.
Looks like a great room for a quilt show...

Here are a few more pictures from the show.

Triangles & Trimmings

I've now made just over 500 half square triangles, they started as 2 1/2" squares.
This is the pile of trimmings.
I am not going to keep these scraps... I have my limits! They would be good for stuffing something though.

There are 246 half square triangle squares here... once sewn into the quilt top they will measure a huge 1 1/2" each.

All is revealed... I am making Ocean Waves using the directions from my favourite scrap quilt site, Quiltville
This quilt has been on my "to do" list for a very long time.

Sue's visit

Sue stopped by today for a little chat and to show her quilts.

This bright Bargello is for a very special little baby, the first grandchild!
This quilt is a record breaker for Sue, her fastest completed quilt to date!! he he he
The bargello fabrics are from Park dos Tecidos (no web page) and the border, backing and binding fabrics are from Patch-Mania in Oeiras.



Remember Sue was making all the Flying Geese blocks a while ago?? well after sewing them all on, Sue decided it was all looking too busy so she un-sewed them all and added this plain white fabric for the border instead. It gives a much 'crisper' look, which is exactly what she wanted. The flying geese will, maybe, be used on the back.


This is another record breaker.... Sue's biggest project so far!!

Giant Daisies

I have forgotten to show you one quilt. This one, with giant daisies... it is finished now, all except for a label as usual.... I decided to call it "Inside Out" given that daisies in baskets are normally much smaller and usually inside the houses.....

I have done a bit of sewing today...... all from my scrap fabric drawers!

I picked out all of my light 2 1/2" squares and drew a line diagonally through each one... lots..... it took ages... some people don't draw the line and just sew by eye, I think the extra time to draw is worth it.
Then I took the rest of my 2 1/2" squares all darker and put one with each light square. I then sewed a quarter inch seam on either side of the pencil lines...
....cut them in half (on the pencil line) ironed them, and trimmed them to be 2" each....

I do have a plan for these half square triangles.... but there are still loads to do, I have 87 so far!

Friend's Quilts

I haven't had any time to play patchwork or quilting over the past few days. I am trying to sort out everything for the move and I am being quite ruthless with it. It is quite amazing how much junk we have accumulate over 4 years.

So, I don't have any photo's of my own but I do have photos to share of projects done by some IWP friends.....

These small bags were made by Anneliese. They are made using the 'quilt as you go' method. The bags were taught by Helen a while ago and most ladies in our IWP quilting group have made several of them as gifts over the months.

Helen sent this photograph. She made this quilt as a surprise for her husband recently.

Empty cupboards

I went to the new house today. I took all of my yardage fabrics over and started to put them away. I am, once again lucky enough to have a lovely sewing room, about the same size as the one I have in this house, but with a bigger cupboard/wardrobe for storing my treasures and a few drawers for hiding the uglies, and believe me, I have pleanty of uglies!!!

I will, in time, be re-folding most of my fabrics to get better use of the shelf space... fun job!


All of my books and folders have a place to be and I think I have decided how I will put the tables....

I only have scraps at this house now, so, until we actually move, that is what I shall work on.
I have four patterns lined up... there is the first problem... I just can't decide which to start first.. such a dilema!
I do have one UFO too... maybe I should start with that???