Total for Portugal

As I am getting things in place for the packers, I counted up how many quilts I have made while I have been living here, which will be a total of 4 years and 10 months by the time I leave.
So, I've made :-
2 king size,
2 queen size,
23 lap/single size,
20 wall hangings and table runners,
2 baby size..... 49 quilts in total. Plus Tara's makes 50
I have the Wonky Straight Lines, which I am working on at present.
I have works in progress too,
My crumb quilt (will eventually make a kingsize),
Ocean Waves (will be a big one)
The New York Beauty thing (wall hanging),
Christmas Round Robin still to quilt (wall hanging),
and Applique Allsorts, to be quilted, (wall hanging)...
thats 5 works in progress ... unless I find more as I tidy places.
I've also made a few bags, many postcards, one fabric basket, and worked on several charity quilts....
I must go polish my halo now.... tee hee

Quilt Cave

As it was the last day for the Quilt Cave, all the ladies came! All of them. The temperature outside was 34 degrees, you can imagine how hot it was indoors with 20+ ladies huddled together... and believe me, we were huddled, not quite sardine style!

Pineapple Blossom from quiltville.com ... we started this as a group project quite a while ago but Amalia likes to work on several projects at the same time. This one was put to one side waiting for more fabric as Amalia had run out, not from bad planning but because half way through making it she decided she wanted it much larger than the original plan.... quite normal actually, ha ha ha


Sally made this Bento Box quilt, with the placement of the fabrics Sally got an interresting secondary pattern, quite by accident..
She made this pieced backing using up all the left over pieces from the top.

If these ladies have learned anything from my time in Portugal, it is how to use every last tiny bit and scrap of fabric!

Ursula was working on her Daffodil Wall hanging. These fabrics are ready for her next project taken from the Strips and Curves book. These fabrics will form the strata (don't worry, all will be clear when she will show you the progress on the new PIP blog!)

Rita made the quilt bug table topper, but she used a bigger pieced block for the centre and much wider strips so as to get a giant runner... a bit like my Easter Bunny.
Therese also started a new project, the Wonky blocks, they are proving to be very popular...

Leticia, our most recent convert to quilting, finished the main part of her Rail Fence table runner, she was very happy to get this far. the borders are cut ready to be added.

Jackie's Wonky Block quilt, sandwiched and almost fully quilted. This is the very same Jackie who's doing the new PIP blog, I hope you pop over to see what "my ladies" get up to once I leave....
another fabulous pieced backing, while we were looking at the front Jackie was telling us to look at the back... she was happy to have used some scraps.

Garen will use her wonky blocks and the blocks she made to practice curves recently, in the same quilt...
Rosalia originally made this lasagne top to be used as a backing for her log cabin quilt, but she likes it now, so it will be a quilt all by itself... with maybe a appliqued daisy or 3?

Arabela was quilting a new project, I think it was a map of animals around the world, she's loving the BSR.

Caught in the act!!! everyone was working away, but these two ladies looked like they were up to no good... gossip corner?

Amalia was on TV recently, I just had to get her autograph before she became too famous to get close to, I will sell it on ebay when she moves to Hollywood! he he he

It was Therese's birthday so we had champagne and black forest gateaux ... for breakfast! see how many ladies... and this is only one side of the room, most were with their sewing machines and projects to work on.
As it was the last day, I got a tiny taste of being followed be paparazzi... every time I turned, they were there.
It was a very special and very very emotional day for me. All the ladies made a block for me in blue white and yellow, very traditional colours for Portugal... if you would like to see the blocks, they're here... there is so much I want to say to everyone.... Thank you, Thank you, Thank You

Ronny's Quilt

My friend Ronny produced yet another original masterpiece.... she sent this picture so that I could show it to you.... that's her holding the quilt.
This is the Ronny's fasted finish so far... EVER!!! Only four weeks from start to finish, including the designing!....Fast considering it is hand quilted.

A closer shot of the cutest ever dinosaur. The quilt is for the son of a good friend of Ronny's (lucky friend!) baby's name is Sam. He was born on 24th April.....

You can see the hand quilted circles better from the back... and that cute little eggshell for the label!!!
I love it.

Wonky Straight Lines?

It's harder than I thought it would be to quilt wonky straight lines.... I wanted the stitching straight but I wanted it to follow the wonky shapes too... starting with the very wonky shape in the centre and ending with the straight edge of the block... do you follow me?

Wonky Blocks

I made these Wonky Blocks with plain fabrics, they are all Brazilian cottons. I am not a big fan of square quilts so I decided to make rectangles to help elongate my quilt. I've made the blocks for the borders too, "Wonky"... of course... actually the whole thing will be wonky. It's fun to work without a pattern.

Quilt Cave

Daffodils galore!!!
Rosalia (Blue Lady) has almost finished her quilting, in this picture you can see all the threads waiting to be tied off and hidden. She leaves hers until last as it is her least favourite job.

Therese has the centre of the daffodils complete, we stayed a little longer in the Quilt Cave as it was so close to being finished. Therese will add the two borders at home and will hopefully start the quilting next week.....
only a few hours earlier Therese was trying to sort out the puzzle of the pattern pieces... and talking to them as she did it!!! asking the pieces if they were in the right place... tee hee

Ursula quilting her Daffodils, she used some decorative stitches round the bell of the flowers...lovely

Maureen is an artist and sees things in a very different way. Here she is pondering the design and how it will cut into strips... she spent ages looking at this fabric before slicing it. This project will be a king size Bento Box quilt, it's her second project, the first was a rail fence table runner.
Ann-Marie started cutting for her new Bento Box project but then decided to finish her table runner on her Brand new Bernina Baby, oh how we these machines!!!
Irene was making another Dutch house.... made with tiny templates each one takes almost all day. After one house she switched to making some fiddley chickens for an applique project.

Jackie made a set of blocks using the "Wonky Block" method that I demonstrated during the morning... fast and fun.
Sally didn't join us but she did send in her Daffodils, she wanted to make them famous on my blog , he he he

More Daffodils

Ann-Marie's daffodils. This is not an easy project to learn paper piecing with but, I think you will agree, that Ann-Marie did a great job of it. There's one tiny mistake, can you see it?

Free Motion Quilting

I finished quilting my "Scrappy Bento Box" quilt. I am very happy with the result... to be fair, I am always happy with the scrappy quilts, these fabrics are left over from other projects and some samples that Paula gave to me when I was working at Arco Iris, so the top was pretty much free!

You can see the quilting design better on the back.... scrappy (multi fabric) quilts are the best to practice free motion quilting.
All of the orange fabrics are Brazilian.

Wonky Blocks

I made 8 of Alma Rosa's "Wonky Blocks" all at the same time! They are not in the 'mindless sewing' catagory (which is where I would put the Alma Rosa's Bento Box method) as you do have to keep a close eye on the order of things. It is a fun way to make blocks though and I will demonstrate it in the Quilt Cave on Thursday 21st, this week.

Quilt Cave

It was a busy day, lots of pictures and here's only a few....
Ursula had finished her paper piecing so today she was able to make a sandwich and start quilting.....


During the day, Rosalia also finished her daffodils and was able to make her sandwich and start quilting... You can see from her smile how happy she is with her work.

This is Rosalia's pieced backing, a great use of her left over fabrics!
Therese finished her Cotton Spools quilt top, with the very creative borders...

This is the backing but Therese didn't make her sandwich today as she wanted to get on with her daffodils too.

Irene was working on another fiddley project, this time it was a lavender filled pillow.

This is Garen's 'Disappearing 9 Patch' quilt, sandwiched and ready to be "Jenny Bowkered" tee hee

Directly after I demonstrated Alma Rosa's Bento Box method, Garen got cracking on one of her own... all from the bag of scraps bag she brought with her...here's a couple of almost finished blocks

Arabela finished quilting this baby quilt, she has been working on it for quite a while.....

along with many other large projects (including having a baby!).... this is the back of her latest finish.

Ann FINALLY finished the top of her "mega" quilt today. The batting is washed and the backing just needs a seam or two before we can all help her make her giant quilt sandwich.
We were talking about good names for this quilt, it has been a 'long and rocky road' lasting 'from here to eternity'.....

Free Motion Quilting

I started quilting my Scrappy Bento Box quilt and, so far, I love it!

Scrappy Bento Box

I made great progress with my Scrappy Bento Box quilt over the weekend. I have the back finished too so this afternoon I will make a sandwich. Because I used scraps the design doesn't stand out too well, but ... hey ho, I like it and that is all that really matters.
I hope you can see all the space I made in my 2 1/2" strip drawer.. because it doesn't look any different to me, and I made the whole quilt from this drawer! well... except for the inner borders that is.
and this is the 2 1/2" squares, I couldn't fit another one in there, even if I used a vice!