Quilt Class

Clementine came to class with all 3 of her blocks finished. During class she sewed all the setting triangles in place, she does lovely hand work. I did hear her make enquiries about learning to piece by machine though... he he he

This is one of 4 new ladies that came to class this week. Her name is Amalia and this picture shows her singer sewing machine, it is from 1929 and is very heavy. It is a real treat to see older machines working alongside the modern ones... generally, not a lot has changed really...

Paula's oldest daughter, Sofia, was making a block today she did very well with her tiny machine.
Sofia was struggling with her piecing, her regular computerised sewing machine is poorley so she had to downgrade for this class. But those babies won't wait and the quilts need to be finished!


Anita finished three blocks for her sampler quilt. She is not finding it easy to choose the fabrics for each block, this comes with more experience... looking good so far though.

Ann has decided to go back to basics and so started a new Rail Fence quilt. She wants to iron out her doubts before continuing her Bento Box style quilt. This is Ann & Anita working.

This is Clementine, hand stitching. Ines, in the background, is learning to hand quilt and was teaching Sofia how to piece at the same time... multi-tasking!

It was a very busy morning. I didn't get pictures of everyone as I was busy busy busy....

Next quilt class will be on 24th September because I will be taking my home leave trip to the UK soon.

Big Stitch Quilting

A while ago I made this lap quilt, I called it "Tutti Fruitti". It is hand quilted in the 'big stitch style'. I used perle cotton thread and a good sized needle. This style of hand quilting is very fast to do and gives, I think, a great, fun look to quilts. All of the coloured fabrics are hand dyed.
For this quilt I used varigated threads. I started the centre circle by drawing round my tea cup and just went round increasing each time by one inch, it took me approximately one week to quilt... like I said, it is fast hand stitching this way.

A Janela

Our Thursday quilt group falls under the umbrella of the IWP (International Women in Portugal) It is a social group with many activities, trips and the like... a lifeline to any newcomers to Portugal. They produce an amazing magazine each month and the September issue features pictures of our quilts from the quilt show/ coffee morning in May. Hundreds of people read this magazine... we quilters in Portugal are famous!!!

IWP Quilt Group

This was our first meeting in the new house. Luckily it was a small group this week so I was able to iron out any teething troubles. Next week will be better as we now know where to put the lights in the room. We need more extention cables for the sewing machines and our cutting table needs to be lifted a little higher. All easy to resolve....
I was so happy to have Regina (my very best & most useful friend) come to play with OUR treddle sewing machine, it makes a beautiful even stitch. Regina is paper piecing more Christmas baubles.....

The "American ladies", Cathy & Bette, have now finished their Christmas tree baubles and were piecing the tree triangles today.

This is Garen with the quilt she made for the Quilt Show in Houston this year. The background and the tree were quilted first, with the Jenny Bowker method... which is, basically, have lots of fun... there are so many beads on this quilt!! amazing.
This is an ongoing project also of Garens. A Trip Around the World Quilt. Garen remembered where she purchased each fabric, from around the world... It only needs a little more quilting in the borders.

Quilt Class

September sees the start of more quilt classes at Arco Iris A Metro
School hasn't started yet so we had quite a small group yesterday.

This is Anita's log cabin quilt. She has been working on the quilting over the summer, still quite a lot to do but it is looking fab. The orange fabric she chose for the borders makes the orange centres 'pop'... love it!

Now Anita has started to work on a sampler quilt. The size hasn't been decided yet but all the blocks will have points! Stars and triangles... that's the plan!!

Ann bought a few fat-quarter packs from Paula and during class cut them up in preparation for a Bento Box style quilt.

Clementine is a new lady. She wanted to learn hand piecing. I haven't spoken much Portuguese over the summer so I got a little tongue tied and managed to confuse Clementine a few times... sorry about that Clementine.

With templates made, fabric cut and stitching understood here you can see her progress...
This is the first of three stars for a table runner.

This is Sofia caught arriving late,very late... she does look quite guilty!

Sofia's Square Dance quilt is coming along nicely... all the cutting is done and some of the rows have been sewn together, this has been put on hold for a short while, for good reason...

this is one of two quilts that Sofia will be making next, lovely bright colours again. Someone needs two baby quilts at the same time!!!

More bargains have appeared at Paula's. These are on offer this week only for €3 per metre. Most are very pretty florals, they would also be great as backing fabrics.

I'm installed!

I am now in the new house. Lots of things are still in boxes but that will take a while... as always !...we still have some things in boxes from when we left Brazil... hee hee.

I had a new (old) baby very recently. My very favourite best, most useful friend gave this wonderful treddle sewing machine to me. I am very honoured and happy that Regina wanted to let me look after this machine for her. It was bought brand new by her mother and has stayed in her family ever since. A little spit and polish will see it on it's way back to it's former glory. 

I have all of my stash in place. My tables have been in just about every position in this sewing room, but now I have decided where they will stay. All I need now is a little time to get stitching.

Classes at Arco Iris A Metro commence tomorrow. IWP Quilters meet on Thursday and there is another PIP camp on Friday & Saturday....

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!