Quilt Class

Another convert!!! The Blue Lady (Rosalia) has decided to join the machine workers. Paula got out one of the class machines for her to use. It was very funny, as I took the photo she was admitting that she didn't know how to work the Bernette machine.... this is a "now what do I do?" moment! She quickly discovered where to put the thread spool though and was soon sewing away to finish her quilt top. Next week the borders and backing....

Here you can see Rosalia actually sewing on the machine. At the other end of the table is Ines, still working on the blocks for her sampler quilt and another new lady, Ana, is hand stitching her first block.

Sao is ironing her quilt top ready to make the quilt sandwich and Dona Paula is working on another project.

After making the quilt sandwich, Sao began hand quilting her table runner. She is not used to using a thimble but she will soon get the hang of it.

Here Dona Paula is 'fussy cutting' animal fabric ready to make a log cabin baby quilt.

We don't have a lot of spare space at quilt class. Sometimes it is a tight squeeze to get from A to B but it is all part of the fun..... you soon make friends with everyone when you are this close!!! he he he
Beta is trimming her baby quilt, she will now make the binding for it. Quilt project number two is already planned... the pattern and colour scheme is already selected!

This is the end of the quilt class.
Ladies waiting to buy fabrics and to pay their accounts.
Do you recognise the lady on the left patiently waiting for us??
It is the lady with the Kaffe Fassett fabrics!!!! Paula ordered more for us... only three weeks to wait............... !!

Chunky Churndash

Today I got out my little sewing basket to start on the 15+ metres of binding hand stitching and found that I hadn't quite finished another project.
After sewing for an hour this afternoon, this Christmas table runner still has 6 inches of binding to be stitched, I will not sleep tonight until it is finished!!! I have the label ready for this one so I will sew that on too.

It is important for me to get all of these projects finished ready for our Quilt Show on the 29th and 30th of May.

All my pieces are cut ready for the PIP Quilt Camp next week
Each one of these colourful little piles has all the bits to make each of the 35 Chunky Churndash blocks. I already have most of my hour glass blocks completed.

Binding, lots of binding

Today I finished quilting the Kaleidoscope Baby Quilt, the Square Dance wall hanging AND the Scrappy Bargello Quilt.
All three quilts now have the binding machine stitched in place.
Next I need to do the hand stitching...
The total length of binding for these three projects added together is 619 inches!
That is 15 metres and 24 centimetres.
I had better get on with it...........



Quilting on the Square Dance Wall Hanging.

Quilt Class

We had a very industrious group today because yesterday was a holiday and some folk went on holiday. Paula has had another fabric delivery so there was lots to choose from today.

This photo is taken right at the beginning of class.
Left to right.... Ines, Dorila, Sara and Katja. Now I know you are going to be impressed that I have each lady with a name! The two ladies in the middle are new and I asked their names.... then wrote them down in my little Bernina note book.

This is the queue at the counter all waiting for fabrics to be cut. I love that these three ladies all co-ordinate so well.... don't you think?

This is Dorila and Licinia.









Katja is another convert from hand piecing to machine work. Here she is cutting fabrics for her Log Cabin Quilt project, hair draped like a shampoo advert... tee hee hee.







Ines is working her way through the block party book. She had a little shock today as Paula calculated how many blocks she needs to make her quilt!! Every one will be different too.

And now for a special announcement...... drum roll please ...... da da da daaaaaa
These fabrics have been discounted for this week only. At only €4.00 per metre the are a real BARGAIN!!!!

IWP Quilt Group

What fabulous weather today... Beautiful bright sunshine AND we had the door left open!

Jackie came to use the table to sandwich her Kaleidoscope quilt...... Many hands make light work, here you can see lots of ladies lending a hand to put the pins in.

Arabela has finished her Log Cabin Quilt. It is stunning, she has done some wonderful free motion quilting. Arabela is really "dancing with her feed-dogs down!!"

Here is a close-up of some of the quilting. Arabela bought in two other quilts that are in the final stages of the quilting process.



This is Sally's work. She decided to make a start on the Chunky Churndash Quilt that we will be doing at the next quilt camp. I thought you might like to see a different colour combination...

Here I caught Trudi ironing, us quilters do a lot of ironing, funny how we love ironing when it's not shirts!


Luisa is back from her trip to Korea last week, she bought this beautiful handmade pincushion as a gift for me and a lovely thimble for each of us.

Quilt Class Photos

Here are some photos from quilt class at Paula's yesterday.

Marina's Houses quilt is a paper-pieced project. Marina says paper-piecing is not her favourite method of patchwork, but she learned a lot making all these houses and trees.

Here Beta is making her quilt sandwich and in the background, Dulce is putting borders on her table runner.














Ines is working her way through the 'Block Party' book. I think she put herself on a steep learning curve and with each new block she makes she learns new tricks.














Here Beta is just getting started with machine quilting her Rail Fence baby quilt. I am helping her get started.....

Quilt Class ???

It is a very good idea to recharge the batteries on your camera!... I did mine overnight last night... so it was fully charged for me this morning.... fabulous!

It is an even better idea to remember to put the battery back into your camera before you take it to quilt class, otherwise, when you get your camera out of your bag to photograph the beautiful projects, happy ladies and lovely new fabrics... it might not actually work??? hmmmmm

Not only did I go to Paula's without my camera battery, I forgot to put the memory card in too!

Fortunately Paula came to my rescue and took some snaps for me.... I thought I would confess this small memory blip whilst I wait for them to arrive.

My Mum

My Mum makes Torchon lace, it uses lots of bobbins. This particular project used 50 pairs, that is 100 bobbins, that have to be prepared and wound with the thread. She has been collecting bobbins for years, My Dad has made many of them and some are painted by her grandchildren... my children, adults now. Mum puts the glass bead spangles on the bottom, they are lovely. They sound lovely too when they are all clinking together when Mum works with them.

Today she has this project almost finished and is just tying off the 100 threads used. This project was done with Tanne 30 weight thread. Threads have to be sewn into the main body of the doily first - then they need to be tied off, the ends need to be eased into the work - discreetly. All the work is secured with these tiny brass pins. It is such a pretty craft. My Mum makes it look so easy when she does it.

Catching Up...

Yesterday we celebrated the 600th Birthday of the Lisbon Hash House Harriers. We had a coach take 55 Hashers to Montemor O Novo, where we hashed a trail, in both rain and shine, for some 7 kms. We then went to a restaurant for a fun and action packed dinner. It was a very jolly journey back to Estoril, singing and making very merry! So no sewing for me all day Saturday.

Today I continued quilting my Scrappy Bargello, I have about a third of it done now, I started it at the PIP sew in on Friday. I am using the walking foot so it is all very easy.





I made a start on the Chunky Chocolate to 'Dye' For project. I will get enough done to use to demonstration it then box it up until the PIP two day camp on the 9th & 10th May.



Whilst making the hour glass blocks I snipped of the 'dog ears' to keep it all neat and tidy. These scraps I do not keep, though there are things that can be made with them..... I am not going there!!!

All Day Sewing With PIP's

Today was brilliant! Regina came to join us.... we have really missed her and everyone was very happy to have her back with us. She has been fabric shopping and quilting with friends in Miami. Regina is in the middle here with Sally and Anneliese, note Anneliese has lots of 2 1/2" strips on the table in front of her... the start of her Scrappy Bargello....


Already sewn together ,32 strips being careful ironed, the ironing is very important on a Bargello.

Here Anneliese has the strip all lined up and is cutting into the final strip sets, by the end of the day she went home with half the quilt almost done.
here also, is Milly chatting (her speciality) to Ursula and Sally who was working on her Chunky Churndash project.

This is Ann, she is working on the double Irish chain.

Jutta was working an a fabulous bright yellow and black quilt.




This is Jackie with her oriental table runner top. You can just see Garen in the background, she was quilting her "Turning Twenty" quilt with all the designs that we learned at the Jenny Bowker workshop in Caldas.


This is Milly working on her Double Irish Chain.


Jutta's quilt top finished, lovely and bright!

Milly's Double Irish Chain ... coming together now!

Ursula's Mystery Quilt top, today Ursula pieced lots of leftover fabrics to make a stunning back for this quilt.

So, I don't think I could have gathered any more evidence that everyone worked hard on their projects and had a thoroughly brilliant day. Lunch was a banquet too... I'm sorry if you missed it!

IWP Quilt Group

We had a very informative meeting today. First we learned the our Arabela is going to have a baby girl, she is very, VERY happy about this news as she has a little brother ready and waiting.
This is Arabela with one of two quilt tops that she's made since last Thursday, here with her Mother-in-law, a lovely lady who laughs along with us each time she visits.

Sue demonstrated how to make the flying geese with the very easy 'no waste method'. Sue is now officially an expert at making them as she has made almost a hundred so far to use in the border of her kaleidoscope quilt

Left to right we have Therese, Trudi, Jutta, Sue, Ursula and Arabela all watching carefully.

We exchanged our Round Robin projects, still I am not able to show pictures, we are keeping this as a "Top Secret" project. This time we are all going to embellish the quilts with ribbon, beads, lace, threads, buttons.... they could get a little heavy!

We had a demonstration on 'fudging' pieces to make them fit and my demo about making quilt labels. Trudi told us that she writes her labels using sandpaper as the stabiliser, we tried that method too, it was very successful.

We also discovered that using starch from the GB shop makes your fabric much stiffer!! ha ha ha

Quilt Class

The ladies at Paula's have been very busy. They are doing all their homework and as a result are advancing well with their projects.
Beta, left, has all her Rail Fence blocks made and today chose the border and backing fabrics. Next week we will make the quilt sandwich and Beta can start quilting her quilt.
Noemia, right, finished her Rail Fence Quilt, well, as far as it can be finished without a label! ... lovely springtime colours
Dulce worked on her blocks, she learned how to make pieces fit.... This is called "fudging" and is a very much used skill in patchwork!
Here she is adding the setting and corner triangles, borders next week!

Dulce , left, with her finished blocks and Ines with the Rail Fence baby quilt, I think she finished this one in record time... her friends baby will be celebrating his 2nd Birthday in May.
Here another lady (who's name escapes me! sorry! I am trying really hard with the names) also working on the Rail Fence design, our beginner project.
She also had a crash course in sewing machine maintenance, our sewing machines work so much better if we clean and oil them regularly.

Sao is making her table runner by hand. Just one more border to sew on. Today she worked on piecing the back for this quilt using all the fabrics left over from making this top.

Today Dona Manuela couldn't play with us, she was slaving away in the corner, she had to get this order finished for a customer.