Last Day at FIL

Sunday was the last day of the Feira International de Lisboa. It has been a very busy week. 100's of thousands of people have been to the show, and whilst I know they haven't all stopped by to visit with Arco Iris A Metro... I, personally, feel that I have cut fabric for every single person. Tennis elbow??? no! but cutters shoulders... definitely!

This customer was very excited to see all the lovely fabrics. She had this bag with her and was happy to allow me to take this picture, she is going to come to Quilt Class to learn more about patchwork.... I can't wait to see what she produces in the future...


And here I am, happy playing shop with Dona Manuela. At this moment we were enjoying one customers dilema of how much fabric to buy. She had spent the previous day on the web site choosing which fabric to purchase at the store but when she saw it, it was even nicer than she had expected ... she took 3 metres and 3 metres of one that co-ordinated perfectly too.... not sure that ever happened to me !!! he he he

Today we will take the stand apart and take everything back to the shop. New Kona cotton fabrics arrived last week too so they should help fill all the gaps on the shelves because with all the empty bolt middles we had, there will surely be a lot of space?

IWP Quilt Group

It was a very pleasant morning with my quilting chums today.

Arabela finished her baby girl quilt. Not long to wait for the birthday now.


She is now making two cushions with fish applique details.
The background stripe is from Ikea, perfect! Anneliese helped Arabela get the zips stitched in place.


This quilt was a secret project started in January this year. We had no idea that Jutta was making it. It is all pieced with her machine but the applique and quilting is all done by hand.

Here you can see her stitching, though it looks like it was done on the machine... it was not!




Susan's first Grand child will be receiving this bright Bargello quilt. The bargello fabrics are fat quarters from Park Dos Tecidos in Alcabideche and the border fabric from Patch-Mania in Oeiras.


Ines (from the classes at Arco Iris A Metro) came to use my floor to make her sandwich! It took 4 of us (Ines, Sue, Ursula and myself) more than two hours to put in the 700 pins in this huge quilt..... sore knees all round!!

Quilt Class

I made the pictures all small as there are so many, If you want to see them in more detail, just click on each one... You probabubbly already know that!!!

This is Ines trimming her 'own design' baby quilt and Paula working on her 'stargazy daizies'.

Our Blue lady is ironing and Dona Manuela in the background.


This is Lucilia's Railfence, she got the borders sewn on today.

Paula was stitching for a customer.


Anita couldn't quilt her Railfence as she is waiting for the walking foot for her machine so she started her next project, a Log Cabin.



This is the first block complete.


Class action.... Blue Lady, Lucilia and Anita.


The Blue Lady working on a black and white table runner!!!


Ines's baby quilt top.









Sofia has finished the Log Cabin Sunshine quilt, not sure if that what's she will label it but I think it fits perfectly. In this close shot you can see the free hand zig-zag border too.




This is Sofia's next project, Square Dance.

Patchwork Of Portugal

I discovered this week, that patchwork has been in Portugal for many years... Log Cabin style patchwork that is. This stall, at the craft fair in Lisbon, is present every year ,apparently. The fabrics are all Portuguese too.

International Craft Fair

I went to FIL again yesterday. I wouldn't have believed that "playing shop" would be so much fun! It is quite obvious that the patchwork and quilting "virus" hasn't reached many people in Portugal... well that is until now!! Lots of ladies bought fabrics and took the address for Arco Iris A Metro with plans of taking quilt classes.... oooooooer!

I went for a walk around during a quiet spell. This stall is from India. Beautiful fabrics and lovely quilts all selling for a song.

Each of these quilts is approximately 2m x 2.5m and costs from €100 to €150... we couldn't buy the fabric for that price!


In this close-up you can see the stippling. All the stitching is done on domestic Singer sewing machines.

Simple but effective appliqué... I absolutely love this yellow fabric. Paula is considering importing the Indian fabrics and I hope this yellow and red is on her first list..... Paula????


This is the lovely lady selling the quilts. The one she is holding is €130 and includes two pillow cases, I was very shocked to hear some customers trying to get this work for €70!!!!

Craft Fair in Lisbon

The craft show is wonderful. There is so much to see. As I arrived this morning the ladies from Peniche were already making bobbin lace. They use a completely different method to my Mum.
It is so fascinating to watch them work the bobbins, See the shape? Mum's are delicate and slender with glass spangles to keep the tension. These 'Peniche' bobbins are slender too but have only the wooden ball shape to give them a little weight. You can see that these ladies are in their senior years, but in Peniche they do teach the children how to make lace, to keep the craft alive.

These ladies keep silk worms and spin their own silk. Also fascinating. They put the silk worm coccoons out in the sun, to kill the poor creatures, then boil them up to realease the silk strands, they are fed together to make thicker strands.. I stayed here for a while.....

This is the loom that spins round making the thicker silk threads, when the silk is wet, you can hardly feel it but on the loom, where it is dry, it is quite hard. In the background you can see some of the things the ladies make with the silk.

This is a busy moment on Paula's stall, we have had lots of very busy moments this weekend, everything has been very popular, especially the fat quarters.....

These ladies are digging in the fat quarter basket for their own selection.

There are lots of cross stitch kits to choose from too.

Half way done...

Just thought I would show you Paula's stand at FIL We added lots more, including Bernina machines and lots of DMC products. The show opens today, Saturday, at 3pm.

Feira International de Lisboa

Arco Iris a Metro is going to have a stand at Craft Fair in Lisbon this year.
Today I went along to help Paula start to set up the stand... 















There is going to be a lot to see at the fair. It opens on Saturday 5th July and runs until the 12th. The show hours are 15h00 to 24h00 daily. There will be new fabrics too. Whilst we were setting up, Paula received a call to say that more than 40 bolts of fabric had cleared customs, she was on her way to collect them when we left for home. I can't wait to see them fall out of the boxes!!! I will try to remember my camera!!!