Wednesday's class

Last Wednesday's class was where the ladies could finish their projects or ask for help on something specific they wanted to learn, which we call "Livre" which translated means free to choice what they want to work on. I do this once a month, so people get a chance to catch up on their work.

Sofia brought in her finished project from the Mystery Class we did and as you can see it wasn't reds!

Here are the ladies busy working on their individual projects.

And Maria showing Sofia how she uses the blanket stitch on her sewing machine for applique.

And Sofia's finished project with a little help from Maria.Here are some of the designs Maria has used from her Singer sewing machine to make a duvet cover for her daughter.

And finally here is Manuela working on her bag.

Here is a picture of Marta's finished bag that she sent me. She is pregnant and the baby is due any time. Like 10 days and she found time to come to class to make a bag!

She used what she had at home to make this bag.

We will be doing this bag on Wednesday. So if you are interested in making this bag contact Arco Iris A Metro here to confirm your place and what you need to bring with you.

Mystery Project Class

Yesterday I did a mystery project whereby last week the ladies received instructions to sew 8 strips of fabric starting with a light fabric and ending with a dark colour, a bit like Bargello and that was all they were given. And this is what they had to make.

Here is Regina's in reds and blacks

And Paula went for creams and browns

and Manuela hadn't yet finished cutting all her pieces, but chose blue.

Fernanda had only sewn 6 fabrics together but then added red in the middle and used a different method.

And we had a show of her runner which will be put on the floor!

This isn't all of it! And also she painted the back with special paints which puff up, which become rubber (like on non-slip soled socks you can get, not explaining it very well). The picture doesn't do the work justice.

In the afternoon I had another group of ladiesm but no pictures as they weren't ready to show. Sofia brought her kaleidoscope, so that she could choose the border and binding. Her mystery project is in blues, I am slowly getting her to use other colours besides REDS.

And Mariya was working on the surprise present for her Dad, which we can't show yet. She brought her circle jean project which she has turned into a cross the shoulder bag.

And this is the project for this Saturday afternoon at Arco Iris a Metro.

Until next time.

Wednesday Class

Today I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures to show what the ladies were doing. They brought their old jeans and some squares of fabric today and got down to cutting cirlces from the jean fabric. Here is my picture along with a cathedral window panel.

Some are going to make a bag from the sixteen panel and others a pillow. A couple are thinking of making it into a large quilt. The idea for the blue jean circles comes from here.

Last two classes

I haven't posted as I have had a few things going on what with work and.....

Anyway the last two classes the ladies have still be trying to work out how they are going to put theire kaleidoscope blocks together. Here is Fernanda's

and Carmen's

and Mariya's who this week became a casulty of the dreaded rotary cutter!

And finally here is Sofia's who is normally a red fabric lady!

And here is a show and tell from Aldora who popped in to show what she had been working on at home, as she is not able to come every week to class. 

HECTIC!!

Sorry but just haven't had chance to post anything for last Wednesday, things here are a bit hectic to say the least. I will up date you on the news when I can.

Finished

Today, I managed to find a couple of hours this morning to finish off my bag. It is a pattern by Melly & Me. I really love it, but I am not sure if it is too posh for me!

And when Sara got back from her morning down by the river (Tagus River) with her Dad and grandfather, she had ideas that she was going to keep the bag for herself. I don't think so!

Well!

I know I promised to show you today "my something for myself" but had to go and work, plus household jobs, so bang went me going into my sewing room and finishing my project. Hope I get a chance on Sunday to finish it off.

Anyway I forgot to show Fernanda's triangle project, so here it is. It is going to be a mat, originally it was going to be for her cat to lie on it, could still be though!

All Day Workshop

Yesterday we had an all day workshop on using Bethany S Reynolds Kaleidoscope technique. This is mine and I will admit that joining those hexagonal blocks gave me a challenge!

And one of the hexagonal's close up.

I must admit each time I joined a block together I got this wow feeling. And I think the ladies did too. Here is Carmen cutting some of her strips up.

Fernanda and Helena busy putting their blocks together to see what surprise laid in store for them.

And here are some of Manuela's with her brown and Sofia's (blue/yellow) and just a bit of pink, not red though.

And I only managed to take one of Fernanda's blocks. It will be interesting to see how Manuela, Fernanda and Paula's blocks come out because they are using the same fabric design but one has a black background, one is brown and the other has cream as it's background.

A lot of time was spent on helping them to cut their fabric up, which I think is the part that takes the longest. But once you get sewing it starts to come together. We will see next Wednesday how much homework they did. Today I took it easy, no not really. I went into my sewing room, to make something for myself, which will be revealed tomorrow!

Door Organiser

Well Teresa sent me a picture of her finished organiser. She decided to use Tilda fabric. Isn't it beautiful.

Half Triangles

Today the ladies wanted to know how to make half triangles. We used this method which is a quick way for the project we were doing. There are obviously other ways, but I like this way.

Here are some of the examples of the ladies.

Can you guess, this is Sofia's who has decided that she is going to change some of the colours to make it work better.

And Maria hasn't decided which way she is going have hers. This way

OR this way

I now there is hardly any difference, but we managed to get down to these two!

And Carmen needs to make a few more

The other ladies were still deciding which way to go and Fernanda was thinking of placing plain black squares at various intervals, which was looking really nice when I last saw it, but sorry no picture, yet.

Saturday's Class

I managed to make it to class on Saturday full of cold and a croaky throat. The project this week was to make a door organiser like this.

But before work started Sofia showed us her finished Mat & Ruler Bag, it was red which is her favourite colour.

By the end of the day Fernanda and Paula had done this much and were going to go home and finish the binding off by hand.

and Sofia just needed to choose a button and ribbon to finish it off.

Theresa who does everything very neatly wouldn't let me take a picture until it is finished. She will send me a photo. Don't forget Theresa.

This Wednesday those that haven't done half triangles before are going to make this.

You can visit here to see a better picture of the project.

Wednesday's Mat & Ruler Class

On Wednesday with kind permission from Angela the ladies started making their Mat & Ruler bags, so that there will now be no excuse why they won't bring their mat and ruler to class!

No one actually finished their bag at the end of the morning, but hopefully next week we will see some finished. Some got as far as the pocket for the ruler. We were putting flying geese blocks down the middle and then they were going to go home and do their homework!

We had a new lady join us and to say she had never used a sewing machine, she managed to get her quarter inch dead on. Only thing I had to keep reminding her was to close her rotary cutter (if you look closely in the picture you will see). No homework for her, as she hasn't got a sewing maching at home, yet anyway!

And finally Aldora who is recently new to quilting but not handicrafts, made a cover for her sewing machine. Isn't it cute?

I am working on a project that is for an up and coming workshop, which I can't show just yet.