BARGELLO WORKSHOP

Just to let you all know that next Wednesday 27th April, there will be a full day workshop at Arco Iris Ao Metro, on making a Bargello Tablerunner. Here is mine.

For those interested in attending, it is a full day workshop, 10.00 to 18.00, with a break for lunch. It is for people with a skill level of intermediate . For more information and reserving your place, please contact Paula/Manuela at Arco Iris Ao Metro. Until next time.

WEDNESDAY CLASS

As the ladies had been asking about Free Motion Quilting, I decided that we would have a lesson on just the very basics of this art of quilting. I had attended a lesson of Jenny Bowker's a few years ago and she is back this year again in Portugal. Anybody interested in learning Free Motion Quilting, by a professional, should make contact with your local quilt shop in Portugal for more details. One place is, Patchmania.
Here are a few of the samples from the class

Mariya also brought in two of her purses that she has made as gifts.And Manuela brought in her Drunkard Path to show how far she had managed to get. Now is the quilting.

Tomorrow we have the Row by Row class.

DRUNKARD'S PATH WORKSHOP

On Wednesday's class we had a workshop on Drunkard's path.

We had 7 ladies who attended the workshop. There was a lot of chatting at the beginning and the cutting of curves took them a while, but then came the sewing and what with having to concentrate on those curves, it all went relatively quiet!

We then had a lunch break and as the weather was so nice we stand outside.

After lunch we got back to work and here are the centres so far.

~

And then it was back to cutting more curves for the border. The ladies were going to try and continue with the work at home. So ladies, I hope on Wednesday to see some progress!

Drunkard's Path

We are having a full day workshop (10.00 to 18.00) on the 30th March based on the Drunkard's Path. The finished size of the quilt will be 85cm x 85cm. The places are limited to 7 and the skill level is intermediate in patchwork.
For more information and reserving your place, please contact Paula/Manuela at Arco Iris A Metro.

Row by Row

This last Wednesday we started with row one of the Row by Row project, which will be every third Wednesday of the month and also on the 1st Saturday of each month, starting in April. Check the calendar here, for the dates.
Places are limited to 7 people in each session, so please phone the shop to reserve your place.
I shall not at the moment be showing any pictures of what we are doing, but hopefully in April I will be able to show more.
The idea is that each month, you will learn a new technique in the form of a row and by the end of the year you will end up with a quilt. We did this last year where your project was passed to each lady in the group to add a row, but we decided this time that the ladies would work on their own Row by Row. Not sure if that makes sense, but if you are interested come along and have a go. But please phone to reserve your place.

Wednesday Classes

Yet again a couple of classes have gone by and I haven't posted anything. I have a few projects on the go, so I have been spending quiet a bit of time working down in the cave on these.

Here are a few pictures of what the ladies have been working on. Gertrudes brought in her 10 minute block quilt, completed.

Along with her Dresden Plate and also her Tilda Christmas Santas finished. She admitted that the Tilda dolls are very fiddley, no comment!

And Fernanda showed us her Pineapple Blossom, after I had brought mine in to show the ladies. At that point I had only done the blocks, I have now done the borders and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will be able to sandwich it and get it quilt! It is based on this tutorial. Bonnie has done her's with scraps but as you can see from Fernandas she used only three colours.

She also brought in her another of her projects, which was based on a range of fabric that had been in the shop, which had come with a project sheet, as an idea for people to use.

We have also had a class on making Daisy Blocks and the ladies found this process interesting as you didn't have to cut too straight with the ruler!!

And then Gertrudes went home and made a couple of blocks. She says that she will continue to make some more, but it will be a work in progress.

Classes

I haven't posted anything recently on my blog because few photos have been taken at classes, as I just haven't had time to get the camera out and take pictures.
Here are a couple of the Pincushion the ladies made using English Paper Piecing.

And Marta and her mother wanted to make some wallets.
Here is her mother's finished

and Marta took her's home as she wasn't happy with the way the fabric was, partly my fault, I must admit when it came to putting the fabric on the outside of the wallet between us we got it upside down. We aren't all perfect, mistakes do happen, that is how we clear for next time. This is the fabric she was using.

And this Saturday we had a class on making  Flexi Purses and a pleated purse with a metal fastener. Herminia brought her finished table runner and also here is her finished Quilt as You Go Purse, which was a class at the end of February.

Herminia is a very quick worker and everything comes out exact.

Here is Emilia's pleated purse,

and Gertruda's (sorry if I have spelled it wrong) Flexi Purse

and finally Alexandra's puffy purse

Well I hope to be better this coming week at putting photos on my blog. Class this week is only in the morning as here in Portugal we have Carnival week, so the children are off school for 3 days. This year my DD decided she didn't want to dress up for Carnival at school and as she is in the 5th year it is not compulsory to dress up. Which she was pleased about and her Mum as well!

MUG RUG SWAP

Well when I got home this afternoon, a lovely surprise was waiting for me in the mail box! This was the first part of the parcel

and inside this wrapped fabric parcel (from Holland) was....

Obviously my DD, Sara has decided she will have the Bunny rabbit mug rug! The other mug rug which I really love because of the fact it has been made using traditional costume fabric from Spakenburg (1900-1940). Caro, whose blog you can find here, said in her postcard,  "It is made of antique costume fabric from Spakenburg. A small traditional fishing town, the red and white (which is on the back), is new fabric that are the scarfs they still wear. The blue and brown fabric are from the blouses, light from shoulder parts, the purple are the mourning colours". Well Caro (Caroline) thank you ever so much for these two lovely Mug Rugs, it was a really lovely surprise in my mail box today.

Classes

This last week, the ladies on Wednesday carried on with their own projects. Herminia wanted to make a table runner and here it is getting going. I really loved the lavendar fabric, but it was the last fat quarter in the shop. How did I manage to miss that one! And these were the only pictures I took.

And on Saturday we did my old favourite that hasn't been done for a while. The "quilt as you go" purse. And here are two of the purses.

The other ladies weren't quiet at this stage! And Helena had come, but as she had already done the purse before, she brought her Dresden Plate to finish it off.

This Wednesday, 23rd February (10.00 to 13.00, or 15.00 to 18.00), we are going to have a go at English paper piecing by hand and here it is.

Hope to see you there.

Oops!

I have just realised that I didn't blog about last Wednesday's class!
Anyway the ladies had a go a making the log cabin block and initially they got a bit confused about the order in which to go around. Anyway by the end of class we had a variety of Chickens!! And here they are in a variety of colour combinations.

This one we called sexy, as he/she was in creams and reds!

All was left was for the ladies to stuff them when they got home. I wonder who managed to finish their's?

Hopefully this week I won't forget to add a report!!

This weeks classes

Wednesday, the ladies were working on their own various projects. Fernanda was busy with her quilt and the instructions were causing problems (sizing problems), that after some help from Paula she was back on track.

And Madalena got on with finishing her Dresden Plate on her Elna sewing machine which she has had for a few years. It is so dinky!

And a mother and daughter joined us for the first time and started on their Rail Fence. They chose the same fabric but one did in pink/chocolate and the other blue/chocolate, placemats.

And later when Madalena had finished her pillow, she decided to go on and make small wallets using this fabric and also Manuela joined in as well.

We were joined in the afternoon by Maria Helena, who wanted to have a go a making the Dresden Plate, which she was going to finish at home with handsewing.

And on Saturday, unfortunately I had no time to take any pictures, as it was non-stop helping the ladies with their individual projects they had decided to do, from bags to journal covers and helping a lady cut some wonky strips!

Hopefully this Wednesday I will have some pictures to share with you! Check the calendar at Arco Iris Ao Metro as to what we are doing on Wednesday 9th February and if you are interest come along, but please don't forget to confirm with the shop that you will be coming to class.



Mug Rug Swap

Well, I have now made my two mug rugs. I used the same fabric for each, but with different designs. One had to be the dresden plate, as we have been working on this in class last week, but this time it was obviously on a smaller scale.



All it now leaves is for me to send the two mug rugs off to the respective receipent. I hope that she likes them. I wonder who I shall receive from this time?! This is the second swap I am taking part in and it is fun and also not too time consuming.