JENNY BOWKER WORKSHOP

I attended a workshop by Jenny Bowker on "Image in Applique" on Friday and Saturday. It was really a worthwhile class and Jenny made it look so easy. I had already attended her workshop on Free Motion Quilt here in Portugal a couple of years ago.
On this particular workshop we had to take along a photo of our own taking and from that we had to reproduce it into a quilt. I choose a flower, but can't say much more as I hope to surprise someone with it. We learnt how to choose colours, which at times, when you looked at your photo and thought it was one colour, in actual fact it was something completely different. Also learnt that with stitching, you can bring depth to your applique. I could go on and on.......
Jenny is one of those teachers that is ready to help and answer questions on any aspect of patchwork, not just on the workshop in hand. I even learnt something on binding, that I didn' realise.
She brought along just a couple of quilts, because she didn't want to exceed her luggage allowance, which unfortunately these days you are allowed less and less, unless you want to pay the excess which is exorbitant. But she had brought her husband along as well to help with the luggage allowance.

She managed to bring her quilt called "Sandstorm over the White Desert", which I had seem in the "Australian Patchwork & Quilting" Magazine and all I could say was wow. Here is the extract from the magazine and a close up of what I took at the class.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed the workshop. Thanks Jenny.

Patch-mania

I have been giving workshops at Patch-mania for a while now and thought I would share with you just a few of the things the ladies have been doing.

So, if you are interested in attending any of the workshops, please contact Ines at Patch-mania, for more information. This coming Friday the workshop is on this Quilt as You Go Purse.

Few photos

I have still been teaching classes and here are some photos of what has been happening.  Firstly we had the Bargello workshop.

Maria Carmo choose pinks and brown, it is starting to look really lovely. I was saying yesterday to someone, that a few years ago you would never think of putting pinks and browns together, well I wouldn't have!

And Mariya choose blues, as it will go in her new house that is currently being built. She isn't sure whether it will be a tablerunner or whether she will hang it on the wall.

Aldora choose browns

which is going to be hung on a wall and is already on to her second Bargello!

Hermina choose these greens and blues, but decided to change it a bit.

And these are the colours Gertrudos (sorry about the spelling) choose, but didn't get any more pictures, hopefully we will get to see the finished project.

And finally this is Maria Carmo, we have two ladies of the same name in class.

I am still here!

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged. Been rather busy making a small quilt with a lot of applique and hence the spare time I have had has been spent on this order. And finally last week I handed it in. Here a couple of photos.

There was Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, mushrooms, basically a lot of work was involved to complete this order, so I hence no blogging.

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.