New York Beauty Workshop

Yesterday we had a full day workshop on foundation piecing.

 The ladies were very quiet for most of the morning, what with having to concentrate so much!! By lunchtime they had managed to transfer the templates and finish one block each with the exception of Marta who had managed two blocks. Here is one by Marta (top) and Manuela (below).

 

  

We then had a lunch break and went round the corner for lunch, all except Sofia, who had brought a packed lunch. After lunch they started talking and said that they thought it had been a bad idea to go and have lunch, because they had lost the rhythm of working!!

Marta had brought her scrap bag and had decided to go for a scrapy NYB. Here is what she had managed by the end of the day. 

And here is Filomena's.

I hope to add photos when the projects are finished. Anyone interested we used two of the templates from here.

Sunbonnet Sue

Well as promised here is the needleturn appliqué that will be next week's project. The background is a 9.5 inch square. I think I will embroider some flowers for Sunbonnet Sue to hold in her hand. Now all I have to decide is what I am going to convert this block into!

Is it a pillow, a bag or just a block to hang on the wall? So many options and which to choose! I know one little girl who wouldn't mind it.

Classes

I have not posted the last couple of classes as they were so busy I justed didn't get chance to take any photos. However on the Saturday class Carmen popped in with her log cabin quilt finally finished, which I managed to take pictures.

The centre squares were all crossed stitched.

Not sure whether these pictures really show the work. I had problem with figuring out how to disarm the automatic flash. Now I know, thanks to DH.
I have been preparing the project for this Saturday's all day workshop - New York Beauty, foundation pieced.

Not a great lover of paper-piecing, all that paper to tear at the end and also I personally find it hard to see when aligning the fabric up, so I like to use Vilene sew-in light weight  interfacing which enables me to see what is going on and also I don't need to take it out once the block is sewn together. So all being well on Saturday, as it is an all day class I will hopefully get a chance to take some photos, fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I hope to show what I have prepared for the girls to do next Wednesday!

Wednesday Group

Today the ladies learnt to do a paper pieced hexagon flower. Here is one made by Helena. She says that she will continue with it at home and make it bigger.

   

Maria is still working on her placemats and now we have 5, she hopes to make the other 3 by next week. Every single one is going to be different. Maria doesn't like to start anything new until she has finished her current project. Isn't she a good girl!

 This Saturday we are going to be making a threadcatcher similar to the one I made here below.

WHAT A DAY!

Well I went to a workshop at called Daisy Daisy. The teacher was Mary Mayne and what a wonderful time I had. Here are a few pictures of the classroom. By the way there is another two classrooms available and a wonderful shop with a gallery above the classrooms where you can have a coffee and watch the workshops going on below.

She was such a lovely teacher who made you feel relaxed, she also taught you to think outside the box. I learnt another way of adding bias stems and instead of using a plain background. There were 11 of us. At times it was so quiet (!!!) because we were so keen to get as much done as possible in a day.

At the end of the day we layed out what we had done so far. Here they are below.

I would definately attend one of her workshops again if DH will allow it. I think DH and Sara had a nice time as well without Mum!

Unfortunately didn't get to do as much shopping as I would have liked to, because they really do have some lovely Bali Batik fabrics, oh well next time.

Wednesday Class

Today we had various projects going on and it was a busy class which didn't leave me time to take many photos in fact only two! Of which there were 3 new ladies.
I managed to take a photo of Maria's placemats which we have adapted from the original Heart Table Runner we were doing last month. She has made the table runner and now sets out to make 8 placemats with the heart appearing in different places, of which two are here below.

This photo I took at the end of a class, of the trimings a lady left behind from cutting her rainbow of fabrics.

I am off tomorrow to the UK to be attend a workshop at and also to visit my family. It is only a short visit as I will be back home on the Sunday! Here are the fabrics I will be using.

I shall show you more next week when I return from the UK.

Hurray!!

Finally, I have finished my Hidden Wells quilt.

And yes, I have done my label, so it is officially finished. A lot of people say that a quilt is not finished if it hasn't got a label.

And what fun I had in adding this interesting border from a book called "The Border Workbook by Janet Kime". The maths Angela!!

This quilt brings back so many memories of when I was making it with the help of Angela, I learnt so much.Thank you for getting me into quilting.

Almost done!

Well I forgot to take my camera with me yesterday to class!! So no photos to show of the ladies doing the stained glass window. They managed to get one block done and we will continue with this project next week. Just as well because it was very busy and no time to stop and take photos.

As promised I have quilted the top of my Hidden Wells and tonight intend to sit down and hand sew on the binding. It will keep my legs warm, for sure, as we are now getting some of the bad weather that Madeira has had, but not as bad, thankfully. Just the strong winds. Here are a couple of photos of the work in progress. Will show the whole quilt when I have attached the label. Now Angela when did I start this project or is it too embrassing to say!

Saturday's Class

On Saturday the ladies had a lesson on making a daisy block using Jan Mullen's crooked method of cutting blocks. The ladies at first couldn't accept that they could cut a slightly off angel strip and this took them a while to get the hang of it. Here are the first blocks. Helena had already started doing a second block and maybe by next week she will have done some more. Knowing Helena that isn't usual.

Also Teresa popped into the shop with her New York Beauty, which she so much enjoyed doing. All there is now is for her to put a border on and quilt it! Teresa says that she enjoys very much foundation piecing.

Teresa tends to pop into the shop in her lunch break on a Wednesday to have a chat and show her projects because at the moment her weekends are taken up with going to watch her son playing sports (can't remember which sport activity he takes part in).

I am trying to quilt my Hidden Wells quilt, that is a long over due UFO. Sorry Angela. I have quilted a quarter of it, so hopefully tomorrow I will have a chance to do another quarter! Or I might get distracted and do something else!

Fabric Baskets

Today I decided to mess around, after finding this idea at and I decided to make slightly smaller. Jenny has given me more ideas since she posted her original post.

It is raining here and bitterly cold, which is not normal for Lisbon.

Wednesday Group

Yesterday, we were only 4 ladies, because it had been a public holiday due to Carnaval (yes, in February) a few ladies were away on holiday or looking after their children. However between us we decided to make a table runner using a block called Turkey Tracks from Marsha McCloskey's "Block Party". It involved using 7/8ths in some of the squares which they hadn't come across yet and also cutting half triangles. Here are two of the blocks by Manuela and Helena. The ladies were going to continue the project at home by making the additional two blocks and adding setting triangles.

Last Friday Sara dressed as a witch for school, as it is a tradition here in Portugal for all the children to dress up for school on the Friday before Carnaval. But unfortunately the weather was not that brilliant, it rained and was rather cold, hence the extra clothing. I think in the 6 years Sara has dressed up for Carnaval there has only been two occasions when there was a parade with the other local schools. 

Half Triangles Class

Today the ladies had a lesson on how to make half triangles using the method of two squares.
And as Valentine's Day is on Sunday, I came up with this idea. The lovely assistant in the second photo is my daughter, Sara, who on occasions is called upon to help me by holding the quilts I make.

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This one belongs to Helena, who loves pinks. She has decided that she is going to make a rectangle cushion for her granddaughter by adding another row of plain squares to the righthand side then a border with corner squares.

Here is Maria's who is going to make some more into placemats and if she can a table runner as well. Red roses very appropriate.



Manuela brought her Bargello and is now thinking of making it even bigger for her bed! There is still the fabric in the shop, so she is going to go home and use the rest she has to see how much more fabric she will need to make it for her double bed. To say that she has only recently started quilting, she is doing very well.