Mariner's Compass Pillow

On Wednesday we had a full day workshop on making this pillow using foundation piecing and a small amount of paper piecing.

Here is one of Carmen's quarters and Maria's deciding which background fabric to use.

And Teresa popped into the shop in her lunch break to show what she has been working on.

The one on the left was from a free block of the month by Gail Pan last year and the quilt on the right was various blocks from Block Party by Marsha McCloskey. Teresa is a very talented lady.

Maria brought in her finished purse that she is giving to her daughter, Antonia, who always says that her Mummy never makes anything for her, which is so untrue.

Well I am back at the shop on Saturday 2nd October from 3.00 pm until 6.00. The first Saturday of the month is usually for beginners or those ladies are are working on a project and need some help.

Wednesday's Class

Yesterday was where anyone who came could work on their UFO's or try a technique from a previous class that they were not able to attend. So I was kept very busy helping everyone out. Hence only two photos were taken from the whole day.
Helena who had not been able to come for a few month, brought her Kaleidoscope Quilt to work on and we managed to arrange it in an order she liked. She is going to have it as a long table runner.

And here are a few of the ladies that came in the afternoon.

The shop now runs two groups on a Wednesday. The morning group is from 10.00 until 1.00 and the afternoon group runs from 3.00 to 6.00. And the space I think is a lot better for everyone, so everyone can be together rather than spread around the shop, as before.

Next Wednesday we have a full day workshop (10.00 - 6.00)on Mariner's Compass, with a combination of Paper Piecing and Foundation Piecing. Anyone interested please contact Arco Iris.

Just to let people know beforehand that there will be no afternoon class on the 6th October, just in the morning from 10.00 to 1.00. Sorry.

Saturday's Purse Class

Saturday afternoon we had 6 ladies for the purse class. They were a fun group of ladies who really enjoyed making this purse, so the only picture I managed to take was at the end of the class.

One of the ladies decided towards the end that she was not going to add the metal purse frame, but instead use it as a clutch bag for a forthcoming wedding she is going to.

We also had two ladies who were beginners doing a Rail Fence table runner.

Wednesday's Group

We were busy ladies on Wednesday. The lesson was on how to applique! They wanted to use the quickest method and so they had a go a using Heat n Bond Lite and using zig zag on the machine, as most did not have the blanket stitch, which I am lucky enough to have as I am a proud owner of an Aurora 440QE.
Here are a couple of photos of the ladies busy at work.

This was the first in our monthly workshops on Christmas projects.
Tomorrow afternoon, we have another chance for ladies to make the purses, that I showed in my previous blog.

Wednesday's Class at Arco Iris Ao Metro

Before the summer holidays the ladies had shown an interest in making a purse, based on the one I had made for the fair, which showed people what they could do with magic shrink 15%. Here is mine, which I no longer own, as it was sold!

And so the ladies set to work on designing their own purses. And here they are Fernanda's and Lucinda

and Mariya's

Just to let you know that is workshop will be repeated again on the 18th September. If you are interested contact the shop to reserve your place.

I forgot to show you a picture of what Fernanda has decided to do with her Kaleidoscope Quilt, it is going to be a duvet cover, when she has been to Ikea to get a king size black sheet for the back!

And the news of the shop is that it has finally been changed around to make it more friendly for the ladies. We have an area for sewing and then a separate area where the ladies can cut their fabrics.

So come and visit us at Arco Iris Ao Metro.

I'm back!

Well I am back from our holiday down in the Algarve, where I managed to get a bit of sun. I even went in the sea this year, the water was lovely and warm! Then I dashed off to the UK for a couple of days to see my family and visit the Quilt Festival in Birmingham and catch up with Angela and Garen, my friends who used to live here in Portugal.

There was so much to see at the show in Birmingham. I took so many photos, which will be impossible for me to show all of them here, but what stuck out for me was a quilt made by Pauline Ineson called Floral Dimension, in the category of Traditional Quilt, which she won. It was described in the catalogue as "The 3 dimensional flowers and French nots were all created by machine. No Painting drawing or invisible thread used." Here it is. It took me a few attempts to get this photo, as so many people had to have a close up look at the work in the quilt.

And here are a couple of close ups of the blocks.

So beautiful.

I also fell in love with Miniature Quilts 

which has 128 points to the compass! And here is one by Dorian Walton exhibition which measures approximately 15 cm x 19cm finished!

Anyone for a cake!

and what about this for a bag ladies.

I could go on and on to show you the 100+ pictures I took and it wouldn't show everything that I saw. I am sure that each year there are more and more talented people taking part in the competition. The starting age is 5 years of age. People from all over the world take part in this competition as well.

And all the shops that were there...... just as well I set a limit as to how much I could spend or DH would not be very happy with me.But it wasn't enough, as always, each time more things that you must have!

Well back to preparing projects for the coming months and dare I say it Christmas projects!

Wednesday's Class

Well this Wednesday we had 9 ladies, so it was a bit hectic in the morning. Mariya joined us to get on with her father's quilt, she leaves next week for Bulgaria to celebrate her father's 70th birthday. She says that she gets a lot more done at class than at home, no interruptions from DH and DD. And here it is, just has to finish sewing the binding at the back by hand.

Fernanda made a jornal cover (no picture), Sandra continued working on her X Blocks and her mother Lucinda was using a panel of chickens to make into a picture to hang in the kitchen. One of my ladies that had begun the Bargello projects turned up to continue but found that her left hand which she had fractured still wasn't strong enough to grip the ruler, so she will leave it until September and it should be all well.
And we had 3 ladies which had come all the way from the Algarve for the day one wanted to do the X Blocks we had done last week, another was a complete beginner and the other was creating a throw for the sofa.

That is it in workshops until the 1st September. It is too hot here at the moment to do any quilting.
I shall be taking a holiday down in the Algarve with DD, as my DH is working abroad. And then I am off to the UK to the big Quilt Festival in Birmingham and hope to meet up at the end of the day for a chat with a dear quilting friend for whom without her encouragement and support I would not have started quilting and be teaching today.

X Blocks Class

Yesterday the ladies learnt a new technique using the X Block Ruler. The quarter inch is very important in this project, as a couple of my ladies found out. But we got there in the end.

Everyone used different fabrics and here is a close up of Fernanda's.

 And Marya is undecided whether she will make it even bigger as a christmas tablecloth or leave it as it is and use it as a tablerunner. All depends on DH allowing her to spend some more money!

 

And here are Lucinda and her daughter Sandra's, who will finish putting the blocks together at home, ready for next week to add the 1st border and the 2nd border which is made up of the leftover cuts, there is no waste in this project. But Lucinda (the brown and beige) may decide she wants to make it bigger for her bed. She recently took delivery of a new sewing maching. These ladies only started patchwork about a month ago.

This is mine before it was quilted and binded.

Also Marya brought the quilt she is doing for her father and this is how far she has got.

 She was hoping to spend today putting the last row of framed blocks and adding a few more applique designs where there are lots of squares. She hopes next week to do the quilting at the shop.

Workshop

Yesterday I attended a workshop which was held at Quilt Cave, you can find details here and our teacher was Vicki Miles who used to live here in Portugal a couple of years ago and was spending her holidays here and had offered to do a workshop.
The workshop was called a Hexagonal Spiral Quilt. All the pieces have been lazer cut.

We all brought a contribution to lunch, it is called pot luck! It was really lovely as you can see.

And after this we got back to working on our spiral blocks. By the end of the day I had managed to get this far. Only another 8 rounds to go.

Today's Class

Well today was where the ladies could work on their own projects. Mariya was still working on the lap quilt she is going to give to her father for his 70th Birthday. Here are some of the applique blocks which we were trying to put together by introducing squares in between the framed applique blocks(with some fudging Angela).

Lucinda and her daughter Sandra decided to spend the day making bags!

And here is D.Manuela's Bag using a new product that was at FIL this year. It is called Texture Magic, which shrinks your fabric in this case by 15%. It sold out at FIL, but Paula is arranging to get some more in.

I think after todays making of bags, I shall be happy to take a break from teaching bags until September at the earliest. But the ladies here in Portugal love making bags!!!Back to more traditional patchwork.

Sunday

Yesterday I managed to find some time to go down to my sewing room/DH study to work on an up and coming project we shall be doing in the shop. I decided to use, yes, Christmas fabric that I bought at FIL. Even though it is still hot here and for some reason down in the basement it seems hotter.
Got all my strips cut and sewn together. Here is a sneak picture of the fabrics.

All will be revealed at class this Wednesday so the ladies have an idea what to choose in colours for the 21st July. If you are interested in coming contact Arco Iris A Metro to reserve your place.
I know I said I would post some pictures of FIL but it was so busy on the stand that in the end the camera stayed in my handbag!

This last week

I know that I haven't posted anything for a while, the reason being besides Wednesday's class I have been helping out at FIL which is very tiring but lots of fun playing shop. Also the weather here has been 40º +just here in Lisbon, which has left me and lots of other people with little energy.
Last Wednesday there were few ladies, because it was very hot to be doing quilting. Two of my ladies (who are beginners) were finishing off their Bow Tie Bags and Maria was working out how she was going to put all the applique blocks she had done together and choosing fabrics to use.
Aldora brought in her completed spiral table topper, which she had altered slightly to her liking.

And together we managed to create a bag that she will use to put her beach towel in for the beach. Just a few ends need tiding up.

Things should be back to normal next week, with class on Wednesday 14th July, where you can bring the project you are working on or start something new.