A very, very hot day at the Quilt bar

It was one of the hottest days in Lisbon. Today's Quilt Bar was baking, with many ladies trying to quilt, cross stitch, gossip, eat cake and lunch. It became even hotter not with the sun but with more excitement when an amazing Bernina "baby" came to the Bar. But more about the baby later.

Opening with mid-morning coffee and tea with Ursula's cake started the gossip about patchwork and quilting. The cake was delicious and now we have a new rule. If someone brings a homemade cake they are free to stay for all day. Attention! The rule applies only for homemade cakes.

Arabella worked very hard for two hours and had to leave, rushing back to her baby girl. She is an amazing artist. She painted two little quilts for her children and even the back of the quilts were painted with fabric paint. Who knows, some years later she could be a famous textile designer.Therese sat outside for a while stitching her "wonky" quilt under the blue sky. Before that she showed us her two quilts. Probably, she will give them to her cousins. Believe me, she has 19 of them and I do not really know for how many of them she made quilts. Lucky them to have such a nice aunt. In the second half of the day, Therese received her "new baby", but she hasn't had time to play with it yet.

Maureen and Anne-Marie cut their Bento Boxes all day long. When Maureen arrived in the morning with four or five big heavy bags, it looked like she was moving house. She still had not managed to open some of her bags by the time she went home.

In the second half of the day, the latest creation of Bernina, the 830 series sewing machine, arrived wrapped in three big boxes. The machine is the dream for many quilters. Mário Felizardo, from Casa Felizardo in Caldas da Rainha, unpacked it and showed us how it worked.


For the first and probably last time in my life I sat behind a sewing machine worth more than €5000 and tried to do free motion quilting. Of course, my turn came only after Quilt Cave lady. It was fantastic!For most of the day I just ran up and down, down and up, up and down our stairs, again and again. Hopefully, I lost a couple of hundred grams, which will help me to regain my pre-pregnancy figure. If I lost them I will be very happy to do it again as much as a Duracell Bunny!

Our long lost friend Alda came from Peniche with her quilted vest and bag. She was helping us to write our names on Bernina bags. I was the first one to be chosen to write my name. Ironically, I do not own any Bernina machine!

By Javhlan Byamba
Photos by Irene van Es, Javhlan