Birte's Rose Quilt

Birte, our friend from Germany sent this to all of us:

Hi Ladies,

Lots of hugs from Germany.

This is my latest quilt. It is a birthday present for a friends 50.th birthday on 30th of August. So I am very early, that's unusual, but I have to do another one for my sister's 70th birthday in September. So no time to waste!

I hope everybody is well, but I always have a look on the blog to see what is going on.

I am fine, but the weather is not that nice like in Portugal. I miss that very much, as I still miss Portugal and all my quilter-friends.

See you on the blog

Love Birte

Jutta's last Portuguese quilt

Jutta, one of our quilters is living Portugal and she send this email. JB

Dear Quilters,

Now it's time to move. After four wonderful years in Portugal we have to go back to old Germany. Tomorrow the moving company will come to packing and loading all my household. On Friday we will leave Portugal by car.

Thank you very much for the friendship and your support the last 2 years in the quilting group. I start quilting in Portugal and I like it so much to continue in Germany. I will send to you photos about my future work to keep in touch with you.

Please find attached my last Portuguese work photo, it's a baby quilt, called "Meine kleine Stadt" (My Little Town).

I wish all of you all the best for the future, enjoy Portugal and take care.

Best regards
Jutta

Ursula's summer project

This one work that I am doing in the summer: I am playing with paintings. This quilt is going to be for a cousin of my husband. She is a retired teacher of art, and the paintings were made by her students. I asked her for to send some of her favourite paintings to me by e-mail. (She has no idea that now I am playing with this.) I printed them on fabric and now they make good centers like this for my quilt. Of course that I have to add a lot of boarders and other kind of blocks to make the quilt big enough. Right now I have not a clear idea where exactly I am going. But I love this project. You can see clearly that these small blocks are quilted already. It was difficult to decide about the quilting, as I wanted the centers to be stabilized, without making too much confusion to the lines of the paintings. So I decided for the circles, that - thanks to Paula's class - came out quite well. Now it will go on as a "quilt-as-you-go". Let me see, where I am going. Hopefully that soon I can show you more about this!! ;-)

posted by Ursula

Cinderella style dress making

To take you away from your quilting and remind you of your childhood...

Many of us know Cinderella's story by heart. Now my 3yr old daughter likes watching Disney's classic cartoon. If you want to see how mice and birds can make a dress, it is here from 2.45 to 5.30

Patchwork Teddy

After long three weeks of visitors from Germany, Spain, Italy and Mongolia and many barbecues I finally finished my first patchwork teddy. I found the teddy pattern on British Patchwork and Quilting magazine's 2005 October issue. I had couple of frustrations because head joints and leg joints did not match. However, my nephew has his teddy. The teddy is so cute!

Irene's pillow

I made a pillow from the stitchery. It's a very nice. My dog also like it, she has a small patchwork pillow for her head.

Molly is enjoying his naps.

Making Angels

I have to be quick to put news on this blog otherwise Angela in England will be putting Portuguese quilting news on her blog. Anyway, yesterday on 9 July, Irene, Therese, Ursula and I met at the Quilt Bar to discuss our latest quilting news. My sister Temuulen joined us at the Quilt Bar to make a wall hanging. She is a handy girl too because of her big sister. She lives in Italy and is staying with us for a month with her five month-old son and her husband. Look at the two excited customers waiting for their new teddies!
Therese has finished her "wonky" quilt on her brand new Bernina Aurora. This quilt is a present for one of her hundreds of cousins.
Ursula's work (and cake) are waiting for her next to her personalised Bernina bag.
Ursula was giving valuable advice to Therese about her new sewing machine. Therese was trying to learn every possible function that the machine can offer. Ursula finally started making angels. After putting my daughter on her pram I managed to stuff my patchwork teddy.
Irene brought me a magazine with lots of patchwork snail, rabbit, owl, and teddy patterns. I have to try to sew the teddy, it was so cute. At the end Ursula, Irene, and Therese were all making angels. Here is Irene starting her new project, tracing her angel.


By Javhlan Byamba

Paradise for craft people

Every summer, to be precise end of June and at the beginning of July for two weeks, Lisbon holds International Handicraft Exhibition. I have been visiting the exhibition for five years and I love it. I bought there Venetian masks, Buddhist symbols, Thai silk, Indonesian bags, Indian scarfs, etc. I do love just browsing and looking at craft from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The first pavilion is dedicated to Portuguese crafts. My first visit was Bernina sewing machine stand. I am still have not yet decided which machine to buy. I love Bernina Artista 630 or 830 and Pfaff Creative 2.0 or 4.0. I need more time to decide, while my work is waiting for me.This is Alda's work, which was at the Bernina stand. This applique gave me an idea to make a quilt with Asian horoscope animals. Thank you Alda. A couple of patchwork fabric stands were at the exhibition. This is Arco Iris a Metro shop's one where I bought beautiful fabric for my collection.

By Javhlan Byamba

Quilting with visitors

During summer months many quilters are receiving guests and our homes became hotels. 2 July Quilt Bar had only two quilters and two of my family members. My mum and my sister are visiting and they joined Quilt Bar at that day. My mum is between Irene and Therese looking at their work. She was impressed with Irene's applique and Therese's wonky quilt.My sister and I are trying to figure out how to sew a patchwork teddy. My sister cut all patterns and I am trying to combine them. It was quite difficult because patterns did not match. Hopefully, one day we will finish the patchwork teddy for my sister's son. After the first experiment I will sew two more patchwork teddies for my daughters.