Quilt Bar was full

Another long, hot Portuguese summer is nearly over and soon the rainy season will start to feed thirsty plants. Our thirsty quilters are back from their holidays and almost free from their visitors. They are full of ideas and already have too many quilts to finish before another summer comes. So this Thursday the Quilt Bar was full (including me with a camera in the mirror).


Therese brought her new project. This time she was making a table runner for her sister, and she taped all her blocks to keep them in the right order. Previously she had sewn blocks together in the wrong order - she has learnt from that! She is a very generous quilter because almost every single quilt that she makes will be (or was) a present.

(From left) Irene, Corinne and Therese

Irene was working on her favourite tiny projects and was quiet and busy. She made a little "Sunny Days" quilt with embroidery . She did most of the sewing and now she has to do lots of hand stitching. She makes so many little things with so much patience and they are gorgeous!
Our Queen, Regina came after spending summer in Algarve. She was quietly sitting and hand stitching the blocks for her yellow and blue quilt. At the end of the day she said that she did too much in so little time. Keep going Regina!

Ursula, our sewing machine expert went around helping people and gave some advice how to use their machines. When she finished this she gave a little talk about Jenny Bowker's workshop. Jenny Bowker has been in Portugal already twice and many ladies enjoyed these workshops. Now I have proper sewing machine and if she comes next year I might have luck to see her art. Ursula showed us pictures of some of the amazing quilts.

After reading from Angela's blog that she made a basket, Ursula tried as well. She said that it was easy.
Sally started her new project but this time she was not sitting patiently and working hard. Usually, when she starts her project she almost does not sleep and eat and the very next day her quilt will be ready to be shown. She chose to have a more relaxing morning.
Anabela arrived that morning with her Christmas project. She was ironing, cutting, sewing and even managed to play with my three-year-old daughter. When Anabela left the Quilt Bar she needed to go to a quilt shop to buy more fabrics for her project. (Sorry, no photos of her working hard; next time).

We had three American ladies Garen, Cathy and Bette, all of whom were busy with their work. Garen was helping as usual to ladies because she is a very experienced quilter.

Corinne is new to quilting and visited us. She is the proud owner of a new Bernina and tried to do free-motion quilting. But her machine was having problems (even if I think she did very well on her example) and Garen advised her what to do.

If you have problem with free-motion quilting you should try the following things:

1. change needle, it could be blunt;
2. change thread, sewing machines are too complicated like us women;
3. change fabric, fabric thickness could cause problems;
4. at last call Mário our Bernina dealer, he is good with solving problems.

Happy quilting,
by Javhlan

Jenny Bowker workshop

Jenny Bowker came once more to Portugal and she had four days of workshop in Caldas da Rainha. I was so lucky to attend the last two days. The workshop was about playing with Kaleidoscopes. It was great fun, we learned a lot about designs and colors. Jenny had some wonderful quilts to show us. Some she took out of an exhibition and it was exciting to have a close look at her work.
We hope that she will return again next year. She has so much more to show and to tell us.



This is one of the kaleidoscope quilts that Jenny explained to us. It is called MANDALA

















A great kaleidoscope! It has the name GLEAMING COHORTS

















This is HASSAN WITH THE GLASS. Hassan blows glass in a tiny room in the centre of a square opposite the Qaitbey Mosque in the City of the Dead in Cairo. This quilt has so many details and I was looking and working my soul in it for some hours at the workshop!















A wonderful work of Jenny Bowker!
There are so very many details again in this quilt. It was for me a "dream-come-true" that I could look at this so close and even hold and touch it. Normally you should not touch a quilt............... I know!










This is Abu Ali at his house looking out a window. The kind smile in his eyes is breathtaking real. Abu Ali sells metalls on the Friday Market in the City of Dead in Cairo.







the beautiful quilt! Photo by Jenny Bowker

















Jenny is explaining what we need to do and how to get started.








Fabulous Quilting!!!!!!!!!





















Alda made this quilt for Mário on the new Bernina 830,so he can display a work of this machine in his shop. He was very much pleased with this. We all admired Alda's work very much. She did this very nicely.




















Ursula