Heavy rain keeps Group Members at home.....

Only a small band of ladies braved the cold and rain today, so they each had plenty of space to work.  Eloise brought along two finished quilt tops to be layered up ready for quilting.  She learned how to spray baste the layers together, in place of her regular time consuming tacking or pinning, and used two big tables butted together to make the task easier.

Pam showed us two bargello panels ready for quilting, and made good use of table space to almost finish free-motion machine quilting one of them during today's session.

This was Marie's last meeting until September as she goes back to Ireland at the end of the week, so she was busy finishing off her owl started in Rozanne's recent workshop

Marie's owl

Margaret has now moved on to begin quilting her first ever quilt, and says she would never have got this far had it not been for Jan's help and advise.

Margaret looking very relaxed while getting to grips with machine quilting for the first time.

Sheila, Michele and Sue were busy knitting and stitching

and it was good to catch up with Maureen also busy knitting.  (sorry about the photo Maureen, I only took the one!)  Chris is concentrating hard below,  but I'm sorry Chris I didn't get back round to you, to see what you were working on!

Gwen brought in a few more pieces of work to be photographed for her new gallery page which will be available after next weekend's www.vinuelasewandsews.eu  update.  This week she brought in a very interesting quillow, (a lap quilt which is made in such a way that it fold up into a pouch and becomes a pillow for storage) and lovely handbag and a padded etui box.

Gwen's quillow ....

padded etui box.....

and stylish bag.

Jenny has been working on a tree-skirt with a christmas theme, commissioned by her neice who had seen an idea on the internet, but thought that her aunt could make a much nicer one.  Just goes to show flattery gets you everywhere!

Jenny used a combination of commercial embroidery designs together with her own digitised designs on each of the skirt panels, then filled in each panel with free-machine quilting.

Finally for this week, Michele showed us some of the postcards sent to her by members of an international group  she belongs to, together with an album cover she has made in which to keep all these cards together.

The beaded and embroidered front and back of the Michele's album

Stitched and painted postcards recently received by Michele,

and the reverse side of the postcards above

Although these latest photos will not be added to Michele's gallery until the next expected web update in a week's time, more information about the Groups that Michele belongs to and what is involved in the postcard swaps, can be found over on her gallery page on our website at http://www.vinuelasewandsews.eu  Follow the link "Meet the Group", find Michele, click on her name to go to her gallery page and you will find more information on the thumbnail titled "Aussie Connection"

That's it for this week, next time I'll be bringing you photos from Jenny's Double Wedding Ring workshop.

                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                           Rachel

A parliament of owls....

I promised some of the finished owls last post, here are the ones that flew in with their owners yesterday!  I think these could be popular gifts, with the girls who made them saying what fun they had putting them together.

Although there were not so many members in the hall this week, we had a general discussion about how to spend Group funds.  It had been thought that we could maybe arrange a coach hire to visit The Alhambra Palace or visit Cordoba during the Patios week in May, when balconies and courtyards are filled with beautiful displays of flowers and plants, or a trip to Granada city centre, or even The Conception Botanical Gardens in Malaga, followed by lunch at a chiringito, but at the end of the day the majority of ladies voting decided they would prefer to spend their saved money on an "end of term" lunch in the summer, and another "end of year dinner" around Christmas.  We also discussed making up a route to visit  the growing number of patchwork and wool shops, by local bus around this area.

Once the chatting was over, the serious business of stitching got under way.  Carole is desperately stitching on the binding to her latest Scrappy Illusions quilt for her son before it wings it's way back to the UK.  You may remember this quilt started life as a lap quilt, then because Carole misinterpreted the cutting instructions, she had double the number of blocks, so the quilt grew quite rapidly!

then, at the end of the meeting a photo was needed to be added  to Carole's gallery page on our website, before the quilt went to it's new owner....

and this was the frenzied activity going on outside to line up the thread tails, still needing to be stitched in, against the background fabric so the quilt would look "finished" in the photos!

Carole (left) with Cath  and the almost finished quilt!  And now Carole says she is going to be making another one.

Pam spent her session making small fabric bowls to be given as presents.

Two of Pam's finished bowls

Here Pam is explaining that the new fusible web we are trying out, doesn't seem to be quite so strong as the regular webbing she uses.

Ann brought in her completed table runner and place mats from the bargello workshop a couple of weeks ago, looking very striking in Ann's signature theme of black and white

Cath also showed us her second almost completed bargello panel from the same workshop lead by Christine, using ribbon as the sashing between bargello strips.

There were many comments on the unusual batik border fabric, which Cath said she had bought from Christine who told us that originally after having the fabric for quite some time in her stash, wasn't that keen on it as she couldn't think what to use it on, but having seen the result on Cath's panel, Christine ruefully admitted she ought to have kept it!!

Gwen brought along some of her work so it could be photographed and added to her new gallery page on our website www.vinuelasewandsews.eu  at the next update in two weeks time.  This piece particularly caught my eye...

... a small table topper made for a friend who helps out at the Donkey Sanctuary in Nerja. Who couldn't like that fabric??  I think it's lovely!

Over on one side of the hall this is an unusually industrious looking scene of some of the Diversity Group girls.  There is usually very much more chatting and hilarity going on, then much lamenting at the end of the session that they hadn't done much stitching!  I wonder if that's because Jenny was reciting poetry at her local school as part of the homework assignment in her Spanish language group, instead of being in our meeting hall!  We'll be interested to hear about your experience next week Jenny.

Carol worked on ideas for her Lucky-Dip project

and Helen worked on her Stupendous Stitching panel

Bridget adding hand quilting to her log-cabin cushion panel

and Cath's owl ends this week's post, missing out on the reunion with his fellow owls above, as he was at home doing sentry duty.  I hope you all have a good stitchy week, see you next time.......

                                                                                                         Rachel

Full House this week......

It was good to see another full house this week, and Rozanne's Owl Doorstop workshop proved to be popular.

Ann, Pam and Cath manipulating small pieces for the owls

Marie and Ann cutting their shapes out

One of Rozanne's class samples

Sue cutting her fabric

Rozanne (right) explaining what pieces go where

Jacqueline and Rachel, who is taking part in the workshop while visiting with her friend Carole, are here deciding on where to position their owls' eyes!

Elsewhere in the room, knitters were busy knitting, welcome back to Margaret Williams.

The two Margaret's!

and I'm not sure what Jan was doing here, but it was causing lots of smiles!

Maureen was busy making a table runner for Lux Mundi, while Gwen added more hand quilting to her quilt project.

Ex-member Joyce (right) spent the day with us while on a visit to see Jill; great to see you again Joyce!

And here Jenny is taking orders for silk fibres from some of the Diversity Group members, ready for their next "playday" in a few weeks time when they will be dyeing silk fibres before using them in a future session, to make silk papers.

Jenny and Yvonne brought in finished projects to show us which they have been working on in the Diversity Group and these will appear over on our regular web site www.vinuelasewandsews.eu ,  in a few days when it has been uploaded.  Jill and Cath brought in their completed Mystery Quilts too, which will also be found on their gallery pages in a few days time.

I hope you enjoyed your visit  to our group this week, be sure to come back next week when there should be "parliament" of  finished owls to see!

                                                               Rachel

Flying visit......

I must start by thanking Helen for keeping the blog up to date while I have been away in freezing England visiting family.  Also thanks to Yvonne for some of the photos.  Well done ladies, I won't worry about going away again!  How lovely it is to be back in warm sunshine after spending three weeks in temperatures well below freezing every day.
Apologies to regular readers for the lateness of this update, my excuse..... I came back with the seemingly inevitable cold after flying, but popped in to the meeting last week for a few minutes with my camera.  I also didn't want to miss seeing Sue with all her lovely bags for sale!   Sue who also enjoys dressmaking, was interested to see what we get up to in our meetings, had a successful morning by all accounts, with lots of interest in her handbags.

Sue with some of her handbags

It was quite a small group of ladies meeting in the hall for a change, and the second of Christine's Bargello workshop was in full swing.  I'm not sure which work belongs to who, but will correct that when I have matched the owners up with their work at the next meeting!

Ann with her panel and new bag to match!

Pam and her panel

Amanda and Cath admiring Ann's work

Pam displaying one of Christine's class samples I think!

and Christine showing one of her own class samples.  I love those fabrics!

Cath decided to try using ribbon as the separating sashing on her piece.

Elsewhere in the hall, regular group members Margaret, Sue, Jacqueline, Jill and Carole worked steadily on their own projects.

Carole getting to grips quilting her Scrappy Illusions quilt

Jill added more stitching to her Diversity project "Seed-heads"

Christine is making a quilt for her sister featuring her favourite pastime

Linda on one of her regular visits, with Sue

Hopefully now I have beaten my cold, normal service will be resumed this coming week, look forward to seeing you Tuesday.

                                Rachel