This week's blog courtesy of Yvonne

 

 

There was a good turn out this week in the hall despite the fact that it has been chilly.

Jan brought us all to order & it was decided that we will have a proper ¨English Tea Party¨ on the last day of term. I was the only one to swim against the tide & so was put firmly in my place! Bah Humbug!!

Helen came by with several finished drawings of butterflies for next years charity quilt. All of them are beautiful & aimed at different skill levels. Watch this space for more information on the subject after Christmas.

The usual suspects were busy with their knitting needles going great guns & Eloise had her sewing machine in the middle of them, sorry Eloise didn´t ask what you were up to.

Layer Cake Quilt

 

 

Rozanne was quilting away by hand on a lovely piece with a modern colour palette for her youngest daughter. The whole quilt was made from just one layer cake pack plus calico, can't wait to see the finished result.

Christmas wall hangings

 

 

Cath has finished a Christmas wall hanging with candles & Christine is working on several as well, this seems to be a very popular idea this year.

Jenny

 

Jenny's piece is coming along nicely but she feels it needs something else adding. Lots of suggestions were put forth but I think she settled for more stems, let's wait & see.

Row by Row

 

 

 

 

 

 

The row by row girls were busy too.  Here are the pictures of Jill's, Chris B.,  Pam,  Cath,  Ann C, (Sorry they got out of order girls)

Henry

 

 

Trica has finished off her hanging ¨Henry¨ based on a tropical fish that once resided in her son's fish tank, she also brought along the cot quilt she is making for Jacob, a very new member of the family.

Silk Ribbon Class

 

 

 

 

The silk ribbon class continued very quietly in the corner, with so little swearing this week you would have hardly known they were there!!
 

Finally a note to say that Helen was in all our thoughts today at this very sad time. We send you love & strength & hope you will visit next year. Yvonne.  (Please forgive omissions & errors)

Workshops continue......

Another short blog this week as I am still working in Elle's Silk Ribbon Embroidery class, so not much chance to take photos again.  As this is an entirely new technique for most of us taking part, it has been quite stressful and frustrating getting to grips with it, but I for one ended today's session saying I had actually enjoyed what I did today as oposed to last week when I wondered what I had let myself in for!  It was very cold in the hall today, but we all agreed that the concentration and stressing at times to get those beads wrapped perfectly, kept us quite warm!!

Christine's Row-by-Row workshop is moving along well, with the girls beginning work on their next rows. Christine has made the workshop flexible, so that participants do not have to make a large bed quilt if they don't want to.  Today she brought in a sample of other rows in the quilt, and encouraged the girls to pick and mix the elements if they prefer a smaller project.

Four more sample rows in the Row-by-Row project

Pam's project

Jill's project

Helen's project

Chris's project

Cath's project

There were  a few other members in the hall who weren't taking part in workshops, these were members of the growing "knitting circle", including Shirley who proudly showed us her almost-finished little girl's jacket.

Shirley and Margaret above, with Eleanor and Jan below   

Two wall hangings made by Jill

I am not sure if there will be a blog during the next three weeks as I am off to visit family in England, but there will be a final one for our meeting 17 December before the Group's end of year break.  I hope you have enjoyed keeping up with all the group members' varied projects during this last year, and that maybe some of them have inspired you to be creative yourself.  

Do pop over to take a look at our group website, where Frank has created a new gallery to showcase things made and donated for Charity by various group members.  At the moment there are two charities featured, and more will be added in future.  You can find this gallery page on the ACTIVITIES tab on the website Home page or by following this LINK .  Until next time, happy stitching,

                                                                                                                Rachel

Two workshops going on......

Alongside Christine's Row-by-Row workshop this week, a further six group members were taught the basics of Silk Ribbon Embroidery by Elle Smith in a separate workshop
Elle has just become the sole distributor in Spain  for Di van Niekerk silk ribbon products, from the absolutely gorgeous hand painted silk ribbons, to the pre-printed panels ready to be embellished and stitched.  So we were really lucky to see these products in all their glorious colour, up close and personal as Elle brought them with her to the workshop.

Just a small selection of the Di van Niekerk silk ribbons

Elle began her workshop by providing us with a kit which included absolutely everything we needed to make a sampler picture, including a pre printed panel of fuschias.  Also included was a cheap stretched artist canvas which Elle showed us how to adapt by cutting out the middle of the canvas,  (hence the need for cheap, in case you wondered!) on to which we then pinned and stretched our backing fabric and panel ready for stitching. 

Me, Yvonne and Vanessa with our adapted frames,

Sue and Jan

Vanessa, Jacqueline and Elle

We then began by wrapping wire with some of the provided silk ribbon to make a flower stem, which was then couched down to the panel.  By lunchtime we had worked  other stems in chain stitch, wrapped these in ribbon, and worked the leaves and were ready to attach and make 3D flower buds when we re-started.

Elle explaining to Jacqueline how to make the buds, with Vanessa left.

To see some of Elle's silk ribbon work, head over to her gallery pages HERE 

The girls taking part in the Row-by-Row workshop with Christine, have moved on to the next row of their projects and have been sewing long strips together ready to be crosscut at an angle then rejoined to make a striking pattern.

Christine having a pre class chat about the next stage that participants will be working on

Jill cross-cutting her strips

Cath and Chris

Cath's top row completed

Elsewhere in the hall, Kath showed us her completed seasonal wall hangings, then laid out her latest quilt project and bought wadding ready for the next stage of sandwiching the top with the wadding and backing fabric, before tackling the quilting.

Yvonne too, showed us her seasonal wall hanging, made as a class sample for her Friday evening group in Nerja.

Before closing this week, I must thank Cath for taking some of these photos for me this week, as I was taking part in Elle's class and really needed to concentrate on what I was doing.  Many apologies to the other Group members who were at yesterday's meeting, for not getting around to seeing you or getting photos of what you were working on, but Cath too was taking part in a workshop so didn't have much spare time either.

I also want to mention our Viñuela Sew & Sews web site, which has a new video on the home page this week, showing a very clever way to join quilt-as-you-go blocks.  I know I will be using this technique in the future, and I am sure many of the quilters in our group will find this tutorial useful.  So grab a cuppa and watch HERE.  While you are over in the website, why not click on the image in the centre of the home page, to take a look at the project just completed by regular members of our sister group, Diversity.  I hope you will find the different pieces of work interesting, and enjoy reading about how they were made.  This group met yesterday to begin work on their next venture.  A project called "The Journey".  Their progress is available to read on their own blog, and can be accessed  HERE.

Thanks for dropping by, see you next time,

                                                                      Rachel

Almost-end-of-year Lunch........

Just a few of the girls met in the hall this week before going to meet other members in Bar Atila for our nearly-end-of-year lunch.
Linda, Ann and ChrisB worked  on their strips for the Row-by-Row project which started last week.

Elements of the top row on AnnC's project (above and below)

ChrisB's colour scheme (above)

Linda's top row elements (above)

Vanessa brought in the Xmas applique project she has been working on since last week, one hanging is finished and it's twin just needs beads adding to complete it.  Vanessa only began this project last week, so it's obvious she's been working at her usual brisk pace!

On the theme of Christmas, Kath is putting the last binding stitches on one of her two seasonal panels, and with Jan helping to do the same on the second panel this project will be finished in not time too.

Carole brought in her framed black-work sampler to show us, below.

Cath showed us a height chart she has made for her two grandsons Ethan and Rhys, and explained how long it took her to accurately mark out all the dividing lines for the height measurements on the calico fabric. Despite this, Cath says she enjoyed making it for the two boys, using up left over fabrics from a quilt she had made for them previously.  To see more of Cath's work, be sure to check out her gallery page on our group web site.

Trish, Gwen and Jenny are working on their current projects (above), and Margaret Sheila and Shirley are knitting (below).  Don't forget to check out our group web site every week for the latest updates on finished projects by members.  This week too, the focus is on Gwen's stitching corner.  To see Gwen at work follow this link  stitching corner .

You may wonder why in some photos each week, there are often fruit or vegetables sitting on the table in front of various people.  Well HelenH's husband has an allotment which appears to be extremely productive, and Helen very generously, often brings in boxes or bags full of surplus fresh produce to share amongst members of the group.  This week's surplus seems to have been aubergines.

Cath spent the morning knitting 

Vanessa, Carole and Eleanor above, and Gladys below

The morning seemed to pass very quickly and before we knew it we were on our way to meet other group members for lunch at Bar Atila.  We had intended meeting during the summer, but it was impossible to arrange a date when most members would be together, but eventually 33 of us were all available yesterday so it became our "almost-end-of -year lunch"!  As expected with this many ladies all together in a confined space, and the odd glass of wine flowing and good company, it was quite a noisy affair!  There was a slight disappointment for a few of those who chose the cheesecake for desert, it seems that not enough sugar had been added to some portions, and one thought that salt had been used instead of sugar by accident!  This one was replaced quickly when the problem was highlighted to the staff, but in general we all agreed that the food had been lovely, and the service good, so a fun time was had by all.

To see more about our group, please follow this link.  It's a huge web site with gallery pages full of completed projects for many members, past Group events and exhibitions, so grab a coffee and have a look.

Have a good week, 

                               Rachel