Bright sunny day brings out lots of members......

Another large meeting, thirty of us this week!  I think this time last year we were hard pushed  if we averaged  fifteen members a week at winter meetings.  The combination of a more welcoming venue and a little bit of heating plus new members are all contributing factors.  I thought I'd share with you this photo of one of our very first Group meetings in Jan's house approximately six years ago, when we were known as Periana Stitchers.  Only three of us are still current members, myself, and Kath on the left and Jan on the right.  How much the group has grown and achieved since then!

Back to the present..... at this week's meeting Michele taught members how to make fabric postcards using recycled materials, threads and embellishments.

 Ana Maria, Michele centre, and Mercedes making postcards

one of  Maureen's cards in progress

one of Bridget's cards in progress

 Mercedes' cards in progress, above and below

one of  Michele's class sample

Mercedes, who joined the Group this week, comes from  Periana, where she has been introduced to patchwork by Jan who holds a session on Friday evenings for two hours as part of the Women's Association  in Periana.  Mercedes is keen to learn more so has joined our regular Tuesday Group where she can be creative for several hours more.

Work is still continuing on some of the Mystery Quilts. Rozanne approached me suggesting I go and have a look at what Cath was doing.   Cath was sitting very quietly concentrating on machining and  is making a beautiful job of quilting her project, using both her free-motion skills and echo quilting around the butterfly motifs in the setting triangles.  I can't wait to see this quilt finished Cath.  Well done!

Two more cushions have been completed from the recent Chopkey workshop

Jill's cushion above and Pam's below

 Apparently when Pam's husband saw the outer panel fabric on this cushion, Pam says he he liked it so much he wants her to make him a quilt now!  So Pam, who bought 2 meters of the fabric  from me at one of our SalesTuesdays, is now planning her next big project.

Yvonne has finished another of her lovely stupendous stitching panels, a detailed area of which is shown below

This very popular Internet workshop, by Carol Ann Waugh can be found on the Craftsy web site HERE.  Quite a few of our Group members have signed up to the online class, and photos of their projects will be uploaded as they are brought in.

Jenny showed us the class sample ready for her workshop on Double Wedding Ring, which is scheduled for Tuesday May 7.

Elsewhere in the meeting ladies were working away at their own projects.  The two Sue's were getting down to the intricate task of quilling, Sue Stead giving Sue Payne her first taste of the technique to produce this pretty card.

and SueP showed us her little finished cross-stitch picture

Christine worked on a quilting project called Cats and Dogs.   Christine has machine pieced the quilt background, then hand appliqued the cats dogs and other motifs, and is now adding hand quilting, and says it's the first time she has worked on a purchased quilt kit, where  pattern and instructions are provided along with fabric and cutting directions. 

Amanada who joined the Group very recently, learnt to crochet under Eleanor's expert help, is well on the way with her first crochet project, a scarf to match her winter wardrobe she says,

and ChrisL, another recent new Member, showed us two of her hand-crochet hand bags

After the Diversity group "play-day" last week using transfer paints and dyes, the girls held a show and tell meeting where it was very interesting to see the results after we had ironed off all our papers onto fabric. 

Yvonne explaining one of her techniques

Carole's scrappy illusion project is at the stage where decisions need to be made about where to place each block, and much discussion went on regarding the best layout.  Carole misinterpreted the cutting instructions, inadvertantly doubling up on the number of the blocks she made , so now she's discovered she has enough to make a bed quilt for her son, instead of the originally planned lap quilt!

When Jenny was asked what two little embroidered cushions were to be used for that she brought along to show us, her answer was quite unexpected.   Apparently Jenny's bedhead and a matching wall mirror have a trellis type design, where she says dust is attracted onto the ledges.  Now we all know how much we "love" housework, well Jenny has come up with a novel way of avoiding this area of dusting.  These two little digitised-embroidery cushions she has made are to fit into the openings in the trellis work so covering the ledges.  The latest two are shown here for the mirror, I think we need to see photos of them in situ please Jenny!!

Before I sign off this week, I must say how good it was to see Eloise back again for a short while, I hope Peter "bullies" you into coming again regularly Ely!  

And finally to welcome our latest new member Brenda, who a few of us met at the Sitges Patchwork and Quilting exhibition in Barcelona in 2010.  Brenda's English Stitching Group was displaying several pieces of work at the exhibition and as we were admiring and discussing them, Brenda heard "English voices" and came over to investigate and introduce herself.  Brenda, lives in the UK but visits our area regularly, and hopes to attend future meetings when she is here.

I have just been informed that next Tuesday is International Women's Day and our meeting room is hosting a meeting and slide show with light refreshments later.  Regrettably there will be no Stitching meeting, so I´ll be back again in two weeks, hope you join us then.   Happy stitching..... Rachel

New faces...."old" faces

It was surprising to see so many members turn up for the meeting today in the miserable wet conditions, it made us all think about friends and family back in England coping with this sort of weather regularly!  It was a lovely surprise too, to see Linda and welcome her back after her long stay in the UK.  Linda says she hopes to be with us more regularly again, during school holiday breaks in the UK, when she won't need to be at work.

Ann chatting to Linda with Christine 

Welcome back to Heather for her short visit, and Marie who is here hopefully until May, and welcome to a new visitor Chris, who would like to join the Group.  Chris came along with Sue who hasn't been to meetings for a few weeks as she's been feeling under the weather, good to know Sue feeling better.  Sue spent this week's session teaching Chris the art of paper quilling used in card making.

Sue's card

Chris' card

Sandy chatted with Margaret and Sheila, no doubt bringing Heather up to date with what she's missed since her last visit,

and there was much intrigue when Chris explained how she had made a piece of crochet work that caught the girls' attention as they hadn't seen this particular stitch before.

Elsewhere in the hall Michele explained to Ana Maria how she makes her fabric postcards.

Ana Maria joined the Group a few weeks ago, after being introduced by Jan who teaches her patchwork as part a group of Spanish ladies in her home town of Periana for 2 hrs one evening a week.  Ana Maria wanted to spend more time learning techniques so Jan suggested she came along to our Group, where Ana Maria has embarked on her first project making a patchwork shopping bag.  As well as taking up patchwork Ana Maria enjoys making crochet items.

HelenH who joined the Group just over two years ago, had never done any patchwork or quilting before, but was smitten with it after making her first quilt in an applique workshop and now attends many if not most of the workshops that are held in the Group to perfect her skills.  Up to now she has managed on a low-end basic sewing machine which has served her well, but she has now decided it's time to invest in a more specialised quilting machine that also offers lots of embroidery stitches.  Helen has been asking various Group members what machines they use, and after seeing the lovely stitching produced by Kath on her work, decided she would like to investigate further.  Kath brought her machine in today and put the machine through it's paces to an impressed Helen.

Kath and Helen with the impressive Husqvarna 

Helen brought along her finished Mystery quilt to show us,

and Ann brought along a small padded etui she has made for a friend

and her finished chopkey cushion cover from last week's workshop. 

It was good to see HelenB too today, who worked on her exquisite, intricate gold-work embroidery, which she designs herself.

Diane is working on a quilt project  for one of her grand-children.  Diane is making it in warm flannel fabrics and is considering backing it with fleece in place of regular wadding and cotton fabric backing, so that it will withstand lots of loving use and regular laundry.

Diane is adapting the design from Keepsake Quilting, to include butterflies and Scottie dogs

Diane also brought in her cushion panel from last week's workshop, to show Jan her progress.

MargaretW worked on two drawstring bags 

and showed her matching scissor keeper.

Although Jill's friend Sharon has returned to the UK, before she went she managed to complete the quilt top for the Mystery project and sent me a photo.  We're looking forward to seeing it layered up and quilted next Sharon!

Finally this week, elsewhere in the hall, members of the Diversity Group were getting messy and enjoying their "play-day", learning techniques with transfer paints, dyes and crayons.  

Helen getting set up to start the "play"  session.  

See you again next week, happy stitching! Rachel

  

Workshop Tuesday......

The cold wind and snow on top of Mt Maroma didn't deter Group members form attending this week's meeting where twelve of the twenty nine ladies joined in Jan's workshop learning how to fold small pieces of fabric Korean-style to add to other techniques to make a smart cushion cover.  Jan used a Rami Kim design to demonstrate how "chopkey" folding is done.

Jan's sample cushion panel

After warming drinks the girls got down to work making narrow pintucks in a strip of fabric for the centre cushion panel.   As always there was a large range of fabric and colours being used.

Diane used a lovely pack of fabrics she had found many years

While Mary and Cath used solid colours as their base fabrics

 It was interesting to see how the different fabrics used created an illusion of shaded textures on the pale fabrics especially.

Once the centre panels had been made it was on to the folding to produce the little folded patches for the cushion side panels.

Elsewhere in the meeting hall group members were busy too.  Christine Speller displayed three pieces  of bargello work she's made to use as samples for her future workshop.  Christine has made two bargello quilts since taking part in a Group workshop in mid-2010  and really enjoys the technique, adapting it for her new designs.

 Maria continued to  work on her Mystery Quilt, adding the first of the borders,

Gill worked on her project for the latest Diversity group challenge, using her cleverly adapted wine case light box, (the Diversity Group can be followed by clicking http://www.vinuelasewandsews.eu/diversity/diversity_gallery.htm )

and Jenny worked on the sample wedding ring block for her future workshop, and in the background Margaret, Sue, Christine, Carol and Sheila worked on their projects.

This tulip blocks form part of Rozanne's current project

and this is the striking centre panel of Kath's latest project, a king size bed quilt in Celtic Knot work.

Cath has added these lovely delicate machine appliqued butterfly motifs to her Mystery quilt,

and Helen Hulm has added Celtic Knot designs to her Mystery quilt.  (Apologies go to Helen for an earlier post where I mistakenly stated that Helen had decided not to add applique to her quilt).

These two mystery quilts are work in progress, below by Group member Chris, and above for Sharon a visitor to our Group when staying with her friend Group member Jill. Sharon attended the first two Mystery Quilt workshops, and then worked over the Internet and phone to get to this stage.

That´s it for this week's busy meeting, next week the Diversity group members will be spending the session practicing techniques using transfer paints, disperse dyes and transfer crayons, and I´m sure there will be more work being done to complete the "chopkey" cushions.  See you then, Rachel