Customs and Excise disrupt planned workshop!

There was disappointment at this week's meeting, courtesy of Spanish C & E, who snagged Elle's shipment of silk ribbon and kits from South Africa.  Elle had planned on giving a workshop for group members this Tuesday, but had to postpone the class while she sorts out the red tape involved in getting her shipment.

Carol sent me this photo above of her quilt which she is now adding quilting to, and below Rozanne showed us her finished tulip quilt, entirely hand pieced, appliqued and quilted.

I brought in my reworked Rose Cottage quilt to show the group.  I began this quilt about 7 years ago, and put minimal quilting on it, by both hand and machine because that was all I knew then.  After buying my Sweet Sixteen sit down mid-arm machine recently I couldn't wait to try out some quilting on it and looked at this quilt which is used on the bed each winter, and decided to unpick all the existing quilting and rework it on the new machine, using it as a practice piece to get used to the machine.  Now I am planning a new project so I can do more quilting as I enjoyed it so much and still have lots to learn about the art of free-motion quilting!

While Pam looks at Louise's ongoing knitting project, several ladies were delighted to see bags of knitting yarn which Elle brought in for them.  This wool has been donated by Maggie's family after she sadly died unexpectedly in the summer.  Maggie's family who knew that Maggie so enjoyed being part of the group when we first set up several years ago,  thought members might be able to make use of the yarn and make a small donation to the charity which helped Maggie in the UK.  Elle was amazed to receive 75€ for the charity from the sale of much of the yarn.   Members who bought some of the yarn will in turn be knitting or crocheting items for more charities which they support individually.  Maggie herself used to knit little baby jackets which she donated to the premature baby unit at our local hospital in Velez-Malaga.

Above, Rozanne is helping Shirley with the finishing of her knitting project and below Louise has the unenviable task of stitching together all these knitted squares into a baby shawl she has been working on for some time,

 while Margaret and Gladys enjoy their lunch during a break from knitting their topsy-turvy dolls.

Vanessa has finally put the last stitches into her lap quilt which is only her second patchwork project.  She says it has been a real learning curve, and she is already planning and drawing out the design for her next piece of work, a seasonal wall hanging with applique which is another new technique for her.

Jenny has found an old unfinished piece of work which she has decided is her "winter-evenings" project.  Jenny dyes her own fabrics and has already heavily hand stitched four layers of dyed calico, and  has drawn out a stylish flower design for which she is using more of her hand dyed cottons for the individual  pieces which Jenny will  hand-applique to the background.

Yvonne is tracing out another of the Japanese designs for one of her projects, a triptych wall hanging in creams and and taupe colours, while Gwen has been tempted by a book Ann brought in to show us.

It was good to see Helen B back this week, here seen chatting to Carole about her quilt, and Kath too who is working on two small seasonal wall hangings after being inspired by others which she saw recently completed by Ann and Helen H.  The "knitting circle" are deep in discussion below,

while Pam and Ann are deciding on the layout of their wall hanging above, and below Charlotte and Michele are catching up on their news.

Jacqueline is pleased to be nearing the end of her lap quilt which, after one of her cats found it in the cupboard and had fun with the wadding sticking out around the edges, meant that she had to trim the quilt more than she intended along the sides!  

After getting some advice from Yvonne, Tricia is cutting out fabric for her next project.  

At this meeting we also discussed our charity quilt project for which Helen Bush has generously offered to design and draw the butterfly motifs for the quilt blocks, and we intend beginning the stitching at the start of next year.  Helen has also offered to add any embroidery to the blocks which many of the group members will take part in making.  

I hope you have enjoyed keeping up with all our news, do please come back again next week. 

                                                                                                                                         Rachel

Short post today.......

This will be a short post today as not only were there very few of us in yesterday's weekly meeting, but my camera batteries failed after very few photographs, and the spare batteries I always have with me had been charged up for so long in their box waiting to be used, that they also had virtually discharged.  So I apologise for very little news this week!
Charlotte was with us again, and was hand-stitching  very small log cabin blocks which are being made for the outer border of her latest quilt project.

While Charlotte is working mainly in black and white prints, Carole is making progress on her latest drunkard's path design quilt, worked in bright autumn colours.  Carole is waiting to buy more backing fabric and gathered inspiration from group members about how she should approach the quilting on this project when it is all sandwiched together.

You can see from these photos we had lots of room to spread out this week, and in the background Louise is leafing through some of our library books looking for inspiration.  Louise was disappointed to check her bags on arrival to the hall to the hall this morning, only to find that whilst she had picked up two large crochet blankets for photographing, and brought the library books down on behalf of Jenny, she forgot her current knitting project, so didn't stay very long!

These two photos just do not do justice to Rozanne's beautiful work.  The bed quilt is entirely stitched by hand, the piecing, applique and quilting.  Stunning!

Shirley and Sue are continuing with their knitting projects (above), as are Gladys and Margaret (not seen here), who are each working on another Cinderlla Topsy Turvy doll.

Jan continued to pull down a knitted waistcoat that she didn't like when it was finished, so she could re-use the yarn, and Vanessa is putting the last few stitches in the centre panel of her lap quilt, and has decided what to quilt in the border. 

 Vanessa is already thinking about her next project, this will be a seasonal wall hanging which she is adapting  from a photo she took.  

Christine is putting the finishing touches to the binding of this scary Halloween wall hanging before she takes it to her grandson at the end of this week.  It was good to see Jill back today after her long trip to the US.  Jill is working on a new project, a crazy patchwork piece in creams with turquoise centres.  At this stage my camera failed, but hopefully Jill will have this work with her again next week, when I can show you what she's doing.

This post has been short and sweet, but just as well, as I have a meeting today with fellow group members of our sister group Diversity.  If you are interested in what we are doing in this group, do check us out on the Viñuela Sew and Sew's web page HERE .  I will be updating the Diversity blog within the next couple of days after the "big reveal" today of our latest project and discussion on the next one.  Have a good week.

                                      Rachel

New workshop offered........

Long-time group member Elle chatted to us at this week's meeting about her new venture; she has become the sole distributor/stockist of Di van Niekerk's hand painted silk ribbons, kits and printed stitch panels in Spain.  This is good news for Elle and us, as we will be able to buy ribbons etc. from her without having expensive postage costs from South Africa.  Also Elle is offering workshops, limited to six students at a time, teaching silk ribbon work and further down the line, stump-work embroidery.   The first workshop is on October 22, and it didn't take long for Elle to be approached by six group members who will work on a small fuchsia design.  All the materials, needles and instructions will be provided in a kit from Elle, students just need to bring along an embroidery hoop.  You can check out some of Elle's lovely silk ribbon embroidery over in her gallery page on our group website Elle Smith

It was good to see another long-time member of the group return yesterday.  Charlotte, seen below right chatting to Margaret, hasn't been able to join us for quite some time but is planning on staying for about 5 weeks and expressed  her disappointment at not being able to attend Elle's workshop as she is travelling back to the Isle of Man on the same day as the workshop!

It was a smaller meeting this week, with only 21 members, and it was really unusual to see only two or three members working on their sewing machines.  Christine, back from her trip to visit family had plenty of space to spread out her work!  I was interested to hear about the reactions from Christine's grandchildren to their quilts  when they were given them during their summer visit here.  Christine's granddaughter was delighted with her pretty quilt, and the younger grandson declared his aquarium inspired quilt to be "cool" so that was a thumbs up, but Christine's older grandson at 12 years old, looked at his quilt then at his mother and asked very seriously "well, what do I do with it"!  Christine says that of course he is pleased to use it now and I'm sure that despite his initial reaction, he would have been very disappointed had his grandma not made him a quilt at all.

Christine, whose row-by-row workshop begins at the end of the month, showed us two of the panels she has prepared  for the project. 

As expected, Vanessa brought in her quilt top with much of the quilting done.  Vanessa is quilting large petal shaped motifs in areas of the quilt and can be seen above explaining to Louise how she marks out the shapes with chalk before stitching.  Vanessa was frustrated at the end of the session to have run out of thread and needed to wait three more hours before the shop opened where she could buy more and she could continue quilting!

Sue and Gladys watching as Vanessa quilts

Eleanor and Sandy had a chat while Kath, below worked on her strippy quilt.  This quilt project has taken Kath right out of her comfort zone, as the colours are very muted compared to the usual bright bold colours she likes to work in.

Decisions, decisions!!  Above Carole is making decisions about which fabrics to use in her next project, another scrappy illusion quilt, while Carol W, below left, is seeking advice on how to stitch this large quilt top which I believe is her first quilt project.  Carol is not happy with the machine quilting she has done so far, as like many of us she is having difficulty manipulating the quilt through the small space on her sewing machine so she has decided to opt for hand quilting, and is getting advice on needles and what threads she could use from Yvonne and Gwen.  The quilt has been packed away again while Carol finds what she needs, and she is looking forward to keeping warm under the quilt while she works on it during the winter months.

Tricia is seen here explaining to Elle where the inspiration came from for her latest "fishy" project seen below,

then Elle listened while Yvonne  explained where her latest work is leading her.  Yvonne is working on a mixed media sketchbook, using paint, paper and stitch working to a theme of springtime.

During the work process, inspiration struck and Yvonne decided to try printing the pages she had created using paint and paper, onto fabric.  She liked the textures produced by the watercolour paper and chose four of the printed fabric pages to make into a small quilted wall hanging and is now adding stitch.  Yvonne says all other work is on hold while this has unexpectedly taken over her time!

Yvonne adding stitch to outline the flowers

Ann has been playing with her new sewing machine and has experimented on her "sumptuous stitch" project (above) by using various individual embroidery motifs  to fill an area of her ongoing project.

AnnC popped in briefly with her grandson and his fiance, to show us these little quilted seasonal wall-hangings that she has made as gifts for family members.  

And before I end this week, I must say hello to Margaret over in the UK who is recovering from knee surgery. I hear Margaret is frustrated at not being able to travel over to be with us at our meetings, but I'm sure you have some stitching and knitting on the go Margaret, and we look forward to seeing you when you get back.

I'll leave you all with a bit of advice I found from a Singer Sewing Manual from 1949 about how you should approach your stitching.  I wonder how many stitchers actually worked in this way?   (Apologies for the quality of the print.)

Delegation from Clece and clients......

At our meeting this week we had a visit from representatives of the local branch of Clece, ( www.clece.es ) a company who is retained by Spanish Social Services to provide care in the community for vulnerable children and adults.  The carers  brought along six local elderly clients, who shared and enjoyed snacks and soft drinks with members of our group, and showed an interest in what we do in our meetings.

Two faces we haven't seen for a while came this week too, it was good to see Chris and Michele.

Chris is continuing with her Scrappy Illusions project which has taken a backseat for over a year while she has made several projects for her grandchildren and taken them over to the US on visits to see them.  Sue popped in with her daughter, to give us the receipt for the Group donation together her own donation, to "the biggest coffee morning" charity event to raise funds for MacMillan Nurses, which she visited while on holiday last week.  Sue said our donation was gratefully received.

Rozanne left, admiring Vanessa's lap quilt.

Vanessa brought along the sandwiched lap quilt top she is working on, to seek advice on how she should approach the quilting.  In the end Vanessa decided on using the shape of a leaf petal found in one of the fabrics of the quilt, and was pleased to find a plastic template in just the right size in one of the Group's template kits.  She spent the session hemming the binding in place while thinking over what design she would lay out and draw before stitching on the quilt top when she got home.  I'm sure that by next week's meeting, Vanessa will have the quilt finished.  Vanessa told me this week, she wished that the Group met four times a week, not just once, as she enjoys her new found hobby so much!

Pam and Ann continue to work on their donations to charity.  This week they were making pretty toiletries bags.

On the theme of charity donations, Sheila has been busy knitting over the last few weeks, knitting for a charity in Africa, called Greenfields Africa, which provides Mama Bags to pregnant African women .  To qualify for a mama bag, the mum is required to attend 3 ante-natal clinics during the pregnancy.  The project not only gives the babies dignity and comfort, it also ensures that pregnant women are tested for AIDS and diabetes and have access to childcare information.  You can find out more by following this link: http://www.gfafrica.com , should you be interested in knitting and donating to this charity too.

The cardigan above uses up leftover yarn from a jumper Sheila knitted for her own granddaughter

A selection of cardigans Sheila will be sending to the Kenyan and Ugandan women for their babies

Here, Margaret and Shirley (left) are finding something hugely funny while translating the instructions on a knitting pattern!

While Carole concentrated on her latest drunkards-path style quilt, Helen has added to her Christmas-themed projects by making a further two hangings, and is seen here explaining to Eleanor, that after seeing Ann's version of the wall hanging, she decided to add little gold bows to decorate the gift boxes on her own project as she thought they enhanced them so well in Ann's work.

Helen has also made a mantle-piece cover to match the hangings and had her husband worried as he thought he had now to make a fireplace on which it could be displayed!  Helen assured him this wouldn't be necessary as the mantle cover and wall hangings have been made to be given as gifts.

Now that Linda has finished her recycled-shirts king-size bed quilt shown above, she is working on something a little smaller!  Linda's wall hanging is made using the stained-glass technique, and is layered up with wadding and backing fabric, now just waiting to be quilted.

 Linda is looking for ideas on how to quilt the wall hanging to enhance the motifs to their best advantage, and she is thinking about hand quilting very close to all the "lead" around the motifs, before free-motion stipple quilting the "glass" areas of the project.  This should make the butterfly and cone flowers stand proud of the panel.

While walking around the room I spotted this clever little thread tidy hanging from the table where Tricia was working.  

The bag is held on the table by the top, and appeared to have something heavy, maybe a ceramic tile, stitched into the fabric, from which the bag itself hangs down over the table edge and while Tricia is working she just drops any scraps of thread etc, into the bag.  This saves having to scrabble around on the floor after a sewing session, picking up all the loose threads.  Clever idea Tricia.

I'll finish off this week by saying hello to you Helen, maybe you are reading this while relaxing on the train travelling to visit Chris. Good to hear the infection is cleared up and Chris has been moved back into the rehab ward.  Your friends here in Viñuela miss you and all shout a big hello to you both!!

                                                                                                                                    Rachel