Nude with rope
November 12, 2007
The professional photographs arrived on Saturday. I am thrilled with them and I highly recommend getting your quilts professionally photographed. As promised I can now show you some better pictures of ‘Nude with rope’. Please do click on the pictures to see the full size image, I have scaled them down a little, but there are still a good size.
It was interesting watching the photographer set up the quilt for photographing. It makes a huge difference as you make quite small changes to the lighting. The proof is in the images though. They are so much better than any I managed of this quilt. He has even managed to pick up the background quilting.
Hopefully with these pictures you can see it isn’t painted, but is made up of several shades of blue fabric. They are lightly fused into place then quilted to secure. I find that bodies normally show me how to quilt them. The only exception to this is faces. I find them very hard to see quilted, and in general I prefer them before I quilt them. This one was a pleasant surprise. Something about the way the light is hitting her face made it clear to me how I needed to quilt it, and when done I still liked it. For me that was a very big deal.
Now I have these very good pictures I can start looking into getting large prints made of some of my work. I love postcards but I would like to be able to offer something with a higher level of detail. I would love to have posters of some quilts, but I guess I would be in the minority so instead I will look at getting high quality art prints produced. Of course, I am always interested in hearing what you guys think of the idea. Would you rather have a poster or a print?
The quilt that sang
November 10, 2007
I guess it proves that being nice can get you the information you need. I was getting very worried that this quilt wouldn’t tell me what it wanted, and the only guidance the piecer had was quilt the not blocks. Hmmm OK. I could see what she meant but I could not see how to achieve it. Part of my problem was I wanted to do something slightly different on the two styles of ‘sashing’. The solution to that was the key to me working out what I needed to do.
I have feathers on the brain at the moment, and I have been wanting to do some sort of interwoven feathers. I knew I wanted to leave the diagonal lines of white squares unquilted so I had to find an alternative to the spined feather. I went for what I think of as inside out feathers, they are really just two half feathers without a spine, but they do hold the coloured section down leaving the white squares to leap up.
To make the secondary blocks clearer I wanted to join them very solidly, so the sun or flower was ideal for the job, I felt that the dense center helped hold the four corners together. I was really pleased when the owner said it is a pattern she uses when she quilts, see the quilt did know what I should be doing.
I’ve not forgotten you
November 8, 2007I’ve just been mad busy. Next week I am off getting some training to improve my longarm skills and I have a lot of customer work to get done before I go. I will be taking my machine with me so even when I am not being taught I will not be working on the longarm. Not a problem I have plenty of other things to keep my busy, and I might even get more time to post.
The next quilt I need to work on is one of those tight lipped quilts that won’t tell me what it wants to be. I really hope it starts talking as I am working on it today! I did suggest to the owner that I could try poking it with pins to make it talk but she wasn’t keen. I guess I will just have to try kinder techniques of looking at it and stroking it until it talks.
On the bright side I should have a couple more quilts to share with you once I have talked to their owners. Now off to pet a quilt.
Thinking and hard tasks
November 5, 2007Well it has been a while, but rest assured I have been busy. Friday I went to a concert which made me think. I like that. Wasp are a band I have liked for years and they always put on a good show but this one was different. They played one album straight through with videos on big screens. I knew the album, and therefore the story but I didn’t appreciate how well observed the character is until I saw the video as well. It shows a child with very strict parents, strict to the point of abusive, which was the first thing that struck me as well done. Where does concerned and strict cross the line in to abuse, is there a line really? The most interesting part for me though was watching the story as the boy grows up and becomes a star, but still the thing he wants is his parents approval. He is shown calling home and each time his mother says “I have no son”. What bothers me is from the people I have known in the same situation this seems to be common. Logic tells me it is silly, he is never likely to change their opinion of him, and it scares me that this need for parents is so hard wired in so many people. The mental hoops people will jump through to make a bad family fit the image of what a family should be. Sometimes the answer is, they don’t fit, but very few people can accept that answer. I hope that one day I can capture this in a quilt, but right now I can’t see how. I guess I will just have to be grateful that there are people already creating work that does.
Saturday I manned Patchwork Corner again. It was less scary this time but busy. I did get the impression that some of the students were quite enjoying the spectacle. I don’t know how some people do that day in day out, and order stock, do paperwork, ship orders…… I was shattered after one day, I guess shop keeping is not for me. If I could just do the bits I liked I think I would rather enjoy it though. I love helping people choose fabrics and calculate how much they need. I was thrilled every time someone came in with a bag big enough to hold a quilt, show and tell is fun, but the rest of it, too much work for me. So next time you visit your local patchwork shop give them a pat on the back, they are doing a fantastic job to keep us supplied. Thank you to all the customers who helped me move heavy bolts about, I did make it through the day without damaging my hand anymore.
Sunday was one of those days when things don’t go according to plan. The thread I am using on the longarm at the moment is giving me a lot of trouble, I can get the stitch to OK but not great, and then I keep breaking the top thread. When I couldn’t find disc 11 of 13 of the audio book I was listening to I accepted it as an omen. I needed to go and take some of my car apart. You may remember a while ago I told you that my darling car had been declared dead, as we have several Ford Capris and I will be buying another, we want to keep everything that might be useful. This means spending a good amount of time taking the car apart before the shell is taken away. Over the summer, which would have been the ideal time to do the work there was a quilting or racing event every weekend so it has had to wait until now. Perfect we get cold as well as battered, cut and dirty. We did do quite well, the gearbox is out, the engine is ready to remove with all the auxiliaries removed, and I discovered that undoing exhaust bolts is indeed the cure for quilting frustrations. I guess it isn’t a common option, but honestly it does work rather well. I suspect lifting the engine out will be just as beneficial.
Busy Busy
November 1, 2007
Well my hand has got better, at least somewhat, so I am back quilting. I am being very careful when I roll the quilt on though. Rather foolishly I forgot to photograph that last quilt I did, but as I know the owner pretty well I hope to get a picture when it has been bound. Still I have now had time to upload the quilt you saw a couple of days ago.
Well I assumed I would now be able to show you the pictures, but blogger isn’t sure about that. I will keep trying and when I get them up I will add to this post. Sorry about that. The spell checker isn’t working either, so please ignore any funny spellings.
OK, I now have the full image up. I took this picture early in the morning in the workshop at Patchwork Corner. Believe it or not that blinds were down, but the sun was still streaming in. I love these crisp sunny mornings. It also does a great job of showing up my quilting. I had intended to get a picture later in the day to show it lit more evenly but of course I forgot. The quilt is a kit that Jenny produces and I think she said it had over 40 fabrics in it. It certainly has a lot, and it is a lovely scrappy quilt. It was fun spotting all the subtle variations as I worked.
Yay, and finally I have the detail picture up as well. This is a close up of the handily high lit area. It gives you an idea of the quilting pattern. I chose all over feathers for this quilt as it seemed to be the most traditional of my designs, and I couldn’t see contemporary designs suiting these fabrics. I am glad that Jenny only told me afterwards that she couldn’t see what I had in mind, and that she liked how it came out. Eeek! That could have gone very wrong. Still all’s well that ends well, and I now have two more quilts that want similar designs so I guess it can’t be bad.
On the other hand I have another quilt waiting that hasn’t told me or it’s owner what it wants quilted on it, and I want to get it done for early next week. Hope it gets chatty soon.
Dangerous Occupations.
October 30, 2007I guess most quilters have realised their hobby isn’t as safe as people might think, but last night I managed a new, to me at least, accident. I turned one of the rollers wit wind on a quilt and something in my hand made an odd noise. Something in the gripping and turning has done something interesting inside my hand, I don’t know what but I know it hurts.
I was sensible and stopped quilting to rest my hand. I’ve tried to keep it warm and not do anything to stressful but it still doesn’t like me. Who would have thought that rolling an quilt could be so dangerous? I guess I will have to add that to my list of things not to do. The worst part is having to explain to people how I have injured myself, why couldn’t it have been something that sounded more exciting?
Playing with light
October 28, 2007
The last couple of bulbs that have blown in the light fitting our my longarm have taken out the fuse as well. The extra step or replacing the fuse means I don’t replace the bulb so fast, yes I really am that lazy about some things. It did mean though that I got to see a quilt illuminated by the machine light alone, and it looked good. The quilting was so clear I couldn’t believe it. So I waited for it to get dark last night and had a play with my camera. It’s tricky fitting the tripod in, and I really needed it for some of the exposures I tried. I found that that inbuilt white balance was having a hard time compensating for the bulb on the machine, I guess there is something odd about the colour spectrum of it. It’s probably the same thing that makes it so good for seeing what I am doing when I a quilting.
Anyway here are the results. The quilt on the frame belongs to Jenny Stafford of Patchwork Corner and is a sample for one of her kits. She is planning on taking it to the Malvern show next week to illustrate the kit, so it will be delivered early next week and I will show you the full quilt then. It is an all over pattern of swirling feathers. I’ve really come to enjoy this design after being quite scared of it for a while. The tape you can see is marked in inches which will give you some idea of the scale. The squares are quite small and I will have to ask her how it is done, as the pattern is quite intricate when you really look at it. I know Jenny though, there is bound to be a clever way of doing it.
Now as promised the picture of the sample I was working on at the shop on Thursday. This will be one of a set of three panels that form a wall hanging when I have trimmed it and bound it. I am not sure yet if I will quilt it. I have a couple of ideas for designs to put on it but I rather like it as is and in a wall hanging it should be OK without the wadding. I will probably leave my final decision until I have all the parts made an then see what they have to say about it. I prefer to listen to the quilt before deciding how to quilt it if I can.
Just in case it isn’t clear this isn’t just a piece of fabric. It is woven from strips of three different fabrics in the Glorious Geisha range.
Patchwork Corner is still standing
October 26, 2007Yup after a day of shop siting the shop is none the worse for wear, as far as I know. I discovered that I don’t know where every bolt lives, and customers have a real talent for finding the thing I don’t know about. I’ve discovered that shops are empty or full. There is never just one customer, and as soon as someone walks in the phone will ring and a delivery will arrive. Why are so many shop staff female? Could it be related to the need to do three things at once? The till only got upset with me once, and I only panicked once, so I think it went pretty well. I was so pleased every time a customer asked about fabric colours or calculating requirements, that I am confident I can deal with.
On the bright side I did get to meet a lot of quilters. It was great to see their projects and talk about their plans. Just being able to chat to like minded people is great, especially as my work is generally quite solitary. I loved being able to work on class samples in the shop, it seemed easier to get down to work when I was in the right setting, even with the frequent paused to server customers I think the sample went quicker than it would have done at home. I will try and get a picture of it later.
I will be looking after the shop again on Saturday 3rd November. I think I am looking forward to it. I am certain that running a shop isn’t something I could do full time, but once in a while it’s quite fun. I really enjoy having the chance to get insight into what is involved in other peoples jobs, I not only understand them better but it makes more appreciate my work more. I could not deal with that amount of juggling every day, credit to those who can.
Now on a lighter note, blogger suggested this site to me today when I logged in. I don’t normally follow the links but this one intrigued me, The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks should appeal to those language pedants among us, although I am sure it will frustrate as well as amuse. People do abuse punctuation terribly (yes even worse than I do).
Come visit, please
October 25, 2007Well I am off for my first day of shop sitting. It’s kinda scary but I think I know what needs doing now. If you are out and about in Hemel today please pop into Patchwork Corner and say hi. Friendly faces will be very welcome.
A great way to spend a day.
October 23, 2007Well what a wonderful experience. I loved having my quilts photographed. It is quite amazing how much better they look when they are hung well. There were a couple that I really didn’t rate when I have seen them hung at shows, but when properly supported they look so much better.
It was odd to find I didn’t know some of my quilts as well as I thought. ‘Where is the North Star’ turned out to be a lot bigger and more red than I remembered it. Rather embarrassing as I asked if we could do it when we had finished as an extra, I said it was smaller than ‘Guide Me’, well I thought it was. For some reason I was sure it was a large single, rather than the nearly King size that is actually is. Oh and if you want to think about photographing your quilts, you might want to minimise the amount of red purple you use, it seems to be a very tricky colour to photograph accurately.
I know I won’t have the finished product for a while, but if today was anything to judge by this is going to be very good value for money. It is amazing how useful it is to have an experienced photographer who is used to looking at quilts. He could see great closeups that just didn’t occur to me. His knowledge of lighting quilts and tricks for getting the best from there is not something I could learn in a hurry, or indeed reproduce if I wanted to. I don’t know if you can tell but I am very excited about having these pictures. Rest assured, I will share some small versions of them once I get them. I am looking forward to being able to put better pictures in my online portfolio. I also have a new project to work on, one of the closeup shots will make a great small project.