Too much Tuesday

You know there really is just too much of some days. Tuesday was one of them. The day started very well. I met up with some other UK longarm quilters., great fun and very informative. I’ve bought some new to me pantographs, including meeses. It is a fun design and I will use it for project Linus quilts. It is also very much how I want to remember Fran, who’s studio it came from. Leaving a little early even meant I got home before the rain.

The evening was pretty good too. A friend came round and told me more about art which is great fun, but then the late night phone call. Robin had been out at a nearby friends playing boardgames and was calling to say he had been delayed on the way home having witnessed a road traffic accident, key phrase being biker down. It had been raining on an off all evening so the roads were slick, not good weather for bikers. As a lot of our friends ride I wasn’t surprised they had stop. Time passed, and nothing. Then after a couple of hours, another call, the accident was a fatality, there was a huge police investigation underway and they had to wait to have statements taken. It was gone 3am before Robin and the friends he had gone out with made it back here. Minus the car they had left in. The police wanted it to check that it hadn’t been involved. When Robin had said they were witnesses, what he meant was there was a miracle, that saved the pillion from being run over by the car they were in. The bike lost control in front of them and the pillion rolled in front of the car. They have no idea how they missed him, except the car just wasn’t in the wrong place. Understandably they were all shocked by the accident. They were first on scene and were the ones who checked the rider and his pillion. The pillion escaped with just broken bones, he was beyond lucky. Sweet tea all round, especially as they had all been standing outside for hours in the cold.

Please folks, take it easy out there. Death isn’t far away, you aren’t invunerable, and I really don’t want to be dealing with any more tragedy right now. Look after yourselves, and where you can others.

October Gallery Visit

See I am sticking with this. This month I had the chance to drag along someone who studies art and having a mobile reference book is really handy when you know very little about the subject. We met at Green Park, as that is where our tube lines meet, and while I was waiting I heard that the Royal Acadamy is really close to there. So that became our first port of call. When we arrived there was a choice of two exhibitions, but whilst I have read both the names I couldn’t think what either did. This is one of the problems with not recalling names. So handy expert says, “paintings or sculpture?”. It had to be sculpture given that the classes that really appealed to me were all about three dimensional quilts, so the first artist of the day was Rodin. Wow what a good choice for knowing nothing. Turns out I really like his work. He sculpted so many women in so many great poses. I think he has pretty much got the set. My ‘I wish I could take it home’ piece for today is Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Sadly even if you find a picture of it online I don’t think you will get to see what I most liked about it. It is a plaster of two female nudes embracing. From the back of the piece (how do they know it is the back?) you can see a woman kneeling with her back to you. The shape of her back if fantastic, but for me what makes it so amazing are her feet, just poking out from beneath her bottom. It is an image I really want to make as a quilt, I am sure I won’t do such a good job, but the pose is so beautiful I might get away with it.

After lunch we had time for a second gallery so went back to plan A, the Hayward Gallery. They are currently showing, How to Improve the World – 60 Years of British Art. Oh and Mondays is half price, if you feel like going. This was a huge contrast to the Rodin, I am finding it hard to get to grips with how diverse art is, especially when quilting isn’t. I really don’t understand how Bridget Riley’s Movement in Squares is art yet very similar things in fabric aren’t. It just doesn’t make sense. Maybe I need to try and find a way to get the Arts Council interested in my work to help the cause. (Sounds impossible but that has never stopped me before). Most of the works here left me cold but as ever there were exceptions. They had two pieces on display by Barbara Hepworth, both of which I liked very much. I love the organic smoothness of her work, they seem very calm and soothing. I was pleased to see two BMW engines being used for something useful, covered in copper sulphate crystals by Roger Hiorns. When I first looked up the Hayward Gallery online I got a picture of Tim Head’s State of the Art. I quite liked it online but in person it is really cool. I loved trying to spot things I had owned in the 1980’s just fantastic. I would have happily had a poster of it had they had one for sale. Interestingly there was on that I don’t think I would have liked only a couple of months ago. It is Tony Cragg’s New Stones, Newton’s Tones. It is broken pieces of plastic objects laid out on the floor in colour groups. It is very much like ‘Digital Rainbow’. I don’t think it would have leapt out at me in the same what had I not done something similar. It was also interesting to note he had had the same problem with blue, indigo, violet. He seems to have tried for all three and to me that section read much less distinctly that the other stripes. I think I made the right decision for me when I left out indigo.

All in all it was a very informative day. I didn’t really expect to get much from going to galleries, but I accepted that people felt I should know more about art. I am finding it very inspiring, and in some cases it reassures me that what I am planning is going to work. I would really recommend anyone going along and having a look. I won’t say you will like everything you see, in fact I am sure you won’t, but I do think it will give you a new perspective on art, and possibly the world in general.

Quilters Guild Regional Day – Region 7

Yesterday I went to the Region Seven regional day. Unfortunately it clashed with the Region One day, which I would otherwise have gone along to. On the other hand the weather was great and the event was held in Roade, very close to Santa Pod where the guys were playing with the Camero. I even got lucky with the traffic, and arrived just before 9am ready to set up the bring and buy stall (now just a buy stall The traders were all in a small room off to the side of the main hall. It was cozy and being out of the way meant I could occasionally abandon my post to fetch refreshments and mingle.

Our first speaker Dawn Cameron Dick, brought along lots of real working quilts. You know the sort you put on the bed or curl up with on the sofa when you feel ill. It was lovely to hear and artist talking about their work being used and loved. Of course, me being hopeless with remembering names I didn’t realize I had one of her books until she held up the quilt that was on the cover. Doh! The talk was very funny and it felt like we were being given a great deal of insight into her family. The stories of how people had been involved with the design phase of the quilts were especially interesting to me. One of the nicest parts of these days and the talks is that you get to touch the quilts. I do love shows, but my fingers really do give me information my eyes don’t. For example the great softness of these well used quilts and how well integrated the invisible machine applique becomes. Definitely a speaker worth seeing if you get a chance.

This first talk was followed by lunch and spending frenzy. Thanks to everyone who bought things from my stand, we sold about half the stock and raised a good amount for guild funds. Yes I am being vague, I don’t believe what my maths told me To get us back into the listening frame of mind we had a show and tell. As ever there was a fantastic range of work to see. I was very lucky to be in the queue just behind the lady with several very small and details pieces. As ever my memory is failing me on her name or that of the tutor where she had learned about adding texture through shrinking. I think it is something I will have to look up. It was a fantastic effect. Naoko brought along two pieces to show, a stained glass wallhanging in European colours, with a border that looked like it was catching the light, and a landscape from a class. The landscape was striking as it moved it changed so much. I am really looking forward to seeing it finished I think it will be a very special piece. Another special quilt was ‘Sixty Five Roses’, if you say it out loud it sounds rather Cystic Fibrosis, which is what the quilt is about. The top is 64 roses in shades of red pink and cream, the final rose will be on the back of the quilt and be made from white fabrics in different textures to represent the faulty gene which causes the problem. The quilt was made using Pat Deacons techniques which is why the maker had brought it along. I hope she will being it back finished.

Just before starting her talk Pat Deacon was called upon to draw the raffle and choose the recipient of the Margaret Bright Bursary. I couldn’t believe it when my name came up. I didn’t know what to do. Was I supposed to go and say something? I settled for standing up then sitting down again. It was a nice shock, but still a shock. I was very late applying as I felt it should go to someone Margaret had known. I guess now I really have to do her justice with it. It is 50GBP to be used for a course. We then have to bring the finished item along to the next regional day. I’ve been looking online today for a course worthy of this money, and I think I will go for something at Missenden Abbey. These are courses I would never consider without the bursary and I think they will really expand my knowledge. I will let everyone know which course I finally choose.

….. Sorry folks the review of Pat’s talk will have to be added later visitors have just arrived.

Yes, our afternoon speaker was Pat Deacon, hers was the championship quilt at Sandown this year. Having taken a class with her I was looking forward to the talk, and I wasn’t disappointed. She had brought along many of her quilts and talked a lot about how they came to be. I was especially interested in the ‘View from the quilt’ mini series. It is two quilts showing what a quilt sees when it is at a show. I loved her use of colour to show whether people likes the quilt or not, and having seen how simple a shape will still read as a human figure I think it is something I might try at some point.

The strangest part of the day was being invited to join the committee. Yup the guild is prepared to have someone like me helping to run it. I am very surprised, but thrilled. Now I suppose I have to work harder at getting more people to some to the regional days. So if this sounded like fun (and it really was) and you fancy coming along to see if you like it let me know and I will keep you posted about future events. The events are open to non members but it will cost you a little more to get in (I think it is two quid extra so twelve instead of ten). If you live locally I might even be able to give you a lift.

Challenge quilt – things I forgot.

The quilt is about 11″x15″ I say about because I haven’t trimmed it yet. I think it will be pretty close to that size though. The scraps I used for the leaves were cut several colours at a time. This meant that they scattered and mixed really nicely with very little intervention from me. The branches I put down first, and did position with a bit more care. I did make sure I had leaves covering the bottom of the trunks, but that only needed a little herding, not careful positioning. I don;t think it would have looked as natural if I had tried to position each piece. It would also have taken forever, the leaves are all significantly smaller that quarter inch square. The only thing holding the leaves in place is the quilting.

The first idea I had was to make the path and sky from mesh, some sort of netting. I was going to cut the wadding to the shape of the tree trunks then stitch black netting into the space for the path and white into the sky. Then piece the trunks exactly as I ended up doing it. After that I was thinking I would add the little bits of fabric and another layer of net. I decided against doing it this way because I wanted the sky to be definitely blue, I wanted the path to be solid, and I wasn’t sure I would like the look of the net over the branches and leaves.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge – 1 – revealed.

I have got as far as I am going to for the moment on the challenge quilt. The theme was fall colours and a three dimensional feel / element. It is a shame that I had already made ‘Golden Storm’. That is really my interpretation of this theme. Still no point crying over it. I had to come up with another idea. I was thinking about dense forests in Autumn. The way the trees tower over you and the leaves everywhere. I decided I would make this on the longarm, including the piecing and that to add another level of depth I would allow the wadding to show in some areas. So I started by painting the wadding. Just in the sky and the path as the closely packed trees would cover the rest. The first picture shows the wadding just after I loaded it onto the frame. It was about this point I started to worry. I really do think about quilts for a long time before I start them normally so this is where the challenge really hit me. I did press on and put in the trees. If I were doing this again I think I would want a wider range of values for the tree trunks and I would make them narrower. As I got to the nearest trees I added extra wadding. Unfortunately it doesn’t show in the picture but the outermost trunk on the right as you look at it, is very rounded. Once all the trunks were on I used the offcuts from ‘Golden Storm’ to make leaves, and scraps from the tree trunks for branches. The leaves on the trees are held on with quilting made to look like twigs and branches. The leaves on the ground have a more pebbly quilting, which does look pretty path like in real life. As you can tell the camera didn’t do a great job of capturing the colour but I think it is close enough to give you the idea.

I haven’t trimmed the quilt yet. When I first though of the idea I was going to add some cylindrical stuffed tree trunks in the foreground. I don’t know if I will but I want to keep my options open right now. I figure that when I decide how I want to bind it I will make the final call on adding tree trunks. Also I might try some more quilting on the existing trunks to make them look less blocky, but I am not sure about that either.

First ever squishy

I got my first squishy today. Thanks Wittering Rainbow. She has sent me three shades of green that work well together, so now I am looking for a design I can make in three shades. It all very exciting. I guess I nee to pick something fairly simple, and ideally quite organic, hmmm maybe a green man? Guess what I will be thinking about today.

National TV interest in quilts

I had such a strange day yesterday, today it seems like a dream. I was working on my challenge quilt when the phone rang. It was a man calling from the BBC Newsnight program. They were planning a piece on global warming. Focusing on the fact that scientist say it will cost less to fix things now than if we wait longer. So a stitch in time… To illustrate it they wanted to use my quilted globe ‘Tread Lightly’! What a surprise. I explained that it had been stolen and I would have to contact the owner and see what she thought about it. She was very nice about it and happy for them to film the globe. As it turned out they used the image of an inflatable globe instead, but I am still very flattered to have been asked. I hope that they will remember me and find a use for one of my quilts in the future. If nothing else the idea of a quilt illustrating the news is just fantastic.

Pet and humans sleeping under supplies

Wittering Rainbow has issued a challenge to show quilting related things piled up on pets and humans. Here is one of my cats. He fell asleep on my desk while I was trimming blocks for the two person quilt we had in the Festival of quilts. He did end up with even more on him but I didn’t get the picture of that. This is the trimmings from about a quarter of the blocks. Fortunately this cat doesn’t move too much when he sleeps as I was trimming with a rotary cutter very close to him. I am hoping I can balance things on another of my cats before the end of the day, but you know how contrary they can be.

Challenge insight

I made the decision to limit the time I spent thinking about my quilt for the fast challenge. I didn’t really expect it to make much difference to me, given that I usually work quite quickly once I have planned my design. Apparently the thinking phase is the main area of what I do, i am feeling very uncertain about this small quilt. I will keep going with it, I am interested in what I will manage to make of it, and I wonder if it will give me a new way to work for a different result. At the moment I don’t think my final piece will be as good as what I have in my head, I guess my confidence comes in the planning, but still it should at least convey the feeling of what I am thinking of.

Given it is for a challenge I don’t feel I can share my work here until I have put it onto the challenge site, so until then you will just have to make do with these reports. There are plans for these challenges to be a monthly event so you could still sign up for the next one if you wanted to join in.

Wadding takes forever to dry.

Well I have a plan. I figure these challenges are a really good time to try new techniques and ideas. Having spent yesterday kicking ideas around, I am now off and running. One of the new things I am trying is painting wadding. I want to use the wadding as a foundation and in some areas it may well be visible in the finished quilt, so I want it to be the right colours. It is also the first time of trying my Tsukineko inks that I bought at the NEC. I really like them. Being inks they are very fluid and spread really nicely on the wadding. Putting it onto dry wadding lets you put in quite a lot of detail, and on wet it blends beautifully. Also I bought the inks as sets, which come with ‘Fantastix’ they are sort of paint brushes, in the loosest sense. They are dense fibers unlike brushes and come in two shapes, brush and bullet. I quite like them, but being very frugal I wonder how much ink I waste when it is absorbed by the tool. Realistically the ink is fairly cheap and seems to go a long way to I shouldn’t be worrying.

Oooooh, part of the work is dry, I had better go and prepare the fabrics so I can get on with the next phase.