Textile Arts – Quilting

June 19, 2006

I spend most of my waking hours quilting. Probably not in the way you know it. I do make some bed quilts but recently most of my work is more arty, it is made to hang on the wall. Today I have been finishing a portrait of one of my cats. It will be in the Sandown quilt show in just under 2 weeks so I was starting to feel the pressure. I’ve entered 3 quilts into this show, another one is a bed quilt called “Ginko Typography”, which is the one in the picture. I really only made this one for myself, it was never supposed to go to a show. I used it to practice with my long arm machine so it doesn’t have the greatest quilting on it. I changed my mind about showing it after I took it to a quilters guild show and tell. Everyone seemed to really love it so it hasn’t made it into use yet. Unfortunately as I didn’t expect it to be a show quilt I didn’t put a hanging sleeve in when I put the binding on, so I had to hand sew a 105″ sleeve onto the back. Still it is done and ready to go to the show so I feel like I am making progress.

The final quilt for Sandown is for the theme category, “Baltimore Beauties”. A Baltimore Beauty is a specific style of quilt but as soon as I heard the theme it said something quite different to me, I saw a 1950’s beauty pageant contestant. Finding a source image wasn’t easy. There is surprisingly little around and modern women just aren’t the shape I was looking for. It was the end of April before I found the look I was after which didn’t leave much time to make this quilt. I’ve still got a little work to do on the top but hopefully I can start the quilting tomorrow.

To save petrol (and to make this all a little harder) I thought it would be a good idea to deliver my entry to the Quilt 2006 competition at the same time as the Sandown entries, so I have to finish that as well before the 27th. I thrive on pressure honest This quilt is actually 3 quilts each showing the same image of a nude. They are each in different colours and techniques and show how the image is changed by the technique used to produce it. They are now complete except for hanging sleeves and labels. I will be submitting them mounted on metal rods which I need to cut to size and put fineals on. This a particularly nerve wracking entry as it is my first attempt to get into a juried show. I have no idea how many entries they might have or how many will get through. Realistically it probably won’t make it but it is the best piece I have made so far so I am still hoping it might get selected. Even if it doesn’t it will still be shown at the NEC just in the pictorial category instead.

Why Blog?

Well for some time now I have said I see no point in blogging, yet here I am doing it. Why?

I blame quilters, in many ways Most importantly I met a new quilter at a shop hop and have been having trouble emailing her. She has a blog and suggested I leave comments there as a means of communication. Great except I have to be a blogger member to do that. Though really that was the last straw rather than the germ of the idea. For a while now I have been making textile art, also called quilts (more on this later) and people always want to know what I am working on, what is in which shows and this seems like a good way to keep them all up to date. Also I have issues with my web designer, he means well but somehow looking after my site doesn’t often make it to the top of his list of things to do. Maybe I will be better at keeping this updated than he is with my site.

Guess this means I am now a blogger, scary.