Another day another hall
June 10, 2011So here I am again in another car park. As a speaker and tutor you get to see a lot of car parks, maybe I should start photographing them for a collection. No, maybe not. Yesterday evening I was in Ringwood in Hampshire. It was a nice hall with a stage. Being short and making big quilts stages help a lot. It's really hard work holding all your quilts above your head for an hour but when you have a good stage you can hold them at a comfortable height. I didn't have time to take any phots though, sorry. We had a good turn out and despite me being a bit rusty the talk seemed to go down well. I even got a good run home and made it back just after midnight.Today I am having lunch with Gone to Pieces near Amersham. After lunch I will try and keep them awake with my quilts. The straight after lunch slot is a tricky one. Full warm people do tend to fall asleep. I don't take it personally but I do challenge myself to try and keep them all awake. I usually fail.
Quilting
June 4, 2011
Sorry this blog has been somewhat neglected. It seems when I am at home I can find no end of work to fill my time. Time to bog mostly come up when I am out and about these days. Today I am sitting in a car park waiting to teach machine quilting so it's appropriate that the images I have for you are the quilting on one of the quilt's I've entered into the Sandown show. The quilt is quilted with alternating feathers and background fillers. The top must have been waiting a year for me to have time to quilt it and I had fun with it when I finally got to it. There will be a couple of new quilts from me at Sandown, so keep your eyes open for them.It's half term for my regular classes so I decided it was time for me to work on something of my own. I've been putting off my new wholecloth until I had the zippers on the frame. I know this quilt will take a lot of time so I have to be able to take it off the frame and do customer work in between. I had planned it to be a square quilt about 100" but the hand dyed cloth is too good to cut so it has ended up a slightly larger rectangle. After three days solid work I am just over half way putting in only the big motifs. I love it but it won't be quick. I am hoping it might be done for the Harrogate show in September but I won't promise anything. If I miss that deadline I should have it done for the Scottish show.
I’m still alive
May 24, 2011And I was going to write a nice long post but I can't log in. I wonder if this will get through.
it’s finished
April 24, 2011
Well bar a good pressing. This quilt is from a kit by Starr Fabrics. It's called Royal Treasures. I started it at the track last year and I've only worked on it when I've been in the van (hance the lack of pressing). I enjoy doing kits when I am on the road as they are easy to pick up and put down and they don't tax me too much. My next van quilt is Judy Niemer's Wedding Star pattern made with Starr Fabrics Starrfire fat quarter packs. It's going to be loud. It isn't likely to be quick though. I am aiming for a king size and that means over 300 arcs need to be made with 8/10 pieces in each!Race wise yesterday wasn't great. We ran much faster than we expected on the first run (17.48) then much slower on the second run (*18.22). Our third run of the day was cancelled so they could work on the track. It had been painfully hot and the track needed the rubber cleaning off it. Maybe we will do better today.
Racing quilt
April 23, 2011
I got the center of the quilt done just after our third run of the day yesterday. The only place big enough for me to display it is my car, but I don't think we will be allowed to race with the car wearing a quilt. Our second run was the fastest of the day at 17.71, for our third run we were hoping we could get the same time rather than work the car harder. Unfortunately the third run was 17.84 so we didn't manage to improve our qualifying position.
Santa Pod – Easter Thunderball
April 22, 2011
As many of you know I decided I had to take a few days off, and I thought the racing was the ideal holiday. Of course it couldn't be that simple, Tet decided he wanted to race so my engine had to be rebuilt. It's been a very busy couple of weeks as I still needed to get my word done as well as making sure the car is ready. Wednesday night we were running in the engine and Thursday the oil was changed, rev counter fitted and we made it to the track. My idea of a good holiday is one where I can lie in bed in the morning listening to race cars warm up. This morning the cars provided, it was lovely, and before breakfast we were through scrutineering. The photo is from my walk to sign on. It's a lovely bonnet isn't it.Our first run we dialed in 16.5, the car should be able to run that easily, but of course we haven't tried the rebuilt engine yet. When it came to it, the launch was poor (but then this is my road car) and Tet decided to take things carefully, 18.05 is pretty slow, but it is safe and the car is still happy. On the quilt front I have almost finished the one I started at the track almost a year ago. I would love to get it finished today then I can start my next project while I'm here.
Patchwork Corner – tulips
April 14, 2011
Last Saturday I was at my regular venue in Hemel Hempstead teaching Ricky Tims Caveman Quilting. It involves free cutting using a rotary cutter but no ruler or pattern. Though the class is called tulips I always advise naming quilts after you havbe made them, and as can see some of the tulips got other names. To be fair the lady who made the butterflys had done the tulips class before and asked if she could do the follow on class instead. It never hurts to ask and in this case we were able to help her out. I, and I think most of the other students really liked the other 'tulips'. We couldn't agree on what they were but they got all o us thinking, which I think is a good thing. They are one of those shapes you can just keep looking at. I think they are alien plants personally, or maybe something very futuristic.
Norfolk – art quilts by numbers
Hmmm, well, I shouldn't be blogging, I shouldn't have time but at lest it means I can show you the last installment from my trip to Norfolk. After the mad Saturday I did wonder how Sunday would be. It turned out to be a great day, the group got an amazing amount done and seemed to have fun doing it. These aren't all the finished quilts just as many as I feel I can upload from my phone. It was another glorious day a couple of us managed to find time to visit the junior farm and play with the goats. Essential research for future quilts, honest.Now, why am I blogging? Well instead of being at the unit loading my van for the talk this evening I am getting the train to Hemel Hempstead. The van is headed to Greenwich with capri cylinder heads on board (yes the ones that were in the bathroom last night). We are trying to have the car ready to race at Easter but things are not going to plan. The van will catch up with me at Hemel ready to head to Essex. Rather more exciting than I planned but it does give me time to blog so I suppose I can't really complain.
Norfolk – tulips
April 8, 2011
I didn't remember to take any pictures of finished tulips on Saturday. There were some but I was very tired and a bit confused. One student found a new error and decided to share. As you can see it didn't stop the hilarity. I thought about not putting up the laughing photo, but it's a fair shot really. I think Shaz must have ached when she got home, she laughed so much. The workshop is upstairs in what I would guess is a converted barn. The light is good and the beams make great perches. You can see everything from the middle beam. Hopefully some of the students will share some pictures. If any of you have youir own home on the web please feel free to leave a comment directing us to any pictures.
Norfolk – speed quilts
I know, I know, it's not tomorrow. What can I say? I'm rubbish. Actually I was tired after the Saturday class and this is the first chance I've had since then. As you can see most of the ladies went for speed 1 and finished their baby quilts easily in the day. In fact by lunch time they were almost done. The workshop at Sew Creative is above the shop giving us a great way to display all the work. All these quilts were made in the day, and it was great. Lovely weather and good students. Some of the ladies even went home and finished their bindings that night. That's what I mean by speed quilts.