Family, well kinda :)

I was asked by some quilters for a picture of my car so here he is. he's a Ford Capri 2.8i, V6. I've always driven Capris, initially because it was what[ was available for the right price, but later becuase I love them. They are a lot of fun to drive, and you can fit an amazing amount in them.I thought while I was at it I would share the newest member of the family. A Bedfors motorhome. It's not the newest or most spacious vehicle, but it should do what we need. It will make my longer tours a lot easier to arrange and work, and even long drives home after talks will be easier. I might even be able to give up motorway service food. When I do a lot of bookings I do get really sick of the good you can get late at night. I suppose I could even eat before the talks. That would be amazing. I suspect as we get time the van will get renovated and repainted, but for now it will do.I haven't had much time to blog recently given a very full teaching schedule. I am managing it now as I am on the tube delivering quilts to a customer. I've been at Patchwork Corner the last 3 days and tomorrow I will be teaching at Connecting threads. Sunday we will be heading up to quilts UK at Malvern. Tet entered his first quilt there and there are also 4 of mine to be collected. Despite me saying I never win there, I have! I need to be at th prize giving on Sundsy for Greek Fossils (Longarm quilting award) and Mother (Machine Applique award). The award for Mother is especially welcome, as it was judged in a recent show to have very bad machine applique. It just goes to show, judging is not a science. It is very subjective and therefore somewhat relient on luck. You have to get the right judge on the right day for the right quilt. Of course, if you don't enter that won't happen. So give it a go. You never know your quilt could just be what the judges are looking for.If you see me at Malvern do come up and say hello. I don't bite often honest. Also if there are things you want to order from my website I am more than happy to bring them to the show with me. Just let me know today or tomorrow.

Subtle quilt

This is the customer quilt I am currently working on. It's a very subtle sampler quilt in shades of cream. I like working on samplers as I use a lot of different techniques on them and they really make me think. This one more than most. I can't change the colour, I have to work entirely by texture and try to make the design of the blocks really pop. I think it's coming along really well. I just hope the customer agrees with me.I am currently on myway home from the last part of my Ferreting Around class at the Wandering Line in Purley. We have come so far from the first class. Ithas been wonderful watching the quilts and the students grow. I'm going to miss them. Hopefully we will be able to reunite for another course soon. I hope they will all send me pictures of their quilts when they are done. My trip down this morning was by train. I blew a radiator hose yesterday and I didn't have time to fix it. My journey home though is in our new toy. It's a small, elderly motorhome. I haven't had a look round yet but it seems to meet my requirements. It's basic but has a bed over the cab and will save me needing hotels. It is very loud. Probably due to the short exhaust pipe. I am looking forward to making textiles for it as soon as I have time.

Partly Rhapsodic

This is my class project. One of my regular classes felt I sat around too much and that I should be sewing. This is what we came up with as a project for me. It is something I've been wanting to do for a while so I don't mind. I did get a little delayed whne my fabrics were held up by the ash, but everyone agrees they were well worth waiting for. Of course being me I read the 'rules' and immediately decided to break some of them. I also managed to not read one of them (I suspcet I read it but forgot it actually) so my quilt is a bit more challenging than most. What's new? I wonder can anyone spot the deliberate and accidental changes?Following my example two (probably three soon) students are having a go as well. They have both gone smaller than me. I am planning a 100" finished quilt, they are working on 40" and 38". This will use less fabric, although so far mine is using a lot less than I expected, but I don't know it will be easier. I think I have more room to fudge things. We shall see.

Sushi Jo

How else would I celebrate anything? Jo has been helpping me celebrate for years. My first ever quilt ribbon was toasted at his little sushi barin Oriental City. Over the years we have both grown and he now has a lovely restaurant in Chalk Farm. I've been meaning to go to celebrate the launch of my book, and today was the first chance we've had. So a double celebration. As you can see the food was beautiful. It tasted pretty darn good too After my last post I got a package. The ash cloud that stopped flights held up a lot of post as well as people. I was waiting on my fabric for my rhapsody quilt. Starr fabrics had sent it just before the volcano, it arrived today. It's lovely and I will be able to start it nect Wednesday before my student's get too far ahead. After deciding it was too hard and they would just watch me make one, they decided it looked fun. So now there are a group of us working on them. I am really looking forward to it. Of course. Being me, I have broken or adjusted all the rules, but I think it will still work. It will be a bit harder than Ricky intended though.Today didn't pan out quite the way I expected but it's been fun, and that's what counts right?

Happy Birthday to me

So I can finally reveal the great little video/slideshow that Mary at the quilt show put together for me. I am absolutely thrilled with it, and especially as it came up today. What a birthday present. If you would llike to have a look at it, you can find it here. She did a good job didn’t she, and all without actually meeting me. I think their team is getting very good a t connecting with quilters all over the world making full use of the internet and post.

I had been planning on going out today to make sure I didn’t end up working. I know if I hang around the house that tends to happen as I get bored when I’m not quilting, but with the tube network largely shut and the weather not looking great we weren’t coming up with anything fantastic to do. It turns out my presents held a solution though, I’m going to play Rockband today. We go and visit friends pretty often to play and I love it, but I’ve been wanting to learn the drums for a while. You can’t really do that with the ocassional sessions, but now I have my own set at home I can now learn. It is going to be a tight fit as they need to be in the room my longarm lives in, so we may have to get some shelving in which will make my working life easier too.

However, I’ve just decided that breakfast might be a good idea, so we will head off to the Ace cafe and make them feed us. I’ve just been advised on Facebook I should do thinks I shouldn’t because I can and well, a large fried breakfast seems like a good starting point.

Hal

This is the stick I blogges about on Friday. Isn't it cute. I'm told it is a ferret called Hal, and as well as being cute it's a lovely height to lean on and very comfortable. It is even a good fit in the car.Yesterday was another good quilting day. My students worked really hard and are well on their way to producing some stunning quilts. I didm't get any pictures I can share yet, but hopefully I will hear from them when they finish. One lady did bring in a piece she had started in another class which was great. I really love seeing how people carry on with techniques after class. This lady had completed the the autumn leaves project right down to the unusual binding. I suspect the next time I see her there will be a wholecloth to admire.One of the things I really enjoy about retreats is I can take my latest projects with me. Last time I was at Hobby Holidays I was working on my quits for my NEC gallery. Specifically, Mother. This time I was able to take it back and show them the finished project, which will always be partly theirs because they saw it being built. Of course it also means they get to learn about whichever technique I am working on.This time they found out why my bindings and sleeves take me so long. I like all my hand work to be invisible, yes even on my hanging sleeves. I guess this might be why I don't do a lot of hand work. I want everything to be perfect so I spend a lot of time on it. I don't always achieve it though. So doubly it's not satisfying to me. It means that I have really taken to the all machine bindings, as taught by Ricky Tims on his Grande Finale DVD. I got to show my students how it works yesterday, which is unusual. Normally in class I don't have time to do this so this was a nice bonus, and it got Holiday Starrfire finished too.Then I got home. Well things hadn't gone so well here. The main computer wasn't working right so Tet bought it a new hard drive. During the process his bike packed up. Quickly followed by the mouse on his computer. The post that was expected didn't arrive, and the reconditioned computer we bought doesn't look like it was. When I got home I took us out for dinner, and everything he tried to order ran out. His sewing machine was also having issues, at least I could deal with that. Finally this morning, the server that started all the trouble died totally. So for today I won't have net access. I know there are several of you waiting for replies to email and there are more that I didn't even read last night. I'm sorry I won't be able to do anything about it today. If you need to contact me urgently please phone.

Hello from Hobby Holidays

I had intended to blog when I got here last night, but as you can see I didn't manage it. By the time we had set the world to rights and eaten a very fine dinner it really was time for shower and bed. Besides I had forgotten to take any pictures so I figured I would wait.I only just remembered today. The pictures are of the main house where we stay and eat, and the coachhouse which holds the workroom. We are working on wholecloth quilts this weekend. Despite the students having quite a range of experience they are all progressing well and keeping me busy. Their questions have even led me to find some new quilting designs. I did bring two quilts with me that need some finishing but I've been too busy to need them.As with the other multi day classes I've taught I am getting a huge thrill from seeing how much more people can achieve over the longer time. I am lucky to have had several students send me pictures of finished pieces from class, but actually seeing the work is something else, especially seeing the students reaction to their achievments. As with my last trip here the atmosphere is great. I think the relaxed environment helps a lot with machine quilting and being pampered doesn't exactly hurt. I should really get some sleep now. I have high hopes that the students will work me just as hard tomorrow as they did today. I know I've worn them out so it's only fair isn't it?

The South can do hospitality just as well as the North

I think spring might have finally sprung. It’s been a glorious day and not just weather wise. Having travelled to a lot of groups I have noticed that in general the north is far better at hospitality than the south. Sorry, I’m a southerner myself but that’s how I’ve found it. Today I was in Fleet, and I can only assume they are the exception that proves the rule. We’ve been spoilt rotten all day, by a lovely group of quilters. I feel it has to be the joint best faith lunch I’ve been too. I don’t know how quilt groups manage to get such a great variety of food. I would like to give a special thank you to whoever made the lemon sandwich cake, oh boy was that good. The whole event felt very well thought out, from the choice of venue to the signage, to the helpers, everything seemed to run very smoothly and there was a great atmophere.

I arrived at lunchtime (as requested, not just for food and as the speaker was on and I didn’t want to interupt I went to see what the young quilters were up to. They were making very good progress on journal covers. They seemed to have really taken to the project and were progressing really fast. As with a lot of adult quilters they obvioulsy prefer the sewing to the pressing, but being young quilters were managing to get assistance with that bit. I guess there is an advantage to being young a cute By the time I started my talk they had very nearly finished their covers. That’s is very good going. I teach a very similar class and they had got further than a lot of my students do. I also really liked their choices of fabrics, which I guess impies that the group are good at donating nice fabris for them to use. I hope the young quilters were as impressed with their work as I was.

The lady who had been working with them asked a ery interesting question. How many groups have a young quilters section? The answer I think was one of them. Now that is better than I thought, but it is a shame. Oddly it isn’t something I had thought of. I am really keen on finding ways to help younger people learn about quilting, but the law makes it very difficult for shops to do. If groups could manage to put on a few events for their associated children it might go a very long way to filling this gap. I suspect for some quilters it might negate part of the reason for going to a group if it was too often, but even a couple of times a year would be a huge improvement on what is currently available. Also younger quilters have much less idea of what is possible and a whole load of imagination, which they are more than happy to share if given the chance. I am sure we can all learn a lot from the new generation of stitchers, we just have to let them in.

Despite having had a very fine lunch just before my talk it was a very interactive audience. It is a risk that on a warm afternoon with a full belly everyone will fall asleep but the ladies here are up to the challenge and at the end of the talk came up with lots of interesting questions. They also approved of the binding I’ve put n Greek Fossils which is a relief. I’ve been debating what to do for a while as the quilt wasn’t planned as a finished piece. I was somewhat limited in my options but I thought the result was good, but a lot of people have had very strong views on this particular quilt so I was worried how others may see it. I’m less concerened now. 

There were also a high number of really interesting questions today. I like that as it means I have to actually think about things rather than just repeat the same answers, and having net several of tomorrow’s class I think it’s going to be fun. It sounds like I will have several people who are already thinking what they can use the techniques for even before they’ve leanred it and that makes for a very lively class. I don’t think most of you have any idea how much I needed today. It was wonderful, thank you all so much.