ARGH!
October 26, 2008I can’t believe it. I missed the deadline for Road to California. I know I have had a lot going on, but this show is important to me and I really wanted to enter again this year. How could I miss something like that? Still nothing I can do about it now, so I will spend some time checking all the other shows I might want to enter and making sure I don’t miss them. I think I either need an assistant or some software to warn me of impending deadlines.
I’ve had an enjoyable but very tiring weekend manning the Patchwork Corner stand at the Wye Valley Quilters show. Sadly you will have to wait 5 years for their next exhibition, it was a good event, well attended by a very friendly bunch.
Quilt japan
October 23, 2008Magazine out now with my work in.
Whups, I had intended to send that to myself. Oh well. now I’ve said it, I’ve heard that Herd Mentality and my large whole cloth are in it. I don’t know how to get a copy though. I guess this is proof I can’t multi-task. Well not to the extent of sending an email and serving a customer at the same time. No I wasn’t actually supposed to be working I was just trying to be helpful.
Silly things to get excited about.
October 20, 2008OK, I’m sad. Very sad, but a friend’s book is out to pre-order on Amazon, and I am really thrilled. They haven’t got the image up yet, but I am sure it won’t be long.
I’ve been having a weird day all in all. I got up to find my necklace had broken again, so a trip into town was required to get it fixed. With a whole stack of work to do that wasn’t ideal, but I figured I could at least make it to the bank as well so it wasn’t entirely wasted time. So as I was heading out of the door the post came. Including a cheque I didn’t expect. Well that makes the trip into town more worthwhile. So I go to the bank, put my necklace in the the jewellers and have lunch while I wait to get it back. Even though the weather has been getting colder I am still living in my Crocs. A lady came up to me and asked me if they are as comfortable as people say. Strange, but not a problem and we get talking. It turns out that she would like to get into quilting. Her mother was really good at it and now she wants to try it. How strange is that, well it gets stranger. She was most concerned about getting the layers together. Her relatives had told her about people in other countries that will do quilting for others, but had no leads on anyone in this country. Now what are the odds of us just happening to run into each other? It was a very cool lunch and I think she left inspired to start working on a quilt. I can’t believe a day that started to poorly could work out so well and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t broken my necklace in my sleep.
Quilting
October 16, 2008Just for the record I have been quilting. Unfortunately it has not only been customer work, but it’s been going back so fast I haven’t had time to photograph a lot of it. I will try to do better.
I am also working on a new pattern. A couple of weeks ago Jenny at Patchwork Corner challenged me to come up with a pattern for some black and white and red and white prints. Fortunately this really appealed to me and an idea came very quickly. I hope I will be able to share it here sooner rather than later. I’ve only been able to work on piecing this new quilt in down time before classes at the shop, so it hasn’t gone as fast as I would like, but hopefully today I can finish it.
Once I have this top made I want to do a second from the same pattern as I think it will look great n a very different colourway, and I can’t wait to see it. So expect this project to be taking up my ‘spare time’ for a while.
One of the customer quilts I have waiting, that I will definitely get a picture of when it is done is a fund raising quilt. It is a fairly traditional bed quilt that I will be adding feathers to, which will be raffled to raise money for Macmillan Nurses.
I am also making good progress with my second book. Apparently my students are enjoying it so they are working faster than I expected, which means I have to as well. Unfortunately this is stopping me finishing my quilts from the first book. How embarrassing is it when your students are finishing your quilt before you do. Oh well at least one has been kind enough to lend me her quilt for talks, so if you do come to one you will see at least one finished example. It also looks like I finally have a title for it. I want to try it out on a class or two before I share it here, so watch this space.
Something to see in London
October 15, 2008If you are in London before the 19th, try and find time to get to
Gallery Forty-Seven. It is 47 Great Russell Street, and is currently
home to "Dreams and Visions". This is an exhibition of work by six
artists, Marlene Cohen, Claire Crocker, Margaret Jarvie, Alicia Merrett,
Christine Restall and Stefanie Rickard. These ladies work together under
the name Colour FX Textile art and have a web site www.colourfx.org. I was
lucky enough to be invited to the private viewing on Tuesday byt Stefanie,
who won the guest book prize from my show.I managed to get there, in the middle of a very full day and I was
thrilled I had. I have to admit that I like that area of London anyway
but I don't often go there, so that in itself was a treat. The first
thing that struck me was the windows. How dumb does that sound. I don't
think I have ever seen textile art displayed in a window like that, and
well, it's something else. It made me look at it in a different way, and
was attracting the attention of passers by. Not bad going on a wet
evening. Inside the gallery has three separate areas. I like not being
able to see everything at once. I'm not sure for me it is so much a
journey as having to hunt for things to look at. As I am terrible at names (and faces) I went without any idea what I
would see. I was very happy to discover some quilts I had seen before
and enjoyed. Had I the money I think 'Rainbow Fizz' would have had a new
home. I loved this quilt when I saw it at the FOQ, but hadn't got
arround to looking up who had made it. It turns out to be one of
Alicia's. I was also really taken with Solaris 2. It just is. To me it
has everything a sun should. Heat, light, dark and flares. The funny
thing is I don't really know how it had flares, but I could see them,
and I liked them.I can't do these quilts justice here, so if you are arround London in
the next few days, do try to get to see them. If you can't make London
then they will also be on display at the Cowslip Workshops, Launceston
August 2009. I suspect details will be the Colour FX web site.
Blah blah blah
October 11, 2008Another weekend another talk. Today's was near Wantage, and I was paired with Kim Shaw. I don't envy people the job of booking speakers. Not only do you need to find people who won't bore or offend your audience but you also need to consider how well they will fit together. I felt Kim worked stunningly well with me. We both have something of a slack attitude. Perfection is for other people and quilts are to be handled. Yet we also come from very different angles, she does a lot of hand quilting and I claim hand is a four letter work (well it is). I think people had a good time, I hope so, I certainly did.
Long time no time.
October 8, 2008
I haven’t forgotten you all, but I don’t seem to have time to think at the moment. Since I last had time to blog I’ve been out and about again, it seems mostly collecting colds. Last Saturday I spoke at the Quilters Guild Region 7 regional day. It was a lively meeting. I was amazed to find the hall fairly full when I arrived well before opening time, and it just got busier. I really could get used to this being treated like a celebrity, but maybe that wouldn’t be too healthy. At least one of the audience did leave feeling inspired, which is my goal, this is her blog, Master of Patience.
I wish I could have stayed for the afternoon talk, the quilts I saw looked amazing, but I had to ru
n off to the Birmingham Comics Convention. We made it to the convention center before it shut, although we weren’t helped by Birmingham’s one way system and the lack of hotel car parking, and arrived just in time to find our friends had completed their goals for the day and had time to show us around. It’s interesting seeing the different comics shows. Much like quilting shows they each have their own feel. This one was very smart and professional, but not quite as friendly and lively as Bristol. I would put it as my next show of choice though. I like slightly quieter, especially when I am trying to have a look around. Over the weekend I managed to meet a quilter, and buy fabric markers, thus proving that I can work anywhere.
We did also buy a few graphic novels. I was particularly taken by some adaptations of classics. I went for Macbeth, Christmas Carol and Frankenstein. They have lovely black on black covers and from a quick flick through they seem very well thought out. They are apparently being bought by schools to encourage reading so I am hoping they are well done. We did go for those with the original text which I think will help for me, but they do produce versions with different sim
plified text for children. If you would like to read more about the convention, Cy has put a few posts on his blog.
Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to quilting. The quilt you see here is the first I have done with this sort of edge. It is more effort, as I had to mark the curves before I could start, but I do love the effect. I really hope someone will need it again. I am also thrilled with how well the triangular feathers came out. I’ve been doing quite a few of them recently and it looks like the practice payed off. If you would like to see this quilt in the flesh, it will be at Alexandra Palace for the next four days. It will be hanging on the Patchwork Corner stand, which is the only reason it got done this week. I don’t like doing customer work when I am under the weather, but I think I got away with it this time. I am still very busy with customer quilts but rest assured, I am working my way through them as fast as I can.
I am also making faster than expected progress with my second book. I can’t claim this is down to me however. My students seem to be enjoying it (either that or they hate it and are trying to get it finished and out of the way) and are working through it far faster than I expected. This means I have to write faster to keep ahead of them. I have so much more respect for authors who can make them selves to write regularly without this kind of motivation. I know I wouldn’t have the discipline to do it. Heck there are days when I would love to bunk off even now. Still I am pleased to say I have managed to write three chapters this week and hopefully that will keep me ahead for a little while.
Pah
September 29, 2008We had a great weekend off. The weather looked poor with thick fog as we drove up to Santa Pod, but as we arrived it cleared and we got two lovely sunny days. Not too hot just right. OK the evening did get cold but that is to be expected. Unfortunately I seem to have picked up a cold somewhere. It’s slowing me down which is frustrating, but things are getting done. After last weeks mass quilting I was feeling pretty smug, and we know what happens when we feel smug, someone brings us back to Earth. Well in this case several someones. I think I now have more to do than I did last week. I wonder if it is related to the very bad weather this summer. I think we had about 2 sunny days, so people have stayed in and sewn. Now everything needs quilting. No I am not complaining. Actually I am rather enjoying having so much variety to work on, but I has slowed my turn around down. Rest assured, that if I have one of your quilts (or more in some cases) I will be getting to it just as fast as I can.
Of course doing this much quilting is cutting into my time to play with the computer, so this site and my main website may not get updated as often. Sorry, but getting quilts back to my customers has to take priority. Although right now I think I am going to have an early night and try to see off this cold.
Quilting like a mad thing
September 21, 2008Wow, it’s been a mad few days. I’ve discovered that having too many quilts waiting (more than 10) is bad. It makes me very uncomfortable. For some reason that is the point where things feel out of control to me. So since my last post I have quilted 6 customer quilts. I feel much better now, if utterly exhausted. It’s a little concerning that I still have as many to do (to say nothing of three of my own) but it feels manageable now.
To give me a bit of a break from the longarm I’ve been putting together a sample quilt. I managed to cut it out in about half an hour while I was waiting for a class at the shop on Thursday, and it is now ready for quilting. It’s made from the “Turning Twenty – Just got better” book, and it is even quicker than the “Turning Twenty Again” which I love. Tet, who has been helping sell patterns at my talks, felt it was time for me to get samples from the other books. I have to admit he is right, but somehow it hadn’t seemed urgent until someone else pointed it out. Strange how these things work isn’t it. So here is the first of my samples from the other books. I am really pleased with it. The fabrics for the center of the quilt were pretty much the first 20 fat quarters I pulled from the batik display that the shop. I say pretty much as I did put one back, but other than that I just grabbed the 10 darkest and 10 of the lightest. It’s a good illustration of how forgiving this pattern is. I don’t think you could quite walk into the shop blindfolded, pick fabric and be guaranteed a good quilt, but I suspect even that would work out fairly often.
Also I can finally show you my Hever challenge quilt. I wasn’t overly inspired by the fabrics but after they had sat on my desk for a few months I realised they reminded me of one of my screen savers. So that is what I did with them. I would like to try a similar design with circles instead of rectangles, but that is going to be such a pain to stitch, I keep putting it off.
Where do I start?
September 18, 2008
Well I’ve had a few very hectic days and boy has a lot happened. On our last night in Scotland (Monday) we were taken on a tour of Aberdeen. I don’t know about you but I do find it frustrating when you fly into a place but never see it. I seem to spend a lot of time saying, well I’ve been to X but I didn’t actually get to look around, we just flew into the airport. I am so glad I did get to see Aberdeen. They aren’t kidding about the amount of granite used, and personally I think it looks great. I can see that some might find it a bit grey and drab, but not me. I really liked how you find a whole row of very plain functional buildings followed by one that has every architectural feature they could think of. Ornate granite buildings are just amazing.
As our guide works in the oil industry he also showed us the harbour and the rig anchors. I am sure I can get a quilt from the docks, possibly several. I loved all the metalwork there. Especially at night when the lighting is really interesting. Obviously the light is intended to help the workers but some heads upwards illuminating cranes and storage tanks, and it is just so inspiring.
The flight home was largely uneventful, although I did enjoy seeing the South as we flew into Heathrow. There are some amazing buildings on they way in. I would have loved to take some pictures but sometimes other passengers get really concerned about someone with a camera, so I tend not to bother. It’s a shame as you see some wonderful sights, but most of the time I can’t be bothered to deal with people worrying about it.
As I mentioned we have been having a lot of computer troubles. So when Twisted Threads sent me the pictures from the awards I couldn’t get at them. It’s been very frustrating as I really did want to share. However, when you come how exhausted, what better time to sit at the computer and get photos sorted. Thanks tot Tet I can now share these with you. Now rather frustratingly the winners list, which I have to hand, doesn’t tell you who the sponsors are, so I can’t tell you. I will have to have a look for the show guide and see it that does. I can tell you that the lady with the black and white skirt is Beryl Cadman, who is the Gammill longarm sewing machine dealer. She sponsors the long arm quilting award. The other lady is the sponsor of the pictorial award and I believe it the editor of Quilt Mania. She is fascinating to talk to and introduced me to the European Art Quilt Foundation. Then I have to look very embarrassed, I can not think who sponsors the contemporary quilt award. Please do comment if you know as I can’t find my show guide to look it up.
Yesterday I taught my first class of the new term. Well actually my first two classes of the new term. I now have groups Wednesday morning and afternoon. It went pretty well, although I will need to fine tune the change over. I had planned to start on sampler quilt book 2 with Wednesday morning, but they had things they wanted to finish, which was a blessing. Wednesday afternoon though, boy was that manic. They are so quick and lively, they are really going to keep me on my toes. Most of them have chosen to work on my round robin sampler, and in the first lesson they finished the first chapter. They are all ready to move on straight away next week. I am very glad I have this all ready to go, or I would be in trouble. I might see if they will let me take some pictures next week as their quilts all look very different to mine already. I find it fascinating how classes get their own style a well as the styles of the individuals.
Today I am pretty certain I will be starting the new book with my evening class. I’ve had several requests for requirements so I know they are keen. Hopefully they will like what I have planned for them. Tonight we will be starting with a Carpenters Wheel. It’s a block I have been wanting to do for a very long time, so I have used it as the center piece of this quilt. I like to try and get one of my loves into each design they ask for, and so far it seems to have gone down well. I’ll let you know later if it has worked out this time too.
Finally, I have to brag. I found out last night that I have won best machine workmanship in the traditional category of the world quilt show. I cannot begin to say how utterly thrilled I am. It is another award for Guide Me, which I still think is one of the best quilts I have ever made. I’ve been so disappointed by the response to it in this country, so it’s successes in the US are even more important to me. The full list of winners is here.