Oh!
August 15, 2008There is a disadvantage to going around the show early the first morning. The awards aren't all up. So my last report wasn't entirely accurate. If I've got this right (and it is late) my final tally is,
Judges choice – Herd Mentality
Highly commended – Radience
Third place – Contemporary Small – Heat
First place – Pictorial – Herd Mentality
First place – Longarm – Flying FeathersYes I am thrilled, and somewhat stunned. I did decide I had to go to the gala dinner, and actually the food was very good this year. I don't know what has happened but I am impressed. Strangely I found it far more nerve wracking to go and collect prizes that to give talks. I guess it is a control issue, but it was interestinmg enough to slightly distract me from how scared I was.When I got back to my hotel I ran into some guys here for another conference, Magic the Gathering. Yes, yes, I know I shouldn't like it, but I do, and I think they have learned something about quilting too. Hopefully I can catch up with them tomorrow night. I am going to be exhausted at the end of this.
Festival update
August 14, 2008
I thought I could skip the gala dinner this year. It's expensive and I don't enjoy it, so last night when I got a call suggesting I go I told them I had other plans. I did too. Fortunately quilters understand that when you win awards you might have to stand them up. I think the pictures tell the rest of the story. Heat is wearing 3rd in contemporary small in case you can't read it. Sorry the white quilt isn't clearer, it is hard to photograph with a phone.
Excited – I think
August 13, 2008I've just had a phone call suggesting I might like to change my plans for tomorrow night. Perhaps I would like to go to the Gala dinner, it might be to my advantage. Hmmm, I really don't enjoy the dinner, but maybe I should be there. I will look at the list tomorrow morning and make a decision I think.
Wow, a stand and a good hotel.
I am stunned, I've got an amazing room and it was the penultimate room on site. It's not a cheap room, although it's full price is less than the other hotels full price rooms. I wish I had had room to bring some of my quilts with me. They would look great on the huge high bed and in front of a purple faux leather headboard.I arrived at the NEC before 11 this morning. The van had already been unloaded and the shelves assembled. We have been working pretty solidly since and we still have a few small things to do. Well actually Jenny has a few tweaks to do. I am on a workshop tomorrow. I think the stand is looking pretty good. It is I20 near the back of the hall. It's also close to the longarm gallery. Do come and say hello.I had a little time to walk around this afternoon. There are some wonderful small galleries, I can't wait to have a better look at them. I don't know why but I was very surprised to see a Ricky Timms quilt. Thinking about it, it isn't surprising given he is speaking and teaching here, but I hadn't thought about it.Hopefully I will have some time to look around tomorrow, but if not I will on Friday.
and off we go
I am about to head off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham. Today is set up day for the traders and I will be helping Jenny get the Patchwork Corner stand ready. It’s an odd day at the show. You’ll just have to take my word for it that it will look very different by tomorrow. Today is also judging day, but no the results don’t go up until Thursday morning. I guess someone has the job of typing and printing results sheets tonight. It can’t be much fun and they must have to do a pretty big print run overnight to give a copy to everyone tomorrow. So bear a thought for the huge team who will be putting your show together until pretty late tonight, and indeed for the teams doing all the shows around the world, it’s a big job. Hope to see you over the next few days. I will try to keep you updated.
Progress report – Block of the Month
August 10, 2008
I managed to get a reasonable amount done yesterday on the block of the month. I think it is starting to look like the picture on the pattern now. Always a good sign. As you can see I finished the feathered star at the centre of the quilt, which makes a huge difference.I already had a lot of the border pieces finished, or close to finished which meant getting to here was pretty quick.
This morning I have added two more stars already, and I have all the pieces cut to fill in the area at the bottom between the centre and the pinwheel border. The pinwheel border to the right needs extending by a couple of blocks then that will be ready to go on as well.
To the left I think the next border is flying geese, so I should be able to get those on as well today. I do have all day Tuesday to work on it so you never know I might get it all together. I certainly think I will have a good amount of it done. I guess I had better stop gossiping and get back to work.
A third Woo Hoo!
August 9, 2008Yesterday should have been a three woo hoo, kind of day. Well it was but I needed to take overnight for the last one to sink in. Herd Mentality has been selected for the Houston “Quilts: A World of Beauty” exhibit. I am so excited. I’ve been trying to get into this show for a while without success, and I really didn’t expect to do any better this year, so when I got the email I had to read it several times to be sure. It was lovely to be able to tell the group I was speaking to last night too. I was feeling a bit guilty as so many of my quilts are off doing their thing at shows and galleries. I’ve realised this is the hardest time of the year to do talks, although I do now have enough work to be able to do it. I guess this will get easier every year too, but still I felt bad about it. Somehow being able to give them the news first helped a bit.
Honebee Quilters are a lovely little group, surprisingly close to where I live. They also have a nice range of quilters from absolute beginners to really experienced. It was nice to see so many people actively sharing their skill and knowledge, this is what we need if quilting is to have a long and exciting future. They are also a very open minded group. They loved the idea of punk quilting, drag racing and collaborative projects with other areas. I’ve now got the source artwork for my first cross over piece, and after the shows I will be getting started on it. I think it is safe to say my first foray into this new area will be large and eye catching. Possibly also rather challenging, what a traditional artist can do fairly easily with a pencil will be very tricky to replicate with a longarm, but I do like a challenge.
On the subject of challenges, I am trying to complete a quilt top before I go to the Festival Of Quilts. I am going up Wednesday, and I will be out all day Monday. It is the block of the month that Patchwork Corner are running. I fell in love with it because I think it will be great to quilt. Oh boy! It has a lot of pieces and I am finding working form someone else’s instructions, and in their way quite a change. Still I think I am over half way, and accelerating. I have month one finished. This is the corner triangles that go around the center block. The center block is about 3/4 done, I needed a change last night so I did month one to get a breather. I’ve also made several pieces of border, only some of them have made it up to the design wall though. I’ve decided that rather than make the pieces in month order I will work from the center of the quilt outward. This is partly 
because I know I am motivated by seeing progress and I think it will look more like I am getting somewhere if I have a large piece of top together rather than lots of smaller pieces. Also if I don’t quite finish on time I will have something that can be displayed, where lots of disjointed parts can’t. My final reason is it will give me a chance to adjust things if I find my sewing isn’t as accurate as I hope, and I will be spacing the adjustments in between other sewing. I don’t find the adjusting and fiddling terribly exciting so this will also make things easier for me. Now wish me luck I have a lot of piecing to do and not a lot of time to do it in.
Woo Hoo
August 8, 2008It seems to be time for me to find my work out and about. I’ve just had a call from a friend telling me two of my quilts are in Fabrications this month. Perttu and Lilly were photographed at Sandown and have made it into the show report.
A couple of days ago I was talking to another friend who told me one one of the prop sewing jobs I’ve done appears in the films trailer which I could find online. Yay, I love to know the work actually gets used. The film is Doomsday and indeed if you search you will find trailers for it. I helped make the armoured environment suits. If you watch really closely there is also a suit of armour that he made. It’s odd, although we both worked on the same film we were at the workshop at completely different times, and it was a while before we twigged we had been working on the same film. The film is out on DVD soon, and I was planning on getting it to see my work on film, but having watched the trailer it looks like I might well enjoy the film too.
ARGH!
August 7, 2008I know this is always going to be a busy time of year. It’s nice when the NEC deadline is done with, and yes all four quilts made it, just. However, this year that hasn’t lead to any slow down here. It seems everyone is getting married, all at once. I have a stack of wedding quilts and an alarming number of them are urgent. I like to be busy, but this is starting to get silly. On the other hand they are all for lovely people who I very much want to make happy by providing them a great quilt on time. Ho hum.
I also have a top I really want to have finished by the Festival of Quilts. I know Jenny would like it for the stand but, boy is it time consuming. I’ve been making some progress on it (I will have to take some pictures) but I’ve only got until Wednesday next week and I have to work on one of the cars this weekend. I am really looking forward to quilting it, even though it will have to wait until after all the weddings, so I do have quite an incentive to get on with it.
Yesterday I was teaching Speed Quilt again. This time I offered the choice of either Speed 1 or Speed 2, as I had several people who specifically wanted to do the one they hadn’t already made. It went really well. One quilt had the binding on when it left, another was ready to bind. Several others were very close to finishing, with the borders still needed. I hope everyone had a good time and will finish their quilts, I know I did, they were a good bunch who worked well as a group.
Quilting – full contact sport
August 4, 2008Now stop giggling, it's true I tell you. I've realised today that I've had more injuries from quilting than hockey and lacross put together. I think skating and cycling still have it beat, I don't want to know how you break ribs quilting, but othere than those quilting is my most dangerous occupation. Now why have I been thinking about this. Well, um, would you believe I have a black eye from quilting? It's true I hit myself in the face with a bottle while packing a quilt. Fortunately I am not going to any cocerts soon, explaining to rock fans that my injuries are quilt related is always embarassing, and they never believe me. On the other hand I do have a class to teach on Wednesday and a talk to give Friday. Maybe quilters will find it easier to believe, this a risky hobby.