These two quilts have been waiting for a long time to get their turn on the quilt frame, but it finally came. I decided I needed a bit more of a breather between large art quilts and these fit the bill nicely. They will both be on display in my gallery at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, in August. It's also a great feeling to be able to cross two pieces of my list in one go. Hopefully they will both be dry and ready to trim when I get back after my talk this evening, which will be another step I can cross off.

I had hoped to have more cars for the show, but who knows I may get another chance to show a body of work and I can put them in then. I really do need to find a way to add more hours to each day. I have too many ideas and not enough time. On that note I had better finish loading the car and think about making a move to Kew for tonight's booking.

Talks, classes and books

It's been a mad mad week. I hadn't anticipated the amount of excitement and orders the foreword to my book would generate. Having picked myself up off the floor and dug my way out of the emails, we've put the order form up on my website. The pre-order price for "Ferreting Around" is £12 which includes postage within the UK. For those further afield I will charge the actual postage cost, which appears to be £6 to any destination, I will double check that before I guarantee it. I will be accepting pre-orders until the 15th of August at which point the price will be £15.99. Payment can be made by a cheque drawn on a UK bank or by paypal. If you email me the request I will send a paypal invoice. Er, I think that is everything but if you have a question please do ask. I am still a little stunned.

I've also been out and about. Yesterday I had a lovely day out, I mean I went and worked hard, with Harben Oaks. I wasn't convinced by a morning talk (OK to be honest I am not convinced by mornings in general) but it actually worked very well. They are a very lively group and I was lucky enough to be speaking at their summer lunch. I was very impressed with lunch and spent far longer there than I had intended. It was a day well spent and I came home inspired and ready to work. So thank you very much Harben Oak.

Today I was back at Sprat & Winkle quilters. I did a talk for them earlier in the year and today was teaching a workshop. Again a fun and hospitable group. I was highly amused that they live up to one of my rules of teaching. The person who complains most about their fabric will manage the biggest success. She was thrilled with her work (a journal cover) by the end of the day, and had managed to really loosen up and go with the flow. I was also very impressed with how prolific one student was making not one but three covers in a day! I think though, having looked at several peoples work, my favourites are those using hand dyed threads. This group had several people who brought along really interesting fabrics which made wonderful, personal and utterly unique covers. I hope they will all use them for many years to come and hopefully make a few more.

Now I have an art quilt calling to me from the frame. I'd better get some more quilting done, and I might even have a really early night, well early for me anyway.

Whole dragon.

Hopefully you won't have to turn you head sideways, here it is finished. I didn't have time to play with how it was hanging. Sorry.

Very exciting news

Well I think it is exciting, and I hope some of you will agree. As you know I've been helping out a couple of friends with their new book Cancertown. I was really impressed when they asked a well known comics writer to write them a foreword and he did. In fact he wrote the a stunning foreword. I've joked all along that I was chasing them and learning from what they did, to assist in getting my book out. The foreword seemed like a particularly good idea, I like reading them, and I suspect I am not the only one.

The question was who to ask? I knew what sort of person I was looking for, but they are few and far between. It needed to be a quilter, who did both traditional and way out work. They needed to be technically great, but not afraid to break the rules. I pondered it for some time and wasn't coming up with an answer. When it did dawn on me, I didn't think I had a hope of getting the person to agree, they were just too perfect for the job and way too big in the quilting world to bother with my little book. I plucked up the courage to ask and knock me down with a feather they agreed! I still can't quite believe that Ricky Tims took time out to do this for me, especially as at the moment he is busy working not only on The Quilt Show, but also on his next music CD. Without further ado let me share with you what he has to say about "Ferreting Around".

Every now and again, a new talent emerges in the quilt world that transcends the ordinary and is instantly unforgettable. I witnessed this first hand at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August of 2008 when an emerging artist's name was announced again and again as a winner. Not only were her quilts fresh and exciting, but so was the artist who stepped on stage to receive the awards. It was a thrill to see a young talent making her mark in the quilting kingdom. It is obvious to quilters worldwide that the general quilting demographic is of a ‘certain’ age. It is therefore exceptional to me when someone from a younger generation latches on to this timeless art/craft and puts a fresh spin on it. To this I say, “Hear, hear!” However, I have discovered that Ferret enjoys creating her work using a variety of quilting techniques, many of which are rooted in tradition. She does not fly in the face of traditional quilting, but rather she embraces it and includes it into her extraordinary ‘quilting toolbox’.

Ferret is young and talented. But being young and talented are not the qualities that I most have come to admire in Ferret. It is her enthusiasm and heartfelt desire to share her passion with others. Many artists have a selfish side—or at least they hoard a few secrets to themselves in fear that someone else might rise above them. Not so with Ferret. She has not chosen to write a book about shocking and unorthodox techniques. Instead she polled individuals to find out what they most wanted to learn. In turn she has authored her first book with you in mind. The techniques included here range from simple to complex, but in every aspect it is written with easy-to-understand language and presented with excellent illustrations.

I am honored that Ferret asked me to write a foreword for her first book (thank you, Ferret). I hope she will pursue quilting and fiber arts as a lifelong career. If she does, you are no doubt holding in your hand a collector's item for it will always and forever be—Ferret's first book!

Dragon update

I've actually got quite as bit further than this, but the rest doesn't look terribly interesting on it's own. I thought you might like to see the teeth and a bit more belly. I love the belly scales though cutting out the ones for the tail wasn't entirely fun. I have two feet entirely quilted and most of the other parts cut ready to go on. I don't know if I mentioned but I really need this off the frame tomorrow, so I have been trying to press on as fast as I can without getting tired enough to make mistakes. So far so good.

I got to talk to the artist who drew the dragon for me today. Those who know me have probably guessed it is Glenn, the chap who drew and indeed tattooed the dragon on my arm. The even more astute will realise this is that dragon. He seems pretty happy with how it is turning out.

I can't wait to be able to see the whole thing. I am getting to the point where I can't really see the big picture at all. It's getting hard to work out what things are unless I label them very carefully. It's always a problem when the image is this big and I spend hours obsessing over a small area. Hopefully it will all look right when it's seen in one piece.

Dragon teaser 2

Well I am making progress and I needed to check the eyes, so you get to see the picture. Working this size makes photographs a really useful tool for checking progress. There is still a lot of quilting to be done in the area around the face, but that wasn't what I was interested in at this point. Having seen the picture I think the eyes will do. Bear in mind yo are seeing this as I do and to be honest probably better. This section is the whole of what I can see in one go, the roller shows in the top of the picture. As you can imagine it's pretty tricky to grasp the whole image when you can only see a section.

I'm very pleased with the belly scales too. The ones that have their stitching on are looking very scaly now. I am trying to decide how much stitching they will have. If I stitch shading on it may make them look more shaped, or it may have the opposite effect as it will crush the fabric down. At the moment the fabric sits up and curves the way it should. What I may have to do with this one is take it off the frame with the minimum quilting on it and then drape it somewhere where I can study it. It's going to be a close call either way.

Now you've all had a look I think I need to go and put some more quilting on this little beastie.

As promised

Here is a taste of what is on my frame at the moment. It's a large art quilt for my gallery at the Festival of quilts. I am pretty happy with how it is coming on although like any of my big quilts I get frustrated that I can't see all of it. I just had to unroll what I had done and take a peek.

It isn't a great picture, but then conditions there are tircky. Light from the window does save putting the lamps on but it doesn't help show the quilt in it's best light. Also to make things as easy as possible I used my phone to take the picture. Every little saving counts at this point. I love the horns on the wing tips, I think they have come out exactly as I imagine them. I just hope I can get the face right too. I was very lucky to be able to get the artist of my original dragon to draw the starting art work for this piece and to trace off the quilting lines from the enlarged image. I am hoping this will give the finished piece a strong feel of him as well as me. Well enough chat I've got a lot to be getting on with. I hope you've all enjoyed having a little look at what I am working on.

Oh wait there was something else I was going to say. I've been asked to do a meet and greet session at the Festival of quilts. It will be open to people who are attending the evening events on Saturday night. After the show closes there would be a chance to come to my stand and talk to me without the bustle of the show. There is even the promise of a glass of champagne each. So if you going to any of the events that night and would like to come to the meet and greet, get in touch with Twisted Threads for the details. As I am teaching on the Saturday this will be pretty much the only time I am on my stand that day so it will be great to have a chance to meet people I might otherwise have missed.

Bad influence?

It seems we managed to lead our host astray last weekend, she has joined us here on blogger :) Hopefully it will give all of us a chance to keep up with the goings on at Hobby Holidays. I'm looking forward to seeing her longarm up and running, then the quilts that will flow off it. For now Jo has posted and introduction and a bit of behind the scenes info about running retreats. She didn't even complain about those people who manage to phone in the middle of the cooking frenzy :) If you would like to take a look it's called Hobby Holidays Blog.

Now I had better brave the heat in the longarm room again and see if I can get to a point where I can post a photo later. My dragon is coming on pretty well, and I have to have it finished Monday or Tuesday next week so I can quilt a quilt for a friend, who needs it urgently.

A wonderful weekend

It's taken me a while to get to my blog as I came home inspired to work, which is probably the best recommendation I could give for a weekend quilting retreat. Still it wasn't the only thing that made the weekend a great experience. I have to admit I was a little wary about going to teach at a retreat. In my experience retreats (and actually most bookings, but shorter ones are less tricky) come in two types, very basic and absolute luxury. Until you've been there you have no idea which one you are going to be faced with, so the first time I go armed for every bear. Fortunately this turned out to be one of the ones where I got spoilt rotten.

Hobby Holidays is actually very easy to find. I wasn't sure when I looked at the maps, but it really was straightforward. I did feel a little foolish when I got very close to the venue. I realised I couldn't remember the specific address. I stopped to look it up, got out of the car and then saw the huge banner. Doh! I was right outside. The main house where the guest rooms are located is a listed building, and absolutely wonderful in my eyes. It is also cool even in the quite hot weather we had this weekend. There is a coachouse next to then main building housing the purpose built workshop which you can see in the picture. It's a nice bright room and they supply lamps for each of the tables. It's one of the features I find really handy at Patchwork Corner where I teach regularly, and surprisingly rare given how helpful they can be.

The class I taught was a very free form machine quilting workshop. Although we started with the absolute basics the students all moved on very quickly. I love it when students take a new technique and really go for it. Two of the students worked on freehand quilting projects they had brought with them. Another one completed a small whole cloth, and we got to plan quilting for another project. Frustratingly I forgot to take any pictures of their work. I am hoping they might read this and post it on their blogs (please pretty please :) As well as the time spent in the classroom we had a the chance to chat over the 'light lunch'. When Jo and Phil say light lunch they don't mean it. They do hospitality in a big way. It's amazing how much more you information you can pass on when you can relax away from the machines for a while. It's not something I've noticed at other retreats, I think because the classes often disperse at meal times. With only one class at a time this doesn't happen so you learn more and bond better.

In the evenings, after the wonderful evening meals which are available for all the staying guests, I got to go and and look at the local wildlife. It's been a very long tie since I last saw an owl, and they are even more beautiful than I remembered. They are quite eerie as they fly, silent flying is just weird. I didn't think to take my proper camera, but if I go back I certainly will. I hope I will get invited back as a tutor, I really enjoyed teaching there, but if not I can see me going back as a student. Oh and if sewing workshops are not your thing then they also offer model railway weekends.

As you might expect I took advantage of the shopping opportunity. I was quite restrained, but I suspect I will have to make use of their online shop at some point. I didn't buy any of the oriental fabrics at all, and I am starting to regret that already. I also bought some very strong magnets. I think they are officially for the train people but they have a lot of uses for sewers too. I am planning on making some name badges with them as they fastening so I don't have to put holes in my expensive t-shirts and they are good for picking up spilt pins too.

Much good news

Sorry it's been a while. Things got a touch hectic again. Still this time it was largely good hectic. I delivered nine quilts to Sandown for the National Quilt Championships. Not all mine I hasten to add. I just figured as I was taking mine I may as well fill the car as much as I could. All seem to have been very well received by the visitors. I was lucky enough to win two ribbons. Winter Star collected second place in the bed quilt category and Radiance was awarded a judges merit. It was really good to see how many people liked my students and customer work too. With a range of people looking at the work there is someone to love every quilt. Very few spotted the stitched aircraft on the tie quilts though, but a lot were interested in making one, and I gained a father :)

You might have noticed the wholecloth winner. A small white quilt with a lot of featehrs on it? It was made by Sally (who you can see collecting her awards at her blog). A while ag she and I decided we would make each other a quilt. Being a bit more organised than me she has finsihed my one and on Sunday I was presented with not one, but two little quilts. One of them even looks like the award winning quilt! Of course she thought to make mine in a proper colour (OK non colour then) black. I will get a photo of it as soon as I have a chance.

I bought lots of fabric at the show including the most perfect dragon scales. As soon as I finish the last custoemr quilt which is now on the frame I will be able to load up the backing for the dragon. The pattern has been drawn for me by an artist friend so it is exactly the dragon I wanted. It's currnetly lurking in my longarm room, just waiting to chomp unwary visitors. I am so looking forward to getting on with it, it's huge and I love it already. I'd better get on with this customer quilt then hadn't I.

Oh and my friend who collected his free helicopter ride is out of hosptal and doing well. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Good news, bad news

It's been an eventful weekend. Trogdor our race car wasn't ready to race this weekend, so Joker stood in for him again. Saturday she and Tet couldn't quite get it together and they were last after qualifying. So Sunday morning we stood at the start line for round one talking to Spencer and discussing how it wasn't going to be so bad going out first round. We didn't want to be standing around in the sun all day and Spencer had lots of other cars he was crewing for. When we stood there again Sunday evening after the trophy presentation we agreed this must be the way towin race meetings, have agood reason to go out early :) Spencer came first Tet and Joker took the second place. Thrilled? You bet.

We made it home OK then found out we were in demand. Unfortunately one of our friends has claimed a free helicopter ride. He was involved in a crash with his trike and was airlifted to a specialist center. It sounds like he is doing OK, and the trike is safe, but it isn't really what we want.He isn't even one of our friends who would have likes a helicopter ride. So it seems a good time to mention that the UK air ambulances are a charity. They fly beause people and businesses donate to them. You really never know when you or someone close to you will need their services, so how about making a donation now while you think about it. There is a web site for all of the air ambulance services in the UK here. If you click on your local helicopter it will give you the web site to donate to them directly. I am sure other countries will have thier own versions of this service and are probably also in need of funds. It isn't cheap to keep a helicopter flying but it can save lives where no other transport could.

Inspiration

A lot of people have been asking me how the joker quilt came about. So I thought I would try and explain. Be warned it isn't a straight line design process, that isn't how I work. I should also mention this was designed entirely in my head on a car journey, so there aren't even any sketches of how it grew. Sorry, but how else do you kill a couple of hours on the motorway.

It started with the idea to make a bed quilt to fill a particular space in the gallery at the NEC, I also had someone in mind who might be interested in a quilt and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. As it was a bed quilt it needed to be durable, and that rules out my art quilt techniques (great for the wall but won't handle cats) and using cotton sateen (same problem with felines). We fairly quickly homed in on the idea of playing cards. That straight away brings in another problem though. King size beds need quilts that are either squareish or wider than they are tall. Neither of those work well for a playing card (or that was my thinking at the time).

For a while I got detoured onto what borders might work with a large playing card. I wasn't terribly happy with any of the ideas I came up with but the best was a row of card trick blocks on either side of the playing card. If I was going to do that I felt I would need a narrow border to separate the two areas, probably densely quilted (to bridge the gap between the quilted design and the piecing). Some poker chips have an edge pattern of the four card suits and I thought that might do, maybe quilting the area that wasn't them in red on the background?

So I had a rough layout then to decide which card. For a rock fan (or indeed a fan of playing cards) the ace of spades has to be an obvious choice, but on the other hand I quite like jokers too. Hmmm, two cards could that work. Well as I said I can't use the applique technique from wall quilts on a bed quilt so how can I get an intricate design onto the quilt? With thread, which was what I had (and still have) planned for a couple of other quilts I will be doing. Great, we are nearly to a plan. Then I remember. I don't like working on white, and I don't think it is a terrible practical colour for bed quilts either. Playing cards (especially the aces) are usually largely white. Hmm....... Invert the colours. Less white.

That is pretty much what I carried around in my head waiting to be made. As you can see it didn't quite come out like that. I like to make bed quilts somewhere around 90" tall (top to bottom of the bed). It seems to provide good coverage for a range of beds. From some quick layouts I figured I needed the center spade to be about half that height and the joker a little taller. I produced the full size images of those then laid them on my bed. I realised about that point that I didn't need borders. If I just made the card square it would look fine, and I would have the simplicity of design I had started off wanting. Back to plan one and off I went. The result you've already seen.

I find this a lot. I kick designs around until I think I have them. They then live in my head for a while (months to years). Some do come out exactly as they were planned. 'Miss Baltimore' and 'Golden Storm' were both pretty exactly what I have in my head. Others like this one make last minute changes. Tow more of my NEC quilts have done the same thing. Usually it is the ones where I have had to compromise in a way I didn't really like (I really didn't want a border on this quilt) or where I have tried to deviate from what I do. There seems to be a general shape to how I work and design things. I never intended it to be that way, it's just happened. However when I plan to not do it my way things happen. Eventually what I produce comes out looking like one of my quilts. It's quite and odd feeling actually. Having a style that enforces itself when you aren't expecting it. Sometimes it does let me do something different, but only when it is really different it seems.

There you go, the mad way inspiration strikes and evolves in to a quilt.

Voting day

If you live in the UK don't forget to vote. It is your chance to have your say. OK it may not change anything, but it's the only chance you get to make your feelings knows. I was going to write about our lack of anonymous voting, but I think Thargol did it better than I can so you might like to read his post. It does worry me that who you vote for is recorded. I can see how tempting it might be for certain people to find out who voted for certain parties. I try to reassure myself that they are too lazy to actually check the records. Not much consolation, but it's what we have. "I love my country, but I'm scared to death of its government." -- Blackie Lawless

It's off the frame

This has taken far longer than I would have hoped but it's finally off the frame. I can't recommend pulling the muscles around your ribs if you want to be able to freehand quilt. Still by plugging away a little at the time it's done and I am quite pleased with it. It could do with blocking really as it has a lot of dense quilting, but I haven't anywhere to do that. I am going to try letting it hang for a few days starting from damp and see how that works. I think one of the problems is it still have some wash away stabiliser in it so it's a bit stiff in some places.

I've just draped it over my bed pillows and all but I think you can see the general idea of it. The white areas are cutaway applique. I don't like putting white over black as it tends to come up grey so I thought it would be better to put the black over the white. I worked pretty well I think. It also meant I needed to use pale wadding rather than black for this quilt. I would have felt safer with black but I really wanted sharp white.

The figure is entirely in thread as are the letters. You can see the figure better on the back of the quilt (second image) it's about 60" head to toe. I love the effect of the stitching, but it is very hard work to do. I'm not to fond of making all those freehand zigzags. Still as proof on concept it's come out very nicely.

As I said this quilt will only ever be at one show. The Festival of Quilts, England 2009. So if you do want to see it in the cloth that's where you will need to be. I can assure you there will be a range of new and odd (if not interesting) pieces from me and I am sure many other artists will be slaving away as speak to fill the show with the best work around.

I'm really looking forward to having the gallery to be able to show a whole collection of work. The problem is I have more ideas than I can possibly make in time. I keep trying to tell myself there will be more shows in future, but I want it all and I want it now :) Some things will never change. I will now take a break from my work to do a few customer quilts then I will be back at another mammoth piece. I really should learn to work small.

Traditional or Arty

I often here people classifying my type of quilting. It doesn't really worry me what answers they come up with, I am going to do what I do, but I have wondered where I would put myself. Am I traditional? Maybe and art quilter? Perhaps contemporary (isn't everyone who is making work now technically?). I think I finally have my answer and it's been brought home to me by the two magazines that arrived this morning. 'American Quilter' and 'Quilting Arts' have both turned up together, and as I am trying to be quiet so I will definitely hear the door I had a look through them both. Back to back it becomes very clear to me that one will not be renewed, because it doesn't inspire me. However I think many people would be surprised to find it is 'Quilting Arts' that just leaves me cold. I don't get most art quilts. They don't talk to me. I don't want to paint on my fabric, I like painting with fabric. I guess I use fabric to get away from traditional art materials where a lot of people are bringing the materials into quilting. I could see me ripping and burning fabric, which would fit in with the sort of work that appears in 'Quilting Arts' but I wouldn't be looking for the end results that would fit.

On the other hand I've loved this issue of 'American Quilter'. I am amused by the two black wholecloths in the Paducah show, I just wish I had had time to put one of mine in. I like the idea of quilting on vintage linen. I even fancy making something like the pattern in there. I understand the quilts it shows (and there are a range from very traditional to some lovely art quilts) and many of them inspire me. Will you recognise the inspiration when I've finished with it? I doubt it, but I will know and I will enjoy telling people what prompted my ideas, I love the disbelieving looks.

So I would say, I tend to traditional when I comes to quilting. I will stretch it a bit (OK a lot) but I like even my wall quilts to feel and move like fabric. I don't want to work with paper or paint, I might hand dye some of my fabrics, I might even put the dye on with a brush if I need to get a hair or fur texture, but that is as close as I want to come to 'normal' art materials. I love what I do and I know what I love.

People to do business with.

Recently I've had a few companies impress upon me that I really never want to deal with them again, but today I've had one of the other sort. I've been trying to accept a delivery via City Link. The first day we just got really unlucky, I got back here about 5 minutes after the driver had been. Their lines were busy and head office don't return calls. By the time I tried again (it had said they would call me back) the driver was out of the area and couldn't redeliver until the following day. Importantly they lady I spoke to apologised for no one calling me back and gave me the phone number for the depot so if I needed to get hold of them in future I could.

The next day I passed on all my out of the house jobs to other people and waited. I didn't listen to my audio books, I turned the longarm right down to keep it quite, and I opened all the doors between me and the front door. I missed the driver. Hmmm. He claims he had knocked for 10 minutes? I have a door bell which was working and yes he used that too. He tried my neighbours but they were all out (odd I could hear them talking through the walls over the sound of my machine. I called the depot and explained all this to them. They were again appologetic and arranged a morning delivery for today as I have a lot of booking this week and can't sit arround waiting for a package.

This morning there was a delicate rattle at the door, but I heard it, and ran for the door. The driver had almost made it back to his van, but I caught him. He asked if I was expecting a delivery? Um, yes that's why you're here. After a long rummage in his van he came back to tell us he hadn't got my delivery. Ah, maybe that is why he was so keen to leave the door. I called the depot again. Once again they were sympathetic and polite. They had to call the driver and check the story with him (yes he really had just not loaded it) and assured me they would call me back.

So why with this sort of story do I say these are good people to do business with? It's doesn't sound great does it. Well they called back, as promised. The first thing they said was we messed up, and we're sorry. Followed by, we've put your packages on another van and it should still get to you by 12. That is how you deal with getting it wrong, you put it right. I have huge respect for any business that can put it's hands up, admit a blunder and fix it. Lets face it, things do go wrong, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, when it does you do what you can to keep the customer happy. The companies I don't go back to are those who blame the customer unfairly, who don't apologise and who don't put it right. So if you are in the UK and need an courier consider City Link, they may not be perfect but they will go the extra mile to sort things out.

Progress

I thought you might like an update on the quilt I showed you at the beginning of the week. I've finished the image now and I think I am about half way through the background now. As you can see I've gone with feathers. It's a fun fill and it scales very well to fit in around the main image. I'm not planning to quilt the areas within the image so it should stand out a little bit. I'll have to see how it sits though when I have the rest of the quilting in place.

I have to admit that hasn't gone as fast as my projects usually do. That's because I've been catching up on household jobs too. It may not be everyone's idea of a good holiday but having a week when I didn't have any bookings has been amazing. I've been able to quilt and do the jobs that have been bugging me. Tomorrow though I am back teaching. I will be doing beginners machine quilting at Patchwork Corner. It's always an interesting class, and hopefully it will be a gentle reintroduction into working outside the house.

Exercise

I am exhausted, long weekends are hard work. It's been a very productive weekend for me though. The quilt I showed you yesterday is progressing. I'm sure I once heard that small repetitive movements were more tiring than larger movements. Well in the case of longarm quilting it seems to be the case. There are a lot of areas of very dense quilting and they are mostly filled in with a zig zag. I can do about 30 minutes of that type of quilting before I have to have a break. It's surprisingly tough on my forearm. I guess it is because the movement is coming from my elbow to get the precision to fill in the areas I want. Ho hum. Still I am thrilled with the effect and I've nearly finished this stage of the project. When it's done I can move on to filling in the background which should be more varied and a lot quicker.

I've also managed to get some gardening done, and a washing line up. Both are more impressive than they might sound. I burn very easily so going out during the day in the weather we have had is interesting. It was something of a necessity though as one of our cats decided to throw up on the quilt that is on the bed. It was actually quite funny as I had just watched an episode of "The Quilt Show" where they had been explaining that traditionally quilt were used and when the cat threw up on them they had to be washed (hmm I wonder if that is what gave the cats the idea?). I had just commented I must be a pretty traditional quilter then as I think quilts should be used, then I went into the bedroom and found the mess. Of course it's the only quilt in the house at the moment the rest are in storage ready to do talks. It get better it is one of only two quilt's I own that don't fit in my washing machine. However I had noticed the quilt has got a lot softer and thinner with use (Ginko Typography) so I thought I would give it a try. It now fits, just. It saves a trip to the laundrette which I really don't have time for right now. However I didn't want to put a quilt that heavy straight into the tumble drier on a hot sunny day, that's just daft. So time to get a washing line, or indeed a rotary airer. I found one that claimed to be a complete kit. I assured me I would be able to take it home, install it and put up to 4 loads of washing on it (it even came with pegs). Surprise it worked! The rain held off just long enough to get everything dry too.

On the way in with a washing line we noticed the hedge cutting frenzy in the street. Of course we felt obliged to have a go too. The hedge looks great, but we need a new broom. I used it the head fell off, no biggie I put it back on. Tet used it and the handle broke in two! He really doesn't know his own strength. On the other hand as I type he is on the final stages of getting two of my patterns ready to send off to the printer which is very cool. Both of the patterns are designed to use ombre fabrics. One is "Dawn and Dusk". It was the first pattern we produced ourselves. It was a worrying pattern with very slow sales to start with but in hind sight I think that was my lack of marketing skills rather than any problem with the pattern. It's sold out it's first print run, hence the reprint. The other pattern is "Under the Rainbow". This was initially made for Popular Patchwork and I have always told people to contact them for a the back issue to get the pattern. They have sold out of that issue so it's time to produce my own pattern of it. I am really looking forward to them arriving. My short patterns are printed in full colour double sided on one sheet of A3 paper. This is then folded down to an A5 booklet. I like the fact that you can't lose any of the pages as there is only one sheet. It also reduces the possibility of me forgetting to put everything into the bag. Either the sheet is there or there isn't a pattern. Hopefully people using the pattern will enjoy it too.

Sneak peek

It's no good, I just have to share something I am working on, and well I don't think this will spoil the quilt for everyone. As you can see this is something a bit different for me. It's a bed quilt for a collector so it will only ever be seen at this one show. I would describe it as almost a wholecloth, and it is definitely an evolution of the things I have been doing in my wholecloths. In this quilt I am trying (and so far succeeding) to make the quilting an image rather than a pattern. It's slightly nerve wracking as I can't really see the image as I work. This is a problem I run into a lot. The human eye isn't good at seeing the whole picture when it is this close to so large a work. Also the stitches are very dense in some areas which requires focusing there for quite some time. I find after doing that my brain makes that area look out of proportion. I know it is an optical illusion but it doesn't help me see how the image is working.

On the other hand I am really enjoying having large blocks of time to spend on one of my quilts. I've had two days of preparatory work for this quilt. Drafting the patterns and preparing the top. Now I am getting to quilt it is a wonderful feeling. I really love this very free but artistic type of work, even when (or perhaps especially when) it throws up lots of challenges. You may have realised that I am working from the middle of the quilt outwards. On a longarm this makes things a lot more tricky and time consuming, but I need to be able to fit the rest of the quilting around this image so I have to start by getting this into place. There is also the small matter that I haven't entirely decided what the rest of the quilting will be, so this gives the quilt a chance to talk to me.

You're probably aware that I don't make samples of techniques. I try thing straight on a real quilt (often a show quilt as it's the only time I have to play on my own work) and if it works, great if not I have to start again. Well this is almost a sample even though it is also a live show quilt. It is allowing me to try out a technique I will be using in a much more complex and time consuming piece. From what I've seen so far I am happy that the second quilt (from the graphic novel Cancertown) will work out very well. So much so I am thinking of using it on another quilt as well, which I had completely different plans for before today. The fact that it looks like this piece is going to be so important in my future works yet will only be seen once at the festival made it the obvious choice to put on my blog. I really am missing being able to share all my quilts as I work on them, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Very silly craft video.

I've not looked at the rest of them but this one is very funny, and slightly scary. Admitedly more for knitters than quilters but still...

Speed quilt 3

I can finally reveal speed quilt 3. I had thought it launched 4th July but apparently not. I will be teaching it for the first time on the 6th June. That may not seem like a big difference but with my schedule it's a huge issue. Fortunately speed quilts live up to their name. I think this quilt (about 95" square) took me 8 hours including cutting. It hasn't been bound yet, or indeed trimmed. I don't have the space to trim it sensibly here so I will wait to take it to the shop, at which point it will go straight into service as a sample. I guess it will join the queue waiting to be bound.

Over the weekend I also tried to buy a car stereo. It was a very frustrating experience. What I am looking for is something that can play mp3 tracks from a USB device and that gives me a sensible way to access the track I want. As I can have 2000+ tracks I don't want the only navigation to be next and previous track. I've lost track of how many people have said it will work if I buy an ipod. I have no issue with being able to connect one to a stereo but I don't feel it should be essential. Heck my mobile phone has a better user interface for the mp3 player than these supposedly dedicated devices. It was also sad how little shop staff knew about the products they were selling. On the whole I got the impression each one knew a little about one or two systems. I guess that is to be expected in Halfords but in dedecated car audio shops I do expect better. I was shocked by how maany staff expected to tell me what I want (without asking any questions) and have me hand over the money without even seeing the system. Sorry but that isn't going to happen. I could buy on the internet and have better service. Having said all that you might not be surprised to hear that most of the car audio specialists in the area have closed down. Yes I am looking on this as lessons in how not to sell.

Some quilts you have to see.

If you haven't heard of Izabella Baykova you've missed out on some fantastic quilts. Bonnie McCaffery sent out this information in her latest newsletter. Grab a coffee and enjoy.

***NEW VidCast #34 Russian Quilt Artist Izabella Baykova
Izabella's quilts are filled with meaning. Go to http://www.bonniemccaffery.com to see the latest VidCast. As a bonus we have also included a Russian version of the interview with Izabella - so if you have any Russian friends, feel free to pass the link on to them (http://www.bonniemccaffery.com/vidcasts/034r.html).
To take a look at Izabella's website (which is in Russian) you can go to http://babelfish.yahoo.com/. In the URL space add this link http://www.siniygranat.ru/ and then select "Russian to English" translation. You'll see lots more of her beautiful quilts.

If you ever get a chance to see these quilts in person do take it. They are far more striking in real life. I love the way the seem to glow.

Another learning weekend.

Well it's finally happened. Cancertown is a real, hold it in your hand book, and I have my copy. You will probably remember me talking about this graphic novel that has been written by a friend from university. This weekend I was lucky to have the chance to be at it's launch at the Bristol Small Press Expo, and help introduce people to it. As ever at these events I learned a lot, a large part of which I can use in what I do. I think the tow most obvious to me were how much easier it is to toot someone else's horn and how great it is to have a prop when doing it. I guess it does help when the book looks and feels good. The printing and binding are really nicely done. I am hoping the printer who did it will be able to give me a good price on doing my book so I can have him do them. So the third thing is, do your best on every job, you never know who will see it or what business they might send your way.

I've been surprised at each comics event how similar it is to the quilting industry. Even going in knowing that it still catches me out. This weekends revelation is that the comics industry is starting to struggle with it's wholesale system. Like quilting wholesalers send out a catalog listing new products. It has a tiny picture and a few lines of text. I had already realised this is useless for evaluating a new product and pretty hit and miss when you know exactly what you are looking for. When I try and select the right pins from one of these books, it can take me an hour to get the right code for what I wanted and I know exactly what I am looking for. Imagine using that system to sell a book or a pattern. A picture may an inch square just doesn't work. This lead to several people trying to come up with some better ideas for selling new products (OK they were thinking comics but a good idea is a good idea where ever it comes from). Really the best, though not terribly practical answer) would be to put one of your product into the hands of the potential buyers. For comics, patterns and books a shop owner is much more likely to stock your product if they a can hold it in their hands and read it. They need to know it is of good production quality and well written. They would like to be able to see how it fits both their shop and their customers. As I said this isn't going to work on a large scale, but perhaps we can get closer to it. How about using online systems to allow customers to read part of a book (take a look on Cy's site to see the first chapter of Cancertown for example)? It seems like a good way to let people try a product before buying, and it is a lot easier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than printing and posting. Perhaps offering a printed extract or a sample pattern to shops interested in your work would be a good idea too? That's trickier because I know that I use different printing companies and processes for different products but I do aim for the same standard throughout so it might work. Maybe the time has come for wholesalers to make their catalogues electronic not printed. It would save them postage costs even if it were still posted as a CD is a lot cheaper to ship then paper. Having given it some thought a wholesaler could probably get a lot of their suppliers to enter information about their product into electronic forms with an automated process to produce formatted pages. You could end up with a whole page per product like many web stores. This would benefit all sides of the process, the suppliers can really explain why we want their product, the wholesaler would save on postage and printing and hopefully sell more and the shops can make a more informed decision. Anyone fancy grabbing the idea an running with it in either industry?

If anyone would like a copy of Cancertown I do have a few to sell. I even have a very limited number signed by both the writer and the artist (thanks for letting me drag you to a dodgy looking carpark guys). Just send me an email and I will come up with a way of getting a copy to you. Failing that Cancertown is available on Amazon as well. Thanks for inviting us Cy and keep up the good work.