Teaching and writing and stuff

I always find the first week of term a bit of a shock, and this one has been no exception. New people, new classes and this year new venues.

The new people have been great. I feel it's quite tricky adding a few new students to existing classes. Will they jell with the class, will the class suit them, or will they change the dynamic of the class for the worse. So far this year is looking good. I've got very lucky and have some fun people who have joined my classes. I think Wednesday will go from strength to strength. Some old students have returned too, which is lovely. Familiar faces, and names I can almost remember are nice, as is seeing how they have progressed while they have been away.

The new classes are coming along. I've almost written the three introduction type chapters for my art quilts book. I am feeling a lot better about teaching that tonight. Of course I can't find half the tools I wanted to photograph, but I don't think that will be a significant problem. I still haven't really got things straightened out after the mad rush for the festival of quilts, and it's all the small things that are hiding. Oh well.

My first new venue I don't get to see until next week. Tuesday I will be at 'The Nimble Thimble' in Buckingham. It's a new shop just trying to find it's feet in these difficult times, so if you are in the area, you might like to give it a look. For those of you who find Patchwork Corner too far south this might be your chance to come and join me for a class. This Tuesday I will be teaching machine quilting 1. A whole day of playing with different quilting options on your machine. I believe there are still a couple of places left so if you want to join in, call the shop on, 01280 822236.

I'd better get on and take the photographs I can for the class tonight. They won't be happy if I haven't got any pictures in my hand outs. I suppose I aught to dig out some samples too, where do you suppose I packed the swan after the show...

They're here and they are ready to go.

This afternoon I took delivery of a metric tonne of books, literally. The lorry driver didn't think his lorry would fit down our road (we disagree) but he did drag the pallet up to our gate on a trolley so it wasn't too bad. The books don't take up as much space as we had feared and are pretty neatly stacked in the hall. I am however hoping that I can sell a good percentage of them at the Festival of Quilts next week and clear some space again. I have spent most of the time since then packing books up to go out to all the people who have pre-ordered. There was a mad rush to get as many to the post office as possible. I think about 60 went out in the first posting although some missed the last collection from the post office as printing the postage seemed to take forever. It took so long that the car park closed locking my car in, so we had to walk home. Of course that means the car will need collecting tomorrow morning too. I will take a picture of a finished book for you tomorrow, but I am now exhausted I feel like I have been lugging book about all day. Oh yes I have.

All of my quilts for the show are now at the binding and sleeve stage. The weekend will be spent working on that. It isn't my favourite job, but the machine bindings aren't too bad. I do have at least three quilts that need hand sewn bindings, they will be more of a problem. Still at least the end is in sight. I think this is the time to make a list on a white board so I can rub them off as I complete them.

The sample quilt

Embarrassingly, the first quilt started for my book was the last one finished and photographed. You may remember seeing a bad picture of this quilt quite a while ago, but I thought you might like to see a good one. This quilt was very much made for my bed. I love the black and silver fabric in it, and I was determined to have a quilt with it in. I also wanted to check the quilt worked with as few as three fabrics. This quilt really divided opinions, but whatever others think, I love it, and it did good service as the book sample.

Exciting delivery

Well it's exciting to me, and I would hope about 10 others. The QuilTarT t-shirts have arrived. My regular Thursday night students who are responsible for the quilt in my book, have offered to come and help look after my gallery at the NEC. We thought some sort of uniform might be a good idea, and well with me that means t-shirts. I asked what they wanted to be called and they came up with QuiltTarT. I am thrilled with the shirts, and I hope my helpers will be too.

I guess this would be a good time to tell you what the design specification for the book quilt was. I had only been teaching the class for a term and I wanted to see how they thought it was going. At the Christmas party I was dumb enough to ask. I think everyone came up with a suggestion, or two,

• we should all work on the same quilt
• but we have to all be able to take it home
• we have to be able to use our own fabric
• we will be broke after Christmas so we can't buy any fabric for a
• while
• it's got to be a lap quilt
• it's got to be a single bed quilt
• it's got to be a king size quilt
• it has to be quilt as you go

OK that's an interesting list to start with then they went on to techniques they wanted

• Celtic knots
• half square triangles
• flying geese
• foundation piecing.

Just to round that off, it had to work for a lady who was going to join us the next term to start learning quilting and teach something to those who have been quilting longer than me.

I came up with a round robin style sampler quilt. It works well with three fabrics or a whole scrap bag full. It has places where beginners can fudge things to get back on track (actually the experienced ones used
this more I think). I like the fact that the center panel can be pretty much completed in 3 hours which is
the standard class length (for the weekly classes) where I teach. It means they leave their first class with something they can show off.

So if you see anyone wearing a black t-shirt that says QuilTarT you will know who they are.

Overwhelmed.

I don't know where to start, it's been a mad few days (it feels like weeks since I last posted but it's only 4 days!) and the title says it all. I guess I will start at the end. Thank you, if you think you might be due it, it's for you. If you think you don't really deserve it, you probably do or will soon :). I can't begin to say how much I appreciate all the support my friends are giving me with my book. Who says self publishing means less support?From the people who have helped me name it, design it and test it, to those handing out flyers where ever they go.

It feels now like my book as a life of it's own, and I am along for the ride. It's a very strange feeling, but not a bad one. People have told me publishing is like giving birth, so I suppose it should have a life of it's own. The strangest one I've noticed is my book being listed on Amazon in Japan! Don't know why but google found that as one of the first links to my book. Very strange.

I am just about keeping up with enquiries about it, but other email is taking me longer to get to. Bear with me and normal service should be resumed just after the NEC show.

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.

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!

What a strange feeling.

Today has been very odd. I've been teaching my book quilt for a year now, and I had thought I largely let students get on with it. Apparently not. I guess thinking about it I do watch the classes (well I am there to teach) and I am very aware of anyone having to think too much, that frown just before you get stuck. So what has been causing me the confusion today? The book is getting it's toughest test. A non quilter working through it. The hard part for me is I am banned from interfering. Yes, this will make a better book. Yes I really want to do it, but boy it feels strange.

It's also proved to be a way to find new and interesting problems. The strangest was freshly made bias tape unfolding. I've seen lightly pressed tapes coming a little unfolded, but even the one I pressed had completely flattened out. I'd never seen anything like it. I was all ready to blame the fabric, we had tried everything else, when it dawned on me what was different. I press a strip then hang it near my cutting table before pressing the next. My tester was leaving them on the ironing board. On the surface a much more sensible solution, less walking too and fro. However with a mesh top ironing board and a steam generator iron you get enough steam coming up through the board to neatly steam out the folds you just put in. Doh! Not a problem I would ever have encountered in a class as the boards there all have solid tops, but one a beginner could easily find at home. If nothing else it has proved that this testing is worthwhile.

Other than that I am looking forward to a very busy week. I've got a lot of customer work that needs to be delivered Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Fortunately they are all quite fun quilts, and I've got most of them done over the last couple of days. I've got two workshops this week as well as the regular classes and in between I want to write another couple of chapters of book two. I don't think I am going to get a lot of blogging time unfortunately. On the other hand I might be able to photograph some of the customer work and put that up later in the week, it depends a lot on how hectic the teaching is.

The downside of being this busy is I've missed another quilt show. I had intended to put a couple of quilts into Malvern, but the deadline was yesterday. I am concentrating so hard on the Festival of Quilts, other competitions just aren't registering.

Quilting

Just 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.

Where do I start?

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.

Isn't POD supposed to be simple?

I thought that the whole point of print on demand was to make things easier. OK maybe it does, if you are printing a novel with black and white pages. However if you want full colour, 8.5" x 11", perfect bound it's harder. Is that a really odd request? Well if you're a quilter grab a quilting book, if it's soft cover the odds are that is exactly what I am trying to get printed. So not that odd really. I can find a lot of companies who can't do that size, and a few that can. Of those that can most won't tell me how much it will cost. Some of those that will have interesting pricing. Would you pay over 90 pounds for a quilting book? Nope neither would I and at that price I would still be making a small loss on every copy!

So now I am back to calling printers and asking for quotes on a traditional print run. It wasn't what I had in mind, but beggars and choosers. At least I have just spoken to a very friendly and helpful person from one of the printers. Hopefully they can give a quote I can live with and I will have a winner. We would like to know who we are printing with before the layout goes too much further, and I really do want this book out this year.

At least it is a bit cooler today. I should be able to get some quilting done before I cook. I can see the center of the quilt on the frame now, although I can't claim to be half way there yet. I am definitely seeing a machine binding in this quilt's future.

Response to skinny envelope

Well what do you do when you get a rejection letter? You enter more shows :) I've cut down my number of entries for the NEC this year. There are two reasons for this, the main reason is time. I spent so long preparing for my own show I haven't had time to make as much as I would like for the NEC. Although I have just realised that you can send them work that has been seen before so it will open up my options next year. The other reason is the cost. The four I have entered this year have cost me 102 pounds to enter. I should say this is largely because I want to insure my work while it is at the show, but I do collect from the show so I save on return postage. I think last year attending the show, the dinner and entering quilts came to about 800 pounds, and I really want to keep the cost down this year.

Still I have four pieces going in, one each in traditional large and small. One in pictorial and one in Contemporary small. My innovative piece will have to wait until next year, as will my quilt creation. The one I am most upset at not having the time for is my quilt creation. I love working in three dimensions, but I am trying very hard not to over extend myself, especially as I do want to finish my book. The book is now down to it's last few chapters. My students quilts look stunning and swapping has worked well. I am really looking forward to photographing all the finished quilt and their owners. We are hoping to have a show of the quilts from the book at Patchwork Corner, so watch this space for details.

Feeling smug, and rather tired.

I feel like I've had a holiday and that I have been stunningly productive. I'm not even sure how you can feel both things at the same time, but I am very pleased I do. As you can see I've got the side panels on my bugs quilt. I was hoping to get that final two borders on but it wasn't to be tonight. I think this will be the first of my patterns for big kids. I've been thinking a lot about patterns for big quilts using novelty prints, I know too many big people who want silly quilts. It also struck me that some of the same patterns might work really well with other big print fabrics. So I will test them in my loud prints then go hunting some more traditional fabrics to try them in. I will make sure the quilts have a smaller option too for the real kids out there.

Today I've also managed to write two more chapters of my book. It is a bit of a cheat, I am into quite short chapters now, but still it sounds good. I hope my students will enjoy it, even though I spotted a typo just after printing 20 copies. A typo that my spell checker managed to miss even though I am certain it isn't a valid word.

So over the weekend, while having my relaxing time off I've,

• made most of a king size quilt top
• quilted two customer quilts
• written a requirements list
• made a necklace
• cut a king size quilt top
• sewn half a quilt as you go quilt
• written a pattern for a quilt
• written two chapters of my book
• listened to three audio books
• watched half a series of The Equalizer
• utterly failed to eat fish and chips (not for want of trying)
  

and perhaps most importantly, had fun. Can you see why I can't understand why it felt like a holiday?

I have to share this link. It was sent to a mail list I am on, and I just love this artistic use for old technology.

For those interested, this weekends racing was largely a washout, but Trogdor did manage a new fastest ET. We think it has a 13 second run in it somewhere, we just have to find it.

What I'm not doing.

You must have noticed the number of boring tasks you can get done when there is something you are trying to avoid. I've just cleaned my iron, not the sole plate, the top. Now, OK, it wasn't entirely a distraction tactic but it isn't the sort on thing I would normally do. I need to take a photograph of me doing some pressing so I thought it would be better to have a cleaner iron. In turn it made me wonder. Do people writing books buy all new equipment for the photographs? How often do you see pictures of equipment that looks well used in quilt books.

That click tells me my iron it up to temperature and I have pictures to take. Which also means I have to get back the the writing. Yes class this is how late I leave these things, see you in the morning.