The National Quilt Championships, Sandown

Well the car is packed and now I am at a bit of a loss. I am normally panicking right now. I guess this is the advantage of entering quilts you've already made. I have five quilts going into Sandown this year.(Why is it quilt shows are more often known by their location than their name?) 'Guide me' will be making it's last UK appearance before it heads off to the World Quilt Show. Perttu, the cellist has only been seen at my gallery show so this is his first competitive outing. I hope he will go down well, he does at least have some clothes on.

I've also put in "Where is the North Star?". This is a quilt I made for the theme category at Malvern a couple of years ago, and it hasn't been out since. I show it as my talks and it is a very popular quilt, so I decided I aught to put it in another quilt show. If It hadn't had such an amazing response in talks I would still be sitting in the storage unit.

This is "My Fat Quarter of Paradise" It is one of the quilts DHL failed to deliver to a show. It is HUGE. I have no way of getting a good picture of it at home, this is it in a Hotel room. I love the quilting on it but I don't like paying postage to send it to shows. So as I can deliver it to this one, it's going. The hanging sleeve isn't at the top of this quilt to keep the bottom of it off the floor. Hopefully this will work at Sandown.

My last entry is "Lily". This is another quilt I have entered because of other peoples reaction to it. I can't say I like this quilt, but I have to accept a lot of other people do. I would say it was the second most popular quilt in my solo show. I don't get it but I figure it has earned it's place in shows. If you are in Region 1 of the Quilters Guild you will have seen it in your regional magazine recently. Here is your chance to see it in the flesh. It will be interesting to see it the judges agree with my visitors, if they do I will be checking with more people before spending money on entering quilt shows :)

World Quilt Show

I got home to an email telling me that both of my quilts made it into the World Quilt Show. Just as well I didn't manage to enter 'Guide Me' into Houston as well. One of the really nice things about this show, is that you send the quilts to a local coordinator so you don't have to worry about international postage. No customs forms, no couriers. Just a very reasonable fee and Christine Porter deals with all the tricky bit for you. If you are looking for an easy way into showing quilts in the US do consider this show next year. I would have given you a heads up this year, but I nearly missed it myself.

Faux pas averted

I normally keep pretty good records of where my quilts are when. yesterday I dutifully updated it and checked which quilts I could enter into the Houston show. Then this morning I spoke to Sally who happened to mention the World Quilt Show. Abut and hour later my brain finally kicked in and pondered what I had entered into that show. According to my records nothing! OK I know that is wrong and I have that sinking feeling. One of the quilts I had planned to put into Houston might already be committed. Fortunately Christine Porter, and her lovely husband are more organized than I am and confirmed my fears. "Guide Me" is trying for the world show so cannot be entered into Houston. The upshot is I remembered just in time to avoid committing a cardinal sin in the quilting world. Don't you just know it would have got into both shows if I hadn't spotted it. Of course I have probably jinxed the world show now but I think that is better than the alternative. I have just couriered my entry of "Herd Mentality" to Houston. Wish it luck.

A photo at last.

I finally got a decent picture of this quilt. I did get one of it straight on but it didn't show as well. So here it is lying down.

It is almost exactly 1m square (which I am finding stupidly satisfying). All the threads used are essentially purple. The lightest in the middle is a very soft lilac and the swirls at the outer edge are a dark purple. This quilt will be on display at the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham NEC in August.

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.

Skinny Envelope

I think it is a sign you've entered too many shows when you can tell from the feel of the envelope what it says. When it obviously only has one sheet of paper, it's thanks but no thanks. So my piecewon't be hanging at the Summer Exhibition this year. Rest assured I will be trying again next year. Hopefully encouraging some more quilters to try as well. Quality is important, but I am sure that quantity will improve the chances of a quilt being hung too.

Hopefully this year I wil have a bit more thinking time :) Now what am I going to do with the second Nude with Rope? It's on a rigid frame so it will be a pain to ship anywhere, but it is striking, and I would like to see it displayed somewhere. Of course that does assume it hasn't got damaged during the judging process. I suppose I could cut it off the frame and bind it for quilt shows.

Power of negative thinking?

So last night I went out for dinner with friends, and it was very nice. During the course of the meal they suggested we needed a reason to go out for sushi. "Well" I say, "I usually go to sushi Joe when I win an award at a quilt show, but that will be at least a month". I entirely forgot that one of my customers. Barbara Wharton, had entered our quilt at Malvern this weekend. I didn't bother to enter anything, I don't do well at Malvern, except of course when I win the Longarm award! So apparently I will be in Malvern on Sunday, if anyone is going I will see you there. I guess that would count for sushi, but I really don't have time or money right now for that, so we made to with chicken instead.

Saatchi Showdown

I've just remembered my round of the showdown started yesterday. I have put 'Nude with Rope' into the competition. The winners will be shown in the bricks and mortar gallery as well as the online one. If you would like to have a look and consider voting for my piece you can find it here. One of the nice things about this showdown is you can vote for many pieces, you are just saying how much you like each one. The highest scores go on to another showdown later in the year. I don't think my chances are great there are a huge number of pieces in the competition, but if I don't try and I don't tell people I have no chance. For those of you have had had problems with other online contests, this one doesn't harvest emails. They don't ask for any information you just click a star.

My Fat Quarter Of Paradise

Not only have I got the top finished but I also have a name for it. Not bad really. I am not sure if I like this pattern, it does work but I think I like something more planned. It may partly be a problem with my fabric choice, I think I would like the pattern better in maybe oriental fabrics, or perhaps mostly solid black with a few really vibrant colours. Hmmm I might have to try that, it would be really interesting to quilt on.

I used the 30 fat quarter version and it is almost big enough for our bed already so once I put on the plain black borders it will be perfect. I think it will be interesting to have the quilting just flow onto the borders as thought they were a continuation of the top. The point of this is to be quick ans simple quilting that would be good to put on quick low cost customer quilts.

As you can see my moon is hanging over the bed. On my very high tech quilt hanging system. Well stick on lampshades is fairly hight tech isn't it? It works quite well having the moon against the blue wall.