Hi, I am still here

I thought this was going to be a quiet week, how wrong can you be. The bridal hand off went well Monday, and I took a little time off before preparing for my class the next day. Just as I was arriving for the class (only just on time due to bad traffic) I got a phone call. The job I had planned to do Wednesday - Friday had just become urgent and could I please get there today (Tuesday). I refused to cancel the class but said I would head over as soon as I had finished teaching. The job was prop making and ran until Thursday. We didn't quite get as much out as we wanted for the Wednesday, but we finished on time for the Thursday collection. It did involve some late nights to do it, and as you can imaging, after the double shift and then not a lot of sleep I have been too tired to blog.

Today I had a chance to work on the next magazine quilt. I've finished the base layer of the top. Tomorrow I will quilt it and add the details. It is supposed to have removable pieces, but I realised (after buying the velcro) that it might be better to stitch them in place on the quilt that will be going to trade shows. Oh well, I am sure I will use the velcro sometime.

In the midst of all this I did manage to go out for dinner on Thursday at my favourite sushi place. The food was good and it was nice to see them open again after moving. We ate until we were ready to burst and then the chef produced us 'desert'. It was an inside out roll with eel in the center. The outside was wrapped with assorted fish and avocado. It was beautiful. Fortunately I had my camera with me (I had been taking pictures of the snow on the way t work) so I managed to get a picture of it. Apparently it doesn't have a name yet, but I hope it gets one soon. Something that pretty really should have a name. It tasted amazing too, and despite having all claimed to be full we managed to eat it all. It's a great place. It is called Wankara, and is in Oriental City in Collindale..

That magic moment

Whenever I sew anything there is a moment when I know the project will work and be good. I've just hit it with my latest item. I am working on an Edwardian jacket for a wedding. The fabrics are being very difficult but I've just put the collar on. Bingo I have a jacket. It is pretty feminine and very glamorous. I just hope it's owner will like it as much as I do.

I've noticed that once I hit this magic moment everything seams to move quicker. It just starts to work and come together properly. I love it. The best bit is I tend to forget it will happen before it does, so I am not even just sitting waiting for it. Wonderful. That is why I had to share right now. I had better get back to the jacket before it gets bored :)

A talk and a quilt

Well I survived. I didn't even get pelted with rotten vegetables (well quilters cook them before they go off so I wouldn't would I). In fact I think the talk went well. People seemed to enjoy it, and the audience was very interactive. I think I will have to encourage heckling as I like having the direct feedback. It turns out that I can indeed talk for about five minutes on any of my quilts, and with the help of a clock on the far wall I managed my 1 hour talk. It is somewhat disconcerting having the crowd rush the stage to come and look at quilts. I had never thought how it must be for a speaker, I will in future. I also know why speakers seem rather disoriented when you try to catch them after a talk, they are. The crowd just adds to it as well. Weird. I think a quite positive experience though, and after the fretting I rather enjoyed it. Several people said they thought I should do more speaking and I will take them at their word. Strangely it looks like my next talk with be to a lot of the same people in April, so I will have to work hard to have a lot of new work to show them.

We did manage to finish the wedding quilt last night, and as it has now been delivered I can show you some pictures of it. It has been named 'Grace under Fire'. I wanted a title that covered the elegance of the cranes it is quilted with and the somewhat military looking colours used. Believe it or not most of the blues are quite grey and dull looking on their own, and the other colour a kind of tan, but together they are so different. I think it is really quite vibrant. I hope it isn't too bright now. The new owners seemed very pleased with it, and they are people who make things too, so have some understanding of the time and effort that goes into something like this. It was quite a hit with the other guests at the dinner too which is a very nice bonus.

As you can see we went for a quite subdued backing, it is actually a very dark blue with white vines on it. The binding uses the same fabric as the centers of the log cabins, and I think adds a lift to the quilt. The rest is scrappy. We picked colours that were roughly the same colour, cut the strips and just grabbed them at random. We both particularly like this method for making quilts, it adds more depth to the colours that one fabric could possibly supply. As ever in the sake of speed, a Ricky Timms binding. I love this method, and I seem to be getting better at it at last.

Robin is very proud of this quilt as he did all the piecing while I did the cutting and pressing for him. He hasn't been quilting long but his points are great, and this is just a utility quilt! It is intended to be used, and as such there are errors in the quilting that we chose to leave. For a customer or a show they would have come out, for a working quilt I think they add character and I am sure it will be kept well away from quilt police. Ops, I just realised I forgot to warn them that after washing it will look different, oh well too late tonight I will have to try and remember tomorrow.

Wow, progress

Well I think these plans are finally coming together. We have all the blocks done, and ready to assemble for the present quilt. It just needs the block joining and I can get it onto the frame. I chose a design that didn't need borders as I wanted to use an all over design for the quilting. This quilt is having to combine two very different design specifications in one quilt, and I hope we have managed it.

I've sent of the mother of the bride skirt today. I am surprised how much I like it. It really isn't my colour or my style of fabric, but I suppose it is a design of skirt I really like. I just hope she likes it as all she has seen is a small sample of the fabric. She hasn't seen any pictures of the skirt design at all. Scary. Still it will fit perfectly with the brides outfit, and I guess that is what most mothers would really care about.

I've finally found a scrapbook to put all your supportive comment in. I've had so much support from the Internet in the last year, and I want to keep making good use of it. On days when I don't believe in myself I can look through it and see that there are a lot of other people who think I can succeed. I found a purple faux suede photo album in the sale and I love it. It matches my quilt design notebooks so I think it was meant to be. Even better it has those peel and stick pages so I don't have to worry about finding a glue that will work. It's been great reading through the comments and has helped me with preparing my talk for Saturday. It is rather daunting going and talking to a room full of people for an hour, but I have lots of support, I won't let you (or me) down.

I am working on plans to get pictures back onto my blog. I can't switch to Wordpress right now as they don't have a tool to move the new blogger blogs over yet. They also don't allow blogging by email, which is what I do from my mobile phone. The do have moblog, but my phone doesn't. What I may do is host the images elsewhere and just code the html myself. I am working on it. I will also try and get my new works put onto my main site then you will at least be able to see them there. Thanks for bearing with me while I figure it out. If I get really desperate I may accept the terms I don't like and hope Google never notice my site. After all I am sure this is a very low traffic blog and if they are going to use any ones images it is more likely to be the more popular ones right?

Finally (for now) I still haven't found my 10,000 visitor. If they haven't come back here by next Monday I will post details of the 10,001 visitor and see if I have better luck with that one. Who would have thought that giving something away would be so difficult.

The worlds biggest neglige?

At the weekend I finally got to see my car cover in action. If you would like to take a look there is a picture up on Eurodragster.

It seems I have made one of those serious mistakes that you regret as soon as you have done it. I've moved to the new blogger. I now have to accept new terms and conditions to be able to post pictures. I don't so I can't. I guess that means I now have to move my blog :( I really didn't need that.

Anyone want to recommend their blog hosting site? If you do and are feeling really kind could you use the contact me form to let me know. Blogger seems to be using an email address I don't check very often. I will try to fix that, but I don't know how much luck I will have.

Sorry Kate, I was planning on putting up the card you sent me too. It's a great card and very exciting. I like this getting art through the post.