The last of the family quilts at Sandown

 Finally I am at my computer and it's working and I can get it to load the photos. Must be time to share the last of the 'family' quilts. For this post I'm adopting Susan Briscoe, or at least our quilt. It isn't quite as cheeky as it sounds, I did at least quilt this one. It is called 'I can only do so much pink in one go'. Susan says "After making a scaled-down replica of a quilt shown at the V & A's 2010 exhibition. I wanted to give it a modern twist. The fabrics are all from the Sultry range by Moda. There are 1536 1 1/2" squares in the mini checkerboard blocks"

It isn't actually too pink. I quilted it with green leaves and vines all over the non brown areas. In the brown Susan asked for a garden gate effect so it has brown curls in a wrought iron sort of style. These curls extend from the central area in the the brown sections at the sides of the quilt. We were both very pleased with how it came out. I was thrilled when people were admiring it folded up on it's way back to Susan at the Malvern show. For me that is something that really speaks volumes about the quilt. When such a small piece can inspire people.


Next quilt up is another one of mine. This is Quite Moment. I started this quilt last August and posted all the steps on here.  It's still being very tricky to photograph. Most of the image is in shades of purple, with the shoes in blue.  It seems that whenever I photograph it inside the colours come out wrong. I know I should choose colours that I can photograph more easily, but I like purple :)

 This is 'Stars Innit', made by Tet to test the new pattern Ferret Fractals, friendship stars. It seems to have been a very popular quilt. A lot of visitors came and talked to me about it. It is also the cover quilt of the pattern. It was made from fabrics in my stash, and we had hoped to be able to offer a kit to make on the same, but it would be only one kit. What do you think? Should I make up one kit for someone to make a quilt just like this one? I really like the border Tet designed for the quilt. I stopped with the stars, as for me that is where the fractal principle took it.  The border though does finish it nicely and I think I might have to get him to come up with a borders for the rest of m designs.

 This is my charity entry. I really don't like pink and there was no way I was going to make a pink quilt, but I couldn't let the charity down. So 'No effing p**k' was born. I knew this would never be a show winning quilt but I was determined to have fun with it. I tried out a lot of different threads, I tried blending two very thin threads as my top thread. It gets some very interesting results. Using a cotton thread with a metallic does support the metallic thread very well, but maintaining a good tension is tricky. It was certainly fun to have a play.

The background black quilting is many many patterns. I figured that this quilt would be recycled as a teaching tool, so if I come to teach you machine quilting expect to see this quilt. If you look back on my blog to May you will find a few close ups of the quilting.

 Remember that you can click on any of the images to see a larger version, where you should be able to see the background quilting quite well.

The other fun thing about this quilt was seeing what the fonts day to people. I could see several bands, and Blade runner (although none of the fonts are exactly right they have a strong flavour of something). My students spotted loads more familiar brands in the quilt. It's funny how distinctive a font is even when the word is completely wrong.

Finally, a rather special picture. I've wanted to be able to do this for a while and things just came together on the Sunday of the show. This is the model for Quiet Moment standing with the quilt. The rosette she is wearing is a Judges Merit that was awarded to the quilt. We have been trying to get the two of them together for quite a while but things just hadn't been working out. It was great to be able to use the free tickets from my entries to get her and her dad into the show. Even better she wore a branded t-shirt and was prepared to stand in for me while I was at the awards. I'm thinking it's a good sign when the model is prepared to stand with the finished quilt :) Oh and yes you are likely to see more quilts staring this model, just as soon as I have time to play. Speaking of time, I should be getting ready for tonights talk, where several of these quilts will be getting their next outing.

Prometheus, some better pictures (I hope)

 As ever if you click on the images you will get a bigger version and they are big. I hope this will mean those who haven't seen it can get a good look at the stitching. I'm sorry there is nothing I can do to show you the size. This thing is huge. Well to be fair it's about the same size as a lot of my bed quilts, but as show quilts go it's on the large side.

Once upon a time I entered a quilt to this show that was too wide for the frame and too long. It dragged on the floor and looked like a curtain. It wasn't good. Since then the organizers have bought bigger stands and until this quilt everything I made fitted.

Last year I came to Sandown and started asking what they could hang if they had to. Their official maximum was smaller than the fabric I was going to use. Well, they had planned ahead and bought extension units for the frames. Height wasn't a problem. Width was more trouble. So we cam up with a plan. The quilt had to have a special sleeve. It has gaps at the points that the support bar for the quilt needs to be attached to the base frame unit. It also had to be hung on the end of a row. So there is a limit to how many monster quilts they can hang in one show. On the other hand they can, and will, hang these outsize beasts, so if you've got a monster quilt lurking how about entering it into the show next year?

This quilt is made from a single piece of fabric. Yes, it's huge. No, it doesn't have any seams. No, I didn't dye it myself, do I look that stupid brave? It was dyed for me by Heide Stoll-Weber. I don't know if she will be up for dying more of them but you can always ask her when she is at the Festival of Quilts in August. I had actually planned on using the fabric for both the top of a quilt and the binding, but when it came I couldn't cut it. So I worked my design into her fabric. I'm very pleased I did.

The photographs actually probably give you a better idea of the shading of the fabric than you get in real life. There are places on the quilt where the thread changes the colour you see a lot, interestingly the camera picks up the background colour more.

 The quilt contains about 16-18 cones of thread, in about 10 different colours. There is no actual trapunto it has two layers of wool wadding throughout the quilt. The trapunto effect just comes from the amount of quilting in the background.

At the moment the quilt is very stiff. If (when) it gets some real use it will soften up. Greek Fossils, the test piece for this quilt, has softened a lot and it has just been rolled and unrolled for a couple of years.

The quilt is pretty much reversible. The bobbin thread is the same colour as the top thread every where, so yes when I change one I have to change the other. The backing is a black and grey floral fabric, but you can't see much of that any more :) We think there are between 400 and 600 hours work in the whole thing.

I think that covers most of the questions I got at the show. Please do ask if you have any questions I haven't covered and do click on the images to get a closer look.

National Patchwork Championships - Sandown

Better late than never right? I've not been home much since the quilt show last weekend so I haven't been able to process the photographs and share my good news. Finally I have a little spare(ish) time and I thought I should get on with this report.

As Sandown is my local show I can hand deliver my quilts to the show ground. This gives me a chance to enter some of my larger and more fragile pieces. Also the team at Grosvenor have been working really hard on how they return quilts, they have got really good at dealing with difficult quilts. This year every quilt that had been delivered on a roll was brought to the collection area unfolded with it's roll so it could be packed properly. If you have  quilts you are concerned about this might well be the show for you. Also being a smaller show it's possible to get around all the exhibits in a day and still have time for lunch. Lunch isn't cheap (although it isn't bad for this sort of venue) but it's large portions and it's good food. Can you tell I really like this show :)

The sample quilt from my book Ferreting Around was one of he quilts I entered. I had wanted to put in Tet's quilt but you can't enter Malvern and Sandown in the same year, so I thought mine could have an outing. It is what it is, a sample. If you look in the book this is the quilt you see being made. I couldn't see it winning any pizes, but it was nice to see it on display especially as it wasn't allowed to be the cover quilt of the book. I forgot that there isn't a show guide at Sandown, but I hope the Home Workshop folks had time to read the statement with it. They really have given me a lot of advice about  producing books, and I do appreciate it.

Another quilt I put in with no expectation of it winning anything was Bad Rain. This is the quilt of a double page spread from the book Cancertown. It's a large quilt and there aren't many chances for me to display it in the quilting arena, so I took this one. I was very surprised (and thrilled) to see it sporting a Judges Choice certificate. Even more surprising was the number of people who came and talked to me about it. It made an impression and for a lot of people a positive one. I have to admit I just enjoyed seeing it hanging. I also think it is good for the quilts to hang, and this one lives rolled up in a storage unit most of the time. It does get a few outings to talks, but not as many as I would like.

Opposite Bad Rain was Herd Mentality. I am always being asked to show this quilt and that was why it apeared here. The layout of the quilt stands isn't ideal for either of these two quilts as they are best viewed from a distance, but you take what you can get. I think you can get a reasonable view of them when you stand back. From what I saw this quilt was one of the most popular with small people. The number of children I saw wanting to stroke the cows was amazing, and thank you very much to all the parents who were so careful to restrain the small fingers. This will be it's last appearance in the UK for a while as it was accepted into the World Quilt Show and is heading off to tour America. On the other hand if you're reading this from the US please keep and eye open for it and send me a picture if you meet it at a show. I do enjoy seeing my quilt's holiday photos.


The rosette on the cows is first place in computer aided design. All of my art quilts are based on photographs which I process on the computer to produce patterns. This one more than most, as the relative brightness of various parts of the image were adjusted first to give the more detail in the final pattern. I'm really pleased to have won the award and I rather like the silver plate that comes with it. I got an angular geometric one rather than one of the more frilly plates. Funny how these things seem to just work out.


Given how popular my other leather quilt had been at Malvern, I thought that this one might have done well at Sandown. I guess I spoilt people with Leather Star. This one, Leather Feathers was the first piece of leather I quilted and I did get more comfortable with it on the second one, the star. It was nice to have it there, anyway as lot's of people hadn't been to Malvern and were fascinated by the idea of quilting leather. It is a very stressful thing to do, but at the same time wonderful. The leather feels so nice to quilt on and I love the smell of it. On the other hand you can't make mistakes as they leave holes you can't heal.

The art quilt category at Sandown isn't large, and I try to make sure I put something in it each year. I generally don't do well here but still it's a category I like and I wan to see it continue so I have to enter something. This time the something was Daughter. I liked the idea of Mother and Daughter each getting an outing a consecutive shows, it seemed fitting. Not only that, she did me proud, winning the category. Sorry Roy, I'm sure you can get the trophy back next year :)

Finally there was my entry into the bed quilt category, Phoenix Rising. This is generally the biggest category of the show and I would say the mst fiercely contested. I think for many quilters this is the award (other than champion quilt) that they most want to win. I entered this quilt here because it is my quilt. Maybe that should be MY quilt. It is the most me I have done in a while and I love it. I thought I didn't care what anyone else thought I just loved it. Well on judging day I woke up worried, I wanted this quilt to appeal to the judges. I feel that is a very dangerous desire. It seems to me to be a very good way to disapointment. Generally I manage to avoid it but this just crept up on me (I wonder if it had struck earlier if I would still have entered the quilt). Of course at that point all I could do was wait and see what happened.


Part way through my afternoon class my phone went. It was Vicky and the first award she told me about was this one. I was so relieved. Yup, relieved. After a while I makde it to thrilled, winning the bed quilt category was cool, but not as good as just knowing the judges did think MY quilt was OK. I'm sure blind faith in your work is a great thing to have, but I haven't really got it. Maybe this quilt was just more important because it is more personal than some of them, or maybe it is because it hasn't done well with US judges. I don't know but as you can see I am very pleased with it's award.

I hope that some of you will be inspired to enter this show next year. It really is a great place to get your feet wet and start showing your quilts. It is a thrill just to see your work hung up, as one of my students discovered today (more on that later). You really never see your work as well as you do in a show. Also if you like looking at quilts in shows you can help by sharing your work. The shows can only carry on while there are quilts to see. No entries, means no quilts, means no show. If you're local you can do what I do and deliver to the show then collect on the Sunday. You get a ticket with your entry so you can get in for free, and it's a great chance to catch up with other quilter while you wait for your quilt to arrive. Give it a go, you never know, you might enjoy it. Forms can be obtained from Grosvenor Exhibitions.

Bad Rain - Day 10

Well that's it. It is off the frame. I didn't realise while I was working quite how big it is. When Cy described it as a "Bad Rain: A Double-Page Bedspread" he was quite right. The picture doesn't show all of it because it more than covers our king size bed. Of course it wouldn't actually be any good as a bedspread, it's too fragile and too heavy, but size wise it looks the part.

I thought you might be interested in some facts and figures about this monster of a quilt.

• When bound the quilt will be at least 90"x70"
• There is over 4000m of thread on the front of the quilt
• About 40 pre-wound bobbins were used in this quilt
• More than 1/2m of solid black appears in the quilt - it surprised me, as most of the black - isn't
• 4 1/2 cans of 505 spray baste held the pieces down so I could stitch them
• 3/4 roll of freezerpaper was used to make patterns
• 5m of washaway stabiliser was the pattern and quilting design
• over 15m of ombre fabrics went in to this quilt.
• the master pattern was 112 sheets of A4 paper
  

In ten days all that had come together to make my version of the double page spread from Cancertown. I am thrilled with it and I can't wait to see it hung in my gallery at the Festival of Quilts. It will be the first chance I get to have a really good look at it. I hope some of you will be able to join me there.

I think I will take the rest of the evening off, and get on with a small art quilt tomorrow.

Bad Rain - Day 5

It's reached the point where it is too big to photograph, or indeed see properly. I hope the pictures will give you an idea of how it's going. I've got a new favourite badmouth. I have always liked the ones with their arms folded, but now I have a new fondness for the dark one with it's arms out. It is in the crease of the book, so it doesn't get much appreciation, which is a shame as it is a very detailed badmouth. I wonder if if was one of Stephens pets as well, as it seems to have a lot of work in it. Maybe that is party why I like it so much, I've spent a lot of time working on it. I think each line takes about a minute whether they are 1/2" or 3-4". Most of the time is in the starting and stopping the line, so the areas that have more lines in take a long time.

As you can imaging the side of the building has been another very time consuming area. It's been fun too. In fact I've been really enjoying working on some thing completely different. I'm also starting to think about which of my other projects (hmm I nearly typed problems, how Freudian is that) I will move onto next. I have two small ones that need to be done before the show and I think they might be the next stop. They are more the sort of thing I usually do so will be another complete change and being small I should be able to finish them relatively quickly. I find it helps keep my going if I can have a few quick targets then a longer one.

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.

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.

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.

New quilt to share

I've been dying to share this quilt on here, but I wanted to wait until the model had seen it. I had been asked to take a photograph for his web site, but this one struck me as too good not to use as a quilt. Fortunately he is quite obliging and gave me permission to use it, but I did feel that gave him the right to see it first. He only ran screaming as much as you would expect anyone suddenly meeting a large portrait of themselves so I figure I've done OK.

It isn't quilted yet, and that will be a challenge, I find faces very hard to quilt, but I guess I had to tackle that problem sooner or later, and as this is part of a triptych I should get a fair amount of practice. The tattoo will also be a challenge. I normally like to quilt in the contour lines of the body, and I like to match the thread to the fabric, so I guess there will be a lot of starts and stops there. Well it will be fun I am sure.

Yesterday I got to help a friend make her first quilt. An advent calender. I would like to point out we even made it in time. That's pretty impressive given the idea was only formed at the NEC this year and we a are both stupidly busy. She would like to add more quilting (it already has more than most get) but will probably leave that to be done in time for next year. I wonder if you would have one which you added to every year so it would be both an old friend and something new each time. I guess that will be one of those ideas I have to kick about for a while as I think it would be quite a nice thing to do. Now I need to go and work on a customer quilt and a clever idea I had an started yesterday. People really should start saving me from myself. I have far too many ideas.

Quilting like a mad thing

Wow, it's been a mad few days. I've discovered that having too many quilts waiting (more than 10) is bad. It makes me very uncomfortable. For some reason that is the point where things feel out of control to me. So since my last post I have quilted 6 customer quilts. I feel much better now, if utterly exhausted. It's a little concerning that I still have as many to do (to say nothing of three of my own) but it feels manageable now.

To give me a bit of a break from the longarm I've been putting together a sample quilt. I managed to cut it out in about half an hour while I was waiting for a class at the shop on Thursday, and it is now ready for quilting. It's made from the "Turning Twenty - Just got better" book, and it is even quicker than the "Turning Twenty Again" which I love. Tet, who has been helping sell patterns at my talks, felt it was time for me to get samples from the other books. I have to admit he is right, but somehow it hadn't seemed urgent until someone else pointed it out. Strange how these things work isn't it. So here is the first of my samples from the other books. I am really pleased with it. The fabrics for the center of the quilt were pretty much the first 20 fat quarters I pulled from the batik display that the shop. I say pretty much as I did put one back, but other than that I just grabbed the 10 darkest and 10 of the lightest. It's a good illustration of how forgiving this pattern is. I don't think you could quite walk into the shop blindfolded, pick fabric and be guaranteed a good quilt, but I suspect even that would work out fairly often.

Also I can finally show you my Hever challenge quilt. I wasn't overly inspired by the fabrics but after they had sat on my desk for a few months I realised they reminded me of one of my screen savers. So that is what I did with them. I would like to try a similar design with circles instead of rectangles, but that is going to be such a pain to stitch, I keep putting it off.

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.

Speed Quilt 2

Strangely I was just putting the binding on this quilt when I got an email asking for a picture of it. I figured I may as well finish before posting. So here is Speed Quilt 2. I guess I would call it a large single, and most people should be able to pretty much complete the sewing in one day. It is a reversible quilt as you go project, and being quick is ideal for those people you aught to give a quilt to but you know they won't really get it. As you can see mine is quite soft colours on the front and something a bit more striking on the back.

If you would like to have a go at making one there are still a couple of places on my class on the 24th June. Call Patchwork Corner to book a place as they are running the class. Alternatively you could ask your local quilt group or shop to book me to teach it there. Sorry, but if you are not in the UK you will either have a large travel bill or need to find some other groups who will also book me.

For those of you booked already, I hope this will help with picking your fabrics, the quilt will be at Patchwork Corner as of tomorrow.

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.

Aliens

I've finally had some time to put together the other top I cut out a while ago. It's a fun quilt that one day will end up on my bed. After it has finished working. You may notice it isn't the normal aspect ratio for a quilt. I decided that I really need wider quilts with less length for our king size bed, so this one has been designed for that. It could easily be made a more traditional shape if needed.

I fell in love with this fabric as soon as I saw it but found it impossible to buy in the UK and hard in the US. So this is the result of a lot of searching, and I think I have enough left for a second quilt when I decide what else I would like to do with it. I don;t know if you will be able to see in the photograph but there are some fantastic space craft in the small print with a black background. I especially like the bus. The range is called Alien Invasion by Amy Bradley Designs, and was produced by Moda fabrics.

I guess it's time to put the border on now. I think I have just enough of the sashing fabric left.

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.

Bugs everywhere

I've been writing up a pattern for novelty quilts today, and it inspired me to use this fabric. I just loved the bugs and lizards, and I like the idea of a couple of novelty bed quilts. This will be the center panel of a large double bed quilt. I want to tone things down a little bit on the sides. It isn't clear in the picture just how bright these fabrics are. Think real primary colours. Fro the sides I think I will just some black fabric with bright paw prints on it. I also have a little of the green and blue fabrics left which should contrast well with the black.

I will produce this as a pattern for a single bed quilt and possible a child's lap/floor quilt too. I think it would be great for all sorts of novelty prints. Once I have this one done I think I will start on my aliens quilt, which will be a similar that will use panels as well as the large print fabrics. That will be a somewhat more subdued quilt. The fabric isn't anywhere near as bright.

Charity Raffle

I've finally had time to look through my pictures and select some to show you. This is a quilt that has been made to raise funds for a children's playground in Essex. Perhaps not the most glamorous of causes, but still important, and I love the fact that the community is working together to improve things for all the members. The quilt is a group quilt made by people who live in the area. very few are experienced patchworkers, but they have done an amazing job on this quilt.

The quilt is liberty prints and natural calico/muslin. It's isn't what I would consider to be my colours, but I fell in love with it instantly, and I really enjoyed quilting it. The large areas of plain fabric let me play with feathers, which I now love. The feathers carry on through the larger sashing.

The customer asked for fairly open quilting so the finished quilt is quite soft and drapy. I think I achieved that. I left the narrowest sashes unquilted to help with this. The patterned fabrics are all quilted with the same variegated thread, I was stunned that one thread could match so well with so many fabrics. It certainly helped speed up the process, just as well as this was a quilt on a tight schedule.

If you would like a chance to win this quilt use the contact link to send me an email. I will then give you details of how to get tickets. I completely forgot to ask when the draw will be, but I will find out and add an update. Don't forget you can click on any of the pictures for a larger version. If you do you will see that the quilt has flashes of many colours in it. The idea is that it will fit with as many interiors as possible, personally I think it should be very successful, in that goal.

One from the vaults

While I was working through my email I came across one that needed a picture of Heat. No problem, it was in the show so there is one on my blog... or not. Somehow I missed her out of the tour, so in compensation I thought I would put up some of the pictures I took while I was working on her. Whenever I am working on a pictorial quilt I take a large number of pictures. It helps me see the quilt properly. I find I tend to loose focus otherwise. It is also fun to see things growing and encourages me to keep working. Bear in mind these images are from my mobile (cell) phone. It isn't supposed to be a high spec camera and it did have a hard time with some of the colours.

As you can see from the photographs, this piece is built up in large layers, each cut away more than the last. I am often asked it this is how I make my art quilts, well, sometimes. I chose it for this one because I had large areas of a very pale colour, and it I had laid those directly on the black background it would have shown through. The simplest solution I have found is to use the layers to gradually tone down the black.

I don't know if it will be obvious when I post, but this has been the longest in progress post I have ever made. I started it Monday, and the computer died on me. Fortunately Blogger's auto save did its' thing so I came back to it, Wednesday, Thursday and now Friday. Tuesday I was out all day so I just had to fret about the possibility thew auto save hadn't worked. So now I just want it posted so I can go on and tell you the new news.