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.

Patchwork Corner quilts at Sandown

 I guess I should confess. I am mean and cruel and I beat not only my students but Jenny's as well. I've been trying for years to get more people from Patchwork Corner to enter quilts into the Sandown quilt show, partly because it's a really nice show and partly because there are a lot of good quilters there. It also seems daft not to enter when most of them go to the show anyway and entering gets you a ticket.

In the past one or two students have given it a go, and enjoyed the experience, this year was the best yet, with 8 quilts from the shop. This was helped a lot by the charity category. All the entry fees for quilts in the charity theme (In the Pink) were donated to Breast Cancer Care, it was a win win situation.

So on that note the first quilt I am sharing (with permission) is a small wall hanging. It was made by Karen Benge from a McKenna Ryan pattern. It's a lovely quilt and the picture doesn't do it justice. The quilt on the washing line is a separate little quilt and there are real pegs. It's scary to be responsible for it, but worth the effort.

The next quilt is a group entry. Unfortunately groups were not allowed to enter the theme category, but it wasn't obvious from the entry form. Looking at the show guide, there were a few groups who didn't spot that restriction and there was a larger then usual group category. Again the picture won't show you the half of this quilt made by the Thursday Morning Ladies. The blocks are very effective and were a great choice for a group project, but the detail in the machine quilting is mad. Do try clicking on the photo, but I don't think the tiny hearts will show. This was Jill's first attempt at machine quilting on a frame, brave or what? She did a good job and learned a lot. I love finding new frame quilters, they get all the fun little problems that you don't even think about until they happen to you. This quilt will be raffled for Breast Cancer Care, I'll let you know about tickets when I find out about them.

The next quilt is by Liz Norton, one of my Thursday night ladies. As soon as we knew the theme it was clear this quilt had to be entered. What I didn't realise until I saw it hanging was how good it is. Just look at how well it hangs. I wish I knew how she did it, I would love all of mine to look that good in a show. 

Another quilt that really pleased me is this one by Carolyn Meggison. She recently joined myWednesday morning class 'to learn machine quilting'. She meant it too, and her dedication is paying off. Those feathers are completely freehand and sewn on a quite basic little domestic machine. Watch out for the name, she has picked up machine quilting a lot quicker than I did and is rapidly soaking up not only everything I can teach her but all sorts of things she finds on the internet. I don't know how she got the lone star done so fast and to the standard, I only know I didn't teach her it. I can't wait to see what she enters next year.

 Ah, now this one is really cool. This is from the boss herself, Jenny. It was made as a sample for a new range of fabrics but then she realised it was pink and thus could come to the show. She doesn't read my blog so I think I am safe in saying she is probably the best piecer I quilt for, and this is the first time she has entered a show. Maybe we should be thankful :) This quilt was a bit of a challenge to quilt. The fabric is a very loose weave and with the blocks on point it likes to wander about a bit. I did go a bit crazy with the quilting. It's full on show quilting, with rulers stencils and all that fun stuff, and I loved doing it. I wish it had picked up an award, but the charity category was big and had a lot of very good work in it, so not this time. I hope Jenny can be persuaded to enter again, her work should be out there being seen by more people.

I'm not sure how I should describe Angela, she wears so many hats at the shop. She is in my Wednesday morning class, teaches her own classes (from her own designs) works in the shop and demonstrates machines. This is a quilt of her own design called 'I wish I was blue'. The centre was inspired by my second sampler quilt pattern which she enlarged. I don't like pink but this quilt shows how striking 3 fabrics can be when you have good contrast. There are hand quilted stars that you should be able to see if you enlarge the image by clicking on it, and a lot of machine quilting. Angela has been my star example of quilting with decorative stitches for years, as she swore she couldn't do free motion quilting. Then her students started mentioning that they wanted to learn to free motion quilt. Rather than put them off or send them to my classes (which would still have given the message this was hard and put them off) she decided she was going to master it. This is one of the great things about teaching. It's not a one way process. Your students can teach you so much both directly and indirectly if only you will let them. She is now encouraging the rest of the class to give it a go and is solidly hooked on the process. I did tell her it was fun and she could do it. I think she is now looking to try a wholecloth along with Carolyn, and several others.


Gill hasn't been able to come to class this term, but it didn't get her off the hook. She still entered the show with this little quilt. She was inspired by Ashley Newcomb, from the blog 'Film in the Fridge'. She found this to be a real learning experience, and seems to have enjoyed it, even the stressful bits. I was amused to discover that most quilters finish show quilts at the last possible minute if not a few minutes later. I thought it was just me. She also discovered that delivering quilts is fun. I haven't heard from her since we took the show down, so I don't know what she made of that. I know I really appreciated her and her families help loading up the van. Other traders were very impressed with how well they worked too.

Carol Brackley comes to a class with me on Thursday afternoon and is another student who has really taken off. When I first me her, she seemed quite nervous and unsure of her skills, now she is up for anything. She plays with all sorts of patterns and fabrics producing an impressive number and range of quilts. This quilt has four bows quilted into it in honour of the theme. Unfortunately her family were really busy during the show, so weren't able to see her quilt hanging. I hope they will make it next year, I can't wait to see what she is making by then.

So there you have it. Those are this years quilts from the Patchwork Corner crowd. It would have been great for one of them to go home with a ribbon, but I hope everyone enjoyed the experience of entering a show and seeing their quilt hanging. It is magic just to see your work displayed in an event like this. I know a couple of these students did hear people saying nice things about their quilts and that is an amazing buzz. They also discovered that the competing bit isn't really scary, you don't hear directly from the judges unless you apply for them, and on the whole people who visit the show are pleased you entered. After all if no one enters quilts there isn't a show. I hope some of you will join in the fun next year.

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.

There are show organisers who care

I love my quilts traveling but it is nerve wracking. I find it very hard to get my quilts properly insured while they are in transit. Several times I have wondered if I should stop entering US shows because of it. I found out last night that Phoenix Rising has made it into the Lancaster County show. I am thrilled, but my heart sank when I looked at their shipping instructions. Another uninsured round trip coming up. I emailed them to explain the problem I have with this and why the insurance sold by the courier companies wasn't worth paying for. Usually (if I even get an answer) it is of the lines, "you entered you have to abide by the guide or you can spend a lot of money doing it this way". Not this time. I got a very well thought out response. They explained how they look after the quilts, how they insure them while the quilts are at the show, and most importantly that they have found a way to insure them on their return journey! How cool is that? They had already found out that couriers will charge you for insurance that won't work and found a way around it. They are also looking in to the possibility of offering insurance for quilts being shipped to the show. I really can't express how impressed I am with the attitude and the speed with which they got in touch. I feel so much better sending my quilts out when I know they are going to such a professional, thoughtful and responsive organization. Well done AQS. Maybe if they find the solution to all the shipping problems other show organizers will follow their example. I can hope.

Do you remember I mentioned the new quilt pattern? Well I got the top back on Tuesday and I am thrilled with it. I am assured it was a lot of fun to put together and was quick to make as well. I am really looking forward to quilting it, but it will have to wait it's turn. I may also put on a border before I do that. I haven't decided yet. I suppose that is the bright side of it sitting in my quilting queue, I have time to decide. Once I have the pattern ready I will put it up here so you can see the quilt.

Road 2 California

I've just realised I haven't posted anything about my quilt that went to the Road to California show.

I entered three quilts, Mother, Phoenix Rising and Bad Rain. Only Mother and Phoenix Rising were accepted, and they shipped to the show early December.

As you can see they made it OK. They didn't place in the show, the judges feel I need to work on my raw edge applique technique, but apparently they looked great hanging.

I was especially pleased that they had hung the phoenix so the front and the back can be seen. I am very please with the back of this quilt, although I hadn't intended it to be reversible, hence the hanging sleeve not matching the backing. At least it wasn't a calico sleeve. Just before the NEC I ran out of black fabric so a few quilts did get very odd sleeves. Looking at the pictures you can see that the wings are built up in sections and each feather is quilted individually. The ash (grey quilting at the bottom of the quilt) also shows up a lot better on the back than on the front.

Now I am just looking forward to them coming home. I do miss my quilts when they travel and the phoenix especially so. Thanks to everyone who has sent me pictures of these quilts on display. It is appreciated, it's sort of like getting a postcard from my quilts.

Road 2 California

I finally gave in and called them. They are usually very prompt with notifications and I was getting really worried that my entries might not have got through even to the jury process (I had some issues getting them submitted). However the entries did make it, and were considered. Two of my three quilts have been accepted for the show. Phoenix Rising and Mother will be going to the show, so I had better sort them out with labels and get them packed up. Bad Rain unfortunately didn't make it. It's a shame I thought it would fit in well there, but they have said that this year they had to reject quilts they would have liked to have had due to time and space restrictions, so I don't think I can feel too hard done by. At least now I can stop worrying about it.

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.

Oh Wow!

I've just had it confirmed that 'Herd Mentality' won the viewers choice award at the Houston Festival. I am so thrilled, thank you very much to every one who voted for me. It's an award that means a lot to me as this is the opinion of quilters, with no agenda and who mostly have no idea who I am. I feel pretty happy that this was won by the quilt on it's own, and to me that is the best sort of award I could ever hope for. I am celebrating with a new heat pack for me neck. It's from John Lewis and is so good it works without me actually heating it :) I promise I will stop grinning at some point, honest. If you would like to see a picture of the quilt with it's ribbon take a look here. I haven't got hold of the owner of the picture yet so I can't put it on my blog. If I do get permission I will later. Thanks again to all those who voted for it.

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.

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.

Quilts on display in America

I finally got access to some of my email, although outgoing is still a problem, and I was amazed to find people have seen my quilts. I knew I had quilts in America (you do tend to notice) but I had not expected these two to be on display for a couple more weeks. Apparently "Node with Rope" (they renamed it for me :) and "Guide Me" were on display at Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in Harrisburg. It is the first stop of the World Quilt Sow this year. How cool is that? On the other hand neither of them were wearing ribbons, so it could have been cooler. Still I have a picture of my nude at the show and "Guide Me" was too popular for them to be able to get a picture. That's a fantastic thing to be told. At least as good as it's got a ribbon. So thank you to the ladies who sent me the reports, if you would like to send me your postal addresses I would like to send you a little something each.

All quilts shipped

Well they've all gone. On time too, just. Yesterday the two for Edinburgh left and Herd Mentality headed for Houston. Today my entry went off the Hever. Sadly I think I will miss the show at Hever. I think I will be in Scotland, so I will be looking forward to a picture of the other challenge quilt. This is a very small challenge that was set to me last year. A grand total of two of us entered. I hope mine will look OK. It;'s somehow a lot more scary with with only two of us in the class. As far as I know it isn't judged, but I am very curious as to the other entry. So please do feel free to send me pictures from the show. I will confess that mine would have had more hand sewing if I could have managed it, but I am very slow by hand, even slower than I had thought, so it has gone as is.

I also delivered the last of the wedding quilts today. Another happy customer and hopefully another happy couple.

Woo Hoo

It seems to be time for me to find my work out and about. I've just had a call from a friend telling me two of my quilts are in Fabrications this month. Perttu and Lilly were photographed at Sandown and have made it into the show report.

A couple of days ago I was talking to another friend who told me one one of the prop sewing jobs I've done appears in the films trailer which I could find online. Yay, I love to know the work actually gets used. The film is Doomsday and indeed if you search you will find trailers for it. I helped make the armoured environment suits. If you watch really closely there is also a suit of armour that he made. It's odd, although we both worked on the same film we were at the workshop at completely different times, and it was a while before we twigged we had been working on the same film. The film is out on DVD soon, and I was planning on getting it to see my work on film, but having watched the trailer it looks like I might well enjoy the film too.

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 :)

Busy Busy Busy

Well as we know your best decisions are made when feeling less than your best. No! Well it had better turn out to to be true. Yesterday I finally had time to go and look at the gallery again and start planning what will go where. The good news is that I had mostly remembered things correctly and I have almost the right amount of work to do the space justice. Even allowing for the extra room I have for the private viewing. However I had underestimated one wall so a very large piece I had been putting off is now needed somewhat urgently. Not a crisis, just and irritation. So last night was mostly spent preparing the biggest pictorial pattern I've ever done. It's kinda daunting, not difficult so much as huge. I am struggling to see where I am going to start in putting it together. Still I am sure it will come to me at some point.

I also found out last night that I need a dollar account. I said a while ago that as soon as I won some dollars I would get a dollar account as I do quite a lot of business in dollars. Well I didn't know that there is prize money for my awards at Road 2 California. I am so chuffed. Of course if I payed them into a UK account I would have to pay the bank rather than get money but that isn't the point. I've got real money for a prize, and that doesn't happen often. I only found out because the winners are up on the Road 2 Ca site now. They are great pictures and well worth a look, here.

Oh my!

Well what can I say. I've just got some Internet access back and the first thing I find is these pictures. Thank you to Linda Card for taking these for me. Without her I wouldn't have had a clue.

I have to admit that when I saw an email congratulating me I thought the person was mistaken. I had been asking for pictures of these hanging at Road 2 California, just after someone else mentioned winning. So I could see how it could happen. So I went and had a look for pictures...

The rest I think you can see. I was stunned by 'Nude with Rope' getting an award (which I think is a second place) but then seeing a ribbon on 'Guide Me' I just didn't believe. Still other people can see the ribbons in these pictures so I will assume they really did get the awards.

Thrilled doesn't cut it. I cannot say how pleased I am to have collected my first American ribbons. I guess I have top try and build on it now. I have realised I can't enter 'Nude with Rope' to Houston next year, I have already committed it to other shows, maybe 'Guide Me' will get to travel some more.

I will also be interested to see what the appraisal says for these two. They are the first quilts I have had the chance to have appraised, so I have no idea what to expect. I assume that getting awards can only help right?

Now I think I am calm enough to have some dinner and relax.

Some successes

Well my quilts have headed off to the show. I won't know until the 27th if they are there safely but I am trying not to worry about it. It was a good collection the driver actually seemed to know about the paperwork. He checked everything for us and found an error, which was great as it will hopefully save US customs from getting upset and stopping my package. I am also pretty certain he won't have marked it as a permanent export so just maybe it will make it. On the other hand it wasn't cheap. It cost 140 GBP to ship 2 quilts to America on a 3 day service. The problem is the show only fives you two weeks for them to arrive and there are a lot of holidays in the delivery window. I think they are only actually accepting quilts for 9 days and most shipping options aren't that precise. Still at least it will be a lot cheaper coming back.

Yesterday I had a very interesting chat with the author of "The Morello Letters", Duncan McNair. He was signing books in Borders bookshop at Brent Cross and I was trying to find a member of staff to help me. I guess he had been there rather a long while but it worked, he sold me a copy of his book, which is actually pretty funny. Anyway, it was interesting to talk to him about publishing options, he said very much the same things as the quilters I have talked to. I find it interesting that the interaction with publishers is much the same for very different styles of books. I had assumed that the illustrated instruction books would be harder to work through than a novel, but apparently not. I am sure there was a time when I would have been a little intimidated by a published author, but having spoken to everyone I've come across this year seems to have made them more human. They have all been very down to earth and very friendly people. I hope Duncan does really well with his book, and will write many more.

I've also found time to play with my new thread. the metallic did indeed just work. I haven't even changed the needle. I then tried the holographic film thread, which I think is called Glitter. I wouldn't normally even try this sort of thread, I know it is trouble even with a metallic needle. Being lazy and prone to tempting fate I though I would just try it on the longarm with the standard needle. Would you believe it, it worked. It amazingly well behaved, it would be happier with a thread net and I had to rig a way to hold the spool horizontally but other than that it's great. I am so thrilled. Now I just have to plan a quilt to use it on.

Hmmmm

I only had three goals today,

• Be home to receive a package of threads
• Join the Library
• Post two quilts

Now that doesn't sound too bad does it. Even better I had called the company shipping my quilts earlier in the week so they are expecting them and would have all the right paperwork. Well they might have if the helpful staff member had been there. Selling me a cardboard box was beyond those who were covering the shop today. The concept of a 'temporary export' and 'special paperwork' really was quite out of the question. So I left with quilts in hand to try and find someone else to ship them. I do have an account with DHL but I am not too keen on using them again. So after much research I will be setting up a Fedex account tomorrow and hopefully they will go then. Of course that is quite a long way from ideal, I had other plans for tomorrow, but I have to get these quilts to Road 2 California.

While we were messing around with trying to find a courier and arrange all the paperwork (there seems to be more each time I do this) I entirely missed my chance to join the library. I am starting to think it just isn't supposed to happen. I keep planning on joining but I've only once made it to the door and then found them to be shut. Well I guess they appeared to be shut as I assumed it was Wednesday, the day they are closed all day but just as I arrived home I realised it was actually Tuesday so they should have been open. Maybe it will be better for having to wait for it. I am so pleased to have found a close library with a good selection of audio books, I am sure I will keep trying until I do manage to join.

There were bright spots to the day though. I did manage to be in for the postman, and I got a huge box of very pretty threads. Having declared I would never use metallic threads again, Deloa let me try some on my machine. They worked like a dream, so as soon as I could I ordered some. I have a wonderful blue and a purple, I can't wait to play with them. I also ordered some holographic threads. They were sample prices and it says they will work on a longarm. Now, I know Superior don't usually lie, but I would be very cautious about using this on a domestic machine. Still I have it and the suggested needles so we shall see. I am hoping I will have time to play on Saturday, but I don't promise anything.

I was also very impressed with the customer service lady at Quilters Newsletter Magazine. I ordered my subscription online three years ago, and I am fairly sure I typed my address correctly. Somehow it and my name have been wrong all through my subscription. Every so often it has annoyed me enough to try and get it corrected, but no luck. That and the fact that the renewal notices don't apply to overseas (relative the the USA) subscriptions had convinced me to let the subscription lapse. However I gave it one more try, and I am reassured that this time either it will be corrected or someone will be looking into it. They were also able to offer me a good renewal price so they kept my business. I guess that shows the power of good customer care, even when something has gone wrong.

So with things looking up and plenty to look forward to playing with I think it is time for bed. Take care of yourselves, eat well and keep warm over these long dark nights. Those in the southern hemisphere enjoy the sun and make sure you send it back to us.

Two fatties

Bounce bounce bounce, two fat envelopes arrived on my doormat today. 'Nude with Rope' and 'Guide Me' will both be off to California.

Excited, me, well maybe just a bit.