Quilt Marking Spray

A couple of weeks ago I tested some quilt marking spray. It does mark very well but I found it quite hard to remove. A discussion followed on other uses for it. Well I found one, marking up the welding needed on my car. It works a treat. Even on a play blue car it shows up nicely and seems to stay on. If you want to see the rather sorry state of my car (and the great visibility of the spray)there are some pictures here. It is off to have the welding done in about a month, then I will have my car back. This may not see a big deal to most people but I have always loved my car and I do miss driving it.

While I as stripping out the interior to get access to the welding I had a chance to give the seats a good clean and give some more though to recovering them. I keep thinking about all the funky quilty things I could do for cars, from covers to interiors. I guess I will have to play one day but I am not sure I could live with it in my daily drive.

Thank You

It seems Skadi needs to extend her thanks to the packers at IQA Chicago. They have sent her the perfect cat bed, which she immediately made use of. Well as soon as I removed my bundle of fabric from it. She was less impressed with that. As you can see she is very happy in her new box. Apparently it is much better than the ones I use to send quilts, this is the perfect size for her to stretch in. So the quilt may not have won anything but Skadi still collected a prize.

Don't tell her but I am hoping to reclaim the box at some point as it is a really good size for shipping quilts.

In Full Bloom Returns

There is one thing I really love about sending quilts to American shows, getting them back. Not in any negative way you understand, but because I know they come with things in the box. I love to have the show guide and the judging forms with the quilt which seems to be standard in the USA. I like the note saying who packed my quilt, I like the thank you letter from the organizer, and I am thrilled with the care taken in packing my quilt.

The judges comments do range from enlightening, encouraging, funny to bizarre and somewhat confusing, but I think that is common world wide. In the case of In Full Bloom I feel each judge has picked up on one thing I think is wrong with the quilt and I need to improve on. One pointed out I need to watch my tension, and the other that my mitres could be better. Both things I am working on and was aware of. I find it rather reassuring when a judge agrees with me on something like that, I feel it shows I do have a clue what I should be doing.

On the other hand one of the judges has me mystified with another tip for improvement, filled and even bindings. The binding is full to the edge, I've just been all the way around checking it. I was sure it was but you never know. The binding also looks pretty even to me. I haven't actually taken a ruler to it to check, but ... So is this just the comment of the moment? I know a lot of people on quiltart have been talking about this recently so maybe it is a phase the judges are going through. Are they looking for us to add extra wadding to the bindings to actually round it out? If so I see me getting a lot more of this comment as I really don't like that look.

I was somewhat amused by the complete difference in the rating of various aspects of my quilt. I don't think the judges agreed on any point. Just goes to show judging is very subjective. Otherwise how could one judge see "Integration of all design elements" as excellent and the other as needs improvement. The same was true of "Execution of chosen construction techniques". Before you ask no it wasn't just one judge being more picky as they swapped over their differences on several points. I am very pleased I only had two "Needs improvement" though and they were both from the same judge. Even more pleasing was the fact that both judges said I had a "Good choice of quilting design and style", which given quilting is my profession is possibly the most important thing they could have picked to like. Oddly the slightly more critical judge was also the one who offered more praise, so overall I am pretty pleased. Sorry but I will be largely ignoring two of the pieces of advice, the tip about binding and the suggestion that smaller squares for the blossom would have had more impact. The latter is possibly true, but not the point of the piece. I specifically chose to work with that resolution of piece.

Day of rest

Yesterday was hectic, it was great to see so many people at the Shop Hop, but boy it was tiring. It is difficult because a day like that is very inspiring but I do come home to tired to work on anything tricky, and too excited not to sew. I settled on working on a strip quilt. I was lucky enough to win second place in the Shop Hop Challenge which got me a gift voucher for Patchwork Corner. I put it to good use helping to buy the precut 2 1/2 inch strips. I bought 120 strips in total, half black and half batiks. This will be plenty to make a king size 'Ripple Effect' quilt. Last night I managed to sew all the strips together and get the batik cut into squares, not bad considering how tired I was. I figure this isn't and entirely frivolous exercise (although it is fun and a great reward) as I will quilt it up and offer it to Jenny as a sample for the shop. It helps me to feel less guilty about taking some time off when I am really very busy, which is good as I know I need these breaks.

For those of you who haven't been on a shop hop, they are great fun. For two days the shop is full of demonstrations, bargains and refreshments. I got roped into helping with the demonstrations after spending all day there as a customer. It really is just like drag racing, stand around too long and you become crew. This time I was showing people how to sew scarves from knitting yarns, with the aid of water soluble stabilizer. They are really quick, easy and a great place to practice your free motion quilting as it doesn't really show when you are done.

Doug made the traditional cream teas for us, but invented a rather unconventional way to whip the cream. He adapted a small bendy whisk to fit his electric drill. Very clever and most effective. I dutifully sampled each batch and I can confirm the whisk works. Obviously I only partook in the name of science, so I assume they were all calorie free.

Among the other demonstrations was one for a gadget to make Suffolk Puffs, or Yoyos. I can't say I was terribly interested but after watching it a few times I started to see potential in these very regular little puffs. I think I will be adding one of these gadgets to my supplies and seeing how I can make use of them. They look like they would be interesting for building texture with left over scraps.

Now off to load up the machine and get on with some quilting. If all goes well I might even get a chance to play some more with my strip quilt before the end of the day.

Turning Twenty Again Patterns

The patterns have arrived and I have just packed up the orders to send out. I still have a few so if you would like to try this pattern click on Contact Me on the right.

The Turning Twenty pattern is very simple with only three pieces to a block, the Turning Twentry again is the slightly more intricate version that I used for my MQS entries.

Busy Busy

Sorry it has been a while since the last update. I've been busy quilting. The last of my quilts went off to Malvern just in time as ever. Although I think that is an advantage. The later I send the quilts the less time they spend packed up so hopefully the less creases they will have. I wonder if there is anyway shows could leave it later to request the quilts? Certainly some shows do leave it later but I haven't been to those so I have no idea if it does improve the look of the quilts. Anyone have any experience of this?

I've introduced a new person to quilting, yay. The moral is if you don't want to start sewing don't fall in love with a quilt. I am really very pleased with her efforts, she made a single quilt top very quickly and surprisingly accurately given it is her first experience of a rotary cutter and she doesn't get on with sewing machines. I have quilted it and the next time we see her she will put the binding on. She is now planning her next project.

I also found time to make a sample quilt for Patchwork Corner. It is from a range of botanical fabric and was quite quick and easy as requested. It is made with pre-printed panels which is not usually my thing, but as I was working on it I kept thinking of things I could be doing with it. I had never seen the potential in these panels but working with them has inspired me. I think they could be made to look really amazing with some interesting quilting and trapunto. I suspect it will be an idea I don't follow up on as I have so many other projects to do but you never know.

If you are in the area tomorrow, there is a shop hop going on at Patchwork Corner and Inca Studios. There will be demonstrations and raffles all day. Please do come along, I will be showing how to make sewn scarves from yarn.

Tops tops everywhere

I have an embarrassing confession for a longarm quilter. I suddenly have lots of tops to quilt. On the other hand it does indicate I have been busy which is good. I have samples to do for the quilt shop. I have two tops done for my meme swaps, a pink and soon to be floral quilt for a little girl, and it looks like there will be another Turning Twenty Again in need of quilting. The bright side to all this is I can spend a few days at the machine which I will love. I really enjoy the quilting and doing several quilts back to back really works for me.

My other flower quilts are on hold for now, they may make it to the competition next year. I feel much better for deciding to skip that one. See I can listen to advice sometimes. In the breaks in the mad piecing I even managed to sort out my paperwork, and figure out which quilts were available for which shows. Just as well as I needed to post my Malvern entries and I may well have forgotten otherwise. So two went off today and the last will follow them tomorrow. Is anyone planning on going to the show?

Public Speaking

On Friday I gave a talk to Gone to Pieces. They are a lovely group who meet in Coleshill. I was made to feel very welcome, and I do love having a reserved parking space. This had been a bit of a nerve wracking talk as I had already spoken to a lot of the ladies in this group, but I managed to find a good number of quilts they hadn't seen to take with me. In fact the car was full so I felt a little better about not just taking the tube. It really wouldn't have been practical. As Robin was working I took Nat along with me to help hold up my quilts. I am sure there would have been people in the group happy to do it, but as they have paid to see them it is only fair to have them in front of the quilts if I can.

I still find public speaking very difficult and it took me a while to relax into this talk. I hope I made sense and people enjoyed the beginning of the talk. I try to ask people to heckle, as I like the direct feedback and it helps me guide my talk, but I forgot until part way through. Hopefully the mistake will help to remind me in future. I certainly find that in general I learn more from my mistakes than my successes. On the other hand the feedback from the audience for my latest quilts was fantastic. I thought I was unusual in being inspired by the Turning Twenty Again pattern, but apparently not. Hence the decision to start selling the pattern. A decision that was made far easier by talking to the designer, Tricia Cribbs. She was so friendly and helpful and made it easy for me to place my order. I love supporting the good guys.

I also took along some pictures to sell. Mostly I had guessed right about what people would want to take home with them but I did miss a few. My cat portraits, I just didn't think of them as being photogenic, dim I know. It seems I should also take pictures of my Turning Twenty Again quilts, I hadn't realised ho appealing more abstract pieces are. In a similar vein other abstracts will also be available in the future. The perfect end to the day was being given a Gone to Pieces mug, I had been admiring them earlier in the day but was being good and not spending money, so it was a lovely treat. It was also beautifully presented, and has given me food for though on how to pack things. So thank you very much for inviting me to speak, and I hope to see you all around at other events.

Everythings going floral

So is it just a case that once you make a floral quilt you can't stop? I suppose In full bloom was kinda floral, even though I don't see blossom as flowers really. Then there was the pink and flowery commission, which is coming together well. Now I have spent all weekend working on a pair of flower quilts.

These are very much in my style and although fiddly they are quite satisfying. I don't know if I will have either of them done for the 'In Full Bloom' show but I will try. If not I will be able to send them to Sandown which would be fantastic as I am looking like not having anything to send there this year. I think I also need to look through what I have on hand and do some careful planning.

I am really thrilled to report I have finished the tops of my meme. I only had two people ask for pieces and I have tried really hard to live up to their expectations. I have had and discounted several ideas but at last I have come up with something I am confident about sending out. I have found this to be a lot harder than entering shows. I am so scared they won't like the pieces. As ever with me they have come out a bit larger than I expected. I hope that wont be a problem. I will quilt them up tomorrow and then think about the binding.

Turning Twenty Again

I have decided to start selling Turning Twenty patterns. This was prompted by the popularity of my quilts from these patterns at the talk I gave today. My initial stock should be with me in about a week and will be 8 pounds per pattern including postage. If you are interested in ordering either the original Turning Twenty pattern or the Turning Twenty Again that I used please contact me via the link on the right.

More from the Racing

Here are a selection of my other pictures from the weekend. Some of them aren't a clear as they could be. I guess I am out of practice. Hopefully I will get better again during the season.

Here is Fireforce. A lot of the teams are quite scathing about this big track drier, but it wouldn't be a large event at Santa Pod without it, and whether you love it of hate it, you have to admit it is quick. It's record is 336 mph at the end of the standing quarter mile. I have to admit I have a soft spot for this car.


Two funny cars next to each other! Well I cheated, it is the burnouts . This is Showtime and Starkotter. They were remarkably reliable this week end. The Penzoil car however behaved more true to form and threw it's bodywork at the crowd. No one was hurt but two pieces of barrier will never be the same. These fuel funny cars are very tricky beasts.

Another picture of Showtime, still behaving itself. I am really pleased to have caught the header flames in this shot, especially as it was such a bright day. Another picture I am really pleased to have caught. This is Urs Erbacher (runner up Top Fuel Pro Shootout) lifting up Lex Joon (winner). It was good to see the people at the top of the sport having fun together.

This is the best picture from the weekend though. Steve Bolton on the podium. Not only there but on the top step. Who would have thought it last year. He had so much bad luck, but it paid to stick with it. This weekend wasn't all plain sailing, Steve doesn't know his own strength and keeps breaking his throttle peddle. Without the kind souls at the track welding it for him he wouldn't have been collecting that trophy, so thank you all for your help. Hopefully Steve will soon be in need of a bigger house to store all his trophies.

The 4 Link Ugly Stick.

I feel I have to start by saying I didn't name the Ugly Stick, and I don't think she is ugly. This is what has been eating our time over the weekend, and in fact last weekend as well. This is Tet's drive for the year. A Super Pro ET - Super Comp Dragster.


This is the latest addition to the Paul Marston Race School. Seen in front of the soon to be gone barn. She has just been brought over from America and seems to be taking to her new surroundings pretty well. Of course having behaved well in testing she then proceeded to have a strop the first real race. Friday morning she started blowing fuses. It turned out that her throttle stop had shorted out. This was bad news, not only had it missed us the first round of qualifying but it meant that Super Comp was going to become a lot harder. The class requires you to cover the standing quarter in 8.90 seconds, this car can easily do it in 8.20, so is too fast without her stop. Still in the old days it was done by lifting and this was Tet's chance to show he could do it that way too.

After finding and elimination this fault we headed back out for the second round, and got shut down on the line. We had a water leak. Not in an easy to get to place either. one of those simply remove the engine to fix, sort of leaks. Still we managed to get it done by the end of the day and the starter kindly allowed Tet to make his last licencing pass at the end of racing. The parachute does work and he knows how to deploy it.

Above is the early morning burn out , from Saturday. As you can see the weather was perfect for racing, we didn't get a spot of rain all weekend. I love the look of the burnout with this car. You can see the smoke slowly curling off the tyres. By the end of the weekend Tet had also found the optimum length of burnout to put the most heat in the tyres. We were thrilled when Tet made it through the first round of eliminations in Super Pro, and unsurprised that he didn't in Super Comp. However the Super Comp race was fantastically close, not bad for doing things the hard way.

This was one of those moments when you get bored standing in the pairing lanes. The car herself is very bright and shiny but the helmet was giving a perfect reflection of the lane. Again you can see the wonderfully blue sky, so different to last year. I think there will be a quilt inspired by this picture, and a during the weekend I came up with several other ideas too. I think having multiple diverse hobbies is really useful for keeping ideas flowing for quilts.

There are more race reports here;

Drivers perspective by Tet
Crew Chiefs Perspective by Robin
EuroDragster - look for 12.00

Some pictures

I have almost recovered from the weekend, more on that in a moment, and I thought I was time I put up some pictures of my MQS entries.

First is Burning Chrome, this quilt top was made by Robin Tregaskis. Rather annoyingly the quilting is practically impossible to photograph. I've tried all sorts of tricks to make it show but it isn't playing ball. Still it is a striking quilt, and in person you can see that it is covered in red flames, which do suit it very well.

I guess I should add that these are all entries in the same category, the Bread and Butter category. It has been a very valuable experience making these quilts. I would never have made this pattern without the show but it has given me a lot more insight into how fabrics work together and how balance changes the final look of the quilt. I am actually helping a friend make one as her first quilt now too.

This quilt you've seen before, it is "My Fat Quarter of Paradise". It now has wide black borders on each side. Of course that makes it too big for me to photograph. Typical. You just have to imaging the rest of it, one more row of blocks and then the borders.

As requested here is a close up of the quilting. These feathers flow all over the quilt. The thread is variegated so as the fabric colour and the thread colour change the feathers appear and disappear. I am very pleased with the effect. British customs did their best to stop me finishing this quilt but the British longarm quilters bailed me out. I posted the request and had a string of calls offering me the thread I needed to finish. I hadn't even dared to hope someone would have it. I can't wait for this quilt to finish it's tour of duty and arrive on my bed. I love it.
The last of the Bread and Butter quilts is "Road to Mondrian". This one is the same size as Burning Chrome. It is 30 Turning Twenty blocks. It has 10 fat quarters of plain black in it and is quilted with my decadent swirls. This is a fantastic background or all over fill. I really enjoy quilting it and I think is shows. Lots of movement and texture.

The thread on this one is a variegated again but much more subtle than on the previous quilt. The purples in the thread work well with the plain purple back. Yes I know I am supposed to use busy backs, but I had it and I like it so I used it. It's come out pretty well so I don't think I will be stressing about it.

It doesn't really show in the pictures but all the colours are batiks. They all came from Hanna's Room at the Chilford Show. It probably isn't obvious but they do make a pretty good spectrum of colours when you see them together. I wanted to see how that would come across in the quilt. I think the answer is it gives a very balanced feel, so I will be repeating that in the next one I make with more black in. I think this quilt will be staying with me as well. It will make it easier for me to retire a couple of my first quilts. They weren't the best constructed to start with and after constant use they are showing some wear. I have debated just carying on using them, but I think they have too much value to me to do that. I love being able to see how I have improved over the time I have been quilting.

No time to catch my breath

You might have gathered I have been busy. I still am, right now I am waiting for a tube into London to get name stickers for The Ugly Stick. A rather unfair name for the dragster Tet will be driving this year. I do have pictures of it but I can't upload them from here. We went to Santa Pod this weekend to give it some testing and it was amazingly well behaved given it has been shipped from America then stripped down and rebuilt. If the weather holds we should have a fun weekend with it at the Easter Thunderball. Hence the urgent need for the stickers.

Last night I picked up my nudes from DHL. They did indeed have another ribbon with them and a certificate. I was so stunned when one of the mail lists I am on had said it had come third. I don't think I entirely believed it. Now I have the rather pretty ribbon I guess I have to :) However I have found something else to consider when planning quilts. I can't post a roll longer than 1.5 meters. The nudes are 1.7 rather annoyingly. Also as wall quilts are art Parcel Force won't ship them at all. You can of course lie about what is in the package but then it isn't insured so it probably isn't a good idea. I wonder if home contents would pay up if something had been lost in the post when mis-declared. Any ideas?

My entries to MQS found me another change in the post office service. They used to offer a swift air service that took four days to America, and for an extra charge they would reduce it by another day. It cost about ten pounds and was great for entering shows. I knew it was Easter this weekend but by sending my forms on Monday I thought there wouldn't be a problem. The fastest service now offered is still three days but they don't count the first day as the collection from the post office is in the afternoon. As I had missed it for Monday this meant Wednesday would be the first day of the three. As there are two bank holidays this weekend the letter would have been delivered Tuesday or Wednesday next week. The price for this high speed courier service (their words not mine) 38 pounds. Unbelieveable. So back to DHL 44 pounds and next day delivery. I am feeling very let down by our postal service at the moment.

So with those out of my hair I can concentrate on the quilt patterns I am designing, my meme quilts and my commission for a while. Then I need to think about my floral quilts and what i will be sending to Sandown. All this fitted in around the drag racing.

Well I have arrived in London so I have a signal again and can send this. Let's hope the printer has done his work. I will try and put some photos up tonight but don't hold your breath. Things keep cropping up. Oh and if anyone sees my quilt In Full Bloom in Chicago this weekend please send me a picture of it. Thanks. In fact if you see any of my quilts anywhere I love to know and get photos.

Saturday - New Members Coffee Morning

Yes, Yes I know it is Tuesday, but bear with me and it will become clear why I have only just had a chance to update you all.

Saturday was the Region 7 new members coffee morning. The idea is this is a small event where new members can get to know the committee and ask awkward questions. It doesn't seem long since I was the new member and trying to work out what one does at a coffee morning and here I am being one of the committee which is supposed to know stuff. Still at least I knew where the hall was thanks to Bonnie so that was one less thing to worry about. I also knew it was an event not to take the Camaro to (it's down a very narrow road). So Off I set at way too early o'clock. I arrived rather early so I had a chance to look around Wheathampsted. It is a lovely village with what looks like a great butcher. It also has the watter take off for a mill with fat moving water and little falls. I will have to go back with a camera and take some pictures, I feel a quilt coming on.

Our esteemed leader had arrived when I made it back to my car, narrowly saving me from the trashy women's magazine I had bought to pass the time, and we set to work putting the hall in order. After first checking for undesirables, someone had left the hall open over night. All was well and quickly the quilters touch could be seen. Table clothes cakes and a kettle boiling. If you haven't been to a quilters meeting and you like cake, do consider it. Quilters can bake, although I no longer make coffee cakes as I prefer Wendy's. Oh well.

Time then slows down, and we wait, slowly other members of the committee (this is a yucky word to type, I think we should be renamed team or gang or something else short) arrive but only one new member. For me this is the most stressful part of the day, will anyone turn up? Will we be force fed amazing amounts of cake? Then suddenly we are buzzing, the chat is off and the new members are joining in. About now I realise why this is my favourite event. It is the most chatty and interactive as a group. Probably because it is fairly small and you can reasonably talk to everyone.

As is customary for this kind of event we had show and tell. As ever it was interesting and inspiring, the Kandinsky inspired quilt especially appealed to me. I loved the colours and I think Kandinsky was the first artist I saw in a proper gallery so I have something of soft spot for him. I was also pleased to see people who call themselves beginners than show multiple quilts. I love the idea that people are making more quilts per person. I think it give you a lot more scope to grow and play with ideas, which is even more important for those just starting to try a new craft.

At the end of the meeting a group of us headed over to Patchwork Corner. It was fun to drive in a convoy of quilters rather than racers (see yet more way quilting and drag racing are similar). It is a lovely drive too. For so close to London it is surprisingly rural, and on a warm bright spring day it was lovely. As always Patchwork Corner was friendly and welcoming to new people, and I think a fun time was had by all. I even managed to get the honour of showing off the now not so new workshop facilities. I love seeing peoples faces the first time they see the custom built teaching room.

Watch this space for more breasts, Doug has provided me some new tools for my 3 dimensional work, and I hope to find time to play sooner rather than later.

The evening was spent quilting frantically. I needed to get the wholecloth finished Saturday for it to be able to go to the MQS show. I didn't manage it. It is very close, but rather than miss Tet's first runs in the dragster I decided it won't be going to the show. I have five other quilts that will so I don't think I have done badly. This quilt will still be finished though and if nothing else be used as a longarm sample. I have a plan to remake it entirely for the NEC as I ca see many areas which I can do better now. It is funny how much I have learned from this one quilt. I do love it and I am seeing this as a great proof on concept. I will try and get some pictures up later today.

All I see are stitches.

I did read somewhere that you shouldn't quilt for 12 hours a day. I know why, you stop and you can still see stitches and a slight shake on everything. This is the second day in a row I have just quilted solidly. My desk is showing the strain, it is covered in paperwork, mail and the detritus of meals grabbed too quickly. The mugs and cans really do need removing.

The quilt on the frame is my first wholecloth. It is proving to be a bit of a stretch both for me and the machine. I have cleverly chosen a totally unforgiving combinations of fabric (black cotton sateen) threads (thin bright cottons and metallic silver) and designs. I even skipped the busy back. Now repeat after me, always use a busy back, always use a busy back.... but plain black would look so much nicer, if I could keep the tension perfect, yes it would. Bit of a tall order on a large bed quilt. Oh yes and having carefully tested the Hobbs 80/20 to be sure it wouldn't beard on black fabric (three times in fact) it is bearding. Doh!. Yes I have finally learned my lesson, there is a bolt of black wadding on it's way to me right now.

So I have a quilt which from maybe six feet away looks great on the front, close up it is OK, the back is just a train wreck. It was intended for the MQS show and for the Festival of Quilts. About lunchtime I was wondering if I should forget about entering it. I mean it does have more issues than Rolling Stone Magazine. Having thought about it some more I am going to send it. I think it is a good design (I would it's all mine). I've put a lot of effort in and I want to show it off. It is interesting, as you might expect from me doing something traditional. I don't really have an alternative I want to make for the FoQ. Most importantly shows are full of perfect or near perfect quilts. I know I don't learn much from the bits that are right, I know what I am aiming for. I learn more from the errors, from things that would have worked better a different way, and from seeing where I have already mastered something that is evidently not easy. So I am putting quilt into shows for this reason. Hopefully people will learn from my mistakes and feel inspired and encouraged (believe me a lot will be able to look at this and think they can do better tension wise). I think that is worthy in it's own right. It has also changed the quilts name, it was Guide me Home, it is now simply Guide Me. I have learned a lot from it, and it has indeed guided me.

The other concern I have heard a lot is about letting out a substandard piece of work. Will people still want me to quilt their quilts or will they think my tension is always this bad. My first though when I considered this was thank goodness this wasn't a customer quilt. I can choose to accept this mess on mine but I would never leave it on a customers. I would have had to take out all the problem quilting and keep trying until I got it perfect. It is a relief that it is only a show quilt. Daft maybe but that's how I see it. However prospective customers won't know that will they. They will just see the quilt on it's own. I can write this sort of information in my statement, but will they read it? I do see this is a concern, but I don't think it is a huge risk. If they are a customer I was really likely to get they will have seen my other work, and know that this is not normal. If they are a customer I enjoy working for they will have already know that this quilt breaks a lot of my guidelines and has done everything I warn them about, so in fact it proves I am telling the truth. The few who do look at it and think me a terrible quilter, would probably never have been my customers anyway, and I suspect I would not be the right quilter for them. I discovers a long time ago that my name is great for preselecting jobs. Those companies that don't like it and don't want to see me are the same companies I don't want to work for , we just don't gel. The customers who judge that quickly are not the customers I am going to gel with either, we would both be happier with someone else. As such i am going to take my chances. It could be that it is striking enough from the front to get picked up by magazines, and in a photo it will look just fine.

Quilters - What a bunch!

How many businesses could turn to their competitors in times of crisis? Not many in my experience, but when I asked for help from the other UK longarmers I was inundated with offers of help. I have reached the point where I couldn't afford to wait any longer for my thread for "My Fat Quarter Of Paradise". I had to try and get the thread another way, so I asked if anyone else had any. Wow it is a lot more popular than I had ever hoped. I love the fact that people were keen to help, no one seemed pleased that I was struggling. It's almost like being part of one big company. We are all pulling the same way.

I also noticed that a lot of quilters read their email at the same time. Well judging from the string of phone calls :) So next time you are feeling lonely (and it is quite a lonely profession) rest assured there is someone else doing the same thing far closer than you would imagine.

I have also been making progress on the current project, though not as much as I would have liked. I have just started putting colour on it. I decided it was time to stop when I noticed the time and then broke my bobbin thread twice by bad cornering. I think I need to get to bed. I feel so supported and taken care of, thank you all so much.

Practice makes...

...if not perfect certainly a lot better. I have spent most of this evening doing ruler work on a mariners compass. You might remember the last ruler work I did was for Wait some months ago. It drove me nuts and I hated it. Tonight it is just working. I guess the 12+ hours a day I have been using the machine are now paying off, even though this is a very different technique. I suppose being more comfortable with your machine just improves everything you do with it. It seems odd that a year ago I didn't even have the machine working. It's amazing how far I have come since Myrna Ficken fixed my machine. It actually seems quite unreal.

Now I am really looking forward to a nice long hot bath. I ache in all sorts of odd places from tracing designs and using the ruler so much. I feel like I have earned it.

Just Sometime You Get Lucky

I am working very hard trying to get my entries for MQS ready, and it hasn't all gone according to plan so far. You may remember that I am waiting for more thread to let me finish My Fat Quarter Of Paradise. Well last night I though I was going to have two unfinished quilts. The almost full cone of thread I had started with was looking pretty skinny and I was only half way through the quilting. There is no way I could have got another spool of this in time. It had to work, and just last. As you can see from the picture, it did, just. How close was that? The picture shows what is left of a 3000m cone of thread. There isn't even any left on the machine to putt through a new thread, that's the lot. I am feeling very lucky. More amusing was the thread on the bobbin was the same length, that I could have rewound, but it is nice to have an empty bobbin instead of an annoy little bit left.

As you can see I decided to quilt this Turning Twenty Again with my Decadence Scrolls. It is a lovely fill to work and is very quick for the density of quilting. I see me using this quite a lot. It is very similar to the quilting I did on Miss Baltimore who won me an award for the quilting, so hopefully I am not the only one who thinks it looks good.

Is this picture good enough as a close up of quilting? It is hard for me to tell as I know what it looks like. Also I think it is effected by the type and resolution of monitor. So let me know if I have cracked it or if I need to put up larger images.

On hold and bored

I am still on hold, apparently my call is important and they are experiencing a high number of calls. Well yes if the web site isn't booking collections I would think they are. Still I also suspect that a competent bug report will be appreciated so I will stay on hold a little longer.

To try and overcome the boredom I have taken a photo of the face I painted this afternoon. I am not entirely happy with it, the lips are far too dark. I wonder if I would have been better off just working in a sepia tone through out as his lips are pretty much the same colour as his skin. Still it is a lot better than I would have expected to be able to do and didn't take that long either so I am quite happy. It also gave me the chance to go through all the steps again so hopefully I will remember them now. I find I have to do things at least twice before they start to sink in.

I do plan on doing a few more to try and really get this into my brain, but I am struggling to find willing victims. I guess I will have to stick to famous people for now.

Hmm, so having finally got through, it was a glitch. No they aren't going to look into it afterall I have organized another collection, and it hasn't happened to anyone else. If I book by phone it won't happen again. Well Duh! Got to love help desks.

Argh!

I am paranoid, I know this, but I have a quilt that really needs to get to a show. I asked for a collection between 1pm ans 5pm, so at 4:30 I start to get worried. I have been sitting painting very quietly to be sure I won't miss them. So I just though I would phone and check that I had a collection booked. The web site said I had but well... I call and guess what, no record on their system. Oh! The good news is that because I didn't wait till 5 I will still get my collection today but I was cutting it fine. They were very nice and will be sending me out my shipping supplies and have put me on hold to talk to the team responsible. It's starting to look like this quilt doesn't want to go to the show. Do you suppose she is getting shy?

Burning Chrome

This morning has been a lot more productive. Burning Chrome is quilted, for now at least. I had to call Robin and tell him that although it is finished I had tension issues. They didn't look too bad while the quilt was on the frame but having taken it off they are more obvious. I can't decide if it is bad enough to need unpicking so I will have to wait for him to come home and take a look. In the meantime this is a quick peek at it.

It is really quite hard to take pictures of quilting when it matches the background but I have had a go. If you look closely you can see that is it quilted with flames all over. They are quite large and worked up very quickly. I am really pleased with the front of the quilt, and if I do have to take it out I know it will be quick to put back in. Hopefully it wouldn't take that long to unpick either. The picture of the back show the quilting a bit better and gives an idea of the tension problems.

Couriers

After several days of very frustrating phone calls I got a lovely call this morning. At least one person in DHL now understands the process of temporary exports, and on my behalf has been pointing out to others that they should too. I will be refunded the customs charges on In Full Bloom and I have the email addresses of people to contact next time I need to do it. Just as well as it won't be long. Not a bad start for a day that looked far too busy to be fun.

I got the Nude Triptych packed up and ready to go to Trentham. The Makower project packed up and ready to go, my passport application ready to send except for the photos and left the house with 3 hours to post all of these before I needed to be at the dentist. Sounds pretty doable doesn't it. So why are the nudes still standing by my desk?

I have asked the post office before about this package and they say it is too big for them, so off to Parcel Force I go. I know there is no problem there as the package is a roll 1.8m long and 0.5m in girth less than their maximum of 3m. No problems, and they do 48hr shipping with is perfect. See I had this all planned. So I get there and try to hand it over. The chap on the desk points at the wall next to me, where there is a new poster. Any package longer than this will not be accepted. Well guess what, mine is longer. I would guess the line is about 1.5m (I suggest you check if this is important to you). However to his credit he says he can't see why the shouldn't take it and goes off to ask a manager. The manager says no. They just can't handle something that big. Bear in mind I am carrying it around, I am moving it in a car. How hard can it be with a burly lad and a large van. Besides why state one set of regulations online then surprise you with extra restrictions when you arrive.

So I need another idea. Fortunately I know people who ship daft size packages and I am recommended to try City Link. I called another friend for directions and off I go, fortunately they are pretty close to Parcel Force, unfortunately I get lost. I do however find interlink, I know they are OK so I try there. You can't actually pay on site you have to phone their booking line, but still not a big deal. Except they won't accept the package. The quilt is designed to hang on the wall, so it is art and they don't ship art. OK, back to hunting City Link. City Link think they might ship the package (hooray) but not without an account. An account takes 4 days to set up and then they will look it up for me. I need the quilt to arrive on Monday. I give up, my only option is to use DHL, but at least I can book a collection for tomorrow from home. Moral of this story, art quilts are really hard to ship if you need the carrier to insure them. If you don't you can just call them fabric and they will take them. Oh yes, Parcel Force don't accept art either.

By this time I was running very late, so the slightly washed out passport photos had better be good enough, because I didn't have time to take another set and I really want to get my forms in before they change the regulations again.

The dentist was pretty good though and gave me time to write a new pattern, I will be trying to get the sample made up this week, so watch this space.

Two more Turning Twenty Again

Well I now have all three of my bread and butter quilts. I just have to get them all quilted. I am very lucky to live with a quilter so when I need to commission someone to make me a quilt top I don't have to go far, and he has done me proud with Burning Chrome. I love it and it is so different to the other two.As with mine this is actually a turning 30. So it is pretty big. According to the Warm and Natural wadding we have put aside for it its a queen size. It is laid out on our Ikea king size bed to give you some idea of the size. It is inspired by a book , have a look at Robins blog for a quote from it. It will be quilted with flames in a very cool varigated thread. I just have to be careful to keep the quilting very open and flowing. Really if it goes to plan (and it has to or I will run out of thread) I should get it quilted very quickly.

This is the third and final Turning Twenty Again. It hasn't told me it's name yet, but then I haven't been working on it long. I should point out that both these tops were started yesterday afternoon and we have both been out all day. I guess it will tell me as I quilt it. I wanted to see what effect 1/3 black would have on it, and I like it. If I do make another I think I will try 2/3 black. It should give very sparse blocks of colour which I think will be really interesting and a great canvas for quilting on. I like the idea of random disjointed areas of colour. I also think it would be a good pattern to modify to get a very Mondrian look. I can see a lot of that style in this one and I would like to take that further.

Bonnie Lyn McCaffrey - Painted Faces

I have had a copy of Bonnie's book Portrait Quilts - Painted Faces You Can Do. I read through it. I decided I couldn't and put the book on the shelf. This should not be seen as a reflection of the book, it has far more to do with my fears of art and drawing. I now know this is the case. You see now I have done the course I know the book says, do what you do with fabric but in paint. It is pretty much exactly the technique I use for all my nudes, yet when I first read the book I missed that entirely. I put that down to panic, and the voices in my head telling me I can't do it. I still don't quite believe I did, and I keep thinking I must have cheated or got lucky, so I plan on doing another as soon as possible. In fact I plan on buying some more fabric from her tomorrow so I can get to it right away. Maybe once I have done a few I will start to believe I can. It's worked with the nudes, I am now sure I can do anything I can think of.

The face is designed to be cut out and applied to a background, it also needs hair and clothes, but I think you can get the idea. Bear in mind I am really not a painter, and I am terrified of anything this artistic. In fact it was quite a stressful day, even though I enjoyed it enormously. Every time I picked up the brush to paint my hand was shaking, not helpful for drawing fine lines. Then to round of the day I got videoed again. Eeek, that is even more scary, but very worthwhile, I love Bonnie's pod casts and I would love to make it onto another, especially as it was with Decadence. I guess I will learn to get comfortable with cameras too. It helps as well that I have seen how good Bonnie is at editing, if anyone can make me look like I have a clue it is her. She is a very good teacher, and I've learned a lot today, not just about painting faces. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement Bonnie.

Decadence

Ta da! Another nude, I bet no one is surprised. I am hoping this one will be seen as a bit more sensual and less sinister than the last one (which I will finish and post detail pictures of). The title of this one probably gives the game away as to what I am hoping people will see. Soft warm opulent, sensual. I don;t think any of my nudes are really intended to be sexy, it's not the point. People, and women in particular are so curvy and full of wonderful shapes, I just have to make them as quilts. I guess it is a common thing with artists, they look to nature for inspiration and this is what I found. Part of the attraction is the satisfaction I get from seeing the shape come together with just one colour and the challenge from trying to quilt it. Women are so smooth that putting quilting lines in that don't detract from their shapes is really tricky, but I love doing it.

The colour is most true in the first image. None of them are perfect, but that is the problem with taking pictures indoors late at night. Even with all the white balance settings I have i still can't get it quite right. Even though I took lots of pictures of this as I worked on it to try and get an idea of a distance view, I have just spotted something I don't like, but it is there now and I have to live with it. I guess that is always the way. Every time I finish I find something I don't like and will do differently next time. I suppose that is good as it means I am learning from each piece, but it is annoying too.

The quilting in the background is quite hard to photograph. It is in dark red thread on the black marbled background. I wanted to soften both the colour and the texture of the background and I am very happy with how that came out. The quilting pattern also felt good to do which fitted the piece perfectly.

I would like feed back on this. Is this one less disturbing? Does it have the feel of decadence I was looking for? Clicking on the pictures will bring up a larger version.

The quilt is about (not trimmed and bound yet) 45" x 35".

Come Back Tomorrow

I've been really busy today but I haven't quite finished it yet. Expect pictures tomorrow :)

Fat Quarter of Paradise - Update

I've just taken this quilt off the frame, sadly not because I've finished quilting. I ran out of thread. I never expected a quilt to take more than a whole cone, but apparently they do. Still I thought you might like to see how it is going. I love it and I am finding the quilting pattern very soothing to work. It is also getting faster and faster as I practice. This quilt is more than 100" square and I think it will take about 7 hours to quilt. That is longer than I hoped but still pretty good for a quilt that size. The idea of these bread and butter quilts is that they should be quick and easy to quilt and I think this fits the bill. It is hard to judge though as I don't know what the 'standard' time for quilting this size of quilt is.

I have also realised that having an electric fabric advance would save me a lot of time on this kind of design. I am going to start looking at putting something on my frame to achieve this. I don't use the APQS frame that goes with my machine because it won't fit in the house, so I can't just buy the system from them.

Hopefully my thread will arrive soon and I will be able to put this back on the frame, until then I have plenty of other projects to work on. The piece which is caling loudest is my new nude, but I can't get to that until I have cleared some more paying work. Wish me luck to get it all done quickly. I have to admit that I will be quite enjoying a lot of the paying work anyway :)

Grr DHL

OK, first the good news, my quilt has arrived safely in America. It is good to know, I have been worrying about it since I heard that Kathy York's quilt, Jay Walk, hadn't arrived. So it is at least safe. However I am not flavour of the month with the organizers of Celebrate Spring. I forgot to tick the bill sender box for the customs charge. I got the other ones, but missed it there, my bad. On the other hand it really shouldn't have mattered. This is a temporary export and should not be charged duty. So why do you suppose the show has been handed a bill then? Of course there are no working phone lines to DHL right now so I can't even ask. On the other hand I do know other quilters who have had this happen to them, and bizarrely DHL usually seem to be involved, so hopefully I can get some hints and tips on how to get my money back. The show suggested I should declare a very low value for my work, but then I would have been sending it uninsured, I don't fancy that option. Next time I may have to use Parcel Force, I hate dealing with them but they can do this right.

Latest Quilting Revealed

Well as this quilt has now gone back to it's owner and she is happy I will show you the quilt that was causing me all the stress with feathers.

The bit that was giving me the problems was the setting triangles, the more traditional feathers. They don't look too scary now they are done but boy did I struggle with them. Oddly I had moments when I could just do it and all was well, then suddenly they were hard again. It was a very odd experience.

On a more positive note the feathers in the kaleidoscopes were great fun to do. I love the way they flow. I've started putting them onto my quilt this evening. Of course the machine detected my desire to do this quickly and has been having a bit of a strop. Still it is going well and I love the way it looks, so I will persevere. I am a little concerned I may run out of thread. I have a 3000m cone but I am using it front and back. I can't remember how big it was before I started, but I think I will weigh a similar one and compare it to this one. If I am short I guess I will have to order another. Rather annoying given it will have to come from the USA. Still I have a little time to get things together.

I have lots of things I want to get on with now. I have a nude to quilt, a pattern to finish writing up and not one but two quilts to make for the local quilt shop. The best bit is these are all actually exciting and I want to be getting on with them. Sadly no amount of excitement adds hours to the day. It really should you know. So much to do so little time.

Feathers feathers everywhere

This is my not terribly good illustration of different types of feathers. A is what I woudl call a traditional feather, the sort made up of half hearts. These are teh ones I find really tricky. B is the peacock feather. I love these and I think mine look OK. These are what I have in mind for the batik quilt. I find the half a heart shape really tricky to do for some reason.

I did manage to figure out a way to make a ribbon stencil into a continuous line last night. I hadn't been worrying about it as I had seen an article in Unlimited Possibilities about it recently, but when I looked I didn't like their solution. So I had to start thinking, always a painful process, but I managed it. I was really pleased with the result, and it has given me renewed confidence to tackle the evil feathers. I think I will write to them and offer my alternative solution, as I guess it is a common problem to want to make stencils nto continuous lines.

I don't like feathers

Well that isn't entirely true. I don't like traditional quilted feathers. I love peacock feathers, they flow and sing to me, I could quilt them all day. The traditional curvy ones are hard work and I don't think mine look as good as they should. I can just about follow premarked ones, but trying to just draw them is a nightmare. I think it is down to my issues with drawing hearts. I've mostly got over it for sashing and boarders but the mind game I play to do that won't work for the feathers. Of course none of this would matter if I didn't have a quilt on the frame demanding feathers. I tried to convince it it wanted peacock feathers but it really doesn't, guess what I will be doing tomorrow.

I have just taken my next batch of fabric off it's rust. I am really pleased with it. I know it isn't everyones thing but the delicate patterns are amazing and i don't think anything other than these very long dye times will get the same effect. I wonder if there are other natural dyes that will take very slowly. I think I will be playing with different dyes over the summer. I do especially like the fact that the rust dying can sit outside. It gives me a little more space in this raher full house.

Quilters Guild Region 7 - Regional day

Now I have a brain again, I guess I should tell you about the guild regional day at the weekend. Hmm I suppose being on the committee I should always give the guild it's official title. Oh well, maybe by being a bit slack I will make the guild look more approcahable and friendly (aka I am not going to type that much just to refer to an organization). For non members, a regional day is a meeting usually with a speaker and traders where you can meet like minded people. I can't talk for all the regions but region 7 which covers Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northhamptonshire, has great regional days, and area days for that matter. You don';t even have to be a member to come along (but if you are you get a discount on your entry fee).

Being my first event as a committee member I felt I had to do something useful, so I volunteered to be hostess for Gwenfai Rees-Griffiths, sounds pretty safe doesn't it. A couple of days before I realised I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Well, nothing our esteemed leader couldn't deal with, I got a a crib sheet of instructions almost instantly. Where would I be without her to rely on? All I had to do was meet Gwenfai, and help her with any setting up, bring drinks that sort of thing. Of course on the way there I did realise I had a small technical problem. I had no idea what Gwenfai looked like. I have a terrible memory for people, and names at the best of times. In the midst of a cold there was just no chance. I figured it would work out somehow and I wasn't going to worry about it.

I did very quickly realise why you want a drag racer on the crew for a quilt event. we expected 140 people and had parking for about 20 cars. My job was to fit all the cars into the spaces available, without blocking the road to the doctors surgery. OK, so this is just like finding the perfect fabric for a project the realising it is 2" too short, and spending the rest of the day working out how to make it fit right. I do that all the time. I am also fairly used to putting cars into too small spaces, and I was so thrilled when I did get everyone in. Even better they all seemed to get out again without a huge problem. I am sure I shouldn't have found it that satisfying, but I did.

The traders were Fourshires books, and Sunflower Fabrics. I actually got a chance to chat to them both and they are really nice people. I was especially pleased to be able to talk about astrophysics with the man from Fourshires, sorry I didn't get his name. It isn't often I get to talk about the more techie things I've done. Sadly I missed a lot of the first talk with was Shirley Bloomfield, "Baltimore with an English Twist", every time I went back into the hall I started sneezing and had to run away. that is why I got to get to know the traders more, but I would rather have heard the talk. It wasn't a talk that really grabbed me from the title, but having seen how modern and English her quilts are I was much more interested. So much so that I think I could see me doing a Baltimore style quilt at some time now. Yes hand sewing and all! If you haven't seen her work I recommend you do, she has added a great twist to a very traditional quilt style.

At some point Gwenfai snuck in and I had to be rounded up to do my hostess duty. I am not convinced it counts as a duty, it was a lot of fun. I got to 'keep her company' also known as have a chat with the guest all on my own, what a treat. Even bringing in the quilts wasn't onerous. Gwenfai has made her own bags they each hold several quilts and have nice long handles. They are quite similar to the blanket bags I bought but much better made and more robust. I think I will have to get around to making my own. Once the stage was set and show and tell done Gwenfai got down to the serious business of talking. Well maybe serious is the wrong word to use to describe her talk, it was very entertaining, I will always think of quilters as a breed and her as the best of breed, you'll have to go and see the talk to finds out why won't you. I am grinning just thinking about it. Of course with the talk came my other terrible task, I had to handle all of her quilts. See terrible, a dreadful imposition. OK so I am not fooling any of you am I, it was great, even though my arms ached at the end of it. Holding up the quilts means you get to see the quilting really up close. It was very inspiring. I love her piped bindings. At least that is what I think I would call them, I may be about to be corrected. At some point I think I will have to try them for myself. What I liked about them was how firm they make the edge of the quilt. I suspect they will help it to hang well on the wall. I have just remembered I was going to ask her a question, I think she mentioned doing something to the bottom of the quilt to make it hang well and I was going to ask for details. I guess I will be having to go to another of her talks too.

For those of you on quiltart you may remember a while ago a discussion about speakers having to sit through show and tell and whether they would object. I too the opportunity to ask a more experienced speaker what she thought. She agrees with me, it is great to see what other people are making. Whatever stage they are at in quiltmaking it is always interesting. Beginner means not encumbered by rules and conventions, thus more likely to do something new and exciting. Being dumb enough to stand on the stage and speak doesn't mean too dumb to be interested in what is going on in the world of quilting :)

I know I have missed out a lot in this write up, it was a fun and busy day. It would be great to have even worse parking headaches at the next event, if that means I get to see more of you. The next Regional day will be 6th October in Leverstock Green, feel free to get in touch if you want more information.

Back at the machine

Wow it feels so good to be back quilting again. The cold had really knocked me sideways and although I felt a lot better yesterday when I tried quilting it just wasn't happening. I was really worried this morning that maybe I was trying to do something too difficult. No, I was just not well enough yesterday, today it is flowing wonderfully. I hope the owner likes this quilt half as much as I do. I think it is really good, and I will be using some of these patterns again. In fact I like it so much I may change my quilting for 'My Fat Quarter of Paradise'. I have been doing peacock feathers and I think I could turn them into bird of paradise feathers and make them into a meander. It would suit my turning twenty again quilt so well if I can work out a way to do it. I can just see the bright feathers reaching out onto the borders, yummy.

My Fat Quarter Of Paradise

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

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

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

turning twenty again

I am still not feeling too clever and quilting show quilts didn't seem clever so i had to find something else to do today. It needed to be something that would help with getting show entries done. I want to enter some bread and butter quilts into a show but no one brings of the types they want. The pattern for turning twenty again arrived a few days ago, it claims to be really easy and it is one of the required patterns. Seems ideal really for a dim day when i need to be productive. I started cutting the fabric about 2pm and i am working on 30 fat quarters. I have just finished making the units to build the blocks. I don't think it will take more than another hour to have all 30 16.5" blocks done. I am impressed with how quick it has been i expected it to take longer given it isn't speed pieceing. On the other hand there was more waste than i expected but i am sure i will use all the scraps somehow.

It has also inspired me to think about designing quilts using fat quarters. I had already been planning quilts using strips but this gives of a whole new line to follow. I have even more incentive too. If i can make a good enough pattern it might become one of the allowed bread and butter quilts. How cool would that be?

Lunar Eclipse

OK, so you are on the way home from the cinema, you see some people setting up a camera, you have a stinking cold and you just want to go to bed. What do you do next? You remember the total lunar eclipse grab a camera and tripod and head out to the most exposed spot you can find. I suggest picking up a warm coat at the same time, it would make things a lot less cold. In London exposed places aren't easy to find but we found a good spot and I did take some pictures. I can't say they are perfect, it was too windy for my tripod so all the pictures are a bit shaky, still I thought I would share them anyway.

The first picture was taken during totality. The moon was really very orange, it looks very odd, yet quite wonderful too. It was a long exposure, I think in the region of 30 seconds, so the wind was a major factor. I like the fact that you can see the dark areas even on such a blurred picture. I should mention I this is just a large lens, I don't have a telescope. I think I will be putting one on my wish list I do love taking pictures of the sky.

The second picture was just coming out of totality. It allowed a shorter exposure so less blur. It was hard to be sure when you first saw the eclipse end but this photo definitely has a bright crescent on it.

In the last picture the moon was getting very bright where it was coming out of the eclipse. It was giving the camera a hard time and had this wonderful glow around it. I did take some more with shorter exposures afterwards but I rather like this image. It gives a feel of how bright that crescent really is.

Extreme Knitting

I don't know how many of you will have seen thins, but it is amazing. I saw a picture in a magazine of a skirt which was knitted with huge stitches, maybe 20 or 30 the whole way around the skirt. I wasn't sure it was real at the time, so when I saw a shawl made in a similar style on a magazine I had to buy it. Now I've tried it I am sold. It is so quick and great fun. I could easily knit a furry bedspread, and I am sure it has potential for sulpture too.

I have done half a shawl today, I have a stinking cold (again) and I haven't felt up to quilting. They think you can make the whole thing in 6-9 hours. I think they are right, mine will be about 30" by 50" and should easily be done in 7 hours. The hardest part has been getting the yarn off the balls (some have been rewound a bit in the shop). You knit with several strands of wool (I am using 6, the magazine pattern suggests 12) on very large needles. With so many strands you enf up with a very dense fabric rather then the holey one you would normally get with these huge needles. I have 32 stitches accross my shawl. It's great, and grows so fast.