Don't you just love it when a plan doesn't come together?

Yes I said doesn't, and yes I did mean it. I had a plan. It seemed like a very good plan, I did a test and everything. I wanted to have the first of the outer borders onto my quilt before it went to Scotland and I am going to use my new technique for doing it. However when I pinned it on (or tried to) it was too short. I was very upset but headed to the bath to console myself. As ever, my best ideas are had in the bath. Had it been the right length, the way I have quilted it would mean I couldn't get the last two borders on. It would have been a real disaster. As it is it will work perfectly. How weird is that? So I will very proudly show my latest quilt, very unfinished and in two pieces as the talk on Saturday. At least it gives me something else to talk about. For those of you who can't make the talk (and why not Scotland is lovely and it really isn't that far) I will post some pictures either while I am there or when I get back. I am hoping to find lots of inspiration while I am there, I think if I am very lucky I might get to two castles which would be great. I am told the landscape in that area (Crathes) is good too, so who knows what I might find. I wonder if there are any local shaggy cattle. I would love to do a quilt of them.

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.

Ooooooooh

I've finished one of the outer borders for the quilt I showed you, and I am thrilled with it. OK I couldn't go far wrong in my eyes given I am using silver bias tape on black background to make knots, but still, I am very pleased with it. I also found time to make a test piece (yes really) for the quilt as you go technique I have thought up. It worked exactly as I expected and I like it. I think it could be very versatile, and I have to admit I am going to use it got the outer border of this quilt, even thought it won't appear until my next book. The technique I had been going to use would work fine, but I need the very fine strip anyway so I might as well do it this way. I can't see me getting all four outer borders on before I go, each knot takes nearly 2 hours and I will need 12 of the on the long sides plus 4 corner knots (these should be a lot quicker). Still I should have one on with will be enough to give people the idea. I have decided that I will take this quilt with me for my talk at the regional day. I am not going to be able to take as many quilts as usual so I want try and take some special things to make up for it. Besides they really need to be pieces I can talk about for a while, or I will run out of things to say.

I'm finding I am more nervous about doing talks and teaching so far from home, than I have been about closer ones. I should say that close is a relative term but somehow this feels further. I guess it is to do with having to fly to get there. The daft thing is I am not sure why this should be any different to working closer to home. I will have to be a lot more selective about what I take with me, but I really aught to be able to do that. I don't know where I could puck up emergency supplies if I do forget something, but as I will be staying with a quilter, I can't imagine what I might need that I can't borrow. I can only assume this is one of those things where the human mind is not entirely helpful. Maybe this nagging (but irrational) doubt is why a lot of people don't like working further afield. I suspect that once I have done it and proved the voice wrong it will give up. I will let you know.

I guess I aught to get some sleep. Tomorrow I have to try and figure out how to write lesson plans without proper computers. I am sure I will figure out something, but it may not be elegant.

Server still down

Our server has eaten it's power supply and our spare. I will be fetching it another one today but I will not be back up and running until at least tonight. This assumes that the mother board is OK, which we won't know until we can get a power supply to work. You can contact me by phone.

Shopping should not be exciting

At least not just going to the supermarket. However when your car won't start and you have under an hour to move it before collecting a 50 pound fine it does get more thrilling, and no not in a good way. I decided that I could push it out of the car park on my own, however I couldn't then stop it rolling down a steep hill onto the main road. Fortunately a local friend was home and able to come and give me a hand. Of course I managed to get the car started once help was on it's way. These things certainly have an interesting sense of humor.

This delay, and chatting to the very helpful friend kept me busy a lot longer than I had planned, so I haven't got all the borders on the quilt yet. However I have now got the last pieced border on which is all stars. I really like where this quilt is going. I am trying to decide the best way to transition from the patterned black area to plain black. I need the outermost border to be plain as I am going to put more applique on it and I want my work to be visible. I just think than going from one to the other might feel a bit jarring. On the other hand it worked well enough in the center. Sorry the picture isn't as clear as usual. I was working on my phone and I guess I was shaking more than I thought (and I suspect the background fabric is quite tricky to photograph as well). It looked OK on my phone, but not so great here. Still I am sure I will have my computer back soon and then I can put up a better picture. As yet if you need to get in touch please do phone me.

I had been going to reply to a couple of my Scottish students. Yes I do have kits and will be bringing them with me. if you search here for swan and rose (separately) you should come up with some pictures of the samples. Tropical Punch is one of the samples for the Touched By Scotland class.

Sneak preview

Well I think I've been hiding this for quite long enough. I have been working on this quilt (on and off) all year and so far it's been hiding. Now it is almost done I've just got to show someone. This is the sample I made for my book. Most of my students have stopped at this stage, but I want this one to be bed sized so I am adding another couple of borders before the final one. It does mean I am going to have a lot more work in my outer border but I think it will be worth it. Hopefully I can get at least the next border on tomorrow, maybe I can get all of them on if not finished.

I really should be working on samples for next terms lessons. I think I have come up with two new to me techniques which, if they work out, I will be able to share. Obviously I need to take time to play with them before I teach them. So many ideas, so little time.

The trip to Ikea turned out to have a quilty flavour. I managed to find a frame big enough for one of my prints (without needing a mortgage) and it turns out to be accomodating enough to take actual quilts. Large deep frames are generally too expensive for me to play with so I am very happy with this find. Also they have plastic containers with a hook designered to hang in the kitchen. They are 49p each and are very handy for scissors in my fabric room, and pens at the drawing board. They may also find a place at my new cutting table when I get that far.

The place to be in London on a Saturday night

I'll admit I'm weird. Sometimes I get a craving for Swedish meatballs and their sauce. I live reasonably close to Ikea so it's something I can at least fix without flying to Sweden. Usually the food shop can supply me but it's been out of stock recently. I thought about coming for lunch today, then sanity kicked in. You don't go to Ikea in the middle of a rainy Saturday, that would be very silly. However my need for meatballs hasn't gone so I figured by dinner time the store wouldn't be too bad. After all anyone less sad than me would have a life and many better things to do on a Saturday evening than have dinner at Ikea right? Wrong, very very wrong. I have never seen it so busy. Apparently this is where you take your loved ones for dinner now. Still I suppose it will mean my dinner hasn't been sitting keeping warm for hours, if and when I eventually get it.

Dead computers everywhere

Just in case anyone is trying to get in touch, I have a very sick network. We think one of our servers isn't talking but it isn't a simple fix. So I am largely out of touch until at least late tomorrow. If you need to get in touch more urgently please phone me. My number is on my website there is a link to the right.

I guess without the computer to distract me, or indeed let me do any more paperwork, I can get on with sewing. I spent a lot of yesterday working on finishing the sample from my book. Maybe today I will get it done. At least I managed to check my quilts had arrived before it all went wrong.

Herd Mentality

Yay, it's arrived. Well at least Fedex are showing it as delivered in Houston. So until and unless I hear otherwise I am going to assume it is reasonably safe for the moment. Now I've just got to keep my fingers crossed for a few weeks. Also I think the world quilt show starts soon, so I need to cross another set of fingers for that.

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.

One more quilt done

You've got to love piped bindings. They may not be the solution to every problem but for some quilts (especially those you need yesterday) it's great. If you haven't tried it you might like to get yourself a copy of Grand Finale a DVD by Ricky Tims. I was going to point you at his online shop but apparently he is filming at the moment so his shop is shut. Anyway it's a great technique which allows you to complete the binding by machine. Even better the piping looks like a much harder and more time consuming binding even though it is quicker and easier. Neat huh. Now I need to get back to quilting my Hever entry. I would like to have the binding on that today as there is some hand stitching I want to do before it goes. Yes you did hear that right. I want to hand sew!

International Shipping

Argh. Maybe I should just give up on entering quilt shows. I can't believe how complex it is to ship a quilt through customs and back. OK it is being made harder by me wanting in insure it for more than $45 and the show wanting me to use that as it's value. I've talked to so many people about how to do this, and frankly I am none the wiser. I could spend about 1000 pounds to get it a passport. I may then be required to pay the full value of the quilt to US customs to get it into their country, although I might get it back when it comes home. I can't afford that. I could send it out on a temporary export, exactly like I have done every other time, but then I would need to give a sensible value on the customs form to insure it. The show doesn't think that is a good idea. I could ship it with no insurance and hope. Oh and I've been warned that when you tell US customs something is of no commercial value they like to cut the corner off just to be sure. Guess what I am supposed to put on the form. So send it uninsured with an invitation to cut it up. It's not sounding like something I want to do. Of course I don't have anything better to be doing, I love trying to figure out a way to get around three different sets of rules at the same time. No really I do.

Too busy to post

I am quilting everything in sight. I have my quilt for Hever to finish, and several urgent customer quilts. Of course I still need to get everything ready for Scotland too. Yes I am looking forward to it but I have a lot to do before I go. I have to get my new quilt at least drafted and the first section written, ideally I would like the quilt finished. What do you think? Will it happen?

Out first round

We lost in the first round to a previous champion. In a very close race, he crossed the line first by 0.004 seconds, and won by virtue of having the smaller breakout. Still, the 13.82 at over 101mph (albeit on a 13.88 dialin) set new bests for both ET and speed.

Rain

For a while there it did look like we would get a second qualifier. However, it's now pouring with rain and there is a 5pm curfew. I think it is safe to say we have finished for the day now.

We had entertainment in the pit today. A balloon modeler. I did try to be grown up, but he taunted me for long enough and I had to have a penguin. It's very cool isn't it. I've included a picture of his URL so you can go and have a look at his work. Apparently he does a lot of more complex sculpture when he can sit and work. The things I've seen are just the quick bits. I found it interesting how much he manipulated the balloons. Some of them seem to yank and twist and hope. Billy doesn't he seems to persuade the balloons to do what he wants. It was really fascinating how many ways he could shape the balloons.

Wow!

That run was our first over 100mph run. Woot.

Run 1

Well we made it. We have a run on the board. A touch red, but still we will be racing tomorrow. We dialed in 13.75 we didn't want to break out, and we ran 13.87 so that much worked. 0.127 break out though. I am hoping he has that out of his system now and we will get a ood run later.

Finally

We made it to the track late yesterday evening after rewiring most of the front of the race car. Front in this case is defined as everything in front of the battery, -which lives over the rear axle. There wasn't a fault, but several, some were not actually implicated but were fixed anyway.

Hopefully we will get two qualifying runs today, the whole field will go through to eliminations so any run will do. Realistically we are in the hands of the weather. We woke up to torrential rain, but now we have clear sunny skies. Hopefully this will last. Now I had better get signed on and we will be ready for our first run arround midday.

Progress. Slow

Well, the race car doesn't have a faulty starter motor, and we are about to get the alternator tested. Apparently it is a likely suspect given our symptoms. If it isn't that we are back to tracing wires. Not our favourite sport.

On the other hand I did find and fix Joker. Her coolent expandion tank had developed a crack. Quick theft from our other 2.8i and we should be good to go. Now fingers crossed on fixing Trogdor.

poop, poop, poop

No that doesn't cover how I am feeling but I do try to keep the language clean here. So what am I doing blogging when I really should be at least half way to the track. Well, as you may know, our race car is street legal. Not only does it drive to the track but we can also use it as transport. In the last week I think it may have done more miles than my street car. It's been running great, better in fact than any of our other cars. So tonight we prepare to set off, it turns over once and dies. Dead deadity dead. Auto electrics are not our favourite subject at the best of times, and this isn't the moment. So we are now planning an early morning to try and fix it in the light, and hopefully only miss one round of qualifiers.

Of course, never a household to have only one sick vehicle, the bike broke down earlier (which is why we are so late leaving) and my car has become incontinent again. I swear they talk. How else could the all manage to get sick at the same time every time? I suppose I may at least have a chance to tape up my hose before we go now.

Lots of progress

I think I mentioned I have a rush of wedding quilts to do for customers. As I am trying to take it a bit easy after the festival I am doing an hour of longarming then an hour of something sitting down. I am loving the drawing board. Not only does it make drawing my designs a whole lot easier I can use it to support the applique block as I make it. I didn't quite finish it yesterday so no picture yet. I guess I did about half of it and a test of of the stitching as well. I also made about half the blocks for a quilt that is now stuck in my head. I want to finish the top before I share that one, sorry. It is inspired by Ricky Tims, which is kinda why it is impatient and quick to make. I am pleased with it so far.

Today has also been productive. I have the top for my Hever quilt made, I just need to quilt and bind it now. It will be quilted on a domestic machine so I can do it along side the customer work. I might have got further but I had to unblock a drain. Never the most glamorous job, but not usually a big deal. Take the ubend off, clean it out job done right? No, take off the next joint, clean that too, still no good. Eventually after two hours work with poky things and acid I have a clear drain. Great but I would have rather been quilting.

Still I have a few days away from the studio now. I am putting on my crew hat for the weekend. We are off to Shakespere County Raceway to play with car. Hopefully the weather forecast will be right and we will have dry days with the rain restricted to the middle of the night. I can't honestly call it time off as I do intend to do some more work on my second book while I am way, and maybe find time to try drawing again.

Proud to be sticky!

I know at least one reader will understand. I have been playing with glue stick and I am actually sticky. To me this is amazing. I went and bought a brand new glue stick earlier and it is working great. I was really good. They had a great deal on 6 sticks but I only bought two. Given we think my problems in the past have been down to old sticks I am determined to only try to use fresh. Oh and it is working for what I am trying to do as well. Maybe later I will show you.

I wonder what strange searches will lead here today :)

Back in the real world

I've almost recovered from my five days at the Festival of Quilts. It was great to meet so many of you there, and welcome to all the new friends I met. I had a lot of fun at the show, and surprisingly spent very little. I did get a lot of hand dyed fabric, from both Ricky Tims and Heide Stoll Weber. I want to have some more interesting backgrounds for my wholecloths, although it is going to make it trickier selecting threads.

I can finally show you some better pictures of my quilts, and the awards you get from the Festival. I know a lot of people have very strong views on ribbons. Love them or hate them, personally I don't mind what form the award takes. I can display certificates just as easily as ribbons, and they all have their own character. I guess if pushed I would most like trophies, but there are plenty of those I don't like the look of, so I'll just enjoy anything I get. I am, probably excessively, pleased to have the little plaque with the judges comment on. I think it is a really nice touch to give them their say actually on the winners plinth. Even if you don't agree with the judges you can now see some of their reasoning. The other thing I thought was really good was that the judges are named on that plaque too. I was very lucky, the first show I ever entered I met one of the judges, who told me she had judged my quilt. She was happy to tell me what I could have done better, it made sense and I haven't forgotten her advice. That was so helpful. I don't know if I am thrilled or petrified that Sandy Lush judged my wholecloth, but I am glad I know.

I've mentioned that I am working on a couple of projects with people from the comics industry. Well some of you net them over the weekend, and if you would like to have a look at Cancertown there are some sneak previews here. You might also like to take a look Raggedman in the links section to the right.

Finally, if you haven't already had a look there is an article on my web site from Canadian author Lorina Stephens. I met her many years ago when I was looking for costuming patterns. She used to run an amazing web store with everything you might want for period costuming. I was very disappointed when she gave it up to write. However she turns out to be a very good writer, so I guess I have to forgive her. I also love her art work, so when you've read her article do go and take a look at her site.

Virtual Book Tour

I am the third stop on Lorina Stephens Virtual book tour. Take a look at the article on my web site. She is a very creative lady who has self published several books. If you would like to check out the second stop on the tour you will find it here.

He get's it.

Wow. If you ever get the chance to see Ricky Tims do. He is very entertaining. However, never offer him salmon, and especially not salmon sandwiches. He finds they like to get cozy in his sleeve, and they really don't flush well.

My favourite quote of the evening is "however bad things are they could always be worse". It's so true, and when people forget it, it often makes itself felt. He also reminded us that freelance is a fancy way of saying unemployed. It's something I have often felt so it was good to hear someone agree with me.

I enjoyed hearing where he has come from, and where he wants to go. It was great to see his dogs, hogs and buildings. I would love to be able to go on retreat with him, if nothing else the landscape there is so inspiring.

Finally, I have to mention his music. His first couple of pieces were not to my taste, but I could see why he chose them. As he went on he played a lot more of his own compositions, and those I loved, especially when he played the flute, it seems to push so much more emotion than the piano. Sorry Ricky, the piano was great, but for me the flute was better. Sorry the picture isn't better, but there is a limit to what I can do as a small image on a phone.

Workshop at the FoQ

So, when I wasn't wandering about like a stunned fish yesterday I was in a workshop. It was a lot of fun marbling fabrics. I know I can't spell the tutors name without it in front of me, so rather than butcher it I will leave it for now. She is a very bubbly german lady, who had brought over everything we needed, all we hhad to do was turn up. It made it a ver relaxing experience, something of a holiday before the main event. We mostly worked in small A3 ish trays. I think I did about 13 small pieces of fabric, some of which I think are lovely. In the afternoon she showed us how to work on larger pieces, which is even more fun, and I suspeect highly addictive. The pictuure shows her removing one of these larg pieces from the tray. i would highly recommend her classes.

Today I have been out and about in the show and helping on the Patchwork Corner stand. It's been busy and we seem to be selling out of things fast. i hope this means packing up will be easier, but I am not holding my breath for it. i suspect however much you sell it always feels like you have more to take home than you brought with you.

I am now on my way to an evening with Ricky Tims, who's name I have spelled wrong forever, sorry Ricky. I finally managed to meet him today nad he is a lovely guy. I thought he would be from his DVD's but you can never be sure. It's good to know I was right. I might let you know later how it wen't, depending on how late it is and how tired I am.

Oh!

There is a disadvantage to going around the show early the first morning. The awards aren't all up. So my last report wasn't entirely accurate. If I've got this right (and it is late) my final tally is,
Judges choice - Herd Mentality
Highly commended - Radience
Third place - Contemporary Small - Heat
First place - Pictorial - Herd Mentality
First place - Longarm - Flying Feathers

Yes I am thrilled, and somewhat stunned. I did decide I had to go to the gala dinner, and actually the food was very good this year. I don't know what has happened but I am impressed. Strangely I found it far more nerve wracking to go and collect prizes that to give talks. I guess it is a control issue, but it was interestinmg enough to slightly distract me from how scared I was.

When I got back to my hotel I ran into some guys here for another conference, Magic the Gathering. Yes, yes, I know I shouldn't like it, but I do, and I think they have learned something about quilting too. Hopefully I can catch up with them tomorrow night. I am going to be exhausted at the end of this.

Festival update

I thought I could skip the gala dinner this year. It's expensive and I don't enjoy it, so last night when I got a call suggesting I go I told them I had other plans. I did too. Fortunately quilters understand that when you win awards you might have to stand them up. I think the pictures tell the rest of the story. Heat is wearing 3rd in contemporary small in case you can't read it. Sorry the white quilt isn't clearer, it is hard to photograph with a phone.

Excited - I think

I've just had a phone call suggesting I might like to change my plans for tomorrow night. Perhaps I would like to go to the Gala dinner, it might be to my advantage. Hmmm, I really don't enjoy the dinner, but maybe I should be there. I will look at the list tomorrow morning and make a decision I think.

Wow, a stand and a good hotel.

I am stunned, I've got an amazing room and it was the penultimate room on site. It's not a cheap room, although it's full price is less than the other hotels full price rooms. I wish I had had room to bring some of my quilts with me. They would look great on the huge high bed and in front of a purple faux leather headboard.

I arrived at the NEC before 11 this morning. The van had already been unloaded and the shelves assembled. We have been working pretty solidly since and we still have a few small things to do. Well actually Jenny has a few tweaks to do. I am on a workshop tomorrow. I think the stand is looking pretty good. It is I20 near the back of the hall. It's also close to the longarm gallery. Do come and say hello.

I had a little time to walk around this afternoon. There are some wonderful small galleries, I can't wait to have a better look at them. I don't know why but I was very surprised to see a Ricky Timms quilt. Thinking about it, it isn't surprising given he is speaking and teaching here, but I hadn't thought about it.

Hopefully I will have some time to look around tomorrow, but if not I will on Friday.

and off we go

I am about to head off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham. Today is set up day for the traders and I will be helping Jenny get the Patchwork Corner stand ready. It's an odd day at the show. You'll just have to take my word for it that it will look very different by tomorrow. Today is also judging day, but no the results don't go up until Thursday morning. I guess someone has the job of typing and printing results sheets tonight. It can't be much fun and they must have to do a pretty big print run overnight to give a copy to everyone tomorrow. So bear a thought for the huge team who will be putting your show together until pretty late tonight, and indeed for the teams doing all the shows around the world, it's a big job. Hope to see you over the next few days. I will try to keep you updated.

Progress report - Block of the Month

I managed to get a reasonable amount done yesterday on the block of the month. I think it is starting to look like the picture on the pattern now. Always a good sign. As you can see I finished the feathered star at the centre of the quilt, which makes a huge difference.I already had a lot of the border pieces finished, or close to finished which meant getting to here was pretty quick.

This morning I have added two more stars already, and I have all the pieces cut to fill in the area at the bottom between the centre and the pinwheel border. The pinwheel border to the right needs extending by a couple of blocks then that will be ready to go on as well.

To the left I think the next border is flying geese, so I should be able to get those on as well today. I do have all day Tuesday to work on it so you never know I might get it all together. I certainly think I will have a good amount of it done. I guess I had better stop gossiping and get back to work.

A third Woo Hoo!

Yesterday should have been a three woo hoo, kind of day. Well it was but I needed to take overnight for the last one to sink in. Herd Mentality has been selected for the Houston "Quilts: A World of Beauty" exhibit. I am so excited. I've been trying to get into this show for a while without success, and I really didn't expect to do any better this year, so when I got the email I had to read it several times to be sure. It was lovely to be able to tell the group I was speaking to last night too. I was feeling a bit guilty as so many of my quilts are off doing their thing at shows and galleries. I've realised this is the hardest time of the year to do talks, although I do now have enough work to be able to do it. I guess this will get easier every year too, but still I felt bad about it. Somehow being able to give them the news first helped a bit.

Honebee Quilters are a lovely little group, surprisingly close to where I live. They also have a nice range of quilters from absolute beginners to really experienced. It was nice to see so many people actively sharing their skill and knowledge, this is what we need if quilting is to have a long and exciting future. They are also a very open minded group. They loved the idea of punk quilting, drag racing and collaborative projects with other areas. I've now got the source artwork for my first cross over piece, and after the shows I will be getting started on it. I think it is safe to say my first foray into this new area will be large and eye catching. Possibly also rather challenging, what a traditional artist can do fairly easily with a pencil will be very tricky to replicate with a longarm, but I do like a challenge.

On the subject of challenges, I am trying to complete a quilt top before I go to the Festival Of Quilts. I am going up Wednesday, and I will be out all day Monday. It is the block of the month that Patchwork Corner are running. I fell in love with it because I think it will be great to quilt. Oh boy! It has a lot of pieces and I am finding working form someone else's instructions, and in their way quite a change. Still I think I am over half way, and accelerating. I have month one finished. This is the corner triangles that go around the center block. The center block is about 3/4 done, I needed a change last night so I did month one to get a breather. I've also made several pieces of border, only some of them have made it up to the design wall though. I've decided that rather than make the pieces in month order I will work from the center of the quilt outward. This is partly because I know I am motivated by seeing progress and I think it will look more like I am getting somewhere if I have a large piece of top together rather than lots of smaller pieces. Also if I don't quite finish on time I will have something that can be displayed, where lots of disjointed parts can't. My final reason is it will give me a chance to adjust things if I find my sewing isn't as accurate as I hope, and I will be spacing the adjustments in between other sewing. I don't find the adjusting and fiddling terribly exciting so this will also make things easier for me. Now wish me luck I have a lot of piecing to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

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.

ARGH!

I know this is always going to be a busy time of year. It's nice when the NEC deadline is done with, and yes all four quilts made it, just. However, this year that hasn't lead to any slow down here. It seems everyone is getting married, all at once. I have a stack of wedding quilts and an alarming number of them are urgent. I like to be busy, but this is starting to get silly. On the other hand they are all for lovely people who I very much want to make happy by providing them a great quilt on time. Ho hum.

I also have a top I really want to have finished by the Festival of Quilts. I know Jenny would like it for the stand but, boy is it time consuming. I've been making some progress on it (I will have to take some pictures) but I've only got until Wednesday next week and I have to work on one of the cars this weekend. I am really looking forward to quilting it, even though it will have to wait until after all the weddings, so I do have quite an incentive to get on with it.

Yesterday I was teaching Speed Quilt again. This time I offered the choice of either Speed 1 or Speed 2, as I had several people who specifically wanted to do the one they hadn't already made. It went really well. One quilt had the binding on when it left, another was ready to bind. Several others were very close to finishing, with the borders still needed. I hope everyone had a good time and will finish their quilts, I know I did, they were a good bunch who worked well as a group.

Quilting - full contact sport

Now stop giggling, it's true I tell you. I've realised today that I've had more injuries from quilting than hockey and lacross put together. I think skating and cycling still have it beat, I don't want to know how you break ribs quilting, but othere than those quilting is my most dangerous occupation. Now why have I been thinking about this. Well, um, would you believe I have a black eye from quilting? It's true I hit myself in the face with a bottle while packing a quilt. Fortunately I am not going to any cocerts soon, explaining to rock fans that my injuries are quilt related is always embarassing, and they never believe me. On the other hand I do have a class to teach on Wednesday and a talk to give Friday. Maybe quilters will find it easier to believe, this a risky hobby.

Land lines down

If you've been trying to contact me by phone you won't have had much luck. The phone line appears to have been out a couple of days, maybe longer. If you need to get in touch email seems to be OK so far (different cable coming in). Just wanted to let folk know I am not ignoring them, nor have I completely flipped out (yet).

Hopefully we will be able to get the phones back up soon.

I might be winning

Or I might be fighting the quilt to a draw. It's a close call. Yesterday my machine wouldn't play. Not at all, I guess I managed an area about the size of both hands in 6 hours. Not what I need with a deadline looming. This morning wasn't a lot more promising. However a good clean, re time, new needle and different thread colour got me going again. Dunno how I will fare when I go back to the lilac, ask me tomorrow. Still I have now made reasonable progress. I can believe this quilt may be finished in time, by the skin of my teeth. It's going to cost though, I expect to spend the weekend flat on my back of in warm baths. The very dense quilting is hard physical work. I also finished the second book today, and started the third. I am keeping to Heinlein as long as I can. So far I have listened to "The cat who walks through walls" and "The door into summer" and now I am on "The moon is a harsh mistress". If I need a fourth book, and I suspect I will, I either have to re listen to something or move to a joint project "Variable Star". It's going to be a tough call, but without the books I will go nuts doing this quilt, so I will be listening to something. For now though, it's bed time. I can't quilt anymore, my hands are shaking too much.

Quilt eats first book

Well this quilt is taking a while to do. I'm still not quite half way, so it isn't looking great for being done. So far I have listened to one whole book while working on it, so it's shaping up to be the most time consuming quilt I've done. It's also very tiring. It has a lot of tiny fiddly quilting. I intend to keep at it and see where I get to. If it's done it will go to the show, if not I can use it in talks and elsewhere. Who knows? Right now I need to lie in a warm bath and try and get my shoulder working again.

Isn't POD supposed to be simple?

I thought that the whole point of print on demand was to make things easier. OK maybe it does, if you are printing a novel with black and white pages. However if you want full colour, 8.5" x 11", perfect bound it's harder. Is that a really odd request? Well if you're a quilter grab a quilting book, if it's soft cover the odds are that is exactly what I am trying to get printed. So not that odd really. I can find a lot of companies who can't do that size, and a few that can. Of those that can most won't tell me how much it will cost. Some of those that will have interesting pricing. Would you pay over 90 pounds for a quilting book? Nope neither would I and at that price I would still be making a small loss on every copy!

So now I am back to calling printers and asking for quotes on a traditional print run. It wasn't what I had in mind, but beggars and choosers. At least I have just spoken to a very friendly and helpful person from one of the printers. Hopefully they can give a quote I can live with and I will have a winner. We would like to know who we are printing with before the layout goes too much further, and I really do want this book out this year.

At least it is a bit cooler today. I should be able to get some quilting done before I cook. I can see the center of the quilt on the frame now, although I can't claim to be half way there yet. I am definitely seeing a machine binding in this quilt's future.

Busy busy

Well the weekend was hectic if fun. We went down to Canterbury on Saturday as planned and caught up with more people than I had expected. Better still they were people I wanted to see. I managed to do some of the shopping I wanted although good quality belts seem to be in short supply. Canterbury has changed surprisingly little in many ways over the last 20 years, although the new housing estate in the middle of the short cut into town from the university is a bit of a shock. The shop keepers are not only the same but they remember us! Did we spend too much when we lived there?

Sunday we went visiting and a very good dinner was had. As you might conclude this did reduce the time available to quilt of tidy the house. However I did manage to finish the first round of painting things black. Unfortunately Ikea are out of stock of the corner shelves I need and don't expect them in for two weeks, so I won't be able to rehouse my stash just yet. I have started moving the bolts though. Especially as one of the wholesalers seems to be watching me. They sent me a box of fabric today, just in time to be first on the new shelves. It turns out I have rather more bolts than I thought, and this walk in storage might not be as huge as I was thinking. Still I will definitely be able to get a better idea of what I have and what I need. Somehow I have run out of marble blues, and I have two quilts waiting that need them. Guess another order is looming.

Other than that it has been hot today. I was hoping it was about to cool down. There has been thunder rolling around for a while now, but the temperature isn't doing much yet. I find quilting (or indeed doing anything) very hard when it is so hot. I had a plan to do some late night quilting, but if the temperature doesn't drop I will pass on that. So here I sit in a distinctly warm office blogging, while the show quilts sit and wait. Ho hum.

Paint it black

It seems a friend of our started a tradition. I am sure he didn't mean to, and probably doesn't know he has yet. Still when he was in the position I now am he spent some hours in the garden painting shelving black. Today I have done exactly that. It is about half the shelving for my new walk in fabric store. The room is now largely empty. If anyone is looking for an office desk or a fabric covered wardrobe do get in touch. They are free to a new home. Once they are gone I can shelve the whole room. I might have to have a rethink about the lighting, but dim will at least be good for the fabric, if hopeless for matching colours.

While the shelves dry we are going to see the new Batman film. Maybe when I get home I will be able to start getting the room straight. It will be so good to have all my fabric in one place. I will also have a sensible place to put my spare sewing machines, which should make them easier to get at and my sewing room clearer. Win, win I would say.

Promised Photos

I finally remembered to take my camera down with me and take some pictures. I know they don't show much, but, well, you will just have to wait to see it all. I am so thrilled with how it is going. I don't think the pictures really show how well it is going, but isn't that always the way. You will just have to take my word for it that it is much better than the last attempt. If nothing else that was so bad I never shared any pictures of it. Not even with close friends, but this one I am quite happy to show off.

I don't know how many of you will remember. I had a rather old computer. It didn't really like me doing anything with pictures including uploading them here. It had a fit if I suggested looking at a video. Well a while ago I got my new machine, and you would not believe the difference. I can now just take some pictures and upload them. It's just so easy now. I suspect it is going to take me a while to get used to how easy it is now.

Buzzzzzz

I just can't believe how many people are coming out of the woodwork at the moment. It's great coming to the computer and finding who else has appeared. It is encouraging me to take breaks from the quilting too, which is really important. It's going well now and combined with a book on just one disk I am likely to forget to take regular breaks. I guess I am about 18" down now. It's slowed up a bit as the quilting has got denser, but I still love how it is going and I think I may just get it finished in time.

I really will post photos, I just have to remember to take the camera downstairs with me (OK and the memory card too).

Wow, good fabric works!

I think I know what went wrong with the other wholecloth. To use shadow trapunto I needed the top fabric to be thin. I found one that allowed the colour through pretty well, but I didn't exactly like it. I gave up and I am now just working on a plain wholecloth. It's only just started but boy I love it already. The difference, well I am now using cotton sateen over wool wadding. I think that is the key, the much higher quality fabric. I am sure the lovely wadding is helping too, but the stitches just look so good on the sateen.

So I am now quite optimistic about this quilt. I still can't be sure I will get it done in time, but I feel I can give it a very good shot. Yes I will put up a photo later, just a little teaser.

All marked up

It's finally marked. I can't believe I used up three washout pens on this one. There isn't really that much marking. Still it looks good so far, and I am ready to load it on the frame. With the way life is going I suspect my machine is going to want to discuss what threads I use, so I've not got too set on anything. I have an idea of how I would like it to work out, but I can negotiate. Wish me luck.

The right tool

Wow that made a huge difference. Not only was it a lot easier to put the pattern together, tracing it has been much easier too. I guess I have between a third and a half of a 95" square marked. Pretty good going for me in a day. Normally I find I am far too tired and achy to get this far. I should easily get it finished and loaded tomorrow.

I mentioned a while ago about how important friends are, well they've been at it again. Friends are the people who tell you what you can do. Just when all you can see is what you can't. It's been great talking to people I haven't heard from in years too. Keep up the good work, and know you efforts do make a difference.

Unsurprising facts

I am well aware that the right tools can make a job a lot easier. I had guessed that there would be a lot of right jobs for an A0 drawing board. I hadn't realised how much easier it was going to make assembling patterns. OK it will never be easy t put together sheets of A4 to be 95" square, but it is easier on the board. It's nice to be able to see so much in one go, and great that I can hang it off the sides as it grows. In fact it's gone so well I nearly have it done. Of course I will then need to trace it off, which will also take a while, and make good use of the board. I guess I should take a break and get the fabric sorted out.

Hello to some older friends. It's great to know you are still out there doing well and having fun. It's great catching up with you.

Bug jam day 2 - new best time

It was almost green, 0.0055 seconds red. See very nearly green, but it was a new best ET, 13.83. So that's us done for the weekend. Now we just have to see if we can get out of the track.

Bug jam day 2

The sky is clear, bu the track is empty. The bugs have jammed the pits so badly we can't run. The marshals can get us to the start but are still working on a way to get us back to the pit. They are thinking about us coming back down the emergency road then up the pairing lane to the pits. It would work, but it will be interesting.

The number of people here makes me think we won't be getting out of here any time soon. In fact I suspect this will be a very late one. Still I am making good progress on hand sewing the binding on 'Herd Mentality'.

Bug jam day 2 - rain

Well the weather seems to have turned. The clouds are thick black and plentiful. We will just have to wait and see if it clears. Meanwhile I can queue. Th loos have taken a hammering and really aren't places you want to go. Even the Main event is nothing like this.

Bug jam day 2 - personal best

So after much debate, Tet settled on a 13.91 dial in. We weren't convinced. I was certain the next run would be quicker, it was and by more than I thought. We ran a 13.84, a new personal best. However we are still looking for the magic 100 miles per hour termial speed, this time we hit 99.05. So close and yet so far.

Bug jam day 2 - green light

Yay, finally a clean and tidy run. We dialed in 13.86 and ran 13.92. Not stellar but perfectly fine. I was just thrilled to see a green light. We do seem to be getting some good burnouts this weekend. There are some videos which may appear on the web oce we get home. I don't fancy uploading that from my phone.

Bug jam day 2 - morning after

So we are getting lot's of warnings about where not to drive. The no glass rule hasn't been observed and people are worried about their tyres. Maybe it isn't so bad not running slicks.

Trogdor is off driving arround. It's cold here and one drive hasn't warmed him up much. Even sitting idling isn't making much difference. We've had him up on stands this morning, much to the amusement of the rest of our class. They have noticed this happens most meetings. Given we have rented th tarmac here we might as well use it. At home we have mud, not so good for jacking cars up.

All being well we should be running about 10, with two more rounds of qualifying. Given all the VWs have to go first, we may be delayed by oil down. I'll let you know. The photo is taken from our pit. It's not the normal view, there really shouldn't be a stage in the middle of the pits.

In between the racing yesterday I managed to hand finish the binding on Radience. I would have taken a picture last night at the hotel, but there was a very asleep driver all over the bed. You will just have to take my word for it when I say it is looking good.

Bug jam 4 - red light 2

Did I mention one was enough? Well this was a greener shade of red, but still quite definately red. We didn't break out though. We dialed in 13.85 (that had to be safe) then ran a 14.00. It could be worse, but I would like to see a green light.

Bug jam 3 - red light 1

And before we go any further can I suggest 1 is plenty. It was a good run though 13.89 and we thought the track was going to be slow. So another very conservative dial in proved too slow. The Fords have joined forces as ford jam.

Bug jam 2

So 3 o'clock start became 4 o'clock. 4 o'clock became oil down. Oil down turns into rain. Maybe we will run today, maybe not.

Bug jam

Well I would say it does what it says on the tin, but I suspect that won't help some readers. So the bugs in question are Volkwagen Beetles. Dozens of them jammed into a too small pit. The pit is too small because there is a huge stage with audience space, it's making it tricky for the racers. The other exciting feature is the humans who haven't met cars before. They have no concept of danger and apparently have been breaking down fences and wandering in restricted areas. We have been told to be very careful at the top end and look out for strays. All in all it's pretty strange and the music is way too loud.

Our first run should be about 3 o'clock, I'll get back to you then.

Discoveries

I've been discovering things. Did you know if you hang around with sick people there is a good chance you will get ill too? You did, oh. I guess I did too, but, well, I didn't think about it at the weekend. So I spent yesterday not doing much except feeling ill. Fortunately I do feel better today, but the cough is very annoying. I still haven't felt like doing much so I decided the time had come to sort clean socks into pairs. Conclusion, I am too lazy to own plain black socks. So off the the recycling a lot of them will go. I like socks with some design, they are so much easier to pair up. Still I do now have a whole drawer full of nicely paired socks. Perhaps not much of an achievement for most people, but for me something of a novelty. I've been living out of bags for a long time, so clothes in drawers it really nice.

I've also discovered something I can do when I am too tired to do anything but can't sleep. Stick weaving. It's thought to have been brought to Europe by the Crusaders, according to Finniwig Studios the company who made the kit I have. It's very easy and quite soothing to do (OK if you're well and active it possibly would be boring) and you get pretty quick results. I am thinking of getting some more sticks and trying to weave bigger pieces. I think starting with more than 6 sticks will be interesting but once it gets going it should be fine. The fabric you make is quite thick but feels fairly fragile, the weft will move around quite easily. It looks like it might be a very interesting base for stitching. I an plotting ideas for some quite structural belts. I think with more sticks (and a less lurgied brain) I might even be able to weave patterns in as I go. It's certainly a technique with a lot of potential. The sample in the photographs is about 3" wide and 23" long, just to give you an idea of scale.

We have also discovered that blinds, bath screens and taps are all ridiculously overpriced, and that when you are bored and ill the Internet can suck hours of time without effort.

Patterns patterns everywhere.

I'll try this as one answer for all, as I am getting a lot of queries on this. I haven't got any of the Turning Twenty range of patterns right now, but they should be with me in a few days. They sell faster than I can buy them, which is great but does mena you will somtimes have to wait for them. I am selling them at 8 pounds per pattern whichever one you choose plus 50p posst and packing.

I do have Dawn and Dusk patterns (the photos show the back and front of the quilt) on hand, they are 5 pounds each. If you are looking for ombre fabrics try calling Patchwork Corner, they still have some of the same range I used for the pattern and at this morning there was at least one kit. If that doesn't turn up the colour you want then Equilter may be able to help you. Put ombre into the search bow, you will a get a great range to choose from.

It's here.

So having removed over a third of the desks from our computer room we have just enough space for an A0 drawing board. It's a monster, a lovely monster, but still. It had been living with a friend but needed a change of scene so has come here. I have plans to get paper on it sooner rather than later and get designing. Perhaps the best bit is it can be put low enough to use an ordinary office chair when drawing. Most boards I have seen in the past needed a stool, which I find a lot less comfortable. I will have to sort out the sewing room a bit though before I can do much as my paper is well buried at the moment.

Why no quilting?

I suspect you've all noticed the lack of sewing going on here by now so I figure I should address it and assure you the cogs are still turning even if the machines are silent. As I mentioned there has been some significant upheaval here. The upshot of which is a major reorganization of the house. I started with the bedroom and despite my best intentions have been working around the other upstairs rooms before dealing with my sewing rooms downstairs. It does make sense in some ways, but it has slowed up the sewing. I suspect I will have to get some sewing done before the house is sorted but it will be interesting. My main cutting and sewing area is currently being used as a dumping ground.

On the other hand while I was away this weekend I did make some progress on the block of the month quilt I am doing. I am desperate to quilt this so I have to get it made. I think I have done about 25% of it now. This is one of the projects I need to get back to sooner rather than later.

Three of my quilts for the NEC this year just need hand sewing doing. The binding sleeves and labels. For me this is pretty amazing really. The fourth however is at pattern stage. This is worrying but not a disaster yet. It is a wholecloth so only needs quilting. I really must get the pattern onto the fabric though and ideally get my frame up and ready to go.

I have a group of quilts going off to Scotland. I need to get them packed and sent today. It will actually be quite good to get them out of the way, and the rest that are sitting around the house will be off to the storage unit again today as well. Hopefully this will clear enough space for me to get sewing.

I've also been designing some new quilts. As my first book reaches completion I have the next two designed. I want to have samples of both made up by the start on the next term at Patchwork Corner, as I have classes who will be making them. If writing one book was daunting, two together somehow doesn't seem too bad. I must be crazy. To be honest, looking at my sewing room right now, sewing the samples is the scary bit. Still I am sure it will come together. I've also designed three new show quilts, all of which are desperate for me to make them. Hopefully after I get the drawing board set up in the new office I will be able to get them drawn up and ready to go as soon as the class samples and block of the month are finished. No pressure right? Add to that the portrait that is ready to sew and I think I have a few months full of sewing to look forward to. Right now though I had better get on with packing quilts and tidying up.

Home again

Well I survived the weekend and I am back home. Actually I met a lot of very friendly and interesting people, and I think they had a lot of fun. It was a long trek and as you might expect on a Sunday afternoon the M1 back to London wasn't playing ball. I ended up taking quite a large detour and coming home on the M40. Not a bad trick from Leicestershire

When I got home I was faced with the task of sorting the house again and made another push on the office. We are definitely making progress, but there is still a way to go. I am hoping Ikea will get some shelving in soon as I won't be able to really get things straight until they do. Still I guess every step forward is a good step.

I am hoping that tonight if I am woken up by nightmares I will at least not have to the the 'Where the heck am I" phase. Days that start that way are not good.

House update

For those who have asked, yes I am still ripping the house apart and cleaning sorting and moving. I had slowed down but I realised why. I wasn't working on the room that wanted my attention. I was trying to be logical, but apparently that is the wrong thing to so. So I am now back to working on the office. I would have been making better progress it I had been able to buy the new shelving but that was not to be. Still by the time I get it I will be more than ready. The room used to have desks around pretty much all of the walls, but I am making room for a large drawing board. I like the idea that I will be able to do my drawing and paperwork away from my sewing space. If nothing else it will make switching between tasks a lot easier. It does mean I need to invest in a new chair, which will be unpleasantly expensive. Still however much I have to spend it will be cheaper than not being able to work when my shoulder plays up. I guess (hindsight being great) I should have picked up the chair today while I was at Ikea, but I didn't expect to have room in the car. By the time I found out they had no shelving I couldn't face trying to find anything else.

On the cutting table issue, I think I have a winner. Ikea (no I hate the store but they do a good range of furniture) sell extending trestles, which are tall enough and stable. They also sell large glass table tops. The combination will mean I can use it as a really giant light box if I need one, and as a good surface for paint and dye. All in all it seems like a reasonable option. It does fail on easy to move, but I think I can compromise on that.

Are these cats spoilt?

I think they might be you know. Enjoying a retired show quilt with almost no cares in the world. Almost because I just dared to move a curtain. Aren't I cruel.

Ikea has a sale on at the moment (in the UK at least) and one of the sale items is the Dimpa bag. These are huge storage bag that zip closed. I find I can easily store 6 bed quilts on one. They are currently 1.99 per bag. However don't go looking for shelving at the Wembly Ikea they are out of stock of pretty much everything.

Jack touched me!

I am sure most of you won't get this at all, but I have to share. Jack is a very timid cat who I have known for several years. Sometimes when cat sitting he will run over my foot in his haste to hide, but normally I only see him because I deliberately look for him. Jez has been saying he was getting better and coming out to be petted most nights. I guess I believed it intellectually but it hadn't sunk in. Tonight he came out while we were chatting. I had been feeling guilty about being there so long, knowing I was depriving the cats of their time, and I guess he had finally got bored of waiting. He came out carefully and climbed up on Jez to be fussed. Very impressive for such a timid cat. He purred and sat there for some time. When he had got his fix he got up to move and headed to me. Well I was stunned, and petrified I would do something to scare him. So I mostly sat still and let him have a hand, which he duly washed and walked off. Oh my. He really is improving, and is a far bigger cat than I had ever realised. What a star, keep up the good work Jez.

Last nights talk seemed to go down well. They are a friendly bunch and helped a lot with carrying all my quilts in and out of the venue. I think I would have to say they were a select group, and indeed they seemed disappointed in the turn out. They more than made up for a lack of numbers in enthusiasm and overall I would have to say it was a good evening.

Now the quilt have done that outing I can pack a batch of them up to go to Scotland. I didn't want to send more away before the talk, as I was worried about having enough work, but now I have a gallery space to help fill. The gallery is called 'Touched by Scotland' and I will be giving a workshop there in September. So if you are in the area I hope if I don't get to meet you, you might have a chance to see my work.

This weekend I am off to teach at a retreat at Quorn Hall. This is something entirely new for me and I am sure I will learn a lot from it. I guess spending last weekend with the quiltathon was probably good training, for a weekend in one building with a lot of keen sewers. Hopefully I will have time to blog from there.

What a lot of quilts!

I've been a bit worried about my talk tonight (Enfield Quilters). I've sold quite a few recently, and two of my best are off at the world quilt show. I've got a few more that I don't really want to talk about any more and I was concerned that I would struggle to find enough to talk about. I have held off sending some to Scotland just to give me a better chance.

Well I've got lots. I won't say I can't tell I have some missing. I've had a bit of a struggle to get the balance back where I want it, but overall I'm not too unhappy. I will find the one the beginning of August a little lean, but I hope to have made a couple more by then, so they may actually get to see some new work, which always goes down well.

Now I just need to fold some leaflets and load the car. See you all later.

What do you cut on?

A while ago I made myself a cutting table. It is a board on some of those plastic drawers. It's not bad, it is a huge improvement on cutting on my sewing table, but I want better. I am in the process of completely rethinking my sewing room and I figure this is the time to try and get my cutting table right. I don't really feel I can justify 1800 or even 800 for one of the official tables I've seen. They are nice, but for that much money I am sure I can make something better (or at least as good). So what do you use? There must be some people out there with dedicated cutting tables, and I would love to hear from you. Heck, what do your friend have that you would like to copy or could never live with? All information will be appreciated, and I am quite sure the results will be posted here eventually.

Quiltathon Photographs

I've had time to upload the photos I took at the Quiltathon. As you can see we had a great time. There were a lot of smiling faces. The first few show the morning shift. How can people be this chirpy that early in the day? I don't know but I am very grateful they can, it added a great buzz to the morning session. As you might expect there was a lot of cutting out to be done first thing. Most early birds prefer to piece tops rather than do quilt as you go. Interesting huh. We did have one late shift worker who felt the same but on the whole it worked out earlier people were more into tops.

It was really good to see so many faces from my workshops at the Quiltathon. As ever names evaded me. Although I did manage Dot's name, and was able to introduce her to Tet. The two of them got the small quilting frame going and much to Tet's relief Dot took over running it most of the day. I think she quilted about eight tops in her first ever stand up quilting session. I hope she isn't paying for it too badly now.

During the day we were very lucky with the weather. Although Dot and I out in the marquee perhaps didn't always appreciate it. It got very hot at the quilting frames. It did mean that we could expand into the garden when we had too many for the workshop. By early afternoon we had teams cutting, sewing, pressing and making binding. It's surprising just how much binding you get through. Much of our fabric was sales men's samples. This lets you cut at least 10" square, some 6" squares and the rest often is around 2 1/2" ideal for binding. All of the quilts we have finished have very wild bindings.

As the evening wore on more younger quilters turned up. I guess teenagers are all busy on Saturday afternoons. Still having an influx of young fresh people (and indeed fresh not so young people) was great. By then I think some of us were flagging a bit. I was really impressed with how keen everyone was to step up to whatever challenge we gave them. Jobs were often allocated by what needed doing when they asked, not by skill level or experience. Without exception, people met the challenge and did the jobs that needed to be done. No cutting isn't as easy as it looks, and yes even a quilt as you go single can be a handful under a small machine.

As you might expect after a late fish and chip supper (thanks to chip lady's husband) people started to drift home. Some of the younger helpers had to be dragged out, which is great, I hope they are as keen to come back and sew again. The tone of the conversation changed and the wine appeared. Here you see the graveyard shift. These sterling ladies kept up the work until relief came in the morning. I crashed out at about 6 and woke up feeling very ill about an hour and a half later. Maybe sleep doesn't agree with me. When I came back the work was still going on and our first Sunday morning worker had appeared. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures Sunday. First thing I felt too ill, then we were just trying to get as much done as we could before running out of time. As I said there will be a photoshoot later in the year with as many of the finished quilts as we can manage.

If you were there, or know someone who was could you let either me or Jenny know. I would like to compile a list of everyone who gave support in any way. Time, money, fabric, or food. If you helped I want to get you onto the list.

We Survived

Better than that we had fun. Lots of it. Even the pouring rain couldn't dampen our spirits. It looks like the final tally is 46 quilts. I say looks because I know there are still people finishing things off. We still have tops that need quilting and then obviously binding, but I am pretty pleased with that.

My goal (when I finally got around to thinking about it) was 1.5 quilts per hour. So in 30 hours I was after 45 quilts. Bingo, right on target. I couldn't tell you why that seemed a good number. One per hour just didn't seem enough, but well two per hour was a bit much. Bear in mind the smallest quilts were bigger than 36" square and the largest are good size singles. I think at least 10 of our quilts a re big singles.

We spent a lot of time considering where our quilts might end up. We were particularly keen to produce some for teenage boys, and believe me that is hard. Still every quilt has a label saying where and when it was made with the Patchwork Corner URL. maybe one day we will hear from one of 'our boys'. While they may never know it, we will always think of the owners of our quilts as part of our family. maybe one day Project Linus will be able to tell the people that receive quilts that they are getting this whole extended family too.

I'll try and upload some more pictures later. The ones of the finished quilts will have to wait for some good weather as we will have to take it outside. We are thinking of leaving it till the middle of August to give people time to finish all the quilts and in some cases make a few more. Thank you for all your help this year, and watch out for next years project. If you know of a charity that might like our help let me know and we will see what we can do. We have fabric left over that has to be used to help people so it could be your charity that benefits.

Sun is up

Well guess that makes it an all nighter then, and still quilting.

3am and counting

Ok, so we have dirty jokes, wine and a boobie obsession. I think we should be worried. As you can see we are still sewing away. We are down to the select few, but the quilts are still coming. It's amazing some people are still waiting up for updates.

Night shift

So here are the night shift. We have several ladies working on the quilt as you go projects, some binding, and some hand sewing labels on. I have no idea how many quilts we have done and right now I have no great desire to try and track them all down. I am sure there are more than 15 tops waiting, and I have one quilted on the frame. I can't do any more quilting as the machine is in the marquee and I don't want to upset the neighbours that much.

Progress report.

Well the machines have had enough. They have both gone on strike. Still we are making good progress. I've just tried to do a count up, but with so many people here it's hard to be sure. I think we have 7 completed quilts, 8 quilted waiting for binding, and 11 tops waiting for quilting. There are also several quilt as you go projects going, but who knows how many. It looks like we will run out of wadding pretty soon, so I guess we will just have to buy what's in the shop.

I can't begin to tell you how impressed I have been with everyone who has given time, money and fabric. Several fabric wholesalers have been very generous, as have individuals. We have one lady here who just popped in to wish us luck this morning and stayed till late afternoon. Impressive huh, well about an hour later she was back and she is still here! Another lady who had to go and baby sit took work with her, she will be back tomorrow.

first finished quilt

We have had dozens in progress for a while, but finally one is finished. Here is Jenny, who's shop may never be the same again, holding it. It's manic here, I can't believe that Dot has done 5 quilts so far on her first day at a stand up machine. How cool is that?

Now I must stop gossiping and get back to work. I've got more appearing all the time.

Patchwork Corner - sweat shop

The quiltathon is in full swing. I've been longarming since 10am and the pile of tops waiting is still growing. One lady just popped in to wish us luck and is still here working her socks off. I've lost track of how many tops she has made. The first 5 quilts are being bound and I really have to get back to work. Do come and join in if you are in the area.

More progress.

I am in the process of stripping out every room in the house and the refilling it. In somme case changing the use entirely. Ultimately I am planning a new walk in fabric store. It's long overdue and I really can't wait for it. Today I have cleared a large expanse of shelving, which I will eventually use for audio books and all the business paperwork. For now it is temporary storage for all (OK many) of my blots of fabric. It's amazing to be able to see them all in one go. I didn't bother to group them in any way as they should only be on this shelf for a month, but I am still very pleased with me personal fabric shop. Now if I can just make time for some sewing I can turn this little lot into quilts.

From anything bad comes good

Well she may not have been good enough for the Royal Academy but she looks great on my wall. As you can see she only just fits, but just is good enough. In cleaning and rebuilding the bedroom I've ended up with a mirror opposite the bed. It now reflects my nude when you lie in the right place. It would have been really clever if I had planned it. I can pretend right?

Things are still tough here. I guess for the next month I am going to be somewhat distracted, but hopefully things will improve after that.

Don't forget this weekend is the Quiltathon for Project Linus at Patchwork Corner. Hope to see you there.

Still here.

Well I am getting by hour by hour. This morning I managed half an hours quilting. It's a small start, but an important one. Blogging or indeed any computing is going to be slow for a while. I am finding it very hard to be in my studio, which is where the computer is. I've managed to read some email and the messages of support have been much appreciated. I am hoping my coping skills will be up to their usual standard and in the next week I should be back in the studio and somewhat on the ball. Until then expect just in time service on the big stuff, and a bit late on everything else.

Don't forget the Quiltathon this weekend at Patchwork Corner. I am planning on being there for 30 hours trying to make as many Linus quilts as possible. It's a great xause and I am sure all the helpers will have a lot of fun. Even if you can only spare an hour it will be appreciated.