Much good news

Sorry it's been a while. Things got a touch hectic again. Still this time it was largely good hectic. I delivered nine quilts to Sandown for the National Quilt Championships. Not all mine I hasten to add. I just figured as I was taking mine I may as well fill the car as much as I could. All seem to have been very well received by the visitors. I was lucky enough to win two ribbons. Winter Star collected second place in the bed quilt category and Radiance was awarded a judges merit. It was really good to see how many people liked my students and customer work too. With a range of people looking at the work there is someone to love every quilt. Very few spotted the stitched aircraft on the tie quilts though, but a lot were interested in making one, and I gained a father :)

You might have noticed the wholecloth winner. A small white quilt with a lot of featehrs on it? It was made by Sally (who you can see collecting her awards at her blog). A while ag she and I decided we would make each other a quilt. Being a bit more organised than me she has finsihed my one and on Sunday I was presented with not one, but two little quilts. One of them even looks like the award winning quilt! Of course she thought to make mine in a proper colour (OK non colour then) black. I will get a photo of it as soon as I have a chance.

I bought lots of fabric at the show including the most perfect dragon scales. As soon as I finish the last custoemr quilt which is now on the frame I will be able to load up the backing for the dragon. The pattern has been drawn for me by an artist friend so it is exactly the dragon I wanted. It's currnetly lurking in my longarm room, just waiting to chomp unwary visitors. I am so looking forward to getting on with it, it's huge and I love it already. I'd better get on with this customer quilt then hadn't I.

Oh and my friend who collected his free helicopter ride is out of hosptal and doing well. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Good news, bad news

It's been an eventful weekend. Trogdor our race car wasn't ready to race this weekend, so Joker stood in for him again. Saturday she and Tet couldn't quite get it together and they were last after qualifying. So Sunday morning we stood at the start line for round one talking to Spencer and discussing how it wasn't going to be so bad going out first round. We didn't want to be standing around in the sun all day and Spencer had lots of other cars he was crewing for. When we stood there again Sunday evening after the trophy presentation we agreed this must be the way towin race meetings, have agood reason to go out early :) Spencer came first Tet and Joker took the second place. Thrilled? You bet.

We made it home OK then found out we were in demand. Unfortunately one of our friends has claimed a free helicopter ride. He was involved in a crash with his trike and was airlifted to a specialist center. It sounds like he is doing OK, and the trike is safe, but it isn't really what we want.He isn't even one of our friends who would have likes a helicopter ride. So it seems a good time to mention that the UK air ambulances are a charity. They fly beause people and businesses donate to them. You really never know when you or someone close to you will need their services, so how about making a donation now while you think about it. There is a web site for all of the air ambulance services in the UK here. If you click on your local helicopter it will give you the web site to donate to them directly. I am sure other countries will have thier own versions of this service and are probably also in need of funds. It isn't cheap to keep a helicopter flying but it can save lives where no other transport could.

Inspiration

A lot of people have been asking me how the joker quilt came about. So I thought I would try and explain. Be warned it isn't a straight line design process, that isn't how I work. I should also mention this was designed entirely in my head on a car journey, so there aren't even any sketches of how it grew. Sorry, but how else do you kill a couple of hours on the motorway.

It started with the idea to make a bed quilt to fill a particular space in the gallery at the NEC, I also had someone in mind who might be interested in a quilt and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. As it was a bed quilt it needed to be durable, and that rules out my art quilt techniques (great for the wall but won't handle cats) and using cotton sateen (same problem with felines). We fairly quickly homed in on the idea of playing cards. That straight away brings in another problem though. King size beds need quilts that are either squareish or wider than they are tall. Neither of those work well for a playing card (or that was my thinking at the time).

For a while I got detoured onto what borders might work with a large playing card. I wasn't terribly happy with any of the ideas I came up with but the best was a row of card trick blocks on either side of the playing card. If I was going to do that I felt I would need a narrow border to separate the two areas, probably densely quilted (to bridge the gap between the quilted design and the piecing). Some poker chips have an edge pattern of the four card suits and I thought that might do, maybe quilting the area that wasn't them in red on the background?

So I had a rough layout then to decide which card. For a rock fan (or indeed a fan of playing cards) the ace of spades has to be an obvious choice, but on the other hand I quite like jokers too. Hmmm, two cards could that work. Well as I said I can't use the applique technique from wall quilts on a bed quilt so how can I get an intricate design onto the quilt? With thread, which was what I had (and still have) planned for a couple of other quilts I will be doing. Great, we are nearly to a plan. Then I remember. I don't like working on white, and I don't think it is a terrible practical colour for bed quilts either. Playing cards (especially the aces) are usually largely white. Hmm....... Invert the colours. Less white.

That is pretty much what I carried around in my head waiting to be made. As you can see it didn't quite come out like that. I like to make bed quilts somewhere around 90" tall (top to bottom of the bed). It seems to provide good coverage for a range of beds. From some quick layouts I figured I needed the center spade to be about half that height and the joker a little taller. I produced the full size images of those then laid them on my bed. I realised about that point that I didn't need borders. If I just made the card square it would look fine, and I would have the simplicity of design I had started off wanting. Back to plan one and off I went. The result you've already seen.

I find this a lot. I kick designs around until I think I have them. They then live in my head for a while (months to years). Some do come out exactly as they were planned. 'Miss Baltimore' and 'Golden Storm' were both pretty exactly what I have in my head. Others like this one make last minute changes. Tow more of my NEC quilts have done the same thing. Usually it is the ones where I have had to compromise in a way I didn't really like (I really didn't want a border on this quilt) or where I have tried to deviate from what I do. There seems to be a general shape to how I work and design things. I never intended it to be that way, it's just happened. However when I plan to not do it my way things happen. Eventually what I produce comes out looking like one of my quilts. It's quite and odd feeling actually. Having a style that enforces itself when you aren't expecting it. Sometimes it does let me do something different, but only when it is really different it seems.

There you go, the mad way inspiration strikes and evolves in to a quilt.

Voting day

If you live in the UK don't forget to vote. It is your chance to have your say. OK it may not change anything, but it's the only chance you get to make your feelings knows. I was going to write about our lack of anonymous voting, but I think Thargol did it better than I can so you might like to read his post. It does worry me that who you vote for is recorded. I can see how tempting it might be for certain people to find out who voted for certain parties. I try to reassure myself that they are too lazy to actually check the records. Not much consolation, but it's what we have. "I love my country, but I'm scared to death of its government." -- Blackie Lawless

It's off the frame

This has taken far longer than I would have hoped but it's finally off the frame. I can't recommend pulling the muscles around your ribs if you want to be able to freehand quilt. Still by plugging away a little at the time it's done and I am quite pleased with it. It could do with blocking really as it has a lot of dense quilting, but I haven't anywhere to do that. I am going to try letting it hang for a few days starting from damp and see how that works. I think one of the problems is it still have some wash away stabiliser in it so it's a bit stiff in some places.

I've just draped it over my bed pillows and all but I think you can see the general idea of it. The white areas are cutaway applique. I don't like putting white over black as it tends to come up grey so I thought it would be better to put the black over the white. I worked pretty well I think. It also meant I needed to use pale wadding rather than black for this quilt. I would have felt safer with black but I really wanted sharp white.

The figure is entirely in thread as are the letters. You can see the figure better on the back of the quilt (second image) it's about 60" head to toe. I love the effect of the stitching, but it is very hard work to do. I'm not to fond of making all those freehand zigzags. Still as proof on concept it's come out very nicely.

As I said this quilt will only ever be at one show. The Festival of Quilts, England 2009. So if you do want to see it in the cloth that's where you will need to be. I can assure you there will be a range of new and odd (if not interesting) pieces from me and I am sure many other artists will be slaving away as speak to fill the show with the best work around.

I'm really looking forward to having the gallery to be able to show a whole collection of work. The problem is I have more ideas than I can possibly make in time. I keep trying to tell myself there will be more shows in future, but I want it all and I want it now :) Some things will never change. I will now take a break from my work to do a few customer quilts then I will be back at another mammoth piece. I really should learn to work small.

Traditional or Arty

I often here people classifying my type of quilting. It doesn't really worry me what answers they come up with, I am going to do what I do, but I have wondered where I would put myself. Am I traditional? Maybe and art quilter? Perhaps contemporary (isn't everyone who is making work now technically?). I think I finally have my answer and it's been brought home to me by the two magazines that arrived this morning. 'American Quilter' and 'Quilting Arts' have both turned up together, and as I am trying to be quiet so I will definitely hear the door I had a look through them both. Back to back it becomes very clear to me that one will not be renewed, because it doesn't inspire me. However I think many people would be surprised to find it is 'Quilting Arts' that just leaves me cold. I don't get most art quilts. They don't talk to me. I don't want to paint on my fabric, I like painting with fabric. I guess I use fabric to get away from traditional art materials where a lot of people are bringing the materials into quilting. I could see me ripping and burning fabric, which would fit in with the sort of work that appears in 'Quilting Arts' but I wouldn't be looking for the end results that would fit.

On the other hand I've loved this issue of 'American Quilter'. I am amused by the two black wholecloths in the Paducah show, I just wish I had had time to put one of mine in. I like the idea of quilting on vintage linen. I even fancy making something like the pattern in there. I understand the quilts it shows (and there are a range from very traditional to some lovely art quilts) and many of them inspire me. Will you recognise the inspiration when I've finished with it? I doubt it, but I will know and I will enjoy telling people what prompted my ideas, I love the disbelieving looks.

So I would say, I tend to traditional when I comes to quilting. I will stretch it a bit (OK a lot) but I like even my wall quilts to feel and move like fabric. I don't want to work with paper or paint, I might hand dye some of my fabrics, I might even put the dye on with a brush if I need to get a hair or fur texture, but that is as close as I want to come to 'normal' art materials. I love what I do and I know what I love.

People to do business with.

Recently I've had a few companies impress upon me that I really never want to deal with them again, but today I've had one of the other sort. I've been trying to accept a delivery via City Link. The first day we just got really unlucky, I got back here about 5 minutes after the driver had been. Their lines were busy and head office don't return calls. By the time I tried again (it had said they would call me back) the driver was out of the area and couldn't redeliver until the following day. Importantly they lady I spoke to apologised for no one calling me back and gave me the phone number for the depot so if I needed to get hold of them in future I could.

The next day I passed on all my out of the house jobs to other people and waited. I didn't listen to my audio books, I turned the longarm right down to keep it quite, and I opened all the doors between me and the front door. I missed the driver. Hmmm. He claims he had knocked for 10 minutes? I have a door bell which was working and yes he used that too. He tried my neighbours but they were all out (odd I could hear them talking through the walls over the sound of my machine. I called the depot and explained all this to them. They were again appologetic and arranged a morning delivery for today as I have a lot of booking this week and can't sit arround waiting for a package.

This morning there was a delicate rattle at the door, but I heard it, and ran for the door. The driver had almost made it back to his van, but I caught him. He asked if I was expecting a delivery? Um, yes that's why you're here. After a long rummage in his van he came back to tell us he hadn't got my delivery. Ah, maybe that is why he was so keen to leave the door. I called the depot again. Once again they were sympathetic and polite. They had to call the driver and check the story with him (yes he really had just not loaded it) and assured me they would call me back.

So why with this sort of story do I say these are good people to do business with? It's doesn't sound great does it. Well they called back, as promised. The first thing they said was we messed up, and we're sorry. Followed by, we've put your packages on another van and it should still get to you by 12. That is how you deal with getting it wrong, you put it right. I have huge respect for any business that can put it's hands up, admit a blunder and fix it. Lets face it, things do go wrong, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, when it does you do what you can to keep the customer happy. The companies I don't go back to are those who blame the customer unfairly, who don't apologise and who don't put it right. So if you are in the UK and need an courier consider City Link, they may not be perfect but they will go the extra mile to sort things out.

Progress

I thought you might like an update on the quilt I showed you at the beginning of the week. I've finished the image now and I think I am about half way through the background now. As you can see I've gone with feathers. It's a fun fill and it scales very well to fit in around the main image. I'm not planning to quilt the areas within the image so it should stand out a little bit. I'll have to see how it sits though when I have the rest of the quilting in place.

I have to admit that hasn't gone as fast as my projects usually do. That's because I've been catching up on household jobs too. It may not be everyone's idea of a good holiday but having a week when I didn't have any bookings has been amazing. I've been able to quilt and do the jobs that have been bugging me. Tomorrow though I am back teaching. I will be doing beginners machine quilting at Patchwork Corner. It's always an interesting class, and hopefully it will be a gentle reintroduction into working outside the house.

Exercise

I am exhausted, long weekends are hard work. It's been a very productive weekend for me though. The quilt I showed you yesterday is progressing. I'm sure I once heard that small repetitive movements were more tiring than larger movements. Well in the case of longarm quilting it seems to be the case. There are a lot of areas of very dense quilting and they are mostly filled in with a zig zag. I can do about 30 minutes of that type of quilting before I have to have a break. It's surprisingly tough on my forearm. I guess it is because the movement is coming from my elbow to get the precision to fill in the areas I want. Ho hum. Still I am thrilled with the effect and I've nearly finished this stage of the project. When it's done I can move on to filling in the background which should be more varied and a lot quicker.

I've also managed to get some gardening done, and a washing line up. Both are more impressive than they might sound. I burn very easily so going out during the day in the weather we have had is interesting. It was something of a necessity though as one of our cats decided to throw up on the quilt that is on the bed. It was actually quite funny as I had just watched an episode of "The Quilt Show" where they had been explaining that traditionally quilt were used and when the cat threw up on them they had to be washed (hmm I wonder if that is what gave the cats the idea?). I had just commented I must be a pretty traditional quilter then as I think quilts should be used, then I went into the bedroom and found the mess. Of course it's the only quilt in the house at the moment the rest are in storage ready to do talks. It get better it is one of only two quilt's I own that don't fit in my washing machine. However I had noticed the quilt has got a lot softer and thinner with use (Ginko Typography) so I thought I would give it a try. It now fits, just. It saves a trip to the laundrette which I really don't have time for right now. However I didn't want to put a quilt that heavy straight into the tumble drier on a hot sunny day, that's just daft. So time to get a washing line, or indeed a rotary airer. I found one that claimed to be a complete kit. I assured me I would be able to take it home, install it and put up to 4 loads of washing on it (it even came with pegs). Surprise it worked! The rain held off just long enough to get everything dry too.

On the way in with a washing line we noticed the hedge cutting frenzy in the street. Of course we felt obliged to have a go too. The hedge looks great, but we need a new broom. I used it the head fell off, no biggie I put it back on. Tet used it and the handle broke in two! He really doesn't know his own strength. On the other hand as I type he is on the final stages of getting two of my patterns ready to send off to the printer which is very cool. Both of the patterns are designed to use ombre fabrics. One is "Dawn and Dusk". It was the first pattern we produced ourselves. It was a worrying pattern with very slow sales to start with but in hind sight I think that was my lack of marketing skills rather than any problem with the pattern. It's sold out it's first print run, hence the reprint. The other pattern is "Under the Rainbow". This was initially made for Popular Patchwork and I have always told people to contact them for a the back issue to get the pattern. They have sold out of that issue so it's time to produce my own pattern of it. I am really looking forward to them arriving. My short patterns are printed in full colour double sided on one sheet of A3 paper. This is then folded down to an A5 booklet. I like the fact that you can't lose any of the pages as there is only one sheet. It also reduces the possibility of me forgetting to put everything into the bag. Either the sheet is there or there isn't a pattern. Hopefully people using the pattern will enjoy it too.

Sneak peek

It's no good, I just have to share something I am working on, and well I don't think this will spoil the quilt for everyone. As you can see this is something a bit different for me. It's a bed quilt for a collector so it will only ever be seen at this one show. I would describe it as almost a wholecloth, and it is definitely an evolution of the things I have been doing in my wholecloths. In this quilt I am trying (and so far succeeding) to make the quilting an image rather than a pattern. It's slightly nerve wracking as I can't really see the image as I work. This is a problem I run into a lot. The human eye isn't good at seeing the whole picture when it is this close to so large a work. Also the stitches are very dense in some areas which requires focusing there for quite some time. I find after doing that my brain makes that area look out of proportion. I know it is an optical illusion but it doesn't help me see how the image is working.

On the other hand I am really enjoying having large blocks of time to spend on one of my quilts. I've had two days of preparatory work for this quilt. Drafting the patterns and preparing the top. Now I am getting to quilt it is a wonderful feeling. I really love this very free but artistic type of work, even when (or perhaps especially when) it throws up lots of challenges. You may have realised that I am working from the middle of the quilt outwards. On a longarm this makes things a lot more tricky and time consuming, but I need to be able to fit the rest of the quilting around this image so I have to start by getting this into place. There is also the small matter that I haven't entirely decided what the rest of the quilting will be, so this gives the quilt a chance to talk to me.

You're probably aware that I don't make samples of techniques. I try thing straight on a real quilt (often a show quilt as it's the only time I have to play on my own work) and if it works, great if not I have to start again. Well this is almost a sample even though it is also a live show quilt. It is allowing me to try out a technique I will be using in a much more complex and time consuming piece. From what I've seen so far I am happy that the second quilt (from the graphic novel Cancertown) will work out very well. So much so I am thinking of using it on another quilt as well, which I had completely different plans for before today. The fact that it looks like this piece is going to be so important in my future works yet will only be seen once at the festival made it the obvious choice to put on my blog. I really am missing being able to share all my quilts as I work on them, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Very silly craft video.

I've not looked at the rest of them but this one is very funny, and slightly scary. Admitedly more for knitters than quilters but still...

Speed quilt 3

I can finally reveal speed quilt 3. I had thought it launched 4th July but apparently not. I will be teaching it for the first time on the 6th June. That may not seem like a big difference but with my schedule it's a huge issue. Fortunately speed quilts live up to their name. I think this quilt (about 95" square) took me 8 hours including cutting. It hasn't been bound yet, or indeed trimmed. I don't have the space to trim it sensibly here so I will wait to take it to the shop, at which point it will go straight into service as a sample. I guess it will join the queue waiting to be bound.

Over the weekend I also tried to buy a car stereo. It was a very frustrating experience. What I am looking for is something that can play mp3 tracks from a USB device and that gives me a sensible way to access the track I want. As I can have 2000+ tracks I don't want the only navigation to be next and previous track. I've lost track of how many people have said it will work if I buy an ipod. I have no issue with being able to connect one to a stereo but I don't feel it should be essential. Heck my mobile phone has a better user interface for the mp3 player than these supposedly dedicated devices. It was also sad how little shop staff knew about the products they were selling. On the whole I got the impression each one knew a little about one or two systems. I guess that is to be expected in Halfords but in dedecated car audio shops I do expect better. I was shocked by how maany staff expected to tell me what I want (without asking any questions) and have me hand over the money without even seeing the system. Sorry but that isn't going to happen. I could buy on the internet and have better service. Having said all that you might not be surprised to hear that most of the car audio specialists in the area have closed down. Yes I am looking on this as lessons in how not to sell.

Some quilts you have to see.

If you haven't heard of Izabella Baykova you've missed out on some fantastic quilts. Bonnie McCaffery sent out this information in her latest newsletter. Grab a coffee and enjoy.

***NEW VidCast #34 Russian Quilt Artist Izabella Baykova
Izabella's quilts are filled with meaning. Go to http://www.bonniemccaffery.com to see the latest VidCast. As a bonus we have also included a Russian version of the interview with Izabella - so if you have any Russian friends, feel free to pass the link on to them (http://www.bonniemccaffery.com/vidcasts/034r.html).
To take a look at Izabella's website (which is in Russian) you can go to http://babelfish.yahoo.com/. In the URL space add this link http://www.siniygranat.ru/ and then select "Russian to English" translation. You'll see lots more of her beautiful quilts.

If you ever get a chance to see these quilts in person do take it. They are far more striking in real life. I love the way the seem to glow.

Another learning weekend.

Well it's finally happened. Cancertown is a real, hold it in your hand book, and I have my copy. You will probably remember me talking about this graphic novel that has been written by a friend from university. This weekend I was lucky to have the chance to be at it's launch at the Bristol Small Press Expo, and help introduce people to it. As ever at these events I learned a lot, a large part of which I can use in what I do. I think the tow most obvious to me were how much easier it is to toot someone else's horn and how great it is to have a prop when doing it. I guess it does help when the book looks and feels good. The printing and binding are really nicely done. I am hoping the printer who did it will be able to give me a good price on doing my book so I can have him do them. So the third thing is, do your best on every job, you never know who will see it or what business they might send your way.

I've been surprised at each comics event how similar it is to the quilting industry. Even going in knowing that it still catches me out. This weekends revelation is that the comics industry is starting to struggle with it's wholesale system. Like quilting wholesalers send out a catalog listing new products. It has a tiny picture and a few lines of text. I had already realised this is useless for evaluating a new product and pretty hit and miss when you know exactly what you are looking for. When I try and select the right pins from one of these books, it can take me an hour to get the right code for what I wanted and I know exactly what I am looking for. Imagine using that system to sell a book or a pattern. A picture may an inch square just doesn't work. This lead to several people trying to come up with some better ideas for selling new products (OK they were thinking comics but a good idea is a good idea where ever it comes from). Really the best, though not terribly practical answer) would be to put one of your product into the hands of the potential buyers. For comics, patterns and books a shop owner is much more likely to stock your product if they a can hold it in their hands and read it. They need to know it is of good production quality and well written. They would like to be able to see how it fits both their shop and their customers. As I said this isn't going to work on a large scale, but perhaps we can get closer to it. How about using online systems to allow customers to read part of a book (take a look on Cy's site to see the first chapter of Cancertown for example)? It seems like a good way to let people try a product before buying, and it is a lot easier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than printing and posting. Perhaps offering a printed extract or a sample pattern to shops interested in your work would be a good idea too? That's trickier because I know that I use different printing companies and processes for different products but I do aim for the same standard throughout so it might work. Maybe the time has come for wholesalers to make their catalogues electronic not printed. It would save them postage costs even if it were still posted as a CD is a lot cheaper to ship then paper. Having given it some thought a wholesaler could probably get a lot of their suppliers to enter information about their product into electronic forms with an automated process to produce formatted pages. You could end up with a whole page per product like many web stores. This would benefit all sides of the process, the suppliers can really explain why we want their product, the wholesaler would save on postage and printing and hopefully sell more and the shops can make a more informed decision. Anyone fancy grabbing the idea an running with it in either industry?

If anyone would like a copy of Cancertown I do have a few to sell. I even have a very limited number signed by both the writer and the artist (thanks for letting me drag you to a dodgy looking carpark guys). Just send me an email and I will come up with a way of getting a copy to you. Failing that Cancertown is available on Amazon as well. Thanks for inviting us Cy and keep up the good work.

Quilting

I thought it was about time I offered some proof that I am still quilting. This is a large customer quilt, about 95" square I think. As it has quite a soft look we decided all over feathers would suit it well. It's come out with a really comforting look. i love this quilting pattern but I don't often use it on my own quilts. I think that is because I see it as delicate and a bit traditional so I don't think of it when I work on my quilts.

Home safe

Joker made it through her first weekends racing on one piece. Strangely it seems to have had a positive effect on her, she seems to be running better than ever. Can I claim racing is part of servicing your car? I am going to claim today's racing was good. We ran another 16 second pass with Tet on the brakes at the top end (finish line) to try and slow down. I say try as he still broke out (ran faster than he said he would) and lost the race. It's good from my point of view as it proves the first time wasn't just a fluke.

I've heard that the Patchwork Corner section of the shop hop went well. I am sorry to have missed you guys, but I did have a prior engagement. I will pick up contact details on Wednesday then I can get in touch with people interested in my book. We haven't started taking pre-orders yet, but we will soon, and yes I will be announcing it here. Yes they will be available signed, yes there will be a discount for pre-orders, and no I don't know how much postage is yet. I think that covers the first round of questions.

On the quilting front I am now pretty much booked up for customer work before the NEC show in August. I have a very few emergency slots left. As I mentioned before I am offering a discount to people who book a quilt in now to be done later in the year. So if you have a quilt that isn't urgent this is your chance to get a bargain.

I was thrilled last week to get a large box of hand dyed fabric in for the States. Buying online can be tricky, but this will be perfect for the project I bought it for. Sadly as with so much I am doing at the moment I can't show you yet (yes I does upset me to not be able to share) but I am sure it will be worth the wait. I'm finding with several of the projects I am working on now fabrics are hard to find. I've had to massively expand my range of greens as two of the projects need them. One wants lots of mucky dull green and the other wants all the bright leaf greens. It's strange after years of avoiding it to now be actively seeking green. I guess I aught to think about doing some work while I wait for Trogdor to be delivered (he is going to a garage on a lorry) then I will need to think about retrieving Tet. I'm sorry but when I get Jokers on track photos I will have to bore you with them, proud mother syndrome :) I can't tell you how chuffed I am that she ran two 16second passes and didn't piddle on the track at all.

Joker done good.

Well I think it was good. OK it was a break out, but it's a good time and I am thrilled. That's it for today. Hopefully we will get a clear day tomorrow.

Third run

So, it looks like Joker is getting the idea. We are getting progressively quicker, and less smokey. It's also given me a chance to check how acurate my speedo is. Surprisingly, it's pretty good.

Baby's first timing ticket.

For a car nut this is an important moment. It's under 20 seconds which makes me feel better, but she should be able to do nearer 16 seconds. We will be looking to improve. At least she got from one end to the other without dropping anything on the track.

The picture says it all.

Yesterday was bad. Today isn't looking good. Wish Joker luck in her debut. Trogdor will be needing a new engine, anyone got a spare big block?