Holiday quilt progress

As you can see the holiday quilt is progressing. Not quite as quickly as I would have liked, but still. I have 12 more blocks to make and put on then just the outer borders. I am really hoping I can finish the top and start quilting it on Monday. I like the idea of rounding off the FOQ with a new bed quilt and the way the temperature has been dropping here we will need it soon. I am really pleased with the black in the quilt. I was concerned it would change it to much and I wouldn't like it as much as the original but I didn't need to worry. Of course I like black :) The inner borders/sashing is slightly wider than the pattern called for. I am trying to make this into a king size quilt from a large twin, so I am adding where ever I can. I also fancy having a bit more space to play with the quilting. I haven't quite decided what the outer borders will look like, but I have a couple of ideas. So long as I can get the size I don't really mind.

Calling past speed quilt students

I've now got time to go back to some of the projects I was working on before the gallery came up. One of those is Speed Quilt. I am looking to publish the patterns for all the designs and I would love to include pictures of quilts that have been made in classes. If you would like yours to be one of the featured quilt please get in touch. Also if you know someone who has taken the class pleas do pass on this plea.

FOQ - Gallery - Of Jokers and Dragons

I had thought today would be the last instalment in the tour, then I counted the number of quilts and images I have left, so we will take it in two trips. Yesterday we left by what I called the fifth entrance, between Eileen's book quilt and 'Where is the North Star?', we need to turn right to continue on around the gallery. The outer wall on this side has a quilt I posted about in the making (see May and June archives), 'Joker'. It was supposed to have one of several far more clever titles, but it's working name stuck, and I suspect will do forever now. I thought of it as almost a wholecloth as the quilting was always going to be a very large part of the design. Looking at it finished this seems an odd way of seeing it but I never said I made sense. I wanted a quilt that would make a good present for two friends without asking them any of the important questions like, what size bed do you have or what colours do you like in the bedroom? Well they aren't terribly subtle if you want to surprise someone. So we got thinking about how we saw them and what things they like. Stage magic and cards had to feature, we decided that very quickly, but white? No I couldn't make a mostly white quilt, I don't enjoy it and well they aren't white people. How do you get around it, you invert the colours. The ace of spades (the most decorative card in most decks) would work really well like that. I also wanted to incorporate a harlequin. It didn't really fit, but a joker did and seemed close enough. Asking for a scan of a nice joker seemed a much more subtle question and indeed I think I got away with it. They certainly seemed pretty pleased with the quilt and will soon have a new bedroom for it to live in. This is the only show this quilt will ever be seen in, it's job is to go and keep a bed warm.

As we come around the corner of the gallery we come to three quilts in a row I managed to keep very quiet before the show. I wanted to have some surprises, but this one really pained me. I was so excited when I first did them. You will see them in revers order but I don' t think that's a problem. I've done quite a lot of work with leather in the past, but I've never got around to quilting any. I think that is because I am very aware that you only get to stitch leather once. The holes don't heal. However, things change earlier in the year I went round a lot of London fabric shops with a couple of friends and I fell in love with a couple of small leather skins. One thing lead to another and they followed me home. my friends being quilter not only helped plan the idea but they nurtured it too. and before I knew it one of the skins was on my frame. Scary? Oh yes. Very.

The first quilt we are looking at is actually from an offcut I had. I made a few of these 'normal' shaped leather pieces, but to be honest they don't really talk to me. I love how the colour works on leather, and I really wasn't sure it would. The trickiest part was binding it. I knew it needed a binding, but I didn't want to use cloth, and a double fold of leather wasn't going to happen. I then realised there were corners (yes I know sometimes I am not so bright). If I over lapped the ends of the binding like you would on a traditional straight corner binding the corners would be huge. As leather doesn't fray I decided to just trim the ends flush. It's clean and tidy without getting bulky. Simple.

The next quilt 'Leather Star' was the second leather quilt I made. I was getting braver and felt I could chance marking some designs. I quickly discovered that if the marking shows on the leather and will come off, it comes off too soon but with some care I managed to get in the lines I needed. This is also the quilt were I tested colour. It worked, but was more subtle than I expected. By choosing to leave the edge of the skin un-trimmed I gave myself a lot of hand sewing to do finishing the backing, and the shape proved to be quite a challenge, but I think it was well worth it. I love the very natural look. It took a lot of trial and error to get the design to fit the irregular skin and I was concerned they may fight, they don't and I love this quilt. I am so fond of it that when we were looking for some quilting for the background of my book cover this is the quilt I chose. Yes I did find it amusing sending a picture of the secret quilt to over 100 people before the show, and being pretty confident they wouldn't guess what it was. Certainly no one commented on recognising it at the show.

The last of the leather quilts is 'Leather Feathers' (I know, you try naming quilts at 5am after a month of sleep deprivation). This was the first of the leather quilts I made. I find it quite strange that after years of struggling with this style of feather I chose it as my safe pattern for working on leather. It was partly because I didn't think spiky patterns really fitted the very soft leather. I wanted a soft design. The first stitch was very stressful but once I was underway all I wanted to do was work on leather. I do have a lot more plans in this direction, so watch this space. Ah one last thing, that a lot of people asked, yes these are real quilts, with 80/20 wadding in them. 'Leather Feathers' has two layers in it to fatten the feathers and because I was worried the thickness of leather would hide the puff of the wadding.

The last quilt in tonight's installment is 'Dragon'. There is more going on with this one than I think most people knew. The idea probably started with needing something to balance the 'Phoenix', something with a lot of presence that wanted and needed to be big. I also had a plan for something along the lines of a self portrait, as people keep suggesting I should do one. So the idea was born, to make a quilt of my dragon tattoo. Only two little problems. I wanted it to be very clearly the same dragon and it needed to be in a different pose. Fortunately I am still in touch with the artist who did my tattoo work, Glenn Wallbridge and he kindly agreed to draw me another dragon. Even better he came and traced the full size one for me too. This quilt then became a test piece for 'Bad Rain', which we will get to tomorrow. I wanted to keep the style of the original artist, not overwhelm it with me. I learned a lot from this quilt, which will actually have some more quilting added to it, as I can see where I haven't quite got all the shading he put in. It's OK now, but I know it can be better. This is another quilt that provoked interesting reactions. It regularly startled people who approached from entrance 5 behind it, but more interesting to me was what people saw in it, especially children. A lot of adults commented on how scary it was, some said it was threatening. Children though got it, it hasn't made up it's mind yet, she's just watching. Yes she has rather large claws and is in general quite big, but she is just looking and deciding what to next.

While we were still setting up one of the fabric traders came round and looked at the quilt I was binding, he asked if any of the fabrics were his, I wasn't sure. It was lovely later in the show to run into him again and send him to look at 'Dragon'. All her green fabric came from his stand at Sandown. In fact I thin k most of the staff got to come and see it too. I love the idea that traders can get to see where their fabrics and threads ended up. So often you sell something and it's gone. Much more fun to see it grow up. One lady who picked a lot of brown fabrics for me and posted them special delivery so I could finish my cows was very proud when it won at the FOQ last year. I really enjoy being able to share the buzz with others. Sometimes when I teach I will take my latest show project with me to work on in quiet moments. That quilt then becomes that groups special quilt too. It's so good to see them when they first see 'their' quilt finished, and I think the enjoy it too. Tomorrow the last of the quilts. I've also added a couple more links in Link Frenzy.

Not in the plan

Today I had a very simple plan. Drive to Kent, see the osteopath, drive home, sew. See nothing to it. Until I got to the traffic jam on the M25. They had closed one short section and it has caused chaos. I left home at 9am. I turned around 2 jusnctions before the roab closure and I still haven't made it home at 3pm!

Still all is not lost. There isn't much you can do when you are stuck in traffic and you are the driver, but you can think and plan. At the NEC I bought some rather nice fabrics, and didn't entirly have a plan for them. I do now. The Farbstoff cotton sateens I will make a very simple quilt. It will have very minimal piecing and a lot of space for quilting. If I've got the maths right I might have enough fabric to make two similar quilts which could be fun. The idea is to really show off the hand dyed fabric, but include the shaded colour packs and make a large bed quilt. I'm looking forward to getting home and measuring up.

I also bought a selection of Oakshott fabrics. I've been looking at these for some time but never bought any as I didn't realise they sold yardage. They do and I have enough to make something really fun. I think I have most of this quilt worked out too. It's a lot more complex which worries me a little. I have no idea how stable the Oakshott will be. I guess I will find out. I can't wait to get home and draw these up. So enough chat. I'll finish my drink and get on my way.

FOQ - Gallery - Wholecloths and more

So we left the gallery through the second entrance next to the nudes, we will now turn right and walk around to the first entrance we saw in FOQ - Overview. The first quilt we come to, 'Flying Feathers' was also the hardest to photograph. White wholecloths seem to resist any attempt to get good pictures of them, still I think you can get a general idea from the photos. This quilt was made as an attempt to please show judges, and I hope it is my first and last white wholecloth. Although technically it is the second white wholecloth, the first never made it to completion. I had planned for this quilt to have shadow trapunto, I was going to fill the raised feathers with black wadding so they would show grey in the finished quilt. To work, this requires a fairly translucent top fabric. It turns out I really don't like quilting on that type of fabric. Strange I know but true, I hated it. I didn't like the feel of it, and I didn't like the look of the stitches. Plan B. I love working with cotton sateen but it was a lot harder to mark. Still quilting on it was a lot easier and the double wool wadding gave a good trapunto effect. However this quilt hadn't finished causing trouble. The machine played up, I ran out of the pink thread and then it's final trick was to break my cheek bone. While I was packing the quilt it managed to flick an empty beer bottle into the air, which landed on my face. If you find the photographs from last years Festival you will see I had a black eye.

Moving on we come to a pair black wholecloths. 'Guide Me' is another quilt that is the second generation quilt. It is the one where I started always matching my bobbin thread to the top thread. I got about half of the way through the quilt when I decided I couldn't live with the occasional spots of the top thread on the back so I started again. Of course being me I was on a very tight deadline and what happens when you are in a hurry? You make mistakes. I managed to quilt what should have been a blue area in green leaves. It took me about 12 minutes to quilt it, and over 12 hours to take it out. I don't recommend making mistakes on cotton sateen, it is a nightmare to unpick on. This quilt is one of my most traveled pieces, and won the traditional machine quilting award at the World Quilt Show last year.

Facing 'Guide Me' is one of my favourite quilts, 'Winter Star'. It is another wholecloth, this time on plain black cotton. It was made to hang in the Longarm Gallery at the Festival of Quilts 2007. The design had to be monochromatic with one colour. The main design is stitched in a range of grey threads. I marked the piecing lines, but all the fill in stitching is free hand, as are all my quilts. The colour is hard to spot, especially in a photograph, it is in the piping.

As we go into the gallery you can see 'Dawn and Dusk' pinned to the end of my quilting frame. This is the quilt from our first self published pattern of the same name. It is a reversible quilt which uses ombre (shaded) fabrics. If you would like to purchase the pattern for this quilt use the contact me button to the right to get in touch.

Moving on across the gallery we come to 'Herd Mentality' hanging over my longarm quilting machine, which we will come back to in another post. 'Herd Mentality' was inspired by a herd of cows I met. When I say cows I am not entirely accurate, but then neither was the farmer who asked if I minded cows, I don't. I do mind bullocks. Quite a lot actually especially when they are trying to mount me. Very flattering but really not my type. Once there was an electric fence between me and the 'cows' I grabbed a camera and took some pictures. It was sunset and with the fantastic sky they looked really impressive. The first time I showed this quilt was in my gallery at the Dissenters Gallery I was surprised at the effect it had on people. They played the sky game, where you look at the patterns in the clouds and see what you can find. It kept people entertained for ages. After the FOQ 2008 where it won the pictorial prize it went on to the Houston Quilt Festival. I was a little shocked when it won the visitors choice, but really surprised when I found people blogging about the pictures they in the sky. I guess the sky game is international. I did notice that people from different countries do see different things in it. What do you see?

Moving on across the gallery there is 'Where is the North Star?'. Do you remember I said I had some "seemed like a good idea" quilts? Well this is the quilt I was thinking of when I said it. I guess I should start by saying I am very pleased with how the quilt turned out, getting there wasn't so much fun. The whole quilt is foundation pieced. That part was simple and gives a good mottled effect to represent the night sky. However I had decided it would look more organic and natural if I offset all the blocks around small squares. Well yes it does, but.... To assemble this quilt I had to lay out all the blocks on my bed and position all the small squares. I then grabbed a few pieces and went downstairs to sew them together, a time consuming process given all the partial seams. Then back upstairs to pick up the next pieces, of course by then the cats were on the pieces, so I picked up a cat, removed the pieces of quilt from it's feet and put the next bit together. Just sewing the blocks together took all day, from getting up to going to bed. Finishing the top with it's borders wasn't a problem, and then it went on the longarm. This was only the second quilt I managed to persuade my machine to sew on. The quilting went very well. I made a star guide so I could put little stars in to the quilting and it was done a couple of days before it had to go to a show. Next came trimming up. I generally make my quilts a little bit larger than I want them and trim them to size, but as I said this was one of the first I had quilted on the longarm and I had foundation pieced the borders with very little spare. Three corners squared up perfectly, the fourth was another story. This was the moment Tet decided to explain the problem with quilt to me. The bottom corners of a quilt on a bed can be quite a trip hazard as they stick out, so he suggested I cut them off. Just a safety feature honestly. Well it solved the problem and I love the look of the quilt. I wish it didn't have white binding, which looks great but is a dust magnet, but I am very fond of this quilt. It is the quilt people most often request as a patter, but I'm sorry I won't be writing it. I like to produce patterns that work and people will achieve without going mad, this just isn't it.

Opposite we have our last quilt for tonight as we leave the gallery again. This is a students quilt, made by Eileen. I had hoped to be able to hang the cover quilt from my book but I ran out of long walls. So a quick hunt through the reserve quilts found me this one. I have to admit it isn't my colours, but I think Eileen did a great job for her first quilt. She was one of the first people to work through my book with the benefit of all the errors. She kept at it and produced this quite impressive bed quilt. I guess I really aught to let her have it back soon as it has been touring with me for several months. I really must thank all my students for their support, without them my book would not have happened. I also owe an apology to one of them If you have the book you will see a quilt on page 58. It is the odd one out in that it's owner isn't listed at the back of the book. I don't know how she escaped, but I am mortified she did. I know she was really looking forward to her piece in the book. Unfortunately I can't fix it now, but I would like to introduce her to you all here. Meet Vanessa, this is her story,

My name is Vanessa, and in an attempt to redefine myself, I stumbled across Patchwork Corner and went in for a look. £182 later, I came out and felt I had found my soul. Things have never been the same since. Six years on and Thursdays are still my favourite day of the week when I attend a class at the shop. There's always something new to learn.

I now know what the first correction is for the second edition, I just hope it isn't too long before I can do a second print run and get Vanessa back into the book. I am so sorry she missed out on this edition. I know every book goes out with an error but did it have to be this big? On with the show.

Link Frenzy

Thank you to everyone who has been sending in links to people talking about my quilts, it is much appreciated. I hadn't planned on sharing them until this one came in this morning,

• Quilt Photos On Flickr

I have to admit those are some great photos, especially the close ups of my quilting. Thank you so much for crediting me too. Then I got thinking, if I am going to publicise one why not all of them. Some give interesting alternative perspectives on the show. Bear in mind my perspective went something like, person - question - answer - person - question - answer. It was just so busy I don't think I had time to really take it all in. The first one on the list goes just to a blog as there are two posts that really seemed to capture the event for me.

• Another Dilettante
• The Ragged Man
• Geek Syndicate
• Margreeth
• Hobby Holidays
• Quilt Quine
• Lynda Hill
• Forbidden Planet
• Feather on a Wire
• Sfufen zum Gericht
• Margaret Cooter
  

If you come across any more that deserve a mention please do let me know. I like to see where my work wanders off to when I am not looking.

The holiday quilt is progressing well. I hope to have the center together later so I can show you it. Of course that does just tempt life to get in the way :)

FOQ - Gallery - Phoenix and nudes

Well that was nearly a unanimous decision, we will get to the Dragon too, but for tonight we will head towards "Phoenix Rising". This was the last of my pieces finished, or indeed started for the gallery. So what, one piece has to be right? Well this was the piece the whole gallery was designed for, and I only made it the week before the show. It felt right that this should be the last piece, it had to slot in and complete the show, yet for many people it will have been one of the first quilts they saw. As with many of my pictorial quilts this one was made directly on my quilting frame. I had to work the phoenix itself from the top down hoping that when I had the wings in place the body would fit. It did, although it is a little slimmer than it started. Each feather is individually cut from hand dyed cotton sateen from Fabric to dye for. I bought rather a lot of fabric to be sure I had the exact shadings I wanted. It worked very well. I had chosen to work entirely with cotton sateen for this quilt because I wanted it to glow, but I hadn't realised that the sateen would have an added bonus. It frays, not only that it does it in a way that really looks like feathers. Perfect.

As you can see this is a very heavily quilted piece. I really enjoyed working on it and it went surprisingly fast. I am now quite short of these thread colours. The background quilting looks very similar to my 'standard' background fill which I call 'decadent swirls' but if you look closely it isn't quite the same. On this quilt I wanted to suggest the air currents as the phoenix launches so I tried to spread out the curls into lines and eddies. You wouldn't spot it if you didn't look closely, but I know it is there and that pleases me.

Next to 'Phoenix Rising' is another early quilt. It is called 'Bicameral Pierrot'. It was named for having two clear sections and being in black and white. I love this quilt, and it has spent a lot of time on my studio wall. Unfortunately show judges really don't. I was so perplexed by this that I took a critiquing class just to get some more opinions on it. Sadly most of the people in that group couldn't see the problem either. The best guess was that this style has been done too many times. If that is the case, tough. I will be amazed if I don't make more bargello quilts, I like them however many have already been made in the past.

Turning to look behind us we can see a cluster of nudes (I wonder if there is an official collective noun for nudes?). Lets start with the best known of them, 'Nude with Rope'. This quilt has been to several show around the world, and I would love her to travel to more (she is one of my easier quilts to ship). She started appropriately enough at the Festival of Quilts 2007. Unfortunately she cause a stir by being hung next to a portrait of Jesus. It was one of the quirks of fate that really didn't go down well. Still she picked up a judges choice award, so it wasn't all bad. She then went to the Road to California and the World Quilt Show and was well received at both. I think this is the quilt that has sent most messages home, yes even more than the cows. For me the most interesting show was Sandown, where I used her as stand decoration while I was demonstrating a quilting frame. The number of people who remembered it from the FOQ was impressive in it's own right, but what really fascinated me was how they remembered her. Peoples brains had added a lot more detail to the quilt and it was such a strong memory they were struggling to believe their eyes. The human brain is a very impressive (and at time disturbing) piece of equipment. This is one of the few quilts I have made more than once. A purple version hangs over my bed, it was made for the Royal Acadamy Summer Exhibition, so is mounted on stretcher bars. It makes it very hard to transport, so I just have to have it on display at home.

This pair of quilts have been a long time in progress. The one on the right was made first, and was entirely unexpected. I came across a photograph on a friends blog and I just had to make a quilt of it. A few emails back and forth and I got permission from both the subject and the owner of the photograph, great. The really strange part is that I had been asking this friend to model for me for a while, but I don't think she believed me. I really loved the idea of having both mother and daughter, so I kept asking. After 'Mother' saw 'Daughter' she decided to go for it. She sent me several pictures and this one just lept out at me. It's a great picture and I felt it fit perfectly into pairing I was after. However by the time I got the image time was moving on and I only managed to finish the quilt just before the show. She knew it was done but didn't get to see it until her spies (friends) managed to get a picture and send it back to her. I hope she is pleased with it, and if you think you might like to model for me please do get in touch. I am always on the look out for more models. Those of you I already have pictures of, rest assured you are not forgotten and will become quilts as soon as time permits.

As this corner had a family feel I added this small portrait to the group. It is of a daughter for her mother. This time the subject knew and the mother in question didn't. Her whole family had kept it a secret from her for months. So long in fact they weren't sure I had actually done it. The mother, a friend of mine, kept trying to find out what I was making for her but I wanted her to find it hanging so the last thing I told her was that is was something she created. Yes I intended her to think I had made a copy of one of her quilts, but I think this was a better option.

Ahead of us now is another well known piece, my first and possibly my favourite nude, 'Nude Triptych'. This was the first piece I ever entered into the Festival of Quilts. Being me I didn't just enter I tried to get into the quilt of the year section. I didn't manage it but it did take second place in the pictorial category, which was very exciting. It was the first cash prize I won and I still have a photocopy of the cheque in my studio. The idea with this piece was to explore the effect of technique and colour on an image. The grey image is made from 1/4" squares. I wanted to get a pixalated feel to the image. It is one of my "seemed like a good idea at the time" quilts. 1/4" squares have a nasty habit of falling apart when you try to pick them up, and are very very light. If you breath near them they move, a lot. This one image took me a month to assemble simple because it required so much concentration and fiddling. I needed every piece to line up as perfectly as possible.

The red image was much simpler, and is the technique I teach in my 'Art Quilts by Numbers' class. I was looking for a texture like that of oil paintings. To achieve this I used triangular pieces of fabric. They tend to stick up a little at the points giving the textured finish I was looking for. I really love this technique and it has lead me in many other directions. The last part of the triptych is the blue image. This has been my technique of choice ever since for nudes, although writing this has me thinking that some of my other might look very good in the same style as the red nude. Anyway, the blue one presents the smoothest clearest image by using flat pieces of fabric. All are quilted with very fine cotton thread that matched the fabric it is on. This is also a common theme in my pictorial quilts, I try very hard to just blend the thread in, this isn't a place for the thread to steal the show.

The final quilt as we leave the gallery for the night is 'Heat'. Her biggest claim to fame, in my mind at least, is that she has my most three dimensional nipple. I was told this by a lady at my Dissenters Gallery show, and it does have to be said she is right. You do have to stand in exactly the right place then it just pops. I guess I just got the colouring right and the angle then completes the illusion. Sadly it doesn't seem to work in photographs so this one you will have to see in real life to get that effect. It is also one of my quilts with a good wholecloth on the back. I usually use a bobbin thread that matches the colour of the top thread, so if the backing contrasts you can get an amazing reverse side. Sorry I couldn't get a picture of it while it was fixed to the wall but I do show it in most of my talks, being small it's a good quilt to fly with.

Well that's it for tonight. Rather than go back past the archway tomorrow I suggest we walk around the outside of the gallery to go back in through entrance one. This will take us past all the wholecloth quilts, then we can work our way back to the other side of the gallery. I've included a plan of the gallery so you can see how it all fits together.

Finally you might like to take a look at these two links they give you a bit of background information on 'Mother' and 'Daughter'. Just how cool is she! If you haven't seen Quilters Home magazine you might want to check that out too, Mother featured in a makeover article in the last issue, she is such a good sport.

Holiday quilt

As you can see my holiday quilt is progressing. I am ready to make the blocks up now. As I want to make the quilt larger I will need to add fabric to the kit. I don't have any appropriate hand dyed fabrics but the very dark batik looks pretty good. Initially I thought about just adding borders but I think it will look more planned if I use the batik in the centers of the blocks too. It will make my version a bit darker and I suspect more extreme. I think those are assets, so time to cut the batik.

I spoke to a lot of ladies about the APQS machines at the show, don't forget to drop me an email and I will put you in touch with the UK rep.

FOQ - Gallery - Through the arch

So it appears we will start our tour through the central door of the gallery, the archway. I am sure Jan will be very flattered you picked his door first. Before we go in lets take a look at the quilts to either side of the door. To the Left we have 'In Full Bloom'. I made this quilt for the Celebrate Spring show in Chicago. I think that was my first go at a juried show and this quilt made it in. I was thrilled. The quilt came from spending far too much time at the National Gallery (is that really possible) and falling in love with the impressionist paintings. I hope at some point I will make more quilts in this style.

If you look closely (you can click any of the images to see a bigger version) you can see the whole quilt is made up of 1" squares. This is how I felt I could best represent the sometimes blocky brush strokes. In the detail picture you can see that the quilting is designed to fit the texture of the item being represented, right down to every blossom having a flower in it.

To the other side of the archwayy is 'Radiance'. This is one of the very few quilts I have on display in my house. I don't have much wall space but this fits nicely on one chimney breast. I really aught to get it unpacked and re-hung. It was on display here last year where it was awarded 'Highly Commended'. It is a whole cloth on plain cotton stitched in four shades of purple.
When I was planning the gallery this space was designed as the neutral area. The fulcrum that supported the rest of the gallery. It gives you a great framed view of 'Herd Mentality' on the center of the back wall. This quilt seems to have a fan base all of it's own, and many of them have followed it around America and back home. This is a good point to thank all the ladies at the international quilt festival for getting this back to me so quickly after their last show. I would have been in trouble if it hadn't made it back.

As we go through the arch my sample book quilt is hanging on the right. I had always intended this to end up as the cover quilt, but I was advised against using it. I trust the people who I ask for advice, so it had to make do with just being in the book. One of the perks of having my own gallery was being able to handle the quilts when I needed to and to allow others to do the same. A pair of ladies bought the book on Thursday, went away and read it then came back with a question on Sunday. They were worried the seams would be overly bulky, after feeling this sample they were satisfied there isn't a problem. It was a great feeling. The quilt is inspired but the black and silver fabric. I had decided I would make a sample up in only three fabrics to show it could be done and then this fabric came up and I fell in love. It is a lovely fabric and I like it as the background to this quilt. I had intended to bind the quilt with plain black the same as the outer borders, but I ran out of fabric. So I was forced to use the black and silver again. What a lucky accident it looks much better than black would have done.

The quilt opposite is Tet's first quilt, and you can see him with it here. He was proofreading the book and decided the only way to do it properly was to make the quilt, and on his own. I was banished from my sewing room, my machine commandeered, and my stash raided. I can't complain he turned out a great quilt. It also has a much more exciting back than most of them, even though all of the book quilts are reversible.
If you are lucky enough to catch us at a talk you might be able to get him to sign his quilt in the book too.

Next to Tet's quilt is a very important little quilt. It is a portrait of one of my six cats, this one if called 'Skadi'. She is significant for two reasons. Firstly she was my first award winning quilt. Not only that she won a prize in the first show I entered and she was judged by an artist who makes a lot of stitched animals, and she gave me tips on how to improve my work. It's a very special award. She is also the quilt that started all my pictorial quilts. I made her as part of a Quilt University class with Marilyn Belford. She wasn't initially keen on me doing an animal, the class was for human portraits, but she let me take the class. The skills I learned there have allowed me to make all my other art quilts. I may have evolvesdmy own ways of doing things, but I don't think it would have happened if she hadn't let me do my own thing. This quilt is always one that draws people in, she does look amazingly furry, and it is hard to resist stroking her. The border also fascinates people. Yes it is a printed fabric. Yes I did buy a lot of it, it's fabulous.

Finally in this section we have 'See Sound' it's another one of my older quilts. It's come home this weekend as it was designed specifically to be hung at the Festival of Quilts. It was when I was walking around the Festival one year when it struck me that quilt were missing out at shows. Part of the appeal of a quilt is it's tactile quality, in shows it isn't able to share that. I knew I wanted to give a quilt a new dimension. It had to be something that didn't involve the quilt being touched, and I decided that sound would be a simple thing to use. After all quilters stand in front of quilts and talk. I also wanted to see if I could make a quilt that would talk to more of the men who come to the show. Of the UK shows the Festival is the one with the most men at it. I admire them coming to support their partners, but I've also noticed how wilted they look after a few hours. This quilt worked very well for that too. I saw several men walk around it and then start explaining the circuit to their wives, who then wilted. It was fantastic to watch. The quilt is actually double sided, the back have solder spots and the tracks of the board.

Well that's your lot for today, the new poll is do we turn left or right. Left will take us towards the Phoenix and right would be towards the Dragon. Let me know by voting in the poll to the right of this post. Continue the tour.

Quilter on holiday

It's sad, I know. My idea of a break from work looks a lot like work, but it doesn't feel like it. I noticed this on the day we hung the show. We had had 1 hours sleep and there was a quilt that needed binding before it could be hung. I set my machine up in the middle of the building site which was my stand and started sewing. As soon as the stiches were forming I felt better. Daft, the thing that caused the sttress could also cure it.

On Sunday I found the Starr Designs stand. It was the first chance I had had to look around the show. I had seen her fabrics before but only online, they are more stunning in the flesh. I passed on this pattern because it was too small for my bed but I bought a lot of other fabrics. Then I got chatting near the stand and all I could see was this quilt. Well I had to have it and now it is my holiday project. As you can see it is progressing well. I hope to have some Aurifil threads to quilt it with too by the time I have the top made. It is as it says a quick and easy pattern, just what I need.

Don't forget to vote for the next section of the gallery tour, I will put that up before bed tonight.

FOQ - Gallery

I can't believe how many pictures I have that I want to share with you guys. I am planning a gallery tour like the one I did for the Dissenters Gallery show, but this one is so big I will have to split it over several days. Today I thought we could start with a walk around the outside of the gallery. I was very lucky to not only be given a huge space but also a very central location. My gallery had a shared back wall and three sides that opened onto aisles. The gallery behind and to the left of me was occupied by Denys Short. He was showing a wonderful collection of his paintings inspired by quilts. I couldn't believe how much he had managed to fit in, and it looked great. Walking from his stand you come to the first opening into my space. On each side of this entrance I have a black wholecloth. To the left you can see 'Guide Me', and to the right 'Winter star'. Don't worry we will be back for a closer look later.

As we get to the corner of my stand you can get the first look at my archway. I had planned to quilt an arch to go in this position but it was one of the things I just didn't have time to do. I had come to terms with it when I was talking to Jan (the very helpful man who built my stand) and he mentioned he could make things like arches but no one ever asked. Well that was the wrong comment, I asked, and boy did he deliver. I loved it and it did make my stand very easy to spot.

On our walk to the corner we come past 'Flying Feathers', this white wholecloth was in competition her last year and won the longarm quilting award. You can also see the small nude Heat, framing the second entrance to the gallery. As we carry on around to the front of the gallery you can see in to my longarm. I spent a lot of time during the show showing people how I quilt. They were very surprised to find there is no computer on my machine I just make it up as I go along. Mostly it works out. Above the machine is 'Herd Mentality'. I am so grateful to team from the Houston quilt show, they got it back to me in time to hang here. To the left of the central opening is 'In Full Bloom' and to the right you can see 'Radiance'.

Moving on we come to the fourth entrance to the gallery. Excuse the tripod, it was desperate to get into at least one photo. Through this entrance you can see 'Brief Moment of Clarity' to your left. On the right are two of the pieces I have been keeping as a surprise, but more on them later. To the far left of the picture you can just the 'Nude Triptych', I was amazed by how fondly this was remembered and by how many people. I never imagined that my work would stick in peoples heads for so long and I am so thrilled when it does. It was also wonderful to hear from people who had seen my quilts all over the world. It's like getting postcards from the quilts.

Finally the fifth entrance, this one is exactly opposite the first. The black quilt on the left should be familiar to regular readers, it is 'Joker' I posted a lot of in progress photos of it. This was because I wanted it's new owners to feel that had seen it grow, and I think it worked. The pink quilt is one of two in the gallery that I didn't make. It was made by a student in one of my regular classes and is her first ever quilt. I had wanted to hang the quilt that is on the front cover of my book, but I didn't have enough long walls. Who would have thought in a gallery this size I was still short of large spaces? This quilt can be seen on the back cover of the book. Looking through the gallery you can see 'Bicameral Pierot'.This is one of the few quilts I hadn't planned on having in the show. It is hanging in the spot of a quilt I found I didn't need to make when the time came. I love this quilt, even though it was very unpopular with show judges and it was great to see it hanging again. I have to find it a space in the house. Next to it you can just see a glimpse of 'Phoenix Rising'. To see more if it come back and follow the rest of this tour. I will set up a poll so people can choose which door we start our trip with. The gallery tells a different story depending on where you start and when I set it up I decided I was happy to let people discover it in their own way. So vote now for where we will go tomorrow.

Home - FOQ survivor

Sorry I didn't manage to post more from the Festival. I was just so busy I didn't get time. It's very different when you are there manning a gallery. I have been told by several people that not only did I have the biggest gallery but also the busiest, which is great news. I was so busy on Thursday I didn't notice! I know that sounds weird, but I would talk to someone, then the next some one, then the next..... and then it was 4pm. I have no idea where the time went but it did. I have woken up today with very little voice, I guess a combination of talking solidly for 4 days and not getting much time to drink anything takes it's toll. I am just glad it waited until today.

I think the show went very well, I've certainly been told it did. My new work seems to have been well received which makes the very long nights well worthwhile. People were chocked at how quickly I had made some of the pieces, but what can you do. If you need them for a certain date you have to settle down and get them done. I will put pictures up later today, the camera is being uploaded. We had a brief panic when it looked like the card was corrupt, but it;s working again now.

I think the high point of the weekend for me was the people. I had kept walking in the opposite direction to Jenny Bowker and not having time to talk. I was pretty sure she must have thought I was either very rude or just not interested in her work (really not the case). I got lucky Saturday night and found her in the bar of my hotel, obviously waiting to meet some one. So I took all my courage and went and invaded her table. I am so glad I did, what a fun lady. We got talking to her about all kinds of things, including graphic novels. I will have to add her to any fantasy dinner guests list. Did we ever come to a conclusion on whether boiling sugar will void the warranty? She did introduce me to Hendrics gin, with tonic and cucumber. I was already a fan of Hendrics and the cucumber was a great addition.

The show also gave me a chance to catch up with Rosemary from the traditional quilts branch of the quilters guild. Strangely, well actually she claims not at all strange, we get along rather well and have very similar views on quilts. I had assumed I would have most in common with the contemporary quilters, but apparently not. I seem to think like a traditional quilter. Rosemary took on the challenge of teaching me to hand quilt. Not only did she take it on but she succeeded! Apparently my biggest problem was chairs, closely followed by the wrong thimble. I had accepted that I may need a thimble for hand quilting, much as I dislike them but I had only considered my top hand. It turns out what I need is one for the under hand, and it needs a crown. Yes this might mean some stories you've heard about me are true :) I also like working in a hoop, just a hand held one. I had been looking at some on stands, but I think they will encourage me to bend in the wrong way, which hurts my shoulder and stops me quilting, so I will give a plain one a try.

I think that will have to do for now. I am going to dig out my purchases (mostly hand dyed fabric) and have a play. I did buy two kits and I think they might make a fun holiday. Sorry folks but I think I deserve and day or two off.

Oh no, one more thing. I had people who bought my book on the Thursday coming back later in the weekend to tell me they had already read it! How cool is that? Not cool enough? Well they all liked it and the only questions I got would have been answered if they had been working through it. The best comment I got was that it read like I was talking directly the reader and that I sounded just like me. That was amazing as it is what I had been trying to achieve, but I had no idea if I had managed it. I guess I did.

Festival of Quilts - day 1

These are probably not the greatest photos but at least it will give you a taster of how my gallery looks. It's a fantastic space, I can't believe how much work the show team put in for me. Today was madly busy, which is great if very tiring, I suspect I won't have much voice left by the end of it. I will try and get some better pictures in the morning. Night night.

Things I don't need right now.

The long hours have been taking their toll, but I was actually feeling pretty positive until about 2 hours ago. This probably won't make sense to anyone who doesn't have animals, but consider to us they are family, much like children. One of my cats came home wearing a collar. The problem is she didn't leave wearing one. So someone has caught her and put it on. Not good. I am not pleased that she let someone else get that close, we try to train them not to go up to strangers, but it's hard explaining that to humans and pretty much impossible with cats. So I know someone has an interest in one of my cats and I am supposed to go away for five days. We took their collar off and put on one with my phone number on it. I hope that once they know she has a home they will leave her alone, but who knows. I can't just leave her to a cat sitter, if nothing else I wouldn't want anyone else to feel responsible if she goes missing. So it looks like Tet will have to cat sit instead of coming and helping me at the show :( It's not what we had in mind, and I really didn't need the extra stress. Besides even with him here I know I am going to worry. Not the way to be at my best for a show, and not an encouragement to finish the quilts.

Any suggestions on what else I can do to look after her? Our cats have always had freedom to come and go as they please. If we try shutting them in the break out (we've tried it before) and they refuse to use a litter tray if they are shut in. Fine if it is optional but not if they have to. Also if we tried to shut them in securely it would make it very hard for the cat sitter to get in the house without them escaping.

On the bright side I can't see me getting much sleep tonight so I should get a lot of sewing done.

Oh my!

I just made my check list. There are 13 quilts in need of binding and sleeve. Eeeeek. I guess that means there are more than that many new quilts for the show which I think is great, but boy tha't a lot of binding. No they aren't all small, they are proper Ferret sized quilts.

They're here and they are ready to go.

This afternoon I took delivery of a metric tonne of books, literally. The lorry driver didn't think his lorry would fit down our road (we disagree) but he did drag the pallet up to our gate on a trolley so it wasn't too bad. The books don't take up as much space as we had feared and are pretty neatly stacked in the hall. I am however hoping that I can sell a good percentage of them at the Festival of Quilts next week and clear some space again. I have spent most of the time since then packing books up to go out to all the people who have pre-ordered. There was a mad rush to get as many to the post office as possible. I think about 60 went out in the first posting although some missed the last collection from the post office as printing the postage seemed to take forever. It took so long that the car park closed locking my car in, so we had to walk home. Of course that means the car will need collecting tomorrow morning too. I will take a picture of a finished book for you tomorrow, but I am now exhausted I feel like I have been lugging book about all day. Oh yes I have.

All of my quilts for the show are now at the binding and sleeve stage. The weekend will be spent working on that. It isn't my favourite job, but the machine bindings aren't too bad. I do have at least three quilts that need hand sewn bindings, they will be more of a problem. Still at least the end is in sight. I think this is the time to make a list on a white board so I can rub them off as I complete them.

Changes on the web

Some house keeping and improvements have been under way at my main web site www.ferfab.co.uk. There is now a map up of the location of my gallery at the Festival of Quilts. You can also now buy my book directly using paypal. The pre-order price will be available until the 18th of August, book should be with me on the 13th and I will try and get them out on the 14th. There I've said it, now I have to at least attempt it :)

On the quilting side I think I am finally getting tired. I've definitely slowed down and I have to take more breaks. Still the quilt is looking good, I an really enjoying working on it and I think it will do exactly what I want at the show. In between adding jobs to my to do list I am starting to get excited. I have huge respect for those who organize these events. I only have to get one stand together. One not terribly complex stand and there seems to be a never ending list of things that have to be done. How big must the Twisted Threads to do list be? If you check out their website you can sill buy tickets for the show and the social events. There are also meet and greet sessions that are only available to people who book for evening events.

If you are coming please do pop by to say hello.

Moving forward

The last quilt for my gallery is now well under way. It reminds me a lot of 'Golden Storm' my leafy quilt. This quilt has been fully planned for a long time now. The fabrics were just waiting to go by my machine along with the wadding. I just had to load up and get started. As with 'Golden Storm' this quilt is progressing very quickly. I think than when they have been fully formed in my head for so long I can just follow the script I have rehearsed which speeds things up. There is very little need for planning once I start work. Again I thought I had bought far more fabric than I needed, and again it's going to be tight. I have most of the largest pieces cut now and I will do the rest first thing tomorrow. I can fit smaller pieces into the offcuts as I am having to do a lot of fussy cutting and so cannot use the fabric as efficiently as I would like.

'Herd Mentality' arrived home today. It was perfectly packed and looks to have weathered it's tour of America very well. It's a relief to have it back in my hands as it is one of the centre pieces of my NEC display. Of course I still have a small mountain of binding and hanging sleeves to tackle but I'm feeling quite positive about having everything ready, and maybe even getting one of my optional quilts done. It's been very hard cutting down the quilts I want to make to a manageable number that would work well together.

Post post and yet more post

I think I am trying to wear out the postal system. I've had three deliveries this morning (one was Parcel Force). My response to all this post? Post something :) One of the deliveries was the envelopes for shipping my books out and I want to do a test posting before I use them. So I am posting a book back to me to see how it does. I suspect I need to add a little packaging to it, but who knows. I am certain that for international postage I will add tape to the corners, but it would be nice if it can survive inland mail as is. Paranoid? Me? Yes. I want my books to arrive with their owners in good condition and I'd rather test first than find out from a complaint that there is a problem. Now I guess I just have to wait.....

Also in the post was my Spooktacular jelly rolls and fat quarter pack. I've already got two patterns designed that I will use them for. I love the Halloween fabrics but most of them never make it to the UK. Fortunately I spotted these before they sold out. Although I have just realised I now need yardage of one of them to make a border. Maybe two of them so I have a border for each quilt. Oh well.

Too much time to think

I spent far too much time on the computer yesterday. I wasn't feeling well and doing really fiddly cutting out didn't seem like a great plan. It did mean I finally found some strong envelopes that my book will fit in and that will fit the large letter size for posting. Sounds trivial, but I assure you it isn't. For the first time I found a live chat on a web site that actually worked too. They got the sale as they could answer my questions there and then (Saturday evening).

I got a lovely letter from a lady who reads British Patchwork and Quilting. In the mad rush to tall you about the quilts I've been working on I failed to mention the article they published about me in the latest issue. Very bad of me as it is a lovely article.

I've also been giving some thought to future books. I think the quilt that I had intended as my first book has just been demoted again. I think it is now looking at fourth place at best. Not only have I had several enquiries about a book on how I make my art quilts but two of my students now want me to teach the technique as well. If I've got to write the lessons I might as well write the book. My first thought was that there wouldn't be enough information to make a good book, it's not hard there aren't many steps..... well when you start trying to write them down they look a lot longer than when you are doing it. I guess it is like anything you get familiar with, you don't notice all the steps things just happen.

I also got thinking about a couple of extra things I would like to add to the first book, but it's too late to do that now. So I am planning to write up a couple of extra tutorials for people who buy the book which they can access from my web site. You will also be able to download PDF's of any pages you need to photocopy so you can just print them out. I guess I can't be the only person who wants to work on things in the middle of the night and doesn't own a photocopier.

In short being ill makes work. I'd avoid it if I were you :)