A talk and a quilt

Well I survived. I didn't even get pelted with rotten vegetables (well quilters cook them before they go off so I wouldn't would I). In fact I think the talk went well. People seemed to enjoy it, and the audience was very interactive. I think I will have to encourage heckling as I like having the direct feedback. It turns out that I can indeed talk for about five minutes on any of my quilts, and with the help of a clock on the far wall I managed my 1 hour talk. It is somewhat disconcerting having the crowd rush the stage to come and look at quilts. I had never thought how it must be for a speaker, I will in future. I also know why speakers seem rather disoriented when you try to catch them after a talk, they are. The crowd just adds to it as well. Weird. I think a quite positive experience though, and after the fretting I rather enjoyed it. Several people said they thought I should do more speaking and I will take them at their word. Strangely it looks like my next talk with be to a lot of the same people in April, so I will have to work hard to have a lot of new work to show them.

We did manage to finish the wedding quilt last night, and as it has now been delivered I can show you some pictures of it. It has been named 'Grace under Fire'. I wanted a title that covered the elegance of the cranes it is quilted with and the somewhat military looking colours used. Believe it or not most of the blues are quite grey and dull looking on their own, and the other colour a kind of tan, but together they are so different. I think it is really quite vibrant. I hope it isn't too bright now. The new owners seemed very pleased with it, and they are people who make things too, so have some understanding of the time and effort that goes into something like this. It was quite a hit with the other guests at the dinner too which is a very nice bonus.

As you can see we went for a quite subdued backing, it is actually a very dark blue with white vines on it. The binding uses the same fabric as the centers of the log cabins, and I think adds a lift to the quilt. The rest is scrappy. We picked colours that were roughly the same colour, cut the strips and just grabbed them at random. We both particularly like this method for making quilts, it adds more depth to the colours that one fabric could possibly supply. As ever in the sake of speed, a Ricky Timms binding. I love this method, and I seem to be getting better at it at last.

Robin is very proud of this quilt as he did all the piecing while I did the cutting and pressing for him. He hasn't been quilting long but his points are great, and this is just a utility quilt! It is intended to be used, and as such there are errors in the quilting that we chose to leave. For a customer or a show they would have come out, for a working quilt I think they add character and I am sure it will be kept well away from quilt police. Ops, I just realised I forgot to warn them that after washing it will look different, oh well too late tonight I will have to try and remember tomorrow.