Prague - more pictures part 1

I've finally had a chance to start sorting through our holiday photos. There are about 1000 so it's quite a large task. Obviously a good amount are rubbish, out of focus, camera shake and the wrong exposure. I think I even have one of the inside of my coat (I was trying to keep the camera warm) but there are a lot of good ones too and I can't put them all on here.

So to keep things as simple as possible I've started at the beginning. Todays pictures were all take by Tet, I didn't take my camera out at the airport in case it scared the security people and when we arrived I wanted to just wander and look. I love taking pictures but you d see less that way.

The first picture shows the departure board from Heathrow. We were supposed to be on the 8.50 flight to Frankfurt, as you can see that was cancelled. No problem they automatically booked us onto the 9.50 flight instead. See the problem? The fight should have left but we hadn't got a gate yet. It was about an hour late leaving in the end. They had to clear the runway, de-ice the aircraft and in some cases wait for the same process to be done elsewhere and the aircraft to arrive at Heathrow.

When we arrived in Prague it was about 7pm, we went straight to our room, dropped our bags and headed into town for dinner. I suspected this was going to be the only time we saw the city without snow so I was quite happy for us to stop and get pictures. The second picture shows the view of the water front looking north from Charles Bridge. Then if you turn to look back the way we had come you can see the castle and cathedral up on the hill. It's a shame it is so hard to get really good night time shots as Prague is beautifully lit. I think these do a reasonable job of conveying the idea.

Next we have one of my favourite towers in Prague. The tower at the end of the Charles bridge. It's lovely from the outside and even better on the inside. I'll show you more of that in future posts. I joke that the city must have got a great deal on Gothic architecture. They don;t just have a few buildings in that style, it's everywhere and done well. You don't see just a hint of Gothic, you get all of it all the time and I just love it. The city also seems to have had large ornate doors thrown in free with each Gothic detail. They appear everywhere.

Once you cross the bridge you are in an area of town that provides most of the resources for tourists. Tacky souvenir shop and many restaurants. Since I had last visited there have been a lot more American franchises move in as well as more exotic cuisine. We didn't brave this particular establishment but felt we needed to share the menu.

Apparently Czech natives haven't been interested in foreign food, preferring their own traditional dishes (I can't say I blame them their food is great) but are just starting to get interested in other cuisine. Chinese food has been particularly popular. I found it quite a strange concept that many people there have still not tried non traditional food. It appeals to me that they have been able to keep their traditions this long and I do hope that their new interests won't detract from their own food.

Now for two pictures where our collective memory is failing us. The first is just a lovely window that was on a building in a side street. Remember I said they seem to have a job lot on Gothic? Well this is a perfect example. Actually the city have changed and evolved over the years, and there are parts of buildings that have become detached from their companions. I suspect there is also some war damage but there is surprisingly little and none of the tourist information seems to mention it.

The door is from one of the churches. There are many many churches in Prague. I found it very hard to keep track of which was which. To me there seemed to always be at least two that were very similar. Like some massive game of pairs. Believe it or not this door isn't particularly large, impressive or ornate which does add to the problem of trying to remember which church it is part of.

Finally for tonight we have the other tower I really love in Prague, the Powder tower. It is no coincidence that it looks a lot like the Charles Bridge tower. It was intended to complement, but like many buildings, it lost it's purpose and it's companion. Rather than being attached to an impressive castle and used by the ruler, it was used to store explosives and was very nearly not completed at all.

I hope you have enjoyed this instalment of Prague pictures. I will keep sorting through them but I am sure you will understand it may take a while. I have a lot of quilting I need to be getting on with. I made good progress today on a block of the month quilt. I'm having fun as the owner has given me free reign to do what ever I think will look good, and it is very nice to be able to see quick progress. Half a quilt in a day whatever next?

Made my day

I spotted this blog on the net today. I love her wholecloth quilt, and I really wish I had thought of a feathered snowflake it works really well. What really made my day though was that she was inspired by Winter Star, and went off and actually made something. That is just so cool. Kinda like the quilt just had a child. I'll just grin like an idiot now if it's all the same.

Panoramic Prague

I haven't had time to sort through all of the photos, but I've been playing around with Hugin and have created some panoramic images from my recent trip to Prague. You will need to click on each picture to see the full image.

This is the view from the bell tower of the Church of St. Nicholas in Malá Strana, looking out towards the old town and Charles Bridge:



This is the view from the same tower looking in the opposite direction, back towards Petřín hill:



This one is the view from Charles Bridge, looking north:


Here's one of the bridge itself, from the riverside:



This is another view of Petřín hill, this time take from the castle:



Finally, here's one looking over the Vltava towards Josefov, the Jewish quarter, taken from the Prague metronome.

It 's quilted!

Well it's finally off the frame, which is a relief. I can't believe how much I have learned from this piece. I am pretty happy with how it came out especially as it was intended as a proof of concept. I am happy the the other designs I have planned will work and that they do need to be on this scale. Hmm, that's going to take a while, but I am looking forward to doing them. I won't be starting until the zippers are on though. The quilt has also gained a name, "Greek Fossils". It seems a good enough name (and the quilt hasn't argued) so that's going to stay. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to working on something where you can see your progress as you go along and on a minute by minute scale.I don;t know how many hours went into this, and frankly, I don't want to.

I've just realised the larger picture doesn;t show much detail, the in progress posts do. Try this one, or this one.

Souvenirs from Prague

Mostly I brought toiletries back from Prague. I (and more importantly my skin) love the ranges made by Manufaktura, so rather than take any with us, I bought lots and brought it home. For me that is perfect and I will be reminded of Prague every time I use them. When I run out it will obviously be time to go back again.

I thought I would also be a little more traditional and bought a couple of their gingerbread shapes. I suspect they won't last much longer unless they turn out not to taste good. I thin that is unlikely given how much I live the food there.

My other purchase is one I had been hoping for but not really expecting. Last time I was there I found an artist on Charles Bridge (there are many there whatever the weather) who I really liked. I considered buying one of his pieces but never quite made a decision. Then I regretted missing out for two years. So this time when I saw him again I knew I would be buying one of his paintings. I still nearly missed out as we didn't go across the bridge as often as I expected and I decided not to buy the morning of the first day. Each time after that it was too late and the artists had gone. It was the last day when I caught him and Tet chose this painting. I wasn't too worried I would have taken any and all of them. The colours haven't come out too well in the picture, it is actually cool blues tending to grey. I love the way he paints the buildings and nearly all his pictures contain cats. It's also good that the vendors on the bridge have a photo id to show they are the stall holder and prove they are the artist. I can't quite read his signature, so I can't tell you his name right now, but if you do go to Prague keep an eye open for his work on the bridge. He is lovely and packs the work beautifully so you can get it home safely.

It's interesting what you miss

Well I think it is. I knew I would miss my cats what I was in Prague, that was obvious but I didn't realise some of the other things that were going to be important. I was surprised that I didn't miss quilting. The couple of days off over Christmas had been very odd, but this trip wasn't. I wonder if that is because the whole city is very inspiring to me, so I was thinking more about quilting than usual (yes that is possible) maybe that hits the same spot? I did miss my shoes a lot, I hadn't even considered that as a possibility. I've got used to having my feet comfortable, light and free. Suddenly they are trapped in very heavy (relatively) boots. Not nice. They still haven't forgiven me. Next time I will figure out a way I can wear my Five fingers. I also missed Chinese food. That one really did surprise me. I've had no virtually no caffeine for six days and all I crave is Chinese food. Go figure.

I also discovered in Prague how much I enjoy reading fiction and how much I miss it. I think I am going to have to give some careful thought to when I can find time to read. I love books but for the last few years I have only read text books. I want to read more fiction. I've also learned a lot more about art, what I like and why it works. I guess Prague inspires a lot of people. It seems to be full of artists. Certainly I feel I could work a lifetime and not make everything it suggests to me. I hope i will be able to find time to make a good dent in my ideas, a couple I had on my last trip are now very keen for me to work on them and I have many many more ideas. Some will get combined into I hope much better ideas (and will kill two birds with one stone). Yes you learn a lot from traveling.

The snow finally won

I've been able to make every other class whatever the weather btu when I looked out ans saw this today I thought I might finally be beaten. That's not much snow, and I know I could get to the main roads, but i also know it thawed a lot yesterday then refroze. When I called the shop my concerns were confirmed. The steep hill next to the shop is an ice rink. I could get to within 100 yards of the shop but not park or get into the workshop. So instead I will get an extra day to quilt. It's the right thing to do to cancel the shop, at least two students had made the same decision, but it's not good for the shop. Losing a days trading is bad for any business and more so for small ones. If you're stuck at home today how about a little retail therapy?

I didn't manage to get stranded in Munich last night, or indeed anywhere in London, although that was a closer call. The trip out took 12 hours almost exactly, the trip home a little under 11 hours. Unfortunately on the way home we didn't stop long enough anywhere to get any food so when I finally got home my main through was dinner not blogging. Sorry. At some point I think I will have to start a league table for good airports to visit. Prague will get points for the bidet in the toilet cubicles, even though I don't think there will be that much call for them (what do I know maybe I'm just odd)

The first two pictures in this post are of Prague cathedral. It's a truly amazing building. It is very hard to get good photographs of as it's huge and in the middle of the place. I think maybe on my next trip I might take more camera equipment with me and spend a couple of days at the castle/palace. You have to buy a licence to take pictures inside the castle itself, but as soon as I stepped inside I knew I should have done. Ho hum, there will be a nest time and I had already taken more than 600 photographs. I don't think I was really deprived. However if you do ever get the chance do go and look around the cathedral. It is one of the few tourist sites with free entry (not that the others could be called expensive at 3-4 pounds per location). It will knock your socks off. I packed my camera with the interior of this building and the views from the towers in mind so I only had a very long lens. Fortunately Tet had a much wider angle on his camera, so I will look at both of our sets of photos before posting a proper selection here.

This is the view of the town from the hill the castle stands on. You can see Tyn church, in the center of town and the TV tower right on the horizon. In the middle of the picture is the church who's tower we climbed on Sunday. We went up the narrow tower that is just behind the dome in this picture. It's not a great picture, it was taken on my phone at it's lowest quality to make the upload cheaper, but I think the dark stripe across the middle would be approximately where the river runs.

I finally remembered to take a picture of a pretty typical Czech restaurant. I love the fact that all the best food seems to be underground. There are place to dine with a view (6th floor of the U Prince is on my agenda for next time) but on the whole underground is the right answer. The food seems to be both better and cheaper. I rather like the rustic decor too.

Today I have been trying to get on top of my work again. It was a shock how much email had come in while we were away and how much was bookings or orders. At past 1am it seemed rather daunting. This morning it sunk in just how cool that was. So I have spent the day packing, posting and phoning. I have also managed a small amount of quilting. I had hoped to finished the white area on the quilt on the frame before we went but didn't quite get there. It's done now and I am motoring on the outer clack space. I am so desperate to get it done now and get on with other things. Fortunately in the huge stack of post waiting for me were my zippers for the frame, so when I start the next one I will be able to take it on and off the frame as required. I wondered why people needed zippers, I get it now.

Munich

So good news, our connection is delayed. However it's snowing signigficantly so who knows if we will actually take off. The last flight was fun though on a small prop plane. It looks like a nice airport so lets see if I get to investigate it some more.

Not stranded.....yet.

All European flights are delayed, except those from London as far as I can see. So we will be late getting into Munich, which makes our short connection really tight. The staff here say we might make it. If we are lucky we will have 15 minues from one flight landing to the next closing. So place your bets are we about to spend the night in Munich?

Out and about in Prague

I am hoping that you guys can see two images on yesterdays post. For me one has a broken thumbnail but if I click on it is comes up with a picture of the bath in our apartment. I have no idea why it isn't working properly for me.

Today I have deliberately posted a difficult image you will need to look at it sideways because no matter what I say to my phone it always posts pictures the way round I took them. It's a quirk, sorry. The picture is of the Powder tower at night. After lunch we climbed to the top of it (mostly because you can) and found it does indeed have a good view. The tower itself was looking particularly beautiful as the snow was neatly highlighting the ornate stonework. When we came back past it in the dark I just had to stop for more pictures.

The other picture shows the astronomical clock and Tyn church. This is probably the busiest tourist area and consequently not my favourite place. It's just too busy also the astronomical clock tower is the least impressive of Pragues towers in my opinion. It does have a fantastic lift though, I will try and popst a photo of that when I get back.

Today we decided to go to the transport and science museums. These are at the top of another hill (did I mention we're tired now and about ready to come home :). We noticed on the map that we could take a tram part way then walk through a park via a metronome. Cool. Frozen actually. The hill (park) was much steeper than we anticipated and accessed by stairs which unfortunately were the only ones in Prague that hadn't been cleared. It was a mamoth trek especially as all the stairs are polished marble and very slipery if you don't stay in the deepest snow. Still we made it and found some amazing views.

Unfortunately the science museum was closed for referbishment and the guide book had had another translation error. It wasn't a transport museum but an agriculture museum. The chap in the tractor hall carefully explained this wasn't the science museum, I guess they get a lot of lost tourists and was obviously thrilled that we wanted to look at his tractors. It was a very good collection of weird tractors and I got to sit on one. My those seats are hard and bouncy.

The whole museum was just three halls but for me the tractors, the giant metronome and the views were well worth the hike.

For lunch e managed to find the first bad restaurant in Prague. I guess there had to be one. This one had poor food (overpriced too) very nasty hot wine, minute apple juice and rude service. All in all I would suggest avoiding the Marie Teresie.

On the way up the hill I had realised we hadn't been to look at the bridges from the bank of the river so we made a quick dash across town to do that, and found the artist I had been looking for on the Charles bridge. This time I bought a picture instead of waiting to think about it. I have regretted not buying a piece of his work since my last trip two years ago, Now I have one.

On the way back to the hotel we found another tower to climb, it really is the thing to do in Prague. This one was a lot less popular, which is a shame as the views are lovely and all the more so for being dusk. The tower is called the old Jesuit Bell Tower and is attached to the Churh of Saint Nicholas. Obviously it has a proper Czech name but I can't easily type that. I have been wanting to be up a tower in the dark so this was perfect. It also has lots of information on bells, and a small watchmans apartment to look around. On the way up you go through the bellfry which was nice as you get to see bells and slightly concerning as I wasn't certain they wouldn't ring them. On the way down I looked more closely and I am fairly sure there aren't ropes attached to the bells so I guess they don't deafen the tourists.

Prague hotel

Technically it isn't a hotel, it's an apartment, but they call it a hotel. When we first arrived I stepped through the door and imediately stepped back. I wasn't expectina a glass floor over a bath. I've got used to it and it's great. I suspect I am one of the few without a jacuzzi bnath so for me this is a real novelty. You will have to excuse the mess we had just got in and dummped all our stuff.

This morning we have been climbing towers. The Charles bridge and the astronomical clock tower. For me the Charles Bridge tower is the best. I would love to live in it. It is amazingly solid and had a square spiral staircase. It's roof is the place to be in the snow.

We are now having lunch and coctails at U Prince. It is a hotel near the astrnomical clock and does great cocktails.

Prague - day 1

As you can see we got our snow. It's been snowing all day, quite lightly but consistantly. As heavy snow was forecast we started by going up Petrin hill in the funicular railway. I grew up near one and loved going on it as a child, nothing's changed I still love them. I am also a huge fan of the public transport system here. It's cheap, simple and efficient. Once at the top of the hill we headed on up. Up to the top of the Petrin tower. 229 steps on the outside of a tower in the snow. It was well worth it, the view is great even in the snow.

On the way down we decided to walk halfway down the hill. This took us past the magical cave. Yeah right. Tourist trap, bound to be. As we went past a lady popped out to entice us in. She managed it with the promise of hot wine (yes I drink wine here it's good). The magical cave is a gallery cre artist has created. He has redesigned the building, to show case his work. It's fantastic. I want to be as good as him making things glow. It was magical.

Lunch was at 'The Old Prague Restaurant'. It was obviously a popular place with natives and less so with tourists, which I take as a very good omen. It was. We each had soup and will insist ours was better. Both soiund vegetarian, Tet had potatoe and I had garlic, I am quite sure both were meaty. Mine certainly comtained pork as well as croutons and potatoes and cloves of garlic. They were wonderful, although you can be glad you aren' sitting next to me :)

This afternoon we have shopped. If you want cold weather gear go to a cold country. Works wonders. I had intended to shop for cat treats to (I hope they haven't eaten the cat sitter yet) but I think it will have to wait for annother day. Gotta go they are trying to close here and I want to post before I lose net access.

We made it.

It is pathetic how little snow stops the UK, and when we arrived at Heathrow our flight had been canceled. Geman efficiency was dealing with the problem and we were already booked on the next flight an hour later. When we tried to check in they[spotted we had a connecting flight that had to be changed too. That was mor of a problem, it had to move four hours. They were very appologetic and sent us off with a voucher for lunch. The delay being only an hour didn't require it but they felt they had a resposiblity to make things right for the knock on effect. It was a very good breakfast and much appreciated.

As it turned out we were delayed almost 2 hours and arrived in Fraknfurt much later than expected, so our connection was only a 2 hour wait. I can't recommend Frankfurt airport. It's lovely and the food looks to be excelent, but the prices are insane. Yes even relative to other airports or London.

We eventually arrived in Prague over 12 hours after we started out. Strangely though the journey had felt like a holiday. The room is from the same company as last time but much lower on the hill so less exercise this time. Speaking of which, i should finish my breakfast and head out into the snow to explore.

Did you pack this case yourself?

Well yes and no. I see some unpacking in my future. You see I don't own any grey and black furry clothes, that is an attempt to stow away. Fortunately I can see her even though she can't see me. She does like to try and stop me traveling by getting in the case, but this is her best yet. We are hopeful that there won't be more snow overnight and Heathrow might be working in the morning. Our cats will be fine while we are away, they have a cat sitter they love to bully. Gotta go two cats in the case now.

Delicate snow

I like snow, a lot, well usually. Unfortunately I am hoping to fly on Thursday so being told we would get 10-35cm of snow over night and tomorrow wasn't actually good news. However, at the moment we have a delicate dusting and the snow seems to be staying fairly clear of Heathrow too. Fingers crossed that it will work out. I had to share this picture of Trogdor, he is the only one of our cars with an artistic layer of snow at the moment. I think it looks great just as it is now highlighting all the important areas.

Despite still being ill I had to go out and enjoy the snow and I do feel better for the fresh air. It was magical being the first people to walk around in the snow, and quite odd. Normally at least one dog walker beats us to it. I did got for normal boots though so people won't be looking at apparently bear foot prints. I thought it was more important to have warm feet than confuse the neighbours.

The quilt made it off in time, but I did forget to take a better picture, sorry. I was more concerned about getting it delivered than picture taking. If I have a brain I will ask someone to do it for me tomorrow, if not it will just have to be the one that got away.

Quilting progress

It always amazes me how much a cold slows me down. Even when I feel mostly better qulting is really hard work. The small green qul had to be done before Wednesday so I had to work on it today. It is a charity quilt off to forien parts. I should be able to bimd sleeve and label it tomorrow. Of course I wanted to quilt this on the frame, but as you can see there is still anopther quilt there. I manage to jam it im at the side, just. It's amazing what you can do if you really want to.

The other quilt is coming along too. I think I am getting qucker at the really dense fill. I've nearly finished the white area now which will just leave the outer black section. Yes the zippers are on order and I won't start another until I have them. I am really looking forward to doing some customer work. Variety, completion, speed. Sounds like bliss. Funny what can become just what you need when you haven't had it for a while.

Yay! a new Oriental City!

Well officially it is called Pacific Plaza, but those in the know will realise this is a poor attempt to throw them off the scent. If you have never been a native of North West London you may never have heard of Oriental City. It was the venue for oriental food around here. For me the best part was being able to eat an odd mix of dishes as the food hall had stands serving a wide variety of dishes. A couple of years ago the owners of the building decided it would be worth more empty and evicted all the businesses. It was a huge loss and although several did reopen elsewhere it wasn't the same.

Yesterday while looking for something else entirely I came across this review. In it is a link to a review of Pacific Plaza. I knew I had to go and investigate ASAP, but today we had to go and hunt trainers for Tet so it wasn't going to be today. Turns out our hunting took us to Brent Cross which meant we had to practically go past the door of the Pacific Plaza. Fate I tell you I had to go in. It isn't full yet but there are more stands than when the other reviewer visited. The feel of the place is spot on, and it seems that people are starting to hear about it. It wasn't busy, but there were enough customers to have a buzz. As you can probably tell, it's really important to me that this place should do well. The food court was always a great place to go at a weekend. Yes it was busy, no you can't find a seat, but that's OK there. It's how it is supposed to be. The food was fantastic, and I managed my slightly strange selection of dishes. I will be going back, and hopefully a lot more of the old favourites from Oriental City will turn up there soon.

The cold is clearing. It has slowed me up a bit which is no ore than a little annoying. I have been able to think about designs and draw up some plans, so it could have been worse. To be honest if I hadn't been ill and grumpy I might not have gone to Pacific Plaza today and that would have been a huge loss, so maybe it's worked out in the end.

A new year

I had a plan for this year, and it's already in disarray. I though that after the crazy year last year this one would be a bit calmer. After all you can't need to fill a huge gallery two years in a row. Well I was right and wrong. I don't need to fill a gallery this year but I have already got more projects than I know what to do with. I've got a lead on doing some portraits I really want to do, I got another hush hush mission and a couple of shows that would like new pieces for their displays. As well as making quilts I have customer work to fit in and a book to get finished. Eeek. It's only the first day and the year already looks full. Am I complaining? Heck no. I wanted this career to work for me, and if that means having more work than I can shake a stick at for a while so be it. I am really excited about the projects I have lined up and I miss quilting when I take time off. I feel very lucky to be doing something I love. I could live without the cough and the sore throat though. Hopefully it's just from standing next to the bonfire last night. Anyway patterns and quilting await.

Happy New Year!

Last update

Well this is as far as I will get this year. I finished the background fill in the middle and all the line work is done. Have a good new year.

Darn the photo looked in focus on my phone, sorry. I will try better tomorrow.

Back to quilting

I took a couple of days off over the Christmas period, but I still managed to do some crafty things. Notably I knitted a scarf. Not impressed? What if I tell you I knitted it in the car between London and Winchester services? A student gave me a ball of wool that was a scarf in a ball and I thought it wuld be a fun distraction in the car. It took me a while to get the hang of knitting with it. I knit with a tight tension and this wool spaces you to quite loose tension (it's a pom pom wool) I think this and the speed it grows would make it a great beginners project. Once I got into the swing of it it went really well and it's a very snuggly scarf.

That was Christmas eve and for the next couple of days I played board games and only thought about quilts. I was getting bored and would have started piecing but I am very low on black fabric so none of my designs was viable. By yesterday I was desperate to be quilting. Holidays are all very well but it means there is a lot of work to do before and after and I need to finish my quilt on the frame before I can do customers quilts. I made what looks like good headway with that quilt. I did a lot of outline work, in fact I think that is nearly finished. Of course the filler is what takes the time so it's not as much progress as I would like but every little helps. I doubt I will get to work on it today, but I should tomorrow.

Midwinter

Finally, we've got a white midwinter. We had considered going abroad to find one, but anywhere with guaranteed snow was out of our price range. Just as well, as we'd have been really miffed to have spent the money and found out we could have stayed at home. I've been getting excited for a few days now, as The Met Office have been forecasting heavy snow for today, but yesterday they downgraded the forecast to sleet. At least when I woke up this morning, there was still snow on the ground.

After a traditional festive breakfast of scrambled eggs and gravadlax and Coke Zero (I forgot to buy any orange juice), we thought it would be a good idea to visit one of our favourite shops, Leisure Games in Finchley. As we left, it was just starting to rain. We discussed whether, as the temperature dropped, the rain might turn to snow, but even if it did, with so much water on the ground, there was no real chance of it settling. As we arrived in Finchley, we were proved right. The rain had indeed turned to snow, but wasn't settling.

Games shopping is much like fabric shopping. You have to inspect every item in the shop, make a selection, realise it's entirely wrong and start again, but eventually, we left with a moderate armful of games. It was still snowing, as we left the shop and surprisingly, it had started to settle. By the time we reached the car, it was definitly settled, which was unfortunate, given the tight turns and steep ramps of the car park, and the prospect of a route home with several significant hills. It's been very beautiful and festive, but 3 hours and less than 10 miles later, I'm still driving (no, I'm not typing, Tet is).

I would quite like to get home now. We had food and drink in the car, but its bathroom facilities are sorely lacking. Should I have stayed at home? Nah! It's been great, despite (or perhaps because of) some hairy sideways moments, and one extremely slippery roundabout. Hopefully it will only be another half hour or so before I'm reunited with modern plumbing.

Slowly very slowly

So here is todays update. I unwound it so I could get a better look at it, and of course that made it too big to photograph. Oh well. I have tried not to over do it today so I haven't got as much further as I would like. I have worked on another project a little though. I want a new coat and I have had half a plan for something quite flamboyant for a while. Now I would say it is about 80% of a plan. I've ordered the extra fabrics I need (I have quite a dressmaking stash) and when I need another break I may start work on the pattern adjustments. Lots to do, so little time.

Still progressing

As you can see I am making slow but steady progress on this quilt. It really isn't something you can rush (and I have tried believe me) it will be done when it is good and ready, not before. I think I might be half way now, but I'm not certain. I guess I won't know for sure where I am until I've done :) As you can see it has got to the point where the area I want to work on in one lump is bigger than I can see at one time. It's more frustrating when I am working on something free form, I can only see it in my head with no guides at all to compare to. It's taking more faith than most of my work, and I usually have some sort of map to work to, but hopefully it's simple enough to come out OK when it's done.

I got my copies of Down Under Quilting in the post. It's a good feeling magazine and I am really thrilled with the article in it. It is also available as a very well thought out online magazine, if you feel like saving some trees and postage.

Doesn't look like much but...

Progress is very slow on this one, but it is progressing. This is where I got to before lunch. I would guess another days work would get me to the half way point, so the bigger version will probably take over a month of solid work. I think it might be time to buy zippers for my leaders. I can't take a whole month off customer quilts and to be honest it's sufficiently hard work that I don't really want to work on it for that long without a break.

Skinning a quilt

This is the video I was talking about that will teach you how to skin a quilt. If I have two layers of wadding I will work between the layers to try and reduce the risk to my quilt top and back.



I don't have her funky little tool, I use a very sharp knife. I works very well especially on the tight little stitches you can't get at any other way. I have a feeling those used to skinning other things will have an advantage with this technique, let me know. Please do be careful with sharp blades. I am amazed how many quilters are very casual with them. To be good for cutting fabric or threads (and especially this techniques) the blade does have to be very sharp. The sort of sharp where you probably won't feel it cut you, you'll just see the blood. None of us like getting blood on our quilts so make sure you pay attention to where you are putting your blade.

Backside and progress

Two pictures for you tonight (this morning?) This first one is the back of the quilt that has spent the day occupying our bedroom. It is Phoenix Rising, now happily rolled up and almost ready to ship to Road to California. I love the back of this quilt because not only can you see the quilting but you can see that is was put together feather by feather, and where the feathers overlap so does the quilting. Of course when the quilt is at shows very few get to appreciate it, especially as the best of the quilting is high up. If I get a chance I will try and photograph the whole of the back, but it won't be for a while.

Here we have the quilt I am currently playing on on the frame. As you can see the feathers are growing and the background filling. It's slow work and I am now on my third needle. I haven't been breaking them just wearing them out. I also realised today that there is as much thread in this small pieces as I usually use on a double bed quilt. Given I have only quilted a piece about 12"x80" that's a lot of thread. It's also very hard work, lots of very small movements with a big machine is good exercise. I'm glad I will be seeing my osteopath next week. I can certainly tell I am learning a lot with this one, which is good as the next is already planned and I think I have the fabric to make it too. I will have a break between this one and that though as I will need a rest after this. I have several customer quilts that will be a nice change, and even pretty detailed work is going to seem quick for a while.

We do the impossible

and before breakfast too! I can't block large quilts, we just don't have the space. Our biggest rooms are about the same size as my quilts and strangely they are full of furniture, who would have thought it. There isn't room for us to take the furniture out of one room and move it to another. So how do you block a large quilt? Well you buy a lot of thick polystyrene boards and lay them out on the bed and overhanging all the way around. Of course this does mean that once you are on the opposite side of the room to the door the only way back is to wriggle on your belly around the end of the bed under the boards. Half way through the escape I did wonder why the army train for blocking quilts. You really don't need a fit of giggles when trying to wriggle through a tight space with lots of turns. We also discovered that there is a limit to how far you can reach and accurately place a pin. The limit being about 3" less than you need, typical. Still it's done and it looks great. Hopefully it will dry during the day and we will be able to go to bed tonight, if not the sofa will have to be dug out from the pile of quilts waiting to be quilted, or I could just sleep under the longarm.

Speak or stay silent

I belong to several mail list, mostly quilt related. When I first joined I listened, I tried to soak up the feel of the lists. When I felt I had I understood the lists I started posting to join in with the community. Now I write two or three posts per list per day when I have time at my computer. However I send maybe one per month. Why? Well I can't figure out the rules for most of the lists any more. Actually I can figure out a lot of rules. So many that I can't see what you can safely post to some of these lists.

One rule I think I understand is no commercial posts. Many lists are funded by advertising so it makes sense that if you want to advertise you should pay. Should you also remove the link to your website from you signature? What about the link to your blog, or talking about your blog, or providing a link to a piece of your work which is on your business site? Well that depends, on who is reading on what day and how they feel. Should those who make money from their quilting even join these lists? Is it OK if they only read and don't post?

What about going off topic? Personally if the group allows it and it's marked in the subject line, I don't mind but in some places it causes a lot of problems. Should the group set rules to prohibit anything off topic (then how close do we have to stay to the topic to be safe?) or should the members understand that some others don't like them and just stop out of concern for the rest. Then again should the objectors tolerate it for the benefit of those who do want to discuss issues further afield.

What if a quilt (or indeed a customer interaction) could be seen as racial, political or religious by another group member does this then become taboo on an otherwise quilt focused list?

Maybe you can start to see why I don't post much. This has been a very bad couple of weeks for 'rules' appearing. I say it like that as none of the lists seem to have these 'rules' and yet they should be obeyed. Tricky if you don't know what they are. Your best guess from yesterday may be utterly out of date by tomorrow when your message is read, so it's a lot easier to keep quiet. Saying nothing offends no one. Of course it helps no one either. I wonder how many have given up, losing one voice on a list doesn't matter. Losing 2 or 3 isn't really a big deal either, but I'm pretty good at speaking my mind, and I've shut up. that suggests to me a heck of a lot of quieter and more timid people have too. People who probably have a lot to share. In my experience quiet people listen and learn, so are a font of information, if only others will give them a safe place to share. Of course that then puts me in the same place all the other list subscribers who make new 'rules'. Just like them I want the list to deliver what I want and like them I think it will be for the good of many if not all.

This brings me to the point of the post. Just because I am a member of a group doesn't mean I get any say in how it behaves, I have no more rights than the next person, and if it doesn't fit me it's time to move and find something that is a better fit. I don't know if groups just bicker more this time of year, but it seems to be one of my close of the year traditions, a cull of mail lists and groups. This year it looks like there are plenty that I can do without, although I will miss some of them and wish for a more live and let live attitude, I think I will be happier without the stresses. On the other hand this year I have discovered a couple of really good groups too. Mostly by members visiting this blog and leading me to them. To the friendly and accepting groups, thank you, and I hope you keep your wonderful atmosphere.

Current insanity

This may be one of those seemed like a good idea at the time type projects. In fact the time it seemed like a good idea might have only been the bit before I started but who knows, it may get better. There are some good points to this project, the main one being it is smaller than the one I really wanted to make. With the amount of work involved that could be claimed as a sure sign of good sense except the only reason it isn't bigger is that I couldn't find a bigger piece of fabric that would work with the idea. This is also the second take, I've already had to unpick once. Boy am I glad I found the video on skinning a quilt. It was a lot easier than any other method I've found.

I am also very pleased to be trying this idea. It is hard work and I am having to learn new skills, but it is so much better than just sitting thinking about it. It will be interesting to see how much I improve over the course of the project. I am hoping when I need to quilt the focal points I will have improved enough to make a good job of them. I have at least learned one thing I don't like so won't repeat somewhere more prominent. Now I guess I should go and do a bit more quilting on it. Tomorrow I won't get much quilting done as I will be teaching 10 others to do it down in Putney. I am sure we will have a lot of fun, and I will get to rest my shoulders.

Pretty goodies

Here are the goodies I was talking about. Calendars, notebooks and mugs. The calendars have a different quilt for each month. I tried to get in lots of my new quilts and kept a few old favourites. The mug has nude with rope on it, going most of the way around the mug. If you want to orde any of these items please ues the contact me link to the right.

My article in Down Under Quilts has come out, and seemed to have been well received. It is available not only as a traditional magazine but also as a digital subscription. I haven't been a fan of digital magazines, but they have managed to get the feel of looking a magazine. You can flip pages and look closer easily. It's a fun magazine well worth a look. I am out and about at the moment so can't supply a link but if you search for the title, Down Under Quilts, you will find it.

Banks, and goodies.

Hmm, I feel I have to post about banks given the amount of time and energy they suck from me, but I'm not sure if I should be praising or cursing mine at the moment. My bank account has been a catalog of errors, culminating in me being totally locked out of my account on the 1st December. That's pretty bad right. I was given a few possible solutions, none of which were likely to work, but today I went into the bank to try and sort it out. The first person I spoke to remembered me from my last visit (trying to fix a different and still unresolved set of problems) and correctly identified this had gone beyond anything she could fix and need to be handed over to a manager. Which she did as quickly as she could. He was helpful and fixed most of my problems, some we decided to leave as fixing them would cause more issues, some he can't fix, as the bank doesn't allow him to. Overall I now have a working bank account again, some services that have never worked now will, and I can get at my money. On the other hand, it has taken up a lot of time to get back to just mostly working. Hence my dilemma, good or bad?

On the other hand I was very late getting to the bank as every time I tried to leave the house I got another book order in. From that point of view it has been an amazing day. Other than it being a far better use of my time to post lots of books at once (at the great self service machine) it's lovely to know so many people want to buy my book. I am definitely making a dent in the book mountain. Thank you all for the orders and please do send me pictures of your finished quilts I would love to see what you do with the ideas.

I will also be trying to add some new merchandise to my web site this weekend. I have mugs with 'Nude with Rope' on them for eight pounds each, wall calendars, and desk calendars eight and five pounds respectively with a picture of a different quilt every month and A5 notebooks with my blue nude on them. They have been selling to quickly for me to get pictures of them, but more arrived this morning so I should manage to get some pictures before they all head off again. Finally, for those who like my pencils, I will be adding those for sale too, at 10p each. If you are ordering anything else, put a note on that you would like a pencil or two and I will put them in for free.

Now I think it is time to do some quilting. Starting your day at 5.30pm is a bit sad really isn't it.

Quilt on the frame

This is what is currently on the frame. It is a sample for a pattern I have written, which should be available early next year. I've had the top waiting to quilting for a while and as I needed a breather from demanding quilts I thought I would get it done. After all I need it finished to put on the pattern. I have already quilted one sample of the pattern with feathers in the spots so I wanted something different for this one. I've put a different filler in each colour of spot on the quilt and in the black areas I am making different borders with the quilting. I got about two thirds of the way though yesterday, which was pretty good, but I would like to have if finished for tomorrow lunch time. It's not likely, but I have found someone to do binding or me and it would have been nice to hand it over to her. I guess after the months it has already waited another week isn't going to matter.

The wadding in the quilt is wool, Dream Wool to be precise, which is the wool it the holiday quilt as well. Sorry that took a while to find out. The label was in a safe place and took some extracting.

Road 2 California

I finally gave in and called them. They are usually very prompt with notifications and I was getting really worried that my entries might not have got through even to the jury process (I had some issues getting them submitted). However the entries did make it, and were considered. Two of my three quilts have been accepted for the show. Phoenix Rising and Mother will be going to the show, so I had better sort them out with labels and get them packed up. Bad Rain unfortunately didn't make it. It's a shame I thought it would fit in well there, but they have said that this year they had to reject quilts they would have liked to have had due to time and space restrictions, so I don't think I can feel too hard done by. At least now I can stop worrying about it.

Much quilting

It's been another one of those quilt the world weekends. Two monster quilts are now ready to return home. A third has just resisted me though. The backing isn't big enough. I am glad I checked. It was a quilt I took in during a class and I trust the maker so I didn't check the measurements. The quilt is a king size, so was going to be a tight fit on the backing whatever the case, sadly when the backing was prewashed it shrank enough that it will no longer fit the top at all. Yes it can be fixed, yes I should have checked it. Still right now I feel thwarted by the quilt. I am glad I decided to check the measurements before I started, if not when I took the quilt in.

Now I think I will tackle some of the smaller quilts I have waiting for a change. There seems to have been a run of huge quilts the last few months. Maybe quilters are doing their bit to save energy and reduce global warming. It is much better to have an extra quilt on the bed rather than turning up the heating. Speaking of which, I think it might be time to find the hot water bottle.

Brain itch

Last night my brain started itching, it does that. Something wanted out and I couldn't quite see what. It was a jumble, with the holiday quilt playing a part and star and shading and well stuff. So I tried looking through the books I had been looking at just before and after the Festival of Quilts as all the other stuff seemed to fit that time scale too. There were some ideas, but none wanted to be a quilt yet and none were the problem.

It finally came to me just as I was falling asleep. Oh my it's going to be fun, and mammoth. Tet has spent a lot of today getting it down on paper for me, as it would have been a nightmare to draft by hand and less trouble by machine. Now I am excited, I think it will be a good quilt. I have enough fabric to start it (although the fabric to finish it is only just on it's way) and I can't wait to start. Sadly I still have a couple of customer quilts that need to be quilted before Christmas so I should do them first, but at least I have a plan now. I don't know how long it will take, but I don't think it will be quick. I will be largely keeping this one as a surprise, but it will be a bed quilt, fairly traditional and very me.

Computers!##$%

So my web site is run on our own server in a very good data centre. The staff of said data centre are currently earning their fee trying to find out why some of the racks (including the one with my website in) are not talking to the outside world. Hopefully they will have it fixed pretty promptly. However if they don't we will fail over to the other machine in the other data centre. It's slower but it works. Please bear with us while we give the guys a chance to work. At least I have a back up plan and we can switch over if there is a serious outage. Excessive for a quilting business? Probably but I like my web site to be up :)

Yay, the guys did their job, and quickly. I'm back up and running.

Holiday quilt, off the frame

Here's the monster finally quilted. It's too big to get a good picture of without moving the furniture, and as my class will be here any minute that isn't going to happen. I am really pleased with how it has come out, but I think Tet is perhaps too pleased. Rather than going straight on the bed this will be doing some shows first. Oh well can't win them all. I guess this will be an on going problem, either I do poor quilting on my quilts or I will have to wait to use them. I guess I can live with waiting.

Holiday quilt - quilting

I am feeling well enough to make some progress on quilting my holiday quilt. This is the best picture I managed to get of it. I will try again tomorrow with natural light it might help.

I am using my Aurifil thread for the first time and I am loving it. I have their 50 weight in the bobbin and the 40 in the top. I am testing with a view to using it on art quilts so I wanted to know that the fine threads would work. I had a few glitches to start with but the tension didn't need a lot of adjustment to run really well. I am running it almost flat out a lot of the time with no issues. There is a different colour in each area to make the texture talk louder than the actual stitching, so it is quite hard to see the thread on most of the fabrics.

The wadding in this quilt is actually two waddings. Closer to the backing I have Warm and Natural, a nice dense cotton wadding. It has enough structure to encourage the puff of the top wadding to the front of the quilt and make it look fuller. The wadding closer to the top of the quilt is a wool wadding. I love wool, for it's temperature control and loft, but I don't often put it in quilts for me to use. This is a real treat, and a very useful sample. I've been able to play on this without worrying too much about it. If nothing else it gave me something safe to work on while I have been ill. It's not been the quickest project with so many starts, stops and colour changes, but it's fun.

Ugh

I have made it through my last talk of the year, yay! I've been determined not to get ill and have to cancel any so that worked. However, as soon as I said 'Yay that's it for the year' I got ill. So I have been doing not very much. I loaded my holiday quilt and have played on that (and unpicked then tried again) I know I can't quilt for customers when I am under the weather. I can't be trusted with anything that needs a brain. You should have seen my trying to sort out next terms workshops this afternoon. I couldn't remember the last thing I had said let alone what date we were talking about. However I will hopefully be more on the ball tomorrow and we will get things arranged, then there will be a mass updating of my web site. Having been ill since Saturday night I have high hopes I am on the mend and will be back on form for Saturday.

I have so much I want to blog about but somehow I can't quite get my thoughts together.

Broooooom

So what have I been up to? Mostly driving. Monday night I went to Icknield Quilters with a side trip to Crafty Quilter. I wasn't honestly expecting much, sorry. The photos I had seen looked small, and I like everything BIG. What the pictures don't show you is context. The shop is in a wonderful old mill at Barton-le- Clay. It is one of a whole street of period shops. It's like stepping back in time, just lovely. The shop is small, but the space is very well used and the fabrics well worth the trip. You will find ranges there that no one else has. They also stock Glitter by Superior threads. It you have taken a machine quilting class with me you will have seen it. It is a smooth filiment and runs surprisingly well on a whole range of machines. I haven't checked to see if it is on her web site, but I am sure if you phone (or better yet visit) they will be happy to supply it to you.

Tuesday was a trip in the opposite direction, Gosport. Having lived in Portsmouth for a while and grown up by the sea I was rather looking forward to this one. Hmmm, well. An accident on the M27 at 3pm shouldn't stop me getting to a talk at 7pm should it? No, but it did. I had left over 4 hour to do a 2 hour journey but it took over 5! I can't say it was the best or most organised talk (I am glad I take care to repack in order) but it seemed to go down well. The class the next day was great. A really fun group who were keen to support each other, and an ideal place to observe the 2 minute silence.

Today I am back with my regular trouble makers, the ladies who put together the requirements for the book quilt. I've photographed all the quilts I am returning tonight except for the two that have already gone. I know those will get photographed at some point. Having almost extracted my gaming table, I've taken in more quilts to fill it. Oh well, it's good to have work to do, although I would like to play games too.

Still Alive

Thank you for the concern folks, yes I'm still here. I've just been rushed off my feet. I had a couple of weeks where I was starting to wonder if I still had a house. I do and it still has a longarm in too. On one hand it is good to be so busy on the other I have been missing home cooked food and the chance to do my laundry. When I see an M&S on the way to a talk and think great, clean clothes, something has gone wrong. Still I've had a productive weekend and I am feeling much better.

The washing has been done, food has been cooked and eaten and I even got to do some quilting. It's great seeing the pending pile shrink and the return pile grow. Unsurprisingly, given the time of year several quilts have had a Christmas theme. They tend to need a bit more thought and take a little longer, but they always look so interesting when they are done. I rather like them. At the moment I have one with angels on the frame. The angels have trapunto wings and I am making them more trapuntoed. They are really coming to life and hopefully I will be able to do the last two before I head off for tonights talk. However before then I aslo have to repack the car and go to the storage unit, so I may not get there.

I am almost caught up on email too. I think I am down to 6 left that need replies. I haven't forgotten you I am fitting in repluing whenever I take a break. I think I have replied to more than 20 already since Friday and I will keep at it to clear the rest. I will try and get pictures of some of these quilts before they go back too.

Oh and Popular Patchwork December issue has a pattern of mine in, for journal quilts. It also has a very nice review of my book. My book and several other things are available from my online shop at Ferret Fabrications.

Just a quick one

I am working down the list of things I have to do before I head off to Heather Quilters for tonight's talk but I just had to quickly catch up with everyone here. Newark were great, as expected. Speakers, you really want to go to these groups, they are friendly helpful and well organized, well worth a visit. Just plan to stay a couple of days if you can as there is plenty to see and do in the area.

Thank you very much to my team of helpers, you did a stirling job last night and meant I got home a lot quicker than I had expected, I was back before 1.30 am ! I also avoided doing any more damage to my back a shoulders with is very much appreciated. I didn't manage to try one of the famous black bananas though, so I will have to make a return visit. I did however explain 'shaking the lettuce' and remind a cat how to play, so I feel it was a good value trip. I just wish I had taken some in progress pictures of the leaf quilt. Oh well maybe they will email me some later.

My main reason for posting is I have just found out there are a couple of places left on my class tomorrow. It is the Autumn Leaves class that I was just teaching in Newark and is based on my award winning quilt, 'Golden Storm'. It is being run at the Wandering Line in Purley. This is a new shop that opened about a month ago but it sounds like it is attracting a lot of new people into quilting, which has to be good news for all of us. If you are at a loose end tomorrow and would like to join the class, give them a call on 020 8660 8600.

Now I had better get back to my task list for tonight. Loonking forward to finally meeting Heather Quilters.

Best wishes Lucy.

Run run run

I don't feel like I am getting chance to catch breath at the moment, and mostly it's pretty cool. Over the weekend I was at the MCM expo. It is a movies, comics and manga show, and if you've never been you really cant imagine it. 40,000 people over two days in a hall that really isn't big enough to house them. I could call it organised chaos but to be honest I'm not sure how organized the chaos is. I was there with my Bad Rain quilt which was very well received. I was surprised by who was most interested in it. It wasn't the older ladies, it was the young Indian males. They were very positive and fascinated by how it was put together. It was lovely to be able to bring quilting to a new and enthusiastic group.

I was less than impressed with the Excel center itself and it's staff. There were times when it felt they were trying to make things as difficult as possible fro everyone involved with the event, including the organizers. As one of the traders I had to go back and forth to the car during the day and it is very frustrating when routes suddenly get closed off without warning, or indeed discussion with the organizers. I am very glad there wasn't a need to evacuate the venue, as I think it would have been hard to do. There would have been too many people trying to get out of exits that had been there at one point but were now closed off. I hope the venue will listen to the organizers and sort out these issues before the next MCM.

Today I am trying to get some quilting done while I wait for my car to have it's gearbox oil changed. It's a job that sounds trivial but is actually quite a pain unless you have the right suction tools. So I decided I would get on with what I do best and let someone else deal with the oil. As soon as the car is back I will be heading north to Newark. This is fairly close to a talk a did a little over a month ago and I am looking forward to going back. The people were so friendly there and it's a lovely place. This however will be a pretty quick trip. I will drive up tonight then teach a workshop tomorrow. After the workshop we will change venue and I will do a talk then head home. It will be mad, but fun. I may also get to try a black but barley ripe banana.

Wednesday is another talk, hopefully after some more quilting. This time I will be at Heather Quilters in Camberley, Surrey. I'm looking forward to this talk as well. It was one that should have happened a year ago, but due to a booking error I never got there. Hopefully I can make it worth the wait. Anyway, quilting calls so TTFN.

Do you design in the shower?

I design a lot in the bath, and I know I was recently talking to a lady who designs in the shower. I suggested that children's bath crayons might be useful for taking notes, but I've found a better solution, so if you are that lady (or indeed anyone else who does this and is interested) get in touch and I will pass on the information I have. There is a little something I would like to send to the shower lady so if you know who I am talking about please do let her know I am trying to get in touch.

Levenham - region 8

This was Saturdays talk venue. It's not often that I get the space to hang this many quilts or the chance to take photos, so I made the most of show and tell. It was another scary talk with not only celebrities in the audience, but one of the two best speakers I heard. Intimidating and rather off putting. However it was also great opportunity to talk to lots of new people. I also came home with a couple of new patterns, one for cats and one for elephants. I am even more sure that I won't be making a baltimore quilt. I really like them done by hand and not by machine. I can't see having the time to do it, or find a way that doesn't hurt my shoulder.

I've mostly been working on customer quilts, but I have also been shipping patterns today. The rest of the Turning Twenty patterns have now arrived so I believe that all orders have now shipped. I can't promise when they will arrive, given there is a postal strike due. I hope they will arrive before the strike, but who knows.

Holiday quilt

Does anyone remember this quilt? I bet those that do thought I had forgotten to post the picture of the finished top and possibly the finished quilt but no. I just haven't had a lot of time to work on it. In fact the only time I have had is the odd few minutes waiting for classes, so that's when I've been working on it.

The top is from a kit by Starr designs. It was intended to make a twin size quilt. I don't have a use for a quilt that small so I had to figure out a way to make it bigger. In the kit there was a red fabric for the areas I made black. I knew I couldn't match it and that it was the obvious fabric to use to extend the quilt so I changed it for one I had a lot of. The black is a batik not a true solid which I thought would be more sympathetic to the dand dyes. The internal strips are wider than the original and the outer borders are much bigger. I was able to get the narrow rainbow border out of the offcuts from the blocks, which broke up the outer border nicely. Had I not been able to do that I would have used the supplies red fabric to do the same job, as a border big enough to get the quilt the size I needed would have been out of proportion to the rest of the quilt.

I suspect I won't have time to quilt it until Christmas, I've got too much customer work to do. When I do get to work on it I have lots of Aurifil thread to play with on it. I thought it would be good to have a really nicely quilted quilt for my bed for a change. When it's done I might bind it with the red fabric, or use the red for piping. I'll just have to wait and see what feels right.

Patterns, patterns everywhere.

The first batch of Turning Twenty patterns have arrived, and all the orders for book 2 have been shipped today. The other books haven't arrived yet so won't go out until next week. Unless they arrive tomorrow they will go out after the postal strike, so hopefully they won't get caught up in the backlog. Assuming of course the strike is still planned, I can't find anything about it. I also now have a few copies of the new Turning Twenty pattern. It is called Slapplique, and will be on the site as soon as we can get it on. If you want to order it before then just drop me an email.

I've also just finished writing up not one but two journal quilts. I had a lot of fun with them and I may well make a series of them based on these two. Of course that does rely on me getting a few more hours in a day. Finally if you are near Lavenham in Suffolk this weekend you might like to come along to the Quilters Guild region 8 event. It is being held at Lavenham village hall, and if you need more information about it, get in touch with me and I will either be able to answer your questions or give you contact details fro someone who can.

Chester

Finally time to share my pictures from the weekend. Frodsham is near Chester which is where the pictures are from. I have to admit it wasn't a place I was familiar with, but now I am I want to go back and have a better poke around. It is a Roman walled city, with am amazing amount of wall left. It also has these fantastic shopping streets, with two shopping levels. I had a chance to see some of the under crofts below the shops, but as they are now businesses in their own rights I couldn't get pictures of them. We also had time to walk about a quarter of the city wall and see the remains of the amphitheater. The amphitheater must have been very impressive, to say nothing of imposing. You can only see a section of it, but the angle of the curve makes it very clear how huge it was.

I'd like to go back to the area to go up the hill between the two places. Apparently (and I can well believe it) there is a great view from the top. Sadly this trip I had to head back straight after the workshop, but now I know how lovely the area is I know to try and extend the next trip.

I felt the workshop went very well on the Sunday. We were working on 'Fur, feather and scale' and everyone left with three good samples and seemed pretty confident they could continue with the techniques in other projects. I hope they will share what they come up with as some sounded really interesting. However I think the big success of the day for me was getting another person hooked on free motion quilting, it might not have been the main point of the class but it's always good when someone else finds they can do something they didn't think they could. Thank you all for making it a great weekend. See you at the AGM in March.

Sara Impey, who would have thunk it?

Today's talk was for region 13 in Cheshire. It's far enough that I didn't think it was sensible to go there and back in a day which is unusual for me, so we drove up last night. I say we, as Tet came along to help, he had said it might be a big talk. Understatement, they are very keen around here. It was an amazing show and tell and a very scary audience. I had no idea they had so many well known names here. Probably just as well or I would have been worrying about it before the talk. At least I had a professional chicken stacker to look after me and to make sure I was in the right place at the right time. It seems herding Ferrets requires the same skills so I was very well looked after. Fortunately my talk went down well, as with a crowd of that size you really don't want to upset them.

Many hands made quick work of packing my quilts and ensured I got lunch before the afternoon session started. Thank you very much to the lovely lady who gave Tet a lift to the station ns saved me getting lost or missing the afternoon talk. I have to admit I wasn't sure how I was going to get along with the afternoon speaker, but I do like to hear as many talks as I can so I was pleased to be able to stay.

If you aren't familiar with Sara Impeys work I guess you either aren't a quilter ror have the same problem with names I do, her work appears all the best places, and I think she said she will have a piece in the V&A quilt show next year. Her work generally includes words and circles. She described herself as "a one trick pony" and when she said it I agreed. I loved her work the first time I saw it, and had thouigh all the others were too similar. Boy how wrong was I? I just hadn't got it at all. To really appreciate her work I think you need to see more than one piece at the same time. The year long gaps I have had doesn't do them justice at all. About half way through the talk it struck me, she is a writer who carves her words in textiles. The words are very important. Her quilting, while beautiful and exceptionally well executed, isn't as significant. The thought and feeling that goes into the letters surprised me. I think what really amazed me was that I hadn't worked it out for myself. After all if someone puts that much care and attention into each letter, might not the words they form be important? I hope at some point one of the shows will give her the space to display a lot of her work at once, and that she will write the background stories down to go with them. It would make a stunning show. Sara, a one trick pony? No more so than a writer who only writes in one language. A very entertaining and informative speaker. I believe she doesn't do many talks but if you get the chance to see her take it.

ARGH!

I thought today was going to be a fairly restful day. I had a few things I needed to do, but not too much. One job, that doesn't sound bad on paper is post a book. Just within the UK nothing complex. However the post office has had massive queues that last few times I have been there and I didn't have a spare hour to queue. I thought I would take another look at online services. Oh dear. That was my first mistake, calling Royal Mail to try and fix it was my second. Their phone line is an adventure game, but lacking any plot, none the options seem to fit what I needed at all, but it kept suggesting the online help. OK while I try and struggle through to a human I will ask the online person. Sarah, isn't actually a person, it's a pretty poor piece of software that tries to guess the question you were asking. Sarah felt that what I wanted was to get a job with them. Nope, not even close and no there isn't even any way to tell the software it missed.

I did eventually get a very nice lady in customer services, who absolutely understood my problems, and did try to help. She assured me that Royal Mail does want to help small businesses and that I can't be too small to be worth their help. She gave me a phone number she thought was a direct line to business accounts. It wasn't it was online postage sales, who couldn't help but could pass me on. To online business accounts, who can only talk to you if you have an account but can pass you on to sales. After all this run around, I'm too small. I need to go to the post office. So including time, parking, postage and petrol I can spend about 35 pounds to post this book. Or I can call a courier and spend about 10 pounds, or I could just hand deliver it as I happen to be doing a talk in the area and it looks like it will only be a few miles out of my way. Isn't it great to know you can get a package anywhere in the country, just by taking it there yourself. We are heading backwards at truly amazing speed. I think the next time I queue at the post office I need to buy a heck of a lot of stamps then I can just stick the postage on and put it in a post box. They do still sell stamps don't they?

The Guilty Party

Well most of the guilty party at least. I think we have to share the blame with Melanie Cook the colourist as well. From Left to right, we have Stephen Downey, the artist, me, and Cy Dethan the writer of Cancertown. It was odd seeing my quilt hanging in a comics show, but very cool. Somewhat scary having 'real' artist looking at it, but I guess I will get used to that. I was pleased that the visitors to the show appreciated the quilt. I was a little concerned that it might be too far from their chosen media, but apparently not. They are a generally friendly bunch ready to accept the weird especially when it's from a story they have enjoyed.

I also got to pick up a copy of Bryan Talbots latest, Grandville. Oh wow, does he know how to produce a book. It's a proper old feeling hardback with a fabric texture cover. Apparently the issues in other countries are even nicer!? I think my copy is pretty wonderful, and yes the fact that he signed it and put in a sketch doesn't hurt at all. I can't wait to have a chance to read it. I will take it with me this weekend in case I get an early night.

I also came across Stephanie Bryant. Well actually I mostly directed people to her, as they saw the quilt and assumed I would know of her. They mentioned knitting and I had noticed that much about her stand so I was able to direct them. Sunday afternoon Nic asked if I had seen them, yes....what did I think of the concept? Um? Turns out Stephanie has produced a comic for knitters. Each part of the story comes with a pattern, how cool is that. The patterns are good too. She also had a few stand alone patterns, which may yet follow me home. If you would like to see her wares in the flesh (yarn?) she will be at the Knitting and Stitching show that starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday. It is at Alexandra Palace, London. If you're there on Friday I might see you around. If you can't make it, do take a look at Handknit Heros, it's great.

BICS event

I was going to post about the comics event this weekend. I didn't have time yesterday and now I have been well a truly beaten to it. I may share the photo later anyway, when it returns home, but for now take a look at Cy's blog and vist the show with him.

Machine Quilting 2

There are a couple of places left on my Machine Quilting 2 class at Patchwork Corner this coming Tuesday. In this class we will spend the whole day on free motion quilting. Starting with some warm up exercises I will show you lots of different patterns during the morning. Fillers, borders and anything else that seems to suit the specific students. In the afternoon once everyone is limbered up and the machines should have got the idea of what we are doing we will go on to feathers. Lots of different variations so hopefully everyone will find at least one that works for them.

It's usually a fun class, and it will count as your exercise for the day. If you would like to join the class contact Patchwork Corner. You can even sign up on line.

Socks

I've mentioned socks a few times and I finally remembered to photograph them. To the left is my first sock knitted on two circular needles instead of on 4 double ended ones. I love the techniqe. It's a lot quicker and I find it easier on my hands too. It's just waiting for it's toe graft, then it's done.

it's partner is being knitted with the first sock of another pair. Two socks at the same time on a pair of circular needles. I'm not sure how it compares speed wise with knitting one at a time, but it is very satisfying. It also encourages you to keep making more if you've already done one sock of the next pair. Of course you could knit matching socks together, but that means splitting a ball of wool and increases the chance of mixing them up and knittinmg with the wrong one. I think I will stick to doing odd socks.