Outlander and Dodgy Quilting

 

Last week we went to an afternoon of “Outlander” related talks at the Willow Tea Room in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. I had not realised that the event was an off-shoot of a whole Outlander Conference at Glasgow University so there were some diehard fans in attendance. One of them was not at all convinced when told that Falkirk is not in fact at the heart of the Highlands. Nella and I had made Jamie Fraser t-shirts for the occasion but nobody even noticed. The first talk, given by a guy from the Jacobite Society, was disappointingly dull as he read off his notes about some portrait artists. There was no background, context or reference to Outlander. The next talk was better, although I dozed off for a while. A curator from the V&A Museum, Dundee spoke about the Tartan exhibition but he went over time and also made no links to Outlander or the Jacobites. After a quick cup of tea, the main speaker gave a slideshow about her experiences as part of the costume team for the Starz TV drama, Outlander. She also had some examples of clothing with her. It was interesting to know that much of the embellishment on waistcoats and gowns was in fact machine embroidery, Sadly, her talk was cut short as the other speakers had gone over their time so I felt that we hardly scratched the surface. I wanted to know more about the budget and authenticity of the historical costumes. 

I had to get going on the supplies needed for quilting classes at FoQ. Four tutors will be giving one hour classes on the sit-down Q-series machines, based on a panel designed by Bernina Australia. The UK team decided that the original panel was too busy so Tracey Pereira simplified and digitised it. I sewed out 72 panels and overlocked them all. I wanted to quilt two as examples - one using Qmatic and the other using rulers and FMQ. I discovered that I felt quite overwhelmed by the task since my quilting skills are so rusty!  I spent far too long deciding what to do and attempting to copy the intricate designs from the original panel. The first attempt went in the bin! Hopefully, the class participants will not feel intimidated when they see my second effort;) It is a reminder that Quilting is a skill that needs regular practice. 

I have a lot of paperwork that I want to get done in the coming week, mostly forthcoming quilting class specs and supply lists. I drafted a handout for the FoQ classes but ran out of steam and have not included any diagrams. I wanted to produce a handy, illustrated leaflet, summarising the class but really I have written a short story / novel. I wonder how I seem to have so little time to finish anything these days?!