It was a typically British wet weekend for the Queen's diamond jubilee with various outdoor events going on all over the UK. We went into town to watch a parade of Scouts and Guides who would then light a beacon at the top of Scolty Hill. There was a ceilidh band and bouncy castles in the park creating a party atmosphere despite the cool weather.

I spent Tuesday figuring out how to squeeze my tools, quilts and clothes into a very small suitcase. I also gave the dogs a summer haircut even though we had to wear thick jumpers and light a fire to "enjoy" a June barbecue.

Wednesday was a very wet and blustery day so my flight to Dublin for the first International Quilt Festival of Ireland was delayed for an hour. This meant that I had to catch a later bus for the 3 hour trip to Galway but The Forsters Court Hotel was most welcoming. The weather girl on the local TV news promised that the next day would be wet with a strong possibility of "T'under!"

I spent Thursday with Claudia Pfeil helping to hang the antique quilt collection as she had arrived a day earlier and had already set up the longarm workshop. The volunteers were busily running around fetching battens, hooks and signs. There had been an unfortunate computer crash which meant that some of the crucial last minute preparation time had to be spent retrieving bookings information. Everyone was lending a hand to get things ready.

The Festival was held on the University of Galway campus and an amazing theatrical set had been created to make the front entrance look like a medieval Irish castle. The student union bar became "The Wicked Thimble Pub". There were cleverly staged themed exhibits, such as "The Quilted Garden", "Chocolate" and "3-D Quilts", some of which were enhanced with sounds and smells.

That evening we attended a Gala Dinner to open the Festival. After a champagne reception we enjoyed an excellent dinner that was followed by an inspiring speech by Jinny Beyer. The entertainment was far beyond my expectations. Irish musicians, singers and dancers, some of whom had toured with "Riverdance" and "The Chieftains" gave a world class performance and created a wonderful atmosphere for all of the international visitors.

The show opened on Friday – there were long queues of expectant visitors signing up for last minute places for classes with an impressive teaching faculty. Claudia and I soon found that we worked as a good team, teaching and demonstrating on the longarm machine that APQS had shipped from the USA especially for the show. It was a good thing that we had enjoyed a hearty breakfast – we were so busy that we never really found any time to stop and have lunch. Eventually, I sneaked out to have a proper look around the exhibits and the vendor mall. In the evening I met Ellen and we had a pint of Beamish Irish Stout with fresh local fish and chips in a charming pub called "The Quays" in the old part of Galway City. There were buskers in the streets and Irish music playing live in many of the busy pubs.

On Saturday the sun came out at last and it made everyone smile. We left early for the show but passed a lively produce market just opening. Galway was definitely filling up with people for the weekend. Our students were delighted with Claudia's "Irish Special Class" which was a combination of creating quilting designs and hands-on practice with the longarm machine. We had all sorts of students from hand-quilters and those using domestic machines to experienced longarmers, all of whom thoroughly enjoyed the classes. During one of the classes we had pupils from Ireland, England, Canada, America, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Switzerland!

We went out for supper with a group of friends to the Galway City Bakery where we received excellent service. Afterwards, we wandered through Shop Street, soaking up the lively Saturday night atmosphere.

Sunday was a little quieter as the quilters were all becoming tired after all of their touring and festival activities but the sun continued to shine and there were still plenty of visitors at the show. Claudia and I even ran out of business cards. We packed up the machine and thanked Jim West's stalwart assistants who had been so helpful, especially Nora and Liam.

We decided to have supper in the hotel bar with Judi and Angela from British Patchwork & Quilting Magazine. Ireland was playing football and losing against Croatia on the large TV but the locals remained pragmatic about their team's efforts. We were too tired to explore that evening so we just crossed the road to "Murty Rabbits", the pub across the road, where football supporters mingled happily with tourists and old-timers and a terrific live folk band played traditional Irish music.

I enjoyed the Festival and found the Irish people charming. I hope that it is an event in the quilting calendar that will go from strength to strength, getting bigger and better but retaining its friendly Irish charm!

 

A Difficult Week

An irate school secretary phoned on Monday morning to find out why I had not turned up at school. I was mortified until I checked that it was not on any of my calendars so I suspected that it was most likely not my error since I write teaching commitments down while I am still on the phone! As I felt that my Houston entry was under control, I nipped into town to buy some summer shoes. On the way home the North Sea haar came rolling in and the temperature dropped by 10 degrees.

I stapled a sheet to the summerhouse then pinned the Norse Trilogy up for clear, bright photos:  a flat-shot of the whole piece and also close-up of the quilting detail. Next I printed out the entry forms and read to my horror that the entries MUST be submitted on a CD, accompanied by a printed photo. This contradicted the information elsewhere on the website that stated that pictures could be submitted via email. I soon discovered that overseas courier services are not as efficient as they claim to be if you live in North East Scotland. I was granted a one day extension to get my CD to Houston and UPS promised to deliver it on time. It was nerve-racking tracking the package as it hung around somewhere else in Texas for a while but it looks like it made it eventually. I learned an expensive lesson that I should become more organised with quilt show entries and there is no guarantee that it will even make it into the show.

My pride was injured this week when I studied the judging sheet from the Loch Lomond Show and I noted that I did not achieve "Excellent" for quilting technique, tension and construction.  I honestly wondered how it could have been improved!

After all of that stress, I decided to clear my in-tray of paperwork and discovered that I had forgotten to send in the information on my entry for FOQ so I quickly measured it up, wrote the blurb and rushed to buy first class stamps. This all seems to indicate that I am trying to do too much or that I really do need a personal assistant.

I was surprised to see a man peel the lids off butter in the local supermarket, dip his finger in and check the taste. He saw me watching him then turned around to open up another tub. It was revolting but sometimes I wonder if I will behave like that when I am old?

I made a start on an unusual customer quilt: it was a hand pieced hexagon quilt that is only 32 inches wide but 96 inches long, backed with a jacquard ready-made curtain. Its owner does not actually have a plan for it as she says that it does not match anything in her house. My machine can sew through army canvas, tweed, lame, and oilcloth but it really hated the jacquard so I had to quilt slowly. Several of the seams started opening up so I had to be very careful. Now that it has its glazed chintz binding it looks quite cute so maybe it will get taken on a picnic or laid at the end of a bed if it is lucky ;)

For two days I taught the class that the rest of the teaching staff dreads. It would be an understatement to say that several of the children had issues with behaviour... Frankly, it was a gruelling teaching experience and I was glad when I made it to 3.15pm on Friday.

When I got home I could see that our little black & white cat, Bitzi was not all well. She had been suffering with some sort of digestive problem for a while, not helped by consuming whole rabbits, fur and all. Over the past week she just started looking thin and scruffy so we took her to the vet surgery. They told us that she was very sick and the prognosis did not look good. It was upsetting that she was so weak that they found it difficult to take blood samples and set up a drip. We left her in intensive care and just had to hope that she would improve. Unfortunately, she did not pull through and we were all sad at her funeral in the garden. We remembered when she used to sit on the back of the sofa for family movie nights, the time that she accidentally got taken to work with my husband and how she could open doors by jumping up onto the handle. She was a wonderful, sweet natured family pet and we will really miss her L

Heavy Metal

I was determined to get my Houston entry finished this week so after teaching 9 and 10 year olds how to throw a sponge javelin on Monday I had to devote all of my time to getting the copper piece quilted. The weather was beautiful but I did not venture out much. The silk quilted really well and the bird looked suitably coppery but I was conscious that it was not actually metallic fabric. I painted the back with fabric paint once the quilting was done but the silk soaked it up and gold splodges leached through to the right side of the quilt. This meant that I had to add more paint in rust and green colours to make it look verdigrised. Although it looked very much like antiqued copper, it simply was not the effect that I was looking for. An unexpected bonus is that this bird can be entered into a quilt show in its own right.

I drew out a new Viking shield and started another internet search for dancewear companies supplying copper spandex or tissue lame that could be delivered the next day from the UK. To my relief, the postie delivered the copper lurex from the USA that I had been waiting for in time for me to start yet another piece. Since I was running low on orange and rust thread colours I had to make do with what I had and get on with the job. I decided to quilt ridiculously small pebbles around the bird figures and Celtic knots so that the background would look like hammered copper. I am pleased with results but as usual, I could not just leave the back alone so I sponged on some copper and green paint – some green has leaked through but I am going to keep my fingers crossed that no-one else can see it as I dare not start adding gilding and paints at this late stage in case it also goes pear-shaped!

I have attached the machine sew bindings to all three quilts but still need to add the tiny gold braid before I can take the Houston entry photos and the deadline is looming fast. Anne from Skye called in for help flattening out some fullness in a huge bargello quilt that she made a few years ago. We trimmed up some generous seams to reduce bulk and gave it a serious dose of steam. I will give it an overall version of plumed quilting that will scoop up more of the excess fabric that often appears in multi-seamed quilts and bias joins.

A friend got in touch to enquire whether I would eventually sell any of the Norse pieces. He came for coffee and brought a selection of books on Viking symbolism. It sparked an entirely new idea on how to develop the totem pole idea that I had a while back. I can visualise a series that involves leather, lame and something that looks like amber... I may have to start investigating materials soon ;)

By the weekend the weather here was unusually fabulous so I camped out in the Yurt on Saturday night and had an almost-day-off on Sunday. I will have to have an actual-day-off soon to buy some summer shoes in Aberdeen as I don't think that sheepskin boots or Doc Martens look all that good with my denim skirt: unlike trendy, skinny celebs who may be able to pull it off, I look like I forgot to take my slippers off!

Copper Quest

The next time I plan to make a competition quilt I might just allow a little more time to order the necessary materials. The copper fabrics that arrived in the post were luridly bright orange or dull brown.  It may have been possible to use the existing copper quilt that is part of the Ostrych for my Houston entry BUT if I trim it down to the same size as the gold snakeskin piece it will have no background left. I really should have made everything a uniform size but there would be no fun in that ;) I would like to have ordered more thread but time dictates that I have to make do with the orange or brown ones that have at least 500m left on their spools. I searched the internet fruitlessly for more copper lurex and eventually came across some copper lame from the USA. If it arrives by the middle of the week I will draft out a new Norse helmet design but to be on the safe side I have started another bird on copper coloured silk. I was very impressed with the service that I received from The Silk Route www.thesilkroute.co.uk as they sent samples and a length of dupion the very next day after I phoned. However, while searching for copper fabrics on Etsy, I found a leather manufacturer in Texas that produces hides embossed to look like ostrich or lizard skin in a fabulous range of colours.  I bet a leather quilt would look amazing; although weighty, it would be durable!

I managed to finish off the sunflower quilt and packaged it up ready to post when I go into town. The customer quilt waiting to be done next is a long, thin hand-pieced hexagon project. After prevaricating about the copper fabric for a few hours, I decided to have a side project and ran up a couple of new quilted Ipad covers. The red oilcloth looked unexciting so I added embroidery stitches, ribbon and rickrack. I had to sew everything from the reverse side as the sewing machine foot kept sticking to the plastic fabric. I want Freya to learn how to make these as she could probably sell them to her school friends. While working on these small, easy projects I mulled over a few thoughts on future "wholecloth-with-a-twist" quilts. I have also been thinking about something that involves African masks for some time but I will have to put these ideas into some sort of project queue!

I taught the same class of children for 3 days in a row so I managed to learn all 31 of their names, worked out how to use the interactive whiteboard and I marked all of their work. They studied The Olympics, Jamaica and Decimals and were suitably impressed that I had downloaded topic related poetry and reggae onto my Ipad. Unfortunately, the grass was waterlogged so they did not experience a hockey lesson with me wearing red Doc Martens since the rubber soles of my old trainers have now crumbled to dust.

I toured the Loch Lomond Quilt Show with Ellen which gave us an opportunity to catch up and talk about one or two quilty trips that we would like to do. We thought that the most impressive exhibition was "Remember Me? Quilts Honouring the Women of Scotland" by Lorraine Sullivan and Tina Gravatt. They have made almost 80 different quilts inspired by all sorts of women in history from domestic servants, to explorers and medical pioneers. I think they have created an incredible and diverse body of work and I believe they have been invited to display some of their collection at Houston.

We had afternoon tea at the West Kirk in Dumbarton where the ladies had hung bunting and covered the tables in embroidered tablecloths to attract visitors to their "tearoom". The meringues and homebakes were delicious and we had a chance to catch up with other quilters on tour around the quilt exhibitions in churches. There was much discussion on the merits of the winning quilts and of other shows that quilters were planning to attend throughout the year. I had a chat with award winning quilter, Philippa Naylor who has been working on her Houston entry for 18 months rather than approximately 18 days. She had me worried for an hour or so after informing me that photographs of my entry would have to be put onto a CD and sent by post. I used my Iphone to check the rules and I was mightily relieved that electronic submissions are allowed! So I have around a week to complete my 3 latest Norse pieces - maybe even a fourth if my Ebay purchase arrives promptly!

 

 

Gold Snakeskin and Silver Spandex

On Bank Holiday Monday I informed my children that the next time I take them shopping collectively will be when they are all over 25 years old. Everyone got something in the end but no-one enjoyed browsing in the same shops. I was pleased with my purchase of a set of plastic boxes that had London Underground stations printed onto the lids but I unwisely allowed Fenella to buy a "make your own giraffe kit". When we tackled it later on I found the instructions impossible to follow, it had two leg pieces missing and it moulted fur fabric all over my sewing machine.

I spent a day in school where I had to teach data handling - explaining range, median, mean, mode and histograms. I wish Miss Rudland, who bullied me into passing my O-level maths exam third time lucky could see me now!

I had an interesting invitation to attend the Vintage Festival in Northants in July and take the Yurt as an exhibit. It looks like a really cool event that I could take the children to if I hire a trailer for the Yurt and a load of camping gear. If the logistics all fall into place then we could have fun at the roller disco, pogo to The Damned, and make bunting at one of the "upcycling" craft workshops.

I made the decision to suspend customer quilts and unnecessary side projects until my Houston entries are finished so the background of the sunflower quilt is not finished yet. I have been tempted to run up a few ipad and kindle covers but I am being strong willed and trying to resist the urge to quilt some oilcloth.

I quilted the gold Norse birdman again onto some gold vinyl snakeskin. I don't think the definition is quite as good as it is on the very basic lame as it already has some texture. I now have the choice of painting in some shading or retrimming the already bound original to the uniform size that I have decided on for the Houston entries.

I had a near meltdown when I was told that the copper lurex silk lame was lost in the post and that the supplier had none left. I ordered some more copper pieces of spandex, chiffon and taffeta online and just have to hope that one of them will do the job.

I started confidently on the new version of the silver helmet but to my horror I discovered that the ruler base on the longarm was scuffing off the metallic surface. This is because I quilt these pieces upside down with the metallic fabric as the backing. I decided to start again with a new piece of silver spandex which meant that I had to draw the whole design out yet again and I had to follow all of the lines carefully without using a ruler. In the end, I think the new version of the helmet is actually better than the original. I may even consider pinning the finished one back onto the quilt frame to add more quilting behind the Celtic motifs.

Self Inflicted Stress

I had a wonderful Monday morning catching up on paperwork and emails and was enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee when the phone started ringing. It was as if the Quilting World knew that I didn't have any school commitments this week. Within a short space of time I had agreed to take in several customer quilts, stitch a huge sports day banner for Freya's house at school, visit a craft shop to discuss teaching workshops, and set up an appointment with a fabric wholesale rep. In addition, there were numerous emails arranging the APQS stand at Festival of Quilts, replies to my queries about entering quilts for Houston and a lesson with new longarm quilting pupil who was delighted at the random circles we placed on her quilt top.

I crossed my fingers that I would not get any calls from schools so that I could fit everything in since my self-imposed deadlines are starting to alarm me. I have to complete and photograph the new Norse triptych by the end of May. I have now drawn out 3 identically sized patterns and the gold bird-man is set up and ready to go on gold vinyl snakeskin. I have made hanging sleeves for the Ostrych pieces so that I can hand sew them all on when I am hanging around at school swimming lessons.

Despite worrying about my expanding quilting To-Do list, I had a day out with Tania catching up with another friend on Wednesday. I bought a Danish fabric bread basket in a gift shop simply because I thought it could be adapted in many fabrics and sizes. I was intrigued by a new method of making bunting so perhaps I should make some in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. When I got home I ordered a screen printing kit as we had been talking about spending some creative time together. Tania has an unopened candle making kit, Mo wants to paint some goose eggs and I want to take more photographs. I would really like to quilt a piece of oilcloth fabric ready to make some new kindle covers and bags but I have had to tell myself that this is not a priority until after the triptych is finished.

I quilted some freehand sunflowers onto a customer quilt that is a single piece of fabric printed with French fields. The background will be filled in later with some green swirls and loops. I didn't want to work on other people's projects all weekend so I decided to complete Freya's Christmas quilt made from giant hexagons. I think I finally have set-in seams with quarter inch stops and starts sussed. It was fairly time consuming but obviously did not take as long as hand piecing. It was fairly greedy on fabric but ideal for stash reduction. It would be fun to make a quilt from plain fabrics but appliqué other hexagons or shapes onto the large pieces or just fill them in with some very nice quilting. The idea of the scrappy Christmas quilts is not to do complicated quilting but those are possibly famous last words!

 

Embarking on a Saga

When I was not confiscating contraband items from school children this week I started to look into some quilt competitions for The Ostrych. I sent off my registration for Festival of Quilts just in time for the deadline then studied the requirements for Houston. The IQA show is juried but if successful, the quilts would have to be in Houston in mid August when FOQ is in full swing. I considered entering 4 quilts to each show and renaming each set of four a "Quostrych" but when I laid them all out it bothered me that they are all slightly different sizes. I think I can get away with this with the full set of 8 but 4 slightly different sized quilts seemed odd. I have decided that the answer is going to be to make 3 new pieces that are all of the same size for Houston and enter a conventional Triptych. All I have to decide now is whether to make 3 identical pieces in different coloured shiny fabrics or create 3 entirely new quilted carvings.

If they don't make it into the show then I will have some items that I can sell to help fund a quilty trip. Alternatively, I have the germ of an idea developing… perhaps I should just work my way steadily through the periodic table but not necessarily to a self-imposed ridiculous deadline.  It would be like a Norse Saga that keeps growing over time. I am frustrated that some of my projects are still on the back burner because I have not managed to clone myself yet. The Totem Poles and the Armoured Horse seem to have been mothballed for now and my Australian version of Bewitched is no further forward, and Freya's giant hexagon quilt is still in pieces.

I have a few customer quilts to catch up with and there is a steady stream of supply teaching taking me out of my workshop for at least 3 days each week. I completed a quilt for a customer who had made her Church Minister a special retirement wall-hanging.

I had a great day in Fochabers teaching a group from Speyside Quilters my Wild Wholecloth Workshop which they all seemed to enjoy. They worked very hard to burn off the wonderful pavlova and fruitcake that was served with coffee.

I was also side-tracked by helping Fergus with his guitar practice looking up chord demos on Youtube. Admittedly, I have been occupied obsessively restoring my blog on WordPress – using old notebooks to rewrite missing pieces and tidying up the photos and text so that it all looks more cohesive. I really don't suppose that many readers will want to trawl right back to the beginning but looking back has been a fascinating experience for me. My quilting life remains as chaotic as it ever was but it is interesting to see how ideas formed, developed or were simply abandoned.  I seem to have written rather a lot in 4 years; almost 110 000 words actually! I have noticed that other bloggers don't seem to ramble on quite like me. I simply need to apply the same discipline to writing patterns and I will soon deal with The Book that is constantly looming over me like an albatross.

How the OSTRYCH got its name...

Since I have been on a roll with the Norse series, I made an effort to crack on with quilting the piece that looks rather like seaweed. The brown taffeta looks amazing outside in the sun, just like a piece of polished bronze or maybe iron which is just what I had hoped. I bound this one and the blue piece so that I am not left with a marathon session at the end. It will be bad enough attaching 8 hanging sleeves and labels. I intend to add some embroidery stitches or couch something sparkly down all of the bindings as a finishing touch later on. My sewing machine went on strike again after Norse Piece #7 but after I cleaned to fluff, and paint dust out of the bobbin case it decided to co-operate once more.

Amanda visited on Wednesday for another session of longarming tuition. She had bravely decided to longarm quilt a huge hand-pieced hexagon quilt and because she was limited to one day in the studio she chose to use the large spiral continuous template. She was delighted by her efforts, especially since the beautiful quilt top had been folded up in a cupboard for some time. She will eventually turn in all of the many edges by hand instead of cutting off the hexagons!

I taught 5-6 year olds for two days and they enjoyed working on dramas of the cannibalistic story of Hansel & Gretel. Some of the children wanted non-speaking parts as the witch's cat but they were very good at loud purring and miaowing. They loved the part where the witch gets shoved into the oven but they let her out before she was cooked alive as long as she promised not to kidnap any more children.  If I had been the supply teacher for the class for a few more days it would have been fun to construct the gingerbread house.

I had a really positive business discussion with APQS over the weekend and I am excited that I will be working alongside Claudia Pfeil in Ireland at the new International Quilt Festival in June.

I have been plugging away at restoring as much of the Blog as possible to Wordpress by trawling my computer's archives for Word documents and photos back to late 2008. By the end of next week I will have put back as much as I can including an entry about our family holiday to Carcassonne in 2009 that had disappeared completely from the computer. Luckily I found the original handwritten notes in ink in a real notebook with pagesJ. When this laborious exercise is complete I will print the entire blog. It has been funny looking back at all of the entries over the past 3+ years. I continuously seem to be looking for more time and trying to fit far too much in. It is also interesting to look back at my progress and reflect on how ideas such as the Yurt project developed.

Over the weekend I quilted the eighth piece in the Norse metallic wholecloth series. The tissue lame was not easy to work with even after adding some thin Vilene; there are a couple of tiny creases that I will have to ignore or disguise.

I have been playing around with ideas for the title of the series: I figured that since a three piece quilt is called a TRI-ptych then an eight piece quilt could be called an OCT-pytch. I was amused that sounds similar to OSTRICH so perhaps my Norse quilts could be known collectively as an OS-(p)t(R)ych? I wondered if that was really a convincing enough reason for the unusual title so I consulted Wikipedia and was delighted to discover among the various definitions that  "Os" can mean an Anglo-Saxon pagan god in the Old English language - this seemed appropriate for some of the strange carvings of Viking figures that I have been quilting. Therefore, the series is going to be known as OSTRYCH and the individual pieces will be known by their metallic symbol from the periodic table. I need to try to stick to metals that the Vikings would have had. Copper, iron, lead, tin and gold are obvious but I will have undertake research to find out whether I can have titanium or cobalt for the blue piece. If not I will have to convince myself that the Vikings were able to trade overseas for some of the foreign metals!

 

 

Easter Hols in Edinburgh & More Norse Quilting

We had a great family holiday in Edinburgh, travelling by train from Stonehaven. There were times when the children wished we had taken the car as they are not used to walking for long distances on pavements. We stayed in a new Premier Inn on Princes Street with a fantastic view of the Castle and of the chaotic roadworks in the street that represent the controversial and hugely expensive Edinburgh Tram Project. We visited the revitalised National Museum of Scotland with its amazing Natural History gallery. Everyone reached knowledge saturation point after a while so we left without having seen absolutely everything. We made a fleeting visit to the National Gallery before the children had a cultural meltdown. They were not particularly impressed by the sculptures at Contemporary Art Gallery which did not have any of its famous paintings on display. Freya even muttered that she wished she had chosen Biology instead of Art when we tried to understand the significance of what looked like worktop samples from a DIY shop.

The Camera Obscura Museum was great fun: there were optical illusions, crazy mirrors and weird holograms. This was followed by a visit to the Museum of Childhood which housed a huge collection of evil looking dolls. I think we found them more disturbing than a trip to the Edinburgh Dungeons where actors recreated scenes from a medieval cannibal cave and the dastardly deeds of notorious body-snatchers, Burke & Hare.

A day at the Zoo was obligatory as we wanted to see the new Pandas. The male one was not on show and the female one was fast asleep. She was cute but not as entertaining as the Penguin Parade which has sadly been suspended while their pool is being repaired. The family consensus was that we have officially now made our last zoo visit since we agreed that we don't really like looking at animals through glass or rather, not seeing the animals because they are hiding.

We enjoyed some great cafes and restaurants in Edinburgh. The Dome was delightfully opulent, Browns had wonderful polished brass tables, the mussels were superb at the Mussel Inn and the Hard Rock Cafe was simply cool. The Georgian architecture and cosmopolitan, busy streets certainly made a change from our usual surroundings.

I have searched my computer and all backups to try to find all of the Word documents that I have ever written for my blog. I will slowly restore it back as far as late 2008 when my old laptop crashed and lost everything. This is a shame and I wish I had at least printed the old website blog out while I still had it as I had intended L

I had a productive weekend in my workshop. I utility-quilted a triangular quilt for a project that will feature in a forthcoming edition of P&Q Magazine, painted the reverse of the Norse bird with a roller to hide the fact that I drew the pattern out on an old sheet using a black biro and I have quilted two thirds of a new piece onto shot brown and orange taffeta that looks rather like Viking seaweed. There only remains one more piece until the "Ostrych" is complete yet I have two more shiny pieces of fabric and I have found a great source for plenty more. I think I may have missed the point of creating a series – perhaps all of the pieces should have been the same size or even the same pattern although I am sure that I would have become bored with the repetition. Maybe the next time I decide to tackle something like this I should PLAN to make a set of matching, small quilts!

 

When I attempted to upload my weekly blog onto my website earlier this week I was horrified to discover that Blogware had ceased to exist and I no longer had access to any of my archives from the past four years. I frantically contacted Helen Bantock, my web-mistress, who had a long and fruitless discussion with the web provider, Fasthosts. They claimed that they had sent several warning emails advising me to move the blog to Wordpress before Blogware became unavailable. Needless to say, they were unsympathetic when I informed them that I had no knowledge of any such correspondence so I made the decision to close my account with them. I probably should have done this some time ago since there have been several other occasions when blogs and emails have gone missing and the customer service team was not helpful.

It is just as well that I had kept a dual blog for the past couple of years, obviously not quite trusting my web provider and publishing simultaneously via Blogger. Helen was able to put a link straight to this and replace the web-based version but I was afraid that I had probably lost the first two years of my online journal. She now thinks she has managed to gain access to them but we haven't figured out how to republish them yet. Luckily, I always wrote and saved the blog entries in Word so I have copies of the text but not the pictures that were pasted in separately. If necessary, I can eventually repost everything manually but it could take some time as there are over 100 missing entries! For peace of mind I have decided to continue publishing my blog in two places: www.thequiltquine.blogspot.com and www.thequiltquine.wordpress.com

This all made me think quite profoundly of how transient our 21^st Century civilisation could be to the archaeologists of the future. It just shows that we need to keep hard copies of what is important to us. We only know so much about Humanity's recent past due to scrolls, parchments, stone carvings and works of art. I have hundreds of photographs stored digitally but very few have been printed and displayed in an album. I love the power and scope of digital communication but I think I will invest in an archival box and fill it with old-fashioned paper documents.

Much to her disgust our little black & white cat, Bitzi MacBob had to see the vet after regurgitating disgusting lumps of undigested rabbit. He was initially concerned that it might have been a tumour but luckily concluded she was suffering from an impacted colon. The solution was to squirt laxative solution into her tightly closed, hissing mouth. She looked a sorry sight with grubby, sticky fur all down her chin and she could have done with a bath but we were not going to add insult to injury.

I attached bindings to the Norse Metallurgy quilts that have been completed so far. I added a fifth one in dark grey satin to the collection. I followed this with purple silk lurex that is meant to be titanium and quilted a fantastical bird that seems to be some sort of Viking swan without webbed feet or a peacock minus a fancy tail.  I need to try to decide when to end this series - I am a little concerned that I won't know when to stop... perhaps I will feel the need to create Norse wholecloths celebrating the entire Periodic table using as many theatrical and shiny fabrics that I can find. I did not used to be able to figure out how or why some quilters and textiles artists produced an extended body of work but after working on two quilted Yurts, I seem to be developing an obsessive habit of making several related pieces. I am not sure yet how it will be displayed: Triptychs seem to be a popular idea so I wonder whether a series of 8 quilts might be an Octoptych or possibly an Ostrych?

 

 

Why Aye Yurt!

Although I had told myself to leave plenty of time to pack for my Yurt expedition to Newcastle, I ended up teaching in school for two days. After making up maps, stories and wrapping fake parcels for "Katie Morag" with Primary 3 I dashed home, loaded up the Landy then went to watch my own children's marvellous school show. I am stunned by how well everyone sang and how many words and lines they all managed to remember. Fenella has brought her fantastic penguin costume home. Perhaps she might like to wear it on our trip to the Edinburgh Zoo next week?

I had a clear run down to Gosforth Park Racecourse and arrived mid afternoon. The Yurt had to be unloaded, crammed into the goods lift of the catering kitchen and set up on the first floor of the grand main building. We managed to round up a few volunteers to get the frame and roof up and within a couple of hours I was satisfied that all was ready, although it was set into a corner as space was a little tight.

My B&B accommodation was interesting... it looked cottagey from the outside but inside it was not so much "shabby-chic" as just well, shabby. The en-suite bathroom was brown and there was no wifi for an internet junkie. Being a typical Brit, I didn't like to grumble. The lady cooking my breakfast was lovely and it seemed rude to buck the trend from all of the other delighted comments in the visitors' book. I secretly enjoyed watching trash TV from a choice of two channels and drinking plonk out of a tooth-brushing glass but I shuddered when the milk in the little jug for tea went gloopy. I eventually plucked up the courage to tell the show organisers that I wouldn't recommend it for future reference. It has to be noted that it has given me far more to write about than if it had been perfectly appointed. I do wonder about some B&B's though. I reckon if I had one it would be perfect: quilts, decent showers, wifi, Gin & Tonic in a mini fridge, sewing machines and home baked bread!

I really enjoyed the show - the people and traders were friendly, the setting was super and as a bonus there was the excitement of seeing some horse racing on two days. I taught several workshops including a circles journal quilt, free motion quilting samplers and a zipped cosmetics bag in an open plan area upstairs overlooking the race-course. There were other classes running alongside mine in crochet, rug-making and paper crafts. My students were very willing and all seemed extremely pleased with what they achieved. The brand new Janome machines on loan from the Singer Sewing Centre in Whitley Bay purred along very nicely. This generated a lot of interest in the local sewing machine shop and there were a few sales so by the end of the show I managed to persuade them to let me have a good deal on a Lady Valet dress-making dummy.

I went on a jaunt to IKEA one evening to buy some cheap cushions for the Yurt. I bought some small ones for 80p each and a fleece blanket. I quickly ran up some very basic cushion covers with fringed edges in my makeshift studio. Typically, I also bought some useful random IKEA items such as a hard-boiled egg slicer, a silicone ice cube tray that produces novelty-fish-shaped chunks of ice and a spare set of pinking shears.

It was pointed out to me by my landlady that there are quite a few footballers' wives and girlfriends living in the Ponteland area which would explain the flash cars, Waitrose and some very tanned ladies with glamorous hair-dos. I went out for supper one evening with Crafting Angels, Jen and Rosemary from Broxden in Central Scotland. We had a good time, discussed a little business and enjoyed a spot of people-watching.

 

Guiltily, I phoned home to wish Freya "Happy Birthday" but it sounded like she had a good time anyway. Tania provided her with a surprise birthday tea, she went to Bands Nite at the town hall, unwrapped lots of super presents and finished school for the Easter holidays.

Dismantling the Yurt after the show went very smoothly and Robert from Norman Cummings Fabrics was a great help in holding onto the crown until all of the rafters were removed. It was decided that it was far easier to carry all of the gear down the terraced seating and park the Landy near the paddocks. I wish that someone would grab a camera unexpectedly one day. I must have looked like a very odd turtle balancing the crown on my back. Everything got shoved in and I found a friendly farmer to assist with the rope lashing that I always do just in case any of the cargo straps fail. I had a scenic drive home through beautiful countryside via Coldstream on the A697 with the last of some unseasonably summery weather. The children were pleased to see me return home from my latest trip and even helped to unload the Landy and stow away the Yurt until its next outing. I paid them a little pocket money from my postcard sales so they may even feel inclined to help out another time ;)

Hippie Habits

I decided to leave the Yurt rafters and doors strapped onto the Landrover roofrack and Freya accused me of driving around like a hippie loaded up with camping gear. Living up to this reputation, I decided to make the most of the glorious spring weather and cooked sausages over a wood fire while the children strummed their old guitar.

It felt like a very short week – after unloading the Landy from the London trip I had to make sure that I had prepared plenty of kits for the forthcoming Yurt outing and workshops in Newcastle. I also did two days of supply teaching and took Freya shopping to make up for the fact that I will be away for her birthday. She took some time to find the right pair of jeans and she was horrified at how her spending money was soon spent. She was disappointed not to find exactly what she had in mind so perhaps it is time to start encouraging some easy attempts at basic dress-making. I think that some hippie style smocks in a Liberty print would look cool but I am sure she would not agree with my idea of fashion. We went for lunch in a sushi bar and had fun picking dishes off the conveyor belt – octopus balls and hairy shrimps were simply scrumptious!

I outlined Norse Metallurgy #5 on dark grey satin but I felt that some of my lines were a little wobbly. Hopefully I will be able to disguise that when I add the background fill. Just for "fun" I joined some of the giant hexagons together by machine. Despite marking the quarter inch stopping points very carefully and using a lot of steam when pressing, there are some joins that are not too neat. I could resort to some remedial decorative embroidery after the quilting is complete if necessary.

Yurt Lush London

I drove from Aberdeenshire to North London in 11 ½ hours, listening to BBC Radio 4 and eating rather a lot of sweets. A long journey like that is actually easier done solo as there is no-one else to consider when making stops and there are no bored passengers. I was relieved that the free sat-nav app on my phone told me exactly where to go once I reached the capital. I would never have managed with an atlas and some sticky notes. I was very fortunate to be able to stay with Tania's step-mother, Maggie, since it meant that I could park the Landy safely and travel into the show by Tube once everything was set up.

Predictably, there was not a welcome party awaiting me at Olympia but I managed to hijack a large trolley and a steward who bravely assisted with the job of setting up the frame. The Yurt can be quick and easy to assemble if there are a handful of helpers; it takes a bit longer to get sorted if there is only one or two, particularly if they have seen a yurt before... Everything eventually got tweaked into place, the doors even got touched up with a little paint where they had been scratched in transit and the new pompom trim was pinned into place. There were even electric spotlights inside that replaced my fairy lights and slideshow.

Mollie Makes Magazine was using the Yurt as a "meet and greet" venue for their author book signings so they had brought along some vintage furnishings from a shop in Bath. One of their team explained that in their part of the world an expression of delight is Gurt Lush so my exhibition should be called "Yurt Lush"! It would have been great if we could have acquired a couple of large sofas to create a chill-out area inside. I think I will take along 6 folding chairs with cushions to the next exhibition – there is a limit to how much gear I can fit into the Landy after all! I enjoyed finding out about how a craft magazine is put together by a small editorial team and I also had the opportunity to talk to a few authors and their publishers. It has given me a new impetus to take the long overdue Yurt book forward.

The Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia, Kensington was an interesting mixture of cross-stitch, crochet, knitting, felting and paper-crafts on three floors. There was a special exhibit by Quilts 4 London of a selection of the quilts and pennants made to present to Olympic athletes at London 2012. Many of these had been created by groups and represented themes from their local area and several were patriotically red, white and blue. There was a Quilting Live area where visitors were helped to make simple signature blocks using Liberty of London fabrics to make a diamond jubilee celebratory quilt for The Queen.

It is always wonderful to see the reaction of visitors to the Quilted Yurt at a show as I have to admit that it really is rather impressive in real life. I tend to forget about it while it is all packed up in my workshop but it is exciting when so many people stop and simply say, "Wow!!" They wanted to know how long it all took, could they buy a book, did I make them to order, what was the amazing gold fabric, and was it waterproof?? I caught up with a few online friends in person, Judi from P&Q Magazine gave me a commission and my Mother came down to see me on a bus trip from Norfolk. I met up with an old school friend in Crouch End whom I had not seen for 7 years and we simply carried on from where we had last left off over a couple of gins followed by a very nice Thai curry.

I enjoyed meeting all sorts of people with many different interests. There was an inspiring group of women who had arrived in the UK as refugees who were involved in craft co-operatives in Spitalfields. They loved the welcoming roundness of the Yurt and wondered if they could recreate something similar to use for story-telling and music activities. I hope to hear how members of the Tuwngani Project or Songolo Feet take their ideas further. Lots of people wondered where else the Yurt may appear in the future. The stumbling block seems to be that it takes up quite a lot of expensive floor space but I am more than happy for it to be used as a venue or to contain another exhibition inside. It was amusing that people sat around the Yurt and leaned up against its walls to have their picnic lunches. It is such an invitingly tactile quilted project that I wouldn't dream of telling people not to touch it. They seem to enjoy pointing out all of the patterns and details to each other, wondering how the painted circles are made.

Once the show was underway I rather enjoyed myself in London. There is always a sense of adventure when travelling by Tube. There are crowds of people, lots of interesting conversations to eavesdrop, huge escalators; will the doors shut on a packed train? and regular announcements, of "Mind the Gap!" I found it fascinating that a girl was applying her makeup and that two members of the chorus line in "Chicago" were discussing who had got parts on Broadway. I would love to buy some moquette fabric to make some bags or cushions – I could buy something basic and ready made in the London Underground Museum Shop but I feel that the addition of a few pompoms would make the project even more special. My tube station was closed without warning one day so I had to make part of the journey on the top deck of a red London double decker bus.

The last day of the show was a little slower and most exhibitors were rather weary. At 5 o'clock I packed away all of the panels, roof and accessories in less than 20 minutes but there was no sign of anyone to help dismantle the frame. I admit that I began to seethe with frustration as I asked several times for a man with a trolley to assist. Eventually I was assigned two helpful guys and the frame came down in about 5 minutes. They helped me to get the roof spars and doors lashed onto the Landy roof-rack and I battled my way through heavy Sunday night traffic in the dark.

I left London at 5.30 am the next morning so that I could get on my way before rush hour. There were several hold-ups on the way back to Scotland due to some nasty motorway accidents and I was relieved when the traffic gradually thinned out in the North. It was a 13 hour marathon trip punctuated by the odd stop for diesel and delicacies such as creme eggs. I thanked my Landy profusely for being such a sport at the end of my journey and just left the Yurt roof and doors on top ready for my trip to Pins & Needles at Newcastle Racecourse at the end of next week. My children were pleased to see me again - I was immediately barraged with questions about WW2 weaponry for a project and "how is it possible for a train to travel underground in a tube?" I groaned slightly when I checked my diary and discovered that I have two teaching days this week and I have not quite finished preparing kits for next week's workshops. I will just have to brew up some strong coffee and get going...

In the Pink

There is nothing like a lack of time to concentrate the mind. Despite having had months to prepare the Yurt for its exhibition at Stitch and Craft Olympia, I only really got cracking this week. I regretted having sent all of the bunting and trimmings to the USA. I ordered many more metres of pompom braid, made new bunting for the roof, and dyed some crochet flowers magenta to replace the original feather cockades. I really don't think I like procion dye – it always looks so promisingly vibrant then most of it gets rinsed away. I must order some more Hungarian dye as the colours fix far more reliably. I even had to resort to using a box of purple Dylon to dye a piece of vintage linen that had been marked with blue ink for cross stitch as I couldn't find the original backing for the last ever yurt panel that I never got around to quilting. It was actually pieced at the end of last summer in honour of the rampant weeds in my garden.

I only had two days in which to do all of this since I was teaching in school again this week and I have to admit that I think I worked harder because of that limitation. I quilted "Willowbay Herb", a basic strippy panel, the same way that I quilted "5 Bar Gate" that is now in Wisconsin. I painted in all of the skinny lines and added some machine embroidery. I stopped myself from adding even more embellishments and crystals as I simply had to get the binding and Velcro attached.

There was a bit of a farce with the Post Office this week... I paid a customs bill for Parcel Force to the Royal Mail online by mistake. These two organisations are related but are no longer the same company. There was much to-ing and fro-ing between automated customer services until I paid the customs bill again to the correct company then got the original one refunded. After all that I received an email informing me that the parcel had been mislaid. I decided not to bother getting even more annoyed and anyway, my local Postie turned up with it the next day!

The over-priced package contained the giant hexagon die from Accuquilt. I couldn't help myself – as soon as I had finished packing all of the Yurt gear into the Landy, I had to go and cut out Freya's Christmas quilt. I am really enjoying these easy in-between projects where I don't have to worry obsessively about perfect points and I can use whatever fabric I happen to have as long as it is vaguely Christmassy. I may just sew a row or two tomorrow after I have collected a new batch of Yurt postcards and packed my overnight bag...

Making Up for Lost Time

I resent the time that is wasted by being ill! At the start of the week I had a couple of days feeling under the weather and all of the good intentions on my Must Do List got scrapped. I wound myself back up to speed by winging it in almost every class in a school on a supply teaching day from story time with P1 to French conversation with P7. I was incensed by this week's caption on the front cover on the Times Educational Supplement for Scotland suggesting that "undesirable" teachers from England might cross the border and take up teaching posts. I wondered whether I might have missed the Referendum on Independence while I was ill! Of course, there was an explanatory article inside the magazine but as someone who gained a perfectly respectable B.Ed Hons. degree in England, I am still drafting my objection to such an inflammatory headline.

I gradually began to make up for lost time in my studio but instead of purposefully getting organised to take the Yurt to the looming "Stitch and Craft" show in London 15th – 18^th March, I cut and pieced Fergus's Christmas quilt, completed a small Norse carving, and worked on my quilted projector screen. I did eventually order 18 metres of pompom braid and I sorted out a new postcard order so apart from finding the door knobs for the Yurt that may have got lost and quilting the very, very last "Willowbay Herb" Yurt panel,  I think everything is under control. Everything that is, apart from fitting in 3 teaching days, dreading the prospect of a 12 hour drive to London and trying not to worry about getting all of the teaching kits ready for "Pins & Needles" in Newcastle at the end of the month...