Spikes of Activity

I have had one of those seemingly busy weeks where I have got through a lot of thread and driven the kids around all over the place but my To Do list is still far too long and I have not sewn a single stitch on one of my own projects. 

I started the week with Helene’s super African quilt that will brighten up her son’s cell-like room at University. She was able to tell me where every single patch had come from and the whole crazy mix looked fantastic in its black background.

The Postie thought it was my birthday because so many packages arrived from Ebay but it was all stuff for one of my secret projects and I had to resist the temptation of playing with the contents in order to work on a very intricate Judy Niemeyer double wedding ring. 

The customer showed me the original pattern which had been quilted in spikes all over but I decided that it was just a bit too spiky so I decided on curved lines and pebbles in the squashed centres and that it also needed stitch-in-the-ditch. It took rather longer than I anticipated and I only just finished it on Sunday evening, determining to mess about with some of my own stuff for a day or two this coming week. 

Wacky Colours, Weird Fabrics and Wondrous Yarns

Predictably, I did not exactly follow instructions in Gloria Loughman’s 2-day class on playing with colour. It was a super class, with fantastic exercises in how to combine and blend colours. She brought an amazing selection of quilts that glowed with subtle light changes. Students were assigned the task of cutting diamonds or squares from hand-dyed fabrics and blending them from light to dark from the top to the bottom of the quilt onto another hand-dyed background. I had already decided that I wanted to use leftovers from Bifrost but those neon colours needed to be more scattered. Smaller squares and cut-outs were layered on top. Gloria remembered my subversive approach from the class that I was in 6 years ago when I put together the yurt panel, “Salmon Leap” and declared that she had not expected a different outcome this time round. My finished piece is loud, not subtle and I have decided that I might as well go the whole hog and print with some Indian stamps using neon paints before I quilt it with lots of circles. Despite not working on quite the same task as the teacher suggested, I have thought about how I could put her ideas into practice on an almost monochrome piece. I have so many other things that I want to work on that I will just have to jot that idea somewhere safe until I get around to it.

I spent a lot of time and money online this week sourcing and ordering materials for forthcoming projects. My recalcitrant Postie will be busy delivering paints, rulers, and some unusual materials that will relate to the top-secret parcel that arrived from India. This is one that will definitely be kept under wraps for a while! 

A large bag of fancy yarns from “Wool for Ewe” in Aberdeen is waiting for me to find time to test their couchability. This is just one technique that I hope to employ when I finally get around to dealing with BzB. I still need to work out how I am going to tackle this behemoth of an anti-wholecloth… 

I am not entirely sure what the appeal was, other than I like to work with unusual fabrics, but I decided to make the Merchant & Mills classic top 64 for myself in antique British oilcloth. It was rather nice to work with as it moisturised my hands the more I handled it but it did not have any “give” in it at all. Just try to imagine something made from the waterproof wrappings that might have encased secret plans in WW2 on a dangerous submarine mission. I have to say, the top went together beautifully - I managed to follow the instructions and the top-stitching looked good. However, it only just fits me and I discovered that once it was on it seemed destined to stay on unless I could summon help to peel it off. On the plus side, it seems to be totally wind proof and I should think that water will run straight off. If I can find a keen gardener or fisherman, smaller than me who wants a most useful top then I will hand it over. I had high hopes that I would make myself lots of useful tops in denim and wool from my sturdy cardboard pattern but I think I might need to order a larger size.

The one thing that did seem to work out well this week was peeling off the old garden yurt cover that was teeming with earwigs and find a couple of dry-weather hours to throw on 3 brand-new, large tarps that should keep the worst of the winter rain out. Instead of cutting the spare ends off the rectangular tarps, I have rolled them up and trapped them under the top cover, hoping that water will run off the old roof cover and down the outside of the walls. I will just have to see how it survives the next blustery wind and hope that it does not just become a new way for stagnant water and creep-crawlies to collect.

Self Promotion

I feel quite uncomfortable about “showing off”. Kay and I have had many discussions and laughs about how our generation was not encouraged to blow our own trumpet. We send each other messages when a new quilter on the scene lands an incredible deal designing fabric or has a thread range named after them wondering how they got noticed. We reckon it is because they are good at self promotion. I argued with myself then finally plucked up the courage to send out messages to some Big Cheeses in the Quilt World to ask if they would do a short video introduction for my Ebook. Most of them ignored me but I was delighted that a generous handful agreed to endorse my book, even though they have not even received a review copy yet. I hope to have a few “Stunt Reviewers” who will introduce the book in their own unique ways, in different languages and accents using their phone cameras. I might even have another go at introducing it myself without fluffing up my lines. I asked Fergus whether it would be possible to lip-synch or subtitle Bluecat. I am keen to make sure that a bit of quirky self-promotion may actually sell this book which took so long to produce and that it does not need to be immediately discounted as a flop!

After checking that my ETSY shop was still open, despite all of the listings having elapsed, I managed to upload Tartan Tattoo as a PDF pattern for $10.00 - sales in the first 24 hours have not exactly been brisk;) www.etsy.com/shop/TheQuiltQuine

Maybe there will be a rush after TT has been exhibited at the Open European Quilt Show in Maastricht! A very nice acceptance letter from Ada Honders arrived this week so I will soon have to think about re-blocking it before packing it up to travel to Holland.

I used the Bernina Q24 to freehand some snail-spirals onto my nephew’s quilt and the Milliennium was used to quilt a honeycomb pattern all over Eleanor’s reversible quilt. Because she had added over-sized plain borders onto one of the quilts, it was easier than usual to make sure that the 2 quilts were properly centred. She asked me to complete the binding and I was really pleased with how it turned out. 

I completed another Merchant & Mills trapeze dress using the cardboard pattern. I added two simple pockets onto the front but I was annoyed that I while I was busy listening to The Archers on Radio 4, I forgot to pattern match the multi-coloured zebras and then discovered that the fabric did not fare well with unpicking so I just had to leave them alone. 

Since I seemed to be ahead of myself and I was not ready to launch straight into one of my Big Projects, I experimented with couching threads on the Q24. Some of the yarn went through the couching foot and was attached successfully while other yarn did not get caught so easily. I spent most of an afternoon swapping threads and yarns so I know what to look for when I visit a specialist yarn shop. I also had a go with a twin needle which looked great on the top of the quilt but a bit messy on the back. I was curious to see how the Q24 would manage with quilting through some old leather that I have been “saving”. It stitched very nicely indeed and it looks like it will not be necessary to soften it first. Some other pieces of the vintage leather are quite brittle and dry so I soaked a sample in baby oil and hung it outside to dry. Several days later it was still slimey so I think a different moisturiser might be necessary. 

I am pleased that I have got on top of my customer quilts so I can enjoy a 2-day course with Australian quilt teacher, Gloria Loughman this week. This time I intend to “stick to her script” and not go off and make a far larger piece involving fabrics that shred or melt…

Back to School and My Workshop!

FOQ seems like weeks ago but this week Luana Rubin posted a super picture on Facebook that was taken of Kay Bell, Luana, Me and Sarah Caldwell outside the NEC. This was quite an international line-up - Kay is English but lives in Scotland, Luana is American, I’m 50/50 English/Scots and live in Scotland and Sarah is a New-Zealander who lives in Switzerland!

Although I had not technically taken any time out of my workshop over the summer, when the kids went back to school I went back into “work” mode. I don’t really know what happened to our summer. The weather was not great yet despite not doing much, it seemed to fly past. Freya began her final year at school and Fenella joined her siblings at The Academy. It will be the last year that all 3 of my children will attend the same school. Nell had a great first week, apart from getting sore feet in brand new Doc Martens and she made lots of new friends. Freya said that she felt the holidays had never happened and Fergus just wished that it was not a legal requirement to attend school. 

I continued working on my Tartan Tattoo pattern so it can be uploaded onto Easy for sale as a downloadable PDF pattern. There are so many step-by-step diagrams that it is now an epic 20 pages long. I decided against shrinking it because I have always struggled to follow sparse instructions. Besides, since it will be sold in an electronic form, it is not actually necessary to print any of the pages;)

Catherine brought me a very hairy baby quilt that had been in a mild wash. I could not believe that a quilt had suffered such severe “bearding”. I researched remedies online and tried re-washing with lots of fabric softener then drying it with anti-static sheets. If anything, it became worse. It took me a while to realise that I had used a leftover piece of the rogue wool wadding from Sew-Simple. I will offer to remake the quilt because I feel so badly about the outcome. I was tempted to dump the rest of the roll but I may keep it and use it solely in a leather project that will never get washed. I looked into buying a roll of better quality wool wadding and discovered that it is like hen’s teeth in the UK. Matilda’s Own from Australia is no longer available and the cheapest alternative by Hobbs would cost £312. It might be more sensible to buy packs of wool wadding if I happen to want to use it for a show quilt. From now on, I will not even offer the option of wool to customers. 

I enjoyed working on a small African themed quilt, using a mixture of fillers and geometric quilting in some of the colourful blocks. Stitch-in-the-ditch through the continent was a bit nerve-racking as the seams were so bulky. The maker has left me with another fun quilt made from many fabric that she purchased in Nigeria.

The other customer job this week was to make a piece of furnishing fabric into a quilted wall hanging. I decided not to make it too fussy so I chose a simple design that was like the feathery fabric on the reverse. The cotton duck fabric was quite hefty so it should hang nice and straight!

In addition to an old idea that is lurking in the background for some type of arty-farty quilt, I have a bit of an odd one currently rattling around. I confess that it started as a reactionary idea to some of the more obscure entries in the Fine Art Quilt Masters at FOQ. However, my idea is developing into something that could convey a powerful message if I can figure out how best to interpret it in textiles. The winning entries to date have been minimal and that is an approach that baffles me. As a quilter I want to stitch and embellish with abandon but to think like an artist I need to concentrate on the concept. Time will tell whether I take this forward but I can say that I have ordered something unusual from India as inspiration…

Footling and Fixing

 Tartan Tattoo in EQ7

I don’t know what it is about coming home after a trip - I always seem to footle about for days worrying about catching up with emails, phone calls and putting everything back in its correct place before I feel ready to get back to normal. The only sewing I did was to attach name labels to school uniform. I must have bought enough new stationery to open my own educational establishment. 

I secretly welcomed the persistent rain which “allowed” me to make up flyers to advertise DIY quilting with The Quilt Quine and concentrate on writing the pattern for Tartan Tattoo. I could easily have made and photographed an entirely new quilt in the time it took me to relearn EQ7 and dismiss using the Paper 53 drawing app on the iPad. I have now made myself a crib sheet for the next time I forget how to use quilt design software. I plan to sell the pattern as a download somehow.

It was fun to be featured on the Oakshott blog 

www.shotthrough.co

and to see myself looking daft on the Bernina Nordic webinar at FOQ 

https://youtu.be/hPvSAv0jsXQ 

This went some way to make up for the disappointment that Bifrost was not placed at The World Quilt Show in the face of stiff competition.

The girls decided to make ice cream with our wild cherries but they did not want to bother me when I was typing away so they used the wrong paddle in the Kitchenaid and sheared one of the internal gears. I tried not to be annoyed and ordered the necessary spare parts from Ebay. As I had already completed this major operation previously, it took me a fraction of the time, less hammering and minimal swearing to get it working again. The repair cost me £10, as opposed to an unknown bill from a repair man or buying a new mixer for over £400! I made a huge chocolate and cherry cake for a friend’s birthday using a 40+ year old Kenwood Chefette, substituting several of the ingredients in my usual fashion. It would not have won any prizes for finesse but it tasted great and we struggled to finish our generous slices. 

I phoned Farmer Raymond to let him know that a spirited young heifer had escaped from the field and it was making the rest of the herd panic. It turned out that he was enjoying himself in a pub on holiday so I pulled my wellies on and chased it through wet, waist-high barley until it jumped back over the dry stone dyke. I mended the live electric fence that had been pulled down and sternly told the cows to calm down. 

At least it did not take me long to dry out, unlike Freya’s Gold D of E team who canoed 60 miles in 4 days from Fort William to Inverness on their qualifying expedition. They have benefitted enormously from their D of E adventures, gaining independence, determinedly battling some challenging conditions and making  lasting friendships.

I have 2 customer quilts to crack on with this week and I want some time to experiment  with some new techniques on my Bernina longarm so I can get going on the long-abandoned BzB project over the winter…

A Different FOQ for Quilt Quine in 2015

FOQ felt completely different for me this year in many ways. Instead of loading the Landy with gear and driving all the way down I flew in and “supervised” the Bernina guys putting the longarm frame together. I loved being part of the professional and friendly  Bernina team which included representatives from Switzerland and Scandinavia. It was great to have the chance to discuss techniques and projects that they have tried out on the Q24. I was thrilled that everyone loved the brand and that the new Bernina Longarms proved very popular with the visitors to the show. They were all so impressed with the quality of the stitches how I could easily swap feet to add couching or twin needle stitching. 

The centrally located stand was incredibly busy and I did not have any time to wander off or stand idly chatting. I dashed around the show quilts first thing in the morning, not really giving the quilt galleries the time that they deserved.  Even my shopping was done in less than half an hour on Sunday afternoon;) I demonstrated and explained longarming non-stop to all sorts of quilters from all over the world. 

My Tartan Tattoo quilt looked good even if I say so myself - nobody spotted the disaster area or commented on the wobbly lines that only I know about. I wished that I had entered it into the competition after all so I definitely want to enter it elsewhere to see how it gets on. Michael Oakshott was impressed with the use of his fabrics which made me think that I ought to publish a pattern and offer it for sale.

Vivienne and I were privileged to sit with Luana Rubin at the Gala Dinner and we spoke about all sorts of topics including how Amazon gives authors such a poor deal. Luana and I realised that we have a mutual friend in Wisconsin and our conversation seemed to flow naturally without any heirs or graces from such a well known quilting personality. 

I took very few photos at the show and since there are plenty of pictures of the winners online, I decided just to show a few unusual quilts on my blog that made me look twice as I passed them at a trot. I am always entertained by the 3D category and often baffled by the Fine Art Masters. 

Kay’s double-sided quilt looked splendid and is bound to win prizes in other places. (I am delighted that she shared the Visitors’ Choice award with Dutch piecer, Coriene for “Stonefields”.)

I felt guilty about leaving the show just before it closed on Sunday in order to catch my flight home but I was not sorry about missing the melee of teardown and van jostling. At least one FOQ tradition was maintained - the annual trip to Shabar for a Balti with old friends! I am already looking forward to next year and I am determined to enter at least one new quilt…;)

Norfolk - Here Be Dragons

Our week on the Norfolk/Suffolk border with family was low-key and relaxing despite the unseasonal damp weather. It is normally the driest part of the UK but we were accused of taking Scottish rain with us. We mooched around Beccles and Bungay, amazed by the number of vintage shops, some of which were retro and trendy whilst others were struggling to sell utter junk.

We had lunch at a beachside cafe in Gorleston after visiting several hardware stores in search of hooks, which reminded me of family shopping trips from the 1970’s when we would wait for ages in the car while my Dad tracked down elusive industrial bits and pieces.

There was a fun excursion on the River Waveney on a family friend’s boat that was unfortunately cut short by a leaking petrol hose. This was reminiscent of similar expeditions in my childhood when boat engines would conk out or sailing boats would run aground on mud so we shrugged off the melodramatic warning by the boatyard that the Broads cruiser could have exploded at any time.

Freya spent the week on a Tallship racing from Norway to Denmark but the winds were so light that the race was abandoned. She was happy to report that nobody suffered from seasickness and there was plenty of time to learn new card games and enjoy the harbour festivals. 

Nell and Fergus managed not to bicker too much while we wandered around the quaint alleyways of Norwich, impressed by the number of street cafes and by how I can still just about find my way around. The city is full of dragons this summer and I managed to find one with a patchwork theme. When I was not busy doing very little on holiday I even managed to run up the small quilt that my sister had cut out using my Mother’s “vintage” Bernina which I will quilt on the very modern Q24.

After arriving home, to even grimmer non-August weather, I blocked the Tartan quilt again before bundling it into my suitcase ready for FOQ later this week…

Without Deviation, Hesitation or Repetition...

What I Actually did while I was Meant to be doing Other Things

I am glad that I made myself attach the hanging sleeve and label onto the Tartan quilt at the start of the week as I have become sick of the sight of it now. It took me days to get around to tidying up the hundreds of microscopic thread ends on the back that I am paranoid the judges will scrutinise with a magnifying glass. The last major operation will be to de-fluff it from the fibres of wool wadding and to pin it out damp again in an attempt to get its wayward edges to hang straight. I may eventually decide to make another everyday version in different colours but I will definitely quilt it with a utility pattern instead.

The summer holidays continued with typically dreich weather and monsoon rains. I bought 4 new tarpaulins to weather proof the garden yurt but just can’t get dry and still weather to take off the roof canvas and make the repairs. Everything in the garden is growing out of control and I almost can’t get into my workshop past the overhanging greenery. It took days for Freya’s tent to dry out because it just kept on raining.

Fenella and I made a determined effort to sell some clutter on Gumtree. I feel that our house is bursting with unused “stuff”. She did very well as a Sylvanian Family estate agent but she still has the equivalent of a city to relocate, having inherited Freya’s extensive collection. This week I am planning to list 2 redundant coffee machines and my Kindle 3 which will free up a tiny space. I would also like to get rid of folding tables that I only use occasionally and I think it could be time to try and get rid of a couple of seized antique Singers.

One afternoon, while avoiding snipping loose threads, I rustled up a quilted book bag for Fenella to use at The Academy to protect her textbooks from getting too battered. 

I was given a promotional canvas bag when I ordered the “new” Harper Lee novel and I decided to make it into a cushion. I used a Japanese linen printed with retro specs to make a border then quilted it with a wavy grid. I took it into a local furnishings shop to buy a cheap cushion pad and the shop assistant was really impressed and asked if I would consider making more cushions. The bookshop Lady was delighted and immediately added it to her window display. Apparently. she often gets printed canvas bags with new book titles so maybe I could make a few more?!

I have cut up lots of strips, squares and mini-quilts ready for the Ebook videography session this week. Vivienne asked me if I would prepare a rough Yutube clip to launch the book. I tried to film myself using a webcam but I just could not look at the camera and read my script at the same time. I am useless at memorising what I want to say so will have to rely on ad-libbing without fluffing up my lines. I wonder if I really speak like the posh scruffy woman with a peculiar accent who over enunciates every other word in the video clip…

Bernard and the Tartan Quilt

After a successful test run and showing off to some studio visitors, I put “Bernard” to work finishing off the Tartan Quilt. He was superbly smooth, although I think I need a little tweak somewhere since there was a tiny bit of vibration through the handles. I had to switch everything off for a whole afternoon while we had a Scottish monsoon with lightning so I fiddled around making striped bias binding instead.

I decided to throw the entire quilt into the washing machine to get rid of the markings and I am glad that I put in 3 colour catchers to soak up rogue red dye. It survived the wash but was rather distorted so I pinned it all out flat onto some large foam insulation boards. The needle-break hole did not improve with washing. It is really small and sometimes I don’t spot it but I am tempted to paint that entire section with pewter fabric paint just to seal in the fuzzy blobs of wadding that only I can see. I have started to attach the binding before I start trimming tiny stray threads or painting. I can see that the edges seem to be warping so the whole thing will need to be starched and steamed before it can be seen in public. I wonder if this quilt will ever live up to my expectations?

The Landy and I made another marathon trip to Strathallan Castle with Freya and Friends to the largest music festival in Scotland, “T in the Park”, loaded up with tents, snacks and wellies. I was secretly glad to drive away from 80 000 revellers, inadequate toilets and camping in the rain but I expect they will have had a great time;)

I took Nell and Fergus shopping for shorts and was met with their resistance and mortification in Gap. I bought them anyway and was relieved when they conceded to wear them when they got home. Fergus much preferred the visit to the guitar shop and Nell was thrilled to purchase her first pair of new Docs that had not previously been worn by anyone else. She glared at the assistant who informed her that they would take a bit of wearing in as if she had never clumped around in Docs before. I decided to quit while I was ahead and put off the school uniform shopping for another day. 

The second most important item on the week ahead’s To Do list is to prepare for the videography session for my Ebook. I need to get some mini projects ready and try to remember what I plan to show off. But first, I need to get that dreaded Tartan Quilt ready to hang at FOQ…

Hotstuff

I was in Cardiff again last week and it was even hotter at 32 Celsius! I think I bonded thoroughly with the Q24 there with a spare afternoon to fiddle around with the settings and different threads. 

It was considerably cooler and more comfortable at home in Aberdeenshire until Banchory Academy Prize-Giving when the temperature inside the church was uncharacteristic of old buildings. Nell said goodbye to Durris Primary in an emotional end of term service due to the retirement of the Headmistress who taught all 3 of my children. She was delighted with her gift of a travel-sized quilt and a bottle of champagne.

On the morning of the P7 BBQ the rain was torrential and the grass was squelching. I checked the forecast, held my nerve, delayed the start time, and lit the Yurt stove. Lo and behold, the sun came out, the midges stayed away because of my smoky fire-pit and we had a super evening!

Freya’s logical understanding of written instructions helped enormously with the assembly of the Bernina Q24 which finally arrived safely. It all fits into the workshop neatly and I have managed to store its huge boxes under the other quilt frame. I will have to suspend the Coracle from the rafters to get it out of the way. The new machine is called “Bernard” and will be put through its paces this week as I have a quilt to finish…