Roadtrip to Bath and WOMAD

We made an early start on Tuesday for our epic 12-hour road trip to Bath and WOMAD.  Plenty of sweets and stops helped to pass the time and on the way we delivered the rather large packages containing the totems and coracle to the concierge at the Crowne Plaza, NEC ready for the FOQ judging. After Birmingham we left the monotony of the motorway and travelled across country to Bath on The Fosse Way, an ancient Roman road. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. 

We spent two lovely days in Bath, exploring, wandering and revisiting my old student haunts. The city was familiar yet there were some new areas near the bus station that had been totally transformed. It was fun to rediscover cafes and shops that had not changed at all since I left 21 years ago. I drove the Landy up and down the hilly streets pointing out landmarks and pubs and was I unable to resist driving 4 laps around the Royal Circus. We stayed in a super Edwardian terraced house in Odd Down, travelling into the city by bus. We took an open-top-bus tourist trip to experience the best views, frequently ducking to avoid overhanging tree branches. The Roman Baths were impressive and far less busy by torchlight in the evening; the children even found the Fashion Museum fairly interesting. I felt quite nostalgic and enjoyed listening to the soft West Country burr again. I have decided that “Lush” should become my favourite term of appreciation.

The WOMAD festival was only about 12 miles up the road at Charlton Park near Malmesbury. We queued for ages in the hot sun before we were able to get into the festival and check-in to our hired yurt. The yurt was a different design to the one we have at home since it had a much higher roof pitch. It was quite a haul to shift our large quantity of camping equipment but we made good use of it all. Our neighbours were impressed to see us making pancakes and drinking fresh coffee each morning for breakfast. The fairy lights and bunting stamped our mark on it. I was glad that I had packed so many blankets since the temperature cooled down considerably at night. 

WOMAD was a great introduction to a British summer festival. It was very family friendly and there were all sorts of people there from hippies and oldies to posh people and students. Many people wore wacky festival outfits, mad hats, body paint and henna tattoos. If they had not remembered to pack any of these then these could all be purchased from a diverse range of stall holders or the huge Oxfam sales tent. 

There was a terrific selection of exotic food on sale but we did most of our own catering since it would have been too expensive to eat out for every meal. The children could attend as many music or art workshops as they wanted or learn circus tricks. There were uni-cyclists, healers, chai tea shops, sari sellers, a steam funfair and in between we helped out a little in Mo and Willow’s fabulous felt stall. 

The weather was glorious most of the time but after a heavy thunderstorm the parched field turned muddy. The chemical loos were rather stinky but we did have good showers to make up for that. However, after spending all day outside in the sun and wind I ended up with rosy cheeky and wild looking hair. 

There were many wonderful musicians from all over the world but the unlikely stars of the festival must have been “The Malawi Mouse Boys”. Everyone was touched by the story of some very modest guys from a tiny rural village in Africa who caught and roasted mice-on-sticks snacks to make their living. They were discovered by chance by an American music producer who insisted that they made a record. WOMAD was only their third ever performance for an audience and they had never even used stage equipment before.

It was a totally “different” type of family holiday but we agreed that it would be fun to do it again another year so we made a list of the stuff that we would add to our essential equipment list - a wheelbarrow would be very useful to cart around deckchairs, wine, sunhats, wellies and tomato ketchup!

Hot!

  

We have been enjoying a Scottish heatwave which is wonderful but it has been difficult to get anything done. I wondered what I had spent my week doing as I had wound down so much that I even felt it necessary to order a hammock, although goodness knows when I will have time to lie in it...

The dogs enjoyed long walks and splashes in the unusually low river and we had BBQ's most evenings, despite the ravages of thousands of tiny midges. I took the children on a couple of trips including a super afternoon at  Craigievar Castle. We had an exclusive tour with a delightfully ancient tour-guide and felt glad that we do not live in a 7 storey tower-house with narrow spiral stairs and no decent bathroom. 

I spent time organising camping gear for our trip to WOMAD via Bath and made sure that we all had sleeping mats, mugs, plates and other useful equipment. I am beginning to hanker after a cheap caravan because at least most of the equipment could stay stowed away ready to go. Although, I don't suppose many people try to pack cafetieres, bottles of gin and guitars for a family holiday.

I turned a large length of tartan flannel into a huge protective sack for the coracle and securely lashed it onto the Landy roof along with the boxes containing the totems. It was after all that was accomplished that I remembered that all of the FOQ labels are meant to be covered with a flap of fabric to hide the maker's details during judging. All I can say is that I am NOT unpacking them now to rectify that snag and besides, even with a hidden label it would be fairly obvious who had created my pieces.  

I confess that I am no further on with any Ebook projects but in my defence, I answered  lengthy interview questions for Generation Q Magazine and I spent a long time trying to get my disorganised files and photos in order on my Macbook. I always think that a tidy desk(top) will lead to feeling motivated to do some serious work.

As if I did not feel that I had enough to do already, I worked on a customer quilt on which I was asked to keep the quilting motifs understated. It may not be my preferred style of quilting but it does look simple and classic. 

Instead of allowing Fenella to spend £10 on a giant plastic windmill to demarcate our hired yurt at WOMAD, I chose to spend an afternoon making bunting to hang outside. Not just rough cut party bunting, mind you; proper double-sided hemmed stuff using vintage fabrics. I may have got slightly carried away - I reckon it will just about reach all of the way around the 16ft yurt even though a short string of 10 flags would have been quite sufficient!

Honeysuckle and Prawns

The summer holidays got off to a good start with a week of unusually lovely weather. It has probably been 10 years since we had such heat at the end of the school term.  After a day of longarm tuition on Monday I took the kids and their friends to the beach at Stonehaven for ice-cream, paddling and chips. It became really sultry so I gave my spaniel, Wellington, a haircut because he was not losing his shaggy winter coat and he looked like a very hot bear. I got so warm doing that job that I even felt it necessary to cut my jeans off at the knees. In the evening the smell of honeysuckle was divine and we sat out on the old sofa until the midges started biting.

On Wednesday I dragged them along to the farmers’ market at Platform 22 in Torphins where we bought fresh langoustines and herring to cook on my bucket BBQ. My ulterior motive was that I could also enjoy a delicious Arabic coffee in the cafe. 

Thursday was not such fun as I had to go into school to help prepare my classroom for next term. There was quite a bit of rubbish to clear out, chewed pencils to sort and walls to cover with frieze paper. It was not just small sections of noticeboard that had to be covered - the walls are entirely made from pinboard and all of the existing paper was damaged. We did not manage to finish the job and we did not have time to discuss the curriculum so unfortunately, I will have to go in for at least one other day. 

The travellers returned from Rome having enjoyed two spectacular rock concerts and a lot of hard-core sightseeing. They animatedly described their gelati, pizzas and adventures before giving me some limocello liqueur in a little bottle shaped like a temple column. 

I put Freya to good use in my workshop and she helped me to package the coracle and totems in huge lengths of bubble-wrap. It was a challenge working out how to sew on the labels for the Festival of Quilts so I used my initiative - laminating them and attaching them with safety pins instead.

I was reminded that I have not updated my website in almost 3 years so I wondered whether to make the changes by adding extra pages to my Wordpess blog and then perhaps decide later whether it is worth keeping the paid website. I rejuvenated an old Flickr photo account to make a gallery so now I will have to spend time adding a selection of at least 6 years worth of photos. While I was in the mood for messing about on the computer, I updated a Powerpoint presentation to include slides of the USA Yurt for FOQ. This involved hunting high and low for digital pictures that I thought were lost and then checking that all of the fonts matched neatly.

I was feeling very frustrated with the computerised attachment that I had bought my longarm machine so that I could do more basic customer quilts. I just could not get it to co-operate with me. In the end my husband checked all of the connections and discovered that one of the cables had worked itself a tiny bit loose. I practised setting patterns into blocks then started on a simple quilt that was perfect for that type of minimal quilting. It  also needed additional stitch-in-the-ditch quilting around each square. It is SO tricky keeping the SID lines straight as the seams tend to vary enormously. Just for fun I asked the computer to simulate this process but it was almost a quarter of an inch off course in some spots. I am not yet sure how much use I will make of the computer apart from when I am asked to keep the quilting super simple but if it just takes some of the strain out of those big repetitive customer jobs, perhaps I will be able to get more fancy freehanding done?

Summer is Here

It was both a long and a short week as we hurtled towards the summer holidays. It was so cold, miserable and like November on Tuesday night that I lit the wood-burning stove.  I completed my teaching duties for the term and was offered a temporary two day a week post at Aboyne until October. I have decided that two days in school is sufficient - no matter how nicely they plead, otherwise the quilting business does not get my full attention.  

My husband was not given approval to fly to Rome following his recent eye operation so he had to book a series of trains and keep his fingers crossed that he would arrive before Freya and Sam who would fly out on Thursday. It was quite an adventure for them to travel via Schipol unaccompanied but they managed the trip admirably for their week of sightseeing and rock concerts. 

I completed the machine embroidery on Dunes Duet and wondered whether it was really done. I could add tiny shells or crystals or I could just agree that it is meant to be subtle, therefore finished. Ann is taking responsibility for the blocking and binding so I should just have to check for yet more stray threads and spray paint the slightly scruffy reverse.

Fergus attended his Primary 7 leavers’ church service on Friday and we were surprised that when the sun came out it was actually hot! It seems to have been a long time since we felt summery and the fine weather held for us to host the leavers’ assembly BBQ on Saturday night. It was unusually balmy with just a few midges. We had a camp-fire with marshmallows, plenty of wine and sausages, toasting the possibility of a good holiday. 

Just as I posted off a parcel containing a customer quilt, another package arrived for me which contained an amazing applique wall-hanging that I had commissioned from one of the Egyptian tent-makers at Uttoxeter. 

The challenge for the coming week will be to keep two children busy while I teach a long-arming class over two days, attempt to make long overdue updates to my website and meet the teacher with whom I will share a class. I daresay we may need to do a bit of hoovering before the travellers return from Rome as I have deliberately let grass, crumbs and cat-fluff build up in their absence...

In Between Sports and Fetes

   

I knew I should not have allowed myself to start an epic novel series such as "Game of Thrones" - it proved to be highly addictive and I was in danger of becoming so engrossed that I did not want to do anything else, rather like when I never got around to my Latin homework as a teenager because I had my head stuck into a good read!

We enjoyed a blustery and damp school sports day on Monday. I was prepared for Scottish June weather in my well-worn drizabone coat, scarf, woolly blanket, and flask of coffee. The children insisted on ice-cream afterwards even though hot chocolate may have been more welcome.

I cracked the whip and made myself get on with the stitch-in-the-ditch quilt that I had been putting off for some time. I used Superior monolon thread on top to minimise the effect of any wobbly lines. The trouble with SID quilting is that it is very unforgiving if the piecing is even just a tiny bit off kilter. I made use of a tiny ruler but much of the quilting was done freehand going around lots of tiny triangles. The customer requested minimal additional quilting in the background and no other quilting in the blocks so I had to restrain myself  to some basic swirls and plumes, although I would have liked to added some custom work if I had been given carte blanche.

I allowed myself a few hours to add dome subtle machine embroidery around some of the circles and arcs on Dunes Duet. It was a repetitive task but quite enjoyable as it was easier to hear the radio when using the domestic sewing machine. I enjoyed catching up with "The Archers" and current affairs on Radio 4. 

I went on a Mums' Night Out on Friday and realised how much of a music square I have become over the years. We had a meal followed by a Jessie J and Rihanna Tribute Act... I hardly recognised any of the songs, words or dance actions. And it was far too loud - it was impossible to chat to the person next to me so I resorted to communicating by texting.    I will take earplugs if I ever get invited along again. 

I enjoyed watching the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday evening from the comfort of my sofa with Bluecat and a bottle of wine that Fenella won for baking one of the best cakes at the school fete. It is wonderful what a liberal dose of icing sugar can do to disguise slightly crispy edges. Our ever-defective oven tried to sabotage my damp lemon loaf but I rescued Fergus's Aztec chocolate cake just in time. Once it was covered in frosting and edible glitter it looked pretty good - it tasted even better. I have suggested that I might take Freya to Glastonbury in 2015 but only if Glamping and sitting on a comfy deckchair with a flask of coffee and splendid homemade cake in a tin!

Camping in the Rain

    

Apart from teaching pretty demanding infant classes this week, I seemed to pick long overdue tasks such as sorting out Fenella's bedroom and the family towel cupboard in order to avoid starting on the stitch-in-the-ditch customer quilt. I have been prevaricating because I have been asked to quilt as little as possible in the background. This concept seems to have stumped me completely because I just don't do that sort of quilting. Perhaps this type of quilt is why I really should get to grips with using a computerised system where I can program in a simple, repetitive block design. I can't put it off forever - I have folk coming for longarm tuition in a fortnight so it needs to be done by then!

I finished all of the quilting on Dunes Duet and created a huge pile of discarded thread on the floor because I had problems with tension. I am not entirely sure why things were so tricky. Maybe I had a bad reel of thread or perhaps it was the dyed flannel that I unwisely used as a backing. There was some boring unpicking but otherwise I hope to get away with a little painting on the reverse to stop the loose bits from coming unravelled. Trimming all of the threads will take several attempts. I admire the fortitude of quilters who sew all of those tails in so neatly but I do not have the patience for such a malarkey. I randomly painted some gold rings on the front and now want to add some subtle machine embroidery around some of the other circles. 

I have been reading the first book in the "A Game of Thrones" series on my Ipad. After battling through the first couple of chapters getting to grips with the world of fantasy and peculiar names, I am completely addicted to the twists, turns and intrigue of an epic story. It is too tempting to read a couple of chapters at coffee time or while supposedly cooking supper. I was glad that I had such an engrossing novel to take on my weekend camping trip...

I took Freya and her friend, Millie, to a small midsummer festival near Breemie, Kintore that was last held 8 years ago. It is on top of a hill with spectacular panoramic mountain views when not obscured by angry rain clouds. I cannot remember the last time we had a hot and sunny summer solstice in Aberdeenshire. It was chilly and pretty wet for most of the time. I was jealous of the owners of small touring caravans that arrived, unhitched, levelled their legs then made a cup of tea. Our little igloo tent was fine and did not leak or blow away but it was quite a challenge poking the tent pegs into such rocky soil. We now only have about 3 straight ones left! I was glad that it had a tiny porch so I could sit on my folding chair to use the primus stove while the girls played guitar inside the tent. 

Fortunately, it dried up a bit in the evening while the bands were playing and I even took my full length drizabone coat off for the duration of one dance. We joined Mo, Willow, Yurtman and some other friends to sit around their firepit and had fun with djembe drumming, while admiring the fire-dancer who fluidly spun her lighted hula-hoop. We actually had great fun despite the damp weather but I am glad that I have booked a yurt rather than a small tent for the WOMAD festival in July. 

After we arrived home and aired out our soggy gear, Freya and I lit the stove in our garden yurt and cooked sausages for lunch since the grey morning had dampened our enthusiasm for a cooked camping breakfast. I was unpopular for having forgotten to take milk with which to make hot chocolate so we enjoyed that at home and even had to open up the yurt doors because it became far too hot inside. It was a much nicer place to sit and listen to midsummer sleet and hail lashing on the canvas roof :)

Disappointed

  

With 4 days in school I did not have much time to work on anything at all which is why my single day off on Friday that did not progress well was especially disappointing. It proved to be a very frustrating day and a large gin was most welcome in the evening. 

The Landy was collected at 7am so that it could have its faltering turbo fixed but the Garage Man phoned at 4.30pm to say that he had not been able to fix it, there were lots of other problems that the recent, costly service at a different garage had not diagnosed and in fact, he strongly advised that I should not drive it all since it had a dodgy wheel bearing. He was unable to re-book it in for more work for another week but at least he managed to bolt on the shiny new roof-rack ladder. 

I was waiting with baited breath for an email from FOQ, hoping that the Betula Trio of Totems would have been short-listed for the new Fine Art Quilt Masters category. As the end of the day was approaching, I sent a message to see when the emails should be expected to arrive. I was informed that successful candidates had already received their news so by default, I realised that my pieces had not been selected. I felt bitterly disappointed and actually quite annoyed. Then I felt guilty for not accepting the news graciously. There follows a paragraph or two of sour grapes ranting...

The thing is that the original entry form simply said that the jurying would be confirmed by May 31st but when this date arrived, the judging panel announced that there would be a further selection down to just 20 pieces. I feel obliged to write to the organisers and point out that IQA Houston makes one juried selection on one specified date and all of those pieces go on to be judged and exhibited together, not relegated to a minor category. FOQ has obviously missed the point about the jurying process being used to raise the standard of quilts and judging for the entire show. Instead, they seem to have reverted to the single elitist category, judged by a panel from the "art world" that was so unpopular in previous years. 

The real reason of why I am so upset is that I spent months on those totems and really think that they are amongst my best work yet. I believe they are interesting, involve challenging fabrics and techniques, and even have an arty-farty connection with Ancient Celts. In all of that time I did not work on customer quilts or my book or any other sensible business expanding plans. The bottom line was that I had to question WHY I continue to enter a show that does not appear to value my work. If I still cannot get a piece into that top 20 of the best European quilts then where am I going wrong? 

I received many wonderful and encouraging comments from Facebook friends. Many suggested that I simply exhibit elsewhere or even start up a Fringe Festival of my own but I crave recognition from the British quilt establishment. I felt despondent for a couple of days and wondered whether to bother going to the expense of sending the Totems at all, as they will now have to go into the 3D Creations class along with the Coracle. However, I hope that many quilters will still enjoy seeing them and encourage me to complete the planned series of 12 totems. 

I was far from disappointed with Freya who received a Merit from school for working particularly hard in at least 3 subjects. She even came third in her year group in a short-story competition so I was glad that she had received recognition from her teachers for her efforts at school this year. 

Despite feeling slightly guilty that I have not actually started the time consuming SID customer quilt, I fitted in some evening quilting on Dunes Duet. Typically, I have been unable to keep things simple so I have lots of tiny spirals randomly fitting into some of the concentric circles. I intend to use gold paint, machine embroidery and tiny shells to finish it off, just to make sure it is unlike anything else in the Two-Person category at FOQ. I daresay I just answered my previous questions - I simply am incapable of just doing what is expected ;) 

Fiddling

Because I eventually managed to book up overnight accommodation in Bath and the Yurt for the WOMAD festival, I thought it might be time to invest in some new camping equipment. I bought a couple of sleeping mats, a “pocket-rocket” mini primus stove and a cute, red whistling kettle. I decided I could not postpone the inevitable any longer - it was time to spring clean the garden yurt. This task took me most of two days as we had a really wet winter and the yurt was sadly neglected. I hauled out the carpet which was wringing wet and sprouting mushrooms. The kids helped me to hang it out to dry on the climbing frame while I mopped up the puddles of murky water, wiped the mildew off the furniture, swept up dead bugs, live worms, got rid of a wasp nest and discovered 3 deceased sparrows inside the wood-stove. 

Fortunately, we had no rain all week so everything had a chance to dry out. Tania helped me to haul a couple of tarpaulins onto the yurt roof to keep it water-tight until I save up enough to commission a new canvas cover. The old sofa-bed was particularly disgusting so I decided to leave it outside all summer. The bottom of the garden now looks like a gypsy camp or a set from Country Living Magazine.

I finally made a start on the stitch-in-the-ditch quilt that will take forever and “Dunes Duet”, an entry for the two-person category at FOQ. It will have LOTS of concentric quilted circles all butted closely together then I will have to decide how to fill the tiny gaps. I am aiming for a modern look but it will be hard for me to keep it simple. I may be compelled to make it really complicated as it will obviously have to have some gold paint, embroidery and possibly even some tiny shells. 

One of my Facebook friends in America told me that the June/July copy of QuiltingArts Magazine has a 5 page feature on the Yurt and its Stunt Quilters. I downloaded it onto my Ipad rather than wait for a paper copy. It is a beautifully presented article so hopefully it will help to raise my teaching profile in the USA. 

We delivered the Coracle to the local Orvis fishing shop where it was to be featured for the Banchory River Festival. They did a great job of displaying it by tipping it up onto its end and staging it with bunches of reeds. Helen wove some wicker fish and a paddle; I used up the rest of the leftover quilted spandex to make a second cushion. 

I attended the junior session of the Strathspey and Reel Society with Fenella for the second time and managed to keep up with most of the tunes on my fiddle. The teacher kept asking questions about the key signatures and told the players to sit up straight and hold their bows correctly. I have so many old bad habits that I look like a hill-billy when I hold a violin so I should probably just put on my dungarees to go and practice on the tatty sofa that I have parked beside my fire-pit. 

Imaginary Celt

    

Three days of teaching does not allow much time for quilting projects but the schools are desperate for relief cover and the funds will all go towards my epic trip with kids to Bath and WOMAD. I found the process of booking up accommodation quite tiresome - I had to do an internet search, read the reviews, check availability, price and enquire if they had a large enough parking space for my Landrover. I decided to book a one-night farm stay on the way down to England, a small house in Bath for one night then treat ourselves to a hired yurt at the music festival. Then I felt obliged to browse the internet for new sleeping mats and a small tent for a local festival that will take place at the weekend of the summer solstice. This led to a search for solar powered fairy lights and a phone charger, wasting the time I had set aside to work on my Ebook!

I caught up with Helen Jackson, the willow weaver who made the coracle shell. She has also got the bit between her teeth on this project as she has already made a second coracle and considered modifications for a third version. We discussed the various accessories that an imaginary Celt may carry in their little boat. The idea is to be fanciful without being "twee". Helen is weaving a wicker paddle and a fishing creel; I decided to make a round cushion and a general purpose bag using the spandex/chamois scraps.  

I was unable to find round cushion pads in Banchory so I just made a round cover with suede fringing and stuffed it as full as I could so that it would not look too much like a whoopee-cushion. I could not decide what the Celt would keep in his patchwork bag so I made a piece of fishing net by knotting jute string and hanging flints off the bottom end. A few feathers and a couple of porcupine quills sticking out of the top make it look almost like a tool bag. I am still trying to work out how to include a sheepskin and a deer antler in the coracle. These accessories will look fine in the fishing tackle shop window for the Banchory River Festival but I am not sure how they will go down with the judges at Festival of Quilts. 

It seems that the totem trio has been juried into the Fine Art Quilt Masters BUT there is to be a further round of judging in a couple of weeks. I was surprised to hear about this secondary phase since this was not mentioned on the entry form. This forced me to punch the eyelet holes into the back of the goatskin piece and lace it onto the large totem. Next I need to consider what sort of box I can use to send these pieces to FOQ - I may enquire at the Florist to see if they have cartons for long blooms!

String and Beads

  

When I was not teaching in school this week, I spent untold hours working on the Quilted Coracle. I used a leather punch to make holes in the chamois binding then added a multitude of brass eyelets. It took me a while to figure out the best way of attaching the cords and pulling them taut. I wanted to use natural hemp string but this proved too difficult to thread through the small eyelets. The cotton cord looks quite like leather but is far stronger. Simple lacing as I had planned was not effective; the best method was to tie strong lengths of cord through the wicker and eyelets. I even had to use pliers to make sure that the knots held and did not slip undone. 

I wanted to attach circles of beads and shells inside the coracle but it proved tricky to reach with a needle and thread in places. It would have been easier to sew these on before the cover was attached but then I may have had trouble with positioning the darts or the beads could easily have got caught or knocked off while I wrestled with stretching the cover back into place. I decided that seven circles of beads would have to suffice but IF I have time left after finishing all of the other FOQ projects and customer quilts, I can always add a few more!

The next major task was to sew clusters of beads and shells all of the way around the top rim of the coracle. I had to use a long, thin beading needle to attach chips of amber, turquoise, shells and blue glass beads because I wanted to trim the coracle with the type of stones that Ancient Celts or Vikings may have used. I broke two needles before I reached all the way around the 200 inch circumference.

I have noticed that where the willow wands form structural ribs in the coracle, some of the shiny spandex has worn away. The solution to this snag will be to rub in some gold wax so it looks like worn areas of cast bronze. 

I think the coracle is now finished - it is certainly ready for the Banchory River Festival at the beginning of June. I have entered it into Quilt Creations category at FOQ but it will have to be wrapped up and travel on the roof-rack since it is too big to fit in the back of the Landy. I know this because I took it down to the river to photograph it. Obviously, I did not actually float it in the water...

I completed another FOQ entry form for a Two-Person category quilt that is pieced but not yet quilted. It was difficult writing a blurb for something that is still a top without having a firm quilting plan in my head. It also required a title so I plumped for "Dunes Duet", simply because it is made with Cherrywood fabric in soft sandy colours and is a project that will have been worked on by two quilters so we will just have to go with that!

Malvern

As I had anticipated, I had a busy few days prior to my trip to Malvern making sure that the fridge was well stocked and that Freya had everything ready for her marathon school bus trip to Spain. Finally, I made 200 inches of wavy chamois binding and attached it all around the rim of the coracle. For some reason I decided to finish off the edge with an embroidery stitch and had to stop myself from adding even more decorative stitching as I remembered that there would also be lots of eyelets to add detail. I just hope that at least one of the leather punches will be strong enough to crunch its way through all of that spandex, wadding and suede. 

After I had taken Freya sailing and dropped her off for Duke of Edinburgh training I headed down to Falkirk in the evening so that Ellen and I could hit the road to Worcestershire  on Friday morning. The Landy did a sterling job as usual apart from struggling on long, slow hills with its temperamental turbo. I had lashed two 10ft long boxes on top that contained the rails and poles of a longarm quilting system that would be delivered during the show. Apart from getting help from a neighbour to shove the boxes up onto the roof-rack, I covered them with a tarpaulin then tied them on with ratchet straps and nylon rope entirely unaided. 

Ellen and I discussed everything under the sun on the journey but we were glad when we turned off the tedious M6 motorway and followed more scenic roads into Malvern. We stayed at a pleasant Bed and Breakfast run by the aptly named Mr. and Mrs. Gotobed and wandered down to the local pub for wild boar burgers washed down with Hobgoblin real ale. 

The show was held at the Three Counties Showground and it was very busy. There were many traders’ stalls crowded into the main hall and marquee and a high standard of competition and exhibition quilts. We were excited that our friend, Kay Bell had won the longarming prize for one of her customer quilts and teased her by text message saying that Ellen would spend the day impersonating the talented winning quilter.

I bought more printing tools that I will add to the collection of blocks and rollers that is still pristine from the last time I bought a batch at FOQ, Birmingham. Perhaps if I reorganise the drawer that contains all of the creative stuff, I will be more inclined to use it?

We drove out to the pleasant market town of Ledbury on twisty roads through scenic countryside where we had another delicious pub supper with Ani and her friend, Tracey. I bounced book ideas around with Ellen and made some notes to add to the many other ideas that already need editing.

We travelled further into the Cotswolds on Sunday to deliver the quilting machine to a quaint, new quilt shop next to the museum in Winchcombe. I had to park on the pavement and climb onto the roof to untie all of the straps. We carried the boxes across the street and squeezed the longarm frame into its new home after flagging down a passing Man to undo some over-tight bolts that had defeated us. 

Ellen and I declared that the area around Malvern was definitely worth further exploration on another trip when we would allow ourselves more time. I did not go straight home to Aberdeen on Sunday night so we made a foray into Linlithgow on Monday where I found cording for the coracle and beaded totem. I also bought half a dozen Cornishware storage jars that were in a charity shop window, priced reasonably at £4 each! Over coffee we discussed which other quilt shows we still needed to tick off our bucket list or even ones that we would like to revisit. We are both keen to go back to Paducah at some point so perhaps we will have to give that some serious thought...

Frenetic Fortnight

I ceremonially switched on my upgraded APQS Millennium and quickly quilted a tiny quilt that will be for the kids’ piano teacher when her new baby makes its appearance. The machine worked even better after I connected up the extra cable that I had thought might have been a spare. A custom quilt arrived in the post that requires a lot of stitch-in-the-ditch ruler work so I need to order a new ruler base from the USA as soon as possible or decide whether to remove the thread cutter that will allow my old one to fit back on. 

I was feeling nervous about chopping large chunks off the coracle skin to make it fit so I persuaded Mo to supervise me placing darts around the outside. I decided not to cut sections out as it would have left raw edges, exposing some wadding so I have just sewn them down. After some debate, I decided to put the bronze spandex on the outside of the coracle instead of the chamois. This means that the lighter side of the skin will be seen on the inside through the gaps in the wicker. This is actually a much better place to sew all of the beads since they are less likely to fall off if they are inside the boat. When it was sitting on the work-table upside down it looked just like a giant turtle. I need to attach the chamois binding and lace it all on by the beginning of June as the fishing shop in Banchory has requested it for display it in one of their windows during the River Festival Weekend. 

Obviously, 24 hours of having the internet working without a hitch was a fluke. The minute I tried to reset the wireless printer the whole thing went down and I had to make several long and frustrating phone calls to Orange, aka EE. First you have to pass a secret password test with Geordies then you are transferred to a crackly phone line to the technical experts in India with tinny muzak blaring out of the phone every time you are put on hold. To add to this infuriating process, I was unable to use the landline and the mobile phone reception in the corner of our granite house where the modem is situated was awful so the technician kept getting cut off. Somehow I managed to control my temper and insisted that I should be sent a new modem which duly arrived 48 hours later. 

Amazingly, I plugged it in, tapped in a new code and got all of my gadgets working again. 

It is incredible how dependent I am on having a reliable wifi connection. I needed to find out about UK Customs red tape, send emails as Chairperson of the School Parent Council regarding planning permission for a car-park, correspond with quilters, liaise with teachers and purchase disposable cameras for Freya’s school trip to Spain.  

One of my friends idly wondered why I seem to live my life at a frantic pace but I did not have time to reflect on an answer to that question for more than 3 seconds as I was too busy dashing about. An added complication has been that my husband had to go in for an emergency eye operation to have a detached retina fixed, probably as a long-term result of a childhood accident. To recuperate from this procedure, he has to move as little as possible and he cannot drive. 

This weekend I ran a workshop for a group of girls from the International School and their mothers. It was great fun despite being a bit crowded; we even had to set up some cutting tables outside the workshop, weighing the fabric down with stones to stop it from blowing away. The girls learned how to hand-sew hexagons and make half-square-triangles for a cushion. They all seem keen to come back and do another class when I have some free time. 

On Saturday evening I went to see Fenella in her first fiddle concert and competition with the Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society, followed by a lively ceilidh. There were visitors there from all over the North of Scotland including many talented young musicians from Orkney. On Sunday afternoon it was Fergus’s turn to perform in a guitar concert where we enjoyed everything from acoustic versions of The Beatles, Spanish gypsy rhythms, to Jimi Hendrix and some serious rock solos.

It has been quite a feat ensuring that everyone has the necessary supplies, equipment and is in the right place at the right time. I zoomed past the arranged rendevouz with Freya and the other Duke of Edinburgh hikers whom I was supposed to collect after their camping expedition and there was no mobile phone reception to let them know that I was making a minor detour and may be slightly delayed. 

It is little wonder that I have not had time to visit the hairdresser for a while and have had to resort to snipping my fringe with pinking scissors again. I think that when I go and stock up the fridge before leaving on my forthcoming trip to Malvern at the end of this week I will treat myself to a bottle of artisan gin ;)

Pony and Pigeon Power

I reached the point where I was so frustrated with my appalling internet connection that I vowed I would invest in a pigeon loft and train carrier pigeons to convey all of my messages. I had all sorts of correspondence to deal with following the trip to Uttoxeter involving expiring customs carnets on demo machines, arranging a 2014 quilt retreat and longarm quilting enquiries. The Wifi was getting progressively worse but I needed to be in the right frame of mind to call customer services, based in India. In the end, after I had resorted to sending text messages and getting friends to send emails on my behalf, it proved relatively easy to remedy. The router needed to be reconfigured - I have no idea why - and finally things are working smoothly again. 

My Landrover went for its annual service recently but since then its turbo has become sluggish and I now have randomly activating wipers/squirters. If I go over a bump, the wipers decide that it is time to give the windscreen a quick wash. I listened to a radio programme all about Highland Ponies and decided that they were probably less temperamental than the Landy but it would take an awfully long time to drive a cart all the way to Birmingham for Festival of Quilts.

Since it was a 3-day weekend, I plucked up the courage to install my longarm machine upgrade. This involved dismantling the whole frame to fit new, smooth rails, adding a hydraulic table-lift, and setting up a 2013 APQS Millennium. Tania helped me to man-handle the 14 ft long poles and then I had to work my way through the instruction manuals methodically. These were actually very well presented with step by step photos but I simply find things like that befuddling. I slowly got everything worked out apart from reassembling the frame as I need help to manoeuvre the extremely long poles back into place. 

What really took time was the decision to dejunk my workshop. I simply cannot work in a muddle and I felt that things were getting over-crowded. I got rid of cardboard boxes for items that were now out of warranty, decided to clear out magazines that I was not going to re-read and even ditched scraps and odd bits of poly wadding that I had to admit that I would never use. I had to fit in a few odd chests of drawers, folding tables and porter trolleys for exhibitions that needed to fit in more neatly. I created rather a mess before I could see an improvement. I really should tackle some of the cupboards and wardrobes in the house in the same manner but now that my workshop looks more inviting, I will be too busy sewing. I even found the leather eyelet punch that was “lost”!

Uttoxeter

I have to admit that I was not actually looking forward to the Uttoxeter trip... It was the thought of all of the packing, organising, sorting, making lists and trying to get my FOQ entry almost finished that was putting me off. Once everything was done and I finally set off in the Landy listening to Radio 4, I became excited about my expedition. I collected Kay from her farm in the Scottish Borders and we trundled down to Staffordshire where Ani had a casserole ready in a quaint holiday cottage. For my driving I was rewarded with a large, refreshing G and;T and we spent a few hours catching up as we had not seen each other since FOQ last year. 

Uttoxeter Racecourse proved to be a very nice location for the British Quilt and Stitch Villlage, organised by Traplet Publications. The countryside was far greener than up here in Scotland; there were far more signs of Spring with hawthorn and magnolia blossom and far more substantial lambs. It was easy to find with plenty of parking and even spaces for caravans. The facilities are really good at racecourses since there are plenty of loos, cafes, lifts and all sorts of function suites. There were 190 or so quilts of a good standard, a separate embroidery exhibition, special exhibits including one of Kay’s stunning wholecloths, The Ostrych, and the incredible tentmakers of Cairo. There was even a guitarist playing relaxing acoustic melodies all day long which created a great atmosphere. The was a good range of traders selling everything from buttons, paints and fabric to longarm quilting machines, of course. 

We had two APQS longarms on frames at the show - Millennium and; Lenni and also the large throat sit-down version called George. Visitors were fascinated by our demonstrations and they were impressed by what they were able to achieve themselves. We met some old friends, internet friends and fellow longarmer, Janette stayed in our cottage for two nights. 

We enjoyed our pub suppers after the show each evening but I think I will avoid Frankie and; Benny’s forever... There were a lot of noisy children’s birthday parties on Saturday night and I cringed every time the whole restaurant was expected to sing “Happy Birthday“ followed by “Congratulations”. My friends hatched a plan and secretly informed the waitress that it was my birthday, which was not actually the case. She duly arrived with a chocolate brownie, topped with lighted birthday candle, balloons, birthday greetings and led the raucous public singing. It was ridiculously humiliating and hilarious - we laughed so much that we ached and still could not stop chuckling for the rest of the evening. 

I really enjoyed the Uttoxeter Experience in the end - partly because it was a most enjoyable show but mostly because I really enjoyed the Kay and Ani’s company. We got along really well, mucking in together at the show and cottage. We laughed endlessly at my inability to navigate without making odd detours and wondered why I could not concentrate on one topic for discussion at a time without going off at a random or irrelevant tangent. 

Ani packed up her awesome, capacious, little camper van, a Bongo Friendee that Kay and I wish belonged to us, and set off back to Devon while we climbed into the Landy for the long drive North. We made such a great team that I am now really looking forward to FOQ!

Watch a video of the show by cutting and pasting this link into your browser bar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pldK84Dm2-4

Alter Ego

  

For most of the week, I was my school-teaching alter-ego; apart from Monday when my mobile phone rang just as I arrived at school to request that I go straight home to collect Fergus who had been travel-sick on his school bus! He recovered quickly so I was able to use the bonus time to catch up on boring paperwork. Later, we made a trip to the public library, discovering that their internet is far faster than ours; the documents that I had been uploading so painfully slowly for days all disappeared into cyberspace within minutes. 

I was in school for 3 days, covering all sorts of classes from Nursery to P7 so that teachers could get some precious non-teaching time to do some report writing. There were lessons  on pie-charts, spellings, 3D island contours and equivalent fractions. I decided that it would be fun to explain these in the context of a gladiatorial contest, pitching different armoured combinations of "Numerator" and "Denominator" into a Roman amphitheatre. I may not be up to date with all of the latest teaching jargon but my class was of the opinion that this maths lesson had been  "Epic!"

I took my leather quilt to Mo's workshop with the intention of borrowing an industrial eyelet setter to make holes for its corset strings but "Yurtman" Paul happened to be there and mentioned that he had a heavy-duty press-stud gadget. I decided that this would be an  even better method of attachment and I if I have time I can even sew tiny garnet chips around each giant press-stud. I always enjoy tossing ideas out with Mo and Paul - I drove away considering quilting a sheep-shaped piece of leather and displaying it stretched out in a collapsible frame looking as if it was being tanned...

I managed to squeeze in a patchwork pupil - we spent a couple of hours running up a large pieced back for a quilt and having a go at trying the skinny curved piecing that I have been doing lately. It was interesting to observe someone else learning a technique that I have picked up and evolved to suit myself. Beginner pupils often feel that they have to pull or stretch the fabrics as they feed through the sewing machine; in fact it is a case of allowing the machine to do all of that and simply using your fingers to guide or steer.

The Coracle is still waiting impatiently for me to tackle its cover and I was amused to notice that tiny green sprouts are appearing out of the green willow. Helen will attempt to create a wicker paddle and I will wrap offcuts of quilted leather around its shaft. 

Ann has almost finished piecing the Cherrywood quilt in pale tones that we are hoping to complete in time to enter into the two-person category at Festival of Quilts so this will be another project for me to do after I return from the British Quilt and Stitch Village Show at Uttoxeter Racecourse next week. And I really want some time to set up my quilt frame with its long-awaited upgrade, sigh...!