Quilts and Stuff

 

I received my first copy of an Artists' journal this week after joining an organisation in order to get cheap public liability insurance. I could not make head nor tail of any of it. It must be because I never studied art that I cannot decide whether the artists are really intellectual or very pretentious. The concept of a roll of tin foil hanging from the ceiling is incomprehensible, as is the plastic sheeting draped over some scaffolding. The language used to describe the installations is very elaborate and it would seem that expressing the ideas is equally important to the visual art itself. My Yurt Book will be far more basic as I am finding myself increasingly inarticulate. I will struggle to write more than a few lines on circles before I lose interest. I must make more effort to watch documentaries on BBC4 so that I can improve my vocabulary. I keep hearing myself starting a perfectly erudite sentence but ending it with "... and Stuff!"

I completed a very basic quilt in a day this week by following the advice of my business gurus (Ferret & Tracy) to keep it simple. I was dying to tart it up but it looked perfectly acceptable, despite being an uninspiring colour combination. I was meant to do a second customer quilt in one day but it ended up taking 2 very long days. The background stitching was rather small as I tried to keep everything in proportion and had done a tiny filler around the beautiful machine appliqué. If I could get over my feather phobia I would cover the ground on a quilt far more rapidly. I should probably be locked in my workshop until I have cracked it otherwise I will just keep finding more avoidance tactics.

I was drafting a Quilt Quine advert for QGBI Region 16's magazine when I received a phone call from a quilt group asking if I would consider doing talks and workshops. I said, "Yes! What would you like me to talk about?" This means that I really must now write a list of workshops and lectures, make samples, decide on the cost, work out kits and add a bookings calendar to my website. I'd better start by writing out a new To-Do list.

Tania and I took the children to see Eclipse at the cinema on Friday. It was true to the novel and quite exciting but I didn't think that any of the vampires had any sex appeal. I was impressed that the evil vampire, Victoria, was wearing Doc Martens. We thought that the wolf pack boys were rather easy on the eye although the actor playing Jacob is only 18 and was previously in a kids' film called "Shark Boy & Lava Girl" so Freya informs me that I'm far too old to fancy him.

I hope to get lots done in the week ahead – at least the list in my notebook keeps reminding me that there is plenty to do. I would like to finish a couple of Yurt projects off by attaching binding or adding a touch of paint. I need to order some more dye and fabric to make some more backs and decide whether to sell some jelly rolls or FQ's of dyed fabrics at FOQ. If the weather stays dry and I can find a couple of friends with nothing better to do then I should be taking the Yurt to Crathes Castle for a photo-shoot. I decided to opt for the most local castle as it is scenic, convenient and does not involve clambering over bracken on uneven ground. I still might take it to a stone circle ... or maybe just take some of the panels, which would be far easier to transport.

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