Tinkering and Cherry Picking

I decided that my workshop is tidy enough for now which let me off the hook from The Big Cull so after completing 4 nice and easy customer quilts I was at a slightly loose end. There are plenty of worthwhile things I could have done but I went off on a bit of an exploration into which method I liked the best for making a curved-top zippy pouch. I have to say I have still not found the perfect construction method that pleases me aesthetically and for ease of construction. I like quilted fabric better than interfaced fabric because the pouches have more oomf and stand up better. I can confirm that I sewed plenty of pieces upside down or back to front! The quest is still on, rather like my mission to perfect the world’s best carrot cake. 

Because we have had the best summer in years, the wild cherry crop is amazing and even more impressive is that the trees have not been stripped bare by greedy birds before I could even grab a tupperware box. I was actually surprised to discover that I have red cherries as well as black ones. I easily picked over a kilo without having to get a ladder and brewed up some cordial that I will add to drinks, rather than make cherry vodka. I might put on surgical gloves to squish out the stones and make jam. I have to say there is something childish and satisfying about shoving a handful of cherries into my mouth then spitting out the stones.

Still avoiding my non-urgent admin tasks, I played with some magic foam to make stamps using 3-D objects. Obviously, I did not look up any instructions so I am not sure if I heated up the foam sufficiently. I found it tricky to make impressions of buttons because I did not have time to push all of the buttons in before the foam cooled but if I heated up the next small area the previous button stamp would disappear. I was quite impressed by the stamp made by swirling a glue gun over a piece of parchment paper. This reminded me that I had promised myself time to explore simple lino cutting in the summer hols. I had better get on with this since FOQ is coming up soon! 

Unpacking and More Packing

I wonder why unpacking from a trip takes so much longer than packing it all up in the first place? In my case I always seem to think that there needs to be some major reorganisation when I return things to their original place. Particularly when this involves rehoming my family farmhouse table which is 10 inches wider than a standard table. 

I am poised to have a major declutter in my workshop but am reluctant to get started because I will have to be ruthless. I can’t decide whether to hang onto the leftovers from past projects, including the paper templates for a Smart Car cover. 

I decided to get all of my supplies ready for FOQ so I could work on a couple of customer quilts before I go or tackle a major clearout. First I had to finish off my teaching samples so I added some colour to the pink mini wholecloths. This allowed me a chance to see if the Intense pencils really are steam-proof after they have been set and dried with aloe vera gel. This was a necessary investigation because BzB looked travel weary at Quilt Odyssey with big creases right across its centre and since it has been juried into Houston, it will really need to hang flat there. 

I sewed some beads onto the Dreamcatcher sample and added one or two crystals to finish it off. When that was finally finished I made a list of the accessories and threads I would need at FOQ and bagged them all up. The challenge now will be to leave everything alone and not be tempted to use what I have put aside;)

My Go-Pro camera was dusted off and since I had almost forgotten how to use it so I challenged myself to figure out how to control it from my phone. That is handier than you might imagine because the camera can be set up on a tripod or pole to get wider shots. I am a great one for owning under-used gadgets so I am determined to use it more!

Costa del Norfolk

Packing for a trip is always quick and easy, especially if taking the car to a family house. It left me plenty of time to drink what was left of the explosive ginger beer then rustle up 4 mini versions of BzB in case my FOQ pupils prefer to work on that rather than a Dreamcatcher. I used wood-block stamps to create most of the motifs, some fancy fabric paint and will add some Derwent Inktense pencils when I have 5 minutes to spare.

All 3 of my children came along for the 550 mile drive south in a noisy Landrover Defender. They counteracted this by playing “Bangin’Tunes” all of the way and I had some of them stuck in my head for most of the next day. I hope Bumble is as deaf as she sometimes pretends to be.

I felt a bit guilty that the kids were not getting an exotic holiday or going to a festival but they all decided to make the most of what we could find to do in Norfolk. It was actually a pretty packed week. We caught up with old friends in Suffolk and watched England get knocked out of the World Cup at their house. Obviously, we trawled through as many junk shops as we could find. I had to find a replacement coffee pot after I accidentally melted  the entire handle all over my camping gas stove. Fergus was keen for me to buy a 1970’s electric organ with many amazing special effects but I was not sure that it would actually fit in the back of the Landy. 

We visited Great Yarmouth (which I reckon can only be done every 5 years or so) and bought hideous sticks of rock, ate chips on the market and the kids gambled a pile of 2p coins in arcade machines. This was followed by sand-castle building, swimming in the sea and ice-cream cones.

We had a lovely wander around the alleys and back streets of Norwich and a super lunch at the Waffle House which was a pleasant blast from the past. The rest of our time was spent going to the pub, visiting an outdoor swimming pool and eating outside with Family in the almost tropical heat. Our short week was soon over, everyone had a good time - we made some new memories and even got a little bit of a suntan:)

Bubble Fun

I always experience a mild sense of panic in the week before school holidays start, even though I only have one child still in school. I try to catch up on customer quilts and make sure FOQ preparations are well under way. I also had to fit in 3 days of supervised DIY quilters and school prize-giving.

Obviously I thought I had time to experiment with Ginger Beer, using glass spring top bottles. After just 48 hours it was lively - around half spurted out when I released the top which was not ideal inside the kitchen. I must make sure it all gets drunk quickly;) 

For my FOQ masterclasses I decided to print up six small quilts around the theme of a dream-catcher. I used thermofax screens, Indian wood blocks, circles of silver tissue lamé and various shades of blue fabric paint. Some of the motifs were later filled in with Pebeo suede effect paint to add texture and I will add dots of 3D paint later. I wondered whether I would be able to use a bubble-gun or party bubbles to drop delicate bubble shapes onto the quilts but the paint rendered the wands and bubble mix useless. I tried fountain pen ink instead which did allow me to blow bubbles but they simply burst in little blobs so I need to keep experimenting…

I quilted one of the quilts as the teaching sample, using a variety of threads, couching, freehand and ruler work, stitch-regulated and manual, making a note of the tension settings and speed for my pupils. My first attempt at the dream-catcher centre did not look good with thick, sparkly yarn so it took a while to pick it all out and redo it using a denim yarn. I did the background quilting with a twin needle so that pretty much covers most techniques! I could have added more stitching but it would never have been completed  this week and it has to be vaguely achievable for a half-day class. Of course, I remembered that the photo that I had originally submitted to FOQ for my class spec was of a mini version of Beezlezebub so I will also have to dye and print 4 pink mini quilts just in case my pupils would prefer to work on that version;)

Lack of Photographic Evidence

According to my camera roll I did not do much this week because I forgot to take photos. However, I finished a customer quilt, taught a bag making class and had a DIY quilt customer.

I tidied up the Domestic slideshow captions then packed it all up ready to go in a giant box acquired from the local flower shop. The quilt, which is actually a projector screen, was rolled then the micro-projector, cables, tripod and set-up instructions were safely packaged and the box has been sealed. The other 2 quilts, Iconoclast and Denim Wordsearch will be checked and folded nearer the time, trying to avoid too many creases.

I ran up some samples for my FOQ classes which involved some badly behaved tissue lamé, printing and vintage doilies dyed a marvellous shade of blue. I hope to quilt one of them this week so I can hand sew on some extras while I am visiting Family in Norfolk.

The Deckchair stripes quilt was completed with the dense Waterdrops circles pattern but I need to buy some striped or spotty fabric to make the binding. 

There was also quite a bit of time spent doing internet research on textile printing which prompted me to order some PFD white fabric. I actually got a very good deal because I was told that it was marked which I don’t mind since it will be dyed and printed anyway so now I have to store 24 metres of it. Sometime over the summer I will need to I have a jolly good sort-out in my workshop as it seems to be getting a little short of space;)