Why Would Anyone Paint a Ladder?

 I bought a cheap, short step-ladder which was white. It was important to me that it should co-ordinate with my newly painted trolley so I painted it matt black to match - 3 coats so far. The trolley will be on show at the exhibition (Scottish Quilt Show) whereas the ladder does not need to be. It will enable me to hang the quilts, after which I could put it in my car or I could use it as a chair. I think I have assembled everything that I need now and I have made prompt cards for my talk on competitive quilting. Remembering another time where I dropped them all and got them muddled up, I have actually connected them together with a spiral binding. 

I was undecided as to whether or not to take the quilted Henge Totems but I think I will leave them behind. They have been to that show before in 2015 and they are so bloomin’ big to shift. My 2023 exhibition will comprise show quilts, a Mac slideshow and a small longarm frame which I hope will be enough!

Since I managed to prepare for the show without leaving everything to the last minute, I managed to get a small customer quilt done. I generally like to be up to date before I go away on a trip.

I worked my way through a checklist and felt that it was keeping me focussed - apart from time spent doing obsessive internet research. Which is the best wireless microphone for vlogging? How do you make acrylic resin letter key-rings? Is a tripod better than a monopod? What happened to the Brinks Mat gold? Why is my wifi printer not working? 

I had 2 teaching days on the Bernina Q24  longarm system, one here in my studio for a potential buyer and the other continuing staff training at Aberdeen Sewing Machines. Tracey had been very diligent since my last visit, practising her free-motion quilting.

I have been trying to get Nessie into the habit of daily hair-brushing. She still hates it but we are persevering so she does not get matted in between her professional grooming sessions - I wear Kevlar gloves just in case;) 

This week will mostly be about exhibiting at the show but I hope to get a chance to look around and see what is “in”, possibly make a couple of modest purchases, and definitely take my host out for dinner!

Ultra Bunting

 

What would you do with 2 weeks to go until an exhibition? Tackle the jobs that need doing OR suddenly decide that you need to make 12+m of over-the-top bunting to hang across the front of the stand? I had a few blocks left from Rainbow Warliors that I sewed together, some leftover squares that I screen-printed, some sequins and pompoms that I attached to bells nylon thread and then I “had to” make about 20 large pompoms from wool! The resulting bunting echoes the theme of Rainbow Warliors and is fabulous but worryingly heavy. I have visions of visitors to my exhibition being garrotted by low-hanging bunting.

Another part of my week was filled with doing a rush-job quilt for someone who wanted to take a quilt to friends in Australia. 

I also gave a Zoom lesson on how to quilt lettering using Q-matic. This is quite a tricky topic and I will need to make accompanying videos but won’t have time until the exhibition is done and dusted. I fully intend to work my way down a comprehensive to-do list;) 

One of the things that is taking a long time to achieve is putting together a slideshow to accompany a talk that I will be giving about competitive quilting. I have had to go back through 15 years of photos. I am appalled at how blurry some of these are - it could be that they have become compressed after being stored on 3 different computers, they were taken in low light indoors without a tripod, and the camera/ phone quality was not as good as the photography gear that I own now. I have had to search for images through obscure folders, assign titles and put them in order, which all takes ages. It has been fascinating to reflect on quilts that I thought were pretty good at the time and also to appreciate just how many quilts I have actually made!

Mad Hatter in Norfolk

 I stayed on in Norfolk after my Mum’s 80th birthday and went on a couple of outings. Freya was also here for a few extra days but she was busy working online so could not come with me on junk shop jaunts and a trip to my favourite dungarees shop. 

I tried on a top hat in one vintage shop - it was too big for me and totally rigid but it is a fun look.

My nephew celebrated his 10th birthday and my sister had sent me into Norwich to pick up some pass-the-parcel prizes. I bought a farting Ninja toy which then farted noisily in my bag all the way around the city, including as I went into the ladies loo and while I queued up at the cash desk. 

Nella and I went on a National Trust day out to Blickling Hall near Aylsham. It is a lovely Jacobean mansion in landscaped grounds. There were some amazing old trees which would be brilliant for climbing if they were not roped off. There was an impressive portrait collection but it was difficult to work out who was who. I had not bought a guide book and the volunteers were not as well informed as I had hoped. I would probably be a complete pain if I became an NTS tour guide and visitors would not be able to escape from my vast mine of nerdy knowledge.

Once I make my 500+ mile trip back to Scotland I will have a week of catching up and I must get on top of the upcoming exhibition, Creative Craft and Scottish Quilt Show at the SEC in Glasgow at the beginning of March…

Norfolk in February

 Looking back I had a pretty productive week, fitting in 2 customer quilts using Qmatic. While it was quilting away I cut down some scrap binding that I will feed into the L890 binder to make more strips to weave. 

I started to compile a slideshow for the upcoming exhibition trawling through so many old photos, some of which are regrettably blurry. Probably, indoor quilt photos need to be taken using a tripod.

I made another trip to Norfolk with Freya to celebrate my Mother’s birthday. She is certainly fit and healthy and does not look 80! We had a lovely day with coffee and cake in the morning then a family dinner and games later in the day. 

I will be spending the rest of the week in Norfolk with Nella and even celebrating my 10 year old nephew’s birthday. I don’t think we have ever been in Norfolk at this time of year before because we only ever came down for a week or so in the school summer holidays. So far, the weather has been spring-like, sunny and almost warm (for someone who lives more than 500 miles further north!)