Off Grid in the Peak District

 

I have been “off-grid” in the Peak District for a few days. Earlier this year I agreed to meet up with cousins who are hard-core caravaners. I was looking forward to it but also dreading it. Nella and I took 6 hours to get as far as Lockerbie, partly because I took an unnecessary detour. We stayed overnight in a farmer’s field and I was relieved that I did not have to unhitch. One of the most stressful aspects of towing a caravan is stopping - whether it is for fuel or the loo because you don’t know how tight the parking area will be unless you have been before. It took another 6 hours the next day to reach our hill top field  without electricity in Ilam. I do not drive above 50 mph when towing, the traffic was slow and the satnav took me on the most convoluted cross-country route up steep hills and around twisty bends on single-track roads. 

The Peak District is beautiful! The landscape is hilly and green because it seems to rain a lot. We had a lovely time with our cousins and went on a big walk around Hartington with them plus Freya, her boyfriend, George, and his family who are from the area. 

We visited a National Trust property called Quarrybank which is an 18th century cotton mill. It was a vast site and grimly fascinating. Two thirds of the workforce were unpaid children from the age of 8-21. They were recruited from far away workhouses (so they could not run away easily) and were fed and clothed minimally. The “apprentices” could earn a penny an hour if they worked beyond their 12 hour day. 60 girls slept in one dormitory and they bathed once a year. The factory owners were considered to be fairer than most from that time but really those children were treated like slaves. Of course, another reason that the factory owner was one of the richest men in England was that he was a slave owner with cotton and sugar plantations in the Caribbean. It was such an interesting place to visit and we spent the whole day immersed in the factory and its surrounding landscaped gardens. 

We decided to make for home in one long day as we needed a whole day to unpack and repack the car before driving down to Norfolk for Nella to start her 2nd year at Uni. Twelve hours towing a caravan is not ideal but I’m glad I did it before doing another 500 miles only 36 hours later!

Another Busy August Week

My main mission for the week was to catch up with customer quilts that I had not done in the lead up to FoQ. I like to keep on top of them as I find having a queue of quilts a bit stressful!

True to my word, I have been making an effort to test out my cameras so I get to learn all of their features. It does not mean that I have necessarily made any decisions to trade any of them in but the exercise has been worthwhile to become more familiar with them. I have also tried sorting them into designated bags for which I made heat-pressed labels.

Nella and I had a big day out in Edinburgh by train. I don’t think I have ever been there at the height of Edinburgh Fringe Festival before and it was very busy. We had pre-booked to visit 2 exhibitions. I really enjoyed the Grayson Perry exhibition at the National Gallery. I had no idea that he had created some huge tapestries. They are designed using a computer then digitally woven in Belgium in a modern version of tapestry making. The ceramics and maps were also fascinating.

At the National Museum we saw a special exhibition called, “Beyond the Little Black Dress” and Nella was thrilled to see examples from some of her favourite designers. I particularly liked one that  looked as though it had been constructed from 3D leather boxes. I wonder how that could be done as a quilt?

Post FoQ Reset

 

                                                                        Modest FoQ purchases

After all of the excitement of FoQ, this week was spent low-key pottering. Nella had also been away at Freya’s and visited her cousins in The New Forest. Every now and then I decide that my house and / or workshop has reached saturation point and has way too much “stuff”. I like to think that I am organised until I can’t find something. I know that I had some strong magnets which came out of a magnetic pin dish that smashed but I honestly don’t know whether I threw them out or whether I put them in a safe place. I have hunted for them high and low and realised that I need to have a bit of a reset. The problem is that although I need to get rid of some things, in the past I have been over zealous and got rid of things that I have wished I had not!

My current obsession is cameras… I started out with a biggish camera and a camera for snaps then I got a GoPro for making sewing videos. At some point I started watching techie Youtube videos about Action cameras or vlogging cameras and acquired a couple more and a few accessories. The issue is that that sometimes I can’t remember what the controls do and Nella still gets annoyed if I start filming in public so I don’t practise enough. My current mission is to take each one of my cameras out on a daily basis to familiarise myself with them and to decide if any of them should be sold. I jokingly told friends at FoQ that I was considering getting a drone camera which would be fun in theory but would I really use it?! I think I have now worked out what I really don’t need and started to tidy up the tangle of cables on my desk. 

                                                        Some pics taken during the week to test out cameras

It was nice that Freya came for a visit and we went for a wander with Nessie, picking edible mushrooms on the way. I wore long dungarees to avoid getting ticks from the bracken but I ended up too hot. It was a typical Scottish summer day in that the weather was unpredictably cool, hot, sunny and wet. 

I have a list of major upcoming things that I need to do which include making teaching samples for September, preparing for a caravan trip, getting Nella back to Uni and a new student house, becoming an “expert” in Art and Stitch, and doing more filming. There are minor things too that I must do before I forget and I jot them down on a sticky note as it is satisfying being able to cross them off at the end of the day, even if they are simple tasks like “brush Nessie”. 

When I went away last week I made a determined decision to leave my Nintendo Switch behind. I needed to break the unnecessary habit of maintaining my imaginary Animal Crossing island for up to an hour each day. I could be finishing the crazy quilted coat for instance;)

Festival of Quilts UK 2023 - Quilt Left Behind!

 Well, Festival of Quilts 2023 has already been and gone! I arrived at lunchtime on Wednesday for set-up after an overnight stop in Glasgow. It takes quite a team effort to set up a longarm stand where we had 2 Bernina Q-Series frame machines and 6 sit-down machines. Things can be a bit fraught until everything is all sorted out. When you finally get dinner and a long awaited beverage you wonder if you will be able to get up bright and early the next day. Of course, you always do;)

Imagine my surprise the next day when people said they had been to look for my quilt in the show but it was not hanging where it should be. It had been moved to the Winners’ Wall! Readers will know that I always put my all into show quilts but it is fantastic when the judges recognise that effort. One of the judges was Linda Seward who is a legend in the quilt world for her expert books and columns in The Quilter. She awarded me a perfect score sheet and I could not actually believe it. I am so thrilled - what a comeback! Everyone was so complimentary and it was lovely to meet some long time readers of the blog. I had put an Apple AirTag into the quilt label and it was funny that Ehen I left the show my phone notified me that an item named Quilt had been left behind as it will go on to be displayed at shows in Harrogate, Dublin and Alexandra Palace.

The Bernina UK longarm team taught 16 one hour quilting classes. We had all been secretly dreading it since we are all stand-up frame quilters but I pretended to be an old fashioned school PE teacher. They would put on the tracksuit, blow the whistle and make everyone jog around the field without breaking into a sweat as they just had to stand and “supervise”. The sessions were not designed to turn out master quilters after one lesson. It was an opportunity to experience the machines, pick up tips and techniques, and have fun. 

As a team we also had fun during the show and afterwards, uploading our photos into a Barbie generator, having a pizza pyjama party, going out for a posh dinner and keeping each other going with good humour. 

I caught up with old friends and made some new ones. I love seeing everyone, even if I am teaching and only manage to wave. 

As per usual I brought a selection of cameras and whizzed around the show. I have not had time to see if any of the footage is any good. I will attempt to make a YouTube tour when I get home. I wish I had taken one of the small video cameras with the gimbal head as well as the novelty camera that films in 360 degrees that I am not entirely sure how to edit. The internet connection at the show and hotel has been poor so any short videos that I had hoped to upload got stuck so they may crop up after the event. 

I wore 3 new outfits at the show which was fun because at home I live in dungarees ALL of the time. Maybe I should just unpack then repack for the next event.

For months I have been putting various things off until after FOQ but now that is over I will actually have to get them done. I definitely hope to make more YouTube videos, even if they are just quick tips. I will always keep weekly blogging though - after 15 years how could I possibly stop?!

A Week of Random Making

This week I got down to putting together some class specs and requirements. It has been a while since I came up with “lesson plans” so I struggled with the discipline. I usually aim to plan more than is required which is what most primary school teachers do to keep the fast workers occupied. I will be teaching my Northern Lights improv curves class in Glasgow next month but I decided to add another element which is improv bridges. I am experimenting with machine appliqué methods. The original class was just free-cut strips but I decided to give the pupils more options and offer some people more of a challenge. 

There were some foodie makes - English muffins, which were a success and vegan strawberry tarts which looked like triffids. 

Because I seemed to be so ahead of the game with my preparation for FoQ ( I am bound to have forgotten something) I managed to do a customer quilt that I said would not be done until later in August:)

Nella, Nessie and I had a day out in St Andrews and met 2 other Scotties. Nessie thought she was a celebrity when several American tourists stopped to talk to her. 

My FoQ samples looked pretty good once they were stuffed with cushion pads but I made myself practise sit-down quilting on another sample. My FMQ skills are very rusty and I will have to do a lot of secret playing to be a convincing teacher at FoQ;) The Bernina Q16 / Q20 is bound to be easier to use than my domestic machine as there is more table space and a stitch regulator! BUT I will be teaching domestic machine quilting next month so I need to hone my skills for that.

Outlander and Dodgy Quilting

 

Last week we went to an afternoon of “Outlander” related talks at the Willow Tea Room in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. I had not realised that the event was an off-shoot of a whole Outlander Conference at Glasgow University so there were some diehard fans in attendance. One of them was not at all convinced when told that Falkirk is not in fact at the heart of the Highlands. Nella and I had made Jamie Fraser t-shirts for the occasion but nobody even noticed. The first talk, given by a guy from the Jacobite Society, was disappointingly dull as he read off his notes about some portrait artists. There was no background, context or reference to Outlander. The next talk was better, although I dozed off for a while. A curator from the V&A Museum, Dundee spoke about the Tartan exhibition but he went over time and also made no links to Outlander or the Jacobites. After a quick cup of tea, the main speaker gave a slideshow about her experiences as part of the costume team for the Starz TV drama, Outlander. She also had some examples of clothing with her. It was interesting to know that much of the embellishment on waistcoats and gowns was in fact machine embroidery, Sadly, her talk was cut short as the other speakers had gone over their time so I felt that we hardly scratched the surface. I wanted to know more about the budget and authenticity of the historical costumes. 

I had to get going on the supplies needed for quilting classes at FoQ. Four tutors will be giving one hour classes on the sit-down Q-series machines, based on a panel designed by Bernina Australia. The UK team decided that the original panel was too busy so Tracey Pereira simplified and digitised it. I sewed out 72 panels and overlocked them all. I wanted to quilt two as examples - one using Qmatic and the other using rulers and FMQ. I discovered that I felt quite overwhelmed by the task since my quilting skills are so rusty!  I spent far too long deciding what to do and attempting to copy the intricate designs from the original panel. The first attempt went in the bin! Hopefully, the class participants will not feel intimidated when they see my second effort;) It is a reminder that Quilting is a skill that needs regular practice. 

I have a lot of paperwork that I want to get done in the coming week, mostly forthcoming quilting class specs and supply lists. I drafted a handout for the FoQ classes but ran out of steam and have not included any diagrams. I wanted to produce a handy, illustrated leaflet, summarising the class but really I have written a short story / novel. I wonder how I seem to have so little time to finish anything these days?! 

Help ma Boab is in its Box

 

Help Ma Boab is finished! My finger tips were burning after all of the kantha stitching and hand binding. I took my friend, Ellen’s advice not to tinker with it further and packed it into its box ready to send to FoQ. I took outdoor photos and think there is a bit of a bow at the bottom end, although I am telling myself that is an optical illusion since I used a wide-angle lens.

We had Freya here for 3 days which Nella loved. She is finding it hard being here in the countryside without any friends, reliant on me for trips out. She has been busy with crafting projects but she is struggling to find the focus to finish some of them.

I have spent a lot of time in my workshop trying to catch up on customer quilts and also getting the teaching panels ready for FoQ. I am aware that Nella is keen to see more of me but I feel that I need to get stuff done so I can keep August free for FoQ and holiday trips. I also hope that the weather is more summery again by then!

Cut and Run (Banksy in Glasgow)

 It was a bit of a damp July week here so Nella and I undertook more autumnal activities including jam and bread-making. She altered the neckline of a dress that she had made and worked on some impressive crochet. 

I spent my entire week getting the binding done on Help Ma Boab. I had planned to finish the edge with silver machine blanket stitching but the edges were as bulky as a carpet so I settled for some kantha-style hand stitching. I am still wondering about adding beads to the outside edge (I tested this on a small sample) but that is probably over-kill;) All I really have to do now is hand-stitch the reverse of the binding, hanging sleeve and label and tidy any loose threads. 

Nella and I spent the weekend with Freya, her boyfriend (George) and his Mum. We tramped around Edinburgh which was heaving with tourists like ourselves, dodging rain showers. We visited the National Portrait Gallery which was fascinating. On Sunday we had tickets for the much anticipated Banksy exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Glasgow. It was an amazing exhibition, definitely the best I have attended, anywhere, ever! Photos were not allowed which made the audience engage more fully with the artwork and I think everyone there must have read every single label. It is incredible how Banksy has managed to keep his identity a secret for so many years and not be caught on camera. We felt that we “knew” the artist from the quotes that were displayed yet he remains an enigma. 

My mission this week is to finish Help Ma Boab and get it ready to post. IF I still want to add beads after that I would theoretically have time but possibly not the inclination…