It's official

Now there's a sight for sore eyes!

Just when you think, well it might happen one day, the phone rings and OMG it's actually going to happen. Then you look out of the window and suddenly the SOLD STC sign appears as if by magic!

There's so much to do even before we start tackling the clutter and we are still not certain that we will be able to move as quickly as we'd like to, but barring accidents, off we go!

So we're off to sunny Cornwall later in the week to have another look at the property we're hoping to buy and wish DH's Mum a happy 96th birthday! Not a lot of quilting or anything else is going to get done for a while!

Great Northern Quilt Show

After all the excitement of the Festival of Quilts, and trying to get on with things, with not much success, suddenly it was time for the Great Northern Quilt Show. My friend Sandra had entered three of her quilts in the competition and we decided to go to see how she got on.

And this is the result. A second prize! This lovely miniature quilt is double sided and is really beautifully made. Well done Sandra! Her other quilts did not win, but looked very good.

Sorry that the photos are a bit skew whiff, but it was difficult to get close to them due to the layout.

One of the highlights for me was the exhibition of work by Frieda Oxenham. which was very colourful and just beautiful. Two in particular caught my eye. This one is called Log Cabin Ladies

and includes lots of small photographs of ladies with as a surprise one token gentleman!

This gave me an idea for a present for my big sister who  has a special birthday coming up in January. I have some photos of some of the ladies in our family so I thought it would be just the way to show them off. So I bought a pack of batik strips and am going to make a start as soon as possible. But........ oh dear, the estate agent has just phoned and it seems that someone wants to buy our house and GULP has the money ready! Just the thought of what's lurking in our attic is bringing me out in a cold sweat! Quilts may have to be put on the back burner for now.

Watch this space.

What I got at Festival of Quilts

was a nasty stonking cold! It started on the train on the way home on Saturday, and even today I am still full of it. Still, coughing and sneezing like mad, but planning my next project, which I can do sitting down!

There were so many wonderful things to see at FOQ and so many others have written about it on their blogs that it's difficult to find anything original to say. So apologies if I'm going over old ground!
I spent quite a lot of time browsing the competition quilts in the Contemporary and Art categories so that I could try and fathom out what the difference is between the two. In the end I came to the conclusion that there really isn't any discernible difference at all. There were also quilts in the Pictorial category that I thought could have been entered in either of the other two categories. The traditional quilt that won first prize, was just that, a beautifully made traditional quilt and there were others in that class that were totally traditional. However there were also quilts in that class, that I thought could easily have been entered in the Contemporary class. But hey, what do I know about it given my lack of experience!

I'm not sure about taking photos of other people's work, but there are a few that I did want to capture. It's difficult to pick a favourite so I won't, but there were a few that I thought had the "wow factor".

This quilt by Rosalind Gregory was called Becky's Dresses and was a collection of hand smocked dresses appliqued onto the back ground by hand.  Apparently these were actual dresses made from various Liberty Lawns which had been worn by the makers daughter as a child. The photo really doesn't do it justice, but it was truly delightful and attracted a large crowd.

This quilt was made by Julie Makinder and again the photo really doesn't do it justice. It incorporates hand dyed, hand printed fabrics and incorporates photos inspired by the colours of the Cornish landscape.

Another quilt inspired by Cornwall by Carolyn Saxby from St Ives. I was so pleased to finally get to meet Carolyn who has such a wonderful blog and which is such an inspiration.

This quilt was made by Alicia Merritt and the colours were truly vibrant and the quilting was just wonderful.

If I must choose a favourite, then I think it would be this beautiful quilt by Sheena Norquay. I just couldn't tear myself away from it and while I had my nose pressed up close to see the free machine quilting, I got into conversation with a young woman who was equally enthralled. She thought that this type of quilting needed a special expensive machine and that it could not be done on an ordinary domestic machine. I soon put her right and I hope she was inspired enough to go home, drop her feed dogs and have a play! Exactly what I should be doing!

As for my project, ah well, I was tempted by some beautiful hand dyed silk yarn on Oliver Twists stall and it is just right for weaving a silk scarf. So that's what I'm doing next!

Not long now!

It's been a strange week and it's only Tuesday!  There has been a lot going on. They came to start on resurfacing our driveway yesterday so the car has had to spend the night outside parked in the lane. They're coming today to put down the new surface. As we can't drive on it for at least twenty four hours, the car is outside again. While they're laying the surface, we will be trapped as our only way out is the driveway! So as I have a lot to do, I'll be able to get on won't I?

I can hear the drilling from the men from the Water Company who are digging up the road round the corner and our water is about to be turned off for the day!

How will all the machinery  fit in our narrow little lane? I forsee many arguments developing between our drive way people and the water company as they try to work round each other in such a small area! Or, will anyone turn up at all?

In the meantime, I have lots of sewing to get on with and I have to give some thought to my sketchbook. My sketchbook from The Sketchbook Project arrived last week. This project is a worldwide project described as a concert tour, but with sketchbooks. When you sign up, you choose a theme and your sketchbook arrives with a bar code which is used to identify you. The sketchbooks are sent back to Brooklyn where they are digitised and can be viewed online. I chose "prehistoric" as my theme and I am hoping to get going with it when I get back from Festival of Quilts.

Sadly though, the actual sketchbook is pretty naff. It is quite small and the paper is very thin so that it probably won't take much in the way of paint etc. The cover is plain brown card, which although it can be embellished,  is pretty flimsy, so options appear to be limited. So the plan is to replace the cover and the paper with more interesting and useable materials. Rather like the old broom that lasts forever having only had the handle and the bristles replaced at different times. However  I must ensure that the barcode is left visible and intact.

Not a lot to see at this stage! Fortunately I will be meeting up with friends at Festival of Quilts who are also taking part in this project and so I hope that there will be plenty of ideas and inspirations floating around! There are also going to be a lot of suppliers at the NEC so I will be able to find lots of lovely paper etc to make the sketchbook how I want it. I feel a mixed media surge coming over me!

Next up FOQ. Will I survive it?

More days out!

The tension is mounting as we have had five viewers since putting the house on the market three weeks ago, but as yet no buyer! So as the DH had to go to Beverley on Thursday, I decided that rather than sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, I'd go on the Bernina Club outing to the Abakhan Mill at Mostyn in north Wales.

So a leisurely drive along the M62 in a very large coach in some rather nasty heavy rain, with a stop on the way for a coffee and we arrived just in time for lunch. There is a very large selection of fabric, yarn and craft items and so there was plenty to entertain us.

As I obviously don't have anywhere near enough fabric in my stash, I bought more! It is strange to be buying fabric by weight, but the staff were very helpful and I managed to get some bargains, although I had to look carefully as what was on offer was a bit of a mixed bag, most of it seconds and some of it badly marked or damaged. Here's what I chose!

The colours are a bit deeper than they appear here, but they all blend together well. All I need is a bright colour to use as a highlighter and I'll be all set. My plan is to make a quilt using the cutting double technique. Take two square pieces of fabric the same size and put one on top of the other, right sides up. Then make two cuts across the width of the square. Now you have six pieces of fabric so you mix and match them before sewing back together.  You can make things more exciting by inserting thin strips of fabric as you go. There's a really good book that explains this technique called Thinking Outside the Block by Sandi Cummings. For those of us who are just stepping into the murky waters of contemporary quilting and who haven't yet decided whether to become a "textile artist", it's a good book to start with!

But no time for that today because we went to Tockwith Show where my lovely granddaughter was entered in the young person's sheep handling class! Thunder, lightening and really heavy rain, but she did us proud and won second place! Her lamb, Roy, didn't seem to be all that excited, but she was so proud of her rosette, and there was prize money too! Here they are in their pomp!

 It was lovely to see them winning a prize and although Isobel looks a bit uncertain, she was very proud of herself and of Roy! As to Roy's future apparently, his rear end isn't wide enough so it's doubtful that he will make it as a breeding tup! Oh dear! What will Isobel do if Roy ends up as lamb chops?

So after all the excitement of the competition, we explored the show and it was only when there was a torrential downpour that we voted with our feet and came home.

Such a pity that it rained as it spoiled so much for people who had been planning, practising and working hard to get ready for the show.



Next up, a visit to the Leeds flower show to help out on the Alwoodley Quilters stand. Will this mad social whorl ever end!

Art in Action

We decided to extend our trip to Oxfordshire and visit the Ashmolean Museum to see an exhibition of "Treasures from the royal Capital of Macedon" entitled from Heracles to Alexander the Great. We were not disappointed! However, the down side was that no photography was permitted and there were a large number of security staff lurking ready to swoop at the sight of a camera. So I bought the catalogue instead and all the photos I would have wanted to take are fortunately included. Can't show those on the blog either, but here's a photo of the front cover by way of compensation.

I will use some of theses photos as the basis for the work to be included in my Sketch Book 2012 project for which I have chosen the theme "Prehistoric". My aim is to try to capture the distinction between primitive and prehistoric. The people that made the beautiful items in this exhibition were certainly prehistoric, but definitely not primitive.

And so off to Art in Action on Thursday with camera, water bottle, notebook and umbrellas! It was as wonderful as always and as usual there was simply not enough time in the day to get around everything we wanted to see. I had a great time in the printing marquee and here is my very first etching!

It's a dry point etching scratched onto perspex with an old dart. The printer, a lovely lady called Barbara Jackson inked up the plate and then put it through an enormous press and hey presto!
Here is my selection for the winner of the best of the best competition. It is a tapestry woven by a peruvian weaver who uses Alpaca yarn rather than wool or linen.

Full of colour and texture and a snip at £5,000! We decided to save the money and didn't buy it. In fact there were a number of items we didn't buy saving us over £10,000 on the day!

On Friday morning I spent some time in the Textile marquee as it was quieter and it was possible to get close to the stands. I signed up for a workshop with Dionne Swift and met some very interesting people. Somehow I think it's time for the organisers to invite some fresh blood into the textile marquee. It seems that there is a core of people who are there every year and so there's not always much new stuff to see.

However, there is a lot to see and do generally and lots of lovely food and drink. This year we went for the Heavenly Haloumi burger from the Veggie table. Yum!

So back to Leeds on Friday afternoon and a lovely sunny weekend relaxing in the garden.

Hand Quilting Experiments

some leaf like shapes

So I have been a busy girl what with whizzing up and down the country for various cultural and artistic ventures! The visit to Art in Action was brilliant but details will have to wait for the next post.

My travels have involved a lot of sitting on trains and in cars and to while away the time, and in the car try to take my mind off the chaos on the roads, I have been hand stitching. This follows on from my CQ summer school workshop with Helen Parrott.

using variegated silk thread

I have used some of the hand dyed cotton kindly donated by my dear friend Sandra and various threads just to see what happens. Strangely, although it's only rows of running stitch, quite a lot happens very quickly. Sadly though, not all of it is as intended e.g, this sample using silk thread doesn't look right. I think the thicker thread tends to dominate taking the eye away from the "ripples", and the ripples are what it's all about!

sand ripple sample using cotton thread

 So here is the first of probably many similar samples inspired by ripples in the sand after the tide has gone out. Using longer stitches meant that there is also rippling inside the stitching and I'm not sure this is how I want it to look.

So I will block it and see if that makes it more acceptable.

 running stitch using cotton machine thread

In the meantime, I'm putting the stitching to one side while I play with the toys  I bought
at Art in Action. Namely the fabric crayons, the Inktense blocks, Sue Rangley's book, Embroidered Originals and a lovely new journal sketchbook!

So, blogging may have to wait a bit!