After our lovely break in Cornwall, we returned to find that the couple who had viewed while we were away, wanted to come and see the house again. They duly came, with builder in tow, and after a bit of toing and froing they made an offer we could accept. So the sold sign is up again and we are off!
Sadly, the property we had set our hearts on is no longer for sale, but we have seen a couple of alternatives to go and see while we are down over Easter.
I have been trying to get on with things and not sit dreaming and it's been hard. On Friday I spent a very long day at the NEC at the Fashion Embroidery and Stitch show and did a stint on the QGBI Contemporary Quilt Group stand. I really enjoyed meeting the people who stopped by the stand and there was a lot of interest.
Then on Saturday I spent the day in Boston Spa with Hazel Williams dyeing fabric and yarn with procion dyes.
Unfortunately I have no photos and must now make a start on decluttering so it's all going to get put away for a while while we pack. So off to find some boxes big enough for my stash, but not too big to lift once thery're full!
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Friday, 16 March 2012
A short interlude
As we have had a lot of interest in the house, but no actual offers we decided to take a trip to Cornwall just to make sure it was still there! It was, although for a lot of the time it was shrouded in fog!
Having done the shopping for the AR, taken her out to lunch and settled her in her armchair for a nap, we spent our first afternoon wandering on the beach here
This beach is one of our favourites not because it is especially beautiful, but just because it is only used by local people and passing birds. We saw too many Oyster Catchers to count and four Little Egrets having a rest on the harbour wall. There were also Stonechats, Linnets and Gold Finches, plus the usual gulls. What you can't see in this photo, is the industrial scene behind the beach which, now that the industry has gone, is beginning to revert to nature. The clay drys, once busy and bustling with trucks and machinery are silent, apart from the herring gulls calling from the roof. The harbour, once one of the busiest in the world is deserted apart from the odd security guard making sure that trespassers are kept out and the Black Backed Gulls wheeling and screeching.
It is very sad to think that Cornwall, never a rich place, has now become one of the poorest counties with unemployment running very high and no real hope of employment for anyone, especially for youngsters. So, many young people are having to do what we did all those years ago and move away.
Now we want to move back and DV, if someone comes along and buys our house, that's what we'll do! The house we had hoped to buy has been taken off the market, but perhaps only temporarily, but nevertheless, we thought that we needed a plan B so we took a look at some others to see if they would suit. Sadly they didn't, but we did get to several more of our favourite places.
First to the market town of Helston and lunch at the Halzephron Inn at Gunwalloe. Then onto the Lizard and the most southerly point where we saw choughs!
On a brighter day, we went to St Ives, partly because we love it there, but also to see and exhibition called Inspired To Stitch put on by fellow blogger Carolyn Saxby. The pieces on show were a mixture of mixed media textiles and photography and some of them were very interesting. No photos I'm afraid because I really don't think it's appropriate to take them when an artist is trying to sell the works, but there links on Carolyn's blog so you can see how wonderful her work is.
As my DH has led a blameless life, of course there was a parking space in the Island Car Park so we saved on the cost of the park and ride which has got ridiculously expensive. After our crab sandwich in the Sloop, we had a stroll around the Island before setting of down the coast road to St Just and Cape Cornwall.
Bathed in sunshine and with just a light breeze and just perfect!
So a clamber up to the top of the hill and a long sit on the seat watching the gannets diving before calling into the golf club for a cup of tea.
Now we are back at home and apparently there is someone seriously interested in buying our house. Fingers crossed!
For now, I'm off to my free motion quilting class and over the weekend I'll be working on my CQ at 10 challenge.
Having done the shopping for the AR, taken her out to lunch and settled her in her armchair for a nap, we spent our first afternoon wandering on the beach here
This beach is one of our favourites not because it is especially beautiful, but just because it is only used by local people and passing birds. We saw too many Oyster Catchers to count and four Little Egrets having a rest on the harbour wall. There were also Stonechats, Linnets and Gold Finches, plus the usual gulls. What you can't see in this photo, is the industrial scene behind the beach which, now that the industry has gone, is beginning to revert to nature. The clay drys, once busy and bustling with trucks and machinery are silent, apart from the herring gulls calling from the roof. The harbour, once one of the busiest in the world is deserted apart from the odd security guard making sure that trespassers are kept out and the Black Backed Gulls wheeling and screeching.
It is very sad to think that Cornwall, never a rich place, has now become one of the poorest counties with unemployment running very high and no real hope of employment for anyone, especially for youngsters. So, many young people are having to do what we did all those years ago and move away.
Now we want to move back and DV, if someone comes along and buys our house, that's what we'll do! The house we had hoped to buy has been taken off the market, but perhaps only temporarily, but nevertheless, we thought that we needed a plan B so we took a look at some others to see if they would suit. Sadly they didn't, but we did get to several more of our favourite places.
First to the market town of Helston and lunch at the Halzephron Inn at Gunwalloe. Then onto the Lizard and the most southerly point where we saw choughs!
On a brighter day, we went to St Ives, partly because we love it there, but also to see and exhibition called Inspired To Stitch put on by fellow blogger Carolyn Saxby. The pieces on show were a mixture of mixed media textiles and photography and some of them were very interesting. No photos I'm afraid because I really don't think it's appropriate to take them when an artist is trying to sell the works, but there links on Carolyn's blog so you can see how wonderful her work is.
As my DH has led a blameless life, of course there was a parking space in the Island Car Park so we saved on the cost of the park and ride which has got ridiculously expensive. After our crab sandwich in the Sloop, we had a stroll around the Island before setting of down the coast road to St Just and Cape Cornwall.
Bathed in sunshine and with just a light breeze and just perfect!
So a clamber up to the top of the hill and a long sit on the seat watching the gannets diving before calling into the golf club for a cup of tea.
Now we are back at home and apparently there is someone seriously interested in buying our house. Fingers crossed!
For now, I'm off to my free motion quilting class and over the weekend I'll be working on my CQ at 10 challenge.
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Waiting for the phone to ring is so hard so the DH and I had a day out. I had read an article in my quilting magazine about an exhibition of work by Sabi Westoby which was in the Old Court House Gallery in Thirsk. The exhibition space was a little cramped as it is just part of the shop with many other artists work on display, but as most of the works were two dimensional, they were ideally suited to being hung around the walls. Although Sabi has made quilts in the past, some of which are quite traditional, she is a member of the Contemporary Quilt Group and describes herself as a mixed media artist. The works on display were mostly collages using paper, fabric and stitch and were very interesting. As I was not able to afford to buy my favourite piece, I had to be content with a set of postcards, but these will make an excellent source of inspiration. Sabi had also made some machine embroidered bowls using soluble fabric and I liked these very much. They were light and airy, but also colourful.
The exhibition continues until the 24th March and is well worth a visit. I can also recommend the carrot cake!
So back home for the afternoon to carry on with the Goodbye to the Grid quilt. I am making progress, but it is taking a while to get the pieces sewn together. Some of the pieces are such odd shapes that it is hard to decide whether to try to piece them or just bite the bullet and applique them. I think they look better if they are pieced so the seam ripper came in quite useful. Here is a photo to show how far I've got!
Unfortunately, the purple has come out on the blue side, but it does at least give a flavour. At the moment it is pinned to the original background sketch which is held on the wall by bluetack. It caused quite a stir when it fell off the wall in the middle of the night, but no harm was done and we survived.
The hard bit for me is to choose which fabric goes where and then stick to the choice. I wait a while before sewing them down, but at some point a decision has to be made and even if I think that a different fabric would have been better I'm learning to get it done rather than keep changing it around.
One thing I have learned is that I don't have enough hand dyed fabric to make a full sized piece, and the dyeing I've done to date has been fun, but hasn't produced a range of tints, tones and values that will allow me to make a coordinated piece. So I have booked a three day workshop at the Festival of Quilts with Jo Lovelock Entitled Colour, Texture and Value, Creating Unique Cloth for Quiltmaking. I hadn't intended to book this course, but I realised that in order to make the sort of quilt I have in mind, I need to plan in advance so that I have the fabric ready to hand before I start.
As we aren't planning a holiday this year, and don't know where we'll be living, I decided to go for it rather than put things on hold while we wait for a buyer to come along and buy our house!
All this thought and planning ahead, sketching, designing etc, not really me at all. Am I possibly turning into a textile artist? No, just playing with my toys!
The exhibition continues until the 24th March and is well worth a visit. I can also recommend the carrot cake!
So back home for the afternoon to carry on with the Goodbye to the Grid quilt. I am making progress, but it is taking a while to get the pieces sewn together. Some of the pieces are such odd shapes that it is hard to decide whether to try to piece them or just bite the bullet and applique them. I think they look better if they are pieced so the seam ripper came in quite useful. Here is a photo to show how far I've got!
The hard bit for me is to choose which fabric goes where and then stick to the choice. I wait a while before sewing them down, but at some point a decision has to be made and even if I think that a different fabric would have been better I'm learning to get it done rather than keep changing it around.
One thing I have learned is that I don't have enough hand dyed fabric to make a full sized piece, and the dyeing I've done to date has been fun, but hasn't produced a range of tints, tones and values that will allow me to make a coordinated piece. So I have booked a three day workshop at the Festival of Quilts with Jo Lovelock Entitled Colour, Texture and Value, Creating Unique Cloth for Quiltmaking. I hadn't intended to book this course, but I realised that in order to make the sort of quilt I have in mind, I need to plan in advance so that I have the fabric ready to hand before I start.
As we aren't planning a holiday this year, and don't know where we'll be living, I decided to go for it rather than put things on hold while we wait for a buyer to come along and buy our house!
All this thought and planning ahead, sketching, designing etc, not really me at all. Am I possibly turning into a textile artist? No, just playing with my toys!
Friday, 10 February 2012
Goodbye to the Grid
The Quilt University course is now nearing the end of week two and after a struggle, I have produced a design for my quilt that I'm reasonable happy with. The next step is to do some colour studies to see which shapes need to come forward, and which need to recede!
Dena Crain, the tutor is very encouraging with just the right way of criticising without getting personal. There is a lot to read and the next lesson will be up tomorrow so there's still lots to do.
So here is the design, as yet not totally finished as it doesn't have a border. It will need trimming because now that it is full size (A0), it does have a lot of empty space at the edges.
It's a pretty awful photo, but I hope it gives a flavour!
So my DH and I have been discovering the delights of getting an image scaled up and then printed out and it's taken us most of the day! He is such a treasure, because the only way we found it could be done was to select areas from the original in Paint Shop Pro and then print each one and then stick them back together with magic tape! He stuck at it and now I have my design pinned up on the design wall waiting for the next step.
Tomorrow will be a busy day because we have someone coming on Sunday to view the house and it is in a real mess. Having packed most of my fabric, dyes, paints etc ready for the move that never happened, I then partly unpacked because I needed to use some of it! Now stuff is littering the spare room and almost every surface has clutter on it and as we know, clutter doesn't sell houses!
Lasagne for tea tonight, so I'm off to get going on it before I start picking and ruin my diet!
Dena Crain, the tutor is very encouraging with just the right way of criticising without getting personal. There is a lot to read and the next lesson will be up tomorrow so there's still lots to do.
So here is the design, as yet not totally finished as it doesn't have a border. It will need trimming because now that it is full size (A0), it does have a lot of empty space at the edges.
It's a pretty awful photo, but I hope it gives a flavour!
So my DH and I have been discovering the delights of getting an image scaled up and then printed out and it's taken us most of the day! He is such a treasure, because the only way we found it could be done was to select areas from the original in Paint Shop Pro and then print each one and then stick them back together with magic tape! He stuck at it and now I have my design pinned up on the design wall waiting for the next step.
Tomorrow will be a busy day because we have someone coming on Sunday to view the house and it is in a real mess. Having packed most of my fabric, dyes, paints etc ready for the move that never happened, I then partly unpacked because I needed to use some of it! Now stuff is littering the spare room and almost every surface has clutter on it and as we know, clutter doesn't sell houses!
Lasagne for tea tonight, so I'm off to get going on it before I start picking and ruin my diet!
Monday, 6 February 2012
Another good day out
Off to Clifford on last Saturday for a meeting of our Contemporary Quilt Group. The Community Centre at Clifford is an excellent venue with plenty of tables, chairs etc, a very well equipped kitchen and very good natural light. A number of people couldn't attend, but there was a goodly number present even though it was a very cold day.
The meeting was not entirely successful. Not everyone wanted to join in with the design exercise but we did, I think more out of not wanting to say we didn't want to do it than anything else. I didn't end up with anything to show for it. Indeed, it made me think about whether such exercises are necessary. In fact I now think that they are probably not for me. My view has been reinforced by the excellent Quilt University class I am doing. This class called "Goodbye to the grid" is based on a technique that I hadn't tried before and I'm finding it very rewarding.
The afternoon session at the meeting was a demonstration of mono printing followed by everyone having a go and although this was more enjoyable and I came away with some prints, I have to confess to being rather at a loss to know what to do with them.
So I have finally reached the conclusion, and not before time, that any actual design exercise or textile technique is only valuable for me if it is done in the context of the work I'm doing at the time. So my Quilt University class will I hope provide me with a design for a quilt for the CQ at 10 challenge. If I manage to produce a finished quilt, I may even enter it in the competition, but I'm still not convinced that I want to do that.
So here are a few of the embryonic drawings that might become something!
Watch this space!
The meeting was not entirely successful. Not everyone wanted to join in with the design exercise but we did, I think more out of not wanting to say we didn't want to do it than anything else. I didn't end up with anything to show for it. Indeed, it made me think about whether such exercises are necessary. In fact I now think that they are probably not for me. My view has been reinforced by the excellent Quilt University class I am doing. This class called "Goodbye to the grid" is based on a technique that I hadn't tried before and I'm finding it very rewarding.
The afternoon session at the meeting was a demonstration of mono printing followed by everyone having a go and although this was more enjoyable and I came away with some prints, I have to confess to being rather at a loss to know what to do with them.
So I have finally reached the conclusion, and not before time, that any actual design exercise or textile technique is only valuable for me if it is done in the context of the work I'm doing at the time. So my Quilt University class will I hope provide me with a design for a quilt for the CQ at 10 challenge. If I manage to produce a finished quilt, I may even enter it in the competition, but I'm still not convinced that I want to do that.
So here are a few of the embryonic drawings that might become something!
Friday, 27 January 2012
More excitement
So my little quilt has been sent off to the Contemporary Quilt Group and I hope it will be included in the exhibit that is going off to the Quilt Museum and Gallery called "Celebrating Diversity". The European Quilt Association invited member countries to submit work celebrating the diverse lives and cultures of quilters across Europe. As we British are very fond of gardening, I chose a photo of my DH and me taken on our allotment dressed for the occasion and with tools in hand!
I'm not sure it will be good enough to include in the exhibit, but I was quite pleased with it. The photo isn't very clear, but the light was bad and I was rushing to get it sent off. Finger's crossed that it will impress. At least I got the size exactly right!!!
A steep learning curve involved here concerning printing on fabric through my computer printer. I now have an Epson SX425W because the ink used is more suited for printing on fabric than the ink used in my old Hewlett Packard. However, the way the paper/ fabric goes through the printer is not so good and is very liable to jams. I tried transfer paper, but this would not go through the printer at all. I tried sticking the fabric onto ordinary paper with pritstick, and then magic tape! No this failed too. Finally, I cut a sheet of freezer paper to A4 size and ironed the fabric onto it. Trimmed the fabric carefully so that there were no odd threads or bits sticking out and bingo. It worked! Well, it worked three out of four times, but that was enough!
The edging was done with rat-tail cord zig zagged on to the very edge and that seemed to work very well. We were working to a very precise size and I thought that adding a border would make it more difficult to get this exact.
Next up is my online class with the Quilt University. I've signed up for a class called "Goodbye to the Grid" with Dena Crain. It's also our local Contemporary quilter's Group meeting tomorrow and we're doing monoprinting, and on Sunday we're having a family Sunday lunch. We have received a request that we give the steamed pudding a miss this time!! No problem!
Off to put the hoover round now! Must at least show willing!
A steep learning curve involved here concerning printing on fabric through my computer printer. I now have an Epson SX425W because the ink used is more suited for printing on fabric than the ink used in my old Hewlett Packard. However, the way the paper/ fabric goes through the printer is not so good and is very liable to jams. I tried transfer paper, but this would not go through the printer at all. I tried sticking the fabric onto ordinary paper with pritstick, and then magic tape! No this failed too. Finally, I cut a sheet of freezer paper to A4 size and ironed the fabric onto it. Trimmed the fabric carefully so that there were no odd threads or bits sticking out and bingo. It worked! Well, it worked three out of four times, but that was enough!
The edging was done with rat-tail cord zig zagged on to the very edge and that seemed to work very well. We were working to a very precise size and I thought that adding a border would make it more difficult to get this exact.
Next up is my online class with the Quilt University. I've signed up for a class called "Goodbye to the Grid" with Dena Crain. It's also our local Contemporary quilter's Group meeting tomorrow and we're doing monoprinting, and on Sunday we're having a family Sunday lunch. We have received a request that we give the steamed pudding a miss this time!! No problem!
Off to put the hoover round now! Must at least show willing!
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
New year new challenges
So, Christmas is over. We have finished eating the chocolate, watched the DVDs and read most of the books! Now what?
A link on a blog introduced me to Craftsy and they run lots of interesting online classes so I decided to sign up to the Block of the Month class which is free and also for the Sumptious Stitches class which isn't. I'm not a great fan of all the chatter on the site, but at least it got me started. Then the Contemporary Quilt magazine arrived with details of the Journal Quilt Chllenge for 2012.
The challenge this year is based on colour. The first four quilts must be mainly red and it's shades and tints, although we are allowed to include up to 25% of other colours. The lack of much definition in the rules really inspired me to get going and ideas started coming thick and fast. I decided to use the course materials from the Sumptious Stitches class for the first quilt which was inspired by the strata in the rocks at Bude.
Here is the result;
It's not as pink as it looks here, but I am quite pleased with the result. Here are some close ups of the stitching.
This has been just the thing to get my creative juices flowing and at last I feel I am starting to produce work that is worth showing off!
Next thing on the agenda is the quilt for the CQ10 challenge, more of which later!
A link on a blog introduced me to Craftsy and they run lots of interesting online classes so I decided to sign up to the Block of the Month class which is free and also for the Sumptious Stitches class which isn't. I'm not a great fan of all the chatter on the site, but at least it got me started. Then the Contemporary Quilt magazine arrived with details of the Journal Quilt Chllenge for 2012.
The challenge this year is based on colour. The first four quilts must be mainly red and it's shades and tints, although we are allowed to include up to 25% of other colours. The lack of much definition in the rules really inspired me to get going and ideas started coming thick and fast. I decided to use the course materials from the Sumptious Stitches class for the first quilt which was inspired by the strata in the rocks at Bude.
Here is the result;
It's not as pink as it looks here, but I am quite pleased with the result. Here are some close ups of the stitching.
Next thing on the agenda is the quilt for the CQ10 challenge, more of which later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)