linen & silk

Journal Quilts 2011

2012-02-11T14:03:00.001Z

Here are my Journal Quilts for 2011, they have been great fun to make, and I can't help giggle when I look at them.

I have chosen 12 different languages for shoe:

English - Danish - Italian - German

Swedish - Spanish - Dutch - Portuguese

Czech - Croatian - Welsh - French

This is the very early days of the quilts. Sitting in the sofa, watching TV, thinking what could I do instead of my failed fashion/costume attempt. Then I suddenly thought of shoes, don't know why, still to do with fashion, perhaps? But as you can see, my drawing style leaves a lot to be disired. So I needed a template - and here it is:

Beautiful, isn't it - and it was even the perfect size on top of a 10" by 10" quilt.

But I needed a shoe, not a sandal, so I traced it onto tracing paper that I then scanned. I cut out the shoe and placed on top of some fused fabrics for the background.

Printed out 15 copies (room for mistakes) in a size that fitted my skechbook, and got my felttip pens out. Decided on three hilarous colour for each, plus black for the soles, binding and "grafiti".

Each of the 12 background was quilted in a different way.

The words was added using frezzer paper as a stencil and acrylic paint.

I used 'google translate' to find the right words.

Making a false start, nerver mind, I still learned from it.

..............................................................................................................................

And for those of who are new to this blog, here is how it all began:

The brief for this years Journal Quilts with the Contemporary Quilt Group was more complicated than previous years, when size was the only concern.

This year is the size is 10"x 10" (25,5cm x 25,5cm) and...............
the first 4 is to have circles
the next 4 to have text
and the last 4 buttons

I have chosen to have circles (or semi circles) and text in all. Watch this space for the last four, I don't have a good relationships with embellishments.

I started this years JQs trying to do something with fashion history and ended up with something very, very complicated and not very interesting. I started from scratch and then I saw a picture of some shoes…… Yes, I had found my subject.

At quilt shows there are always those quilts I am drawn too, but never could live with - I guess it is the same with these shoes; in a shop I would look, admire and giggle over these shoes, but I never buy them.

The background in pale grays, was meant to be as neutral as possible, to give life to the bright colours of the shoes. A textile friend pointed out that it looks like pavement and I thought it could be wall as well. So the text must be graffiti then………..
Shoe spelled in various languages.

Background linen, silk and cotton. Raw edge fused and free motion machine quilted. The shoe is hand dyed cotton. Raw edge fused. The letters is stenciling using freezer paper and acrylic. Felt tip pen for the soles.

Brand New Web-site For My Textile Group

2012-01-13T15:51:00.000Z

The Guernsey Contemporary Textile Artists are proud to present our brand new (and first) web-site, all tied in with our very first exhibition in May.

http://www.theguernseycontemporarytextileartists.co.uk

Do come and visit us there, and please remember this is only the start.

Forthcoming Exhibition: Coach-House Gallery C.I. May 2012

More details to follow.

Published........ again!

2012-01-11T17:50:00.006Z

Yes, I'm so very proud to have been chosen to be profiled as Quilter of the Quarter in Kludemagasinet, the Danish Guild magazine. Four pages............
I know, most of you won't be able to read it, but you get the picture, and I just had to share. So proud!

On the bed: First quilt

Thanks for looking in. :D

When I tried to share this blog on facebook the usual way this came up - quite hilarious..........:

Luckily I found a backway into facebook for this posting. For a while I could not add my blog name to an e-mail, it would not send. It did not like the word 'silk' - it could be 'bilk', 'dilk', 'kilk' etc.

Strange!

Festival of Quilts 2011 - Part 1 (Art Quilts)

2011-10-11T17:03:00.007+01:00

Once again my favourite quilt show of the year, has come and gone. All too fast. But I felt that most of it was better and bigger than the previous years............

So here is some of my favourite quilts in this years show - in no particular order.

The maker, title and number are under the quilts, with links - if found. If you are included and don't want to, please e-mail me (or e-mail me a better picture). Not all quilts have been photographed straight on, sorry. Also, the catalogue does not include sizes.

They are all hung on a black / blackish background.

If you are not included here, it might be because my picture of your quilt came out badly ;O) or that I missed it :O(

#109. C June Barnes © Ammonodia

http://www.cjunebarnes.co.uk/

****************************************************************

#222. Carole Belfield © Branching Out

********************************************************************

#224. Alicia Merrett © The Night Road

http://www.aliciamerrett.co.uk/

*************************************************************

#200. Sheena Norquay © Breakers

FOQ 2009

*************************************************************

#133. Sue Payne © Line Over Matter

(Sorry no detail - yet)

********************************************************

# 104. Susan Jones © Reflections

**********************************************************************

#112. Jacqueline Heinz © Rosebridge

FOQ 2007

***********************************************************

#236. Susan Hotchkis © Herculaneum

http://www.suehotchkis.com

*******************************************************

#214. Elly van Steenbeek © School Memories

http://www.ellyvansteenbeek.nl

**************************************************

#135. Roberta Le Poidevin © Traeer

*************************************************

Sue, Susan H, Roberta and I all live in Guernsey.

We are members of The Quilter's Guild of the British, Contemporary Quilt and Guernsey Contemporary Textile Artists (soon to have our web-site up and running and our very first group exhibition here in Guernsey)

By a strange coincidence, Roberta and Sue's quilts were hanging next to each other:

Festival of Quilts (NEC, Birmingham, UK) 2012 will be 16 - 19 August

Make a Container, in Patchwork, Inspired by Architecture!

2011-07-29T18:18:00.006+01:00

Make a Container, in Patchwork, Inspired by Architecture!

This was the brief from my online City and Guilds course. Yes, well where to start?!?

Container, it had to be a box, as I have made a lot (from kits, not designed them myself) during the years, so with that I was in my comfort zone. Patchwork, again within my comfort zone, soft curved free rotary cutting, a technique I love. Architecture, well Shaker Style is a great favorite, I have several books on the subject, furniture and a shaker style dolls house!

So with all those comforts, why was I still so uncomfortable.................?? Ah, that was the combination, I just couldn't get any ideas into my head. What to do? And I was very unsure that I would like the outcome, the very thought was very uninspiring. I want to be excited when I design something, not dreading it.

This story have a very happy ending, though - I just love the finished box, the colours, the shape and the quilting. So there you go - it can happen.

The finished box (should have given more thought to the background)

Some of my inspiration

Here the journey starts, with marks in books, rather a lot - too many in fact, I got carried away and nearly driveled onto the pages. Show me a book of cakes and it won't happen ☺
The next step was to eliminate my picture sources, to narrow down my choices.

The box type I wanted to make

Some boxes made previous from kits with inner box and outer box

This is how I would do my box, as I know this technique well. 11" cube (28x28x28cm)

Notes

Time to get my thoughts together - I started making notes on colours and shapes I like. Slowly, slowly the ideas started coming in. The colours narrowed down from the buildings and landscape, and suddenly the idea of quilting came to me: Clapboard on off-white, shingle on bluish-grey, drystone wall on dark brown, sandstone wall on grey-beige and windowpane on blue. How I love it when everything suddenly falls into place.

Making a start

The fabrics, card and wadding (batting). Placing the two fabrics on top of each other, right sides up. Cutting the first soft curve freehand. The first side pieced. Note the card mock-up model in the background. The great thing with this technique, is that no seam-allowance is needed.

The finished patchwork/quilt top

Top left: The finished pieced/quilted top - Bottom left: detail, quilting from left: Windowpane, clapboard, sandstone wall, drystone wall and roof shingles. Both right: the back.

Bottom half of the box nearly finished

This is the outer and inner box being made up, the inner box slightly smaller than the outer one. I ended o up glueing the two together at the top. The lid is the same colour inside and out and I sewed those together. The lid is also wadded on top.

My box

So here we go, my lovely shaker box!

The Quilters Guild Now Finalists

2011-07-08T12:47:00.002+01:00

Thank you for voting!

Great news! We have voted and even better news - The Quilters’ Guild project ‘Unfolding the Quilts’ reached the final of the National Lottery Awards. The project is now one of three competing for the title of ‘Best Heritage Project’ and the second round of voting runs from 2 to 26 September.

Being one of the finalists means that the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York, where the project is based, will be featured on the BBC television programme announcing the winners in the autumn. This coverage will make people across the UK more aware of the Quilt Museum and Gallery – and of quilting in general.

The ‘Unfolding the Quilts’ project has supported the Museum and Gallery’s work with young people and the wider community (over 7,000 people since 2008 taking part in quilt-related activities) and also the recruitment and training of volunteers without whom the Museum and Gallery could not operate. For more information about the project see http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/blog/quilt-museum-news/01337.html.

For more information about the National Lottery Awards see the web site at http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards

(Partly copied from http://www.twistedthread.com)

Ps. For members of The Quilters Guild of the British Isles - We now have a yahoo group - it will be announced in the next 'Quilter' magazine. This is the address:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QGBI/

Go Join! At the time of writing 111 people has already done so.

Shoes Anyone?

2011-06-11T19:21:00.002+01:00

Journal Quilts 2011

January

February

March

April

Your Vote Is Needed

2011-06-06T16:51:00.010+01:00

Your vote is needed!

The Quilters' Guild's project Unfolding the Quilts, based at the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York, has reached the semi-finals of the National Lottery Awards, the annual search to find Britain’s favourite Lottery-funded projects, in the 'Best Heritage Project' category.

We are asking people to support us by voting for our project, enabling us to reach the finals, which will be shown on BBC 1 television. This would be tremendous publicity for quilting and for the Quilt Museum and Gallery and would recognise the hard work of the staff and volunteers in making the Quilt Museum and Gallery a great place to visit.

For further information about the project and to vote:

Vote here!

Thanks and please feel free copy this onto your own blog and make a link on facebook!

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Part 3 (Contemporary Quilts)

2011-03-17T17:55:00.005Z

Favorite Quilts from the Contemporary Quilts Competition.

Zsofia Atkins © Marbles #326

Detail


© Nicola Kimber: Letting Go #379 (sorry for the lighting of this quilt)

Detail

The maker, title and catalogue # are under the quilts. If you are included and don't want to, please e-mail me (or e-mail me a better picture). Not all quilts have been photographed straight on, sorry. But I have tried my best in i-photo and photo-shop. If you have additional websites/blogs to these quilters, please let me know, I could only find the ones for Uta Lenk, Karen Farmer and Terry Donaldson.

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Part 2 (Art Quilts)

2011-02-17T17:59:00.023Z

Favorite Quilts from the Art Quilt Competition:

It is on purpose that I have not included the winners, they have been shown in most of the magazines. Funny enough, I can't find any photos of the winning quilts on the net - yes one here, and one there - but not a collected site with all of them.

So in no particular order, enjoy:

© Mary Mayne, Pegs #102
Commment: Such an everyday life thing - how brilliant to think of using this. It so simple and it amuses me.........

Comment: Wondenful buildings - wonderful execution..........

Comment: Lovely and simple - A self portrait?

If you are not included here, it might be because my picture of your quilt came out badly ;O) or that I missed it :O(

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Part 1

2010-11-01T20:33:00.026Z

My Own Quilts at the Festival:

Since 2006 I have entered quilts at the Festival of Quilts and 2010 was no exception. There are many categories to enter and my favorites is Art, Contemporary and Miniature.

Japanese Dawn 120 X 120cm [48" X 48"]

This was my entry in the Art category.

Linen, silk, hand dyed cotton, colour catchers, cotton and silk thread, fused collage, free motion machine quilted.

This is the seventh in a series of fused quilts, where I started with fusing cream linen and silk fabrics the the wadding (batting), then quilt it heavily. This gives me a “blank canvas” on which I can make my collage.

This was rejected for EAQ VI (European Art Quilt Foundation) 2010 - it was my first try - they got 170 entries and needed only 47 quilts. So that meant that I had a quilt ready for FOQ instead! Never cry....... etc. ;O)

Detail

I was very pleased with my neighbour [Summer by Anne White © I think]

Chatting to visitors and getting my photo taken - I often make myself known, if people appear interested in my work. It's good to chat and explain how things are made. I just love to talk to an artist and hear from "the horse's mouth" how things are made.

I start this kind of quilt by fusing the Bondaweb/Wonderunder® to the wadding [batting] - not to the fabric. This is possible because I quilt it so heavily.

The start

Before quilting

Quilting finished, but not pressed

My "blank canvas" ready for the collage

---------------------------

Next up is my miniature, another reject (or too late entry), this time for Quilting Arts Magazine's Calender challenge a couple of years ago with the theme "A Novel Idea".

Out of Africa 30 X 30cm [12" X 12"]

Here seen with the original binding, which I made more narrow for this category.

Commercial cotton, colour catchers (those non woven sheets you throw in the washing machine to catch running colours), velvet, silk bits, bark,various thread.

Free rotary cutting, machine pieced, machine quilting and embroidery. Silk paint.

This is my original statement:

"Out of Africa" is the title of Danish author Karen Blixen's novel based on her life as a coffee farmer in Kenya. My quilt captures the moment in the novel when she is forced from her farm, looking across the African landscape towards her beloved Ngong Hills after losing the one she loved and all she owned.

"Novel" also means "new, afresh", and in that sense the quilt shows the moment a life turns - in Blixen's case from expatriate coffee farmer to internationally renowned author.

With the new modified binding - so much better for a miniature, the definition being that in a photo you can't see what size it is. So the old binding was a dead giveaway.

Details

-----------------------

Last but not least my quilt for the Contemporary category:


My Flower Garden 160 X 160cm [63" X 63"]

I don't have a flat shot of the finished quilt (!) so this is it hanging at FOQ, I knew that it was probably going to hang against a black background, so I made coloured bindings so it didn't disappear.

Details

This quilt started life very traditionally with hexagons sewn together in the Grandmother's Flower Garden block. I soon got bored and appliqued the whole lot on bias onto some modern fabrics. Then the quilt-top spent many years as an UFO [unfinished object]. One of my hurdles was that I did not know how to quilt it - specially the "flowers" - still don't, actually. All suggestions are welcome........

My original inspiration

Flat shot of the quilt-top

Quilting in progress - see how much the hexagons disappears...........

I work with one of those snap-frames and my beloved "George"

This is how I fold the quilt, to have the least "dragging" - I listen to audio books (using head phones, "George" is very noisy) while quilting and are completely lost to the world meanwhile. Bliss.

Before pressing

After pressing - still not quilted, as I don't have a clue what to do? I only know that I don't want to do the traditional thing, hand quilting 1/4" from the seam.

Photos that warms this quilters heart

I always practice quilting on a less important quilt, before moving on to the quilt in question, this way I quilt two quilts in one go. So much better than having those endless practice pieces.

Klimt Stars

Detail

Not finished yet, but it will be some time soon.

Still to come: My favorite quilts at the show and a fabulous class with Sandra Meech.

If you are still reading - big thanks!

I Am a Calender Girl!

2010-10-01T16:40:00.001+01:00

My quilt "Cracking Blues" 2006 (detail)

Last year I was asked by The Quilters Guild of the British Isles if they could use one of my quilts for their 2010 calender........... Does anyone ever say no? Well not me, I was delighted to be asked. And at FOQ 2009 I bought 15 copies for friends and family, he-he.

Will post from the FOQ soon, it's taking me a long time to prepare the photos, but I will get there.

Add Your Own Quilts to the Victoria & Albert Museum Quilts Website

2010-04-05T14:24:00.008+01:00

The V&A has now opened a web-site for quilts of all sorts. I have posted some quilts there and you could do the same! Here's the link
UPDATE: The exhibition has closed, but the link is still active and you could still add your quilts.

‘At the End of the Day’, hanging, Natasha Kerr, 2007. Museum no. T.43-2008

Once you have uploaded a quilt and description, you get a profile on the site where you can also upload a picture of youself. Have a look at my profile here to get the idea.

You also get a certificate from the museum, with your own quilt embedded in the above picture.

All very exciting I think!! This you can also share on you facebook or twitter.

Tips: If you want your name to appear, use your name as your username. Take a very good look at other quilts and profiles before you decide how to approach the concept. With each quilt you can add more pictures of details. But add each quilt separately. There's no place to insert the size, so be sure to add this to the description - size matters to quilters.

Now go and have fun - see you there!

Ps. read somewhere that this exhibition has the most pre-booked tickets in it's history.

Victoria & Albert Museum Quilts 1700-2010 Exhibition

2010-03-19T18:47:00.004Z

The Quilts 1700-2010 Exhibition opens on March 20th

at the V&A in London, UK.

It will be open 20 March - 4 July 2010

See more click here

If you can't come or wants to know what's in store click here

Update: Watch this 'video' on the following artists Jo Budd, Caren Gerfen, Diana Harrison, Susan Stockwell and Quilts: 1700 - 2010 Exhibition Trailer.

I am so looking forward to see this exhibition! We have cut short our narrow boating trip in order to visit friends in London and for me to see this exhibition.

For narrow boating see the end of this blog - click here

Journal Quilts 2010 - January, February and March

2010-03-15T17:26:00.007Z

These are the first three Journal Quilts of 2010

7" X 10" aprox. 18 X 25 cm

Checkers, Anyone? Red Cracks Chessboard

I started with my sketchbook and made a whole quilt sandwich.

Then things quickly went wrong as I started to paint. The red colour was to wet and started to bleed.

At this point I already knew that my black paint was too thick and lumpy.

So I started a new sandwich and this time I had much more control over the brush and got the red painted alright. Seeking high and low here in Guernsey, I tried to get some textile paint and ended up with a felt tip pen for textiles and that worked like a treat. Unfortunately they didn't have the right red colour.

I proceeded to cut the quilt the wrong way [the pattern too close to the right] and I had to be creative on the left side, with a fat red binding and when that was still not enough - some fused bars. I have yet to decide if I'm going to stitch them [might fall of if I send them to a show, and somebody else is going to handle the quilt].

Checkers, Anyone?

Cotton and silk fabric, cotton thread, wadding, bond-a-web and fabric paint.

Wholecloth quilt, quilted, fused and painted.

............................

Red Cracks

Cotton fabric, cotton thread, wadding, brayer, acrylic and fabric paint.

Pieced, quilted and painted.

Note: It was quite scary to take the brayer with the acrylic paint to the finished quilt. I didn’t like it till it was bound.

Checkerboard

Cotton and silk fabric, cotton thread, wadding, bond-a-web.

Torn strips, woven, quilted and fused.

Note: When I had torn all the strips, it looked like a pile of spaghetti, so I very nearly gave up before I had started. But with a great deal of pressing, gluing and fusing, I finally had my way…… very satisfying☺.

No sketchbook for this one!

Still having blogging problems:

Pictures and text are all over the place - depending on how wide you choose to see the window! Hmmmmmm.

Have just moved all my pictures to the center position, that seems to help a bit.

Published Again!

2010-03-06T15:42:00.008Z

I have been published again, this time in the new Dutch magazine QUILT & ZO Nr. 03

It is with the same quilt that was featured in Patchwork Professional, but this time the quilt has made it to the cover as well, so I'm very pleased.

====================================================
On a note of my colour scheme for my Journal Quilts this year (black, white and a bit of red), here is a funny little story:

I have always been interested in fashion history and I have had this well thumbed book on the subject since my teens.

And this detail of a painting of Nicolaes Maes [Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1634-1693] has always caught my imagination, she is just so lovely....... but I always wondered about the colours.

Through out the years of internet I have tried to find this painting on the internet and failed...... Until last week! And guess what the colours are:

Black, white and a bit of red.

I have been delighted to see the whole picture, in colour, and I think she is lovelier than ever.

Journal Quilts 2010

2010-01-29T17:17:00.010Z

This is the start of my journal quilts 2010:

This year the size is 7" x 10" (18cm x 26cm) and portrait only.

I have cut 12 pieces each of white and black fabrics and wadding, all a good inch larger all the way around. I intend to use a different technique each month. Anyway, that's the intention for now.

This is my inspiration for the colour scheme: Black, white and a bit of red.

Let the fun begin!

Update on my previous post: I have made this post in Firefox and the new Update Editor and cross my fingers that everything will look right once I hit the 'Publish Post" bottom.

A big thanks to Tracey and Kay for all their help.

(Update on this post: It does more or less, but when I choose 'normal' for the letters, they come out smaller than in my previous posts, if I choose 'large' they come out much larger that before, but at least I don't have the funny large spaces between paragraphs. FYI, the headline is written in 'large' and the rest in 'normal' - I would really like something in between.......Oh, and when I look at the post in Firefox, the four fashion shots are on top of each other - in Safari the two top ones is side by side?? Ah, the mysteries of IT.)

PS. I can't find the spell check in this new Update Editor?

Blogging an Easier Way - "Updated Editor" in Blogspot

2010-01-25T16:36:00.016Z

I have long struggled with blogging in Blogspot, and one of my problems have been the silly little edit window. About this width but only 2" high (5cm) for those of you new to Blogspot. It made it near imposible to swap text, pictures etc.

But I belong to a wonderful group with a private Yahoo group and today the following useful information was posted by Tracey Pereira www.chubbymother.blogspot.com and I have her permission to share it here:

"You can get to Updated Editor in blogspot as follows:

Login to your blogger account

Go to CUSTOMISE (on top right)

Go to SETTINGS (on top left)

In settings .... page down to GLOBAL SETTINGS

Select post editor : Choices are Updated Editor / Old Editor and Hide Compose Mode

Select Updated Editor and SAVE"

I have been blogging in Old Editor and haven't been aware there was an Updated Editor!

More useful information:

"Now when you write a new post you will have a new edit panel

In Edit post ...you will have a new top formatting line for things like the fonts, text size, bold, italic, colours etc.. Upload IMAGES is on this line.

Click the image box to add an image. You can upload as many photos - jpegs, pngs, tiffs as you want BUT the difference is they are only uploaded as thumbnails - ie they are NOT actually uploaded to your blog posting until you click on the photo and say OK. I have uploaded as many as a dozen images in this way - 8 per page so I had 2 pages in my case and was able to go from page 1 to 2 or vice-versa to select the images I wanted.

A pale yellow box shows around the image when you select. Now click OK and the image will post to you blog entry. Now add text ... (if you want).

To add the next image to your posting go to the format line at the top of the blog post and click the image box again. You will be taken back to the image uploader page with ALL the photos/images thumbnails you previously uploaded. Now highligh the image you want and click OK again. This second image will now post to the blog entry at the position your cursor was at before you clicked the upload image box.

Continue in this way going between blog posting and image uploader to select the images you want in the order you want them. Remember to press OK or your images will not go to the post entry."

My muse is back and blogging has been made easier, what more could I want! Perhaps that it isn't a problem when I change the text size.........!!

This is what happend when I changed to a bigger size text!

Ups, it did something funny, I took a screen picture - can you see the text in the middle, after the word "group" (in blue):

I still struggle: This text size is much smaller or bigger than I normally use, but if I change it everything goes funny - see picture at the bottom. I'm also confused by the spacing..... Update - now I have gone back to Old Editor - to make the post like I want it....... and in OE I've now got the text size I meant to have....

So starting in Updated Editor and then when I make changes and it plays up - go back to Old Editor and sort things out.............. hmmm I might have to change the headline!

Journal Quilts 2009 - The Four Last Ones - And Journal Quilts 2010

2010-01-20T20:46:00.030Z

These are the last four Journal Quilts for 2009:

September, October, November and December

And just to recap: May, June, July and August

January, February, March and April

They are all 6" X 12" ( 15cm X 30 cm)

I chose to make my 2009 theme was ‘Exploring Collage’ and I decided to make all the backgrounds in one go, as a kind of hole cloth, with heavy machine quilting, then cut it into 12pieces, aprox. 13” x 7” = my blank “canvases” for the whole year. I made them in series of four.

Materials for the “canvas”: Various textured off-white silks, wadding, commercial cotton (backing) and silk thread.

Technique for the “canvas”: Fused and free-motion machine quilted.

Materials and technique for the collage: ColourCatchers® and cotton threads. Fused and free- motion machine quilting. In the last four I have also used mulberry bark.

The 2010 challenge:

The size for 2010 is 7" X 10" (18cm X 25cm)

I'm going to try a new tecnique each month and here is my chosen colour scheme:

Black, white and a hint of red (in my case red/orange)

I am proud to say that I have made an entry in my sketchbook (two facing pages) every day since January 1st, have made a begining on the Journal Quilts 2010 and restarted my C&Gs course.

More postings on all three to follow.....

A Mixed Creative Year

2009-12-31T16:08:00.008Z

This year has been a very strange year for me creatively.............. Most of the year my inspiration has been dried up, ideas didn't appear and the urge to create has been an absolute minimum. This hasn't worried me a lot, as an avid reader I once went through a long period of almost non-reading............!

But it explains why I haven't blogged a lot, finished my C&G and omitted from entering the Contemporary Quilt challenge "Breaking Through" and the Quilting Arts Magazine's Calender challenge "Freshly Picked" - no quilts came into my mind, no matter how much I thought. Not a lot of sketchbooks or journals either.

And then I went on to win a major prize at the Festival of Quilts in August - no one was more surprised that I?!? Not that I complain......... But even that didn't get my creative juices flowing.

That's why this splendid book has been my Christmas reading:

Buy it here (UK) and here (US)

It consists of interviews with 14 different artists: Some blog/FB chums - Judy Coates Perez, Pam RuBert and Judy Wise - among them.

And of course it confirms what I already know - Don't wait for your muse to appear, just do it!

Now it's New Year and always a good place to start afresh and with that I wish you all a very

Happy New Year!!

"Do not wit to strike till the iron is hot,

But make it hot by striking!"

William Butler Yates

AURIfil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads Are Now Officially My Sponsor

2009-11-14T12:06:00.021Z

Christmas has come early this year, for this morning I received a wonderful parcel from AURIfil in Milano/Italy:

All my favorite colours and more! Wow............... :D

(the orange spools are #50 and the green spools are #40)

There are 36 wonderful new colours, so that makes it 216 plain and 36 variegated colours in all to choose from. The only colour I never use is pink and I rarely use red, but that only takes away 30, so it was very difficult to choose from all that eye candy!

See the 36 new colours here.

This is my collection of AURIfil #50:

I can't wait to get started, my head is full of ideas (too many, in fact) - where to start? No pressure........ he-he.

A big thank you to Alex Veronelli for making this happen ☺

Published!

2009-10-24T09:21:00.020+01:00

I have been featured and interviewed in a magazine for the first time! It is the German magazine Patchwork Professional (Issue 3, 2009) and I can only just spell my way through. Four pages, I can't quite believe it.................

The first two pages features my quilt "Rage", which has been exhibited at The Festival of Quilts (FOQ) 2008 ("Judges Choice") and at The Danish Guild Conference 2009. It is very difficult to photograph, as the wholes in it comes out as white "dots" - depending on the background colour. Also shown is my "Thin Blue Line" quilt, done in a challenge by The Contemporary Quilt Group and exhibited at the Dudley Museum, FOQ and Loch Lomond Quilt Show (2008-9).

In the next two pages I demonstrate how I make the holes in the quilt:

Also featured is my quilt "GardenDreams" that was on the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine (issue 23).

My blog friend Jenny Bowker (and now also facebook friend) graces the cover and main feature of PP.

I have been admiring her quilts for years, so it was great to meet her and see her solo exhibition at FOQ.

When departing for the festival, neither of us had

received our complementary copy, but I was lucky; my friend Ineke Berlyn had a copy that I could borrow to glance through and also to show to Jenny.

Because of my winning at FOQ, I also got my "Little Thin Blue Line" quilt featured in The Guild magazine "The Quilter" together with the 2nd and 3rd prize in the "Miniature" category.

And various categories in Patchwork & Quilting Magazine:

Festival of Quilts - I have Won My 1st Major Prize! (updated)

2009-08-21T10:27:00.012+01:00

"Little Thin Blue Line" (30x30cm / 12"x12")

Hello all, can I just share with you that I have won my first major prize in a quilt show! 1st prize for my miniature quilt here at the Festival of Quilts in England. I'm so proud , not the least because art quilt + miniature quilt normally are two separate things. Miniature quilts is traditionally just that: Traditional.

Update: Getting my prize on stage from Margaret Walker of City & Guilds (thanks Sandy)

"Another Thin Blue Line" (120x120cm)

On top of that I've got a Judges Choice for my Art Quilt - my feet are not quite touching the ground ;O)

As it happens, I got this by Lisbeth Borggreen, a fellow Dane, whom I happen to know, but of course she didn't know that when she gave me the prize. As she said last night, it must be our shared sense of Scandinavian taste that applied.

Sorry to make this so short for now - am very keen to get over to the exhibition, and will update later. Thanks also to all those of you who have complained about my lack of blogging lately - I promise to blog more in future ;O)

Journal Quilts 2009 - The Next Four Months

2009-08-13T22:45:00.012+01:00

This is the next four Journal Quilts in the 2009 series - May, June, July and August.

Here is the starting point. What can you do with this lot:

This is what I have done:

May and June

July and August

Detail

They are still for the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilts 2009.

The challenge was to make them 6” by 12” (15 X 30 cm), either portrait or landscape orientated.

Minerva - Summer Quilt Exhibition part 2

2009-08-09T14:02:00.002+01:00

Back with more pictures from the Minerva - Summer Quilt Exhibition courtesy of Judy Fairless.

Ps. Click on any picture to enlarge!

Minerva - Summer Quilt Exhibition

2009-08-08T14:37:00.043+01:00

July 13th - September 12th 2009

I belong to the Contemporary Quilt Group who once again has arranged that our Journal Quilts is being exhibited. This time at the Minerva Arts Centre in Wales. Each of us has been invited to select four of our 2008 Journal Quilts.

These are the four quilts I have chosen from my Journal Quilts 2008

I have tried to arrange them as they hang in the gallery 2 by 2 but to no avail, so here they are one after the other.

This simple post has taken me more than four hours to make! Very frustrating, as I had to keep reloading pictures that disappeared when I rearranged them. Most times everything would look ok in the preview, but look so differently in the blog itself. What is a preview for then?

Finally a bit like I want it......!

Update: Candied Fabrics said: Try using windows live writer it's free software, but downloaded onto your computer. You hook your blog to it (easy peasy) and then write posts on your desktop, making the pix do what you want, then push publish at the end - everything is just right!

It didn't work - I have a Mac and work in Pages and don't have any Microsoft programs on my machine.

If anyone out there have a similar thing for a Mac, I would really like to know, because this has been very frustrating!

More update: I would like to thank Me r e t e V eian for pointing me in the direction of her friend Ingunn Kjøll, who changed from PC to Mac and therefore no longer could use Live Writer as referred to in the above. She has now found Blogo for Mac and I posted the above post in it.......... there is a free 21 day trial or to buy 25$.

Journal Quilts 2009 - The First Four Months

2009-06-12T15:00:00.019+01:00

When I have been procrastinating for a long time, it is very difficult to get back on track again (and includes a great deal of guilt on my side!!) - but here we go...............

For the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilts 2009 the challenge was to make them 6” by 12” (15 X 30 cm), either portrait or landscape orientated.

Collage 1 - January.............. Collage 2 - February

Collage 3 - March................ Collage 4 - April

For this years theme I have choosen ‘Explore Collage’ and I decided to make all the backgrounds in one go, as a kind of hole cloth, with heavy machine quilting, then cut it into 12 pieces, aprox. 13” x 7” = my blank “canvases” for the whole year.

Work in progress and all the fused silks and linens.

Quilting samples

The 12 blank "canvases"

Materials for the “canvas”: Various textured off-white silks, wadding, commercial cotton (backing) and silk thread.

Technique for the “canvas”: Fused and free-motion machine quilted.

Materials and technique for the collage: ColourCatchers® and cotton threads. Fused and free-motion machine quilting.

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And another thing - I just love to read all those inspiring blogs, it just haven't happened lately - so I'm looking forward to get back on track in this matter too.

Update: Regarding the Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads I haven't forgotten to test them, only I still have a lot of deadlines and therefore it will have to wait a bit more ;O)

Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads

2009-04-18T12:52:00.015+01:00

Gosh how time flies when you are procrastinating……..

I want to share a lovely little story:

A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to join Facebook and within a few days I had quite a few friends, mostly people I already know from the quilting world, which is how I prefer it. Then one day a man I had never heard of wanted to be my friend?!? What had I let myself in for………… It turned out that we had several mutual friends in the quilting world and that he is the head of Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads in Milan and sponsor of many quilt shows. So I was happy to let Alex Veronelli be my friend, he was merely networking ;O)

In Facebook you can be a ‘fan’ of something or someone, and Alex asked me to be a ‘fan’ of Aurifil Quilt Patchwork and Embroidery Threads - which I promptly did. After a couple of hours I thought, hang on, this is a brand of threads I have never heard of, nor tried, how can I recommend that?

So I wrote Alex and asked if he would send me a little sample pack, so I could try them out and he kindly agreed.

But I never expected this:

This is what I received - wow - a big thanks Alex, I’m really looking forward to trying them out……… At the moment I’m working on some quilts in other colours (for quilt show and a magazine, so I can’t show them on my blog just yet), but I will try them out soon. Yummy, yummy colours - the chart on the wall is for the cottons and the one standing behind the reel holder (my own) for the wool/acrylic.

Four different sizes cotton (3 of each)

#50/2 the size I normally use for piecing (top row)

#40/2 for quilting smaller quilts [journal quilts, little germs, etc] (middle row, left)

#28/2 that’s interesting, I usually use a #30, so this will be slightly thicker (middle row, right)

#12/2 that is quite thick, and might only work from the bobbin, so the quilting must be done from the back. Haven’t tried this before. (bottom row, left)

One 50%wool/50%acrylic (3 of each)

#12/2 - not quite sure what this is for? (bottom row, right)

Although it isn't so "green", I like the fact that they are covered in a thin layer of plastic - but would have prefered the plastic reels to have been made of card instead.

If you are on facebook, you can find Alex Veronelli here, and the Aurifil Threads here, where Alex gives some wonderful guided tours of the factory - much fun!

..........................................................

Why do I show you a picture of some empty tissue boxes and an empty loo-roll (toilet paper roll)?

First of all - they are not empty at all. It is all about recycling........ the tissue boxes double up as bins (trash cans to you over there ;O)) - very handy when you have the quilt group around or by the sewing machine, armchair etc. The empty loo-roll is covered in ducktape and has a little opening at the top - this is where I can safely dispose of any sharp objects, such as needles, pins and cutting blades.

Bookbinding the Easy Way

2009-03-22T13:17:00.021Z

Last week I made this little fellow, using some new equipment called

Bind-It-All or Zutter.

(Watch the little demo on the link)

I first came across this method on

Liz Plummer's Blog and Gunnel's Blog

and it's what I have been looking for, for a very long time.........

For the first book I made, I was just using all sorts of scrap paper, anything I could lay my hand on.

This is 6" by 6" (15 x 15 cm).

Here it is - the Zutter:

Once I had discovered that you use the same machine for any size, I decided to buy a beginners kit, always a good option on trying something new:

Here is the book without any decoration:

I'm looking forward to making my own sketchbooks with exactly the papers I like, in sizes I choose, it's all very exciting!

..........................................................................................

In near future DH and I are going narrowboating, and he always makes an enlargement (in A4 and laminated) of the part of the trip we're doing. So for my second try with the Zutter, I decided to bind these pages as well - for ease of use on the boat.

I made a few mistakes, perhaps I shouldn't have cut the holes for all 12 pages at the same time ;

O) - but all in all I'm very pleased with the result.

...............................................................................................

For my own use I also photocopy the route we are taking and paste the pages into my sketchbook, that way I find it easy to know where we are and can add my own drawings and notes. Here is a sample of last years sketchbook:

Collins / Nicholson Guide to the Waterways

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Addition - more on narrowboating:

Carol Sloan (who also have a Bind-It-All) quite rightly asked me what a narrowboat is, so I hasten to add to this post to clarify what I'm on about. ;O)

A narrow is boat is between 45' to 70' (14 - 22 m) long and 7' (2 m) wide, we are usually on a 66' (20 m). Used to transport goods on the English canals and rivers in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries - first by horse-power, later by steam and then by fossil-fuel. As the landscape varies a lot in hight, there is a lot of locks. Now mostly used for leisure and/or houseboats.

It is steered from the back (it's actually me steering here) and the pace is so that you can walk briskly beside it at the towpath - where the horses used to tow the boats.

Here we are at a rather large lock (sometimes only one narrowboat will fit, sometimes two, but tightly) - this tells me it's a river rather than a man-made canal.

And finally a picture of how it used to be - lots of space for cargo and very little space for living quarters, often a whole family would live there.

Picture courtesy of

THE HISTORY OF THE NARROW BOAT STEAMER – SO FAR…..

Getting to know George

2009-03-15T14:40:00.015Z

I have started using George on one of many of my old UFOs - the reason for starting with this being that more than half was already quilted.

These blocks were given to me in 2001(!) by five members of a (non-quilting) group I belong to. We meet once a year for a long weekend and I host it . As that years hostess present, I'd asked for quilt blocks (30x30cm/12"x12") and sent them the fabrics. This is what I got........ They didn't like the gray-blue fabric. (The blocks are hanging on my black flannel design board)

So I added 11 more blocks, sorry I couldn't find any pictures, and I haven't got a clue of when I did the blocks, the quilt top or the quilting.......... only long ago. I have fleece on the back, something I find very useful for utility quilts. Very useful in the garden, on the beach or in the car.

Will post a picture of the finished quilt, with my added blocks. ;O)

I have used the above book quite a lot, and was delighted to find that you can still get it. BUY THIS BO OK

This one is new, I can always use some more inspiration for quilting lines. I never mark the quilts, I find it stressful to follow lines. BUY THIS BOOK

And finally I bought this book, it also have some free-motion quilting inspiration and a mountain of inspiration for various techniques - wonderful! Those of you who read Quilting Arts Magazine knows what to expect. I read a review by someone who was disappointed with it, she felt she had already read it via the magazine. But I see it as a great reference book, I can go straight to it, instead of waisting hours looking through piles of old magazines. BUY THIS BOOK

George has moved in with me!

2009-03-02T18:57:00.012Z

DH has helped me with this. And no, he is not jealous........... ;O)

I don't know about you, but I always happen to have a pile of "not there yet quilts" lying around - some of these has been with me for a number of years, I just haven't got around to quilt them yet......... The blue one is still only a quilt top, the other ones has been sandwiched.

Enter George - now I really have no excuse!!!

George is a 'mid-range' quilting machine, for motion-free quilting only, with no stitch regulator (so it is still my skill that makes the stitch length) and it has the biggest "throat" or "harp" on the market. Off cause this is not only for previous work, but for all future quilting. Jubiiiiiiiii.

I have bought George from Angela & John Pickering who did the delivery last Thursday. Luckily they stayed on the island for a few days, because I had a few problems with the tension. George prefers polyester threads, but I like cotton and silk - so we have compromised - I now use polyester in the bobbin, I can live with that ;O)

Then after they had left, I had further problems: George keept skipping stitches big time. I tried all the tricks in the book: Changing the needle, clearing lint/fluff, changing thread, using a thinner thread in the bobbin, using "sewers aid' etc.

In came my big hero DH, who had a good look at the mechanics of a sewing machine (he can take a car or computer apart and put them back together again, he cooks too, no I won't trade him ;O) ) - he made some mechanical adjustments, and now George works like a dream................

5000+ Visits to my blog

2009-03-01T13:24:00.008Z

When I started my blog at the end of March last year, I had no idea how many people was going to read it. And it took me a couple of weeks before I discovered that you can install a NeoCounter (Click on the name to get there), showing how many people and from where, visits your blog.

This morning the total said 5002 visitors from 76 countries - wow - thank you so much to everybody for the visits!

You can get all sorts of gadgets, some are for free. Do make sure to set it up so it doesn't count yourself, that would give a false picture of visits to you blog.

Warning: In the beginning it can be addictive to check all the time. ;O)

Another recommendation is the sitemeter (Click on the name to get there) - that gives you information on the time the visitor spends on you blog, how many pages they look at and from which site they have been redirected. What you can't see is who is visiting.

I have made mine unavailable to visitors, but here are some samples (you can see on the total that I have installed it much later than the NeoCounter):

Have fun!

Fat Quarters Storage System

2009-02-28T19:52:00.013Z

Fat Quarters Storage System - not my term - but very intelligent coined by Pam Rubert,

or better known as PaMdora - she has surgested that I should post a picture of the whole unit.

Here it is...........

Studio Tips

2009-02-21T12:45:00.015Z

I'm not a big fan of ironing boards, so I don't have one in my studio, that doesn't mean that I do not iron or press. I do - big time! When I had one, it was always in the way, no matter where I put it, so now I have made myself an ironing pad instead. It works really well for me, it is situated next to my cutting table, but away from the sewing machine [on purpose], so I have to get up and stand, between sitting down at the machine. (I am surprised how small it [the ironing pad] looks in the pictures - when I work at it, it feels rather large?)

When I need to iron bigger pieces or quilts, I move the ironing pad over onto my cutting table, see picture below. This works because the iron is a detachable one, I love this, because it means the cord won't be in the way when I iron or press.

I have made the ironing pad with and old cork noticeboard, wadding/batting, old sheeting and a staple gun. Yesterday I re-covered it for the fifth time. This one is 90 x 60 cm or 36" x 24". It is very rare that I feel the need for a bigger one.

PS. This is unusually tidy for me! I savour the moment............... ;O)

Eye Candy Silks

2009-02-17T17:27:00.018Z

For a long time I have been keeping my smaller pieces of silk in a big basket in what some quilters poetically call 'archaeological order' - not only was the basket always in the way and I had to move it all the time, when I did need these fabrics I could never find what I wanted............

So last night I sorted the silks on the table (I always listen to audiobooks when doing tasks like this - two birds and all that......) Yummy eye candy! [I had to stand on a rather tall stool to take this picture, puhh, glad I didn't slip or anything]

I keep all my fat quarters in some cheap mdf Ikea CD racks - luckily I managed to buy enough before they were discontinued. They work great, and yes if the fabrics fade, I want to know, rather before, than after I have used it in a quilt that after! :O)

BEFORE

.......................................

AFTER

...............................................

After: Close-up

....................................

So now my collection of Colour Catchers and my used, dried tea-bags (I blame Judy Coates Perez for the tea-bags......) don't have a home any more - will have to look into that :O)

SAQA Celebrates

2009-02-06T15:33:00.014Z

This great organization is celebrating it's 20th anniversary, and the president Martha Sielman has asked all it's members to spread the word.

I have been a member for a little more than a year, and the greatest asset for me has been the Yahoo discussion group or should I say groups, because apart from the main discussion group, Europa now has it's separate one. I'm sure that it's the same in other parts of the world. The great thing about Yahoo groups is that you can either follow from the sideline or take part or both. If you have a query regarding any aspects of the quilt-world, you can be sure to have an answer quite quickly. Members are very generous with their knowledge.

The newsletter is excellent, and I really feel a closer link to the art quilt world via SAQA.

Kreativ Blogger Award

2009-02-01T12:49:00.019Z

A belated Happy New Year to you all!

As you can all see: I have started the year in real procrastination style, something I'm not to proud of. Someone simply stole January, where did it go? How can it be February already???

***********************************************

Just before Christmas I was awarded the Kreative Blogger Award by Pamela Price Klebaum

who has the most wonderful blog with some stunning glass work. Please go and have a look!

Thank you Pam, it was very generous of you, I am very proud.

I now have to nominate five other bloggers, and I have been thinking long and hard. First, I have hardly looked at any blogs for the past months (nor blogged, as you can all see) - secondly I have so, so many favorites.................

Normally I have about 30 blogs I look at daily, another 30 I look at weekly and those of you who don't blog so much I look at every new month starting. Yes, I know, so much wonderful stuff out there, so inspiring and so many new blogs wonderful blogs to add.

So how to choose just five? It has been very difficult, but here it comes (in no particular order, as they say on TV):

Margaret Cooter is my "missing link" to all things cultural, all the things I enjoyed when I lived in London and miss here in my lovely little green island. I couldn't do without her blog.

Helen Cowans is in her own words "an embroiderer who quilts" - I really enjoy following her work in her great, nearly new studio.

Ineke Berlyn is very new to blogging, but I'm a great admirer of her work and I'm sure it will be great to follow her blog.

Pat Rubert's quilts always make me laugh and to see them in the making is very inspiring.

Judy Coates Perez must be the most used "cover girl", for both Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth, Paper, Scissors - the visual instructions for her art is great on the blog.

My only regret with this award is the logo! Both the design and the colours are too 'girly' for my taste. I really, really don't like pastel blue and pink. Pink is my least favorite colour, and to see it there at the top of my new post, clashing with the colours of my blog................ uush :O) Still, I'm mighty honoured!

Working With Sheers

2008-12-13T14:45:00.009Z

This time I haven’t been procratinating, I have just been busy like the rest of you with Christmas and all that………… [Thank you very much to those of you who wrote me privately to enquire if I was all right.]

For my on-line C&Gs course I had to work with “sheers” - both fabric and transfer paints. The fabrics ones will be quilted at a later date.

This is my sheers drawer. I have collected for years, but only used a little. I have recently bought a couple of clear [sheer?] chests of drawers for all my goodies and it makes it so much easier that I can actually see what I have without having to pull out all the drawers.

I didn’t have any sheer cotton for the backing [that I could find], so I used silk instead. I might live to regret this. I made the blue/cold colours first, and found the pinning down taking much longer than the actual cutting and placing the squares. The whole thing came alive and the bits kept shifting.

The netting on top

Work in progress.

So for the yellow/warm colours I choose to bond with Mistyfuse®. But because I’m not used to this product [yet], it took me the same amount of time as the other one. 1 hour each. Looking forward to quilting them. I love squares on squares.

Transfer painting is a completely new activity to me and much fun. One evening I painted some pieces of paper in the colours yellow, violet and ultramarine. The next day I cut these into smaller squares and rectangles. It turned out that I didn’t have any polycotton in the house, and rather that wasting time driving to town and buying some, I have used Lutrador®. Wonderful stuff. I have learned to use it in a class with Ineke Berlyn.

I made the two first pieces simultaneously, leaving the iron on one piece, while arranging more pieces on the other. It was only when I photographed them, that I discovered that I had mixed up my two pieces of backing parchment, so some blue colour had transfered to the violet/yellow piece. The yellow/violet is done on thick lutrador, the yellow/blue on thin lutrador.

And then just for fun I photographed all three on top of each other.

Quilting Monoprints

2008-11-14T17:33:00.018Z

Continuing with my C&G course, the next task was to quilt with straight stitches along the lines I had made when I monoprinted on fabric in the previous task or activity, as they call it.

It’s funny, because some of the tasks are quite daunting and others are just child's play……. This one was just that, child's play and I’m mostly posting this for those of you who consider doing an on-line C&G, to show that it can be easy as well.

Straight stitch quilting with twin needles, following the lines. This combination of monoprinting and twin needles looks great, and is a technique I shall return to in the future, it has great potential.

Detail: You can see an enlarged picture if you click on it - why this doesn't work with the other pictures shall remain a mystery ☺

This one is just straight stitch quilting, following the lines; for this kind of quilting I would normally have chosen to do it free-motion, but it was fun to do anyway.

I am getting the hang of this, shorter posts and more often helps cut down on time waisted on "How is it I normally do this?" and "I can't remember how to do that?" etc.

Tip: I now have a dedicated notebook in three sections: Computer, Blogging and Photoshop Elements. I make a lot of notes! Blogging for Dummies has also helped a lot.

Ps. Today we celebrate 15 years in Guernsey!

Monoprinting on fabric

2008-11-11T16:56:00.011Z

This weekend I have been monoprinting, it is part of my C&G course and the brief was: Monoprinting with Procion dyes on fabric using lines.

I have been shying away from this activity for a while, mainly because I have never done this on my own before. I have however taken several classes with Committed to Cloth, but although the preparing procedure was explained to us, all paints was prepared for us. A few weeks ago I prepared the Manutex (a thickening agent) and I can report that it keeps well.

I finally started Saturday and a couldn’t believe that it took an hour+ just to gather everything I needed for this activity. I was glad the instructions said to have everything ready, because if I hadn’t, it would have driven me mad (perhaps the instructions says so because of somebody's previous experience?)

I couldn’t believe how easy the dyes and the Manutex mixed, why had it taken me so long? These two yellow prints are both A4.

Moving on to making a little woodland. This and all the rest is A3.

As I neared the end of green mix I just made some monoprints with lots of texture and no lines.

Monoprinting - just texture

Then I remembered that the form-roller was still full of yellow mix and started rolling directly onto the last three pieced of fabric, scooping up the very last bits of mix from both pots and all the tools.

I ran out of mixed dye and fabric at the same time; beginners luck…………… Not great art, but great fun, I enjoyed the whole process immensely. It might be the first time I did this on my own, but not the last!

Note to oneself: It takes longer to gather and setup everything for monoprinting, than the rest of the process combined.

Published!

2008-11-06T16:40:00.035Z

I am in a book for the first time! And my goodness, am I in good company……….. Els van Baarle, Diana Harrison, Alicia Merrett, Katie Pasquini-Masopust, Joan Schulze and Charlotte Yde, to name a few. 120 artists in all and I am included!

Amazon UK Amazon US

It’s a bit weird though, because in December 2006, I was contacted by Drusilla Cole, who asked if I was interested in being included in a book called "Contemporary Textiles". Off-cause I was, so I submitted pictures of five quilts, with notes and a contributor's agreement, and had a thank you mail. Never to hear another thing………….

Fast forward to yesterday: I was leaving a comment on Julie's blog and noticed someone called Helen Suzanne - so I decided to have a look at her blog too (as you do) and guess what, she had just learnt (from another blog) that she was in this book called "Textiles Now"; hadn’d been informed that it was out, nor been given a complementary copy. I saw the name of the author, and some bells began ringing in my head. Then I looked at the link to Amazon, luckily it is one of those books where you can look inside and the index confirmed that my name was included! So I ordered my copy right away ;O)

As this is my first being included in a book I don’t know if this is normal practice. I’m one of the only ones that is only listed with name and e-mail, so I am disappointed that I did not get a chance to add my blog address (I only started blogging in March) as well.

My copy arrived this morning (from Amazon), as we didn’t get a complementary copy, my bet is that there is a lot artists in this book that don’t know that it has finally been published.

Off-cause I have only myself to blame for not keeping in contact, but frankly, along the way I forgot……..

Bush Fire 32 X 43 cm (12.5" X 17") 2002

Two years ago I was so, so eager to get published that I sent pictures of five of my then best quilts, among them one that I did in a class with Kate Cox in 2002. A very good class, but although the quilt was made with my own fabrics, the result was a mini “Kate Cox” quilt. And that was the quilt Drucilla Cole chose for the book. Lesson learned. In my defense, Kate mailed me for a picture of it because she thought was very good.

So here I am, published for the first time, very proud and (mostly) happy, almost ashamed by my mixed feelings. But shouldn't all the artist in the book, who submitted free pictures of their work, at least have been notified when it was published? Any thoughts?

UPDATE (07nov08):

As a member of Contemporary Quilt I had this reply from a fellow member Janet Cook:

"My experience has been that this is certainly not normal. I have been sent proofs of the pages featuring my work, notification of publication date and then signed copies and warm thankyou letters from the authors and publishers concerned. All very enjoyable - and all offered with the request to publish my work in the first place. Let's not forget that without the free work submitted to Drusilla she would have no book worth publishing."

I think we can all agree that this is when it's done in the very best way (authors and publishers take note) - but I would have been happy just to have been notified by e-mail that the book had been published.............

"Rage" - the making of a quilt

2008-11-02T15:04:00.020Z

I have been procrastinating again - both with my blog and my life.

I am a very lucky girl, I have a lovely studio and lots of time of my own (no children, no job and a husband who cooks), so really I should produce a lot, right? Wrong! I have a butterfly mind and very often I can’t decide what to do, so many choices……… Because I want to do a bit of this, or maybe I could finish that or perhaps …? In the end it is so much easier to sit down with the latest quilting magazine and guess what? Get even more ideas………. Perhaps I should ban comfy chairs and reading matter from my studio?

Anyway, that means that I don’t have any new [finished] work to post, but as many people has asked about the construction of my quilt “Rage” exhibited at the Festival of Quilts in August, I shall share the pictures I took as I went along and a sample of a ‘hole’ block I made today.

This was the start of the quilt - I auditioned some fabrics I had dyed in a class with Committed to Cloth and made a set of blocks with holes. This is my workspace in Denmark, the design wall is a Quilter’s Block Butler - I am afraid that I can’t recommend it and it will soon be replaced.

I decided against most of the orange colours.

And in came my favorite fabric in my pt. favorite colour from Heide Stoll-Weber.

Nearly there - just need something at the right side. You see, it had to be 140 X 140 cm in size - because I had entered it into The Festival of Quilt at that size, and the whole layout of the hanging of quilts for the show is based on quilt sizes. A change can mean that the quilt is not going to hang after all…………

Back in Guernsey, my design-board is full of stuff that I can’t be bothered to take down. It is easier to see the holes with the bookcase behind the quilt top.

With the wadding (batting) I placed the quilt top carefully on top of wadding and backing fabric that had already been 505’ed (spray glue) together, then drew inside the holes and cut away wadding and backing in one go.

Here you see the front of the quilt with the back of the hole block still on top. I have ironed on some fusing at the sides.

Three hole block having not been pushed through the quilt yet - fusing visible.

Back of the quilt with the same three blocks pushed through and ironed down. Sorry for not taking those two pictures at the same angle.

Back of the quilt before quilting.

Not only is DH a marvelous cook, his first profession was photography and he still practice it, see more here. However he does not have a big studio any more, so the garage doubles for that when he takes pictures of some of my bigger quilts.

And now how to make a hole block - it is not my invention, but I have forgotten who did, perhaps I blocked (no pun intended) it out, because what I do remember is, that it was a very, very boring class and at the time the hole block didn’t excite me either…………….. That only came to me, when I took an even more boring class. Lesson learned: Boring class + boring class = exciting quilt called “Rage”.

Two pieces of fabrics right sides together. For clarification I have used black and white.

Sew a few circles in free-motion with very short stitches. Mark first if it feels better. I have used a contrasting thread for clarification. Normally I favor the YLI #100 silk thread in neutral colour for any piecework.

Cut very close to the sewing.

Turned inside out. I like to let the back fabric show, also I like irregular circles, so I don’t mark first.

Note to self: Blog more often, with fewer pictures. Today I have spent 3hours 45 minutes on blogging, some would say “I would rather sew”, but when living on a small island blogging is a good lifeline, together with Margaret Cooters blog keeping me updated on London culture, something I miss, having lived there for nine years.

But frankly, I love blogging………...

More Journal Quilts - things goes wrong!

2008-10-20T15:47:00.016+01:00

Keeping to my beach theme, the Journal Quilts for September and October didn't go as I've planned.....

Starting with September, I had a C&G activity (strip piecing): What better than to "kill two birds with one stone" - so I did some strip piecing inspired by a photo I took this summer on a Norfolk beach:

Here is my first go - I have changed the colours of the grasses in order to tie-in the quilts in with the rest of this years quilts.*

Quilt top.

Sandwiched and marked 12” x 12”

The finished quilt: “Grasses I” I’m not to proud of the horizon…...

With the October quilt I decided to strip piece the background only and fuse the grasses.

Here I have sandwiched the quilt only to find out that it would have been much easier to quilt the background first! HA.

So here we go - the grasses frayed a lot, but I found that I liked that.

Cut and ready to bind, not quite…… I had forgotten to get the horizon, well, what, horizontal! Can’t have the water run out of the ocean.

So I had to add a bit back, not very smart.

The finished quilt: “Grasses II” (Yes I know, not very inspired names).

Oh, one thing more - I also forgot to line up the quilts horizons, so now they can’t hang side by side, looks ridiculous. It’s OK over each other, though. So many things to consider. :O)

And the last picture is actually my first attempt. Not my finest moment. But all in all, I have learned a few things and two more journal quilts finished. Now, what to do for November and December?!? Watch this space……..

*Last year I’d based the journal quilts colours on the colour of the month, and when it came to exhibiting, we were asked to supply five quilts. I didn’t have five quilts in the same colour scheme [important to me] so I ended up making November in non-November colours! After all it was only my own rules…… You can see the 2007 JQ in the sidebar. For the exhibition I chose April, July, September, October & November.

You can still see all the Contemporary Quilt Journal Quilts 2007 at The Autumn Quilt Festival, Malvern 2008 Friday 31st October - Sunday 2nd November and at The Chilford Autumn Quilt Festival 2008 Chilford Hall Vineyard Friday 7th - Sunday 9th November

Fabrications magazine issue 56 (latest) feature almost 8 pages with a lot of those quilts.

Must Have Books - Order your copy today!

2008-10-11T17:47:00.023+01:00

I have ordered this new exciting book 'Digital Essentials' by Gloria Hansen.

You can order it here.

I already have her book 'The Quilter's Computer Companion' from 1998, and has eagerly awaited a follow-up. Now it is here!

Read this brilliant review by Virginia Spiegel.

Update:

You can also order it from Rio Designs in the UK

'Blogging for Dummies' arrived yesterday and I don't understand why I didn't think of buying it before - it's a must if you blog. I have learned so much from the first few chapters.

It also confirmed that 'Blogger' is right place to start blogging (free and beginner friendly).

UK order here

US order here

On a fun note, I have added this link from Multicolr Seach Lab to the sidebar.

You click on up to 10 colours to search for images in those colours. Click on the same colour several times to increase it prominence.

Real magic. Have fun!