In less than a month I shall be departing for a trip to London (for work and the October Gallery's African art now exhibition), Berlin ( for the purpose of seeing Daniel Libeskind's work on the Jewish Museum and the yarn and fabric shop on Alexanderplatz ), Osnabruck (To see Daniel Libeskinds work on the Felix Nussabaum museum and the local quilt shop) and this cute houseboat for a week in Amsterdam (convenient base for many quilt shops!).
With three long train journeys, two flights and (I hope) some sitting still and quiet in pancake cafe's, together with the sitting in my so cute houseboat ( did you look already?!) I need some handwork that is more inspiring than sewing half square triangles togther, which is my current travel project. Do you have any good ideas for me? Can you post me some links to work you did by hand for inspiration? I pieced several of my early quilts by hand in days when I travelled much more for work. Now, except for Lonon trips, which I do by train not car, I just take the sewing machine to the hotel! I'd like something that cannot really be done as well by machine if possible
At the moment I am considering these African embroidery quilt kits but I will have to order soon and I am dithering after Solomon spent all my money!
10 comments:
The houseboat - Oh WOW! What a great place to relax. Love the embroidery kits, very funky. Have a great time.
You've inspired me to write up a post about my travel project - hand quilting a pieced stole in large stitches. Needs a bit of preparation but minimal equipment when travelling and can wear it too !
Generally if I am working away for a week, then I often make a cushion - cut the fabric and pieces of paper and pack appropriate sized piece of wadding and backing fabric. Then I have lots I can do in a small bag - tacking fabric and paper together, over-stitching patches together and then shadow quilting the pieces once the sandwich is made up.
I tend to bring knitting or cross-stitch... but those African embroidery kits are very cute! I have a fondness for rhinos, so I might have to look into that further. Maybe they'll be at the big show in Long Beach next month?
We've thought about doing one of those canal trips in the UK, but Amsterdam would be fun, too.
I've tried shishinko (spelling?) and candlewicking as travel projects...
Can you PLEASE find room in your suitcase for me when you pass through London, I would love to stay on the houseboat - will have to drop BIG hints to my DH.
I always pack some hand piecing for my summer holiday. I have made two quilts this way. This year I will be taking some applique - Baltimore flowers AND if I get fed up with that I will have some traditional English patchwork with a twist, I hope they end up looking like Sunflowers
I've just got back from holiday and I took some course work from my City & Guilds course with me. It was to do Cathedral windows and secret garden patchwork. You can do both completely by hand. And could even do enough to make a cushion. You can see some photos on my blog.
Didn't know I should have added the URL in the comment too:
www.sew2speak.com
Because the lighting isn't always as good as I would like when away from home I made some redwork blocks last year, a link to the finished blocks (blogged 29/09/07) here....
http://grainsinthewind.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&max-results=50
All I needed was thread and the pre-marked blocks. Much easier to transport than all the stuff needed for crazy quilting, my current hand stitching obsession. Or of course,you could always fall back on the endlessly fascinating, tiny hexagons over papers. I have been trying in odd moments to make something using different sizes of hexagons...
If it's not too late I would recommend one of those African embroidery kits. A friend of mine bought one and is having the most fun with it :- )
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