Malvern and Hereford

First the quilt show.

I went. I saw. I bought.

I ran out of money and decided not to do the second day. Also, I was disappointed with the standard of quilts. Dennis wondered if it was because when I was a new quilter everything looked good and now I am more discerning. But, I have just reviewed my photos from the first time I went in 2007 and I do genuinely think that the show was much higher in quality.

This year there were a lot of quilts - many of which were billed as beginner and were indeed decidedly beginner - from one quilting group. It smacked of 'filler display' and I wonder whether people were feeling the pinch and not paying the fee and postage involved in showing a quilt? I feel I cannot carp too much though as I never got round to showing one this year either - not that mine would have upped the quality to what I was looking for you understand, but it would have enabled me to moan with more credibility!

I was also a bit bored with the fact that I could have named three people who would win before I went and sure enough.....

After the show we went off the hotel in Hereford where I picked up a leaflet of tourist attractions.

"Oh, Look," I said to Dennis. "The copy of the Magna Carta you were talking about is on display too!"

I threw him the leaflet.

"Yes," he said, "except the exhibition starts in June."

Ah. Didn't see that bit. Slight pause and then he added,

"And its worse, It says here the Mappa Mundi we came here to see is not open until next week either."

What?!

I swear the tourist information site I looked at just said it was open on Sundays from May *..... See: this is why travelling spontaneously is not a good idea!

Oh well, the upside is that the shabby Indian Restaurant which is the first one we found in Hereford served great food at cheap prices. This morning we thought we might as well go and see the cathedral itself and found these modern stained glass windows. The texture begs to be embroidery doesn't it?

* PS. I've just looked again - the site I went to in fact said it was open April - October on Sundays.... WRONG! Do not use http://www.culture24.org.uk for your tourist info. of course if the cathedral website had actually been more than a front page only and if their opening hours were on their answerphone.....!

Quilts UK

Anyone reading going to Quilts UK on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and fancy a quick coffee?(Or no coffee but a short period of shopping / quilt admiring in company?) Please email ne - surfer@talktalk.net with a contact number if you do.

On spontanetity and travel project ideas

I love to plan travel. I don't mean I like to flick through a brochure and dream. I mean I like to download local bus routes for places I am going 8 months hence and to know the seat configurations on the plane I am taking. I like the fact that I know it costs about 4 pence more to go on the upper deck of the star ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island as it does the lower deck. The planning is at least as good as the going. But that is not to say I am not capable of spontaneity.

Last Friday I went for a meal out with a friend who was about to depart for Majorca on a golfing holiday. That and the Gaudi book I was flicking through implanted a sudden urging in me. We were not doing anything particular that weekend, lets just go to Spain! So I got home and went on line to book a flight to Barcelona the next morning. There were none. None at all. Not even very expensive last minute indirect ones. Darn. I was all set to go. Later, in the dead of night I awoke to the sudden realisation that it was a good thing there were no flights as my passport is in fact with the UK passport agency being renewed. And the next day when Dennis asked if I minded him putting on the Grand Prix - from Barcelona - that the penny dropped as to why there were no flights.

But the need to just go somewhere has clearly lingered. You recall I was asking you what to do for my holiday project. Well Joyce emailed me direct ( not having the account necessary to leave a comment) to suggest,

"I think you should use your newly-acquired embroidery skills to make a modern version of the Mappa Mundi with your journey superimposed on it."

Well what a great idea! Of course, I was not entirely sure what the Mappa Mundi looked like so I Google it. It looks like the picture above ( which actually doens't tell me a lot but it was the best one I could find) and guess where it is (or at least where the oldest one is as all Mappa Mundi means is Map of the World) - Hereford. And you know where Hereford is? Yup, 33 minutes ( thank you AA route finder) from The Three Counties Showground in Malvern, home of Quilts UK this weekend.

So, I cancelled the hotel in Worcester, re-booked one in Hereford, not only allowing us to discover a heretobefore unknown place to eat there in the evening, but also to view the Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library exhibition for an hour or so before hotfooting back to the showground for day two of the show ( I reckon a day and half is perfect timing for Quilts UK anyway). Thanks Joyce!

PS I am a lawyer. I like to use words like hence and heretobefore. Herein and aforemetioned are good ones too.

PPS I am not sure that heretobefore is actually a word but I still enjoyed using it.

Holiday project

Thank you for all your ideas about what type of project I should take on our travels with me. Apart from Quilt Pixie's innovative fabric postcards and make as you use bag they fell into three categories.

First - English paper piecing. Well, yeah, I see where you are coming from but.... oh sorry, what was I saying? I fell asleep. I've done a few samples in the past but whats with all that paper?! I can see handpiecing - in fact this quilt, which was one of the first I ever made, has all handpieced blocks. I thought it strange that the general response seemed to be that if you were handpiecing it might as well be over paper. I did have a good time handpiecing this Mariners star on a train crossing the German/Holland border last year though. I just haven't worked out what do do with it yet! I may well handpiece some blocks with fabric as I go - but what to choose?

Secondly, cathedral windows - since I have this book I took another peek.

I wonder about somehow making the centres out of ephemera I find along the way? I just haven't worked out how to do it yet.

Then came the crazy quilting which actually was my idea too. Only I don't really like them. I mean I really like the idea of premade crazy blocks and making some more as I go along ( see above on handsewing foundation blocks). But, I don't like the Victorian mishmash of them - you know the, um, craziness of them. So I was thinking about how to do a sort of 'slightly on the flaky side' quilt, with lots of embroidery and some textural interest, but monochromatic and delicate rather than crazy. I was just working out how to do it when I looked up from my sewing machine and here was this picture.

Made by the fantastic Pollie Uttley it is a clay piece inspired by Indian textiles and ever since I bought it I have periodic thoughts about translating it back into fabric. What do you think?

What would you make?

Although it is still some months before we go off on our round the world trip I am starting to think about what project I might take with me. This is because I shall be shopping at Quilts UK at Malvern next week and might as well buy something I need for a particular project rather than just for stash. (Ok, what I mean is I might as well buy for a particular project as well as for stash.)

I have an idea which could be done in at least three ways but I shall not reveal it until you , my faithful helpmates, have given me your ideas for I do not want to influence you or cramp your creativity, Besides, I suspect that you may come up with something better. So, should you choose to accept it, here is your challenge. You need to come up with a general idea for a project which meets the following criteria:

1. Requires minimal equipment
2. Is hand done
3. Is interesting enough and slow enough to last me three months.
4. Can have some initital preparation done at home before we leave
5. Ideally is something that will allow me to take a basic kit then add in items I buy as I go around the world researching quilt shops but is not dependant on me finding specific products which may not be available.
6. Is portable so I can take small parts of it out with me for the day in my handbag.
7. And finally - to really push it - has a design which, if I feel so inclined, I can adopt to reflect design inspirations I spot as I travel.

I'll give it a few days for this to trickle through people's blog readers and for me to get as many ideas as possible then I'll share my initial ideas.

City and Guilds Containers

I am almost at the end of the Patchwork and Quilting City and Guilds. Which is just as well as I am a term into the Embroidery City and Guilds and really doing two at once is not what you are meant to do!

All I have left is my 'container'. I am kind of cheating. Only kind of, as technically the syllabus does not require your container to be 3D, but I think all good tutors kind of push you that way. I do not have a good tutor though and she has made no enquires at all as to what I am up to save to say it need not be 3D. So I decided a A5 size wallet would contain paper items and fulfil the brief.Only being a glutton for punishment ( and no doubt some would say as penance for cheating) I decided that the required client brief would state that they were to contain all my travel documentation for each country on our pending trip and so I have ended up doing not one container but several. Here they are so far in order of making

China/ Hong Kong. Based on Chinese jade and a giant Buddha statue. Printed extravorganza and painted fabrics.

New Zealand. Made out of painted and stitched Bubble Wrap with reverse applique.

Australia. Scraps of Aboriginal fabrics begged from a friend (thanks Lesley - owe you one!) and with a design based unimaginatively on the Opera House. Made with what little I had to hand in Bath.

San Fransisco. This was the hardest one and although I started and finished with the Golden Gate Bridge as inspiration, a design I liked would not come until my pocket money purchase of golden yarn when suddenly it all came together and I think this is now my favourite. The silk background has pin tucks and stitching which together with the couching are inspired by the suspension wires. The prairie points match the shapes on the bottom of the bridge

Japan is still to come.

Pocket money

Remember when you were a kid and you went to town on Saturdays to spend your pocket money on frivolous things?

I rarely go into the shopping area of my home town - its easier to pick stuff up when I am working in bigger cities. But on Saturday I ran out of Pritt Stick ( a glue stick for anyone who is not familiar with the brand name) and popped in. Thinking of my teenage years I decided to walk down to the indoor market which, now I am older and snobbier ( and give myself more pocket money) I avoid as it is cheap and nasty. But, nostalgia got the better of me and I was reminiscing about how Lisa and I would go and buy Constance Caroll make up. A similar stall remains but times seem to have changed as of the three fifteen year olds giggling over the lip glosses two were at least six months pregnant.

Still, the trip was worth it as opposite is a yarn stall. ( When I was a teenager, 'yarn' was 'wool' and 'thread' was 'cotton' but now I am a quilter so I know better!) It had buy one get one free on fancy yarns and whilst I don't knit I do couch down or embroider with yarn, so as you will have guessed from the photos I had to get some. And some stranded cottons to match.

Oh what fun it is to spend pocket money on a Saturday morning!

How do you organise yours?

I had to re-organise my textile bookshelf last week because the pile at its foot which would not fit on the shelves annoyed me. I removed the sketchbooks from the top shelf and placed them on these alcove shelves which previously held a collection of travel books (now in the attic). Then I had to decide how to orgainse the textile books.

I wanted the shelves to look as neat as possible as this is my thinking room which I like as uncluttered and restful as possible. So a system like alphabetical which leaves books all higgledly piggeldy to look at was not going to do it. Yet both my left and right brain wanted a say in the process.

So I went for categories:

Top shelf: magazine and unread books

Second: Embroidery and design

Third and fourth : Quilts

Fifth: Other textile products and general inspirational art books

And within categories by colour of the spine and within colour by height. Makes sense to me but what do you do with yours?

If, like me you love to browse other people's shelves, you can see all my books in closer pictures in this Picassa Album.

Creative laziness at Cedar Farm

This morning we took a Sunday drive out to Cedar Farm which is a misleading name because it is more arts centre than farm - although it does have a small area with animals for children to look at - which is why Dennis likes going although he remains disappointed that for some time there have been no rabbits. However, he got Brownie points today when he pointed out one, new, gloriously coloured bird ( which would, as you can see, not stand still for photos) and said, "Those would make good colours for a quilt."

There are several buildings with artists studios and also a good crafty gift shop and art store.

There is a cafe and also a coffee house in an industrial building which they make homely with squishy sofas and baskets of magazines. And blueberry cheesecake muffins. It is a good place to hang out and read and also to do a bit of sketchbooking. I am trying to find time to do more of that and to build up my lamentably lacking skills with art products.

Today I took a small set of watercolours with a little bottle of water and a tin of aquarelle crayons. I got there and could see nothing to draw until I spotted a dying dandelion head on the floor. Here are my resulting pages.

The last page is a section of the first page and I got the idea from reading Red by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn which is one of their embroidery pamphlets ( you can see the series here) while I was there.

I am collecting the series - at £7.50 for a pamphlet they are not cheap but I do like the pictures!! Dennis almost got more Brownie points when he said he would buy me too more at the Quilt Show in Malvern in a fortnight. But then he lost them:

"Really?" I said, are you sure - they are quite expensive considering they only have 28 pages.

"I know" he said, brandishing his 850 page book he bought for £4.50. "But two of those books is the same as I would have paid if I'd come to the show with you."

"So you are buying me the books as kind of insurance so you don't have to come into the quilt show?"

"Um, yeah."

He always gets caught out in his sneaky schemes!

Taking all the fun out of quilting

One day a week I set aside a 'prep' day when I am not in court and I have time to write lecture notes and generally plough through admin tasks. This means I earn less as there is a day each week when I do not get paid, but it also means I get my weekends free ( mostly) to do textiley stuff.

One of the admin tasks is to keep up to date with current law. The Internet age means that we are bombarded with various e-newsletters and updates with links to web pages containing new statutory instruments, articles or case law. Not only do I need to read and digest but often I need to cut paste, redraft and combine into lecture notes. This is not fun. I survive by using Google Reader to intersperse your blogs! Now, on the basis that part of the point of blogging is to learn about other people's lives, I thought I would give you a little taster of mine today.....

.... running through the links I found this. Sheesh - and you thought textile stuff was supposed to be fun! (And this is the explanation not even the actual item!!)

Credit where credit is due (and not where it is not).

When I was in Bath, De at Midsomer Quilting let me use her class room when the shop was shut to do some quilting - piecing is possible in the flat, quilting most definitely is not. I was making a reversible quilt and limited in thread to what I had with me/ could buy in the shop which (wonderful though it is) does not stock my preferred Bottom Line by Superior. So, I had a 30 weight Sulky in the bobbin ( way heavier than I would usually use but it looks good in the reversible back) and a King Tut in the top and set off doing my favourite leaf motif.

All was well. I went out for lunch. Ate a wonderful cheesecake. Came back. Machine had a hissy fit. Probably because I did not bring her any creme egg cheesecake. No way would the tension work on the bottom. (My machine is definitely a girl machine). I cleaned her. I oiled her. I played with the tension. I talked nicely to her.I swapped the bobin case. I changed her needle and promised her a whole cake to herself. I turned the quilt upside down and reversed the threads. More hissy fitting. I turned her off and sulked all the way home. I had not even planned to quilt ( as opposed to piece) whilst I was away but now I had started, the new plan was to finish the thing and she was not playing along. BAD machine. Clearly she needed to go to hospital.
I look in the local phone book. Bath Sewing Machine centre ( 'Two hours service: we collect') is five mins walk away albeit via some ridiculously steep streets. I ring at 8.30 the next am. Can he fix my Janome Memorycraft, NOW? Yes, he can do it if I bring in in straight away. Bring it? I thought he collected. No, not today because he is in the shop alone. I call a taxi. I get there. Shop closed. But hang on - didn't he answer the phone twenty mins ago? Apparently he has it on divert. I sit on a stone bench across the road and pretend I am an undercover cop on surveillance. The shop looks ominously shabby. The machines in the window are - well, antique. But then we use a magic cobbler at home who works out of a hovel and does great work. Means nothing.
The man eventually arrives. He tells me off for ringing so early. (Excuse me? Why have your hovel, sorry, shop phone diverted to home if you don't want customers to ring you?) He peers at the machine.
"Oooh." he says. "It be com-pew-'ur- ised. They're buggers them things when they go wrong, they are." (Anyone not familiar with a strong Somerset accent please think 'Pirates').
I put a protective hand on my machine. I am sure she shrinks towards me in a combination of contrition and fear that she might get left with this butcher.
"Do you know what you are doing with it?"
"Not really, no."
Right. He did lend me his phone book and I rang the Husqvarna centre which I had previously ignored despite knowing where it was since they are an entirely different brand. No problem, bring it in. I call another taxi. The driver's wife is a sewer of children's clothes and we talk overlockers and I pretend not to notice that he is driving the long way around under the pretext of not wanting me to have to cross the road when we get there. That's the road with the pedestrian crossing ten yards from the shop.
At the Husqvarna Studio Bath the nice man in this Photo spends quite some time fiddling with it. Fixes it, won't charge me and lets me leave it there for a few hours while I go shopping. Nice man - go and buy some fabric from him if you are in Bath.
Why I am I telling you this now? Because I have just finished the quilting and the machine is purring like a fluffy little lap cat. Good girl! Now, what happened to that dessert I could swear I left in the fridge?

Am I unreasonable?

Yesterday Dennis and I went for a gentle stroll around Taylor Park. The park has a small wooded area with squirrels, a hill for kids to roll down and an enclosed adventure playground. But mostly it is a concrete pathway around this small lake come large pond.

The building in the foreground is the old boat shed from the days ( back when I were a kid) when you could hire rowing boats. On a Sunday morning an ice cream van parks there. There are many small children in this park at weekend, including a number of toddlers on reins and little tots on their first bikes with stabilisers, particularly as you can imagine, around the ice cream van.

So anyway, there we are strolling around the pond towards the van and we go to overtake a family whose dog is running in front of them. As we are about level the dog comes bounding back and causes me to stop dead to avoid tripping over it which I only just managed. The woman who owned the dog said,

"Sorry. He likes running around and tripping people up."

Because (a) the comment seemed to invite it (b) I am professionally used to expressing an opinion and sitting in judgement and (c) because I don't know when to keep my mouth shut, I said, as I passed her,

"That's why he should be on a leash."

I did not expect that this would cause a problem. But she started yelling "Excuse me? What did you just say?" (The question being rather redundant as she then repeated it to her husband who started shouting, "He's not doing any harm.").

Because of (a) (b) and especially (c) above I turned around, and said "I am sorry but there are a lot of very small children around here and I am worried that one of them may get hurt or bitten" Husband then starts glaring at me. He is big. All I want is an ice cream and Dennis is hissing "Stop picking a fight." So I shake my head ruefully and walk away. Fairly fast.

I am glad to see that by the time they catch us up at the van the dog is leashed. I am not saying the dog ( which was a kind of spaniel type thing) should not be in the park. By all means use one of those extending leashes so he can run and bound and be stopped in his tracks when he gets somewhere problematic. But to my mind, bounding spaniel + concrete path + toddling two year old can so easily = fall, broken bones and phobic child. Even if it is a dog which has no teeth whoatsover and therefore could not possible nip a child who panics and lashes out when this thing, which is not a huge dog but equals the size of a child, runs at them.

But then, I do not own a dog. Am I being unreasonable?

Needlecase tutorial

I have been promising myself a needlecase for a while. So, I sat down and made this one.

The technique is not new or even hard and I know that some readers will be able to make it just by looking at the picture but just in case it is helpful for others, here are some instructions. The darker photos are more accurate when it comes to colour - I kept forgetting to put the flash on resulting in the lighter ones.

You will need:

One long piece of felt - mine was 2 3/4 inches by 12 inches.

Piece of lining fabric same length and width

A second piece of felt same length and about 1/2 inch narrower. (ish)

Selection of threads for machine sewing ( I used two Oliver Twist threads and one King Tut)

Selection of yarns for couching down. You only need them about 14 inches long so odd strands are fine.

Thin strips of sheer fabric just over 12 inches long.

(optional- spray baste)

One bead

Piece of fusible web (e.g. Bonbdaweb, Heat and Bond etc) same size as the first piece of felt.

1. Take the first piece of felt. If you have any, spray baste it lightly, otherwise use pins where needed. Rip strips of sheer fabrics ( I only needed three) and lay them on the felt overlapping. They can spill over the edges of the felt.

2. Using one of your machine threads stitch several wiggly lines to secure the sheers. Trim the piece back to the size of the felt.

3. Using a machine thread in the top, and either a couching foot if you like or ( as I did it because my yarns were too bobbly to go in the couching foot) a normal presser foot, couch down several interesting yarns vertically down the sheer/felt piece. make them more or less straight but do not stress about slight deviations and wiggles. Use a zig zag stitch for this.

4. Change machine threads for variety and choose a decorative stitch on your machine. Stitch down between several of the gaps between the couched yarns. Change threads and stitch for variety and fill in all the other gaps.

5. I then added the yarn which has (for want of a better description) big fuzzy bits hanging off it. I did this last so the big fuzzy things didn't get in the way. If you have no big bits like this you can skip this step.

6. Trim back to the felt base eliminating all straggle ends of thread.

7. Take three of four of your smoother yarns and make machine wrapped cord. That is, just stitch over them with a zig zag stitch. Take a suitable length, form into a loop and using a zigzag stitch that is much looser together stitch the ends together to make a kind of twig like ending. Stitch that by hand using a couching type stitch to one end of your now decorated panel positioning it so the loop will pass over the bead you are later going to add as fastening on the other end.

8. Fuse the back of the decorated fabric to the wrong size of the lining fabric. Using appropriately coloured bobbin thread, sew around the combined panel in a zig zag stitch - twice if need be to seal the edges.

9. Place the second felt piece on top of the lining fabric and pin the two short edges together. I chose to allow my lining fabric to show - if you don't want that make the second piece of felt the same size as the decorated panel. Just make sure the short edges match up. Fold the case so the lining sides face and crease to find the middle. Stitch the second piece of felt down that seam to create a kind of book spine.
10. Flip the piece over. Sew just along the inner edge of the zig zag edging stitches you created earlier on the short sides. This will result in the inner felt piece being secured in three places but loose elsewhere to allow you to put needles and pins in.

11. Press the fold to get the case to sit flat.

12. Sewing through the top decorative piece only ( not the inner felt strip) add the bead and put the loop over it to fasten. Voila - a needle case.

13 Tidy your sewing space. Sheesh - you only made one little case - how did you manage to

make such a mess ? :)

Trees and questions

Posts are better with photos even if the photos don't really relate to the text. In the Circus in Bath ( the swanky place to live ) there are some huge trees in the giant roundabout that is the Circus. And I am not averse to lying on my back in wet grass if it means I get a photo from an angle that is not on all the postcards. So here to day are pictures of those trees. And a wonderfully twisted one from down the road in Queens Square for good measure.

My questions are random:

1. Has any one done the Sydney Bridge Climb or know of anyone who has? I need an honest account before I decide to do it or not.

2. Can you all stop blogging for a little while? I took a holiday. I have been reading diligently since I returned and I still have 484 posts to read. Pause your posting or I shall delete you . You have been warned.

3. I stepped out of Warrington County Court yesterday to get a pad of writing paper. Just plain A4 size. The stationers who shall not be named but have a sign that said WH Smith outside had two pads that size - white or cream - for £9.99. What? When did paper start costing that and how did I miss it happening?

4. My laptop keeps playing peekaboo with the wireless connection. Sometimes it connects sometimes it will not. Any ideas?

5. I sat down to watch Judge Judy and eat at 6pm. It is now 20.54 and I have done nothing all evening. How did that happen?

Reluctant return

I am back - both in person ( at home) and online having been hiding away in Bath for the Easter fortnight. Some time ago we discovered this holiday flat and have been renting it for two breaks a year ever since. It is in a quiet street but right in town and a perfect place to hunker down. We eat cheap lunch deals out, curl up with a book and deli food in the evening and relish the escape. My sewing machine gets set up on the tiny table you can just make out in this kitchen with the cutting mat on the counter or even over the hob itself and the ironing board squeezed in too. It is not unusual for supper to be tomato soup with batik croutons. Highlights of the trip are always visits to my favourite quilt shop Midsomer Quilting (hi, if you are reading!) out in Chilcompton and the best ever book shop Mr B's Emporium of Reading delights...

... Oh Oh! I just went to their site to get a photo for you and found that they have a whole gallery and I am on it!! What a surprise! - go here and check out the fab shop decoration ( they give you free coffee when you go there and you can wander the stacks with it in your hand) and scroll to the section for the regional award ceremony - that's me in the pink jacket with Dennis. Take particular note of Vlaska the shop dog who is very quiet and erudite and chooses competition winners by licking one of a pile of bones with customers names written on.

This time Dennis bought me this book in place of an Easter Egg - it is fabulous - a mix of textiles and travel and amazing photography. I recommend it. I still got my egg though albeit sneakily. We had the pleasure of taking De, Chris and Brigitta from Midsomer Quilting out to their local pub the Somerset Wagon where they served Creme Egg cheesecake - such a good idea!

On our return it was straight back the study for two days dealing with piles of admin and lecture note writing. I was beginning to forget the benefit of the holiday until the Little Miss next door (aged 6) came and asked to play with me. We made chocolate cake and kicked a ball around the garden. Sometimes it is good to be reminded that the best part of life is licking the bowl!

Finally, there is a post of some embroidery I did in Bath over on my other blog