Clarifications

I can never predict which blog entries will get the most comments - but I certainly did not expect that much interest in my desk! So, to clarify things that have cropped up. ( You might want to read the comments on my last post before you read this)

First, no I don't sew at this desk. I use the dining room which has been prevoiusly photographed . This is work only - save for the bottom drawer of the cabinet which has lots of plastic folders containing back quilting magaizine articles.

Then, to answer Diane's question about books ( I suggest non-lawyers take a little snooze here) I have written:

1. Domestic Violence Picking up the Pieces (A self help book also published in Mexico and the Czech Republic - How can I get help?)

2. Domestic Violence and the Church ( Half law half theology. How can the church help when its members suffer domestic violence?)

3. Family Law Key Facts. (How can I pass my law exam with as little revsion as possible?)

4. I co-authored Family Breakdown in Low Income Families (How can you sort finances out when a couple split up when they don't really have anything except debt!)

5. Family Law Key Cases ( How can I pass my law exams with as litle revision as possible and get a better grade than if I only cribbed from Family law Key Facts.)

Oh and frequently that desk is not that tidy at all!

Then, to Calander Pages' questions. Barristers here wear wigs and gowns and tabs. But the wig is kept in this box under the desk. Sorry about the camera shake.The gowns are only worn in serious civil cases, criminal cases and only in family when we are trying to send someone to prison for beaching an order - hence why mine rarely gets used. Today I shall be working in my civilian dress - black suit basically.

This is what I would look like if I got robed when I got there.

For obvious reasons I do not drive to work dressed like this. Although I once did drive all the way home from North Wales dressed as a medieval princess, but that is another story entirely. There are mutterings about doing away with the fancy dress for baristers altogthether in civil cases.

Finally, cheese is still missing, am going to check jewellery now.

Grand theft cheese / my desk

OK. Own up. I know it was someone.

This morning there was a packet of cottage cheese unopened in the fridge. Now it is not there. Dennis was the only one in the house today. He won't have eaten it because he doesn't like it. He denies throwing it out. And I believe him. (Because I went out in the rain and checked the bin!) So, if you have eaten it could you let me know. It's OK. Sometimes you get a craving and you've just got to have someone else's cheap packet of supermarket own brand cheese. I understand. I will not prosecute. But it would be good to know I am not going mad.

Now, Calender Pages tagged me for a picture of my desk. I am delighted to respond because for once it is not a complete tip. I did not tidy a single thing for these photos!

We use our third bedroom as a study so it's hard to photo because there's not much distance. This is from the door

These boxes I got for Chrsitmas. I am sure my friend meant me to store quilt things in them (Les, in my defence the others are in my sewing room except the little one which is packed with threads for our class on Saturday!) but the three biggest from the set now have (a) family work (b) civil work (c) personal paperwork in them. This system does work well to keep things sorted and tidy but I worry that it is also out of sight and therefore out of mind. I am the kind of person who has no problem with stuff on the floor because then I know where it is. Until I suddenly get fed up with mess then out of the blue it drives me mad. Which is how it all ended up in these boxes.

The quilt on the chair is made out of scraps of Afican fabrics. The photo on the sill is of a boy called Mapholobo from South Africa, one of five children we sponsor. The filing cabinet was a reject from the Police years ago - it was going in a skip because it doesn't have an anti-tilt mechanism on it so Dad took it for us. Apparently it is OK if we get killed when it falls on us.I should maybe explain that Dad is not a thief. He is an ex-copper and it was his cabinet and he had permission! He also made the desks for us. The purple and red books on the second shelf up are multiple copies of the last 2 law boks I wrote

This one is taken from where the printer is and shows my barrister's gown and the two blank walls which one day will house wallhangings I make just for me!The space is there, the time is not.

I now tag Diane to show her desk becuase she too is a lawyer and quilter.

Wet feet or....

... why I never got to the quilt shop today.

The tale starts on Saturday. Dennis used my car (whilst I was at the quilt shop and hairdressers in Penrith) to take Dad to the rugby. Afterwards Dad decided to check my car. Its his way of showing love. Dennis picked me up and I immediatley said, "This car smells of petrol. Has someone spilt something?" I was told no, but Dad had just filled me up with screenwash, which I could probably smell, and that he had checked the oil and it was OK but would need topping up soon. Dad tod me the same thing when I got back using the words, 'You'll be alright for oil for a while."

So we drove 100 miles back. Then to the hospital yesterday to deliver the African Quilt ( Receipient loved it and sat stroking it all through visiting! Woman in the bed opposite said I should open a shop.). Then today I set off for a court in Stockport, one I have never been to before. As I set off I smell the 'screenwash' and think, hmmm a smelly brand - not the one I use normally!

A litte further on a message pops up on my sat nav to the effect of; Oil warning! Stop driving now or your car will blow up. Of course I am now on the fast lane in the motorway at a part with no easily accessible hardshoulder and tons of lorries all around me. The message vanishes. I take the next slip road ( for UK readers or those with a map fetish, from M6 south onto M56 East) and the message comes up again. So I pull onto the hardshoulder and get out in the pouring rain and check the oil. There isn't any.

I ring Dad. He thinks I must have a leak if it has all gone so quickly. I ring the RAC breakdown who tip out in 20 mins flat ( but not before I have got my feet wet and cold), take one look under my bonnet and say, "Where is your oil cap?" they explain that either there is somthing seriously wrong with the engine that it has blown the cap off and let the oil all bubble up and out, or it has been unscrewed and not put on properly. Well, I didn't even know I had an oil cap. (Now, don't look at me like that - you think that mechanic knows how to do trapunto?) So guess who I rang again. Dad denies touching it - and why would he if he thought my oil was OK? So now I am worried about the engine.

I get towed all the way home, having rung the court to tell them to get another part time Judge in becuase I ain't getting to Stockport anytime fast. We go to a Nissan dealership who of course haven't got a cap in so I have to book the car in for tomorrow. However, the owner sees me, recognises me from the days when I used to go to his Rotary club and offers to take a cap off a car in the showroom and fix it today. Best case, it needs a steam wash (because that 'screen wash' smell has been hot oil splatterng all over the engine and bonnet lid) and new oil, worst case, an engine rebuild. Am I sure the cap was on tight? Hmmm.

I ring Dad to tell him I am safe and to update him. He says ( and I quote, "I definately didn't touch the cap. Unless my memory is wrong and it's not what it used to be. I definately didn't unscrew it. I'm pretty sure." Uhuh. Now I can't say I disbelieve him, but.......!

I get off the phone to find that the garage man can't get into the car. Keys don't work. Well they did this morning! Turns out having the lights on the car while it was towed has flattened the battery. They get into the car in a way I didn't see, but I am sure has landed many delinquents in juvenile detention before now.

Dennis came up, we went for coffee and took the opportunity to go to a retail park and get some shower attachment thingies we've needed for months, so that was a plus point. Back at the garage they say the engine seems to be running fine, to keep an eye on it and that will be £75 please. Phew. Not thousands for a new engine then.

So, sadly my plans to nip to a quilts shop called Patchfinders in Stockport - a new shop to me- at lunchtime did not materialise. I am a days' wages down and my feet, several hours later are still freezing cold from standing in wet grass on the M56 bank. Mind you waiting, wet and bored gives you time to think - the motorway split at that point and I did think that the irregular chevrons on the road division could be foundation pieced quite effectively, perhaps into a fabric hand-dyed to replicate the beautiful colours in the puddle of oil forming on the hard shoulder.....

Was Eve a quilter?

Here I am on my sick sofa, under a quilt (of course) and not really watching All About Eve while I read blogs. I am betting that the Biblical Eve was not a quilter:

(a) she'd have been far more tempted by fabric than fruit

(b) even after the fall she would have been wearing somthing more pieced than a fig leaf

(c) she'd have appreciated the abilty to spend her time quilting too much to behave in a way which lead ultimatley to that quilting time being lost by the monthly pain, aches and sickness I am wallowing in at the moment. (It's that kind of sickness that can be temporarily be relieved by a strong cup of ginger tea which affords windows of opportunity to finish off the Jaffa cakes and start on the Thornton Viennese truffles.)

Anyway, despite my current self-indulgent sloth, this week has been quite quilty:

Tuesday: Down Under Quilts arrived. As did this fabric from my batik club at Hannah's room...

So did a large order of threads I'd placed with Barnyarns.

This stuff I got for £24 and pence being a taster pack of one of all the types of superiors threads they sell.

This is a line of Masterpiece by Alex Anderson, a line of The Bottom Line by Libby Lehman with one King Tut and some 30 weight embroidery threads for machine applique plans.

Wednesday: I was sent to Birmingham ( 2.5 hours by car. train and foot to the court and the same back) all to do an application to adjourn a matter.(Which predictably I lost - as was always going to be the case!). I applied my judicially trained mind to the question of whether, once finished I should go another 1/2 hr south to the quilt shop. I performed the usual balancing exercise in the application of my discretion:

Factors against:

1. This is the shop whose mail order policies I very much disapprove.

2. I just got a load of fabric and threads yesterday!

3. It will take two hours of extra travel and browsing time I could spend playing with the threads I just got.

4. I am saving up for the Nantwich sale next week.

5. I will be in a quilt shop anyway in three more days.

Factors for:

1. It's a quilt shop.

Decided against it. Went in to do the case before one of the rudest Judges I have even met - I came out scarlet and sweaty with the sheer cheek of having to say several times; "If I could be allowed to finish my sentence Sir" to find the heavens had opened and also found that my feet had started to hurt badly. (There was a reason, which I had forgotton, why I hadn't worn thsoe shoes for ages). I reappraised the evidence - Oh well, now I deserved a little treat!

Whilst it is nice to be in any fabric store and whilst this is a well stocked one, there has always been something about it that let me cold on previous visits. This time the penny dropped - it was more than the fact that the staff - whilst not unfriendly or unhelpful when you approach them - are not chatty or warm. Nor is it just the lack of offer of a cup of tea which I get at some shops I visit. It is the fact that there are no quilts in the shop! All the space is used for goods for sale and it is well fitted out - but no quilts!!!

By the time I got back on the train with my (modest haul) of spay baste, marking chalk, sale thread, wash away thread and glue stick ( all stuff I don't excpect to find at Nantwich) my feet were so on fire. A sweet but very bent-over-a stick old man had to ask me if I was OK walking!

Thursday: New Zealand Quilter and British Patchwork and Quilting arrived

Friday: I did get to play a little with the new threads on a 'play' quilt top. Oh and ordered 5 quilt books on line - mostly ones I had seen at the shop but decided to buy on amazon marketplace.

Saturday: Our local rugby team Liverpool St.Helens (LSH) were playing Penrith and my husband and his friend decided to go up with my Dad who now lives up there. So I went up too and collected the blocks my Mum has been embroidering for me to start off a quilt based on sacred texts. These are they all over her conservatory rug.....

I then went to Just Sew to use the cutting table to cut the sashing strips, where I found that the vey expensive silk we chose is fraying all over the place. I spent ages painting the edges with fray check but am wondering if I may be better ironing on interfacing?

Now, this has taken me over 2 hours to write (off and on) given my lack of energy so you will excuse me if I go back to sleep now...

Confused.

First - sorry for the lack of blog. I had a lovely long time off work, go back and -slam! you'd think I was the only barrister in the country! I will try a nice photo related piece tomorrow because there has been some quilting activity- in short bursts ,which I am afraid I chose over the blog.

For now can I please ask you all a question, becuase I am confused. I have been quilting a little piece with a 60wt cotton thread in bobbin (Soft Touch by YLI) and on top as well. The cream thread on top was fine. The black on top was fine. The red looped like mad on the back. (All three are Soft Touch, all had the same bobbin thread). I re-threaded the machine with the red still in the needle. Same problem. I cleaned the machine, re-threaded, same problem. I went back to the cream. No problem. Put the red in. Loops everywhere! I changed to a Coats polyester in red - no problem. So what was going on there?!

There are some days when I spend a little too long on the Internet...



This was good to know and explains why I can never quite get that quilt to look as good as the ones I admire...

You Are 71% Creative

You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word. You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times.

How Creative Are You?

This I could have told you but I thought I'd better check in case I was delusional..

You Are Not Stupid

You got 10/10 questions right! While acing this quiz doesn't prove you're a genius, you're at least pretty darn smart.

Are You Stupid?

This I thought was a stupid quiz but the answer is dead on...(Sorry!)...

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

I am reassured by this one- I thought the percentage would have been higher....

You Are 64% Control Freak

You are a pretty major control freak, though you may not know it. While your confidence is inspiring, your bossy ways tend to scare people off.

Are You A Control Freak?

I am duly sorry if you have been scared.



And when I realised I had progressed to this one I surmised you would all be rolling your eyes and thinking that this was not the most quilty blog posts ever.

Your Superpower Should Be Mind Reading

You are brilliant, insightful, and intuitive. You understand people better than they would like to be understood. Highly sensitive, you are good at putting together seemingly irrelevant details. You figure out what's going on before anyone knows that anything is going on! Why you would be a good superhero: You don't care what people think, and you'd do whatever needed to be done Your biggest problem as a superhero: Feeling even more isolated than you do now

What Should Your Superpower Be?

If you too are insomiac and want to waste time you can do a whole myriad of tests at Blogthings

PS I decided not to post the buttons telling you that I would flunk 8th grade history ( well come on it was US history!), that I was strawberry ice cream ( the one flavour I hate!) or that I should grow up to be a doctor - the reasoning was bang on mind you in terms of how I think and the type of job I like - they just forgot to ask the question about whether I was squeamish. I prefered the alternative of detective because that's what my Dad was. Now, is there a test called, "What time you should have stopped doing these quizes."?

A day's work

A family friend went out to visit her son who is living in Tanzania for Chrstmas. Sadly she became ill and had to fly home. She is now in hospital with a 25cm cyst on her ovary, protruding into her bladder. She is awaiting a pretty serious operation next week. So I decided that she needed a convalescence quilt. Only last week I was thinking that I should make a little stock of 'comfort' quilts ready to gift as occasions require but of course had not yet got around to it so had to start from ( almost) scratch.

Instinct said - African fabrics! - but then I wondered if a quilt reminding her of the place she fell ill was a good idea! I checked with Mum who knows her better than I do and she reassured me. So today - between 10am and 7pm I made this top- but I cheated because the panel was already made!. I did actually put another border on but changed my mind and took it off again!

The photo is not the best I am afraid. However, the quilt proves three things:

(a) UFO is a bad term. This cente panel was hanging around for ages but was just right for this. I have decided that I will rechristen my UFO's as 'stashed gift stock'.

(b) I can stash bust with the best - no fabric bought at all for this one.

(c) the title of my blog is a good one - once started I didn't come up for air - except to answer the door to my sister who helpfuly heated up her own soup for lunch then went to sleep on my sofa under a quilt for a couple of hours - such a good visitor!

I tried a new basting approach - spray basting vertically on my design board -worked a treat.

Checkin' stuff out

Officially I am still on holiday until Tuesday. Unofficially my clerks ignore the word AWAY in the diary unless the words IN INDIONESIA or (HOSPITAL - EBOLA FEVER) or WITH THE FAERIES appear after it. And so I was that on today's days holiday I went to the Liverpool County court to represent a client who didn't turn up. Oh and while I was there the clerks rang to say that there was a brand new case kicking off ( Baby born on Boxing Day to parents who had been highly abusive to a previous child) and could I possibly just hang on and explain to the parents why this child was going from hospital straight to foster care...?


So, back at home, while I had my suit on, I thought I might as well get in my study and get on with some admin tasks that have to be done when I go back to work anyway, such as clearing out my cluttered in boxes. The way this task is to be done is to read everything back about 20 days and keep only what is really needed for reference and then junk everything before it. If I don't remember it is, there how can I need it?

The way I actually did it was to start at the folder for my personal emails ( well you have to work up to work ones don't you) which of course includes an e-mail for every comment on my blog. And a frightening number of shopping confirmations - I destroyed that evidence without hestitation. But the comments - well it would be rude to not check out each and every blog that they came from wouldn't it?

It has taken me 2 hrs 18 misn to delete 182 messages!

However, in so doing I found this. It takes quite a lot to make me cry with laughter ( I'm more an internal giggle and outward wry smile girl) but this did it.

New Years Lists

You know how that surfing goes. I check in with the oh-so thoughtful Jennifer who leads me to her chicken obsessed friend Natalie who takes me to meet Marrisa who throws down the challenge - list 10 accomplishments you are proud of and let her know so she can collate a list of lists on her blog.

Well this is all very in the spirit of New Years Introspection which I love so much - that feeling of a fresh start and a time to regroup and focus. However, my initial recation on trying to compile a list was that actually I hadn't really acomplished anything. I scoured some of the links on Marrissa's site ( oh go and find them yourself, I can't be bothered to do more links!) to find examples of suitable achievements and that made me worse. I certainly have not given birth vaginally ( or indeed any other way) to a large headed child. ( I once had to go outside of a book shop and put my head between my knees because I looked for too long at a book on pregnancy). And it might well be that I can make boo-boos go away by kissing them - I don't know,I've never tried....

My first list seemed very career orientated. Which seemed very selfish. I haven't done anything world changing. I haven't brought a chid into the world ( I have no desire to - see selfish, above). In fact I am a waste of space really... then I got a grip and thought - well hey, look at all these blogs I read. They are about (excuse me here) ordinary people going about ordinary lives but making art and beautiful quilts and making me laugh about the small things in their life. And these people who are doing nothing remarkable in world political terms draw me back for more day in and day out because together with their little (and in some case rather big) acts of creativity and sharing they made a community to which I love to belong. A community which has welcomed me into its fold ( look - you are all reading me!) and which makes me feel normal, inspired, talented and accepted.

So here, is a revised list of my 10 acomplishments. Some are carreer related because -heck!- I am a career woman and proud of it but some are things that my career has enabled me to do financially and most are small things. Then, there is my fantasy list of accomplishments!

10 real accomplishments

1. Finally on my third attempt, after missing out twice by 1% I got a distinction in a degree! ( An MA in Creative Writing) Lots of whoops and feelings that I could finally let go after that envolope arrived in the post!

2. When appointed I was one of the country's youngest ever part time Judges

3. I can stand up in a conference room of 400 lawyers and make them all laugh and I can take a group of scared trainee solicitors and train them so that they are confident and enthused - and make them laugh while I do it.

4. I taught my nephew to tie his own shoelaces. ( I also taught him to slide down the stairs on an inflatable lilo which got him into trouble when he tried it at his Gran's house but forgot the all important cushions. Still, he remembers the fun with fondness!

5. With my husband I sponsor five children around the world to make sure that they have good health care and education. I hope it also helps their parents have time to kiss boo-boos away for them. (They are Rony in Guatemala, Miriam in Mali, Babita in Nepal, Mapholobo in South Africa and Carmen in Bolivia)

6. I made a quilt for my parents' anniversary that was so beautiful my mother cried.

7. I am a travel agent extradordinaire ( Just today I found us the oldest - and it seem to me cutest- houseboat in Amsterdam to rent for a while in the summer.)

8. I can fix my parents' failing technology over the phone. (Mum: the Printer won't work. Me: What's wrong with it? Mum: I dont know that's why I rang you. Me:What is it doing? Mum: Nothing. That's the problem. Oh, There's a flashing light. Me: Look it up in the manual and tell me what that light is for. Long pause. Mum: Manual? Me: (Sigh) Hang on while I download one...)

9. I am mortgage and debt free ( and have a stash!).

10. I am not a woman driver. I can read a map but I don't usually need to because I can drive on instinct and when I get there I can parallel park in a tight spot in one single move. I happily drove over the Atlas mountains (twice) despite my husband being rather concerned when the hotel concierge told him not to take that road it being 'the most dangerous road in Africa' (Tosh by the way!!)


10 fantasy accomplishments. (Some are pure fantasy, some, well, deep inside there is a teensy weensie hope - can you tell which is which?)

1. I pioneered a life changing surgical technique.

2. I met Nelson Mandela.

3. I published a novel.

4. I met Bill Clinton ( and I can tell you for free that you will never ever know if there was a black dress involved. I am a woman of class!)

5. I used all my family lawyer's negotiating skills to bring peace to Israel and Palestine.

6. I. won a quilt show. Heck, I won Houston. I made the most amazing memory quilt out of a little black dress.

7. I travelled overland through Africa distributing Aids medication to outlying villages.

8. I emigrated to South Africa -to the Cape, where I set up a quilting shop with a cafe and yoga studio attached and free classes with kits for women in the townships to start businesses.

9. I bought a big barn and converted it into a huge studio with a minstrels galery for my books and hand sewing sofa at one end and a wet area for dying at the other.

10. Nelson Mandela bragged to Bill Clinton about meeting me.

Thank you to you all for reading me. I hope you all have a very good 2008.

5 things acquired and 5 things made

I may have been lazy on the blogging front since Boxing Day but things have been a bit more active on the quiting front with things being acquired and things being made ... and look! I photographed most of them for your delectation and delight:

Things acquired:

Firstly, there were a few Christmas presents I forgot ( inexcusably - sorry, Dennis!) to tell you about.

1. Membership to the American Quilting Society. Sounds daft when I am in the UK but at the current exchange rate its worth it for the magazine alone.

2. My entry fees paid to all the UK quilt shows I go to in 2008. ( Den's logic being that I can then afford more fabric when I get in there!)

3. This mug from my sister who is very cheeky, but accurate in her assessment of me.

4. This bag which I mentioned last post but forgot to insert the photo ( and you were all either too polite or too bored to mention it.)

then not a Christmas present but still good...

5. A whole load ( I mean a whole load!!) of thread ordered on line today becuase I am stuck on several projects without it. Don't you just love shopping when the shop is actually shut?!

Things made

1. I had my first attempt at handdyeing two days ago which was fun as I had to do it in the garage. The water source however was an outside tap between that and the kitchen which in turn was the source for the room temperature water. And of course it was chucking it down so I got as wet as the fabric running in and out. I have been denying my father's admonishments that we need a new garage door, but it won't stay up in high winds and I was in danger of being locked in there until I wedged it half open with the wheelie bin leaving me to double up to carry buckets and trays out in the gales. Did you ever wonder why artists in Victorian novels were always dying of consumption.......?

I did a rainbow of 12 FQ's using instructions from this blog which has very clear and full instructions. Then I did a gradation of greens. Then I made soups out of the left over dyes at random and just dunked FQ's in to get surprise colours.

I was aiming for mottled but got a bit more mottled than I intended on some but still, I like the effects.

One problem I had was that I knew from communicating in advance with the owner of this site was that the dyes need a certain temperature to react which believe me was not going to happen in my garage at this time of the year. Eventually I wrapped the FQ's in plastic bags in a plastic box in a plastic sack and carried them upstairs , put the on a towel in the study and shut them up in there with a blow heater for hours. But as the process was going on I carted the beer cups of dyes/ FQ's on a tray into the kitchen put them on the ( turned off) gas ring and left the oven on with the oven door open. I am thinking that this is not a very environmentally friendly process, but it seems to have had some success although my colours are still not as vibrant as those handyes I have bought.

2. I have done some work on the Water quilt - this panel is complete and half of its identical twin is done. Plus the background for the panel that separates them is done - this will soon have african ladies carrying water on their heads appliqued onto it.

3. This as yet untitled quilt top. As I was making the blocks they seemed to me to be reminiscent of animals hiding behind trees. Over the day it was definately telling me that it needed a lush, appliqued jungle border so a full size pattern has been drafted and templates will be done tomorrow - applique however requires the threads ( well some of them!) referred to above. The border on the left is wider to accommodate a giraffe!4 This little bit of silliness created just to have somthing to sample threads ( yeah, the rest of the order!) on partly for my learning process and partly for my City and Guilds5. Much designing and auditioning fabrics for my next twelveby12 project - the design is now ready to be cut and stitched tommorrow......but I'm sorry, that's embargoed!

My Christmas In Photos

My parents came down - slept at my sisters but came round to us for Chritsmas Day and Boxing Day as Jen was on nights so needed a quiet house to sleep in. As you can see, Dad decided to go out in support of her just after Christmas Lunch.
I must have been a good girl this year as Santa came and brought lot of goodies including a MP4 with massive storage and on the quilting side, bubblejet equipment so I can do more photo quilts, 61/2 metres of fabric including these from Magie Relphand these storage boxes from my quilting buddy Lesley.And this bag which is not exactly quiting related ( except it is big enough for me to smuggle a quilt book to work in!) but has to be shown anyway. It was a free with Elizabeth Arden gift but it was the bag I coveted so Mum bought me loads of products to get it for me.... much more expensive cosmetics than I would normally spring for!


Home made meringues and cream horns ( with jam inside) are a family Christmas tradition

Today ( Boxing Day) we decided to blow away the cobwebs and use the National Trust membership I gave Dennis to visit the red squirrel reserve at Formby. Trouble is, there were no squirrels to be seen. Lots of trees...
but no squirrels until at the last minute .. look what skipped out of the forest.
It is hard to take a day off from quilting - don't these tyre tracks in the sand nearby make good quiting lines?

We then had an inspired idea - let's go down the coast a bit to see Anthony Gormley's Another Place - his 100 life size sculptures set on the beach. The trouble is they get submerged at hight tide and guess what... yup.. VERY high tide!

Oh well, we just had to go home to finish the meringues and cream horns and carrot cake and sticky toffee pudding and mince pies and brandy snaps and Lebenkuchen and.... OINK!

Hope you are having a good time.

How I get so many quilts done

Jennifer ( who has the best ever titled blog by the way) left a comment on my last post saying she was impressed by my abilty to get quilts done quickly. Several other people have said the same to me recently so let me dis-abuse you. This is how it is done:

I do not....

1. Clean my house iron my clothes or wash up dishes.
No, my house is not a midden ( well the sewing area can get a little middenish I suppose) - I have a fantastic cleaner Pam, who cleans, admires quilts, and finds lost things. Dennis will not let me wash up dishes because I do it so badly... that one worked then :)

2. Have children to look after
I do have a nephew who is now 10 who lives in N Ireland. I saw him last Saturday evening. I had a deep and meaningful conversation with him about his new step-family and how he was getting on in his education. After that five minutes I lay on the floor with him to play Playstation ( I am rubbish, but then he won't tell me the rules) and then had a pillow fight. I won because he is only 10 and so he (a) didn't work out that if he took the little 15" cushion and I had the actual sofa seat cushion he had no chance and (b) when he turned out to be quite nifty with that little cushion I just hit harder and then sat on him. This is why I am not allowed kids. I think it is called child abuse.

3. Watch soap operas, Pop idol, X-factor, Big Brother or the like.

4. Bother too much about perfection.
Its the overall effect that counts. After all, if you found out that George Clooney had an appendectomy scar would it make any diference at all? Apart from you needing to strip him to find out if it was true, I mean.

5. Mark quilts to quilt or hand quilt.
Bung it under the machine and scribble all over it ( call it free motion if you will) . Quick quick quick! Or tie them. Ten inches apart.

I do...

1. Make the most of every moment. I was laughed at at my quiting group in Penrith last month for being at the cutting table with my coat still on ten minutes before class actually started. In my defence (a) It was snowing outside and it was only a little coat (b) I knew that once class started Mrs X would need the table for her Baltimore

2. Have an attenion span of a gnat
Mrs X has been working on her Baltimore for the whole 2 years I have been in the class. It is exquisite but it is all she works on and frankly I am bored to death just watching her work on it. I make quilts quickly because I make quick quilts!

3. Watch property programmes.
We call them hotel TV in our house - stuff that I like to watch in a hotel to stop be being lonley even if its not the most stunning TV. Only I got addicted. I like the propery renovation- to-sell ones in particular. When the participants lose tons of cash I can sit on my sofa feeling very clever that I was so risk averse I would never do that. And when they make £100,000 on one house I can be glad for them knowing I'd rather be safe and lazy on my sofa than take such a risk!

4. Do two things at once.
I can piece and travel. I tie quilts and sit on my sofa feeing smug at others' misfortunes. I can I can design in my head and do pretty much anything. Except watch George Clooney. That deserves ultimate concentration. I frequently pull out a basket of fabric and place it on the floor next to me to admire as I sit to dry my hair. By the time my hair is dried I can have it spread all out around me with new combinations inspiring me. ( I am not so good at picking it up again.)We even now have a new recordable DVD so I can record said property programmes and watch through my laptop while I sew. Dennis is happy! May be I should get voice activation software so I can blog and sew at the same time....


4.

Showing off

It is the time of year for completing things. Excuse the wonkiness - it is my photgraphy not the quilts. I have no where in the house that I can get really good flat shots.

My first commssioned quilt 'Green Gables' went off to its customer, Ann today. (Half green log cabins.... Ann....get it?!)

The front:

The back:

The label (showing the quilt this customer bought from me at a show):

and some details of the quilting done by Chris Marriage at Father's Heart Quilting.

These colurs are so not me - Ann's choice - but I have left overs so I shall have to challenge myself to use them up! (Maybe I could dye them brown?!)

Some days ago I also finished the Christmas quilt:

(stashbusters note - all from stash save the outer fabric and the rick rack!)

It is quilted through fleece, with free motion stars as you can see on this one.

Then, almost finished - just needs binding and label, is this one for my sister. She is in fact 34 but really wanted a Paddington quilt so why not? Her love of bears continues on the back. Its her Christmas present ( along with some bits and bobs including a kitchen bulldog clip with a picture of a an elephant on it that makes elephant sounds when you press it. Kitch in the extreme but she loves elephants as much as bears so it should at least get a laugh!)

Advent present - kuba cloth

I don't actually own any kuba cloth but I will at some point, I think have to treat myself, to a piece. I'd like to frame one and hang it over my sofa. I love the complexity of the geometric patterns and the simplicity of the monochromatic colour scheme combined. So, whilst I am choosing my favourite I'll let you pick one too as your present for today. there are several sites selling the raffia woven cloths from central africa but I have chosen this site for you to shop in as I discovered them this weekend after they emailed me - possibly in reponse to my fairtrade post recently. Let me know which number cloth is your favourite.... Dennis says, "Well I don't hate them but they don't do anything for me so if you like them then yes, get one." That's all the endorsement I need so I shall be checking the size then buying me a little present, I think, whilst the dollar rate is still so good. (For me I mean - stop yelling at me all you US people who want to come to Europe!)

I am also quite taken with these Rwandan peace baskets.

PS Thank you to the Liverpool reader who left a comment telling me where the Christmas market was - I was close ( by the Met Quarter on my way back to Vernon Street) but never actually went to the right square! Oh well.

Yesterday I found that I had some unexpected spare time mid-afternoon as my court list had 'collapsed' so I trotted off into a freezing cold Liverpool city center to see the Christmas markets I had seen signposted on the way in. Turned out there weren't any - or at least not where I though they were, so I ended up in a warm WH Smiths looking at Quilt magazines, a fairly pointless activity as I have all the ones I like on subscription.

However, I fell into conversation with another browser who turned out to be Margaret Nolan of Southport quilters and she alterted me to the fact that they now have their own website. The site has lots of photos from the 2006 show they put on ( it is a bi-annual show) and as this was the first time I had actually seen any quilts in real lfe - although by then I had been quilting for about 5 months - I was delighted to see them all again.

I was also pleased to hear that Margaret was looking for the latest edition of British patchwork and quilting as my article on designing with shape is in this edition.

( I am sure that was not the reason she was looking for it!)

Mortification

Here is the promised photo of the quilt I made over the weekend, modelled by Dennis who has been banished to the bedroom to watch football and is now snuggled under it.

I think he likes the back more than the front!

But my story is about another quilt....

I am not normally prone to publicising details of my own embarassment on line but I will make an exception today in the hopes that some other beginning quilter will learn fom my lessons. I have just sent a quilt top to a long arm quilter. On that top I applied two tips both given to me by established quilters ( one a teacher). First, use Soft Touch for construction thread because its lightweight and so makes your seams lie nice and flat. Second, don't pay extra for foundation piecing paper - ordinary typing paper works just as well if you follow the usual rule of shortening your stitch length to enable easier ripping.

Both tips are true. However, in combination it turns out there may be a problem! Chris, the quilter rang me today - when she put the top taut on the machine and started to plan her quliting she found one seam was a little open. Then she found another...eventually she found fifteen gaps! Now they were not obvious when I checked for loose threads and ironed it. However, it does seem that the combination of light thread and tugging thick paper out has caused some individual stitches to rip. A longarm machine does not stretch the top but it does pull it tauter than ironing does and so unravelling started and she was unable to quilt it.

Panic. This quilt has to come back for me for embellishment and then go out in the post for Christmas. And Chris finishes work on Thursday. Solution? Husband from Heaven volunteered to drive to Yorkshire to get it in my car using the sat nav he is unfamilar with, as he had no idea where he was going. Fortunately I was working from home so, on his return, was able to down tools and mend it and by the skin of our teeth we got it in the post for next day by 9am delivery so Dennis didn't have to go back with it as he remarkably offered to do. Phew.

I should say that Chris would normally have offered to do it for me but was just so pushed for Christmas work that she simply didn't have time - and after all, why should she?. She was very kind about it telling me it happens 'all the time' - but even so, to send a quilt out with holes in it? Mortified. Next time I shell out for foundation paper and use Gutterman cotton!

Oh, and Dennis arrived with the top and said, 'I trust that woman now, I quite like her.'

I was rather confused and asked why he didn't trust Chris before, given he had never met her, and he said, 'No, not Chris, the lady in the car.' Apparently he was talking to the sat nav voice as he drove. Bless him, I think I may actually have literally driven him mad!

Advent present - video clip

A cheap stocking filler this time. Call me slow but it is only tonight that I have first been to U-Tube. I got there by accident looking for an audio clip to go with a Quiltland piece and of course felt constrained to stick 'quilting' in the search box and ... well lots of quilters got there before me!

This is the one I picked to watch. Amateur filming but great innovative quilts!
There is a related website with gallery here.

Citizenship of Quiltland

87% of readers who responded to my poll on the Quiltland blog wanted citizenship via a Ringsurf group. All it does it signify that you read the blog and will leave comments from time to time ( Oh yeah, huge ego trip going on here!) but more seriously allows you to show off your blog in a quiting group that is for all quilters not just those who are artful, crazy or who (ahem) stashbust.

So by all means click on the button to the right to join.

As for stash busting, well I made a quilt this weekend. Yup, start to finish - 9.30 am Saturday to 10.30 pm Sunday and I still had time to get my hair cut, go out for a meal with my parents, drive home from Penrith, prepare a brief and set up a TV and DVD and finally - sleep under the thing! Three cheers for 12 inch blocks, strip piecing and tied quilts! Photo later for you as I have to dash to work now.

There are no flies on my man

Regular readers will know my predliction for what I call 'Magie' fabrics - gorgeous genuine West African fabrics sold by Magie Relph at the African Fabric shop. Readers of The Quilter, the magainze of the British Quilters Guild will also have seen eth article about her fabric this edition.

I casually flopped on the sofa. "There's an article here about Magie fabric," I say nonchalantly. "It's all about why you have to buy it."

Dennis looks over his glasses. He is wary of Magie. He saw her bewitching sales techiniques for himself at Quilts UK when I went to her stall and told her than I needed a quarter of purple fabric. She smiled sweetly and showed me all her half meters of green and browns and reds, all of which I bought. He thinks she can put me in a trance simply by flapping batik in my face the same way Crocodile Dundee could tame a wild animal with that hand signal of his. (On that he is right.) He gives me a Paddington stare. "You said you didn't want to buy any more fabrics until the Nantwich sale in January."

"I know. I'm not saying I am buying now, I 'm just saying that its a good thing to buy Magie Fabric generally. The article says so."

"Why?"

"Because its sustainable trade and contributes to world development without the trap of charity."

He looks genuinely interested. "Really?"

"Yeah. People will starve if people like me don't buy. People called Musa and Esther specifically. Its their only way to make a living. Its a moral thing to do. It says so. In the guild magazine."

He is a sensitive man. He doesn't like for people to be starving. He looks convinced. Then his eyes narrow. "Who wrote the article?"

"Ummm.... Magie?"

I don't care. I knew about Magie's fairtrade policy already and it is a jolly good reason to buy in my view (although to be honest the fabric is so great I'd have to struggle really hard not to buy it even if I knew it had been woven by two year olds working 26 hour days.) and anyway, its my money.....

Rushing

Too much work. Too much travel. Off now to Blackburn to work ( and park husband at coffee shop for the duration) then from there to Penrith for quilting session.

See a longer blog entry on quilt shows that I've just done at www.quiltlandchronicle.blogspot.com

Consumer praise

Today has been a long day - our annual 1hr and 50 mins drive to the Meadowhall complex in Sheffield to Christmas shop from 9 until we get kicked out at 7. Only this year, due to the fact that I seredipitously got a large tax rebate yesterday we got a bit distracted into buying stuff for ourselves.

Save for a copy of Quiltmania Meadowhall is bereft of quilt stuff ( oh except I bought some very expensive pillowcases and contemplated buying an extra set to cut up so I knew I could match the colour in an end of bed quilt throw!), so we focused on electrical goods instead, in particular new TV and DVD recorder.

Not knowing anything about DVDs I asked various 'salesmen' various questions in various shops. All answers were useless. A Sample: Q: I want to be able to pause live TV. Which players do that? A: That's a good question.

Then we stumbled on the Sony Center Shop. All questions were answered in simple detail. There was no hard sell. There was a 10% sale on everything and the TV was already reduced anyway. We checked that we got 10% off everything we wanted, including the TV, then went away to think over a cup of tea. We decide we will never find a better deal and return to buy it. We find Justin, the same cheery little Yorkshire guy who helped frst time round and say, "Right, so do you want to sell us this package of DVD, TV and stand then?"
His response?
"Of course. So you want me to get you a better deal? Just hang on I'll see what I can do."
Well, be my guest!!

His manager allowed him to knock £25 of the DVD and £25 off the stand. We checked that we still got the 10% off the resulting price. Yes we did. Bargain! We agree to buy and he suggests that as the stock is split between a store room and an offsite warehouse,we go and do more shopping and he will ring when it is all on site.

He rings soon after. We return. He apologises and says that he brought the wrong stand over from the warehouse but as he was intending to carry all our stuff through the mall to our car anyway he suggests we just drive with him to the nearby warehouse and get the stand on our way home. Fine. Justin puts the order in the till with the manager instructing him how to do the discount. By this time it is gone six and I am dead on my feet. I have been handing the credit card out all day and knowing we have done the deal already I am slow to react when he tells us the sum due and just stick my PIN in. Then, with receipt in my purse, my brain starts to go.... hey, hang on that can't be right, can it? But Justin looks happy. Dennis - who can count in his head - looks OK with it, so we leave.

Just as we get to the door there is a little conflab between Justin and the manager and then he bounces out, all smiles, to meet us. He waits until we get out of earshot of the shop and then says, "You got a good deal there you know. We did the discount wrong and gave you too much." I still can't get my head around it but we establish that he is not going to lose his job and that the shop policy is - we made the mistake, customer wins out! How far is that from my Carcraft experience?!

So three very loud cheers for Sony Centre customer service ethic..... especially as we later realised that they had not given us £25 off the DVD and the stand. They had sold us them for £25! The extra discount over and above what we expected was £364!


(And for any salespeople out there, yes Justin was on commission, yes he did lose out and yes we did slip him cash to make it up to him!)