Munich Part 2

There was a stark contrast during our trip to Munich. First, Dachau memorial park, site of the nazi conceptration camp. It is in easy 10 min train and short connecting bus ride from the city. I actually went when I was interrailing when I was 17 but Dennis had never been and we are both firm believers that everyone should take time to visit places like this. It is of course grim, although in many ways less immediately affecting than Auschwitz - possibly becuase less remains standing.

This part of the memorial sculpture is the only colour around.

                                     And then back to the tinselly glitter of the Christmas markets.

Did you notice that I learned a new skill in Picassa? Amd I overdoing my collages? It is is  much quicker that postng all the photos individually.

So what else from Munich?  Not a lot. Terry commented on my packing dilemma post that she never swam in hotels and would I really go swimming? Oh yes. If there is a free spa quality pool I am in it as often as possible. And I love it when I get to be there alone. And this one was amazing. It was less pool more swimming cave. You need to use your imagination for this because for obvious (wet) reasons I have no photos.

You enter the pool down wide water covered steps. All the walls in this area are covered with either small black mosaic tiles or large deep grey stone. The wall to your right is straight and as you get to the bottom of the steps there is a cut out arch in that very high wall but the arch is only about a foot and a half above the water. Just enough to swim under. That leads you to a rectangular area in which there is a button operated set of jets, an on demand waterfall and a small thin window that lets you see out to reception ad lets in the only natural leight into this stone vault. In the pool the window is normal height but in reception it is almost floor level and unobtrustive. If you swim back out under the arch so the steps are to your left the room is thens shaped as a curved corridor sweeping round to the right to an oval area behind the steps - think tadople shaped. The tail of the tadpole is the corridor you swim down - wall to wall water and the only lights are green underwater lights so it is like a cave. In the oval room are verticle jacuzzi jets set in plates on the floor. Every time you move past the steps from one area to the other you catch a glimpse of burning church candles out to the reception area. It was all somewhere between womb like and surreal but very relaxing. Then there was the sauna and steam rooms - nude areas. And no I didn't. Interestingly no women I saw did go without costumes, but lots of men did. Go read into that what you will!

Renovation thrift

Lest you think that owning (and incessantly ranting on and on about) my beautiful and cool tap makes me a spend thrift let me show you this:

The extractor fan I fell in love with. Cost £1500. Stupid money. But it was beautiful and cool.... and only suitable for a hob on an island which we decided not to have.

The lampshade I did buy for over the island. Cost. £34.95

Oh and the dressing room is now wall papered and awaiting an injection of colour via textiles.

Munich Part 1

 First to the Sofitel. Swish 'junior suite' sourced at bargain pay-in-advance-heavily-reduced price. Which is blog code for 'staying way above my station in life and can't bring myself to part with 28 euros each for the breakfast so bought in goodies from the delicious station bakery each day instead.'

Its extremely handy location next to the main train station means views are mostly of the facing buildings or, on our side of the building, of the station tracks. But there is no noise. Unless Someone Else likes to play with all the switches they don't understand and accidentally and unwittingly opens an electrically operated window high, high up over the bed and freezes their wife's feet off when all she is trying to do is have a little relax downstairs. Then you get a little of the station announcements. And of course when you learn all the switches Someone Else can play with the in built electric blinds to his hearts content - up,down,up, down, until it snows and then there is kind of no point. Because then the view of the choo-choos becomes this.

 From this you can deduce that it was Cold in Munich.

And the girl is not keen on Cold.

But she can be cheered up with street food.

Note bene: two coats, two scarves. Both worn.

And she can be cheered up even more with not one but two visits to a quilt shop especially when the second is at Someone Else (Who Has An Atonement To Make)'s suggestion for the purpose of a present being bought.

The shop Quilts und TextilKunst is on Sebastietnplatz whch is not on any of the tourist maps we had but is very easy to find because it is between the Viktuelenmarkt ( the fanous and central food market) and the Jewish museum at JakobsPlatz. It has some nice cafes very near by and a pottery painting shop opposite. Like all European shops it is expensive for fabric compared with at home so the bag contains two German magazines and one 'Becuase-I-Had-To' FQ which, for the rest of the day proved extremely useful to wrap around my right ankle to stop my new snow boots chaffing my leg to bits.

At the back of the shop is a small exhibition area and there was to be found A Slice of Quilt Art by the QuiltArt group. The present the next day was the catalogue from that and the QuiltArt 25 show also.

Packing heavy

Pam, Ace House Cleaner and Queen of Finding Missing Things knows me too well. This morning when she arrived for work I was bemoaning the fact that people go for a weekend away with a small carry on case and my packing so far for a two hour flight and three nights  in Munich involves a suitcase, a cabin sized suitcase and a handbag sized back pack. (And that's just my stuff. Dennis says he can't choose what to take until he sees how much luggage is left for him.)
"How do they do it?" I asked Pam "Why can't I do it?"
"It's all the quilts." she said.

Huh. All  the quilts is an exaggeration. But it is true that the cabin bag houses a sizeable hand quilting project and a box of threads. Well, I have time at the airport and on the plane and after dinner (because we are notoriously early eaters on holiday)...... But even if I take that out there is still the matter of the suitcase. I have pared to the minimum but clearly I need help. Which is why God invented Blog Readers.

I was about to ask you this: 

Which of the following shall I take out?
Long, smart coat and short, casual coat
Two hats and two scarves - one to match each coat
Snow boots because snow is forecast
Trainers because a day without snow is forecast
Decent shoes to wear to restaurants
Three pairs of jeans (bear in mind one or more pairs might get wet in snow/sleet/rain )
One pair evening trousers
One glitzyish jumper for nice meals in evening
One big polar neck thick sweater
Two different sets of three thin sweaters to be worn in conjunction to create two warm outfits that can be peeled off when I go from colds markets to hot cafes/ shops. A trick I learned in Kyoto
Swimming costume for hotel pool
One book, three magazines
Washbag
Camera

I will cop to the fact that a pair of jeans could be sacrificed. But really - is that one pair going to make a difference?!

But then, I was driving to work pondering which part of this made me abormal and when I arrived I had a  an email from a dear friend telling me that she had gone to Starbucks for a couple of hours and had packed
 2 Quilting Arts magazines
sketchbook
list notebook
new book on collage
new book about marriage
laptop for online shopping

That email made me happy.
These people who carry on a small bag..... Shame. So abnormal. They must really struggle with that.

I might add another scarf. just for variety.

Quilts

Remember when I used to write about quilts and not just my house? Well, I finally finished my 'South Island of New Zealand Quilt'. Note the 'put the quilt on the floor and stand on the sofa' slapdash photography technique.

I chose the word fabric as my starter in the shop at Picton because the various words so summed up the relaxing time I was experiencing. the other fabrics were all bought on my shopping trips in South Island.

Then, on a roll,  I actually started one to play with my Aboriginal fabrics which came with me from Australia ( never!) and some batiks from PIQF. Packing boxes turn out to be a good place to set blocks out. I started with something simple and quick  for my own play satisfaction and so it will work as a magazine pattern. But I have ideas for later faux complications.

I am also working on some hand stitching of a quilt I started with Lisa Walton in her Crystalisation class at Midsomer Quilting in September and which ( becuase I am a rebel) looks nothing like her class samples. I shall show the full thing when finished. Here is a teaser.

This is my TV sewing. So relaxing. No precision required whatsoever.

Answering your kitchen questions

I have never quite worked out the ettiquette for answering people's questions posed in a blog comment. I mean, I always email the person direct with the answer - that much is obvious. But, on the assumption anyone reading the comment might want know the answer do you answer with a comment - which people probably won't go back to read, or with a new post? I am playing safe and going for all three!

So, thank you all for your kitchen compliments.
The cabinets are Burford Cream Gloss from Howdens which is a trade only place. Do not believe the catalogue price. Thye routinely give about 70% off to your tradesman. Which aas well as noone would pay the catalogue prices which is clearly inflated so your tradesman can say he got you a big discount. And they don't sell direct anyway so who are those prices for? We then accidentally decided on a new kitchen when the sale was on too and didn't even know until the builder suggested we complete the order before  the end of the month and store it in the garage to save money.

For the ignorant yank ( self titled but surely not!) who asked about the round thing embedded in the island:

A pop up socket so I can plug in hand mixers, blenders etc at my baking island. It actually has three sockets if you pull it up enough.

And Terry, the black sink is 'composite'. Whatever that is.

 And Kristin, I am delighted you like the 'wood' countertops. because they are not wood. I wanted granite becuase it is shiny ( and beautiful and cool). But noone would sell it to me. Seriously. all the many kitchen shops went to told me it was overpriced, showed me how its scratches like mad and warned me off it in no uncertain terms. So then I decided on wood block. They would sell me that but warned that you need to care for it and oil it like a cricket bat. Dennis knows excactly how low my tendency is for oilng wooden thngs and banned it. So we got laminate because everyone said it looked fine, was easy care and was priced so you can change it every couple of years without blinking if you want to change the look of the kitchen. I balked because I remembered my mother's 1970's laminate but it has changed a lot since then.

Help! Fire!

I do have an inner arsonist in me, it is true. I mean who can resist putting paper napkin pieces into the candle flame in a restaurant? But I truly did not mean to set the country lane behind us on fire. Or to grow scary triffid like things in the garden.

This is what happens when you have no idea how to use the non-point and shoot functions on your camera but have some vague idea that increasing exposure time might enable you to take a picture of snow in the dark before you go to work.  And when you don't bother with a tripod.

Kitchen progress

First - any idea what this is?

 Or indeed, this?

Yup. One beautiful and cool and (halleluja) working tap.

For some reason you all showed interest in my kitchen so I thought I'd give you an update. (Boy are you going to regret that interest - there is a whole house to go yet!
Thanks to the builder falling off someone elses roof,** the kitchen is stil missing vital components like a floor and a windowsill and textiles and butternut squash*. But thanks to said builder orgainsing subcontractor joiners from his hospital bed, it is functional and I have been enjoying using it.I love the island.


Here are some photos.

I love my pull out thingies too - there are others hidden around the place. This hidden bin was a last minute addition. It is where the radiator should have been. Only the electrcian suggested a plinth heater whch was a stroke of genuis. Assuming when it is connected it works. It will of course all look much better when decorated. And the careful measuring to ensure the island fitted in and all the doors still opened was time well spent as it all works a treat. The island has three drawers on the sink side and is my baking station.

Of course when moving in we had to decide where everythng went. I like to think my decisions were logical. And Dennis was right there when everythng was put away.
So, can he put things back where they belong? No, he cannot. So, when looking for the missing item I have to consider where his brain might have put it. The tea strainer was not in its drawer tonight. That would be the drawer nearest the kettle and the mugs. The one with the teaspoons also in it. The one beneath the teapot.  I eventually found it and kindly, wthout even the hint of an irritated hissy fit, wrapped my request that he please put things back where they belong, by presenting him with  a ready made excuse. "I found it in the baking station. I can understand that it looks like a sieve so you put it with the flour sieves in the baking drawer, but it isn't a sieve its a tea strainer and I only used it that once to dust incing sugar on your mince pies becuase we hadn't unpacked the icing sugar shaker, so it goes with the tea making equipment. But at least you had some logic to where you put it."
He looks amazed.
"Thats not true but is really complimentary. I'd never be able to think all that."


* Dennis spotted  a receipe for butternut squash and wensleydale risotto and requested it for our first meal cooked on a hob in weeks. So off we went to the supermarket to do a  two trolley shop having not had any cupboards to store food in for weeks. Did we remember to buy a squash? No we did not. Does it work if you substitute a pumpkin? No it does not. Well, it might if said pumpkin was not one you bought in September and just rediscovered when moving into your new kitchen. However, I can confirm that frozen peas and corn go well with cheese in a risotto!

** The builder is fine but has a badly broken foot now in a cast and attached to his leg with metal plates. He says he can put screws in straighter than the surgeon can. He is anxious to return to work and plans to come in his wheel chair to supervise his team, but not until later this week as his cousin has died and the funeral is soon. I have told hin to stay away until the third of his'things happen in threes' is over.

Parting ways with City and Guilds

You may recall that I have been doing the City and Guilds in Embroidery with Stitchbusiness. Of course having a house with a kitchen that looked like this, to say nothing of the other rooms which need attention, meant that I became  more than a little sidetracked.

So, before the distance learner weekend last weekend, I took a new notebook and filled several pages with all the tasks I needed to do before I finished up the course. None of which seemed related to the other list in my journal of all the ideas I wanted to work up - ideas I was excited about but didn't have time to do because of the C&G tasks I had to devote time to. I had noticed the textile content of this blog declining in direct proportion to the time I had to do non C&G projects. And, more privately I had noticed that my brain was not spontanously producing ideas at odd times of the day. It was full to the top with to do lists.

So, as I drove to Durham, a little dialogue began in the back of  my mind between Me and I as to whether I should continue or not. Was it 'feckless' not to finish? Was it a waste of money? Or a mature well thought out decision?

 Now, one of the tasks which I had actually done was to do some edge samples. Mine is an A4 piece of fabric demonstrating various ways of doing it. It passed the requirements but it is not exactly a wonderful textile work. When I did it I had to do a sample so I did, but nothing I was working on for myself at the time required edging like that and so it was a 'bare minimum' sample.

I sat down in class and there in front of me was this most beautiful sketchbook stuffed with painted pages, edging pictures, notes, examples. Bulging. Hours and hours worth of work. I loved to see it. But there is no way on God's earth I either can, nor want, to devote that much effort to a book like that. And I am not required to to pass. But it kind of prompted me to really think about what I needed in my life right now to improve my abilties and to inspire me. I decided that I did not need samples and I did not need  to work to a syllabus that didn't co-incide with the creativity welling inside me.

Dennis had come up for the weekend and so when we met for lunch I talked to him. Amongst other supportive and insightful comments which - I admit to my surprise - did not include encouraging me to finish - he suggested I should go and talk to an artist he had discovered working in Durham Cathedral bookshop. So I went up there and she was expecting me and allowed me to sit with her and chat whilst looking at her portfolio. Her name is Judy Hurst and she says her website is badly out of date but you will get a good idea of her work there anyway.

She had no idea what I was thinking about but said several things which confirmed my thoughts. In particular I commented that she really knew who she was in her art. She smiled and said, 'I've spent a lot of time learning who I am not'.

She also asked me about my work and what it was about in a way which forced me to really think about why I made textile works and what direction I wanted to go.

I thought that Stitchbusiness taught the City and Guilds course really well. And I learned a lot. I did it because I wanted to learn more about modern embroidery and to add that element into my quilts. I have learned that.

But I have also learned that I am not someone who needs to makes samples to prove to someone else that I know how a technique works. If I read a book about edges, I know how to do it and when a work requires that finish, I shall go back and do it - with a sample related to the piece if needed. But samples in abstraction - not my way of learning.

 I learned that I want to learn. I am excited to learn. But I need to follow my nose down an independant line of enquiry and see where I go with it, far more than I need to follow a structured syllabus. I have learned that I want to do things well and that doing the bare minimum when I would like to do better does not satisfy me. Particularly when it prevents me form doing a task I could do well.

I have learned good design processes and have loved to see the sketchbooks and final pieces of others but the works that are inside me wanting to get out are not going to fit into the requirements of the City and Guilds final projects. I will no doubt work with sketchbooks, but as the muse leads me, not as the City and Guilds verification woman requires.

 I have learned that I am not interested in decorative for decorative sake. I like to work with meaning (even if it is only obvious to me) or a aprticular purpose, or I am not engaged enough. I like concepts and connections.

I concluded that whilst I am still moving towards finding my own distintcive 'voice' and and still learning techniques to enable me to achieve what is in my head, the course was no longer sustaining me. It was stifling my creativity. I had found that the wellspring of fresh ideas had dried up in the face of a long list of course requirements.

So, at the end of the day I announced that I was going to cease my particpation. The tutors Julia and Tracy were very understanding and not at all suprised. And as soon as I made the decision all the ideas came flooding back. I felt excited about art quilting again. I felt like a lot of heavy long hair had been cut off me. And the ideas are involving a lot more embroidery than they would have done had I not done the course. I dodn't regret starting it at all. I got from it what I needed. but now I am done.

So, I now have some projects I am excited about which I shall embark on over the next few months. I am also going to allow myself to play. And I hope that means I shall have more work to show you.

And yes the photo of the kitchen was a pathetic attempt to get a picture into this rather non-visual post! And it looks better now.But that is another post....

Kuba cloth

For some time I have been occasionally looking round for a kuba cloth because I love the morphing patterns which characterise these cut pile raffia works from the Congo. Most of what I saw were either tattered, way out of my price range or bad examples of the 'morphing'.

So imagine my delight when I am standing inside Magie's African Fabric Shop at the Knitting and Stitch Show and spotted, folded up in a basket under her counter, all by itself: this

Mine. All mine!

And better: not only was it very much in my price range but in fact it was almost exactly what I earned in the last quarter from designing kits for Magie. Clearly it was meant to be mine, all mine....

Kitchen progress

Last Friday the kitchen looked like this:

Today (the following Thursday it looks like this:

Can you spot the difference?
No. Me neither.
This is sadly because, after the sink was removed on friday the builder went home and then on Saturday fell off a roof. Thankfully he was not killed or paralysed but he has badly broken his foot and has been in hospital having it pinned. So our cooking water system now consists of an old orange squash bottle that gets taken up and down for refilling from the bath everytime we go upstairs.
The builder has been gamely sending messages of apology from his sick bed and has now arranged for a subcontractor he trusts to finish the units although to ensure a good job he wants to do the tiling and finish himself. Eventually.

Dressing room

The green shoots of revovery from our 'destroy to create' stage of house renovation arrived yesterday in the form of Nolte wardrobes for my dressing room (AKA appropriated fourth bedroom.) The first item to come into the house rather than be taken out ( bar the fire which is in but not connected!)  Hard to photograph the whole room but you get the idea.

Originally I was thinking of adding this chair but realised that it would fit into the room but would encroach too much on the space in the centre which I wish to use for yoga. So now I am thinking about this piece from MultiYork

What do you think? This is the size of the chaise recreated with shoe boxes and ironing board - too big? Just right?  There is certainly still space to put my yoga mat down in front of the double mirrored door.

It goes without saying that the nasty inherited curtains and yellow walls will soon disappear and the foorboards will be carpeted.

Eight days in

On the eighth working day of kitchen renovation what do we have?

An attractive (and noisy) dehumidfier drying out the newly plastered walls. In eight days we have had the kitche rewired - including removing the wire which was discovered finished off with a pieces of elastoplast wrapped around the end of it! - the walls and ceilings replastered to make them straight and smooth. Coving put in, exposed pipes in the kitchen and dining room and lounge embedded into the wall  and new radiators installed in downstairs living rooms.

The only dramas have been the plumber hitting a wire by accident and causing all the elecriticty to fail and the builder and electrican behaving like two stags fighting for territory and having a major row about the placing of sockets and plugs behind the dishwasher. The builder won becuase  he is 'the gaffer'. But now the builder ( who is about 5 foot seven) is scared to talk to the electrician (who is six foot eight) and so I have to trot out my mediatior skills. There is dust everywhere. We are told another week will do it.....

Kitchen fabric

When the kitchen came out three pieces of exposed plaster were revealed.

Too tempting. So I set to with Markal Paintstiks and some of my own handdye that had come out at acceptable but uninteresting levels of colour. I only have a few Paintstiks which have hardly been used but now - metalic Paintstiks rock! 

 Here are detail shots of a few pieces. I soon discovered that more is more - layering up colours gave much better results than using one single Painstiks.

By the way for the non-quiters who read my blog ( yes oddly there are some!) I am not misspeling Paintsiks - it is a brand name for oil pastels which can be heat set with an iron onto fabric. They are the same as the oil sticks used back wne stencilling all over your house walls was trendy, except maybe a little softer to use. How do I know? Because the gold you see below was a decorating product left over from those Jocasta Innes paint effect Eighties days! I hasten to say I never did use it on any house walls.

Anyway - here is some of my fabric:

 

Wax prints

May I commend to you a new book.

Written by Magie Relph and Robert Irwin (aka Saturday Boy) of my beloved African Fabric shop it was wonderful photos of African street life in it - of ocurse with the women wearing the eponymous African Wax Prints. The books is half an accessible history of the fabrics and half a gallery. The Gallery has full page photos of quilts made with wax prints - not always easiest for people to imagine how to use. So if you are already into them this is eye candy. If you are unsure about them this is educational eye candy. Plus the book comes wrapped in a pieces of vintage wax print so you can get all fired up and start right away. How cool is that?

Oh and my Guguletu quilt  ( which is available as a kit here) is featured.

The book costs £16.15 plus P&p with the fabric or if for some strange, unfathomable reason you don't want fabric you can have a naked version for £13.95 Plus P&P. Order here.

Quilty kitchen (sort of)

The kitchen is going in!
Well, more precisely, at the moment the kitchen is coming out, but let's be optimistic about this.
Dennis has been tasked with taking the photos in progress in between acting as the electrician's apprentice. I arrived home to be told, "I took  a quilty photo for you today" :

And you know, he is right. It instantly reminded me of the long lengths of cloth screen printed by Clare Benn - you can see some of her stuff here.

In a minute I am going to look around my current kitchen....

.... to see if I can find Markal Paintskix. Which are in the current kitchen becuase they were in a box in the garage which in 2 1/2 years will be my wet studio but  had to come out because the new kitchen is being stored in the garage... oh you get the idea. Anyway, how can anyone with Painstix in their possession resist this exposed plaster work?

The electrican suggested some extra embellishment today- an idea he got from some comedian on TV last night. He suggested that on the basis that eventually someone else will move into the house and decorate, even if in many years to come, we should get some vivid red paint and scrawl on the plaster, "I will kill again."

Finally one last inspiration for those of you (Rayna et al) who like lines to work with:

Fabric finds

On the whole I was not as tempted by fabric at PIQF as I thought I would be - I genuinely think the shopping at Festival of Quilts is much better. But of course there are exceptions to every rule. I did get some 'standards' - batiks, handdyes etc as the price works out a little cheaper in the US and well, a show without shopping is not much fun.

But the real finds were the pices of Art cloth by a group of three women called Women of Cloth whom I discovered last time we were in the US as Louise Smith sells some of her cloth through Fabrications in Healdsburg.

This piece is scarf length as I could not bear to buy the smaller piece for fear I would ruin it. This way I will probably just wear it. I love the moon like images. I think this one is by Judy Bianchi but I have removed the lable and and not sure.

This one - by Louise Smith will get cut up  and used I think with some metallic painted cloth I also bought. I Plan to use these colours in the house at some point so maybe a wall quilt will ensue. Or a cushion. It would be fun to hide the individual circles in pieces all roun dthe house as a recurring theme. Kind of 'Where's Wally ?'for quilters!

This piece is not Women of Cloth but from a stall run by two Indian women and is a FQ of hand dyed batik and has a seersucker like texture

And finally this one - again Women of Cloth. I plan just to frame this one - again for fear of ruining it. And, as my hope is to fill our home with small works of art from the individual artists I must surely include some art cloth in that.

Dennis was shown it and I crossed my fingers hoping he would see it as Art and not just More Fabric. he squinted at it.  "You could see it as Japanese writing. Or  a town map. Or you could just say it was pretty. Indeed.