I like Thankful Thursday

Thankful today that I am beginning to get back to normal after the Festival of Quilts.
Loving the writing slope my son gave me for my birthday. It is just right for my breakfast time studies.


a few likes from the show
on the end of the Quilt Sandwich stall

helps to work out if the extra wide is affordable. i.e. how much do you actually get and can you get away with less metre-age (you know, meters as opposed to yardage!).

Bought the book from the Fly Me to the Moon exhibition. Taking advantage of a discount and no postage!

179 quilts in the exhibition - one of them mine! They will be exhibited at NASA in the coming months.

And how wonderful to see Ramshackle Suburb in the Fine Art Quilt Masters gallery! No, it didn't win, but there were over 100 entries, and 23 were selected. So, that works. A lot of prestigious artists for company.

The lighting really lifted it. Amazingly different than seeing it here in my studio, only a short distance across the room.
Quite a few people said to me that they really liked my quilt. Even a few men. 😊

and I really liked - Very Impressed - with the way the Fine Art Quilts Masters work was dealt with for repackaging.

deliberation over the best way...where does this layer of acid-free paper go?
(The Quilt with brown and white on the wall to the left is the one that won.)

Clean and Tidy. Professional.

Cloth over the floor, latex gloves, 2 people to keep it rolled straight.

To see more like from others, check out LeeAnna's blog.

I like Thankful Thursday

...Even if I ran out of time to tell you til the end of the day!

I like skirt hangers. I use them for (skirts, yes) hang a sheet onto my cupboard doors for a design wall.

or since I picked these up at Sainsburys the other day, I use them for hanging fabrics on the cupboard to see how they play together for an upcoming project.

I like that I found fabrics at Lady Sew and Sew's July sale for my upcoming project.

It took me a long while looking through bolts trying to find 4 that work and that also were within my budget. But in the end, all four were £5 a metre.

Plus that left enough money for another summer dress. Also £5 a metre! and just enough on the end of the bolt for doing a simple summer dress! Lets hope I can sew it before it stops being summer.

I like finding the sequel to a Douglass Adams book with Dirk Gently as detective. I found it at the hospital bookshop.

I enjoyed Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency when I read it some years ago. I wished there were more (I already read the Hitchhiker series ages ago.) So, then I discovered this was the sequel. i might actually re-read the first one before starting on this.

Last month when we were on holiday, I discovered I like Rooibos tea. (now called 'infusion') a nice hot drink from South Africa.

There was some in the cupboard at the bungalow. I had tasted it before, but wasn't bowled over. I tried it with honey and wow! So, I bought some for home. I have been drinking it hot or left to be cold all through this hot summer. Lovely!

and I like getting a text from my friend to say there was an article about me in the local paper!
Really?

Small and succinct, but there it is! I think it was sent out by the organisers of Festival of Quilts, which is very nice. Almost like a proper gallery taking on your publicity.

Check out more likes from the others taking part...links on LeeAnna's blog.

Exciting news!

Last week I received a letter from the lovely people who run Festival of Quilts to say my entry was accepted for the Fine Arts Quilt Masters section!!!!!

This means it will be shown in a separate area from the other competition. There are 23 who have been shortlisted. On the first day of the show, at the Awards Ceremony, a winner will be announced.

In the past, names of those who have had work accepted include some of the very top European and International quilters. I am overwhelmed to join them. This year also, they will be producing a catalogue of the Artwork. So, that gives a way for visitors to take their memories (and my name!) back home with them.

It is a prestigious honour to be accepted. I was never sure I had anything good enough! But this year, the piece I entered into the 7th European Triennial was not excepted. So, I decided to enter this. You don't 'lose' if you don't get in, you just select ahead of time which category of the regular competition you want to enter instead, like Art Quilts or Pictorial or whatever, and no one need to be the wiser.

The blurb from the Festival of Quilts website says:
An international juried competition, the Fine Art Quilt Masters Gallery celebrates
the finest examples of art quilts with work that has powerful artistic expression
with abstract and figurative elements.

I asked if I had to keep it under wraps, but I was told "Shout it from the rooftops! " So, I am.

Ramshackle Suburbs
My 'Ramshackled' series explores neighbourhood. In this work, differences in housing are revealed through 'accessories' (trees and plants, building extensions, window type, etc) for each home. 

Housing choices can be personal, voluntary or due to restrictions: income, social or political. With each structure there are certain freedoms and certain limitations.

Here is a detail photo.

I thought I might try lightly striped fabric for the background this time. I really like the look. And so they must have, as well!
Also, this involved me being brave enough to make something 'large'. It is around 200cm by 110cm, (2metres by the width of the fabric.) You might remember me showing the back at different stages while I worked on it. Not the easiest to do!
Now I need to put a sleeve on it and find a box big enough.

Actually, it is slightly scary to imagine it all!

Finally today - I sewed.

For several days I have been struggling with pain in my hips and legs. For whatever reason, today it has stopped being severe! I am reluctant to say they are good, but still.
Perhaps I knocked things into place when I stumbled in the night and crashed into the doorframe. Yeah. Not so good as I have a very bruised arm. But as we are told, in everything give thanks! So, bruises can be dealt with using arnica cream. But horrible hips and legs and feet are another matter.

Anyway! Because I could move w/out pain again, I actually managed to make binding and sew it onto the secret project that has to be entered this week.
Another good thing was that with the limited amount of fabric I had left that would make the best binding, I ended up with about 1 ft of it left. Phew! This is the biggest piece I have made -approx. 1 metre x 2 metres. I had so much from trimming the quilt to size, but that wouldn't count turning corners. I had a very small amount left from a previous work I used this brown in. It was enough to cut more of the binding. I normally do double binding, but this time did single.

This is the back of the quilt so I don't break any rules about showing photos before time. So, now to sit and stitch it down.

And then I can make something smaller and quicker. Looking forward to having a clear head about what is next to make.

on the worktable

Busy being a people person lately.

But I am back to working on this secret (not to be shown online) piece I started ages ago.

The worktable having been lifted for my back, had become a bit of a log jam for the sewing part of things. And this piece is 2 metres long. So - big log jam.

But a Certain Young Man took one of the shorter bits of  wood out, and now there is enough of a slant that I can manage the sewing.

I am doing one hour a day. It is getting it done and conserving my back.
My physio will be glad!