Remains

I have had a great week - last Tuesday was my birthday and I spent the day with my nearest and dearest around me. It made me feel really lucky to have these people in my life and having them care enough about me to make the effort to come from near and afar to spend an evening with me. Later in the week there was the monthly get-together at the quilt shop, old and new friends of all ages sharing the same interests, being generous with their help and inspiration - crafters truly are wonderful, giving people!
On Friday my big sister generously spent an afternoon driving me around town shopping for a new hoover after the old one finally gave up the ghost the day before my party after weeks of having dust bunnies stuffed down its throat manually. On Saturday my friends gathered to celebrate my day. I made couscous salad with lamb and chocolate mousse for dessert - forgot to take pictures before the party, nothing left to photograph after.... - and we spent a great evening chatting, drinking wine and laughing so much that my stomach muscles hurt afterwards.
And now the whirlwind of a week has passed. There's still some fudge cake left, and my old camera does really not make it justice - it's sooo moist and "fudgy", almost irresistible, I must say, and it really tells a lot about my self control that there is so much left of it still... I also got to bring out that old turquoise cake platter that was always on the table at my grandmother's parties, so she kind of took part as well. The wine will keep until more company arrives, though , I was never one for drinking on my own.
The birthday celebrations also brought some cash rewards, so now I'll stop moaning about my blurry photos - I'll just have to decide which camera to buy - lucky me :-D

More bliss

I did what I set out to do today, I finished my quilt top, and I like it! I was worried for a while because I thought all those florals might beat each other to death, mainly because everyone I have shown the fabrics to have cringed at the idea of using them all together. The more I thought about it the more I let myself believe they were right, and I put them aside for a while. But being a stubborn girl, I eventually got back on track, and I'm glad I did! This quilt makes me feel giddy and happy so who cares what "everbody else" says? I'll remind myself to trust my gut feeling in future, and not leave a project unfinished because the feedback isn't all I'd want it to be.
I pieced the other side a while ago, but that's a bit smaller, so I have to add a border to it. I'm not quite sure about that yet, but I'll have a few days to mull it over in the back of my mind while doing other things. My birthday is coming up and I have a bit of baking and cooking to do. I always use that day as an excuse to gather friends and family, and because I haven't got a lot of room, it means at least three days of parties - oh what fun!
Now I only have to decide on the menu, hm let's see, there is that raspberry torte, the fudge cake I used to make... mmm. Lets think of something else to give the old tastebuds a happy few days, something savoury for the girls' night... - I'm off to check my cook books!

Bliss

I'm doing what I said I would for once... I'm spending quality time with my sewing machine! This is my WIP at the moment - the back of my Amy Butler quilt, or it might be the front...
I'm planning on making this a reversible quilt, so I can choose from day to day which side is the front. The fabrics (from the Ginger Bliss collection) have quite large patterns, so I'm making big blocks - this one is 14" square. I have all the pieces sorted and several stitched, so I hope I'll finish it on Sunday.

Tomorrow I have different plans - I am to teach a class in making fabric bowls at my local quilt shop.


I made some of these ages ago, and when I took them to my guild's show-and-tell the only responce was a polite, scattered applause. That didn't worry me at all - people have different tastes, after all - and I have been using them to keep spools, fabric pieces, etc in when stitching at guild meetings ever since. Lately people have started taking notice and asking about them, so I talked to my quilt shop friends and we decided to create a class this autumn, and would you believe it: it is full! I had to make a new bowl to remember the details, it has been so long since I made the last one, but I'm confident that I have the details down pat now and we'll have a fun day tomorrow!

Is it still hip to be square?

Well my quilt top finally is, anyway! Square, that is. This is an excercise in using curved lines and has been quite fun to work with, until this morning... I had pieced the center, but wasn't quite happy with it, so I took the four blocks apart and restitched them. Much better. But after adding the triangles it was impossible to get the piece to be square. I kept measuring and cutting and would have ended up with a tiny yellow piece if I hadn't stopped myself. I started wondering about using Melody Johnson's escape hatch finish, but I had carefully calculated that my last scrap of that lovely floral Kaffe Fasset fabric was just big enough to use for the binding and would give the perfect finishing touch, so I was not going to choose that route. Not this time, anyway.
The solution was to remove the black triangles, cut the square in the middle with straight lines and making sure it was excactly square before stitching the triangles back on. After all my "adjustments" (not mistakes...) two of the triangles were too small, so additional scraps were added, and here it is.
I should have straightened it out a bit before I took the picture, because it does actually lie flat in real life. Now I'm off to find some backing fabric, and prepare it for quilting, and then it's on to the next pile of fabrics, to finish that Amy Butler quilt:

I went on a wild internet shopping spree when I heard that her Ginger Bliss collection was discontinued, and I have gathered so much of it that I have decided to make a pieced backing as well,making it a totally reversible lap quilt. I really need to add a border or two to this, but I can't quite decide on what I'll do. I'll piece the backing first, and then see how wide a border I need before I decide. The problem is finding colours that match if I go outside her collection. I'll have to get back to you on that one, the fabric is calling me back to the sewing table...

Still here...

Now you might be wondering where I got to. I have been rather busy, but I don't have much to show for it, I'm afraid. I started that piece with curved lines and was all excited about it, as you probably gathered from the previous post, but all of a sudden the air just disappeared and I was left on the settee like a deflated balloon. No energy and no urge to do anything "crafty", so I spent days cleaning and clearing up. But that was last week, and now the gremlins have been here so the place is messy again, but I have decided not to let that bother me this weekend, because the urge to create is back! It was helped a lot by the quilters' retreat I went to last weekend with some of my friends. We rented a cabin and had a great time, drinking wine and talking into the night. During the day there were classes, and I started this fabric collage.

Now, because of my creative slump, I didn't really want to go on this trip, but I had signed up ages ago and everything was pre-paid and non-refundable, so I thought I might as well go. And of course it turned out that it was just what I needed! Spend a weekend with 200 likeminded people and lots of beautiful fabric and quilts, quilts, quilts, and inspiration is your friend again!
On the first morning with a piece of batting like a blank canvas in front of me, I nearly walked away. But after having torn strips of fabric into pieces and started moving them about for a while, something clicked and I knew what I wanted to do. After a while I started wondering if I had piled on too much, but I decided to continue. I was just trying out new techniques after all, so I kept at it. After quilting the piece I cut holes into it and placed water-soluble fabric behind them before machine stitching grids to fill the holes. Now I have some more beads to add before I wash it and I'll take some close-ups. It's not exactly great art or anything, but it is a proof to me that I can work my way out of a slump by just going through the motions of cutting fabric and quilting different patterns, and that's what matters. The last couple of days I have been aching to sew, but haven't had time to do so, so this weekend is mine. Let the dust bunnies live; I'll be spending quality time with my sewing machine!

I know what I did this weekend...

You might think I was about to come out with some interesting tidbits about a hot date or something, wouldn't you :-D Sorry, that was just a teaser - I just had to share those great paper napkins I picked up at a clearance sale a couple of days ago!

Rather, my weekend has been spent in the company of this book by Japanese quilt artist Keiko Goke. I have had the book for quite a while, but was inspired to pick it up again after seing a quilt in the recent issue of Magic Patch magazine. The quilt reminded me of one of Goke's quilts, so much so, that there was no doubt in my mind that the quilter had been inspired by her work, although the article with pattern didn't mention this... I got the book out and found several quilts I had wanted to try out.
In particular this floral quilt which isn't too big and would give an opportunity to practice curved seams. I have been thinking about making something for my bedroom wall - I have two quilts there, but need a third to get the right balance. I decided to make one in similar colours to the ones hanging there already, and before you knew it, I was immersed in fabric and having lots of fun! The great thing about this approach is that there is no real pattern - I had the general layout and that's it. The rest is made up as I go along. The instructions (if there are any) are in Japanese, a language I'm not too familiar with... But I got the general idea, and have been walking back and forth between cutting table, sewing machine and ironing board all day (I keep my ironing board in the kitchen so I'll have to get up and move about now and then), completely losing track of time. I realized at some point that the yucky feeling in my stomach was due to not having eaten since breakfast, so I had to stop to prepare a light meal. Eating the slightly burnt chicken a while later (I couldn't just leave the cutting table in the middle of a block, now, could I?) I realized that I haven't had this much fun in ages!
Oh, it's great to have that creative vibe again after a rather lazy few weeks. Well, maybe not so lazy, but I have been telling myself that I had to clean the dishes/mop the floors etc. first, and before you knew it the day was gone. That won't do! I am getting my home organized little by little, but I need to schedule some more play time for myself, and that means jumping right in, leaving the dirty dishes in the sink. They won't run away, but my inspiration might!

And I really want to try my hand at something like this as well. Those curved seams are getting easier by the minute and I'm beginning to feel confident that I'll be able to do it!


This is how far I have got today, please ignore the wobbly bit in the middle; a slight adjustment with an iron, and it should lie flat. I'm going to add black triangles or borders tomorrow, I haven't quite decided. I was thinking triangles, but as my piece so far is rectangular, I'm not sure anymore. I could add a strip of blue at the top to make it square I suppose..., hmmm ..., now what if...
Oh what fun!

No domestic goddess

So many blogs give the first impression that their creators are Wonderwomen who manage their homes, husbands and children with one steady hand while creating wonderful craft and art projects with the other. However, if you read more closely and study the pictures, you realize that most of them are more like you and me than you would think at first glance. After all, in our blogs, we get to choose what we show the world, we take pictures of what we like and omit the things we don't want to share. I loved Gemma's post "Domestic Goddess??" yesterday with the link to the article about the Non-Domestic Goddess - that's more like it! I won't even try to pretend that I am anything like a goddess, so I might start to show hints of the not so perfect surroundings here... Somebody must be on to me, because I was invited to join a Flickr-group: Art Studio Makeover the other day. The invitation reads:
"This group is for those artists who wish to redefine and reclaim their work space. Are you pulling out your hair because you can't find what you need when you need it? Are you tripping over all your STASH? Are you knee deep in stuff that used to inspire but now overwhelms? Then this is the group for you. Please post your Messes, your Inspirations, and your Solutions."
How did they know? Maybe after posting pictures of some of my mess I'll be inspired to get it all sorted... Watch this space ;-)
I have been playing with the idea of getting a cat, but have thought that it would create too much of a mess, but it seems that I manage that on my own... However, after seeing pictures like this at Tales from Pixie Wood, I feel my heart melting and thinking that I really must have one... My dream is to have a silver tiger like the Whiskas-cat, and I'm getting closer to making the decision every day...
At least I get to choose what to show you today, and that is the picture of a cake I made for a friend's 50'th birthday party last Saturday. What I don't show is the state of the kitchen afterwards... The dozens of failed attempts of writing "Still crazy after all these years" in chocolate, the scattered pieces of purple marzipan and sticky drops of icing, not to mention the pile of dirty dishes. But that's the great thing, I don't have to show you ;-) Just the Crazy Quilt Cake for my purple-loving quilter friend, who by the way loved her cake! Oh, and it was quite edible to: sponge filled with puréed strawberries and whipped cream mixed with caramel custard... Mmmm.... Fit for a Goddess!

Document folder - tutorial

A while back I mentioned that I was going to make a folder for travel documents before I went on holiday. I did, and I finished it on the eve of departure, but I realized that I have never posted about it. I took a lot of pictures while I was working on it to help remember the whole process if I wanted to make more, and that means I have the makings of a tutorial here :-) So if you want to make one, I'll walk you through it all. Here goes:You need three pieces of Fast2Fuse (a kind of stiff interfacing which is fusible on both sides. There is something called Timtex which is similar, but not fusible, so you'll have to use some fusible like Wonder Under or Bondaweb with it to attach the fabric). 2 pieces: 5 x 10" (- front and back) and 1 piece 3/4 x 10" (the spine). Butt the pieces up to each other and stitch together using a wide zig zag stitch so you end up with a piece which is 10 3/4" x 10 ". This is to make the folder easier to fold when it is finished, rather than using a whole piece.
Iron a piece of fabric to each side of the Fast2Fuse, slightly larger than the F2F, and quilt the piece. Trim edges. For the pockets you need three pieces of fabric: 9 1/2 x 15", 7 x 11" and 5 1/2 x 7". You may adapt the sizes to your needs. Iron fusible interfacing to the back of all pieces. I cut mine 1/2" smaller in both directions to get less bulk at the seams.
Fold all three pieces in half right sides together and stitch along sides and bottom, leaving an opening, clip corners and turn pieces inside out. Press. You will now have three pieces with finished sizes 9 x 7 ", 6 1/2 x 5 " and 5 x 3 ". To make them more sturdy, stitch a narrow seem along the edge on both sides and top + a seam ca 1/4" from the edge (leave the bottom edge unstitched for now).
Place the three pockets on top of each other as shown in the picture below. The two smaller ones are aligned along the bottom (tuck the seam allowances inside) and then placed 1/2" from the bottom of the largest one, and centered. Stitch the two smaller ones to the large one with a seam along the bottom edge. The bottom of the largest pocket will be aligned to the bottom edge of the cover.
The pockets should be stitched together along the bottom line only.

Align the three pocket pieces along the bottom of the cover piece and pin (measure out from the middle, so they are centered). Make sure that you have the side of the cover you want to be on the inside facing up. If you have a fabric on the outside where the direction of the pattern is important, make sure that the pockets are aligned to the bottom edge of the cover - you don't want your cats or whatever to be upside down! Find the ridges that mark the two seams in the Fast2Fuse and mark these with pins along top and bottom edges. Draw a chalk line from top to bottom along both and stitch on these lines through all the layers. This forms the spine of the folder, and also becomes a pocket for your pen.
Your folder should now look something like this. I won't pretend to be an expert when it comes to stitching zippers, but here's what I did anyway. I used a binding strip on each side to cover the edges of the zipper. Cut three strips from full width of fabric 1 1/2" wide and join them to form one long strip. For perfectly rounded corners you might want to make this a bias strip, but I was in a rush and fudged it a little, so I used strips cut on the straight of the grain and managed to make passable corners anyway... I rounded them ever so little to make this easier.
Fold a length of binding in half right sides out and pin it along the outer edge on the outside of the folder. Fold in one end about 1/4 " and cut the strip to length, letting the other end overlap by 1/2". Tuck this end inside the beginning of the strip. Stitch all the way around with a seam allowance slightly less than 1/4" making sure to ease the fabric strip around the corners so it doesn't become too stretched or too puckered.
Open the zipper ( a 22" one) and pin it around the edge on top of the binding strip, starting in the middle at the bottom.
Pin the remaining binding strip on top of the zipper, wrong side facing up, tucking one end inside the other as before. Stitch all the way around the outside edge using a 1/4" seam allowance. Now for a bit of hand stitching: Fold the edge of the last strip over so it meets the edge of the folder, then over again, so it ends up covering the seam on the inside. Pin and hand stitch to the fabric on the inside, making as neat a finish as possible. The Fast2Fuse is a bit stiff and akward to handle, and a thimble might be helpful. The binding on the outside should also be folded down and stitched to the fabric on the outside, leaving a "lip" to cover the zipper almost to the "teeth".
Then it is time to put your tickets, passport, travel insurance card, business cards, pen and whatever in your folder, zip up and you are ready to go!

I hope this made sense, but if anything is unclear, please ask and I'll try to improve my explanation. I found this folder quite handy to carry my important documents in - it was big enough so I didn't have to fold things too much, and it was easy to find in my purse (always a challenge...), but not so big that it got in the way.

Folded flowers finished fast

As a master of creating workshop-UFOs I'm proud to say that I actually finished the bag the day after the workshop - that must be a new record! I think it turned out quite well, and the rick rack along the top edge was a good finishing touch. It just goes to show that everything comes in handy sooner or later: I bought it along with some in pink and turquoise a while back. The colour was described as "soft green" and I had something more pastel in mind and was very disappointed when it arrived. I decided that returning it was too much of a hassle, and it was so cheap that it wasn't really worth bothering about so I just put it aside.


When I was gathering the materials for the workshop it came to mind again, and I dug it out again, and lo and behold - it was a perfect match for the silk and leaves fabric. So maybe it was meant to be ;-) The fabric flowers weren't too difficult to make, and I think I'll remember if I ever want to make some more. Here's a close-up - the picture is actually taken with my cell phone.

That really says something about my ancient camera, doesn't it? I couldn't get a proper close-up with my camera, but with my phone: no problem! I must start doing some research into digital cameras with a view to getting a new one. Any suggestions?

It worked :-)

- I'm"itchin' to be stitchin' " again. The workshop today was great fun. It didn't take long to master the technique of folding the flowers, so we could concentrate on chatting and giggling, looking at all the new fabric and yarn and dreaming about new projects. Just the thing to get the creative juices flowing again. I din't finish the bag, but both sides and the handles are ready so I'll finish it up tomorrow. My back insists on a bit of rest today after a day in a chair that was too low and a table that was too high. I'll try to get a better picture of the flowers tomorrow when the light is better.

After tidying my craft table when I came home, I made delicious bacon, spring onion and cheese muffins to be eaten warm with a cup of tea. Just the ticket for the first Saturday of autumn :-)

And tomorrow the day will be spent in the company of my sewing machine...

Friday at last!

I thought the weekend would never arrive! Getting back to normal routines after the summer hols has proved more difficult than ever. I think I'm suffering from an overload of inspiration after Birmingham - lots of new ideas, books, magazines, fabric and thread that I could do something about, but somehow I can't get started.

Like so many other bloggers at the moment I have been clearing out cupboards and getting rid of stuff - it's the new ting, apparently ;-) I haven't started on my fabric stash yet, but I'm getting closer... Something has to be done I suppose, as I keep adding new fabric, and I'm sure there is a lot there that I'll never use. Not to mention all those magazines piling up - I really ought to sort through them and see if I'm able to say goodbye. It's just that I'm convinced that once I throw one away I'll get a desperate urge to look at a pattern or technique described in that particular issue next week... Meanwhile boring books, summer clothes I haven't worn this year, oldish foodstuffs, spice and such are on their way out as I'm working my way around the flat with less clutter as my ultimate goal.

To kick-start my quilting urge again I have signed up for a workshop tomorrow. Being with other quilters, discussing ideas and fabric and actually making something (although it's not quite my sort of thing...) tends to put me back in quilting mode after a slump, so I am counting on this as a prelude to a quilty weekend :-)
We are making folded fabric flowers in silk and using them in nine-patch blocks. The shop samples are a cushion and a cot quilt, very pretty, tone-on-tone, but as usual I'm doing my own thing. I've decided on a tote bag for my mother, and I have chosen some green silk and a cotton fabric with autumn leaves, combined with black. That way I'll get a finished poduct that's actually going to get used. A cushion with silk flowers is not quite my kind of thing, so that would just mean adding another UFO to my collection. Here's what I'll be working with, and that's also this Friday's WIP.

Just one more

-and then I'll stop going on about Birmingham for now ;-) I just wanted to share this piece by Majyk Scraps Textile Group which I found very fascinating. Like a child I kept going past and watching how the image changed, then back again quickly - two different pictures just after one another, then again s l o w l y and stopping at the point where I could see both at the same time and then gradually see a new picture emerge.

The casual observer must have thought I was totally deranged! But I had fun, so who cares. Ideas of doing something similair have been brewing, but I'll probably never do anything about it. It has been done, and not by me, and that's OK. Come to think of it, the idea is not very different from those advertising boards one used to see with lots of square or triangular tubes that slowly turn around to form new pictures. I find the mechanism of the things totally fascinating, but once I have studied the construction and decided how I would have done it, I'm satisfied. I don't have to go there. I think...
The piece is called "Sunset at Saint Valery Sur Somme", original photo and design by Sue Readhead. Various techniques were used, including felting, layering, cantha, machine embroidery, cable stitch and beading. The triangular tubes were machine fagotted together and mounted on a wooden frame.

More from Birmingham

I promised more pictures from The Quilt Festival. The first post consisted of random pictures. Here are some that I kept returning to.

I loved these skinny houses by Janine Jones. The title is "Memories..." In her description in the catalogue it says: "I was fascinated with the simple geometric shapes of the windows, doorways and stonework of Gwydir Castle, Llanrwst. Shapes which became simplified during the design process. Colour was very important. After examining the colours of the Welsh Stone I concentrated on the more vibrant colours I could find and like."


These strips are "Cauldron" by a group who call themselves Cortex Fabricata. They have used dyeing, linoprinting, rubbings, painting, hand and machine applique, quilting, couching and beading to create texture like bark on trees. My photos don't show the details very well, but there were so many interesting things going on on the surface of this piece that it had me itching to go home to play with my craft stuff, and that's what a good show should do, isn't it?



And here is "Allium" by Frances Caple. The blocks are inkjet prints of a colour manipulated image. I liked the repetitiveness (is that really a word...?) with the single reversed block to jar the symmetry a bit.
I was going to add some more, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Blogger is not cooperating and I don't feel like trying again for the umpteenth time...

The entire spectrum?

Well, I did say I was getting back on track, didn't I? I jumped into the Project Spectrum thing with both feet first when Lolly launched the idea in January and started my red and pink project right away. Plans were afoot to continue right on with the yellow, but that was about a month late, I skipped blue altogether (unless you count the turquoise) and the green was also a tad late, but here I am in August right back on track with the neutrals. I bought these just before I went on holiday, to knit some of the lovely "Beach Bunnies" from Simply Knitting, so that's what I'm going to start working on now. Yes, I know, there's the Clapotis and some other things, but a girl needs to have a bit of variety, you know? I bought the yarn at my local quilt and yarn shop at a stitch-n-bitch evening and told everyone what I was going to make. We are having a new gathering next Thursday so I thought it would be fun to have actually made them, and as the colours fit right in with this month's Project Spectrum, what better time than the present? Anyway, that's the excuse I'm using, LOL!

Now I know that the intention of the PS was to have a bit of fun, and it is not as if I'm feeling guilty about not keeping up, or anything ;-). In fact it has made me focus more on colour and where you find it. The Project Spectrum pool is a great inspiration, although I never made it as a member there - I was new toFlickr, and didn't find out how to join before we were a month into the project and then I worried it was too late, duh! If the project continues I promise I'll join the group ;-)

-and back on track

Since I have been out and about a bit over the last couple of weeks I have lost track of my craft projects for a while. There has been no quilting or stitching of any kind since I finished the kite quilt. On a sudden impulse I stuffed some skeins of yarn into my suitcase before I left, and good thing that I did :-) It was nice to have something to do in the evenings while chatting to friends and I'm well into my second Clapotis by now. Now the challenge is to keep at it after returning home. I'm not the quickest of knitters - it's a case of too much time being spent admiring what I have knitted so far and not enough time actually working the needles... Still, I am getting there, and I must say I like this version a lot more than the first one I made (long before I even started this blog). I used the only kind of variegated yarn I could find in the local yarn shop at the time, and the result is a skimpy scarf, not the lucious wrap it should be. This one is made with the "original yarn" used in the pattern: Lorna Laces "Lion & Lamb" and I just love the colours and the feel of it, so I can't wait for it to be finished. I think this will go really well with my denim jacket, and also with my grey winter coat. I'm posting it as my WIP today as a further incentive to finishing it soon.

The only danger is getting sidetracked by a new quilting project. I have a few smaller ones in mind, one of which is something for the abstract challenge in the latest issue of Quilting Arts. I'll have a go at that tomorrow and see if the idea I have in mind works the way I think it will when translated to fabric.

I have decided that I am going to spend more time experimenting and having fun with quilting now that I have finished all those kiddie quilts and I must say I am proud of myself for being firm today: I had a phone call from a lady who had heard from a friend of a friend that I was a quilter, and she wanted me to make a quilted tablecloth for her daughter's dining table in Christmas fabrics. She would supply all the fabrics and she was very specific about what pattern she wanted, and as she explained what she had in mind I had a sinking feeling - "no, this is not what I want to do at this stage at all, I want to have fun!" Her closing argument was what convinced me that I did not want to help her out: "I will pay for it", she said! Well, of course she would!! Did she actually think I was going to do something like that for free?? I have taken on a few projects in the past, but I've come to realize that I hate it. When someone is dictating what I am to do and have preconcieved ideas about what it is going to look like there's just no fun in it for me - I like to play with fabric and thread and see where it takes me. If somebody wants to buy something I have made, and is willing to pay the going rate, fine, I'll consider it, but churning out some boring thing just because somebody promises money, forget it! I told her firmly, but politely that I didn't do that sort of thing. The strange thing was that she got all huffy about it - didn't I want her money?, etc... but I kept refusing as politely as I could, and eventually she gave up, but I had the feeling she was offended. However, that's her problem, not mine. I said no, and I'm glad I did!

Back from Birmingham

I'm just returning to earth after a visit to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. It was my second time, and it was great! There was so much to see that there was no way one could see it all in the time we had. The range of work is very big - everything from waving amateur quilts to professional works that knocked you off your feet. And that's what I find so fascinating about this festival, that beginners' works are accepted and hung right next to the experts' - it makes me think that I might actually venture to enter one of my quilts next time...

This tulip quilt was really fascinating. And Janet Bolton had her own exhibition with lots of different pieces. I knew they were small, but hadn't realized how small. Some of them were tiiiny! This one was the biggest of the lot. And it was lovely to meet Janet and chat with her as well.
In the Russian exhibition this great "night at the Opera" (I don't know if that was what it was called) was full of excuisite detail. You could read different stories from what was going on in each box - a wedding party, a mafia boss with his young mistress, a young woman with a vampire...

There were beautiful landscapes - this one used gauze to great effect for the foam of the waves.
Michael James had his own exhibition of recent works. He held a great lecture about his work, and found it really interesting to hear about his career and how he works. This one shows images based on photos of different works from the archives of a gallery (I forget which one), and the background yellow and purple bits are actuallly photos of the interior of the building.
Floral quilts were everywhere. This one has ribbon roses,
while this one is machine appliqued.
Swedish artist Ulva Ugerup had made a hot and cold quilt with teamugs that could be hung either way and was heavily embroidered.
A New York Beauty in great colours! I have been meaning to try my hand at this block, but have shied away from it so far, maybe this one will give the inspiration I need to get started.

It is really unfair to show just a few quilts, because there were so many that deserved to be mentioned, but I'll share some more over the next couple of days.

Kaffe Fassett had a great exhibition, showing quilts from his latest book "Kaleidoscope of Quilts". They are really stunning, but silly me, I didn't take any pictures, thinking "I have bought the book", so I don't have any to show you. But take my word for it, they were great. If you like his work, the book is really worth buying. The quilts have been photographed on different locations in Malta and the pictures are stunning. Kaffe's (look, on first name terms now...) lecture was really great as well - he is such a charming man and presents his work so well. After book signing in the shop (yess! I got a signed copy!) that sold his fabric he gave a tour of his exhibition and we got to chat about his choice of fabric and pattern - that was really the highlight of my visit to the Festival!

I also had a lovely chat with Dorothy Stapleton who is retiring from quilting - at least teaching and lecturing. Lovely lady with a great sense of humor!

I must admit I did a little bit of shopping as well... Not so much fabric - some of Kaffe's and a bit of batik, and some Fossil Fern. I got lots of other interesting bits and pieces though: hand dyed embroidery thread of different weights and colours in silk, cotton and linen, some silk and chiffon fabric for embroidery, shisha mirrors and silk cocoons and some issues of Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors - I think I might as well get subscriptions - I have been buying so many back issues lately...

That's enough gushing from me today. I'm trying to get back to normal here after being away on holiday for a couple of weeks. It's back to work again on Monday, so I'd better get some more mundane projects out of the way - washing, ironing and some boring paint jobs I have been putting off for too long. And then I might get back to my sewing machine again...