BLOG 48

The days are just flying by as I ricochet from one thing to another. There is just a week to go now before I set off for Paducah in Kentucky. Next Sunday I travel from Manchester to Chicago; I overnight there to catch my breath and start to re-adjust before going onto Paducah the following day. Looking forward to it all now that most of the preparation has been done.

I sent my teaching stuff in advance with UPS, at great expense I might add, but it is less for me to carry and worry about in the long run. I recall with dread a teaching trip to the US many years ago. I stood forlornly by the carousel at a transit airport watching a case, identical to the one that had all my teaching stuff in, going round and round on its own! On inquiry, I discovered that the destination of this abandoned case just happened to be the same as mine so I was advised to get to the carousel first on arrival and make sure that I picked up my own case before anyone else did. I can only add that there were scorch marks on the floor of the arrivals hall as I sped to the carousel and stood right by the hole where the cases appeared!!!

I am happy to say that I have finished the Falling Leaves quilt that I was invited to make as a project for QUILT magazine in the US. This project, with those delicious Hoffman painterly fabrics, was featured as a work in progress in BLOG 45. Here is a picture of the completed quilt.

01 Falling Leaves

I emphasised the diagonal lines of the design by placing similar bright fabrics together in several places. To me this gives the feeling of shafts of light shining through the trees. Quilting lines in red help to unify the zigzag appliqué stitches with the inner border and binding.

02 Falling leaves detail

03 Falling Leaves

I am pleased at what I have achieved in the brief time scale. It will accompany me and be shown in Paducah and then be posted on to the magazine to be photographed for the Oct/Nov issue.

I have also had an article printed in the latest issue of Fabrications magazine here in the UK. Our group quilt, ‘Beyond the Jelly Roll’ was mentioned in BLOG 40 and my article charts the journey of 8 quilting chums from a room in the Hilton hotel during the Festival of quilts to a first at The Great Northern Quilt Show. This is how it starts.

I enjoyed writing it and if you can get the magazine, it’s a good illustrated read.

Now you wouldn’t normally associate the word ‘conceiving’ with women of certain maturity- the ones with the combined age of our national debt and enough power surge energy to light up a small town!! Ok, I admit to slight exaggeration but conceive we did, in a room at the Hilton Hotel, during the Festival of Quilts. Eight of us conceiving whilst drinking sounds totally inappropriate but fear not, what we effortlessly conceived was one great idea!

Another good idea has surfaced for a quilt. We have had one sewing session here and we are due another tomorrow to make the necessary progress for this year’s shows. Here’s a sneak preview of my panel-in-progress:

04 My panel

I shall of course miss the royal wedding and will actually be working on that day, doing a demo in the morning, a lecture over lunchtime and a 3-hour evening workshop. It’s a good job my personal invitation to the wedding was lost in the post! It will however be fascinating to witness the event from the American perspective.