What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Despite telling myself that after a busy work week I should try to do fewer weekend chores, I seemed to still be buzzing around with my hoover and checklist. It was a very busy week at work with classes running every day, including my 2 day overlocker workshop. Everything went very well but there was a lot of reorganising to do at the end of each day to make the classroom ready for the next round of tuition.  

I decided not to go anywhere over the weekend and I don’t know how I would have fitted in an outing ...

I had such a busy doing nothing in particular weekend that I almost forgot to update my blog! Firstly, I had quite a few quilts to do at work then I went in on my day off to quilt the strippy quilt that I made myself from fabrics bought at Malvern last autumn.

One of the customer quilts was a vintage 1980s hand pieced quilt that its maker was finally persuaded to get finished. The filigree design really lifted it I think. 

My own quilt was done with a modern baptist fan design and neon pink thread. I considered adding ...

It is exactly a year since I ran away from home to Devon and lived in an old caravan until I found my wee cottage. I have now experienced all of the seasons, including what seems to be an early, wet autumn. The conkers on the trees in the park are huge. Nessie and I are now familiar with the regulars in the park, including the 2 resident geese. I was glad that I invested in a decent second hand raincoat and have now added some reflective heat-press flowers so cars can see me in the dark. 

I have done ...

Matt Wilding visited Quilt Direct to discuss his bag making class and brought amazing patchwork shortbread.

I finished an autumnal customer quilt and started 2 Halloween quilts.

I made a silly video about some fairly useless clip-on lenses for your specs.

I had a play with some Aurifil spools to consider what colours I might put in a Quilt Quine collection.

My friend at work had completed an amazing Ethereal embroidered quilt so I did some stitch in the ditch to hold it together then added the binding.

Nessie and I had a lovely walk on Dartmoor and was amazed ...

While I was working this week Fergus, Nella and Nessie had several adventures to the beach, moors, Totnes and Exeter. He really enjoyed negotiating the narrow lanes in my Mini. We also had a couple of evening outings, including driving across Dartmoor to Holne where 2 companies of Morris dancers put on a spectacle outside a 14th century inn. 

At work, I quilted a machine embroidered class sample. It was quite different to a pieced quilt because some areas were bulkier than others according to how much stabiliser was used. The instructions for the quilting were almost non existent and ...

I had one quiet, lazy day at home in Tavistock, not even watering my plants since it was raining then drove to Glasgow to see all 3 of my children. I stayed with Freya and Fergus which was all a bit of a student experience since Nella also had 2 Uni friends visiting and Fergus’s flat does not have a hoover. 

We did not “do” much, no sightseeing, just our typical mooching around in charity shops and coffee shops. I dragged the girls along to a Mossarium making workshop at Tramway Arts Centre. I had imagined artsy little glass ...

I can’t believe that I am already back from FoQ! The journey from Devon is only around 4 hours including stops, rather than a 2-day marathon to NE Scotland. One minute we were setting up the full range of Bernina longarms and a few short days later we were packing everything up again. 

I felt that this year the show was buzzing again with more international visitors, great quilts and enthusiastic traders. It seemed as almost as busy as it was pre-Covid. With 2 large halls in use, there was plenty of space and places to stop and reflect ...

Another busy week has flown by! At one point I had 2 customer quilts on the go using the Bernina Q-Matic automated system. There was a very big quilt that I had to finish on time so its maker could take it home after she finished her sewing machine mastery course.

This week’s find was a small red swivel chair that was put out on the street. It is in good condition except when you lift it up and 2 of the wheels fall off. I expect some duck tape will fix that. I hope to take it to ...

I was regretting not bringing Nessie’s paddling pool to Devon since we have been melting in another heatwave. I thought about ordering a new one which was upwards of £20.00 but then I spotted one outside a house near to where I park my car. It appeared to be amongst the rubbish and I wanted to pluck up the courage to knock on the door to ask if I could have it. The house looked dodgy so I left it for a couple of days until a sign went up declaring that it was a building site. I ...

I had a super week with all three of my children. They get along amazingly well with each other as young adults. We had outings to Hound Tor, Welcombe Beach, Polzeath, Looe and Exeter! The weather was mixed, the house fitted everyone in and we had a bonfire. I planted up some wee plants and herbs and put busy lizzies into my favourite green (15 year old) Docs which now have smooth soles and great big holes! It is very quiet here now that everyone has gone back to Glasgow and Norwich but they have promised to visit again soon:)

Nella arrived on Monday evening and my other two children will arrive on Sunday so we will all be on holiday this coming week! I am hoping that it will be dry after an absolute deluge on Saturday where Nella and I binge-watched the latest series of “Outlander”.

Nessie had a cat visitor who won a staring contest before sauntering off on its way. 

On Friday we ventured to a Cornish village called Minions then walked up to see the weird geological rock formation, The Cheeswring. It was quite a calm day but it was blowing a hoodie at the ...

Don’t be too shocked – I have done some actual sewing at last! At work I did a very nice Liberty star quilt for a customer and finally got to grips with the L890 project, “Bloom & Grow”. There were parts that I really liked on the project but others that I would probably change if I do it again or teach it as a Quilt-Along. Mainly, it is not super accurate but it is fast. The point of the project is to experience lots of techniques that the L890 excels at but sometimes I felt that it would have been ...

It is funny how a week with a Bank Holiday can seem longer than normal. I could not stop thinking about a solar candle lantern that I had seen in Aldi at Bodmin but left behind so I drove to another store in Plymouth to get one. I love how it flickers at dusk on my back doorstep. 

I had to deal with several cabbages and a pile of runner beans that I got in a veg box so I blanched and froze them. I just have to remember to eat them;)

Since I am renting my cottage, I don ...

Late April into May has been like High Summer as far as I am concerned. Far too hot to be inside! I trawled through my photos to find images of quilt binding for a class that I was teaching. There were a lot – many with prairie points, would you believe?! My class was about how I almost always attach binding to the reverse of a quilt then machine stitch it down on the front. We also discussed trims, piping and how to make bias binding.

I visited Pencarrow House in Cornwall with my friend, Mel who had a 2 for ...

It has been lovely having Nella here for her Easter holidays. She had been a bit worried that my new place would not feel like home but she says it does as there are some things from the old house. She has been busy doing some free motion embroidery on my Bernina 475 for her textile projects. 

We had a couple of outings to Tintagel, Calstock and Looe, despite some very heavy rain that Nessie was not impressed by. I was not impressed that my bedroom sprung a leak and has made a mess of my lovely white paint. 

I ...

My long anticipated Art & Stitch retreat week was a success! The amount of preparation that I did paid off and I managed to pull off the illusion of being an expert on a complex digitising program. The folk who came along all gelled nicely as a group and all went home as far more confident users of the Q-Matic with Art & Stitch computerised quilting system. 

It was a beautifully sunny week here in Devon (nearly Cornwall) so it was a novelty to have a mid-week day off. I did not head for the seaside but pottered around at home then ...

I had a bit of a scrappy week at work, doing lots of “this and that”. The highlight was that an Oscar winning cinematographer (married to one of our clients) came to share some filming tips with me and our media apprentice. His advice for our Youtube tutorials was “keep it simple”, using natural light where possible and even shooting everything on an iPhone, rather than a complicated, fancy camera!

I attempted to do some simple crafting and made some fused bead shapes that might become a dangly curtain (or not.)

The weather was lovely and I sat outside to ...

This week I have been glued to my 2 computers in every spare minute! Last June I was meant to teach a week’s retreat all about the “Art and Stitch” software for Quilt Direct but it was postponed due to low numbers as it is a tad niche. I was almost ready with the preparation then shelved it all thinking I would have months to finish it all off. Obviously, I got side tracked by moving and DIY so my good intentions kept slipping. Hence, I have spent hours finding, revising, copying, and checking all of my files! The ...

I travelled back to my cosy Devon cottage on Tuesday via Stonehenge, according to the Satnav and that seemed to take ages, although it was scenic. I was back at work for 2 days this week where I dashed around making cups of tea for visitors, attempted a sewing machine inventory, basted a customer quilt and answered the phone, plus loads of other things;)

At home I painted what I could reach of the grubby upstairs landing. It is pretty small so that did not take long. My long awaited garden furniture set arrived from Temu. Instead of being 4 ...

It still feels weird that I now have limited holidays. When I was teaching in school there was just mandatory term-time and when I was my own boss I just took time off whenever I pleased. I had to use up 4 days of holiday so decided to spend time with my family in Norfolk since I had not visited for 5 months.

I don’t know why I bothered to take 2 laptops to Norfolk, thinking I might have time to review the Art & Stitch software retreat that I am teaching in a couple of weeks. I have said ...