Markal/Shiva Paintstiks Tutorial

I have, as promised, added a Markal/Shiva paintstik tutorial to my blog. You can find it on the left hand side under tutorials.

Cups, Saucers and Spoons

I have been inundated with questions about the cups/saucers I bought in Birmingham. They are made by Villeroy & Boch you can find them HERE. The spoons are made by the same manufacturer.

Today I hope to finish writing the Markal/Shiva paintsticks tutorial if time permits. I will upload it to the tutorials on the left hand side of my blog later.

Back from Birmingham

I am back home again from our trip to Birmingham. The Festival of Quilts was fabulous with so many beautiful pieces of work. It just gets better every year.

The judging session began at 8:30 am before the show opened. Although it was a little daunting it was fine in the end. It was nice meeting up with my fellow students again, especially Fiona who always keeps me calm, thanks Fiona you are a star. All that remains is to write up Module 6 and I'm finished! That sounds easy enough doesn't it? Well it won't be that easy but the sooner I get started the better.

We didn't spend all of our time at the show we had a trip into Birmingham and look what we found. We were browsing in Selfridges and saw these cups and saucers and gorgeous spoons - Norman chose the geometric one and I chose the floral one. Something a little bit different.

I did buy a couple of books at the show, I was very good I didn't buy anything else. Master Art Quilts I bought at the show and Art Quilts - A Celebration I found when browsing a book store in Oxford.
I also found the 5th European Art Quilts book which keeps my collection up-to-date.

We had a lovely day in Oxford and took some lovely photographs. The weather was glorious that day which was a bonus.

We also had a trip to Birmingham railway museum in Tiseley where Norman managed to get pictures of a train he is about to build.

We went out yesterday and bought a Wii. What fun we have been having, it's fabulous and the graphics are superb. We have set it up in the conservatory so we had to buy a new TV for it - a 22" Samsung which is fabulous. Sadly not enough hours in the day to get into the studio but I will have to get organised for my classes starting. Most of my samples are done I just need to write up instructions. The next couple of weeks will be busy.

Thanks for dropping by.

Using my Rust Fabric

"Reflections #2" is the second quilt in my latest series. I used my rust fabric and a commercial batik. I just cut the pieces randomly and stitched them together - this is a very free way of working but I think it gives a good result. It was very difficult to piece - probably because the rust fabric was really rusted. I haven't decided on a border fabric yet, I am still auditioning them.

I think I may hand quilt this one due to the difficulty I had with the machine. I tried every type of needle in the machine and it was still tough going.

It's been a while. I have been catching up on things and haven't had much time in the studio or to blog.

If you have been experiencing problems accessing Blogs recently it was a problem with IE7 and blogs that use site meter. The problem has been fixed so everything is all fine now. People could access blogs with Firefox etc but it was IE7 that had the conflict with sitemeter.

After our trip to the Lake District having been using the new small camera Norman bought me for our trip to the US - a Coolpix - I decided to buy myself a new Digital SLR and so I have been finding my way around it. I have to say I had been missing my old Nikon SLR but with the advent of digital I had to move on. I was reluctant to go the Digital SLR route but I have given in and am glad I did. I bought the Nikon D60 and it's fabulous. It's quite light which was something I was looking for.

The above picture is an astilbe which is a lovely plant and returns every year.

My lilles are fabulous this year. They were moved when we built my log cabin (wet studio) and they are thriving in their new location. The bright orange really lights up the garden.

I thought I would let you see how the rusty old wheels that I have been using for my rust dyeing end up after Norman has set to work machining them. You just wouldn't recognise them. I used to hate using them and getting them all rusty but Norman says they machine better once they have been lying rusting. I don't feel guilty using them any more - in fact since he told me that I have been using them more and some others I wouldn't have ventured near for fear of spoiling them. The intricacy of the work Norman does has to be seen to be believed - incredible.

I decided to make a new bag for when I return to teaching next month. Although I like to take a trolley for heavy things I need a new bag for carrying rulers etc. The bag has a number of little pockets inside, different sizes for different things.

I am doing the last module - judging at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham - I am looking forward to catching up with friends there.

I spent a little while looking through the photographs of our trip to the US and particularly Chicago. Seeing the reflections in the windows I decided to make this little quilt from my hand dyed fabrics. I still have to layer it and quilt it - it's called Reflections. I feel a series coming
on.