Quilt for Loch Lomond - part 2

More work on Glyn's quilt - demonstrating how to use a window as a lightbox. Luckily we have had fantastic weather over the last few days, with strong light early in the evening, and the clocks went forward on Sunday too, so we have an 'extra' hour of daylight (important if you want to use a window as a lightbox after getting home from work at teatime).


Next step - making the fabric pieces for the bonded applique. Glyn used Steam-a-Seam 2 for this, the one that's sticky before it's ironed in place and doesn't need to have the edges oversewn. So it was easier for him to arrange all the little bits for the applique and no need to pin before pressing. I would personally prefer Steam-a-Seam Lite, but you need to sew the edges down on that because it isn't a permanent bond and he hasn't got long to make this quilt.


I can't show you the actual applique pieces being cut, but here they are being ironed on - hidden under a teatowel! From now on, I might be able to show a few more pictures, but as the design has to stay top secret until after the show, you won't be able to see the whole thing until May.

Quilt for Loch Lomond

Not mine - Glyn has started on his entry for the 'men only' challenge at the Loch Lomond quilt show this May, 'Mission Impossible'. I'll only be able to show him working on the very first stages, as I'm under instructions to keep the quilt top secret! It involves spray basting, machine quilting, hand dyeing (overdyeing of one of the main fabrics), drafting up the design in CAD on the computer, and transparent layers. I can't reveal more than that. Anyway, these pics prove he's doing it himself - and celebrating finishing off building the garage at the same time.


Spray starching the overdyed batik and having way too much fun by the look of it :-)

Quilters' Guild AGM & conference weekend, Dundee

I haven't had time to blog for a few days, because I've been at the Quilters' Guild's AGM and conference weekend in Dundee every day from Friday to Saturday. I missed the last few conference weekends, because I was already booked for teaching when the dates were annouced.

The venue was the Caird Hall, so we had excellent facilities for the conference, and the gala dinner was at the Apex Hotel nearby. Because Kettins is only about 11 miles from Dundee, I just commuted and even managed to come home to get changed between the Saturday afternoon sessions and the dinner.

Of course the big part of the conference weekend (which isn't as formal as that sounds!) is meeting other quilters and socialising, plus the temptation of shopping with the traders, the Guild's own trading stall and fundraisers like the bring and buy. I wanted to enjoy the full lecture programme this time and it was a really good one. On Friday we has Jamie Malden of Colouricious with 'The Art of Block Printing', Patricia Macindoe on Provencal boutis, Lesley Knox on the new V & A galleries which will be built on Dundee's waterfront and Sheena Norquay with a new talk 'Seasonal Inspirations'. I enjoyed all of these very much but I think Sheena's talk was my favourite of the whole weekend but then I am a bit biased because I love her work. She's also a fantastic photographer with a great eye for tiny patterns and textures in nature.

Saturday's talks were 'A Quilter's Journey' by Katherine Gurrier and Pat Archibald's 'Around the World in 80 Quilts'. The photo at the top of this post is from Katherine's talk. I remember doing a workshop with Katherine about 10 years ago (her 'Colourblocks and Whacky Stars') which was lots of fun and I love her take on scrap quilts - the way the colours and patterns flicker over the surface like a piece of complex abstract art. Pat's quilts always seem amazingly calm and controlled, and her use of colour is always delicious.

Rounding off Saturday, we had the Gala dinner at the Apex Hotel. I should have photographed the food, as it was not only delicious but very well presented. We were able to have the veggie main course but the salmon starter, which was excellent, and the focus was very much on Scottish produce. Our after dinner speaker was Katie Pasquini Masopust, our international quilter for the weekend. Her talk,'Painting with Cloth', covered her life in quilts.

After the AGM itself on Saturday morning, there was a lot to discuss about the future of the Quilt Museum at York, so I decided to go to the discussion form on Sunday morning, which meant I missed the talks by Gillian Cooper and Janice Gunner, which was a shame. I know Janice's work quite well, as we have often crossed paths via the Guild and my stand at Festival of Quilts was next door to her gallery in 2009, plus we've just had some of her work at Quiltfest. I would have liked to see Gillian's talk because I'm not so familiar with her work, although I've followed her writing in the quilting magazines including her Popular Patchwork column. However, I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to see her work up here.

The conference closed on Sunday with a lone piper after the final presentation of awards.


I'm already looking forward to Nottingham in 2013 and Portsmouth in 2014!

Non 'resusable' plastic bags - facts or myths?

We didn't take any plastic bags with us to World Textile Day on Saturday. In Wales, shoppers have to pay retailers a minimum of 5p for a 'non reusable' bag and the retailer is supposed to donate that money to charity, and let the shopper know which charity too. This has led to all kinds of individual shop policies, from supermarkets which now just don't have any thin bags and insist on selling a plastic 'bag for life' instead to ultra small retailers like myself simply not bothering to have plastic bags at all - I sell at only a handful events during the year and it just didn't seem worth it. Reusing plastic bags from other retailers still incurs the 5p charge.

Several years ago, I did trial paper bags alongside plastic bags (when it was still legal to give them out 'free'). After all, the retailer has to pay for bags of any kind. Apart from quilters buying books, most people didn't want a paper bag, and now most bring a bag of their own to events, so I just stopped giving out bags at all. On Saturday, this did lead to the situation of customers having to carry their newly purchased vintage kimono just folded up in a bundle. I hope these made it home safely! Paper bags strong enough for kimono would actually have a bigger environmental footprint than thin plastic bags which do the job just as well... A lot of quilt shops now use paper takeaway bags with paper handles, which may be OK for a few fat quarters but aren't going to be much use for more than that - one I got last week barely made it from the trader's stall to the car, once it had 6+ metres of fabric in it!

It looks like the plastic bag debate is raging once again - see What should be done about plastic bags?

If shoppers stop using plastic bags, they must start using other kinds of bags, but there is no perfect solution. Stronger, heavier bags, whether made of fabric or plastic, have a bigger environmental impact than standard supermarket shopping bags.

Last year Britain's Environment Agency published a Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags, which concluded that long-life bags have to be reused a number of times if they are to be environmentally a better option than standard plastic carrier bags.

For instance, if a plastic bag is used just once, then a paper bag must be used three times to compensate for the larger amount of carbon used in manufacturing and transporting it, a plastic "bag for life" must be used four times, and a cotton bag must be used 131 times.

If a plastic bag is reused, of course, then its carbon-footprint-per-use decreases further - and the number of times the alternatives have to be used to match this low footprint is multiplied.

It seems there are many myths about plastic bag use and their environmental impact which have been repeated so many times they are now being trotted out as FACT. See this link -
http://savetheplasticbag.com/

In Wales, I now need to get hold of plastic bags somehow, as our main rubbish bin is only collected once a fortnight. The council's advice on how to keep the inside of the bin clean and smells to a minimum is to wrap our rubbish in... use plastic bags. If we don't use plastic bags, the bin needs washing out with disinfectant weekly during the warmer summer months, which certainly is NOT good for the environment, as the only way to get rid of the water is into the surface water drain - you can't pour from a wheelie bin into the kitchen sink! This means I have to buy bin liners, when previously any thin plastic bags eventually got used as binliners. I save any plastic bags I'm given in England or Scotland and use those when I'm back in Wales. However, it shows how it is almost impossible to get rid of plastic bags!

I wonder what the solution will be, or even if there is one? As fewer plastic bags are used from the supermarket, the amount of plastic use in their packaging seems to increase...

World Textile Day in Llanidloes

We had the busiest World Textile Day ever yesterday. My talk and demo in the afternoon, 'Close up Sashiko', had 98 in the audience, which we think is a record for WTD, and we were very busy on the stand all day. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to taking any photos, so I'll have to wait for Bob to send me some of his. The quilt above was on my display, but the photo is from another show.

After a 6.30 a.m. start, we were down at the venue in Llanidloes at 8a.m. to set up for opening at 10. Debbie got most of the sales stand stuff organised, while Glyn helped me hang a small sashiko exhibition featuring some of my best antique pieces. All of the items below were displayed. I had planned to hang pieces like two kotatsu table covers, one from Fukushima and one from Sendai, but in the end I used these in the talk instead, so people could see both sides of them.


Our next World Textile Day is at Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire on Saturday 16th June - full details are here. As well as it being one of the small number of opportunities to see my Japanese fabrics and kimono for sale as I only attend a limited number of shows as a trader, two of the other traders, John Gillow and Martin (Slow Loris), also don't sell on the internet, so the only way to have a chance to buy from us is at events like these. With Di Gaffney giving a talk about 'Clothing for Ceremonies and Celebrations' for the June event, I'm planning to display some of my most gorgeous wedding kimono and there will even be some of these for sale.

Sashiko workshops in Hatherleigh and Gosport

On Sunday I did an 'Introduction to Shonai Sashiko' workshop session for Region 4 of the Quilters' Guild in Hatherleigh, Devon, and yesterday I taught the four designs from my 'Sashiko for Summer' workshop at Gosport Quilters.


There are fourteen stitches on my worksheets for 'Shonai Sashiko', selected from the dozens of traditional patterns because they are all achieveable by complete sashiko beginners and they also offer a good entry into the different kinds of hitomezashi (one stitch) patterns. Everyone stitches on small sample pieces, but even on these little 4inch squares, many stitchers manage to include more than one pattern, making mini samplers.


I forgot to take any photos during the workshop at Gosport, so I'll have to wait for some photos of the finished items. Here's a couple of photos of my workshop samples, so you can see two of the designs we used.



I got some lovely photos down at the beach though.


The texture of a pebbly flint beach is so interesting when you don't usually see them - so many shells among the flints, and so many natural colours. I took a lot of photos for my inspiration folder.


I wasn't so impressed the first time I saw a pebble beach - it wasn't 'proper' beach. This was a bit further east, possibly Brighton? I didn't have my bucket and spade with me this time.

World Textile Day in Llanidloes

Just a reminder that it will be World Textile Day in Llanidloes on Saturday! Click here for all the info.

I have lots of kimono for sale this time... plus the usual fabrics...


I'm putting up a little exhibition of some of my older sashiko pieces and some of my own work. I will be including items like this C19th work coat from Tohoku and a very worn and patched kotatsu table cover from Fukushima.

Detail of the kotatsugake -



At 2.30p.m., I'm giving a talk and demo on sashiko. This will be different from my usual 'Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles' talk, as I will be demonstrating how to mark a selection of the more popular sashiko patterns on a large scale - so you can see well from the back! I'm planning to showcase asanoha (hemp leaf), shippo (seven treasures) and fundo (balance weights), plus nowaki ('grasses') and seigaiha (ocean wave).

Quilters' Guild Day in Devon, Saturday 10th March

I'm in Devon for the weekend... had a lovely drive down here today, and all is ready for my talk tomorrow and the workshop on Sunday. There are still places available for both, if you are interested. You don't have to be a guild member to take part (see link below).

10 Mar 12 - 11 Mar 12

Devon Quilters' Day

Susan Briscoe - My Japanese Quilting Inspiration

Members of the Contemporary Quilt Group - Journal Quilts

From 10-30 to 4pm £8 for members, £12 for non members

Challenge - "We are sailing"

There will be a workshop with me on Sunday 11th March titled "An introduction to Shonai Sashiko".

Venue: Hatherleigh Community Centre EX20 3HB

More info here.

Clerical Error's 21st birthday bash

Last Friday night, we were back in Ysceifiog for the 21st birthday celebrations for Clerical Error Morris. It all felt a bit strange going back! The hall, where they practice, has had a bit of a makeover since we were last there in the late 1990s, and the village pub seems a bit smarter too. Nowadays, we usually cross paths at the Solstice parties every Christmas. Glyn was persuaded to dance for the first time in years (didn't take much LOL). Great to see everyone dancing again.


Next dance out is 24th March, in Chester. You can also follow Clerical Error on Facebook.

Mystery fabric named

More proof of the amazing communicator that's the internet - thanks for some helpful suggestions from my online quilting friends, we have a name for the fabric I'm looking for. It's "Sakura" by RJR Fabrics, 8616-03.

Now all I have to do is find a couple of yards...! ;-)

Thanks very much everyone.