Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Will I ever learn.

I keep promising myself I will photograph all my work before it leaves the house, but I keep failing. This time it wasn't terribly exciting, but I still intended to photograph it and post the pictures. I guess I will have to go back to the shop with a camera. At the weekend I made my sample up for my speed quilting course. It is a reversible single bed quilt, and I am rather pleased with it. One side is Lonni Rossi Ginko fabrics in black and red, and reasonable adult. The other glows in the dark, as it is made from Halloween fabrics, bats, spiders and ghosts. It's very silly, and a little disturbing when you find it in the dark unexpectedly.

Today I have been being trained up on a couple of Husqvarna sewing machines. It should be helpful when I am demonstrating the Sapphire and get asked tricky questions. I suspect I will still get a lot I don't know the answers to, but at least I can say I have tried to learn about them. I also got to have a play with the Embellisher. It's a fun tool, and I really must find time to play with mine.

It has also been a day of paperwork. I've been trying to sort out my entries to the Great Norther Quilt Show in Harrogate, and Scottish Quilt Championship. They've been fairly easy from the point of view of choosing quilts and writing the statements (which I mostly kept to 30 words, I just can't break the rules), but tricky for posting. I've juggled them to be mostly light quilts, which will help the costs, but it is still going to be very pricey. It also says on the forms that return postage will not be refunded, which blows my idea of saying post them then collecting them if I win anything. My current plan is to try and find someone to collect them for me and post them back to me. I have no problem with paying the actual posting cost and compensation for the time taken to do it, it's just that having them all sent back individually is really pricey. I think I will also try calling the show organizers and see if they can help. I guess the forms are designed for people to just enter one quilt which would work fine, so they may be able to do something.

I haven't mentioned, and I should have, Grosvenor have greatly improved their quilt handling process. I was pleased to be handed back my quilts unfolded at Malvern, but at Sandown I got to see them taking the quilts down. They handled all the quilts with white gloves, each was taken down onto a covered table then rolled or folded as appropriate. My quilt were returned rolled exactly as I would have done it myself. I guess they have taken on board the feedback they have had. I am really thrilled, there aren't enough shows for us to lose any but at the same time we can't risk good quilts to bad handling. I have been giving clear instructions for each piece so they know what needs extra care and what doesn't. I figure they are trying to help me so it is only fair for me to try and help them.

Now I have a little wholecloth on the frame that really needs my attention. Night night.

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