A few months ago I was interviewed by Patchwork Professional magazine to celebrate the publication of my new book. I just received the magazine today. Here is the article, but you'll have to read German in order to understand it!
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I was surprised and thrilled to be contacted by Virginia Oglesbee through this website. She told me that she had a copy of my book, Christmas Patchwork Projects, originally published in 1986 by Sterling Publishers. Here is the Christmas quilt I made to feature in that book (with Jack posing proudly in front of it). Virginia told me that two of her friends had made quilts using the patterns in my book, and I asked her to send some photos. This gorgeous quilt was made by Fran Szabo. And here is Fran in the photo below. Fran hand quilted the whole quilt and embellished some of the blocks with embroidery. The dog is black, as they have a black Labrador. She personalized the quilt in many other ways too. It hangs in her living room at Christmas time and if you drive past her house, you can see it from the street. I love the extra narrow green border she added and the poinsettia basket, which wasn't included in my quilt. The next one is by Catherine Lewis. Her quilt guild had a friendship quilt block exchange and she chose my patterns and supplied the fabrics for the blocks with instructions for completion, so in essence, this one is a group effort. She said she wished she had put the names of the makers on the blocks. Catherine told me, "My quilt was made about 1990 and was a friendship exchange. Various members of our quilt guild made blocks for me when it was my turn with fabric I provided. I was a novice quilter and borrowed your book from a friend who helped me plan the quilt. I had it machine quilted so that I could have it done in time for Christmas." I am looking at my own quilt as I type this, and am so pleased to see that these ladies did exactly what I had hoped quilters would do when they bought my book: choose their favourite designs and interpret them in their own fabrics and colours rather than copying exactly what I had done. This makes the quilts uniquely their own. I am bursting with pride to see these wonderful pieces. If anyone else has made a Christmas quilt or any other project using my book, please contact me! I'd love to see it.
Oh, and Virginia tells me: "So now I guess I am going to have to make one also as I have acquired the book (on eBay). Maybe we will start a Christmas quilt revival!" Thanks, Virginia, and I look forward to seeing YOUR quilt! I was thrilled when I received the latest issue of The Quilter magazine. Here is the cover, which features a detail of my quilt, Orange Leaves. In early October, I had a wonderful day with the editor of The Quilter magazine, Anne Williams, who interviewed me at great length. The following article is the result of her hard work and she has given me permission to feature it here with this information: This article first appeared in the Winter 2014 issue (no. 141) of The Quilter, the quarterly membership magazine of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles: www.quiltersguild.org.uk I hadn't realized I have been writing a column for The Quilter for 12 years! I have enjoyed every minute of it, and especially the feedback from members who have contacted me over the years. I feel very lucky to have a forum that enables me to talk about controversial quilting issues.
Last Thursday night we had the opening of the new exhibition, Coming Home, put on by the London Quilters. We were very lucky to get Tracy Chevalier to do us the honour of opening the exhibition. Here I am with Tracy in front of her first quilt, made while she was writing her excellent book, The Last Runaway. Valerie Nesbitt and I filmed the exhibition for http://www.justhands-on.tv/ during the afternoon. When Tracy arrived, she talked to Valerie about her quilt. These photos were taken by Matt Bigwood. This is my quilt, Walk in the Woods, that can be seen in the exhibition. Do come along if you can! It will be on at the Swiss Cottage Library in London until January 4th.
I had a fascinating day yesterday with Valerie Nesbitt, Dave and Matt from Justhands-on.tv, who filmed me in my workroom. Here are Matt and Dave setting everything up for the shoot. Valerie and I posed for a photo by Matt Bigwood just before filming my first demonstration which was about adding tiny beads to fabric to embellish a quilted surface. After lunch, Valerie interviewed me about the book. We also took a little tour of my workroom and looked in detail at some of my quilts. It was really fun and I can't wait to see the results! I'll let you know when the videos are online.
I was invited to feature my work in a gallery at The West Country Quilt Show in Bristol last week. I was sponsored by Lady Sew & Sew and GMC (my book distributors). I drove to Bristol on Wednesday to set up. As usual, it's hard to believe that a pile of quilts and stuff in boxes will turn into a gallery..... but with the help of Martin, a vision became a reality! I laid all the quilts out on the floor according to the plan I had devised at home. When I was ready, I grabbed Martin, who cut the battens and wielded the drill. I helped by checking whether the pieces were straight or not. It really didn't take very long before everything was up. After these photos were taken, I was advised to push the tables together, which looked a lot better. It was wonderful to see all my work hanging like this. I had never seen the quilts all together before. I was glad I had brought so many pieces as it was a large space to fill! I hung a mixture of traditional, contemporary and art quilts in one half of the gallery, which worked really well. Here are some of the smaller pieces. I had a lovely chat with wildlife photographer Victoria Hillman (www.vikspics.com) who was there to support her mother Jennifer, who had another stall. Victoria took this photo of me--not her usual subject but looking wild nevertheless! I met loads of quilters over the 3 days of the show, and sold lots of books. Plus I had a great time with Vanessa, Judy and Jon of Lady Sew & Sew.
I'm delighted to tell you that my new book, The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting (Sixth & Spring), has been nominated in the Best Sewing Book Category of the British Sewing Awards 2014. I would very much appreciate your vote! It should take only about 5 minutes of your time. And anyone can vote on the online form, even non-Brits!
If you click on the link below, you will get to the website with the shortlist of nominees (click on the red button again at the top of the website to vote). My book is listed under number 20, however you do need to vote for every category. If you don't know who to vote for in the other categories, you can just click "Other" and write in N/A. I do recommend voting for Bernina sewing machines and Lady Sew and Sew in their categories. The voting period for the British Sewing Awards has started online at: http://www.sewmag.co.uk/awards/ You can only vote once, which is why they ask for personal details at the end. However, you don't need to worry about being put on loads of email lists as you can opt out of all of those by clicking the boxes at the bottom. They just want to make sure that the same person doesn't vote a million times.... It would be wonderful to win this accolade! Please do share this information to spread the word. Thanks so much for your help. I know I've been going on and on about the Festival of Quilts, but before leaving this topic, I feel I must mention the people who helped me on the stand. In no particular order, thank you to Lynne Edwards, Cathy Corbishly-Michel, Tom Messenger, my husband Robert, and the people in the photos below: My son, Keith, who helped set up the gallery in between texting his friends. Kate Findlay and Kate Crossley who were also there on set-up day. Jane Glennie the book designer. Martine Rendle, a quilting friend for too many years to mention! And last but not least, my daughter Emily who spent the weekend with me, and helped with the breakdown--one of the quickest, but worst jobs of the show.
Thanks to everyone who helped, including Anne Williams, who took some great photos, including the first and last ones in this post. I gave a party on the opening night of the Festival of Quilts to launch my new book. Here are the principal players. Jane Glennie (book designer), Tom Messenger (artist) and me ready for the party to start. My wonderful helpers, Jane Glennie, Kate Findlay and Kate Crossley, checked to see if everything was ready before the guests arrived. Just time for a quick signature before the party started! Many of the quilt artists who provided work for the book had never met each other before the party, so it was a very convivial affair! Here I am in front of one of my pieces, Walk in the Woods, 5 April 2013 (a paper quilt). I gave a little speech once everyone had a drink in their hand, thanking all those who were involved in the book, especially my publishers who helped to sponsor the party. Thank you very much to Sixth & Spring and GMC! It was lovely to toast the book with Jane and Tom at my side. What a wonderful evening it was!
It was very exciting waiting for the 10AM shotgun start each morning at the Festival of Quilts. We could hear the roar of voices building, and a cheer went up as the opening was announced each day and all the quilters rushed in. You had to see it to believe it! I'll take you on a virtual tour of my finished gallery. This is the front right inside corner. On the left of this photo are my own small pieces, entitled "Zanzibar Beach" that I talked about in a previous post. Then, left to right: Kate Crossley's "Kate's Book of Un-common Prayer," "Once" by Sue Hotchkiss and "Hatching" by Margaret Cooter. In the opposite front corner are, left to right: "Autumn" by Marlene Cohen, "Rainforest Canopy" by Pauline Barnes and "After Summer 1" by Karina Thompson. On the right are my own photos, printed on canvas and embellished with beads, shells and embroidery. In the back right-hand section of the gallery you can see, from left to right: "Eternal Lines to Time" by Alicia Merrett, "Lifepath: Time and Emotion" by Jane Glennie (top), "20 Circles, 12 Flames" by Sheena Norquay (below), "Mt. Fuji" by Annabel Rainbow, "Beth Chatto's Bamboo II" by Annette Morgan, "Red Kites" by Ineke Berlyn, "Inner Glow" by Janice Gunner (top) and "Prehistoric Mammoth Tooth" (below) by me. On the plinth is Barbara Weeks' cushion, "Gaudi Mosaic." Here's a good view of the back wall, with from left to right: "Confidante" by Linda Kemshall, "Green Fuse" by Sandra Wyman, "Codes and Secrets" by Hilary Gooding (top), and an embroidery by Ros Crouch entitled "Singing Women" (below). Next is my own "Picnic in Regents Park" followed by Alicia Merret's "Eternal Lines to Time." The is the side wall of the back left corner, featuring Laura Kemshall's "Don't Go", Kate Findlay's "Pink Dawn" and Margaret Ramsay's "Tideline: After the Storm." The slashed cushion on the plinth is by Martine Rendle, and you can just see Linda Kemshall's "Confidante" on the right. This is an outside view of the gallery, with Leslie Morgan's piece, "Many Moons 1." You can see my own two pieces on an inside wall: "Beach Landscape" and "Orange Leaves." In the far corner you can see Annette Morgan's piece. Along the same aisle in the front corner is Christine Restall's "Red Clay Road 2." Barely visible to the left of Christine's quilt is a small Shibori piece by me, and 2 cyanotype pieces by Cathy Corbishly-Michel. You can also see inside the gallery: the table in the middle is where I did the book signings. In the front corner on the opposite aisle, is Tracy Pereira's "It Happened Overnight" and my own "Silk Storm." This is taken from the back of the gallery and shows three of my own pieces: "Poppy Field at Sunset", "Foursome" and "Charles Darwin's Tree of Life." There are also some cards and quilts for sale on the table. You can just see Karina Thompson's piece on the left and Kate Crossley's piece on the right. This virtual tour gives you some perspective about how the gallery was laid out.
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