Festival of Quilts 2010 – day 2
Val: Well my day to wander round, organised the filming for Sunday, do some shopping and see the quilts - a treat I've not had in years. Still very busy and still lots of overseas visitors. Got chatting over coffee (as you do when every seat counts) to a couple of ladies who had picked up Karin Hellaby's new Pinapple book. I'd also been accosted - always in the nicest possible way - on the shuttle bus from the hotel by a lady who was volunteering on the Roses from the Heart exhibition - an exhibition not to be missed she said and she was right. Definitely one for the cameras on Sunday. (Nothing to do with roses and everything to do with creating a bonnet memorial for convinct women and their babies that were shipped off to Tasmania). More information can be found at www.christinahenri.com.au.
Festival of Quilts 2010 – day 1- postcript
Val; What a first day!! Advance ticket sales must have been huge - they were starting to queue at 9am (doors didn't open until 10!) still Starbucks did a roaring trade. It was BUSY; hopefully everyone had a good time; we didn't get to have lunch until 4pm! Lots of overseas visitors (and by that I don't mean just north and west where they print their own version of our money!).
Festival of Quilts 2010 – day 1
Val: Well after sailing through all the checkpoints yesterday because there were girls in charge, we had a slow crawl through this morning; give a man a yellow jacket and a clipboard and 'jobsworth' rains. Still a few last minute things to primpt and price but otherwise ready for action.
Girls on the move
Val: Three girls and a van full of fabric join hundred sof others at the NEC for the the major textile event of the year - Festival of Quilts; Isabelle from Creative Quilting with Lesley Owens and Valerie Nesbitt ready to roll up the M40: complete with jacket for Sunday's filming day!. One empty space at the NEC that needs filling (10m x 2m) ; maybe we should have a picnic and compare notes.
Fashion Sans Frontieres!
Jennie: Nearly there - the Festival of Quilts! Justhands-on.tv will be there filming all sorts of delights for your enjoyment over the coming months. Not only will the camera crew (Bizview.tv) be at the show BUT.... they are filming the Fashion Show on Friday evening which will be available on our site for all our members. 6 Brits and 8 Russians will parade down the catwalk with day/evening/wearable art and an accessory. It is a very exclusive do and the garments will be amazing - I am perhaps not as serious as the others in my work so have gone for 95% calico but have done a new bridal outfit with a surprise.....
Competition winners
Val: Fabric is in the post to the girls who won and Elizabeth in Ayreshire loves the idea that she will soon be the proud owner of the Husqvarna Viking ER10 Embellisher machine. Congratulations to you all. Don't forget that there is a Janome BCC-30 sewing machine on offer; all you have to do is answer 3 simple questions correctly to be in with a chance to win it.
Tilda Bag from Panduro Hobby
Val: This is a super little workshop sponsored by Panduro Hobby and filmed at Creative Quilting in E.Molesey, Surrey. The bag comes from the Tilda book Tilda's Summer Ideas and is one of a large range of extremely appealing books full of 3D and easy home-dec ideas. Valerie Nesbitt and Alex Planidin of Panduro Hobby on location at Creative Quilting.
Naze Tower textile exhibition
Val: Earlier this week I went over to Essex to visit the Naze Tower (CO14 8LE) where my friend Hilary Davies has a textile exhibition - on the 6th floor. This is a truely amazing building, built 1720-21 by Trinity House as a 'Navigation Mark' to aid shipping and now is a tourist attraction with the added bonus of exhibitions on each floor. www.nazetower.co.uk The current exhibition runs until 5th September and well worth a visit BUT if you are travelling by car round the M25 anticlockwise be warned of the horrendous traffic problems around junctions 27/28/29 (and if you have satnav get it to help you round them to join back up to the A12).
Don’t want to use Paypal?
Val: If you really hate the idea of Paypal (and we know many of you do) you can pay for your subscription, and indeed for your shopping by cheque. We can offer you membership at £18 for 3 months; £36 for 6 months and £60 for the whole year. You just need to contact us with the details, and we'll do the rest. We are never far away from answering the emails.
Now we are one
Val: Well here we are August 1st and we have celebrated our first birthday; and what a journey! Hard work but fun and we have learnt a lot from all those lovely tutors on the site. Of course Jennie and I get first viewing not only at the filming but also at the editing stage and we hope that you have been just as excited by the workshops and tutorials as we have.
What people say about us
Val: Here are some really nice comments we've received so far: INSOMNIA! Who cares. With this site I am happy as a pig in muck!
Just spent a very happy couple of hours, it's now 3.20 am so will try the bed once more. Thanks for helping to keep me sane! Julia My 14 year old granddaughter is taking Textiles as a GCSE subject and she and I are working on several home projects, so I'm sure the new additions to my stash will widen her horizons for choice of fabrics.
National Patchwork Championship weekend
Val: Well what a weekend we had; hubby and I were at the show at Sandown Racecourse, Esher in Surrey with our Justhands-on.tv hats on and it was such a pleasure to meet so many of you. I was also helping on the Creative Quilting stand - and boy were we busy there too, and then on Sunday I was there with the boys from Bizview.tv filming for the future - we met the new girls from Coloricious who make DVDs for the mixed media textile side of our business; Claire from Hannah's room did a great workshop for us using paints and shaving foam - you need to see it to believe it, but really great; Jennifer Trollope came up with a very clever colour workshop to use up our scraps into a very appealing kaleidoscope effect and using pritt stick (or similar!) and we had a truely terrific interview with Jacquie Harvey who is a very talented handquilting artist and her christening gown won the overall Championship rosette as well as the Handquilting rosette and the Wearable art rosette.
Endorsement from Karin Hellaby
Val; Karin Hellaby, quilter, author and owner of Quilters Haven said this : I do hope you will take a look at this fast growing site and consider becoming a member. With your help it can only get better and better! Why not email the link to all your quilting friends worldwide to let them know that here is a site that is showing what is going on in the textile world in the UK.
How to Make Tumbling Blocks Patchwork
Val: Tumbling blocks are a traditional favourite and often done over papers; it is based on the light/medium/dark theme to give dimension. In this short video our Jennie shows you how to make this pattern without papers and shows you the technique for insetting the seam, which works for both machine and handwork. One of the quilts on display at the current V&A Exhibition shows a scrap version of this - so now you can make your own!
Prism Textile Exhibition – Evolve, Evoke, Expand
Val: Well what a GREAT day we all had yesterday at this exhibition and I'm rushing to share it with you just in case you can fit in a visit - it ends tomorrow Sat 5th June at 7pm. The Mall galleries are just by Admiralty Arch in central london; the content of the show is breathtaking and very varied. If you can't get there, don't despair as you will be able to see much of it with us and it will be showing in August; so whether you get there or view it with us you are in for a treat; these girls push the textile envelope to new boundaries.
Garage forecourt encounter leads to patchwork furniture.
Val: Interesting who you can meet in a garage forecourt. I was on my way yesterday morning to a sewing day with friends at a location in Wimbledon, SW London and on the way stopped at the garage for an early cappucino. My dark blue Volvo now has the www.Justhands-on.tv written across it and because of this I was approached!!!