New things become old things

 I am trying something new this weekend, joining a ticketed online two-day retreat hosted by the Quilter's Guild of the UK. I think it's the first one they've done.  Tickets were £40 which seemed like a lot, especially when no programme details had yet been released when tickets went on sale. But I took a punt and it has actually been a good first day.  Unlike other retreats I've taken part in, this one was back- to-back speakers all day with only short coffee breaks, and an hour for lunch and supper. So no sewing time as such, and no making workshops today - it looks like there is a short make tomorrow.  Most of the talks were interesting and the organisers managed to keep people's inevitable Zoom issues to a relative minimum, and there has been good timekeeping. It just felt a bit relentless not having many breaks.

The first talk was about modern quilts that reimagine traditional themes. As part of that talk, the speaker recounted some of the history of the modern quilt movement. I have to confess that minimalist modern quilts are rather the antithesis of the scrappy, busy traditional quilts that I like. I realised today that somewhere in the back of my mind, I still considered the modern quilting movement as a new-fangled fad for people new to quilting who needed easy big patterns that they didn't need to buy many fabrics to make- spawning the regrettable byproduct of the current trend for incredibly dense quilting to fill up all the big empty spaces.  As the speaker made clear, the movement has actually been around for about 25 years now - which just makes me feel old. How did the year 2000 get to be 25 years ago?  Obviously: math - but in my brain it just doesn't seem 25 years have passed.

Stuart Hillard (a well known UK quilter) gave a very comprehensive talk on making scrappy quilts and using your scraps - nothing particularly original but a good summary of all the learning from people like Bonnie Hunter and others. I felt very much on the same page when he described his views on quilts that repeat the same identical block multiple times: often of low interest - and if everything about a quilt is contained within one of its blocks, then why would you make more than one block? I would far rather make a quilt where every block is different, I have really struggled in the past with quilts that are just X number of identical blocks and tend to avoid them now.

One of the speakers today, can't remember which one, touched on the mental health aspects of making quilts.  I think it's easy for women, including me, to feel like we're spending too much time and/or money on our hobbies instead of doing something 'worthwhile' or something that's expected of us like housework. One participant told us for comparison that her husband spends a lot of time on his hobby of playing and watching cricket, which no-one ever questions. But as quilters, we get asked so many questions like 'haven't you got enough quilts yet?', 'what do you do with them all?', 'how much fabric????', or my pet peeve ' oh, you should sell those / those are good enough to sell!!' as if it's only worthwhile having a hobby if you can monetise it. And there is a culture of guilt around 'neglecting' the family/household duties by spending time in the sewing room, or women recounting stories of sneaking fabric and craft supplies into the house like they were illicit drugs.  I have made things all my life and have dabbled in multiple hobbies. Making things has always  helped me cope with stress and improved my mental health in so many ways, and it's important for me to remember that.  It's not all about the end product.

Anyway, I was busy in the sewing room through all the talks.  I sewed the binding onto the Autumnal placemats and finished them by machine. Let's hope I remember their existence when next autumn rolls around.

I sewed the binding onto the Sewing panel wallhanging and prepped it for hand finishing.  I shortened the sleeves on two tops that I will take to New Zealand. I sewed an additional pocket into my travelling knapsack to corral my wallet and phone inside the big front pocket. And I prepped some new templates for the My Happy Place Quilt week four.

This week, on the My Happy Place Quilt, I finished the hand applique for Weeks One and Two. However, when I went to trim down the blocks to the final measurements, I realised that my eyeballing of the template shapes had been too generous and my applique shapes are all too big.  I should have done a sense check against the final block size but I didn't, I was too eager to get to the 'good part' of the hand applique. I may have to re-do some blocks but I'll leave them for now.  I've made a note in my diary for when I go to Festival of Quilts this summer, to purposefully fabric shop to try to fill out some of the colour gaps in my stash.  There are usually some show discounts and also bulk sellers like Doughty's with lower prices.

I moved on to Week Three which is the sewing machine block that forms the centrepiece of the quilt.  There were a lot of pieces to cut out and, once assembled, it's enormous!  I'm holding a pair of scissors in the second picture for scale.  I re-did the templates for the Week 3 pincushion so it's more the size it's meant to be.  I was interested to see Lori Holt using wooden clappers in her videos to weight down pressed seams until they cooled, resulting in very flat seams. I've ordered a generic clapper to try it for myself. I'm experimenting with using Glide 60 polyester filament thread for my piecing, as recommended by other quilters at the hotel retreat I sometimes go to.  It's thinner than my usual cotton threads which results in less bulky seams, but I don't know if I feel comfortable with it.  One of the speakers today was a Wonderfil representative, talking us through issues with troublesome threads, and she said she doesn't like using Bottom Line because it is too strong. Because it's a monofilament, it's stronger than the fabric and other threads and she thinks it can cut through with time. This immediately made me think of DS's quilt that I had to repair last year because all the quilting was falling out.  I have always quilted my frame quilts with King Tut on top and Bottom Line on the bottom, and I think the Bottom Line basically severed the King Tut cotton due to excessive wear and use. It makes me scared for all the other quilts I've done using the same combination, but then most of mine only get used or displayed for a few weeks a year and rarely need washing.  The speaker likes Wonderfil Decobob which she said is not a  monofilament, it's spun from chopped up staples instead, so more like a cotton thread.  I'm a bit worried the Glide 60 will be too strong like Bottom Line.

I've got the Red Houses quilt on the long-arm frame and have done several rows of the panto.  Every row feels like eternity but I've timed myself and it's only about 20 minutes if everything goes well. It's going to be a long slog to stitch out the fairly dense panto on this queen size quilt.  I'm having a few issues with the machine that I've been liaising with the dealer about. It appears my timing needs resetting and my handlebars possibly need replacing as a couple of buttons are erratic in function. DH is going to drive me to the dealer to deliver the machine and enable me to take a workshop there, and also do some shopping for threads and rulers. I also need to do more work on levelling my frame.  The installer did his best on our wonky Victorian floorboards but there are some definite humps still which throw out my steering - I think I need to install some shims under a few wheels.

I've done no dollshousing this week as it's been too cold, but I did spray the little tables for the Japanese house black last weekend, and gave them a coat of gloss varnish.  I've made a typical stack on a cupboard in the kitchen, another stack in the hearth room, and held back a couple to put food onto later.

I've managed to finish the RST block of my longterm Little Houses alphabet cross stitch sampler.  Two more blocks to go.  The whole project on its frame had a protracted time-out of almost two years in the corner of the living room because my evenings were spent embroidering the blocks for the Australian Vintage Needlework BOM - now awaiting quilting.  It would be nice to get the sampler finished and out of the living room - although I certainly have other larger cross-stitch kits waiting for their turn on the frame.

Hope you are staying warm and had a crafty week!