Forget Smitten...

...I feel a new obsession coming on!! This afternoon, whilst Robin was busy making hanging rods for the quilts I'm taking to Blickling tomorrow, I disappeared upstairs to play with the embellisher. Now, I did offer help, you understand. But my offer to go to Homebase with him was turned down. Apparently, he can get round a DIY store three times faster without me. Can you imagine??? Anyway, I made out that I was huffed by all of that, and appalled, and went off upstairs to play, instead. (Robin made the lunch, too, do you think his conscience was bothering him??). I began about half a dozen new pieces, mostly just experimenting with different types of cloth. I love the spontaneity of working with the embellisher; sometimes a cloth will move as the needles push it down into the cloth, so very few straight edges, just how I like it.

I spent the morning going through my quilts. Because the show at Blickling was at very short notice, I'm taking more work than I usually would, with the aim of filling any gaps there might be. It's a bit like having a small retrospective within the show...and I was pleasantly surprised. The work seems better than I remember it, somehow...or some individual pieces do. Perhaps it's just my attitude towards them that has changed with the passing of time. Now, lets just hope that people come to look at them!

I feel rather the same way about 'From The Heart', the exhibit I'm co-curating with Peggy Keeney, with the aim of showing European quilts in the US this year. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the prospectus is here. We think it's a great opportunity for European artist to have their work shown in three good US quilt venues for a very low cost. Check it out! Apply! Even if it's only to save me from my third nervous breakdown in as many weeks!!

Today's images are the first two embellished pieces I made this afternoon. Both came from the same piece of red wool felt that turned up in my box of wools. I have a lot of wool cloth; you might expect that of a Scot, especially one who lived near a good mill for several years. I like working with wool, but rarely do it, other than a few landscapes, one of which was a housewarming gift for my lute teacher and his wife...they've moved several times by now, wonder if they still have it? The first is ABC, though the marks were not intentional. The second is Ditsy, because it's tiny, somewhere between an ATC and a postcard. ABC isn't all that big, either...but I had great fun working them. Watch this space for more pictures!