At last...

...here they are, in glorious technicolour. Lovely Lutradur and Finding Your Creative Focus had their respective debuts at Festival Of Quilts, and now they're popping up for sale on my other blog
Or at least, Finding Focus is there, Lovely Lutradur will appear later on today, or possibly tomorrow. I've been catching up with my admin work today, sending some books away, some CDs too. Self employed persons don't get Bank Holidays, and neither do those of us who work Wednesday to Friday (aww...). Now all that remains is for me to finish the Exquisite Evolon book, which is in the process of having its gallery put to rights, and I'll have that with me at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate. Hurrah!

I had a great time at Festival of Quilts, particularly teaching. I love teaching, and everyone in the classes rose to the occasion, and seemed to go away happy, and with some lovely work in process, too. For once, I managed not to buy much at all in the way of supplies, but then, I was really busy... and finally, on Sunday, managed to make the book with Lutradur XL that I'd been promising I'd make all week... For those of you wondering what Lutradur XL is, it's a heavy weight lutradur, which, as well as being interesting to work with in its own right, is a wonderful substitute for Pelmet Vilene. I prefer it, in fact, as it doesn't give off fluff in the sewing machine, and it takes colour much better than Pelmet Vilene, particularly line. So...some experiments with that, maybe even a new book... watch this space!

Tomorrow is gallery day, which is always fun. I usually take hand work to do, but might just play with my sewing machine, for fun. There's a piece of Evolon which I transfer dyed which is just begging to be stitched... And then, I have the workshop in the evening, which we've transferred from the Wednesday night, as I now work three days a week, and was finding it too tiring to zoom around at work all day and then zoom around in the gallery in the evening. We are meant to be working on Beautiful Backgrounds, but last week's class on designing and making dolls was very well received, and the people who attended want to make more dolls. So we might end up with two classes running simultaneously... stranger things have happened. At least I'm flexible...

Finally....

there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't an oncoming train! The image here is the front cover of my new book, my first solo effort, 'Finding Your Creative Focus'. Didn't Terry do a great job? I got the proof image at the weekend, and the book, along with Lovely Lutradur, should be completely printed and ready to go to FOQ by Friday this week. It's really exciting!!! And Lovely Lutradur is to come out in French in September, at the Carrefour in Alsace. That's exciting, too; my lutradur quilts are in France as we speak, being photographed for this new edition.

Creative work, other than the ongoing work on the Evolon book, is at a standstill, pretty much, as I prepare for the classes that I'll be teaching at Festival of Quilts. Preparing packs always takes more time than you would think, and I like to have handouts ready for everything I teach. The classes I'm teaching at FOQ are new, so that means working things out from scratch, trying to make them the best that I can, and fun for the participants, too. I'm looking forward to getting back to normal, with the Evolon book finished, the workshops completed and a chance to get back into the shed!

There's The Good News....

and the not so good news.... but there's more good than bad, hurrah! And even the bad, has some good attached...

The good news is that I'm back, after a long blog break which has had a lot to do with me returning to the world of Paid Employment, and combining it with Self Employment, and struggling to find the time to turn round, much less write my blog... The good news is that I'll be at Festival of Quilts, and when I'm not teaching, I'll be demonstrating at Spunart's stand (D25). Anyone coming to my Instant Postcards workshop will have the chance to work with the new Lutradur XL, which I think is amazing. It will make fab postcards, and I'm looking forward to making textile and mixed media books with it. I used the sample that Spunart sent me to back some small quilts; it's great for that, too. So hopefully I won't have to do too much ironing at FOQ this year; I plan to make a small book while I'm there.

And I'm not coming alone; I'm bringing two books with me. Lovely Lutradur is at the printers as we speak, along with 'Finding Your Creative Focus', my book on getting round creative blocks. They will be available from me during FOQ, and I'll be selling them through the Other Blog, as we did with the CDs (which will still be available).

The bad news, or the less good news, is that Exquisite Evolon is not going to be ready for this year's FOQ, though it will be ready by mid September, according to my printers. Part of the reason for that is that I'm working with a wonderful photographer, Haydn Rodgers, who has introduced me to his friend, designer Terry Symonds, who has created amazing covers for Lovely Lutradur's printed version, as well as 'Finding Your Creative Focus'. He is now going to work his magic on Exquisite Evolon; I'm sure you'll find it will have been worth the wait! In the meantime, feast your eyes on a couple of Haydn's photos for Exquisite Evolon, showing the jacket that is one of the projects in the book. There is layer upon layer of surface design on the jacket, and there are step by step directions on how to achieve this look, as well as the construction methods. Hope you like it as much as I do!