The deep end of the Exhibits Hall

Today was my first ever session as a sales person on "booth duty" in the conference exhibition hall.  I went as a training exercise, to "observe and learn from the best"

That was the theory. And I did. For a while. After that, it got kinda busy, and there were customers waiting, and a spare demo station, so...

...I joined in.

Scary? yes. Educational? definitely. Fun? hell, yeah!

Blogging every day of June?

well, not so much. Life got so interesting to experience there was little time to write.

There was, in no particular order:

singing in Carnegie Hall,

shopping in SoHo - 5 pairs of shoes & nearly 3 specs frames,

art at the Guggenheim, with a side-order of deepening friendship, an opportunity to share timethat real life at home would never allow,

antiquitity and fearsome modernity at the Met, with another friendly bonus,

dancing to the blues till the small hours of the morning,

joining a party and having a fun little flirtation,

a glimpse of what's the big deal of mirrored buildings

...and all this before I got to the really serious bit. It will be weeks before it's all caught up. Patience, grasshoppers

on reaching the home straight unexpectedly

Today it seems quite likely that I will complete the 'cubes' quilt within the exhibition submission deadline. I would not have believed this 4 days ago, but when I stopped this evening, I was well ahead of project schedule. Providing I can overcome the threadsnap issue in the morning, and I will, quilting should be done by midafternoon. That leaves just enough time for binding and hanging sleeve. It's been a mighty effort, and 3 things have made it possible:

1. great skills. Setting modesty aside, I have good technical competence, and don't waste any time fumbling.

2. quilting-friendly environment. The best husband in the world has made all the dinners and a heap of other good actions.

3. A champion! My dear friend Veronicah gave the gifts of time and belief.

and now, for a complete change of pace. Overdrive!

Suddenly realised the deadline for entries in the Queenstown quilt Symposium is January 14th. Since I'm going back to work on the 10th, that's the real deadline. The entry needs photographs, which require natural lighting, which means the photo session will have to be on Sunday 9th.

One entry is complete, another is at the stage of handstitching the binding. No worries. The 3rd is 'Floating Cubes'. It's a very generous queensize. A dear friend's help and encouragement gained me a whole day, and quilting is well under way. But it's still a big job for 5 days. Good thing I love it! So

there might not be any more posts until those entry forms are in the post

When I'm not blogging... I'm quilting!

It's been a strange few weeks. Firstly the Wellington Quilt Symposium, where I took two really enjoyable classes: kite making with Robert Van Weers - so much fun!, and "Inspired by..." with Cheryl Comfort. This was perhaps the best class I have ever taken for stretching and increasing my ability to understand what excites me about an artwork, and then bringing that specific excitement into my own work. My sketchbook is full of ideas for new works, and I have begun three, including some hand-quilting.

Came home from Wellington to the opportunity to participate in a "local artists" show at Muriwai... I'm too late to be included in any of the marvellous publicity they have made, but hopefully they will find space to show something of mine.

So I have scrambled to have anything to show... and ended up finishing 8 small works. Much more than I expected, and there was a lot of stitching on the train. I've learned that it's great to have some work of my own on hand to seize an opportunity!

far too busy stitching to write

there's nothing like a deadline to get things finished! Highway 16 Quilters have our biennial exhibition this weekend. Come along to the Kumeu Community Center between 10am & 4 pm on 21st or 22nd June.

With any luck there will be 4 quilts by me on display. If I can complete the 15 metres of handstitching binding in the next 3 days...

Last weekend would be the most boring for a long time - a whole king-size quilted between 8pm Friday and 4pm Sunday. I love to machine quilt, but that was a bit concentrated even for me. The best part was that all my problems with needle-breakage and thread snapping seem to be over - so that was all stitch-time!

See you at the show!