Thursday, May 20, 2010
Summer's coming
It seems an age ago since I wrote my last blog but it really is just a couple of months.
I managed to send my first three book projects off to the publishers in Australia, despite the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which closed most of the European Airports, at the end of last month. Luckily, Fedex took my parcel overland to Paris whereupon the ash diminished and the airports started opening again. The parcel arrived safely in Australia after the normal six days of travel, thank heavens. I was very impressed with the service, but am still keeping an eye on the ash situation with regard to the final projects. Everything seems to be going well and I am just waiting for my editor, Anna, to give me some feedback about the text. I hope she isn't too harsh!!!! I have to say this as I know she reads this blog. However, I have had a very exciting invitation from Country Bumpkin to go over to Adelaide to the next 'Beating around the Bush' event which will be in 2012. I will be tutoring over a period of six days and it is a great honour for me to be asked, as I have always wanted to go just as a student. I am also looking forward to meeting up with Anna when she come over to the UK in September this year.
Sue and I went down to London to visit the V & A exhibition Quilts 1700 - 2010 a week after it opened. It really was a wonderful exhibition and by the number of visitors we saw on our visit, it has proved very popular and remains so, whilst it continues on throughout the summer. My review article has just been published in the June/July edition of 'Workbox' magazine.
I have also recently taken on the task of mentoring a BA textile student, recently. I have known Tracey for a number of years and have always been impressed by her talent. She is fulfilling one of her ambitions in doing this course at the Norwich Art College and I hope that I will be of some help to her. We are getting along fine and I think I am learning just as much from her as I hope she is learning from me.
Bob and I made our annual pilgramage down to Chichester Harbour for a week's holiday at the beginning of May and I gave my usual workshop for the Aldwick Quilters. They are a great bunch of 'girls' and we had lots of laughs which cheered me up as our wonderful cat, Lucy, had been taken ill at the cattery and we had to give our permission for her to be put to sleep before we could get home. Now we are back home, we both miss her terribly and I certainly miss her input into my quilting day. Her rythmic snores were very comforting whilst I worked away and she slept.
The National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park will soon be upon us and I am planning to go and stay with Nick for the weekend and then spend the day with my exhibition ' A Little Love in Every Stitch' which starts its six month tour there. I do hope that I can meet up with as many of you as I can whilst I am there. For those of you who have kindly asked for me to give talks over the next six months and have been disappointed, I hope that seeing the work at the various shows and Autumn Festivals will make up for it. There is also a little project coming out in the next edition of 'Fabrications' which I hope you will like.
So, now the holidays are over, it is back to work on the book for me. I am getting used to the routine but it does take up a lot of my time. I apologise for turning down a lot of offers for workshops and talks this year but I am hoping that once the book is getting close to its publication date, I can start again.
Happy quilting,
Jacquie
I managed to send my first three book projects off to the publishers in Australia, despite the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which closed most of the European Airports, at the end of last month. Luckily, Fedex took my parcel overland to Paris whereupon the ash diminished and the airports started opening again. The parcel arrived safely in Australia after the normal six days of travel, thank heavens. I was very impressed with the service, but am still keeping an eye on the ash situation with regard to the final projects. Everything seems to be going well and I am just waiting for my editor, Anna, to give me some feedback about the text. I hope she isn't too harsh!!!! I have to say this as I know she reads this blog. However, I have had a very exciting invitation from Country Bumpkin to go over to Adelaide to the next 'Beating around the Bush' event which will be in 2012. I will be tutoring over a period of six days and it is a great honour for me to be asked, as I have always wanted to go just as a student. I am also looking forward to meeting up with Anna when she come over to the UK in September this year.
Sue and I went down to London to visit the V & A exhibition Quilts 1700 - 2010 a week after it opened. It really was a wonderful exhibition and by the number of visitors we saw on our visit, it has proved very popular and remains so, whilst it continues on throughout the summer. My review article has just been published in the June/July edition of 'Workbox' magazine.
I have also recently taken on the task of mentoring a BA textile student, recently. I have known Tracey for a number of years and have always been impressed by her talent. She is fulfilling one of her ambitions in doing this course at the Norwich Art College and I hope that I will be of some help to her. We are getting along fine and I think I am learning just as much from her as I hope she is learning from me.
Bob and I made our annual pilgramage down to Chichester Harbour for a week's holiday at the beginning of May and I gave my usual workshop for the Aldwick Quilters. They are a great bunch of 'girls' and we had lots of laughs which cheered me up as our wonderful cat, Lucy, had been taken ill at the cattery and we had to give our permission for her to be put to sleep before we could get home. Now we are back home, we both miss her terribly and I certainly miss her input into my quilting day. Her rythmic snores were very comforting whilst I worked away and she slept.
The National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park will soon be upon us and I am planning to go and stay with Nick for the weekend and then spend the day with my exhibition ' A Little Love in Every Stitch' which starts its six month tour there. I do hope that I can meet up with as many of you as I can whilst I am there. For those of you who have kindly asked for me to give talks over the next six months and have been disappointed, I hope that seeing the work at the various shows and Autumn Festivals will make up for it. There is also a little project coming out in the next edition of 'Fabrications' which I hope you will like.
So, now the holidays are over, it is back to work on the book for me. I am getting used to the routine but it does take up a lot of my time. I apologise for turning down a lot of offers for workshops and talks this year but I am hoping that once the book is getting close to its publication date, I can start again.
Happy quilting,
Jacquie
