Ta da! (Slightly more muted trumpets)

 

 

Having prematurely announced the launch of my website earlier in February, this time it really has gone live. But the frustrating delays have at least meant that I have been able to make and include a new quilt - Anemone, in the Garden City range. It's smaller than most of the others, without applique, so came together satisfyingly quickly. Another one made to the same template, this time in plain fabrics, is sadly still on the design board, awaiting the return of the Beast.

 

Blue is not my colour of choice, and when I do use it I tend towards turquoise and what I call "Gitanes blue" (a relic of my smoking days, when I thought it was cool to smoke untipped Gallic cigarettes that left wisps of tobacco stuck to the front teeth - not very French film star). But in this quilt, as a contrast to the in-your-face colours of some of my others, I set out deliberately to make something not only blue but calm, muted and restful. It didn't work. As I cut out fabrics, somehow the more subtle, neutral blues and greys got left on the floor. I can't help it. But I may have another attempt soon - perhaps with soft browns. It's worth a try.


Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

 

 

The beast in the room: my long-arm quilter

My long-arm quilting machine, a Handi Quilter 18 Avante, has been feeling poorly. I'm not sure when I started thinking of it as "the Beast", but I suppose it's the horns. Then I began wondering exactly what sort of Beast it is. As it comes from Utah - I imagine wide open plains, with cattle and wild animals, although I've never been there - it's probably a bison or buffalo. It's big and a bit frightening: I pat it on the nose or flank as I walk past, but I wouldn't want it to turn on me and get nasty. True, most of the time it is kept in check within its frame. But when I have to take it off its tracks I need a fellow wrangler to help me control it.

So, what is wrong with it? The thread keeps breaking, and recently an electronic message flashed up saying "Needle sensor failure while walking". Well, it wasn't the Beast that was doing the walking, it was me. When I first bought it and had it installed by Alan, the wonderful engineer from Cotton Patch in Birmingham, I naively assumed it would do all the work for me and at the press of a button all my quilting stitches and designs would magically take care of themselves. Yes, in many ways it is magical, but it's still me that does the hard work and my legs often ache after six hours of standing or walking from one end of the 12-foot frame to the other.

After a week or so of trying to adopt the characteristic of another creature - an ostrich - the Beast took a turn for the worse today with a broken needle and the dreaded diagnosis: "The timing is out." Reluctantly I have packed it up to send it for repairs - and like my cat going to the vet it struggled as I shoved it into its box by the bottom. I love my Beast. I hope it is better soon.

Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

Now I've got a website I suppose I'm an artist...

Where to begin? A flourish of trumpets; a philosophical musing; a quote from the poets; or simply a picture of some of my work with the comment "Here I am"?

The first posting on this blog coincides with the imminent launch of my new website,  and on one level the title "valeriehugginsquilts" says everything: this is my name and I make quilts. But it is the in-between bits - why I make quilts, what sort of quilts, what my inspirations are - that I hope to explore in this blog.

So here are a few basics: I just don't do the "vintage" or "heritage" quilt bit. I love old quilts, I have several in my own home, and I treasure the skill of quiltmakers and the glorious fabrics of the past. But I also look at the contemporary interior design and craft worlds and know that these are traditions that can, and must, move forwards.

Colour. Pattern. These are two of the passions that get me out of bed in the morning.  And I love fabrics - Hawaiian shirts, saris, South American stripes. Anything that's colourful and tactile. Put me in a fabric store and I'm like a kid in a sweetie shop. Which is perhaps an appropriate simile, as my studio in historic Cable Street, Limehouse, East London, is in a former sweets factory. (I reckon this is why I've put on weight since moving in; all those airborne calories.)

Here's one of the "sweeter" quilts I've made while in the studio:


Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960