Friday 27 June 2008

I couldn't resist

just doing a little of the fireworks. Of course this means I have taken away my little reward for doing all the background work. Like my other Heide Stoll Weber fabric, these ones are also difficult fo photograph, Think deep teal and magenta for both the fabrics and the threads. The teal thread in particular wanted to show itself as white. This is the best I could do.
I'm 3/7ths through the background quilting. It takes about 3 hours for each side of each 6 foot feather. This is better than I feared but still stressful as the labels arrived to attach for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. I figure I have to have both quilts finished on the 29th to post on the 30th July and that's with paying for the extra guaranteed 'next day delivery'.
Can you see the feint feathers at the bottom. The area wasn't quite big enough to put in full scale feathers but it needed something to even out the amount of quilting. I just added these in self coloured thread, they are there but they don't stand out and spoil the design.

Today I've been pondering the changes in the last 20 years. Colin buys freshly made sushi for lunch, I'm not sure I'd even heard of sushi then. We have cable TV, time slip TV, many many channels, but almost none I want to watch. Digital radio. (but radio 4 is barely worth listening to any more). Wonderful ready cooked meals and soups in the supermarket. And even specialist shops for them. Twenty years ago when my DD was conceived with IVF, she was one of 2,000 babies world wide, now it seems every other baby is conceived this way. Colin had a car phone, but it weighed a ton but it was a great improvement on his previous one which had been hard wired into the car. Now my mobile phone allows me to connect to the internet. I had a computer in the house, but it was only used for work, now only for pleasure. All the pasta I buy is fresh. Supermarket strawberries have flavour again rather than being just big and red. My oven has a special ring for stir fries. My microwave has both microwave, fan, and a grill. I love my robot vacuum cleaner. Every morning it does it's thing. It's a joy! But the biggest changes are turning off all the lights not being used, not using the car unnecessarily, not taking plastic bags for my shopping, not keeping the house so warm I don't need a layer of wool in winter. And these things will change more and more.

5 comments:

  1. Your work is beautiful. I enjoyed the section on how things have changed. It is amazing and as you said it will continue to change. I am making totes to use as bags for shopping this week.

    Brenda

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  2. I know what you mean about hundreds of channels on the Tv and nothing to watch.
    Have you tried BBC7 on the DAB radio or channel 0131 on the TV. It's all the comedies and plays/dramas from Radio 4.
    Looking forward to seeing your quilt at the NEC.

    Love and hugs xxx

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  3. will look for your quilt at the NEC, I agree with Gina bbc 7 is worth a listen and coincidentally we agreed 20 years ago not to have a TV and never looked back!

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  4. Hi Sally,
    Totally cool quilt! I love how the background quilting has created an almost bas-relief look to your beautiful feathers! Also, I loved your section on how things have changed. Just yesterday, my husband and I were talking about how everything on "The Jetsons" (a cartoon TV show from childhood about a family living in the future) has come true except for flying cars.

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  5. Your quilting is amazing. I wish you were here to teach me that technique. I am currently using a wavy embroidery stitch in rows as I haven't mastered free-motion yet. (or even become adequate with it - I end up with all uneven stitches. )

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