Well I was successful at the second attempt and sold the Inspira quilting frame with the Pfaff GrandQuilter machine yesterday evening on eBay. I got a good price for it and the lady who bought it, also felt she had paid a fair price, so we are both happy. There were 3 people, from 23 who were observing the auction, who participated in the bidding.

This morning the new owner came and picked everything up with a friend in a Ford Fiesta. It took us less time to dismantle the frame than it did to assemble it. We didn’t dismantle it completely, just enough to fit in the car. I must admit that Sqeze and I were a bit sceptical as to whether it would all fit, but it did and the two ladies drove away pleased with their new purchase.

We have more room again in the cellar. It was only when it was gone than we realised how much space the frame was taking up. It was the right decision to sell it, as I wasn’t using it. Now someone else hopefully will and I’m happy that I got a price that didn’t hurt too much. What did I learn from this? Well this quote “Before spending money for equipment and supplies, honestly assess whether you need them” from James Dillehay in the latest Professional Quilter newsletter sums it up. Although in my defense I have to say that you need to really spend some time with a quilting frame to know if it’s for you or not

My new quilting table is still in the making. I have finished oiling it, as per instructions. What they didn’t tell you is that when it has stopped soaking up the oil, you get left with a sticky surface. We are now in the process of polishing the top to remove the sticky layer. Sqeze is doing most of the work with buffing pads on the electric drill. My job is to wash the gunge out between each session. We think we are getting there slowly and then I will be able to try it out with the machine and report on how it all works.

No WIP at present so no photos.

I had taken a couple of weeks off quilting to make some clothes. Having finished my trouser suit at the beginning of the week I decided I had had enough of tailoring. So I went back to making faces and here is the first result. I decided to try out a dark colour scheme this time. The first two were quite friendly colours even if Face #2 was looking serious. So here is the more sinister colour scheme as Sqeze called it.

I made it a little smaller than the first two, so that the darkness wouldn’t be too overpowering. It left me a bit of room to doing some quilting on the background.

I have decided to sell the Inspira quilting frame. It is really more suited to doing the type of quilting that you can do with pantographs, i.e. a repeating pattern. That really isn’t what I am doing. So I am making space and selling it. As it is only of use with the right make of machine it is for sale with the Pfaff GrandQuilter.

As it is bulky and heavy it will have to be to someone who can come and collect it themselves.

If you are interested you can see the auction on ebay. The starting price is half the new price.

There is some interest - people watching it. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

Yesterday we made a lot of progress in setting me up with a more ergonomic sewing table for quilting on. After consulting various books and people we decided on the following solution. It consists of two tables, both from IKEA.

The smaller white one has adjustable height legs, which can be adjusted to any height. The larger table has a hole cut out of it the shape of my machine. The larger table has a top of solid beech wood 3cm thick, which still supports its own weight with a hole in it. This shows the hole with the smaller table positioned underneath:

The height of the lower table is adjusted so that the small table attachment that came with the machine still fits on but sits flush with the table top covering up most of the hole. Here you can see the machine in place and the two tables one over another.

Here’s a back view. There is a small gap between the grey table from the machine and the table top, but I don’t think it is going to be a problem.

There are a few little problems, but I think they are ones you can live with or alternatively make the hole a little larger. The on/off switch is not very accessible, but you can always just pull out the plug. You can just see the black switch towards the back of the machine (right on the photo).

The other snag is that access to the bobbin case is rather restricted and will entail removing the grey table each time. I shall have to see how I get on with that and whether it turns out to be a real pain. If it does we may have to cut a bit more out of the beech table top.

I haven’t tried out using the machine in its new set up yet, because I have to treat the table top with oil a few times yet and then it will need sanding down. So for now I am still using my old sewing table. When everything is set up in its final position I’ll post some new photos. These ones are taken in the middle of the cellar, where it is currently standing. Hence some of the interesting backgrounds to the photos!

The other exhibit that really caught my eye were these masks by the artist Romuald Hazoumé from the Republic of Benin. They are made from all kinds of recycled plastic canisters. The lighting here was very difficult for taking photos without flash and unfortunately most of them came out blurred. But here are two that turned out ok. The first one Sqeze took with flash by mistake. The second was taken without.

On Monday this week we drove up to Kassel to visit the documenta 12, the international modern art show that takes place every five years. As Sqeze has already written it was a big disappointment.

What was interesting, was that there was more fabric art this year - or was it just that I was more aware of it? I think not, as I have always been interested in all things to do with needlecraft. Here are some of the works of the Mali artist Abdoulaye Konaté, which interested me because of his use of texture. This is titled Gris-Gris pour Israel et la Palestine.

This shows the texture more clearly.

Symphonie de Bleu was made up of tails of fabric in all tones of blue. The lighting in the photo is not so good - flash wasn’t allowed and anyway probably would have made no difference at this distance!

I’m not sure whether these next 2 pieces were by Konaté or not - it wasn’t clear in the documenta-Halle. I also don’t know their titles either. In fact I found the labelling in the entire exhibition left a lot to be desired. I suppose they were trying to force the sales of the catalogue, which we did not waste our money on.