At the moment, you won’t see any pictures in my postings - we upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress last night and managed to accidentally delete the directory containing all the photos by mistake. I hope they will be back later today…

Update (2008-07-20 at 10:50).
Phew - we have managed to find and upload all the pictures again

I was browsing around the Quilt University website, having just received my monthly newsletter to jog my memory. There are some new forums up there. Well not so new now, but new to me. One is for book reviews and another covers product reviews. It was in the latter that I found a post about treadle machines.

They are still being made, at least in the US, for use by the Amish community. It seems they are becoming more popular for places where electricity can be a problem too. I had to do a quick google to see what more information I could find. Here’s the link to the information from the Janome website. I was amazed to read that you get 10 utility stitches including a buttonhole stitch. All you need is to find a cabinet with the treadle to attach it to.

And here’s another link to Lehman’s site where you can see the whole set-up.

Today we went into the centre of Valencia to look around. Near to the Central Market we discovered a small round area like a mini market with stalls selling haberdashery and needlework supplies. It was thanks to Sqeze, because he took a detour down an interesting little side street. I was so busy looking at all the things on sale that I didn’t have time to take photos. Luckily Sqeze was not so enthusiastic about what was on sale so he concentrated on taking the photos. Unfortunately we can’t get them to download from the card to this PowerBook so I can’t post any of those photos yet. I’ll put some up when we get back home.

In the centre of these stalls were a couple of tables where Spanish ladies of various ages were sitting together and getting on with their needlework. One lady was making bobbin lace, some were crocheting and one was designing what liked like needlepoint. And all this going on right in the centre of town!

I was quite restrained and only picked up some white embroidery thread, which I think will be ideal for sashiko. It was an incredible bargain at only 1.90 €. I also treated myself to a fan with a little bag to keep it in, 10 € for both. Here are my purchases:

As you can see the fan is made from lace and the little bag has some embroidery on it. The skein of thread should keep me in supplies for a bit.

Unfortunately in English we don’t have many nouns with gender specific forms so in English the title of the exhibition at the Schirn gallery in Frankfurt has to be Women Impressionists - not so concise. We went to see the exhibition last Thursday, which was the May Day public holiday here. We thought that as it was lovely weather and father’s day that there would be few visitors. Seems other people had the same idea!

The exhibition shows the work of Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès and Marie Bracquemond. It includes some 160 works from international museums and private collections. It was interesting to see how different the subject matter of their paintings is compared to the male impressionists. Most of the works displayed showed portraits of women going about their daily lives - getting up, sewing, bathing children, taking tea with visitors, hardly any landscapes and very few still life paintings. This can be explained in part that women were not allowed to go out unchaperoned and so could only paint things within their own homes.

The work of Mary Cassatt appealed to me most. There were a series of colored drypoint and aquatint prints, she exhibited in 1891, that were inspired by the Japanese masters shown in Paris the year before. This is one of them:

The Letter

Although she wasn’t married and had no children of her own she produced a number of wonderful paintings of mother and child.

Sleepy Thomas

Or this lovely painting of a young girl, who looks completely natural and unposed:

Child in a Straw Hat

I was particularly interested in the part of the exhibition devoted to Marie Bracquemond, because it brought together studies and sketches that she made for her paintings, from various museums and collections, so that you could see them with the final work. This gave quite an insight into the work behind the scenes that leads to a finished work of art. This is not something you often get to see.
This was one of the studies for the painting from the Musée d’Orsay which show three ladies with umbrellas:

Femme a l’ombrelle

All images are press photos from the Schirn Gallery website.

2nd January 1922 - 24th March 2008

I wasn’t going to post about this, but having heard from some people who are wondering where I’d got to, I decided I’d better explain why I’ve not been around. My Dad died on Easter Monday. One of the most important lessons I learnt from him is to stay active both mentally and physically. He completed a degree in French and Spanish aged 79 in 2001:

This is one of my favourite photos from our childhood taken in 1957:

P.S. to Bernadette. If you are reading this - we’ve not received any emails from you. Add a comment if you have sent one.

A tiny picture in the latest GEO magazine caught my eye. I’ve seen pictures before of the art of Deborah Sperber composed entirely of spools of sewing thread. It really is quite extraordinary. I can’t begin to imagine how you go about assembling the huge numbers of cotton reels needed to produce the finished works. I guess there is a lot of planning that goes into the production of each art work.

You can see photos of the works here.

The art works brought to mind a large piece of pavement art we saw on one of our trips to Salamanca to learn Spanish. It was a large cirular piece which also had to be viewed through a special viewing lens to be seen properly. Unfortunately it was too difficult to photograph being under a pergola tent and surrounded by crowd barriers, so there is no photo to post.

Over the last week I have been following the debate on the Guardian newspaper website that has been triggered by the publication of Delia Smith’s latest book “How to Cheat at Cooking” and her new television series on the BBC. The most amusing article was the Delia Taste Test. The whole debate has since been taken up by more of the dailies in the UK.

I’ve never seen Delia on the TV. My first introduction to Delia Smith was when my mother-in-law gave me Book 2 of Delia’s first BBC Cookery Course. I was hooked and bought Book 1 and Book 3 too. My mother-in-law continued to be a big fan and bought most of her cookery books. I have them all now and they do get used a lot. The reason being that the recipes are interesting, don’t contain a large number of impossible to obtain ingredients (here in Germany) and are quite healthy too. Although her later books did start to contain “exotic” ingredients that were not so easy to find here.

So I have to say that my sentiments do echo those being put forward by the majority of commentators. I feel cheated too. I just can’t imagine how horrible tinned fried onions must be. And tinned mince takes me straight back to childhood holidays abroad, where the high price of meat compared to the UK, meant that my Mum took tinned meat with us for our meals. We were either in self-catering flats or later in the caravan. It was ok as a compromise - spend the money on travelling and entrance fees rather than on expensive food, but we never ate the stuff at home and I really wouldn’t want to start now and not just because in the meantime I’m an almost vegetarian

I’m hoping that there are some readers out there who may have some opinions they would share with me. As regular readers will know I have been taking online classes on a regular basis at the Quilt University. I have taken some excellent classes and had some excellent teachers, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to find classes that are going to take me a step further towards becoming a more accomplished and professional quilter.

A recent article in Harvard Business Review Jul-Aug 2007 “The Making of an Expert” got me thinking again about what my next steps should be. Apart from practice, practice, practice - it takes 10 years of it to become an expert and then you have to do the right kind of practice - the authors also stress that to become an expert you need a mentor who will offer you honest feedback. This is something that I have felt to be a bit missing from the courses at QU. These are more classroom situations where you are naturally only one of many students.

So once again I have been considering taking an online course for the City & Guilds Patchwork and Quilting Level 3 Certificate. The course content sounds interesting to me. I think it would probably stretch me and I hope the teaching situation would be more of a one to one contact. The courses aren’t cheap though, so I find it difficult to make up my mind. If I invest that money will I gain sufficient benefit to be able to push myself into being something more than just a hobby quilter or will it just turn out to be an expensive hobby?

I have many years experience at sewing and other handicrafts and consider myself to be reasonably accomplished. I don’t have any kind of formal art/design education but have done some self study. Would this course be the right one for me? If anyone out there has experience of the course I would be interested to hear from them. Any other opinions are also welcome.

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 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!