Day: September 30, 2012

A Saturday well spent

OK so the hanging pole sagged a bit in the middle, I think if I needed to do this again I’d need a metal tube to join the dowels, or alternatively borrow a quilt stand…..hmm if only I had planned that in advance.

Sunday 30.09.2012
How do you photograph a quilt properly without a quilt stand? One might well ask! It’s a conundrum we were faced with on Saturday. Having decided that I needed to have good, well lit, clear photos of my quilts and having tried to take photos in the house, on the bed, I decided that I needed to take the quilts outside and hang them properly, in daylight.
But hang them on what? After a very frustrating morning trying various Heath Robinson contraptions we settled on a pair of step ladders, each with an extending arm (wooden pole) gaffer taped in place and drilled to take a cable tie, supporting two pieces of wooden dowel (broom handle), joined by a piece of plastic water pipe. This particular solution took one trip to B&Q and several trips to raid Dad’s garage and cost in total, not counting the shoe leather or diesel, the princely sum of £2.09. Compared to £150 to import a quilt stand from the USA, that’s a bargain.

OK so the hanging pole sagged a bit in the middle, I think if I needed to do this again I’d need a metal tube to join the dowels, or alternatively borrow a quilt stand…..hmm if only I had planned that in advance.

The weather forecast was for sunshine, so thankfully it barely rained at all, only one quilt was rained on, Shhhh don’t tell my Mother it was one of her’s…(see “Golden wedding quilt”), we were exhausted by the end of the day, up and down the ladders, quilt up, quilt down, “don’t let it touch the muddy floor!” After all that effort you would think we would be pleased with the result, but no, my Dearest now decided to go all Arty Photographer on me and declared that none of the shots we had were any good, the lighting wasn’t right and they’d all need to be done again, on the bed with different lighting.
Nuts to that!
I’m so glad we didn’t leave the photography till today, because it has rained… and rained… and rained… and rained, the garden is awash, and the weather forecast is for more rain, wind and snow, in October.

Golden Wedding Quilt

On the back we stitched photos, a picture of Mum, for the top corner on Dad’s side, a matching picture of Dad for the top corner on Mum’s side and at the bottom, a picture of my sister and me, when we were still young and cute, long time past.

My parents have been married for 60 years, on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary my sister and I decided we wanted to make them a quilt to celebrate their anniversary, we couldn’t think of anything they would rather have and at their age, they have everything they need and shed loads besides, so a quilt is what they got. Many evenings were spent planning, cutting, choosing the perfect blooms for the centres of the lattice, and the trailing flowers for the edges. A lot of fabric was cut to waste, but you rarely get the chance to make a quilt for such a reason, so I was happy to do it, besides which, it was for the best Mum and Dad in the world so for once……. Hang the waste!

Worth all the effort.

On the back we stitched photos, a picture of Mum, for the top corner on Dad’s side, a matching picture of Dad for the top corner on Mum’s side and at the bottom, a picture of my sister and me, when we were still young and cute, long time past.

It still lives in Mum and Dad’s bedroom but I don’t think it goes on the bed much, too heavy perhaps. Some of the fabric was furnishing weight and we used a cotton wadding, perhaps a mistake but it still looks great.