Features in October's Popular Patchwork

One of the strange things about writing for a living can be the time gap between writing and actually seeing your words in print.  I wrote the article about the Loch Lomond Quilt Show a few months back, but as Popular Patchwork had so many articles to publish, it is finally appearing now.  It's a quick tour around some of the personal highlights of the show, some of which I mentioned in a blog post in May.  Seeing my photos of these quilts in print is great as it reminds me of how good the show was and how much I still enjoy seeing these quilts. 

Also in this issue is a bit of fun from me.  Sally, the then editor, asked me to write an article about Humility Blocks.  These are deliberate errors made in quilts to show that the maker is no perfect.  This seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon, based on the mis-guided view that this is what quilters of old did.  Illustrating the piece was interesting as how do show humility blocks unless it is something you practice and have a big pile of quilts with deliberate errors in them?  So I opened up my trusty EQ7 software package again and made some designs to which I added deliberate errors.  As I didn't note them down at the time, I was a bit nervous when I opened the magazine and Mum and I tried to spot the error.  Some of them were harder than others and it took us a good 10 mins, but I did find them all in the end.  Can you spot the deliberate error in the quilt layout below?

In addition to my work, there is also a great article on the quilt collection of Cindy Rennels, which all have an American patriotic feel to them. 

Greek Thomson Art Event coming up

I've been a bit quiet on the blog front as I have been concentrating on trying to market my work rather than making, so there hasn't been much to tell.  I don't want to bore you all with the details until I have something exciting to share rather than all the slog of phoning/writing/attempting and not getting far!  I'm really looking forward to getting back into the studio and creating, but having neglected the marketing for years I really do need to give it a go.

As well as marketing, I have been busy planning our next community art event.  This will be the Balfron Big Draw on 22 October from 10-4 in the McLintock Hall.  We're theming it around the architect Alexander Greek Thomson who was born in Balfron.  His work is everywhere in Glasgow and he was responsible for the Greek revival in the 19th century, which influenced architects like Frank Lloyd Wright.  We have had great fun thinking up lots of different activities and I'm hoping I get a chance at them all as they all sound so great.

This drawing is one I made after visiting Holmwood House, designed by Greek Thomson and we are using it for our postcards advertising the event.