Busy busy...

Last week I spent Wednesday to Sunday in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace at the European Patchwork Meeting. As always, a very interesting and intensive time. This year my accomodation was slightly less luxurious than during the past two years, but closer to the center of things - a mere twenty minute walk from the commercial center.

I shared the tent with Gillian Travis, who was a good companion, and crazy enough to go along. We met with a lot of unbelieving looks when we told people we were camping ... We were lucky, too – although it did rain a couple of times, it was never so bad that we were beginning to feel uncomfortable about it. Only when we were waiting for the bus to take us out of the valley on Sunday was it raining so heavily that we agreed we were happy enough we did not have another night in the tent ahead of us. Next time I go camping, however, I will double check on my insulating air mattress. The one I had with me had been fine when I went camping with my son a few weeks ago, but it did not hold the air this time...

I have posted a few pictures of what I considered the highlights of the festival on my German blog.

What was also very important about being there is being in touch with people. Meeting old friends, getting to know new ones – it is always an interesting time.

SAQA meet and greet - an informal get-together
sponsored by EPM organizers, where
one can meet other SAQA members

What I liked about it this time, too, was the fact that I was offline – no computer taken – and felt like I was out of the world. I did not read any newspapers, did not have to listen to any of those ever increasing reports about conflicts bordering on a state of war, hundreds of thousands of refugees, weapons for this or that side – nor on the referendum in Scotland. A few days of peace and quiet – wouldn’t it be nice if we had more of this, instead of all these trouble spots in the world? It is getting to the point where I feel very restless because there just doesn’t seem to be much that one single person could possibly do, yet how should we improve the situation ...? Where is this earth getting to?

And it has been a busy time since my return. Last quilts to finish for the exhibit in Alfeld, opening on the 12^th of October. (All the big ones are done – working on the next to last small one, and I have a plan for the last one!) I had originally planned to have half my September dyeing finished before I would leave for Alsace – it can indeed be a rather relaxed mode of production if started around the 10^th of the month. However, my fabric shipment had not arrived for whatever reasons, and so I could only get started after my return home.

So I have been cutting fabric, dyeing three times two different colours, running up and down to the basement to keep putting on the next cycle of washing, each colour separately, transferring all of it into the dryer, and then sitting down at the rotary iron as soon as it comes out of the dryer.

In my mind I am at the same time wondering which colours I should still stock up on before going to the Veldhoven Open European Quilt Championships in the end of October.

Anything I might have missed? The house is not exactly tidy these days... but there will be time for that after October 12.