Textile Art Symposium, 2nd day (updated with pictures)

On Sunday evening I met Judith at the station and took her to the hotel we are staying at in town, and Angelika, the third artist participating in the symposium arrived a little later, so we spent the evening getting acquainted. I realized that I was pretty lucky because I knew the entire setup from earlier symposiums that I had witnessed. The two of them were a bit nervous, which I did not feel like at all. So much so not nervous, that I really only started packing in the evening after I had returned from the dinner we had together. All three of us admitted to the others that we were a bit scared we might not finish during the week and that we had worked ahead to a certain degree. What a relief to hear that I was not alone in that!

On Monday morning we started setting up the tent and work began before noon.

Enough table room, my machine, additional light. Judith Siedensberger's
design sketches on the board in the back right.

Judith at work.

 I did go home for lunch because my husband was out of town and I wanted my son to have company when he came home from school. During the meal he asked me why I had to go and move into the hotel for the week? Would I not rather have slept at home? I said I wanted to be where the others were staying, to join their conversations over the meals, and be out of the family obligations. But, did I have to pay for the hotel? When I denied that he said he said well, then it’s not quite so bad… I was touched that he had mentioned it. Shows that mother out of the house is felt as not ordinary in some way or other. I do agree it is a pretty funny situation to be staying in a hotel which is about the same distance away from the tent where we set up our studio as our house proper, only that the tent is sort of in the middle between the two. And being so close to home gives you the feeling that you can always go and get something in case you’d forgotten to pack it… But I really did want to do it that way because otherwise I would be falling back into doing housework or whatever. Just wish the food were a bit better…

So work has been going well. Yesterday was pretty warm in the tent and although we haven’t put it to use yet I was glad I had packed a small ventilator, just in case. Today it was cooler, even a thunderstorm came through in the late afternoon, which is when I packed up everything for the day to cut off electricity, a good twenty minutes earlier than I had wanted to. 

I’d had some thread- and tension issues in the afternoon, the thread kept breaking while I was stitching Article 20 in Hungarian. As it had not mucked up at all, same thread, this morning when I was doing Article 15 in Portuguese I am dead certain it must be the Hungarian that is causing the problems… and had wanted to finish outlining Article 2 in Wolof before the night. That only got started, however, and it is where I will continue tomorrow. After that there is only one more article to stitch onto the fabric, then I can go (home) and dissolve the stabilizers, wash, dry and iron the top and baste it onto the batting and back fabric. I am planning to start serious quilting tomorrow afternoon. I am managing pretty well with the machine, but I do miss my big working table at home where the machine is level with the table top and the work piece doesn’t get caught on the tray table all the time… I am spoilt with that!

We don’t talk a whole lot but it has been fun working alongside the other two. We have had a few visitors already and most likely the number are going to increase over the next few days.