Monday Memories 8

Towards the end of 2002, I saw an article in the Popular Patchwork magazine about online P & Q City & Guilds courses. This had some appeal for me as I had been quite interested in doing the course but there was nothing suitable locally. An online option seemed ideal as I was planning to run off into the sunset with my OH in February 2003........he had spent some years travelling overseas with his work and had the chance of a year long contract in Curacao, a little island in the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean. Favourite daughter was living at home but at Uni so was happy(?)to look after house & cats, favourite son had just gone to uni in Glasgow so was embarking upon the road to independence!! So, I signed up for the course with the wonderful Linda and Laura Kemshall, an amazingly talented mother and daughter team, and headed for the sun! I am sure you will have come across their work before, especially if you have been to the Festival of Quilts.
Hard now, to believe that we lived in Curacao, it seems so long ago already. Thought I'd put together a mosaic to give you a flavour of the inspiration for most of my course work.

Curacao was a great opportunity for me - OH has been to many places, but this was my first unusual destination - the climate was dreamy, 28 and sunny most days, water was good to drink due to the island's own de-salination programe and there was no risk of hurricanes at this location.
I travelled back home for April & August and our kids came out for a month each too, as well as having several of our good pals visit with us. I became a pretty good tour guide, especially for the ostrich farm!!
Meanwhile, I plugged away at my course - I enjoyed it thoroughly but on reflection would have welcomed some peer interaction. This might well be part of the courses today.
For my first assessment piece, I made a cushion which showcased a few of the techniques I had learned.

Mad, isn't it?

My final assessment was a quilt - I never really liked it, got a bit carried away including every technique I could. I suppose in the sunshine it seemed like a good idea, but I really think the sun must have gotten to me. I have never shown this quilt to any of my classes, I keep it in a cupboard, and have recently been harbouring thoughts of chopping it up and "doing something with it".

Awful!!

 Go on - have a close - up!

So that was 2003 into 2004. I finished the course, got my certificate so was chuffed with that achievement.

It was an intensive course at the time and much of what I learned stood me on great stead for what was to come next..............

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Meanwhile, back in the present, I have a finish for Rhonda's FAL.

It's my little Monochrome Magic quilt, started late 2009, finished January 2012!