New Era??

Wow!! It's been a long time since this blog was updated. For the last 4 years I gave been running Alan Teather Quilting, www.alanteatherquilting.com

With my wife Amanda. We started in "The Bis ", a start up unit where it was possible to 'evaluate' your business idea with an easy month in month out lease. We were there from November 2019 until March 2021 when we moved to a shop in Upper Church Street. 

We gave been happy there for the last 3 years but as the lease on the shop ends, I don't want to take another 3 year lease. 

Therefore, we are going  ' back home', back to the bis but into a bigger unit for a number of reasons. 

Some of those are that I'm 62 yrs old and don't really want to be working too much longer if I'm honest. Money is tight in general so people are not spending as much, everything will be on one floor, and of course its still a month in month out lease so we can leave on one month's notice. 

Within 18 months or so, Amanda and I want to leave everything behind and convert a van to live in. Nothing chappy, but a Mercedes, sprinter extra long wheel base high top roof!! 

From there we will be travelling the country and working from the van. I have registered the website, " the travelling quilter " as a blog and we will be doing what it says on the van.... travelling and Quilting.

That's it for this update, keep tuned for the next instalment of our journey into textile heaven.

Silver Dealers for Aurifil Threads of Milan.

Today seesus as official Silver Dealers with Aurifil Threads of Milan.

These are some of the finest threads you will use in your craftwork and sewing. We currently have all 270 colours in the small 100m bobbin range and 49 colours in the larger 1000m range.
As our site goes live so will the abillity to see the range as it increases. Eventually we will stock all of the colours in all of the weights and all of the sizes. This is an amazing range and one that would cost 10's of £1000 to build up so it might take us a year or two to accomplish this, but accomplish it we will.

Fabric and more fabric

On Monday we had a visit from one of the suppliers who visit us to prise some money out of my wife's hands. I say my wife's hands because I would buy the lot. The first time I did this it cost me £6000!
This visit will probably only cost 3 or 4 k.

Then another rep came on Wednesday and she, with my help got nearly 3k out of my wife's sticky mitts.

I haven't told her that I have booked appoitments with other traders at a tradeshow in February.. Oh well nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Some of the material ordered is printed from the archives of the V&A  which hold the William Morris collections. We are going the full hog and getting the full winter collection which should be delivered in June / July time.

Our website is still progressing and we hope it will be up soon so you can see all our beautiful fabrics and services we have to offer.

A journey into textile heaven: Directions change

A journey into textile heaven: Directions change: My last post on here was about finishing University. I graduated with a BA(hons) in Contemporary Textiles and Products. With all my he...

Directions change

My last post on here was about finishing University.

I graduated with a BA(hons) in Contemporary Textiles and Products.

With all my heart it was hard and incredibly difficult in the final year. This was for many reasons but I got through the other side, bitter, yes but onwards and upwards.

So after doning the gown and cap for graduation I was going to start a restoration and recycling business which was a hobby that I could turn into a viable, ethical business. I started with an 1830's French Captains chair. A full strip down, restoration and rehupolstered. I enjoyed that but with all the research I did for a new business I decided that the recycled side of me would remain a hobby and I would return to my first love of 15 + years which is quilting.

Quilting for me is a safety net when my head decides not to play straight. fter 40 years of Mental health you would think I could have found a cure. nyway, the quilting has always helped me. It is such a thing that it can be incredibly precise, mathamaticaly correct and a joy to imerse myself in to blow the blues away. On the other side quilting can be slap dash, improvised, run with it by the seat of your pants type feeling which also blows away the blues.

So, what did I do starting in October? I started a quilting company called lan Teather Quilting. November saw me move into the new building known as the Bis in Whitby Street, Hartlepool which I posted about in 2018 only this time i have taken a huge studio space of over 550sq ft.  I mean it is a cushty sewing shed...

I have bought an Avante long arm quilting machine, £1000's of pounds worth of fabric and accessories, office gear, computers, sewinig machines, teaching tables and a lot more beside.

I am in heaven, not literally, well at the moment but I am in a happy place today.

My journey into textile heaven is real. So to those who said
"Oh we don't do quilted panels here" you are wrong.

My website is under construction but it will be at https://www.alanteatherquilting.com .


 

That's it folks...

Uni is done now. With the Access to higher ed course it has been 4 long years.
Not a lot of it was as good as the rest but it is now time to be positive now that I am out in the real world.

Speaking of the real world, my first commission has been started today.
I am restoring a French Captains chair from approximately 1830. Total strip down, repairs and restoration to the frame and then resprung with the correct springs and reupholstered with horse hair and a sumptuous material to be decided upon later.

Where does the time go? Since the last post of only 10 weeks to go that is now down to ONLY 5 WEEKS TO GO!!!

Hard at work getting my final pieces ready for the final hand in of the final year at uni and the final time I will stress about the hand in and possibly work for 38 hours without sleep putting "the final touches" to the project.
Of course I am not alone in this. The whole university world, the whole country over is coming to the same conclusion but my undying concern is for the wellbeing of my fellow students at The Northern School of Art. Hang in there ladies and gents it will soon be over and we WILL all get our degrees that we have worked so hard for.
We can then go out into the world as GRADUATES. I think of it like this. Once you do a parachute jump you will always be a parachutist. Do a triathlon and when finished, regardless of the time or position you will always be a triathlete.
When we graduate, regardless of the mark or the level of degree we are given we will ALWAYS be a graduate of a university and that means something. We will legitimately be able to have letters after our name and deserve a level of respect worthy of completion of a university degree. For some, like me as a mature student it has been a hard, long and at times a debilitating slog but I have got there along with many other mature students.
Mind you, for someone who acts his shoe size most of the day the term "mature" could be a misnomer.

Right, back to work.... in Costa.