Lots of people have asked how I am going to spend the £1000 award I received for winning the Art category at Festival of Quilts. Lots of encouragement to spend it on something for myself. Well I did spend £40 on a small piece of work by Rosie James but the rest of it is going into the studio 'pot'. Which definitely qualifies as something for myself! Although I treat my art just as seriously and (hopefully) as professionally as I do my day job the reality is that it does not pay. This is the first significant sum of money that has gone in the pot. And whilst I hope that it is not the last I do recognise that I am incredibly lucky that the money I earn in my day job allows me to work in the way that I want to and in the wonderful environment that is my studio. That said the unexpected income has 'allowed' me to order 60 metres of Cotton Poplin Delphina (from Whaleys of Bradford) rather than the usual 20 metres thus spreading the delivery charge out a bit. And it has 'allowed' me to invest in some new silkscreens. I typically buy one most years whilst I am at Festival of Quilts but, because I damage the occasional one, I only have 4 good screens at the moment. Which slows me down when I am breakdown printing as I only pull each screen a few times before cleaning it and remaking it. So I have invested in 10 new screens from Coated Screens Limited. Five at 14 x 20 inches and five rather large ones at 20 x 30 inches. Buying in bulk has reduced the cost considerably. Now I just need to figure out where to store them!

Up until now I have always been able to use my studio for photography. It has some white walls and very good natural light topped up with cool white fluorescent lighting. My photos have been OK. They have got some pieces into curated exhibitions. But photos of pieces from my very pale, ephemeral Still series have not been good enough. And now I have completed a piece that is just too big for me to photograph in my studio. Ruins 7 is 180cm wide by 249cm high.

At first I considered turning it through 90degrees, suspending it from the ceiling in my studio with some sort of backdrop suspended behind it. Hmm - not easy! Instead my son Cal borrowed a gallery space that at least allowed me to hang the piece against a white wall albeit still hung on it's side.

I found a great web article on photographing quilts (http://www.hollyknott.com/stq/) with lots of info on how to make your own lighting rig. After many fruitless hours I discovered that you can't buy really really bright compact fluorescent bulbs in cool white in the UK. Not to be put off Cal came up with a design using multiple lightfittings on two uprights. I brought wooden uprights and some shelf brackets to use as legs. Instead he borrowed some proper lights and a tripod off a friend. Clever lad!

And today we photographed the piece. Until now I have really only seen it on the bench. It looked great hung up and will look even better if I ever get to show it in a gallery with tall ceilings.

I'm not sharing an image of the whole piece as it is being submitted for an exhibition. However the detail shot above gives a good sense of the piece. Fingers crossed.

So where to begin. Festival of Quilts is huge. There are a dozen or so white walled gallery spaces, hundreds of open competition quilts and an awful lot of traders. There have been years when I have been so totally overwhelmed that I have left after a couple of hours. The truly amazing selection of work has sometimes made me wonder 'why bother' but at other times has energised me to rush back to the studio to make art. This year has been a good one. My piece Ruins 6 won 1st prize in the open Art Category, Vestiges got a 'highly commended' in the Miniature Category and Ruins 5 was shortlisted for Fine Art Quilt Masters. I floated on air and was humbled by all the congratulations and kind words. They even played my favourite Blur song (Song 2) when I went on stage to collect my award. Of course this was a completely random thing as the music is pre-selected but it made my grin even wider!

In between meeting friends and stewarding in the SAQA gallery I managed to visit all the galleries on my 'must see' list and saw quite a lot of the open competition quilts. My favourite gallery was probably Art Textile: Made In Britain: Concealed where I was blown away by the work of Rosie James. I also really enjoyed Claire Benn and Ingrid Press's gallery.

Unlike many visitors I never seem to remember to take photos of the works I like - for the most part I am too absorbed in looking and responding. I did take a few and here is a selection.

It is scary stuff adding colour to a piece that I have already invested hours and hours of my time in but it needed to be done. I was not happy with the piece and would probably have filed it in the bin so what did I have to loose? But it has been a long time since I added colour to a finished piece so I spent a pleasant morning trying different types of media and different application techniques on some small Ruins samples. I chose a Markal oil stick and yesterday started applying colour to Ruins 7.

Lessons learnt. Don't apply Markal too close to the edge of the mask as it is really easy to accidently slip off the paper. Make sure you remove any small specs that have fallen off the oil stick before you start brushing. Wash your hands regularly. And remember to breath!

It is just a week until Festival of Quilts opens at the NEC in Birmingham and I am getting organised. I have been to the show every year since it started. Some years I've spent several happy and productive days there. Other years I have run away screaming after a couple of hours because the shear volume of work on display is overwhelming. This year I am planning on being there on the Thursday and Friday and am determined to get the best out of the visit. I have organised to meet different friends for breakfast, lunch and for dinner (there goes the diet!). I will be stewarding in the SAQA gallery 'Celebrating Silver' between 2.30 and 4pm on both days. So please come along and say hello, it is always nice to see friends and meet Facebook buddies in the flesh!

I have written myself a short shopping list but expect to go 'off piste' and spend more money than I should. That said I am absolutely determined not to buy any more gorgeous coloured threads - I have a wonderful collection that has sat untouched for quite some time as everything I have stitched lately has been in white, black or grey! If you see me at the Oliver Twists stand please pull me away!!!

And finally I have had a look at the list of galleries to sort out the must see ones. Of course I will start by looking at my own work in Fine Art Quilt Masters and the Art and Miniature categories in the open competitions. Fine Arts has a really strong selection this year and I'm really looking forward to seeing the pieces. The other galleries on my list are:

• 6th European Quilt Triennial featuring a piece by friend and fellow Etcetera member Helen Conway.
• Art Textiles: Made in Britain: Concealed - the group features some of my favourite artists and their exhibition at FoQ in 2014 on Identity was amazing.
• Claire Benn and Ingrid Press - big fan of both
• Pam Stallebrass - I'm not familiar with her work but it sounds fascinating!

It is going to be a wonderful two days!

Those of you who read my blog will know that my day job became 'unsustainable' a short while ago so I find myself unemployed. I hate that word and prefer 'taking a career break' or 'taking time out to spend with my family' or 'taking a sabbatical to take advantage of an artists residency (in my own studio)'.  But whatever I call it the reality is that I need to find a new job. And apparently the most successful way to do that is by networking. Even the word fills me with horror - I am hopeless at small talk, generally useless at blowing my own trumpet and suffer a big 'I am not worthy' moment when I contemplate approaching somebody to give me a job. Does this sound familiar?

To give myself a head start I attended a workshop on LinkedIn and now have my profile set up and am busy making connections. Please feel free to look me up but don't be offended if I don't connect with you ... I'm trying to keep it limited to day job contacts initially. However the workshop did get me thinking about networking and my 'other life' as a textile artist. Whilst networking in this context isn't aimed at getting a job I am ambitious about my art and do want to get my work 'out there'. Building a network might lead to opportunities to exhibit or towards getting commissions. Although I didn't think of it in terms of networking my website, this blog and my Facebook page have been a good start. Being a member of CQ and SAQA was also a good start.

But one of the key takeaways from the workshop was to actively do whatever it takes to become visible, to be at the top of the list when somebody searches for you. Which, in terms of me as an artist, means making my Facebook page 'public', sending friend requests to people where we only have one or two mutual friends and not just those where we have lots of mutual friends. It means taking time out to steward on the SAQA exhibition at Festival of Quilts. And it means stopping being a 'lurker' on yahoo message groups and starting being a participant. It probably means starting to use Twitter and / or Instagram and / or Pinterest! Which definitely means I need a very large cup of very good coffee ... and probably some chocolate!!

Breakdown printing is seriously addictive. When the sun is shining and screens are drying in a couple of hours it is really tempting to just keep on printing.

Especially when it is giving me such yummy results. But I've been here before and know that it is important to stop and take a moment. So today I have put all my newly printed fabrics through the washing machine (twice), dried them, ironed them and assessed them.

The piece of art that exists in my head will be mostly monochromatic and will be pale at the top and dark at the bottom. So I have cut into my fabrics and pinned the 'good' pieces on my design wall. Standing back I can see that I have lots of light and medium pieces but none that are really dark. I can also see that the inclusion of words is interesting but I only I have a couple of small pieces so far.

Not all pieces made the grade yet so I have a pile that I will soda soak again and print over either to include words or to make much darker or both. Although breakdown printing is not an 'exact' process it does become more predictable the more you do so hopefully the next round of printing will give me palette of fabrics I need to move on to the composition time. Lets hope the good weather lasts!

I'm in the final stages of making Ruins 7. Well I think I am. I need to stitch on facings and get it hung up somewhere so I can decide if it needs more stitch or not. Which presents a bit of a challenge as it is taller than the height of my studio. This will take a few days to sort out. So what should I do now? I have been planning on going back to my Storm / Still series to (try to) make a piece for the SAQA call for entry 'Layered Voices'. Up until now my ideas were all pretty vague and somewhat grandiose. But today I had a light bulb moment thanks to fellow Etcetera member Linda Bilsborrow. Following a discussion about her work I happened to glance at a small sample that was pinned to my Storm / Still design wall .... and flash! Off went that elusive light bulb!

I'm really lucky to have several design walls so I can keep lots of ideas and samples pinned up. Most of that space has been filled with Ruins stuff for the last few months but I kept some photos of Dunure beach and stitched samples visible - would I have had that light bulb moment if everything was tucked away?

And now that I have a good idea of how to procede I have rearranged my design walls to keep me focussed. On one wall I have pinned the sample and some fabrics that I have already printed. I will add to this wall as I print more pieces. On another wall I have pinned up more photos of Dunure - I can look at these and remember what I felt sat on that beach and what I'm trying to convey in my work. And I have changed the drop cloth on my big print bench from the unmarked one that signifies I am in a composition and stitching phase to one with lots of lovely residual marks from previous printing sessions. Not as quick as flipping a switch but it has the same effect!

I finished this piece several weeks ago but have only just hung and photographed it. It is quite different to the earlier pieces in the Ruins series and I am not yet sure whether that is different in a good way. For better or for worse the quilt is now on its way to Festival of Quilts where it will be shown in the Art Quilt section. Because it is so wide I am hoping it will get hung on a white wall rather than on the traditional quilt stands. I think some of the impact will be lost if the lighting isn't great but that is a risk I am willing to take to get my work out there! Wherever there is!