Instead of something nice and solidly medieval, here's something nice and fun, found on Neil Gaiman's blog:

As spring is creeping in and battling hard with the remainders of the winter, the weather is getting nicer and nicer and season start is rushing towards us, I still have to finish my new market stall. It is coming along - yesterday was bathing day, and the main part of the tent - almost four metres on seven metres - took a hot bath in our tub.

Now that it is getting closer to being a tent, one of the biggest concerns (my German expression of choice would be "die größten Bauchschmerzen" - literally "the biggest stomach ache") is how to get it waterproof. Seriously waterproof.

We bought heavy linen fabric in the hopes of it being waterproof due to its nature - some heavy fabric, pure linen, can soak up water and then get so dense and tight that it can be even used as a bucket. Totally waterproof. Unfortunately, it became very clear very soon that our specimen of heavy linen fabric is not like that. Yes, it is heavy, but the fibres will not swell up enough when soaked in water to get it completely impermeable to water, and thus I need some additional waterproofing method.

And that's my problem. I want to have the tent/stall as accurate as possible, but I will draw a line at non-secure waterproofiness. I need my goods (and myself, but the goods for selling are more important here) to stay dry no matter how hard it rains. And I am willing to compromise if this needs some modern trick - though I would prefer a period way.

So there are some possibilities now that I have already found, among them using linseed oil varnish; using oil paint from linseed oil varnish with a pigment/filler mixed in to paint the tent much as an oil-cloth (with the added bonus of decorative possibilities); using store-bought waterproofing liquids; it would even be a possibility to buy silicone at the hardware store and "paint" the cloth with that. I'm still undecided, I would like to test each of the methods but I am shying away a little from buying all of those things for a small test scrap of fabric, and am generally feeling quite uneasy about this part of the project.
And I'd be very happy about any input that you might be able to give.

I had a wonderful cup of celebratory coffee yesterday, to celebrate being finished with the galley proofs. So today, I will use the wonderful early-spring weather to carry the packet to the post office and send it off - next step toward publication: done.

I may have been sighing a lot over how much text there is, and about reading it all again (and again), but I also feel that it is absolutely wonderful to work together with a publishing house on this. I read the stuff, I mark the little typos that had skilfully managed not to get noticed by anyone, I write my comments about picture sizes and picture placement and single letters with special Czech or Polish accents that were taken from a different font and gaps a little too small or a little too large between words and special characters or between lines; then I send it off to somewhere else and magic! All the marked-up things are taken care of! By SOMEBODY ELSE!

Having done the layout for the thesis submission version myself, I can very much appreciate how much work goes into these things - because once you change something in the front of the book, the change might well ricochet further on, maybe to the end of the chapter or even to the end of the part or, if things go really badly, all to the end of the book. And re-checking and re-layouting some 500 pages and change  - believe me, that is not what you'd like to do on a sunny afternoon or a rainy one. So I try to be a good layout-wise author and when I need to make a change, I try to do the wording so there's only change in that one paragraph or on that one page. Wasn't possible in one case in the first run, though, and that really ricocheted for the rest of the chapter.
And when I tried to do my best not to make ugly work-intensive changes, I send it off, lean back, have a celebratory coffee (or two) and am very, very happy that I am not alone in this. Hooray for publishing houses and the wonderful people who work there!

I distinctly remember having a handful of ideas for blog posts a few days ago - while in South Tyrol, and of course I did not take notes of these ideas.

Then I was back, and immersing myself in all the reading and all the other stuff that hopped around in my brain crying for attention, and gone they were, the little inspiration particles.

So instead of writing you some nice original content that might even have something to do with medieval textiles, I am re-posting you a heads-up that came from the Quilt History List over to another list (that at least has something to do with medieval textiles):

From the Quilt History List:

Dear friends of textile history:

The year 2010 is extraordinary for those interested in early quilt history. Not only is the Victoria and Albert Museum's Tristan Quilt now on public view in London for the first time in generations, but the sister quilt in the collection of the National Museum of Bargello and known there as the Coperta di Usella, will go on public display at the Museo Palazzo Davanzati, Florence, from April 24 to June 24, 2010 under the auspices of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Activities. These two quilts are known as rare surviving examples of all white figurative quilting attributed to a Sicilian atelier circa 1360-1400 (1). As such, they are key pieces in understanding the tradition of quilting from the Middle Ages to present day.

If you are not able to just swish over to London or if you don't even know what the Tristan Quilt is, you can have a look at some pictures here on the V&A website. Enjoy!

After the wonderful planning session in South Tyrol, it's back to the usual, and nose back onto the grindstone. I'm on the last bits of proofreading, having been very diligently reading about all day during the last two days, and I hope to finish today or, at the latest, tomorrow. Thankfully there are more pictures in the catalogue part than in the front bits, which makes reading ten pages go much, much faster.

On the other fronts, there has been some movement as well: The market stall sewing is progressing, and occasionally I even snatch a few minutes for knitting on the current design and planning for the next one. Once the more pressing matters - stall and proof-reading - are done, I hope to get one or two patterns out for test-knitting.

Did I ever feel unsure about being able to fill my time as freelancer?

I'm back from a wonderful and very fruitful weekend of planning for Textile Forum 2010 - and that weekend fully deserves to be titled a perk of the job.

We met with Johanna, the director of ArcheoParc Schnals, to have a good look at the premises, discuss planning details, have a look at the accommodation reserved for the Forum participants (real beds in en-suite rooms this time!), and meet some more people interested in the Forum idea.

So what can you expect? In case you have never been to Schnals in South Tyrol, let me give you the list.

A very nice museum with a unique concept, showing the connection between the alpine region and the lifestyle in this environment, with an intriguing architectural design?


Check.

An open-air area belonging to that same museum, with some outstanding house reconstructions that have no nails and screws in them?


Check.

Typical regional food that is amazingly, mouth-wateringly yummy? Like Schlutzkrapfen, Speckknödel and Vinschgauer Paarl with Brettlspeck, plus a huge variety of cheeses and wines that earn lots of praise? Food so wonderful that of course I was not even thinking of taking a photo, because I was busy with eating and enjoying?

Check.

(To make up for the lack of photos here, you can read this article from the Guardian. Or maybe you would like to prepare yourself for all the food of the region - go to this tourism site that also offers recipes!)


Lots of fun?


Check.

And last but surely not least, more breathtaking, amazing alpine scenery than you would be able to shake a spindle stick at?

Check.


Sounds good, eh?

There's a cup of tea standing beside me, Blogger is acting up and not letting me post like usual, and I have to both read as much as I can in the galley proof and prepare a nice little trip that will start tomorrow - to plan and organise things for the Textile Forum in September.

This also means that there will be no blogging for the next few days - regular blog updates should resume on Tuesday next week.

And I am totally looking forward to our planning trip!