Month: February 2017

The Golden Goose

This quilt is part of my money series, dealing with different ways of getting and handling money.  The golden goose is a fable about finding a special goose which lays eggs of gold, thereby making you a fortune by selling the gold.  But if you get greedy, overworking the poor goose, it dies and then you’ve killed your golden goose and get no more money.  So it is about good handling of your resources, not flogging a thing to death, killing a great idea, over exploiting something.  it is also about spotting a great idea, or niche in the market, and turning this into a good little business.

Do you have a great idea or skill which you can use to turn into a nice little earner, even if only part-time?  Why not give it a go and see if it becomes your golden goose.  I have done that with my quilting.  I started by making just one quilt which I saw demonstrated at a textile fair I was attending for quite another reason.  It took two years, while I was still working as a lawyer.  And when finished, it astonished me, and I said Yes!  This is it!  I am going to give up my other main activities and do this full-time.  No I don’t get much gold from it, but it is gold in a different way because people seem to like my work, it means something to them. I’ve sold a lot and most importantly, this creative outlet is energising and fulfilling more than I ever expected.

So I recommend trying to find your own golden goose!

My quilt above uses a pattern known as flying geese, going round and round in different directions, round the central four blocks of gold fabric, representing the golden eggs.  it is a sunshiny bright cheerful quilt, bought by a friend of mine who loves yellow.

The Money Laundry

This quilt above, called The Money Laundry, is part of a series of quilts on the theme of money, which I did for a show in a London West End gallery.

The design is meant to give the effect of money going round and round in a washing machine.  If you zoom in, you can see pieces of gold and silver and notes in the smaller squares.  It was meant as a light-hearted look at how money is sometimes dealt with.

However, as I sat at the gallery stewarding my show for hours, I realised that all the quilts I had done on the theme of money were relevant to me in some way, and how I handle money…..

No, so far as I am aware, I haven’t laundered any money, but maybe there are some aspects of how I handle money which I am not too proud of, and would like the memory to be blurred, or laundered, from my own memory as much as other people’s.  Remember, everything that is done or said in secret, will be shouted from the rooftops one day. I can think of times when I have wasted money, or shopped too much, or handled it irresponsibly or selfishly…..    Oh dear….

Undeterred by such guilty thoughts, a nice man bought this quilt to go in his flat nearby.  He was something of a collector of wall hangings, and was delighted with the colours and humourous title.