Breaking the Blocks
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Thanks for stopping by! Life is tough, and I think this podcast might offer you some relief. My aim? To inspire you to overcome some of your own blocks through the inspirational, honest, and at times, downright raw conversations with some wonderful guests, not huge celebrities, regular people like you and I. Let’s see how they have overcome the difficulties in their lives and offer you some advice and more importantly hope.
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Breaking the Blocks
Threads of Emotion: Sarah Hibbert's Personal and Artistic Growth
What happens when bold, vibrant quilt designs meet a quiet, humble artist? On this episode of Breaking the Blocks, we welcome the extraordinary Sarah Hibbert. Her stunning creations feature whimsical elements like coffee cups and fried eggs, reminiscent of Andy Warhols flair. We discuss her unique artistic voice, shaped by her upbringing with a graphic designer father, and how she overcame shyness and creative blocks to express her true self through quilting.
Sarah opens up about her journey through the quilting community, where she battled imposter syndrome and found solace and acceptance. Quilting became her therapeutic refuge during difficult times, including miscarriages, and a way to connect with others. Learn about her ongoing hand quilting project, "Wild Blue," a meditative practice that serves as a personal journal of her life's experiences and emotions. Through Sarah’s story, we explore the powerful themes of healing, storytelling, and the strong sense of community within the quilting world.
In our heartfelt exploration of Sarah's artistic journey, we discuss her transition to working with linen, her unique use of color, and the deep influence of her graphic designer father. Listen to her touching anecdotes about incorporating her father's drawings into her quilts and the emotional process of letting go of such personal pieces. Sarah reflects on her achievements, the lessons learned through friendships and teaching, and her openness to future possibilities. This episode promises an inspiring and intimate look at an artist who has turned her creative blocks into stepping stones.
You can follow Sarah on @quiltscornerstone on Instagram and her book is titled: From Collage to Quilt
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Breaking the Blocks. I'm your host, rachel Pearman. It is lovely to have your company. Today. I'm talking to an artist and quilter called Sarah Hibbert. You can follow her on her Instagram account, quilts Cornerstone.
Speaker 1:Now I find Sarah to be a bit of a dichotomy. When you see Sarah's work, she has featured coffee cups and fried eggs. She also makes these beautiful pieces from linen and definitely has a colour palette. Her work has a real statement to it. But when you meet Sarah in person, she's very humble, she's very shy, she's very quiet. She certainly doesn't seem to take herself seriously in terms of look at me, I'm a fully fledged artist. So I was really interested about this dichotomy between her work and her, and that's just one of the things that we discussed in this podcast. I asked Sarah how she overcame her shyness and how she overcame any blocks in her life. So let's listen to what she had to say.
Speaker 1:Well, hello, greetings to the lovely Sarah Hibbert. I know her as just the lovely Sarah who is a sweetheart. Really, you are, sarah, you're so lovely. Welcome. It's so lovely to have you here. I always love our little gossips in our chats, but it's nice to have you on the podcast and, of course, I had to have you on the podcast because I've been talking to some amazing creators, some amazing artists, and you are one such person. I should say that, um, you're welcome, sarah. I should say that I I met sarah, or I saw you, first of all when I was going through instagram, as I always do. You know singers, they have sometimes a great singer will have a really unique voice like, I always think, bono. There's no one that's got a voice like bono, you hear you hear his voice and you go oh, that's bono.
Speaker 1:There are's no one that's got a voice like Bono. You hear his voice and you go oh, that's Bono. There are so many voices that sound quite similar. They can sing, they can hit the notes, but they don't have that something about them. Well, I think that's what I feel when I look at your work is that it has something about it. It actually has a stamp of you about it. It's like I think if I had lots of work in front of me and someone said find the Sarah Hibbert pieces, I would go with that one, that one and that one I would absolutely know. So that that's what I love about your work when I first saw on Instagram and of course, I approached you at the Festival of Quilts and then that was it. The rest is history. Here we are working together, talking together, going to America together.
Speaker 2:Yes, fantastic. No, it's a little bit of serendipity. When you popped into the gallery at Festival of Quilts, it was great and it was just instant I thought, yep, I like this woman, she's good, she's a good egg, so that's good.
Speaker 1:That is part of it, though, isn't it though? Sarah, it's energies that meet energies on the same level, and if you're on the same level in the same place, it will work out.
Speaker 2:I think, when you actually meet people and I'm glad you've mentioned the connection with Bono, because there's something about Bono. Okay, he's not great to look at, but I've. I know I shouldn't say that. I've always said I bet he's fantastic in the sack because, because his passion, it's his passion. And he married on the 21st of august 1982 at three o'clock, as did I, but I married over here, he married over there.
Speaker 1:So well, I mean, you're almost together, aren't you, sarah?
Speaker 2:I don't know why he said, or should I say Ali Hewson? I think she'd string me up that way. Okay, go on.
Speaker 1:I think Ali probably does find him quite attractive. That's his wife, by the way. I used to have a huge thing about Bono. In fact, one of my first boyfriends called Nigel looked like Bono. He had the hair. Honestly, it looked like Bono.
Speaker 2:He had the hair.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it looked like him. And do you know something, Sarah? He dumped me. He dumped me. How dare you?
Speaker 2:I think, out of all of them, it's the edge that you know is more pretty.
Speaker 1:That's very nicely brought me to that point, sarah. You were just saying there about the edge, and actually that he is the, you know, the attractive one, the pretty one, and I was just about to say, yes, he's the more shy and retiring in the group. I think he has this kind of very quiet, this quietness about him. I absolutely get that. So this is what I was going to say about you, though, sarah. You are the edge in terms you might have these showy quilters out there. You know, like Bono, bono's not a quilter, but you might have the showy people, and then you would be kind of standing there at the back, but Edge is an incredibly talented guitarist and you are an incredibly talented quilter. So I want to know where does this come from with you, sarah, because you are so humble, you're very shy, which is amazing, because your work is bold, it's colorful, it's you know, it's strong. What's the juxtaposition there?
Speaker 2:well, thank you for saying that, and, um, I do appreciate that I, and I do feel a little bit shy about that. Um, I think I was brought up my my parents. My father was a graphic designer and he was very out there and knew an amazing amount of artists and all sorts of people, which was fabulous to grow up and listen to and hear his stories. My mother was always tagging along behind. She was. They were joined at the hip, but my father was very ill when I was born and consequently my grandmother, my mother's mother, had been a widow for many, many years. Well, since my mother was 10, actually, she came to live with us.
Speaker 2:Well, she was a staunch Methodist, read her Welsh Bible each night, had a picture of John Wesley by the bed, her pinup, and so I learned, I think, my manner from her that she was always don't be too full of yourself, don't be too full of yourself, and that's the thing that still plays in my mind, and a little bit of imposter syndrome as well. I haven't got to where I am without the people that have helped me, and I will always say thank you to them first before taking any praise. And that's just. I worked at Savoy in my catering career. You know I absolutely loved being there and again mixing with pot washers right up to Lord Attenborough I did his son's wedding. You know, to me a person's a person. I've never worried about rank and things like that, but I'm always. I don't want to step on anybody's toes and I appreciate everybody, I think. But I think maybe quite a bit of my grandmother is still sort of stuck in there somewhere.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting what you say there and I can absolutely see that in you that you get on with as you say, from pot washer through to whoever. Not that we're demeaning pot washers, but I know what you're saying in terms of.
Speaker 2:The chambermaids when I was a housekeeper at the Westbury Hotel. When I was a housekeeper at the Westbury hotel, um, I worked at the Hyde Park, then the Westbury, then the Savoy and, oh, best fun ever was some of the chambermaids. I was a housekeeper and it was bizarre, it was great fun. So I, it's funny I recently well, friday, I went, uh, to visit a friend down in Chichester, a really lovely sweetheart of a lady, and there was another lady with us as well and we were all walking along. She took us down onto the seafront and we were walking along and every person that came towards us I said Morning, hi, how are you All right? Happy new year.
Speaker 2:We walked past and these two ladies said you just talk to everybody, don't, whereas they, she said. This lady said I live here, I don't ever speak to anybody, but I, I'm happy to. I love people. I love people. I don't care what they do or what their position is. I'm just interested in in people and how they're doing and if they're okay really I think I've told you this story before of my friend Jackie.
Speaker 2:I was in a lift with her, just interested in people and how they're doing and if they're okay, really, I think I've told you this story before of my friend Jackie.
Speaker 1:I was in a lift with her in ITV many, many, many, many, many years ago, but you know she reminds me of you with that because she would just talk to anybody and Vincent.
Speaker 1:Price walked into the lift and she just literally just said well, hello, mr Price, how are you today? And he just said I'm very well, my dear, how are you? And then he walked out and I said how do you know him? She said I don't, I just wanted to talk to him, but it's a great quality to have.
Speaker 1:I have to say, Sarah, I'm the opposite. When I go on walks and things, my husband is the one who will say good morning. People walk past. I don't, I tend to just look down at the floor or the trees. I don't know why I don't talk to people when I'm on the roads, but I do love talking to people. People are what makes life interesting. Okay, so how did you make the leap? Because obviously you've talked there about working in catering. How did you make the leap into your quilting practice? Because obviously you are now gaining accolades, you are gaining attention. People are giving you lots of praise, you are a successful quilter. Just in case I know you'll sit there in a minute and go oh no, I'm just playing at it no, no, no you know, author quilter accolades.
Speaker 1:So what? Where was the driving force within you to start putting your head above the parapet and get yourself out there?
Speaker 2:I've always been playing around, cutting and sticking, doing my collages, doing all sorts of playing around. Then I I had my daughter in 84. Unfortunately, we had problems having her and we lost two or three after her. So I took myself off to an evening class to do patchwork and quilting and did one. I think it was a couple of weeks evening course and then I joined up for a term and I was very lucky enough to meet a group of ladies that belonged to Pear Tree Quilters. So they very kindly asked me to join and I learned a lot from them and they were always my sounding board. Yes, my quilts were different to what they made, but what we all made, we all had our individual stamp. I've always loved color. I've always and I've always liked maybe a bit of a quirky style or change a quilt around or you know whatever. So I've always just sort of done my own thing. I've, hand on heart, I think I've. The whole time I've been quilting since what? 80, 86, I think I've only ever followed one pattern. I'm hopeless. I start reading it and say, oh, I can't do that and I put it away. So I've always done my own thing.
Speaker 2:Then I, in 2016, I joined the modern group of America, the modern quilt group, because I was really interested in the likes of Jackie Gearing and people like that and all sorts of names and their quilts really spoke to me and I ordered after the 2016 exhibition. I ordered the magazine and I was reading it and it was incredible and I said to my husband I would really love to go to this. They have an annual exhibition, so I booked it on my own, booked the hotel. I was talking to a very good friend of mine, pat, who lives in the States. I've met her a few times in Chicago through a friend of a friend. Pat asked if she could join me, so we turned up and that was Savannah, and QuiltCon changed my world. It totally changed my world.
Speaker 2:The door opened at 10 o'clock. I walked in and there was Jackie Gearing, my hero, who has now become a good friend. But I went oh, it's Jackie Gearing. And she went oh, it's Sarah Hibbert. She didn't know me from Adam, but she'd read my lanyard and then the whole week we were there she kept saying are you okay? And I just I thought nobody knows me. I was very lucky, and I have been lucky each year to have a quilt accepted each year there and I just bounced up to people I said, hi, I'm Sarah, I'm from London, I love your work and I ended up making such a good group of friends and that's what carries me through each year that one week at QuiltCon. It lifts my spirits and and that's when I thought, yeah, okay, I can put a piece in and be proud of it, which that's what changed me. Really, I think it's people's generosity and willing to help and enthusiasm.
Speaker 1:There's so many different quilters out there and different techniques and different disciplines, but at the end of the day, quilters are a nice bunch, you know, and I'm incredibly privileged to be part of that group really, I think it's you being genuine that makes people want to help you, because you're not wearing a mask, you're not standing there and going oh yes, confident, I know what I'm doing, but I think it is that humbleness, it is that you know that, that genuine thing about you, that makes people want to help you. And I think to some extent I've had that with me, particularly in the last year. I think I'm growing more into myself and growing more confident with being in this world, being a part of your world, because at first I very, very much felt like an imposter really, because I thought I'm not a quilter, people are not going to accept me, but then I think people are realizing that my passion is to bring people together.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, your sense of community is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's that's my, that's my aim. So, sarah, just going back then to this, I think there's a thread you see what I did there. There's a thread running through your quilting history which is I think it's a healing space for you being in the quilting world, because it's interesting and I think it is for a lot of people. You mentioned there that it was sadly after some miscarriages that you decided to join a quilting group. So how is quilting a healing experience for you? What does it do for you?
Speaker 2:The friendships I've made help me through some troubling times or just not necessarily troubling in my world. I'm happy with my world. I'm happy with my world, I'm happy with my lot. But you know it's exchanging ideas as well, and I've always said that I'm a nosy historian. I love history and I like to know well, how did they get there? How did they get there to there? And it's the same with some quilters. You know how did they make their break? Or not necessarily because I want to follow suit, but I'm just interested of you know people's makeup, if you like. I lose myself with my. You know I can, if I'm stressed at all or worried about you know, vac returns, my day job and things I can just take myself sit in front of the sewing machine, and the last two days I've been working on a quilt and I've been such a happy place.
Speaker 1:So I know you and I, sarah, have talked about a quilt that you've been working on and you said to me you will never, ever finish it, because it's your hand quilting that you are working on, and you said that you just want to keep going until the very end, and then you said you want to be wrapped up in it eventually. Let's talk about that quilt, then, because although you make a lot of pieces and you're creating a lot of pieces and finished pieces that go out there into the world, what is it about this piece that makes you want to keep hand quilting? That, to me, says that it's some kind of meditative effect that it has on you.
Speaker 2:It's been sitting on the side of my sofa for I don't know, 15, 20 years maybe. I've always been fascinated by house architecture and design and there was a weaver called Gunter Stoltz, before Annie Albers, and she unfortunately Walter Gropius wasn't a very nice man and sacked her because of her beliefs. So she went off into the world and she did her own thing. She never really got the recognition but I came across her and I love her weaving and I replicated one of her works, weaving pieces into patchwork with just mix match of fabric. And I've been stitching that there's a lot of the blocks. I think I've got about eight to go. I think, um, there's a lot of the blocks.
Speaker 2:I look back now and I think why did I quilt it like that? It's just horrible. But then I've decided I will keep it in because I remember at that point I was on that particular journey or whatever, and I just sit and I chat. I do talk to my quilts, like I talk to this one. A lot I can tell because I have Sjogren's, which is a connective tissue disorder, and some days I'm not so good and some days I am, and a lot of the time, even though I wasn't feeling up to much, I would still quilt Wild Blue. It's called Wild Blue because I listened to John Mayer a lot and that was one of his tracks. But I can tell by looking at it exactly how I was feeling at that time and that some of the stitches are a little bit wonky.
Speaker 2:And I have said in talks so people do know there is a bit at the top that the stitching is completely wonky because I was watching Bridgerton, which I call Bonkerton, and that was when he took his kit off. So my stitches are. There's little bits in there. But you know I envy I hope I've never been a green-eyed monster, but I envy people that keep journals or work journals of how they've put their quilt together, what fabrics they've used, where they are in the world when they did it, or some artists and you look back on their notepads and things. I've never done that. You know I've got no notes whatsoever on any of the quilts I've ever made. So when I have to do my artist statement, if I'm putting something into quilt con is a real sort of head scratching exercise. But then when I look at the quilts I know where. I know exactly where I was when I made that and I know exactly where I was in my feelings or what was going on in the world. Yeah, so yeah, stitching into it.
Speaker 1:nobody else will read it, but you know but it's important though, isn't it to um express feelings. I think that that's a really important thing as a human being. There are so many people who do not express their feelings. They shove them down as far as they can, and I'm not saying that's a wrong thing. I'm saying that you know, a lot of people in this world have a lot of childhood traumas, and, sarah, I know I've been reading over Christmas the Matthew Perry book, and I know you listen to the audio book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's such a good book, isn't it? And you know, I think that something that was really interesting that came through that book was when he said about his childhood and how he developed abandonment issues, which is what made him in inverted commas a needy person, and I think when you look at his life and you read that book, you realize how easy it is to be affected as a child by things, by things, and I think sometimes people think that in order to have childhood trauma, you've got to be seriously physically and emotionally abused, which obviously is horrific. But I think, even if your parents have not quite been present with you, it will create these issues within you, which then means that you won't express your feelings as an older person or you won't be able to understand your feelings.
Speaker 2:I absolutely adore Catherine Hepburn and I have done for years the February she died, in the June we actually went to Old Staybrook, which is where she was and I was very lucky to be able to see her house up close before it got sold and things and. But last night there was absolutely nothing on television and I said to my husband because I've got a DVD of a documentary that Catherine Hepburn said and she was saying and I she's just out there, but she was saying that she had an incredibly happy childhood and her parents even though her father was totally against her acting he got it in the end but she had an incredibly happy childhood. But then she actually lost the brother that she adored, that was above her. She had siblings below her. He committed suicide but then she said she had a happy childhood.
Speaker 2:So there's always something happens in somebody's life. You can't get from A to B without a hiccup or a journey and that becomes part of your makeup. But I always I try and be a positive person. I do get very down and I like to think the only person that really sees me get down is Paul, but I can bounce back quickly as well.
Speaker 2:The worst, I think the worst part of my being down is I have conversations to myself and he says that, and then she'll say that, and then he'll say that, and then I'll say that. That's the bit I cannot switch off, you know. But I get, I work my way out of it in the end and Paul always knows that everything's going to be okay when he hears me, like in the other room, and I say right. As soon as I say right, that means right, I'm on the course, that's where I'm going, and it's the same with quilting. I'll sit down at the sewing machine and I maybe don't know what I'm doing, but as soon as I say right, he says OK, he can back off. He knows I'm going to be OK. I think everybody carries something with them. It all depends whether you want to flip it to be a positive or be a negative, but I haven't got time to be a negative. Really, I like to think I want to be a yeah, I want to be a happy person.
Speaker 1:Really that's what I want are you able to, uh, create work when you are in that? Well, he's going to say this, she's going to say that, you know, when that kind of stuck in your head feeling can you work? No, you have to wait until you get the right moment and then you're off, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, or sometimes I will.
Speaker 2:I will start work to try and work myself out and then I realize it's just not going to work. It's just not going to work and it's going to end up. You know the unpicker's going to come up and, yeah, and the rotary cutter, and you know, lob a bit off. My father didn't have an easy life really. He, um, yeah, and he used to offload quite a lot to people. Whereas I'm always very conscious of that, you know, and and also I think I, I don't know, I I value friendships a lot and and the older I've got I'm 65 this year which God, where did that go? You know, it went in a heartbeat.
Speaker 2:I do like telling people I love them and I do. There are a lot of people I love and I am, you know, I'm friends coming around for supper on Wednesday and I met her when I was 10. And I used to adore her. She lived right across the road from me, but one summer we spent the whole summer trying to work out to put a can with a string and then from our bedrooms but trying to connect this string across the road and over a bit of a park to date, but I don't have any problem telling people I love them, because there's so many people in my world that I want to thank really, because they've they've been the icing on the cake really it's interesting, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I had a conversation once with someone who said that they found it very hard to say you know, know, I love you. And I said but I've heard you say, oh, I love that book, oh, I love that piece of music, oh, I love that film. So why can't you say to someone I love you, I don't, I can never understand that People. I'm not saying it's. When I say I can never understand it, I'm not saying it's, I'm right and you're wrong, but I just I do find that difficult because I'm the same as you, sarah, that I will always tell people. I think I did it on an Instagram comment to you recently.
Speaker 2:You know, you said something and I said, I do love you, love you, but it's a nice thing to do you know Paul's, you know I, he's great and and I've got a lot of men friends through work and through quilting and I'm more than happy to tell them I love them and things, and Paul will be standing there as well. So it's, you know there's different type of loves, but I don't I hope I don't give out that and tell everybody. You know I don't tell people on the bus or whatever.
Speaker 1:No, but I will. On a bus, if I see someone in a great outfit, I will say to them by the way, I love your coat. It just makes other people feel great and if those people go off and have a good day, then they're going to spread some good into the world and those people they've made feel good are going to spread some good, and that's what it should be about. I do think you know talking about spreading the joy and spreading the love.
Speaker 1:Sarah, I can absolutely see that in your work, actually, because I love your use of color. But once again, there are some people who will use color and it will be really bold, it will be really bright, almost neons, you know, or clashes of colors. I still think there is I'm going to use the word subdued color to your work, but that's too strong a word. Your work is very much you as a person, that the color is there, the joy is there, but we're not going to go and push it too loudly into the world. Where do you take your inspiration from? I remember when I came to the Festival of Quilts, I picked out so many pieces on your wall that were lovely. But I do love your fried egg. I mean I do love your fried egg. I mean that's just so out there I never cook a fried egg.
Speaker 2:I like poached egg myself, but I've always. I suppose it goes back to my father really being a graphic designer and he designed logos for companies. He had his own design practice. But there's a guy called Saul Bass who was amazing. He did all the titles for the Alfred Hitchcock films and stuff. So I've got some lovely letters for Saul Bass and my father. Well, obviously I haven't got my father's ones but I've got Saul Bass's ones and so I've always been.
Speaker 2:I've loved quirky things and my father introduced me to Andy Warhol very early on 1968. So I was what nine, was what nine. He came home from america with an anti-warhole um carrier bag, paper carrier bag, with the soup can on it and they were given out a lecture and so many people just ripped them open and put their coat in and their umbrella, I think, was. My father carried it home carefully. Then he framed it so it was in over our dining room table when I was growing up and the amount of friends came back from after school and said why have you got a carrier bag framed? But that quirkiness I loved and I've actually got over there looking at it, a dot to dot of Andy Warhol that my father and I did when I was about 15. So I've always been intrigued with him did when I was about 15. So I've always been intrigued with him.
Speaker 2:But when we started going to America or my brother moved to Rochester he worked for Xerox and we were lucky enough to go over and stay with him and we went to a breakfast place and they had a big fried egg painted on the wall and that started my idea. So quite often in my collages I'll end up doing some type of fried egg, and then one time I decided to actually make a quilt of it. But then I went on and made about four others in sort of my Andy Warhol range. So there's sort of a blue and green one and a red and purple, but it's still that image of a fried egg. I like images, I like logos, I like typography, lettering, yeah, and I think, that's just the way I've been taught and grown up with.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say your dad was obviously a huge inspiration on you then, wasn't he really?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, is your dad still around, sarah?
Speaker 2:No, he died 16, 17 years ago now. My mother passed away about 12 years ago now and I have a quilt that I did make for them. Bit of a funny story I went to an antique quilt auction thing and I I sat on my hands because I had no money. Amy was in a buggy, we had no money. I could just about afford the train ticket into london to go and see this thing. And uh, anyway, I sketched it out and I came home and I did say to the lady that was selling it would you mind if I make it? So I put that together and my parents had it and I remember it was one of the very first quilts I put into an exhibition and it was the National Patchwork Championships. So that was at Hatfield House. It was way before Festival of Quilts and I put it and it wasn't great. None of the points matched. It was all blue and white stars, none of it. But I I was pleased with it and my father, I took my father and he was chuffed to see it. You know he was really great. And then the winning grill. It's so embarrassing.
Speaker 2:The winning quilt was a big pictorial, a huge pictorial. I've never liked pictorial, and my father, just as they were about to give the award to this lady very, very well deserved, huge amount of work, my father said, well, I wouldn't even put it on a bed in east enders and it was I wanted. I thought that's it my quilt career is. But he was very supportive in in what I did. But no, he never saw any of my this and he didn't see me go from, because the last 15 years I would say a generous 10 years, 10, 15 years I've only worked in linen. Occasionally I'll work in another, you know cotton, but very rare. I like linen and I think a lot of people know me now mainly because I work with linen. I think that's because what many people did at the beginning.
Speaker 1:Sarah, when you were saying earlier about your stitching on the quilt, that wasn't perfect. Life is not perfect, is it? In fact, I think nothing is perfect. Things that are coming to my mind now. If you were to watch I know this is a bit random thought, but say, for example, you were watching Tom Daley do a dive and he gets the gold medal he would replay that back and go oh, but my left foot was just an inch out. Nothing is ever perfect. No, my right toe was sticking up. My right toe was sticking that's. That's where it would be with daily. It'd be toenail it's. Everything else is perfect. It's not even good talk about young boys in trunks, because we've already talked about bono and and bonkerton. Um, it's taken a whole other place.
Speaker 2:This oh, I know, I know, um, yeah, it's, nothing is ever everybody is going to be judgmental of their it. It wouldn't be right if you weren't judgmental of your things. Going back to old katherine hepburn, she always says that you know, as long as you've pleased yourself, you and one person is happy, meaning you, then everybody else it's just a bonus. And I definitely think that I've all the quilts I've made, bar ones I've made as a gift to somebody. I've made every quilt for me and if somebody else likes them or they get accepted into quilt con or get accepted anywhere. And I've been incredibly lucky to have to, well, have one piece acquired for the Quilters Guild for their permanent collection. That was about five years ago now, which is incredible. And then last year I had two pieces acquired by the International Quilt Museum of Nebraska.
Speaker 2:So for being a, you know, a little quilter from Hertfordshire, I, you know, I, um, I'm so touched with that. I am touched with that, yeah, and the pieces that I really, the ones that went to the states, there were pieces I really didn't want to let go. There were very personal pieces to me, very um, one actually had I'd printed off um, some um drawings of my father's and I'd incorporated that into it. It's the only time I've done it. But then I and they asked they asked two or three times about purchasing them or acquiring them and I thought you know what? They live on the back of the sofa, you know, and to have them somewhere like that is a real, it's a real bonus.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah so I let them go. I know they're in safe hands and you know Caroline Ducey um one of the curators. She she'll look after them.
Speaker 1:I know she will you know, coming towards the end now, then I mean, it's been interesting finding out a lot more about you because, as I say, you are such a quiet and kind of private person. But then we have this amazing joy and color coming through, um, from your work and, like I say, fried eggs, brilliant. And it's been great to hear about the history with your dad. I love that, the fact that he shouted out that to me, that to me, to me. You see, that's an expression of love from a parent. He doesn't need to turn around and go. I love you, sarah, and I love your work, and the fact that he shouts out I wouldn't put that on a bed in his tenters. It's just brilliant. What blocks do you think you've overcome in your life, sarah, to get to where you are right now? And maybe, what do you think you still have to overcome? What elements within your personality do you think, oh, I've got to learn to master that.
Speaker 2:Hand on heart. It's very difficult to try and come across that. I generally mean it and I do. I don't take anything for granted. I't, and you've got to. You know, even with friendships or anything like that or whatever you, you learn you only get out of a friendship what you put in. You can't just automatically assume that that friendship's good for life. I get over enthusiastic too much and I get too OTT and I do worry about that. I don't worry about it when I'm in it. You know like I met a lovely set of ladies this festival quilt. I had spoken to them a few times on Instagram. I think quite a lot of people know that I jump up and down in front of my quilts. I don't, you know, I sort of jump. So they asked for a group shot. So I said, yeah, fine, we'll jump. And of course I had them all jumping and then when I walked away I thought, oh, perhaps they're not jumpy people, so I have to sort of rein it in. I think they did. They were brilliant.
Speaker 1:And it's a great photo, yeah, but I think sometimes that's a great thing to do. We only learn in our lives, sarah, when we are pushed into uncomfortable spaces, and I think that you know. They always say, don't they, that you only learn your real, true lessons in life when things are very difficult. You know when you have lost a parent, when you have lost a friendship, this is when the growth comes. So I think sometimes you have to try these things. Tell those people to jump. If they don't like it, they won't do it again, but they might just discover they like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's still. There's still lots of things I want to achieve and lots of things I want to do, but I I haven't. Don't ask me what they are because I haven't figured them out yet. Obviously, one is to teach with yourself in the states. Yay, that's going to be great, it's going to be exciting, really looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:and and the thing with teaching is and you know, the the workshop I do the most of is the collage to quilt. I have learned so much from the students. There's lots of things I still want to achieve, but I haven't figured out what they are yet. There definitely won't be a book number two. I'll never do that, never in a million years. I loved the ones I did, but it was a one-off. A one-off. But there are other things I want to do a one-off.
Speaker 1:But there are other things I want to do. Well, we shall await in anticipation to see what those things are that you do. Sarah, I think you should do another book. Your first one was brilliant, but, who knows, you might change your mind on that. That's what life should be. It should be fluid. I think people who are set in their ways, I think people who have I've always been worried when people have said what's your five-year plan? I used to think it was bad not to have one, and now I think it's actually bad to have one, because I mean, who knows what's going to happen in five minutes, nevermind five years, and we change so much. How can you possibly plan for your life in five years? I look at where I am now, at my age, 54 years old. I think about myself at 49. I was a completely different person, and from where I was when I was 20, oh my goodness me, I was such an idiot at 20. I was such an arrogant idiot. So we're constantly learning and evolving, so how can you possibly have a five-year?
Speaker 2:plan. I think when you look back on, there's a lot of particular magazines always interview I don't know people like I don't know Kate Winslet or people like that and they'd say what would you tell your 16-year-old self? And I think everybody, absolutely everybody, hand on heart, can say don't be so worried about life or where the journey's taking you, and I think you can learn a lot from that. Yeah, I am worried about the future. I am worried about you know, will I still want to create? Will I still want to? Will people still want want to be inspired by me? Um, and I say that you know I had a lovely um message over the weekend from a lady in new zealand who just got my book and you know she wrote a huge monologue which was absolutely so touching.
Speaker 2:But you know that's it's, that's not going to last forever. Um, because there'll be a new book out next year, there'll be this, there'll be that, whatever. I know. Next year There'll be this, there'll be that, whatever. I know that and I can't take that for granted. But I hope people are still interested in what I do later on. But if they don't, then I just make the things for me. So life does send you a curveball, you don't know. Look at the way the world has turned out now with you know, angry people in the world, which is is you know how these people can live on a day-to-day basis with that threat and worry and hurt it. You know I take my hat off to them, I really do, you know. So we're, we're lucky, we, we don't. I don't have that much to complain about. You know, an odd lottery ticket would be nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agreed, I think as well, what you said there about if people you know were to drop off and no one was looking at your work anymore. I cannot see that ever happening, but if that was to happen, you would still be happy in yourself because you're enjoying your creating, and I do think that is a key to life. I think people who are seeking validation from other people to try and fill the void in themselves will never be happy. And do you know how I know that, sarah? Because I did that for years. I did that for years. I wanted everybody else to make me happy, and it doesn't ever fill you up. You have to fill yourself up in order to give to other people and be happy in yourself.
Speaker 2:I remember we had two dogs. The first dog was a Cocker Spaniel called Cromwell, because he had a round head, so he was lovely. Then, when he passed away, we got a Cavalier King Charles and on his little biography that came from the pedigree thing King Charles. Spaniards are always eager to please and I think that's what I would like on my headstone here. Like Sarah, who's always eager to please, I do. I'm very conscious about pleasing people, pleasing friends, pleasing family, pleasing. I want to please people but I don't necessarily want it to have praise back.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you've pleased a lot of people today in this podcast, Sarah, who've been listening, Apart from Bono? If Bono was listening, I don't think he'd be very happy. That will go down in history. He's not much to look at, but I think he'd be good in the sack.
Speaker 2:I'd be quite happy to tell him. I'd be quite happy. You know I spoke. Well, I bumped into very last couple of years ago. I bumped into Paul Weller Very lucky to bump into him and I sat down and had a chat with him for about 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:You sat on the street with him, didn't you, and just chatted. I mean, I loved that.
Speaker 2:I didn't particularly like Clash the jam and I thought that was a waste of time.
Speaker 1:He was okay, but it's honesty. People love honesty. Janet Clare has this great saying, which is no authenticity is magnetic, and she's absolutely right. If you're authentic and you're honest, it's a name dropping.
Speaker 1:I had a moment where I was friends with Noel Edmonds because I knew his makeup artist wife, who just had to start dating him, and then invited us to his house and I fell it. I threw myself at him because I fell over his dog. So I literally went to shake his hand and fell over his dog, which was called I think it was called Chips. It was a cat, called Fish and it was called Chips. And I threw, I fell over this dog and sort of you know, threw it at myself. I fell over this dog and sort of you know, threw it at myself.
Speaker 1:But I do remember him saying to me once you do have a way of kicking down the door, don't you? Now, I don't think that was particularly in a positive way, because I think when I met him I probably wasn't this was quite a few years ago I probably was still a little bit on the wrong side of being, as you say, a little bit out there. But I still want to keep some of that. I still want to kick down those doors, or perhaps just knock very loudly on them instead of kicking my way through. Well, anyway, you have opened some doors for me, for yourself, and yeah, it's been lovely. It's been lovely chatting today, sarah. So long may it continue and thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for having me you are very welcome, alright, and I love you, rachel, I love you more as what's it called as in tango.
Speaker 1:I do love you, sarah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take care thank you very much, you're welcome just before you go, lovely listener, can I ask you a favour if you have a friend who you think would enjoy listening to this podcast, would you mind please telling them about it? It helps me to spread the word and, you never know, they might get a life lesson out of it or, at the very least, just have a lovely 40 minutes of relaxing time for themselves. The second thing to say is that, if you have enjoyed this, it would really help me if you would give me a little quick like or a comment, especially if you're listening on one of the podcast platforms. It just means that when anybody lands on the page, they can see that people have reviewed it. They've liked it, enjoyed it and got something out of it. So if you wouldn't mind leaving review, that would be amazing.
Speaker 1:And the final thing to say is that if you are a business and you're thinking how do I get my message out there? Well, you could do it on this podcast. All you have to do is reach out to me. It's Rachel at Crafty Monkeys. All you have to do is reach out to me, rachel at BreakingTheBlockscom, and I will have a chat with you about it. I could do you a lovely little voiceover, you could get your message out to the thousands of listeners who regularly listen. All you have to do is reach out to me, rachel, at breakingtheblockscom. The details are below in the box. I'd be happy to do a voiceover for you and then we could get your message out to the thousands of listeners who are already tuning in on a regular basis to this podcast. Thank you so much for everybody. Thank you so much to everybody for listening and enjoying and saying the lovely things that you're saying. Thank you so much to everybody who's. Thank you so much to everybody who's subscribing, listening, liking, leaving comments and just generally enjoying the podcast.
