Manic day part 2

So I had to leave off quite abruptly this morning as I needed to get out to my next engagement, teaching 'Art quts by numbers'. The hall this time was very close to where we have been staying, which really does make things easier. From the outside Crathes Hall is very functional looking. I can't claim it was the most attrctive building from the outside but inside is a great village hall. The 16 tables fitted nicely, neither cramped nor rattling around. There are a reasonable number of sockets and heating that works. We arrived about 9.30, the hall was cold. By just after 10 we were able to turn the heating down, then by luchtime off. If you've ever had to teach in a chilly hall you will appreciate not only how impressive this is, but also how rare.I had a great group today they were very keen and worked amazingly quickly, with good results. I did get the impression I wore them out though as they drifted off quite early. Still they seemed to have a good time and really did achieve more than a lot of classes I've done. Perhaps the Scots are just a lot more efficient with their time. I am really hoping some of them will send me pictures of their finished work, as a lot of them managed to put a lot of personallity into their work. Bear in mind they were working with my designs and in many cases my kits, so managing to make a unique and characterful piece is quite an achievement.As we got away earlier than expected we had a shopping oportunity. Milton Studio is a lovely quirky little shop. Actually thinking about it, I am not so sure about little, maybe compartmentalised would be more acurate. If you would like to take a look they do have a web site, www.miltonstudio.co.uk. Parts of the shop were originally used for storing two carts and as a hay loft, and the shop in split into different stock in these different areas. Next to the cart garage you have a selection of quilting fabrics and thread. Coming into the garage there is the till and lots of goodies, from chocolate and ice-cream to art and crafts made locally. Heading up the stairs there is a small gallery with more from local artists (they are good and the prices are very reasonable) then you head on up to the hayloft. I would know more about the history of the building but I got distracted at this point. The hayloft is full of knitting yarns, beads, embelishments, books and well generic goodies. I think it would have been a very expensive accident if I hadn't had to get all my purchases on a plane.From here we went to meet up with Mo. She was our tour guide on Friday, and is very passionate about the area. She took us for a walk along the the river Dee. It is a very beautiful river. Stupidly I didn't take my phone with me, so I can't share a picture. Think a wide fast flowing river, occasional rocks, pines and bends. If you've seen a picture of a Scottish river, it's probably very similar. I realy have been spoilt for inspiration the last few days. I've been spoilt food wise too. My goodness do they do hospitality up here. Last night we were at a very fancy private club, with stunning and reasonably priced food, tonight Mo made us a traditional roast dinner. Traditional here (with chicken at least) is an oatmeal and onion dish, which hopefully someone will remind me of the name of. It was a big hit with Tet, so much so I suspect I will be finding out how to make it. I think I would like i but I need to find a sauce it will work with as I don't eat gravy and I think it wants something moist with it. It was good to have a chance to try something so obviously part of life here, yet new and exciting to us. Round off the meal with an apple and bramble crumble (with ice cream) and I am in heaven. Honest solid food, perfect.Tomorrow is my last booking here, at Touched by Scotland. It will be intersting to see a different area as this gallery is a little further afield and in a direction we haven't been yet. Who knows what we will see tomorrow, or who we will meet? Whatever happens I am sure it will be fun and probably give me yet more inspiration for quilts.

Manic, but fun

It wwas a packed day yesterday hance no blogging. We had an early start to get to the enue andd set up. You would be surprised how long it takes to decoate a venue, st up stands and put up signs. Still by the time the visitors were arriving everything was ready. Boy are people keen up here. It was an earlier start than I am used to, 9.30, but the crows was there on time keen to get at the traders. Frankly once the visitors got in there was no chance for me to get near the ales stands, I suspect the traders had a vry good day. Fortunately a very kind lady told Linzi and I we had to buy a copy of Quilt Mania and founr them for us. Both of us have had a quilt featured fron the Festival of Quilts. How cool is that?The morning speaker was Barbara Weeks. She gave a very interesting presentation on what show categories a given quilt could fit into. The talk was illustrated with many well known pieces and was very infomative. I hadn't actually thought about the lack of entry forms for the Festival next year. Apparently this is because they are looking at making some changes, and I will be interested to see what they are when they send the forms out. She is a very interesting lady to talk to if you ever get the chance.After a fabulous lunch (even Costso in Scotland have the idea of proper hospitality, I had thought th sandwichs for my opening were generous) we got ready for my talk. It was the most imposing venue I have spoken in. Good, but imposing. There is something about tiered seating that makes a place look more official. The talk seemed to go OK, but the audience was very quiet. It was a little unnerving until I was told this is normal for here. It was interesting to see how peoples reaction to me changed after the talk. Before hand most people had no idea who I was, and I think were a little confused by me lurking. Afterwards they could not have been more warm and welcoming. I only wish I could have brought them more quilts, as they so obviously enjoyed playing with them.A very fast clear up was followed by a good amount of driving arround. First we delivered some ladies to the train station, then off to hunt highland cattle. We were successful. I think I have arround 100 photos, so hopefully I will have at least one I can quilt from.

Cowie and bathrooms.

First thing in the morning I find toilets have a storng pull, however not strong enough to distract me from the amazing view here. How mean is it distracting someone like that. OK not very mean, just rather wonderful. After breakfast we were collected by Mo and delivered to Cowie. This is a small fishing village next to Stonehaven. We headed up the cliff with instructions to turn arround at the graveyard. After days of rain an gloom we were treated to a warm sunny morning, the best way to see the sea in my opinion. The Kirk is a ruin but very beautiful, perched on the top of the cliff. Hopefully I will have some good photos from it. Apparently the cliff is very fossil rich, but I didn't find any, we did find an amazingly black slug and some very pretty snails. Now we are sitting in a very nice little cafe bar on the seafront.

Oooohh, ahhhh, wow!

Is it a good thing or bad thing when you are coming in to land and ealise you aren't going to be somewhere long enough? I suspect it is a good but frustrating thing. This area has great bones, the land undulates beautifully and is punctuated by hills and rivers I can see why so many artists are inspired to create here. The people are pretty amazing too, boy do they do hospitality. I couldn't have asked for more. Met as soon as we got off the plane, navigated arround the airport then deliverd to a lovely house. The longarm workshop and yurt didn't hurt any either. We got to meet some more natives over tea who have offered to take care of us tomnorrow. How cool is that? It's looking like a full day of castles, landscapes and extra shagy cows. Yes I am hunting more subject matter for quilts, who wouldn't in such a fabulous place.

Ooooooooh

I’ve finished one of the outer borders for the quilt I showed you, and I am thrilled with it. OK I couldn’t go far wrong in my eyes given I am using silver bias tape on black background to make knots, but still, I am very pleased with it. I also found time to make a test piece (yes really) for the quilt as you go technique I have thought up. It worked exactly as I expected and I like it. I think it could be very versatile, and I have to admit I am going to use it got the outer border of this quilt, even thought it won’t appear until my next book. The technique I had been going to use would work fine, but I need the very fine strip anyway so I might as well do it this way. I can’t see me getting all four outer borders on before I go, each knot takes nearly 2 hours and I will need 12 of the on the long sides plus 4 corner knots (these should be a lot quicker). Still I should have one on with will be enough to give people the idea. I have decided that I will take this quilt with me for my talk at the regional day. I am not going to be able to take as many quilts as usual so I want try and take some special things to make up for it. Besides they really need to be pieces I can talk about for a while, or I will run out of things to say.

I’m finding I am more nervous about doing talks and teaching so far from home, than I have been about closer ones. I should say that close is a relative term but somehow this feels further. I guess it is to do with having to fly to get there. The daft thing is I am not sure why this should be any different to working closer to home. I will have to be a lot more selective about what I take with me, but I really aught to be able to do that. I don’t know where I could puck up emergency supplies if I do forget something, but as I will be staying with a quilter, I can’t imagine what I might need that I can’t borrow. I can only assume this is one of those things where the human mind is not entirely helpful. Maybe this nagging (but irrational) doubt is why a lot of people don’t like working further afield. I suspect that once I have done it and proved the voice wrong it will give up. I will let you know.

I guess I aught to get some sleep. Tomorrow I have to try and figure out how to write lesson plans without proper computers. I am sure I will figure out something, but it may not be elegant.

Server still down

Our server has eaten it’s power supply and our spare. I will be fetching it another one today but I will not be back up and running until at least tonight. This assumes that the mother board is OK, which we won’t know until we can get a power supply to work. You can contact me by phone.

Shopping should not be exciting

At least not just going to the supermarket. However when your car won’t start and you have under an hour to move it before collecting a 50 pound fine it does get more thrilling, and no not in a good way. I decided that I could push it out of the car park on my own, however I couldn’t then stop it rolling down a steep hill onto the main road. Fortunately a local friend was home and able to come and give me a hand. Of course I managed to get the car started once help was on it’s way. These things certainly have an interesting sense of humor.

This delay, and chatting to the very helpful friend kept me busy a lot longer than I had planned, so I haven’t got all the borders on the quilt yet. However I have now got the last pieced border on which is all stars. I really like where this quilt is going. I am trying to decide the best way to transition from the patterned black area to plain black. I need the outermost border to be plain as I am going to put more applique on it and I want my work to be visible. I just think than going from one to the other might feel a bit jarring. On the other hand it worked well enough in the center. Sorry the picture isn’t as clear as usual. I was working on my phone and I guess I was shaking more than I thought (and I suspect the background fabric is quite tricky to photograph as well). It looked OK on my phone, but not so great here. Still I am sure I will have my computer back soon and then I can put up a better picture. As yet if you need to get in touch please do phone me.

I had been going to reply to a couple of my Scottish students. Yes I do have kits and will be bringing them with me. if you search here for swan and rose (separately) you should come up with some pictures of the samples. Tropical Punch is one of the samples for the Touched By Scotland class.

Sneak preview

Well I think I've been hiding this for quite long enough. I have been working on this quilt (on and off) all year and so far it's been hiding. Now it is almost done I've just got to show someone. This is the sample I made for my book. Most of my students have stopped at this stage, but I want this one to be bed sized so I am adding another couple of borders before the final one. It does mean I am going to have a lot more work in my outer border but I think it will be worth it. Hopefully I can get at least the next border on tomorrow, maybe I can get all of them on if not finished. I really should be working on samples for next terms lessons. I think I have come up with two new to me techniques which, if they work out, I will be able to share. Obviously I need to take time to play with them before I teach them. So many ideas, so little time.The trip to Ikea turned out to have a quilty flavour. I managed to find a frame big enough for one of my prints (without needing a mortgage) and it turns out to be accomodating enough to take actual quilts. Large deep frames are generally too expensive for me to play with so I am very happy with this find. Also they have plastic containers with a hook designered to hang in the kitchen. They are 49p each and are very handy for scissors in my fabric room, and pens at the drawing board. They may also find a place at my new cutting table when I get that far.