Sewing, Dancing and Hoping!

I have actually been sewing this week. We were in Kirkwall on Monday for the dentist, and I was supposed to go over again on Thursday for a Christmas shopping trip. The weather turned nasty and I wimped out. I am all right on the ferry with winds up to 40mph, but the forecast said there was going to be gusts up to 58mph, and my stomach lurched at the thought of it! Just as well I didn't go. There was torrential rain for most of the day, as well as high winds, so I stayed at home, baked in the morning and sewed in the afternoon. You've already read about the *** jellyroll, but I had just under half of it left and a full white one, and my friends will tell you I don't like getting beat. Stubborn is not the word for it. I had a think and started cutting. Above are three pieces of leftover fabric. I might show you tomorrow how far I have progressed.

This has been a strange week for weather. One day we have glorious sun and the next torrential rain. We had the Harvest Home Dinner Dance on Friday night, and from the beginning of the week the forecasters were predicting gales and flooding. for most of the UK. On Friday there were 120 flood warnings out for England and Wales alone. The Harvest Home is to celebrate a successful harvest. We had roast beef, clapshot (potatoes and turnip mashed together) mixed veg, beetroot and gravy, then pancake with a gorgeous caramel sauce and cream, tea/coffee, shortbread, a chocolate and a double of your choice (whisky, rum, vodka etc) all for $10 each. Then we had the dance. The original band cancelled, as they were worried they would not get back home for a few days, if the storm was a bad as expected. The band was made up of people who had not really played together before, but what a night. We stayed right to the end (2am) and had a great time. One of my friends, who was down in England, phoned to say their neighbour's car floated away. We have had high winds, but nothing like what was expected.

There are a few great Giveaways just now. Look at this new business and Giveaway -

The niece of fellow blogger Barb from Bejeweled Quilts by Barb has opened a new, on-line store. Click the picture to follow the link to the goodies. Barb is also giving a Giveaway, and what a Giveaway, to celebrate the new store opening! Go here.

Best of luck (but I want them!).

tich

Bonfire Night

I am a bit late in posting this, but I thought some of you might be interested. On Saturday night the island was invited to a bonfire and a fireworks display, to celebrate Guy Fawkes. To anybody who does not know why we have a bonfire with a Guy on top of it , go here.

The bonfire was built on Cata Sands, a well known beauty spot on the island, and which is the next bay along from us. The fire department built it in the bay, so that when the tide came in, the water would douse any lingering embers, and no children would be tempted to try and relight the fire, when all the adults had gone. The first picture is of the bonfire being lit by the firemen. It was huge, as everyone had been saving wood for weeks. You can see the reflection of the fire in some of the water, which had not drained from the bay. Everybody wore their wellies!
The firemen had difficulty lighting the front of the fire, (they are more more used to putting them out!), so the back of the bonfire was blazing away merrily, as you can see in this picture.
There was free soup and sandwiches for everyone, and more than £400 of fireworks, which, for a small community, was a lot. They were really pretty, but difficult to photograph! It was not too cold and everybody enjoyed themselves thoroughly! Thanks for all the hard work that went into organising this.

tich

Raffle quilt

Go here to see and read about the above quilt. You can have the chance of winning this quilt, and also the chance of helping Jess get to Africa. Go on! It only takes a click to go and see what this is all about!

tich

Yummy Material

On the way home from Penicuik, my husband made a one hundred and twenty five mile diverion in horrendous weather to take me to my favourite craft shop. Letham Crafts in Angus. The rain was torrential. It was so bad, the water was flowing off the fields, like streams, across the road. We kept on being diverted onto other roads, so it took us a long time, and, when we got there, I only had an hour before the shop closed. Letham Crafts is an Aladdin's cave for craftworkers. It is amazing! Years ago, when I started teaching hand patchwork in Angus, I asked the owner to get in some patchwork material. It was a long way to go, but I knew I would be able to get co-ordinatng materials, and that I would be able to SEE them. I like buying things off the Net, but I was really disappointed with the jelly rolls, so I wanted material I could see and touch this time. I was not disappointed. But what am I going to make with them? Any suggestions?

I decided to make something really simple with the jelly roll, as I did not like it, and did not want to spend a lot of time on it. I used just over half of it, to make twenty 10.5 inch squares (the picture shows half of the squares). They look dull and uninteresting. I thought I might cut the squares into four triangles and sew them together with a solid, but as I do not have enough in my stash, the blocks will have to go into the UFO pile, until I go off island again. Grrr!! I could have got it at Letham! Never mind. There is a patchwork shop, supposedly somewhere near Inverness. Another diversion, perhaps!!

Till next time.

tich

Transport Museum

Yesterday I said we had been off the island for a week. We went down to my daughter's and saw my granddaughters. We also went three times to see my father-in-law, who has Alzheimers.

Anytime visitors go to Glasgow, they go to see the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the Transport Museum. The Art Gallery had been closed for a couple of years, for renovation, so we wanted to see what they had done. Unfortunately there was a launching of a ship on the Clyde that day, and the museum was being used for the official council reception for the dignitaries. You can see some of them queuing to get in to the goodies! We were quite disappointed, but across the road is the Transport Museum, which is really interesting. My father-in-law was quite high up in Albion Motors, and a lot of the old cars manufactured by them are now in this museum. You can see some of the exhibits below. Yet again we were a bit unlucky. Glasgow Council are going to build a purpose-built museum of transport, so a lot of the exhibits, which we remembered, were not on display, and will not be seen again until the new museum is built. But just look at that little red mini! My husband and I did our courting in a car like that! Sigh!!

Till next time.

tich

Battle of Culloden

I have been off the island for a week, so have had no sewing done (except for a little embroidery on my granddaughter's school shirts!) I thought I had better post something, or you would think I was neglecting you - :-D

This is a small wall-hanging of the events that led up to the Battle of Culloden. I am not going to give you a history lesson on it (go here if you want to know about it), but I have always empathised with it, because the battle was fought on my birthday - 16th April, and I thought the reprisals were an outrage! It was the last battle fought on Scottish soil. I do not feel comfortable on the battlefield, just outside Inverness, and it is sad that no birdsong is heard there.

The wallhanging shows-

Top Right - The Raising of the Standard at Glenfinnan

Bottom Right - The Raising of the Clans

Bottom Left - The Battle of Culloden

Centre - Charles Edward Stuart

Top Left - The bereft Highlander left onshore, watching Charlie sail away, never to come back again. (Will ye no come back again?) Parts of the block are 3D.

I entered a block depicting the bereft Highlander into a Quilters' Newsletter Magazine competition many moons ago, and was one of the winners. My block was in part of the winners' quilt.

Jelly Roll and Santa

This is one of the jelly rolls that I bought a while ago. I kept on mulling over what design to use and was actually quite anxious about opening it up and actually cutting it!
I was quite disappointed when I did open it up. The colours are just not me. The pinks are not my pink, and I do not like the blue materials. But this is good. It will get me out my comfort zone and make me work with materials, which are not quite me.
I intend to make something very quickly. It will certainly not be a masterpiece, and it will definitely not be as nice as I thought it would be.
But it will make me use materials I would never have thought to put together, and perhaps it will turn out better than I think. I hope so!! (Sigh!) I intend to start it in a week's time.

On a happier note, I found one of my favourite books of all time, unpacking a box last week (yes, I still have lots of boxes to unpack, after moving here two years ago!) -'Twas The Night Before Christmas'. I was given this book by my Mother for Christmas 1954, and to prove how much I loved it, scroll down to the next picture.
This is the centre page of the book, and the 3D tissue ball has no tears in it after 55 years.!

Till next time.

tich