Malvern!

We are off to Malvern tomorrow for the quilt exhibition there. I'm really looking forward to it as I've found the last two shows we did great fun as well as meeting all sorts of people and putting faces to names. As I write Graeme is starting to pack up the car. It is always difficult getting everything in, especially making sure every inch of space is used!    If push comes to shove then it will be my clothes that get cut back! This time we have more fabric and more packs and patterns so it will be even more of a squeeze.

We are going to get a mobile home as it will not only give us more room but also will double as living accommodation for the three nights we are away at shows. I can't wait! As soon as Malvern is over we will start looking. In fact lately much of my life has become 'after Malvern' so I am going to be really busy when I get back. Hopefully it won't pour with rain tomorrow! We are staying at a place called The Wyche Inn which is very suitable for a gig so close to Halloween! I'm taking a witches's hat just in case! lol

Should you go to the show do come and say hello!

This and That and some dyeing!

This view signifies the end of summer for me. Empty beach huts and an absence of people. The summer is over....what summer! 














The following and the picture above are pieces of crazy patchwork that I have put together to work on over the winter. I like to have some hand work on the go and I have plans for these pieces! The above piece was made from scraps of beautiful silk that I had. 













The piece above and the similar piece below are the front pieces for an armchair tidy. I find these small holdalls very useful for keeping one's sewing equipment in one place when sitting on the sofa sewing.I have worked quite a bit on these two pieces and there is every chance that I will get the whole thing finished in the near future!














 The next piece is a longer piece which I want to use as a runner. I shall be very careful where I place any beads so as not to make a rough and  uneven surface.

  

And the last piece I put together to take away with me to work on but I didn't actually do an awful lot! 

This is a hanging I did some years ago to demonstrate fabric manipulation. It was cut hand-dyed cotton cut and re-shaped and then overlaid with nets and then machine stitched. It is actually straight but the way I took the picture made it look very crooked!
 
















I had net lying around and some hand-dyed fabric that looked like muddy fields so I did this study of leaves on mud. Very much an autumnal piece as is the next one which is similar though has more leaves. I love working with leaves! 






























The next pictures are of yesterday's dyeing. A range of light and dark half metres. I dyed five metres of fabric in a bucket and then cut it up into half metres. The dyes were literally thrown onto the fabric as I was stuffing it into the bucket!
















A slightly darker piece.















I did two lots of five metres and the second lot was very pastel as I was running out of dye and I just diluted it. Lovely pieces for skies and pastoral scenes!

This term in class I am doing an appliqué runner and this is it before sewing. This is a close up. The pattern is reversed at the other end!

I try to include at least one applique piece each year. The gooseberries were last years offering! We did a set of fruit blocks! 

 

Back Home Again!

Had a lovely break in Rannoch even though it was wet most of the time! However it was much warmer than I expected which was a bonus! Here are a selection of photos in no particular order. Starting with more fungi for the album!

The next two pictures are from the small chapel in the ruined church of St Bride at Blair Castle. This was a most interesting ruin! The first burial of John Graham was in 1689! And the second one two hundred years later! 

The memorial stone related to the graves above!
This is Blair Castle where we spent a most interesting day.  

 This is a view of Loch Rannoch from our apartment. Schiellian is the pointed mountain in the background. It is one of the Munro's. I have yet to climb it! There was a lot of wind while we were in Scotland and the Loch was as rough as Swanpool on a bad day! 

One day we walked up to the ruined village of Annat. This had been quite a large and thriving village until the clearances in the 1800's! It was quite impressive. We then walked on and round doing a circular route of about 7 or 8 miles. It was blowing a gale and raining and by the time we got back to the apartment I was exhausted...feeble thing that I am! 

This picture of heather is for Sue! She will know why! 

This small castle is in the middle of the Loch and the story goes that a clan chief built it to keep his wife in! 

The burns were in full flood after all the rain. This is the one that runs down the hill side in the village.The day after I took the first picture it poured and there was even more water rushing down.  

And last but not least for today ...I woke up one morning to see these two sheep peering into our bedroom window (large French doors)which was quite a shock. They appeared regularly after that!