the patchwork dress

edinburgh 9am

Forget-me-not

Hello again! Thank you again to all those who wrote and told me the flowers in the garden..
We've had...

..lupins and solomon's seal...

lots of buttercups and yellow poppies, and now some red ones...

Meanwhile, I've enjoyed the blog-break, but it's good to be back. My work has been extended until august, which is good news and the course continues with a rewrite over the next 2 weekends. Oh the sun is shining and I'd rather not have any more work to do!

I did squeeze in a couple of artist's dates over the last 2 weekends - although the second one wasn't really an artist's date as I went with Suzanne and Susan to Potfest up in Perth which is atmospherically set in a cattle auction. Bulls and china shops always come to mind. No photos, I just enjoyed it without documenting.

The previous weekend was Loch Lomond Quilt Show which was nice and local. These quilts were hung in the trees by the National Park Centre, although the highlight for me was the appearance of Jen Jones's Welsh quilts.

This is a detail from one of them. I've seen Jen's book advertised about the quilts, and along with meeting the quilt artist Pauline Burbridge, it was one of the highlights.

It feels funny coming back to the blog after a break - I almost feel a bit rusty - although there have been things I've wanted to share - like this formica during a teabreak at the quilt show!

and this poppy unfolding over 3 days...

...the black almost like eyelashes.

So thanks for coming back to read, and forgetting-me-not!

a day off out

After 12 days without a day off, on a job that was fun but also slightly testy - eg. trying to get paid or any information about getting paid was like David and a very big Goliath who was behind a wall somewhere and quite possibly deaf and not very interested either... but which did turn up some interesting finds (see tomorrow).

I had an artist's date to Edinburgh!...

after taking N to work, I found myself blissfully early on a train to the capital... lots of space, coffee and a bagel... an hour or so to daydream and look out of the train window on my way to see

this exhibiton at

It was wonderful to see his work in real life, as the tones and clarity can only be conveyed by the media they are shown on - to see the silver gelatine prints for real confirms his mastery as a photographer. I was also pleased to see he had travelled throughout New Mexico and a number of photos featured Taos and Hernandez.

afterwards across the road for more elevenses with Rowan, Craig and Jill from my writing course, here...

Afterwards I loitered along Princes Street enjoying the cold fresh air and emergence of spring...

(just noticed the reflection of the Scott Monument in the background)

any blossom?

...no, not here...

past the art galleries on the Mound...

where an exhibition by the RSA of contemporary watercolours and applied arts was going on...quite interesting

...nope, sorry, still no blossom here...

...ah, there it is - with the castle, ...of course.

in stitches at the SECC

Yesterday mum and I met up and went to the Creative Stitches show on at the SECC (6-9th March).

I must say it was much better than I'd expected. You can never tell with these things what they might be like. There were, of course, a lot of mass-produced and cheaper end stock being flogged...

...such as this Wool Dive, as I nicknamed it, which made me giggle. It reminded me of those soft-play areas you get for kids, but this version for an older generation, who showed no qualms about diving in and surfacing with a bargain!

In amongst it all there were some gems such as these beaded tassles...

which were part of a larger display about beadwork.

But the highlight for me, and well worth seeing was the National Needlework Archive's exhibition of work created by the WI. Most of it was retrospective from the 1920's, 30's and 40's and was really expertly and beautifully done. There was crewelwork, beautiful embroidered banners for each WI district, table runners and a variety of other pieces - some of which were almost Pre-Raphellite in style.

What struck me was not only the skill and artistry, but the colour choices - and the themes so often of nature, leaves, woodland animals. There were some unusual pieces as well, such as sweaters for seabirds which had been knitted for a bird sanctuary, and a 1922 pattern for Thrift Gloves which were beautiful hand-made gauntlet style ladies gloves, from what looked like flannel or blanket material.
Unfortunately no photography was allowed, but I thought of many people (Melissa, SallyAnne) who would have loved this exhibit. You can also catch it in Birmingham, the dates on this link.

The SECC (Scottish Exhibition Centre) is a funny world. It's one of those places a bit out of time, like an airport, where suddenly all these strands of life who wouldn't normally meet are thrown together. In the areas outside the halls are all sorts of Corporate style people in suits having power meetings (or something), mixed through with gentle grey haired ladies from the Isle of Skye who have come to see some stitchery. Chefs walk by in full whites and tall chef's hats.

Outside Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were having a photoshoot as a promo for the Glasgow Comedy Festival. A team of paparazzi shouting across to them. Doormen were hanging outside having a look. Across the river the new BBC and SMG buildings...

In the distance is the tower to the Glasgow Science Centre another Armadillo style building just tucked round the corner. Below the bridge the Waverley steamer sits in dock (you can just make out the red and black of the funnel), waiting for it's new season of excursions out down the Clyde to the Kyles of Bute and beyond. The masts of the Tall Ship are just visible on the right.

callander

Saturday was one of those wonderful blue sky days here.

There was something extraordinary about the light and the promise of Spring, that I decided to take a drive up to Callander.

This was the view from the bridge over the river. There were men on both sides up to their kidneys in cold water. I was having difficulty keeping warm just standing on the bridge! Ben Ledi in the distance is covered with snow. It really is a beautiful, and unusual place. Like many small Scottish towns 'on the way to somewhere' it has become a service station and fuel stop for coach parties and daytrippers. You have to run the gamut of chipshops, icecreameries and fudge sellers to find its depths. My favourite is a secondhand bookshop at the Stirling end of the main road, which always reveals a hidden gem.

The Ben Ledi café was always a favourite too, and that has now changed hands, or been upgraded to become Mhor Fish. The business have also bought the old-fashioned bakers at the other end of the street, and I am glad to see they have kept it's aesthetic of the genuine old Scottish Bakery.

On Friday night, inspired by this post, and this... I sat down and made these...

little notebooks using some old photographs I had printed out, but didn't feel worked for whatever reason. They really are quite small, 70mm x 95mm, being a normal size photo trimmed and folded in half.

I tied the insert papers in very simply with a length of reclaimed cotton tied in a knot. How to tie them could be an interesting variation.

I always like to have a wee notebook with me in my bag for ideas, and often when I've a lot on my mind to do or remember I carry a piece of paper in my back pocket with my list on for that day, so these are just a bit nicer and perfectly pocket sized.

embracing the monochrome

These endless weeks of grey and no sunshine can get a bit... well,...depressing. Apparently yesterday, the 21st of January was statistically "the most depressing day of the year". So I decided to embrace the grey, and see what I could find out there by going for a walk down to the loch.

The Aber walk runs from the village and gets it's name from the river that runs through here. It takes you out through the fields, where I disturbed this flock of wintering geese. Oops. They all flew off very noisily - you can just about make them out (need to get a better lens for that sort of thing).

Over bridges, through gates and stiles, down lanes, through woodlands...

passing bunches of snowdrops and wintery lichens...

to Loch Lomond, as it was how I remember it as a child, mossy roots and no man-made shoreline - just shingle beaches into the water...

I met only one other person, who lives in one of the cottages down there. We walked along together for a while and she told me about the name of her cottage, which had intrigued me. It derives from the name of Saint Kessog, and she told me they had discovered a 6th century font inside the building, possibly moved from another site. The Loch has a few Saintly, monastic and Christian missionary connections, including

this island... Inchcailloch

The name associates with "the island of the old woman or the nun" according to a local guide.

It struck me one day, looking out across the loch in better weather, when the form was reflected in the water to make a whole - that the island looked like a body. Perhaps more of a jellybaby. The Cailleach is the old woman, or Crone from Celtic myth who was often seen in the land masses such as at Callanish.

...more geese sliding across the silver...

At the end of this walk is a nature reserve. It's very beautiful and still down there, the occasional cry of a bird or 'honk' of a goose. I saw this ice pattern frozen in the marshes...

...and thought it looked again a bit like a woman's body (do you see it? -like one of those psychologist's tests!), a little like Olive Oyl from 'Popeye', looking out to the right?? - right? Maybe I've been looking at Inchcailloch for too long...

scraps

Last week mum and I visited Pollok House...

...which is worth a post in itself. But if you were ever a fan of Upstairs Downstairs (which I don't think I actually ever watched, but is ingrained in my consciousness) or the Duchess of Duke Street which I loved! - you will also love it here, because you can go down into the basement and sit in the old kitchen with it's tiles and old range, have a cappuccino and a piece of cake. "But only for 5 minutes mind, before you get back to work, clumsy child!" The remaining basement rooms and stores are given over to a Pantry style shop with biscuits, chutneys all that sort of thing, and a gift shop. "Not for the loiks of you!"(must've comeover all Duchess of Duke Street)

Sometimes I like what goes on behind the scenes more than the scene itself - and Pollok House doesn't disappoint with a cross-lateral corridor for servants, so they could access all the rooms without "..'anging about" the family areas. Coming out of the servant corridor where it crosses the main axis, you'd have to look both ways like crossing the street, incase of passing Gentry.

We were a bit early for the Christmas decorations, but they were decking the halls and fireplaces with holly the day we were there. If you live nearby and have never been, it is worth going at Christmas, as very festive but away from the commercialism of it all. They have a Mrs Claus for the children - which I like the idea of. The chap at reception was very keen to tell us that a house like this required 30 or so staff to keep it going. He then very kindly let us in for free! "...'ow will we ever thank 'ee, sir?"

My inquisitive nose is always out for the unusual, and I was immediately impressed by a stack of huge books, leather bound and gold embossed with the words Lady Maxwell's Scrapbook on the spine. I was a bit disappointed not to be able to see inside them, but later on found this case with one open...

... not a great photo (without flash), but to add to it all, laid out on a logcabin quilt!

Last week I also received my scrap swap package from Alisa in Canada.

Full of lovely scraps - just great... and photographing it this morning I thought of it as a book of scraps too...

...turning the pages to reveal another layer of colour and pattern...

...here is the logcabin card Alisa sent with the package. Reminds me of Lady Maxwell's quilt. Unfortunately Alisa has decided to stop blogging, but perhaps she will reconsider at some point, to share her quilts with the world.

Then, while looking for something else yesterday, I came across some scrapbooks I kept around the time I was at art college during the 1980's. I couldn't quite understand at the time why I had the compulsion to do this, but certain images would call to me, so I collected and composed them in themes and by colour... just like I do now with the recycled cards. Again it must be an ancestral thing, my Grandma was a colourist for a carpet manufacturer and one of her other grandchildren (my cousin) is now a stylist and set dresser.

Just goes to show brown paper and ribbon never go out of fashion - on the left is a Christmas spread from Good Housekeeping magazine in 1988!... and on the right, I must have had a latent love for quilting, as not sure I was even aware there were quilts in this picture until today!

No wonder there was often a cry of "don't cut that up until I've finished reading it" in our house! - although I did always ask! Wonder if Lady Maxwell ever heard the same thing.

More recently I began collecting images again - this time I put them into plastic sleeves, although now I'm not sure whether to continue, or go back to glue and paper again. As you can see I'm a bit behind with documenting... another of my 'jobs-to-do'.

But look... what's this?

...remind you of anything? I've always LOVED this image, and only today when I was downloading the photos I noticed it says "Handmade...all part of the charm..."
...maybe not the fishnet socks though...

a walk and a bit of patience...

I do have some crafty news to come, but I also love showing bits of Scotland and things discovered, so I hope you don't mind another 'day out'. It was such a beautiful day today, sunshine and blue skies - Scotland at it's best. We drove up to Bridge of Orchy near Tyndrum for a short walk.

The hills had turned with autumnal colours, and I thought of the colour of deer and how well they camouflage against this type of scenery.

We walked on a singletrack road alongside this river, and noticed a path leading down to it. I have never seen salmon leap in the wild before, but this must be a natural salmon leap - as several fish leapt and sploshed back into the water while we were standing there! No wonder the fishermen had set up the jetty at this point! I stood with my camera aimed for quite a long time hoping to catch a fish leap... of course as soon as I stood up and turned away I heard a 'splosh' behind me.

You may just be able to make out the mainroad North and the railway line above it chased into the hillside there, reputedly one of the most scenic rail routes in Scotland.

We also played about with the camera trying the macro focus with zoom on a very small flower, when someone else decided to come in on the shot...

...and again later on this wee chap - who I didn't see properly until I got home, warts n'all.

scotland in miniature..

We seized the day and good weather yesterday and went to Arran. It's only an hour to Ardrossan and a fairly quick crossing of 50 minutes - yet I am surprised how rarely we have actually been. It's an excuse to go on the ferry...

One of my favourite things as a foot passenger is watching the people coming off the ferry (in either direction) as we get on, and trying to decide if they are islanders or visitors. The man carrying a pedestal bathroom sink in a box was a give-away as an islander on the return leg, smuggling his house bit by bit back to the island.

On the return journey we were treated to a display by the airsea rescue helicopter practicing manouevres off the back of the boat. We didn't venture out to look, but from our table in the café we could overhear the kitchen intercom annonuncements of "another cheese and chips" - which kept me very amused, as I imagined them being winched aboard for the pilot.

My intention had been to walk to several ancient sites around Brodick while N went cycling, but when I got off the boat I had a sudden desire to get on a bus to Lamlash, as I'd be in Brodick for another 6 hours at least. I was really surprised when I asked how often the buses returned from Lamlash to be greeted by a frustrated bus driver. Frustrated because he was Polish, and 1. had misinterpreted my question and 2. couldn't find the English to explain the answer he thought I wanted. This was all very strange, so in the end I asked the rest of the bus, who pointed me to the timetables. I sat beside a man who explained it was the new Polish bus drivers on the island, who hadn't quite got the hang of things and were still familiarising themselves with the routes!

Lamlash was beautiful, peaceful and bathed in sunshine... overlooking the Holy Island, a Bhuddist retreat... I was immediately accosted by (some very nice) schoolchildren and their teacher to be part of a visitor survey. Perhaps that had been my mission, since everyone else they had asked was a local (perhaps they play that ferry game too!). As the buses are only one an hour, I decided to get the next one back and resume my standing stone pilgrimage in Brodick...

These magnificent stones are not obvious to visit, although they are on the estate of Brodick Castle and on the map. The road has a very high hedge on both sides, and I had to look into each field to find the stones. This pair are on the left and there is another stone by itself (a set now split by the road) on the right of the road behind another tall hedge. For scale, the stone at the back is approx 3m tall. The backdrop to these stones is stunning - these mountains and the Goatfell range were fully clear and dominated the island all day.

I've got a thing about bridges at the moment... so this was pretty idyllic...

They say Arran is "Scotland in Miniature", representlng many of the topographies and geologies in one small area... in which case...

this must be the Forth Rail Bridge (check out this link, just for the old photo demonstrating the cantilever!) and that area to the right... the North Sea?

*This picture is for my friend Suzanne - do you remember when we had to build 3 of these from matchsticks??

** I'm going to start a second blog all about standing stones, sacred sites, earth energy and related things here soon

cats, dogs and a trip to Largs...

Saturday
I have never been to a cat show before, and thought I'd give it a go.

...don't think I'll be rushing to another one. I LOVE cats - but this wasn't much fun. The cats were beautiful - amazing... but a pursuit bordering on obsession. In one room the cats were in huge cages with little curtains, pillows, and, in the same awful fabric - an elasticated litter tray cover!! One lady even sat infront of an empty cage with a FRAMED picture of the cat inside it... we didn't stop to ask...

Sunday
We went to Largs. I can't put my finger on it, but I love Largs.

...first of all a hazlenut latté for me, fried egg roll and orange juice for N. We sat infront of what could be described as a showcase of chutneys, jams and jubejubes.

... I couldn't help feel as if we were being watched. Possibly by a friend of whitedog's.
This was a lovely café called Craigmiles and had a proper Italian, holiday feel.

I used to visit Largs often because of the old Nardini's there, which was worth a visit purely because of the interior... sigh... It was an artist's date dream. You felt as if you were sitting on a cruise ship from the 1920's and any moment a Palm orchestra would start up. Can you believe it is still a building site 2 years after it closed down and is now to become 'Nardini's retirement apartments' ? Ah, that's progress I suppose. On reflection we decided the food was never actually as good as we thought it was, but worth it for the ambience. You can see some very nice photos (wish I'd taken some back then) on this blog... which incidentally looks like a good read and after my own heart!

For those who don't know Largs, there is a wonderful old fashioned promenade walk, with view over to Arran, Bute and of course the little islands of Cumbrae, with the ro-ro ferry shuttling back and forth in the sun. Also the site of a Viking invasion at one time - hence the full size statue of a chip eating Viking.

Phew, time for a sit down...