Day 7, once more, with pictures...

 As soon as I'm off the road, I'll post

So, here I am at Culzean Castle, and herewith day seven's post. I suspect the huge wall around the site did nothing for the phone and 'net reception. Nice site, clean, good showers, but their "short walk" was over 7 miles on muddy woodland tracks and by the time I got back I was utterly shattered. Worth the trek, perhaps?  The usual slightly random order for the images, I have no patience with the vagaries of Blogger uploading.

Autumn colour

Sunrise after a rainy night

And the Blue Bicycle is ready to go...

Autumn Colour at Blair Drummond

Biggest walled garden I have ever seen

And I was wrong about the biggest Monkey Puzzle tree - this one was by the entrance and was (is) stupendous!

Magnificent woodlands

And a burr to beat all burrs. My Inner Woodturner was salivating gently

Fairy rings everywhere

and little arrangements on stumps

Trees so tall I got dizzy looking up

Exploding fungi

Another wee city i the stumpery

Very large logs

Decorative browneries

After 3 miles, and I was beginning to despair of getting to the "farm shop" I was promised, this lovely rainbow and the accompanying shower

And a pretty isolated graveyard - this skeleton adorning a doorway

Another rainbow (this on the way back)

What an epitaph!

Assorted Celtic crosses

Wobbly tombs

This astonishing huge wall of Drummonds

And a roadkill - Guiness hat

These have taken over a hour to upload. Today's stuff after supper, I think

All In A Day's Work - Quilt Exhibition

All Saints Catfield (off the A149 north of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, UK)
We are all set up for our Modern and Retrospective exhibition which runs till Monday - 10 till 4 each day..
I'm showing my Trees In The Landscape set, and some of my Modern Quilts, Heather has a Retrospective, and as she is always busy, all her new Modern stuff, too, and the usual Old sewing machine.. Oh, and lots of nice things from Hampshire..
Plus, tea, coffee, ridiculous amounts of home-made cake, and at least 3 other Quilt or Flower exhibitions locally..
All in the lovely setting of the Norfolk Broads, what more can you require?

Quilters' Haven Modern Quilt days

And we played with Trees, and Tigers

Do come, 9 till 5 tomorrow (Friday 21st August 2015) and 9 till 4:30 on Saturday 22nd.. Free have-a-goes and try-it-outs all round.. And cups of tea

Durham Quilt Weekend; part the second

 A veritable Hive of Industry

 Measuring to make sure it's not too big

 Adding to the forest

Choosing sashings
Phew, such work, such enthusiasm..

Durham Quilt Weekend 2013

 Here I am in Durham (England) at the Region 15E Quilt weekend.. I'm in jolly good company, with Sheena Norquay and Lillian Hedley also teaching.. I have a big class of enthusiasts from all corners of the UK, and including the President of the Quilter's Guild!

 The classroom is fantastic, very big and airy, and with huge tables for all..

 So the first session was after supper, and all made Pieced Trees with a deal of enjoyment.. Some made two (and some made bushes too)

 And here is Today's Cute Owl..
At the Kirkleatham Owl Centre
Well worth a visit..

More tomorrow

Busy and Shivering

 This is one of my current projects, a 12 Trees in Black-and-White Oakshott fabrics.. The sashings were a puzzle that I had to headscratch a little to solve.  Layered and Ready To Quilt but I don't quite know how, yet.. I will make a version of the pattern for this.. It's about 50 inches high, and the grey stripes are the back..

And this is Venus Trees, (or possibly another title), layered and part-quilted today.  A lot of slightly odd and a bit random 6-1/2 inch blocks arranged into big nine-patches, overlaid with trees (actually, more trees, as some of the blocks are already treeish) then assembled and (so far) quilted on the block joins, and about half-way through diagonally on all the blocks.. Then there might be circles.. Or something else.. I'm pleased with this one..

It's for Holland in May.. I just hope I can get thawed out before then.. It's utterly, bitterly, freezing here, and I can't get warm.. I have so many clothes on that I'm unwilling to pee, and my hands are hurting..
Roll On Spring!

Friday, Tree Card.. Thursday's has gone for a walk..

Friday's card is called Green Trees, and was made during my Trees class at Vectis Quilters on the Isle of Wight.. Thanks to all for a great couple of days.. Uploading this from the Isle Of Wight ferry, which is steaming backwards out of Cowes utterly loaded to the gills with screaming children and football fans.. Oh, joy, oh, jubilation..
This card has been Posted..

Wednesday Postcard

 Volcanic.  Block print and commercial batik; black printed words on white, distorted to unreadability; prairie points with and without inset lines; hand and machine stitch
For sale; £11 including postage anywhere.  See link on the right for exchanges

And the first of two pieces (seen here in progress) made by cutting and re-assembling a black-on-white and a whitish-on-black screen print pair, with insets of this delicious strawberry red with white spots.
More of these later, when quilted

Blue skies and rain

It's raining.  The garden drinks and is happy.  I'm indoors and busy. This image from a few days ago in the Spring sunshine

Sun was out..

..and I got on my bike for the first time in months

Hallelujah!
And here's a fabulous bit of tree-bark to look at

Nice Link

Mad About Patchwork

in Canada has a nice post (click on the link) and is going to be stocking my Twelve Trees pattern.. Thanks Pam

Well, while I was out..

I left some dyebaths on the table, and pulled the drop cloth up over the trays to keep the public out and the wet in..Here are the trays

I have made rainbows on a variety of fabrics, then laid treated (with soda ash) fabrics on top to absorb another part of the dyes. Then I put these under the edge of the drop cloth

And went off to teach Trees all day in Suffolk.  Nice class, nice Trees, lovely hall.. Nice lunch.. What more can one ask for..
I am really going to enjoy washing these out tomorrow..
More images when done

The drop cloths are 100% cotton sheets, treated with soda ash and dried, then laid on the big table whenever I do anything the least bit messy.  When the white sheet is (almost) no longer visible, I wash out the cloth and use the fabric.  So far I have made one every two years and they are fantastic.  Here's a quilt I made with one piece, screen-printed and stitched on top of the accidental marks

It's about 3 feet wide and is very simply quilted, mostly irregular lines from top to bottom, with a hand-embroidered sun

Time for bed..