Rural affairs

I attend the Lochwinnoch SWRI ( Scottish Women's rural Institute) and we are entering some of the competitions at the Renfrewshire Federation Show in March. I have been asked to contribute an embroidered picture in the Handicraft Table Alcove.

For the uninitiated this is a display of 6 different crafts grouped together in a pleasing way. The theme for this year is "A Touch of Spring"

The crafts have to include a knitted item, sewn item, embroidered picture,item in paper craft and two other different crafts of our own choice.

Our colour scheme is purple/yellow/green. I am doing a picture in Stumpwork as in the watercolour sketch above. It will be tweaked a little as I think I have made the "S" rather bold in doing it all in flat gold. I am doing it as trapunto with just a touch of gold.

I will post as the work progresses through the months ahead!

Other "classes" in the Show incvlude "Housewifery Table, Foursomes which is a mix of baked/cooked things and crafts. There are also various individual classes for crafts/flowers/provisions /baking etc.

So the rural housewife accomplishments are alive and well in Lochwinnoch :-)

The youth of today-----------------!

Last evening DH and I were priviledged to go to the most wonderful show in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by the students and past students of the Dance School of Scotland and the Musical Theatre School of Scotland both of which are based at Knightswood Secondary School in Glasgow.

These young people put on a show that far outpassed many a professional show from classical ballet to exerpts from Les Miserables and West Side Story with other things in between for 2 hours.

This particular show was called Celebration as this year is the 25th anniversary of the Dance School's inception and 10 years since the Musical Theatre courses started. Many of these young people have gone on to dance with the Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet and companies around the world.

We are so lucky to have such home grown talent and it is such a pity that it is the tiny minority of today's youth that get the headlines in the media are the ones behaving badly, and not the young such as we saw last night who are a credit to their generation for their dedication and enthusiasm

Off my soapbox now ( :-)

"Thus the whirligig of time------------"

Where does time disappear to? I last posted on the 9th November and I cannot believe it is now the 15th.

I am getting on with the November BQL Challenge Bag and also sewing away on various Christmas gifts. I had forgotten just how much time one needs to spend on when doing stumpwork embroidery. It is also playing havoc with my neck muscles----anyone know just how to avoid neck strain when bending over an embroidery hoop using a light and magnifying glass?

I subscribe to Alex Anderson and Rikki Timms "The Quilt Show" ( www.thequiltshow.com) and yesterday watched the wonderful section with the amazing Liuxin Newman (aka The Thimble Lady ) showing her skill in hand applique. She really is a very talented lady, her new book "Perfect Hand Applique" must be on my Christmas List!

Off to the local Plant Nursery this morning to get some winter-flowering pansies to brighten up the winter garden.

Otters and Stumpwork

A new piece of sculpture has been added to our lochshore path in the shape of the most wonderful wood carving of otters at play. This was sculpted from a tree trunk mainly done by chain saw. What I did not manage to photograph ( the battery on my camera ran out!) is the lovely bit where an otter is swimming in the pool in the centre of the piece. We have otters at the very quiet east end of the loch. Unfortunately a couple were killed recently on the road when there was heavy rain and they could not get through to another loch as the water was too high under the bridge and they took to crossing the road :-(

I have completed the stumpwork on top of this box. On to the next one!

Being a Domestic Goddess---------!!!

This past week has me being a domestic goddess and very little sewing of any sort being done ( apart from helping our next door neighbour's daughter with her Hallowe'en costume)

When friends come to stay you do have to make an extra effort (VBG!!) so the floors were polished and the house all sparkling clean and baking and cooking done well in time-----fruit loaf and shortbread as above for afternoon tea ; carrot and coriander soup,haddock fish pie, and chocolate mousse with the shortbread for dinner. To cap it all on Wednesday the car died in Morrison's supermarket petrol station forecourt and the AA had to be called out, upshot was I needed a new battery-----humph!!

Sunday brings more visitors for lunch, so more of the "Dom Goddess stuff" ;-) menu being Spiced Cream of parsnip soup. Fruity lamb casserole, poached peaches with amaretti biscuits.

Last evening we went to the cinema to see "Mama Mia" what a fun movie. It was a lovely sunny happy time to relax and not have to think !

We actually managed our lunch with a glass of wine in the garden today------goodness the first of November in Scotland---practically unheard of---mind you we were sheltered from the very cool NE breeze!

Hopefully next week will see me threading a needle again. The Fabric covered boxes will progress and it does take time to do the dragonfly wings for the stumpwork box tops---at least that is my excuse ( grin)