On Saturday, I got up at 6.30, wished a sleepy Malcolm a happy birthday (I did offer to make him a cup of tea), got ready and headed off to meet up with 42 other ladies. Our destination - the autumn quilt show at Harrogate. Unfortunately, it is a rather long journey from the Borders to Harrogate ....... 3 hours by bus!! However, it was worth every moment of the journey when we arrived to see the stunning 'best in show' quilt - I'm always unsure about showing photos of quilts at shows, but this quilt will be featured in every p&q magazine over the next few months, so I don't think it matters if I show it to you here
There were some fabulous quilts (and one or two not quite so fabulous!) ........ here are a couple that particularly caught my eye
Of course a quilt show doesn't just mean quilts ...... it also means TRADERS!! So did I buy anything? Yes, of course!!
delicious fabrics
co-ordinated linen
could this be a future project?
a replacement for Malcolm's flexible curve which I have lost mislaid
Of course you can't spend a whole day away from home without having something to eat! The catering was excellent, and I really enjoyed my lunch
Later on I had a little icecream - mandarin, with little chips of dark chocolate - superb!
Yesterday morning we went to a local garden centre for breakfast ...... and came home with another owl to add to the collection. How could I resist this lovely rusty owl!
Having been worried about the lack of butterflies in the garden this summer ..... suddenly there are lots of them!
There have also been more bees about
Meanwhile, in the front garden, there were plenty of birds to watch ....... including the adult robin
and the young one, who is still just a little bit fluffy!
I spent most of the afternoon in the studio - I'll show you tomorrow what I have been busy with. Malcolm was also busy being creative ........ he was going to keep this driftwood sculpture that he made this afternoon to give me for my birthday next month - but he was so pleased with it, he gave it to me before the glue was quite dry!!
I decided to put it through in the back lounge, beside a wooden and metal sculpture which he gave me for my birthday five years ago (when we had lived here for a just few weeks)
The knitting update ....... I haven't had much time to work on the socks (and I had to take back several rows last night after dropping a stitch!)
To finish ..... it won't be long until I need to light the stove in the studio, so today Malcolm gave it a good clean and polish with 'black lead'