Last night I drove over to Eckford, where Sheena Norquay was scheduled to give us a talk, illustrated by a Powerpoint presentation. As I drove into the village, I noticed that the street lights were off (as we don't have streetlights, I was thinking huh, if we had streetlights, I would never switch them off!).. I parked and walked over to the hall, wondering why the outside lights weren't on (yes, I was a bit slow on the uptake!) ....... there had been a power cut. The hall was lit by camping lights and candles
so in the absence of her Powerpoint presentation, Sheena gave us an off the cuff chat about her life in sewing, and held up her samples above the camping light for us to drool over. We had a cuppa (thanks to someone in the village who heated water on their gas cooker for us!) ....... then just as we were thinking about going home - the lights came on! Sheena prompty fired up her equipment, and gave us her scheduled presentation ....... so we had a rather late night!
Then this morning, it was off to the Abbey Row Centre in Kelso for the first day of our 2-day workshop. As I had my sewing machine and workbag, I thought I would use the lift (which I usually avoid, as I don't like small spaces) and I was joined by two of our older members. It's actually a bit of an exaggeration to call it a lift - it is really just a platform which goes up inside a metal shaft. We had only risen a few feet when it ground to a halt (gulp!!). We pressed the alarm button - it turned out that this then dialled the emergency hotline, where after a rather difficult shouted converation with a young man who couldn't understand us ( and we couldn't understand him) we eventually grasped that it would be about 45 minutes until an engineer arrived. We could here people both above and below us complaining that they were having to wait so long for the lift to arrive ..... so after some very loud shouting (by me!) they got the message that we were stuck, and one of them sensibly went off to phone the Fire Brigade. To cut the long story short ...... we were rescued by these gorgeous hunky men! (who offered us a fireman's lift - we were tempted!)
so, on to the sewing! Sheena gave us a pattern to use, or we could draw our own - I decided to use her pattern. Here is the first stage, with the pieces ready to sew
stitched and trimmed
Sheena mentioned that as yet no-one in a class had split the scene ....... so of course I decided to be teacher's pet and split mine (another Scottish work for you - I was a "sook" ....... as in sucking up!) Here it is with the outer borders added
I was sharing a table with Charlie, who, using the same basic pattern, produced this stunning black and white version
of course we didn't work all day without refreshment ...... some of the group members very generously gave up their day to make us cuppas, and to serve lunch which was supplied by a local pub. The most delicious lentil soup and a vast platter of assorted sandwiches
I should have mentioned that there was a minor drama this morning when we woke up to this ...... the first snow of the winter!!
and what did the engineer do when he finally turned up? (long after the handsome chaps had rescued us)