Oh dear, everytime we have a glimpse of blue sky and sunshine, we hope that it will last for more than a day ......... but after the bright end to yesterday afternoon, this morning it was back to grey skies (and later in the day it rained again). Even the birds were reluctant to be out and about this morning, but eventually they appeared on the feeders and the hawthorn tree
this sparrow preferred to sit on top of Mr Owl and watch the others squabbling on the feeders
we had lunch today in the Rhymer's Fayre deli in Melrose (I can't find a link for it). Malcolm had a cheese and pickle toastie (the photo looks very dark, but the table was dark brown and Malcolm was wearing a dark brown jumper!)
I had delicious cheese savoury sandwiches
after lunch we drove on up the road to Galashiels, and after a bit of a detour because of roadworks, we eventually found the Borders College campus. I popped in to see Tracey in HR, and she helped me complete the reams of paperwork. She also took a photocoy of my passport, to prove that I am me, and not someone pretending to be me! (Note to self, remember to renew your passport soon!)
and now for yesterday's sewing. I decided to quilt the scrappy batik quilt using a hoop. The first stage was to pass the outer ring under the needle
and then lay the ring flat
the quilt was then passed under the needle and the area to be quilted first centred over the ring
I passed the inner ring under the needle and pushed it into the outer ring - this is the opposite way to how hand-embroidery is put in the hoop
before I started sewing I brought the bobbin thread up to the top, so that I didn't stitch all over it on the back of the quilt
with the needle down ready to sew, I held the threads to the back of the needle, out of the way. Once I had worked several stitches on the spot to secure the threads, I cut the tails off
I stitched a meandering design, with big loops ........
....... all over the centre section (it shows up better on the back)
then I stitched a meandering sort of flower round the border - this shows it wandering round a corner
to finish - I have added another lovely tin to my collection. This one contained biscuits - we ate the last ones yesterday