Apologies for a brief and slightly late blog – it has been another hectic week... I even forgot to take photos but I am hoping that someone will send me some copies to add to the blog later.

I have eaten rather a lot of cake lately. It was my birthday last week and there seemed to be a prolonged period of chocolate consumption. I may be reaching the point where I will need to cut down. I had made up my mind that I needed a tweed jacket. The reason that tweeds are supplied by landowners to their gamekeepers is that they are so warm and also repel Scotch mist. Since we have had damp, grey days I thought it would make a smarter change from living in an old hippy jumper. I tried several jackets in various sales but they were all a bit tight or too blokey or I looked like I might be off to saddle up a horse. Eventually, I bought one in the sale at the fishing and shooting shop and have lived in it ever since.

I did not get a lot of sewing done which gnawed away at my conscience but I have moved almost everything into the workshop and absolutely love working in there now. George the Builder blocked up the last rotten window and I had to wait a few days before slapping on the white paint. My books are all on their shelves and I have a stash of neatly organised fabric in trolleys under the quilt frame. The windows all got polished and a rug thrown on the unpainted bit of floor so that everything was shipshape for the Longarm Machine maintenance class. Tracy kindly brought me yet more items from IKEA as my personal courier and now I have the challenge of a 9-drawer unit for threads to assemble.

My guest for the weekend was Mark Caraher from APQS in Iowa. My family and I enjoyed his company and he did a super job of teaching 4 longarm quilters how to check and fix their machines. He had already managed to fit in a similar session in Surrey for the owners in the South of England. The manual that we were talked through is great as it is all illustrated so I will feel more confident at trouble-shooting from now on. My Milli was in good shape; the frame got raised up again and all checked over. After thrashing over the dimensions with Tracy and Mark, it looks like I won’t need to do surgery on my quilt frame in order to squeeze a future Lenni into the studio if I simply add castors. It was most enjoyable hanging out with other longarmers for a couple of days, discussing threads, gadgets and sharing techniques. We had a lovely supper of organic local produce at The Milton Restaurant on Saturday evening to spend some time getting to know each other. All I need now is guest accommodation!

I was disappointed to hear from Ellen that she can’t now come on the MQX trip and the side jaunt to the New York Garment District. We always have such a laugh on out trips together and I felt that it just wouldn’t be the same without her. It’s not that I get lonely on my travels but people-watching is better fun as a shared experience! However, she has some getting better to do and should be fit again for a quilty trip later in the year...

Despite heavy rain and very wet roads with thawing snow I made it to IKEA in Edinburgh at last! I spent a small fortune on MDF bookcases, a half price linen cabinet and wire trolleys to keep my fabric stash under the quilt frame. You can’t go to IKEA without having meatballs for lunch so we did. We were amazed at what people were trying to squeeze into their cars. A plump couple were cramming a kitchen into their very small car. The suspension looked strained, the boot had to be tied shut with string, the driver could hardly do any steering or see out and the wife would have to be pulled out with a winch after she got wedged into the back seat. Another couple realised that the double bed and mattress that they had just purchased would not fit into their car. The Landy just about coped but it is designed to carry sheep, not flatpack so everything was piled up higgledy-piggledy.

I spent all of Sunday assembling my new furniture without help. I find instructions very hard to follow but I figured it out and impressed myself by putting together the linen cabinet – there were hinges, drawers, catches and all sorts of fittings to contend with. It was interesting to note that my quilt frame is obviously not altogether level as the trolleys did not all fit underneath as they should. I have decided to leave the Milli untouched so that the maintenance class actually has something to see and do. I used to tidy up frantically before the cleaning lady came when I was a teacher; she would complain that I left her nothing to do - so this is the same principle!

I have enjoyed working in the new studio. The new electric stove is terrific – it looks quite realistic and can easily be shifted. A woodburner would have been nice but not so adaptable. After figuring out where to put a design wall, I have ordered an office screen that can be moved and both sides can be used. It was great that everything was in one room so that I didn’t have to wonder if it was in the house or workshop. I spent 2 days cutting large pieces of Oakshott into random strips that I will use for some simply pieced panels. I feel that most of the panels need to be fairly simple to allow for time to do some intricate quilting. I also started some piecing but didn’t get as much done as I had hoped by the time I had also fitted in cooking, school activities and homework. At least I seem to have managed to spend slightly less time on the computer.

There was a discussion on the Accuquilt Studio cutting system on the APQS forum. It sounds like I could have got my cutting done in a fraction of the time using this gadget which seems to be like a giant pasta making machine for fabric. However, it is $950 plus shipping and customs so it will have to wait for a while! I collected my parcel of Filtec threads and had to part with an extra £30, most of which was handling fees. It would be more economical to place smaller orders so that the total value of the packages is less.

I received an email from Road to California with judges’ comments to say that my quilt looked good at the show, was well pieced but did not hang absolutely straight. I was impressed that they took the trouble to inform everyone of the winners and give some feedback so promptly. It will be shipped to Bonnie in New York after the show so I’ll see if she can work some magic on it to flatten it out before MQX. It is always a bit of a worry that it will be a bit squashed after travelling so far and hanging around in a box for weeks.

This week I have to get organised for the maintenance class with Mark at the weekend and do some spring cleaning in Fenella’s room. I was hoping to get on with the yurt piecing but George has reappeared to block up the last remaining old window so it looks like I will be getting rid of the dust and doing some more painting. It would be nice to declare it done. The inside looks fantastic but I will have to blindfold visitors outside so they can’t see the walls that are desperate for fresh paint when some warm, dry weather returns. I must remind myself not to start pig-keeping or any other time consuming “hobbies” until all of my renovations are complete!

This was the week that was meant to be spent spring cleaning the studio, sewing room and clearing out old clothes and toys... Due to snow and ice, school was closed for the whole week so none of these jobs could really be done. I was hoping that the new workshop carpet would arrive on Wednesday so that I could put all the tables back that had been cleared away. There was one on top of the chest freezer and the others were piled up in the longarm room. Needless to say, the fitters cancelled due to adverse road conditions. By Thursday I had cabin fever as I had let David borrow the Landy for several days and I had not been out all week. I took Fenella and Fergus with me on a trip to buy blinds, an electric screwdriver and yet another oil-filled radiator.

It seemed like a good idea to buy the cheapest, plainest roller blinds for the studio. However, you really do get what you pay for. After cutting them all to size, I found that the Chinese measurements given for setting the brackets were wrong so the first one simply fell down and smashed the mechanism. This meant another trip back into Aberdeen to get a replacement. It took me quite some time to get the roller blinds up and I have to pull the cord VERY gently or they simply fall off their crappy brackets. I wondered whether I should have made 3 pairs of curtains but had decided that it would take too long. I probably will make curtains now anyway because I can’t see the roller blinds lasting more than a few weeks!

All the disruption this week put me in a most frustrated mood. I was unable to use the workshop so just didn’t feel in the right frame of mind to get on with the yurt panels but I eventually found several useful things to do. I bonded with my new computer, loading up files from the old one which caught a really nasty virus and has since had to be reformatted. Luckily I backed everything up in late November so only lost a couple of documents and my old emails. I watched Claudia Pfeil’s DVD on longarm feathers which I really enjoyed because she seems to tackle them in the same order as me. It made me realise that my occasional feather phobia is down to confidence, not technique. In the end, I got rid of the doldrums by working away at a simple jelly roll throw.

The workshop carpet was fitted on Friday, despite the men complaining that it wouldn’t sit flat because the room was too cold. I was able to spend the weekend sorting out a new workspace.

I still have not made it to IKEA to buy bookcases and a storage system for fabric but at last, all of my sewing stuff is in one place! There are still some jobs to do like new lights, plumbing, shelving, and blocking up an old window but it is ready for me to work in and resume classes. It will free up a room in the house when everything moves out. Then we will have to decide what this room becomes. It has only ever been a playroom, sewing room or junk room. I think it should be a study or posh den but everyone in the family has a different opinion on what it should become.

My fingers are crossed that the children will return to school on Monday, I will go to the Post Office with a couple of packages and then I will get stuck into the yurt project at last...

After waiting 2 days for the paint to dry in the workshop, I splashed the second coat on top of the ice crystals that had formed on the walls. It really was Arctic and my hands must have been so cold that I didn’t feel the hefty knock that my finger took when shifting the old porcelain sink until it went purple later. I did enjoy listening to Radio 4 plays and interviews. I find that I can only enjoy talking radio when I don’t have to think about anything else. By January 1^st I was feeling a bit frustrated with the holidays. I was itching to get the workshop back to normal, ready to tackle some yurt panels.  I persuaded my wonderful friend Mo to help me get the ceiling drapes up. I had a go at it myself using a hand staple gun but it was far too difficult. She is a pro and has an industrial compressor staple gun.

The continuing snowy weather made a trip to Edinburgh IKEA impossible but I braved the roads to order a new piece of carpet from the Cheapo Carpet Shop. I crawled along sensibly in the Landy but met quite a few cars that were driving far too fast for the conditions. The main roads were passable but the side roads were white. There was a surreal sight as I passed a farm with ostriches in the paddock, scratching around in the snow. I wish I’d stopped to take a photo! Dog walking has been more of a trudge this week. Mabel has been sinking in up to her oxters. I can’t imagine wanting to be a polar explorer tramping through snow for months on end. It would be good exercise, though!

We braved the crowds in Aberdeen to do a bit of Sale shopping. Freya got some jeans, boots and a coat after a lot of searching and eye-rolling. Fenella bought a rabbit from the Bear Factory and I came away empty-handed. But I did see something that took my fancy in Schuh...  so I ordered a pair of shiny gold Doc Martens when I got home. They are very C3PO but I think they will be great when I am exhibiting the finished Yurt to pay homage to the touches of gold lame in the panels!

I have been pondering how to fit a Lenni quilting frame into the workshop in the future as the new longarm room is not quite big enough and I want to keep the larger room as a classroom/studio. I have trawled through the IKEA catalogue and cut bits of paper up to see how everything could fit in. The trouble is that, there are things that I don’t want to get rid of such as a large cutting table that I found outside and renovated and a couple of old treadles. They are not really essential items but I like them! I still need a cupboard to store quilts properly and I’m supposed to vacate the sewing room in the house eventually. I have worked out that my 14ft Milli frame needs to be 12”-18” shorter. I think that importing a smaller frame will be awfully expensive so I need to investigate a skilled metal worker who could cut it all down a bit and drill some holes back in the correct places.

The family computer seems to have caught a serious virus and would appear to be broken. Luckily I had backed everything up onto an external hard drive recently apart from emails. It meant that I have had to get to grips with Windows 7. So far I think that it is all a bit long-winded. Copying, moving and saving are a palaver. It should have been a simple task to transfer documents over from the HD but it did not just do it all automatically and logically. It makes me wonder if a Macbook might have been easier. I just need to spend a bit more time bonding with the new laptop. My main resolution of 2010 is to spend less time on the computer and more time quilting but so far I haven’t stuck to it successfully!

I have just spent half an hour in a very hot shower attempting to defrost after a day spent painting in sub-zero temperatures. I could quite easily have settled for a day finishing the latest Dan Brown novel and eating my way through a stash of chocolate but I decided that the workshop needed a lick of white masonry paint inside on its concrete block walls. One high part had never been done so will need at least one more coat. I had to climb a ladder because one end of the utility farm building that houses my workshop is quite a bit higher than the other end! At least I had an excuse to listen to Radio 4 all day from The Archers Omnibus and Desert Island Discs to Festive Gardeners’ Question Time. I will have to spend at least 2 more days on this chore. It is not until repainting starts that you really notice how badly it needs doing. Some areas were pretty flaky from damp but the walls should be much sounder now with new windows. Painting is a job that I always dread starting but I secretly enjoy once I am underway. I had a quick cup of coffee with a mince pie and cold stuffing for lunch then some cold bread sauce on parsnips for afternoon tea.

I did get the huge bedspread done in an even easier “contemporary” design of wiggly horizontal lines. This meant that I could spend the days before Christmas drinking sherry in the yurt and cooking. Tania, Mo and I exchanged a wonderful collection of gifts that good friends give each other. They always include Bombay Mix and I give them daft things like sweets with silly names and smoked paprika. Christmas Eve is always my favourite day of the Christmas holidays. I love the guilt-free whole day spent in the kitchen listening to carols and preparing for the Christmas Dinner. I glazed a magnificent gammon with treacle and spices. This gammon might have been Ginger but I am not convinced. The butcher was very shifty when I collected a fairly small box of meat from a pretty large pig and didn’t charge me. I think he ate, lost or sold the real Ginger and feels very guilty indeed. I collected a very substantial free-range turkey and used the imposter’s sausage meat as stuffing. I was thrilled that the replacement Kenwood Chefette arrived in the post and decided to rearrange the junk in the pantry to make a space for it. I was mortified to discover the original model underneath a stash of recyclable shopping bags – still, now I can mix 2 items at once just like a spaghetti western sharp shooter.

I thought that the festive snow would melt before Christmas but despite several attempts to thaw, it has hung on and is now solid ice with white slush on top. We are forecast for some more but I would like it to disappear when it is time for the children to go back to school and George still has a workshop window to block up.

An exciting new technology has arrived in our house. I ordered Sky TV for Christmas which is something I thought I didn’t need before. It is really amazing being able to pause and rewind live TV. For the first time in years I have been able to work out how to record programmes and if bored there are hundreds of obscure channels to choose from. I am told that vintage Eleanor Burns quilting programmes can sometimes be found on Rural TV in between the Country singers and tractor shows.

I’m hoping to make a trek to IKEA for some workshop storage racks and other non-essential but incredibly useful Swedish objects during the week. Perhaps that should be my “reward” if I manage to complete the painting marathon.

After the children’s school carol service it started snowing, making everyone feel very festive. I hope it doesn’t peak too soon and melt before the end of next week. I flew around doing last minute gift shopping until the school phoned to let me know that Freya had hurt her thumb and I ought to have a look at it. She was horrified when I turned up in my second-hand Drizabone waxed jacket and Doc Martens at the school party to inspect it. She was worried that I would take her away for an x-ray and miss the rest of the party. Far from it, I still had shopping to do! I decided to tackle the wrapping so I don’t have to do it at the last minute when I should be drinking sherry. It seemed to go on forever but I am not buying anything else – apart from groceries!

One thing I won’t be wearing over the Festive Season is the diabolical skirt that arrived in a plastic bag, shoved in the door by the dress-maker who made the unbelievably awful waistcoat. I had completely forgotten that I had asked her to make me a matching skirt in August. Maybe I can enhance it with the addition of some buttons or some clever quilting but I doubt that will do much to improve it. I imagined a panelled tweed skirt, cut on the bias but what I have is a tartan and tweed elasticated sack of wide strips… It will look great with my latest haircut. When I was at the hairdresser a short, trendy crop seemed like a good idea. Now that I am at home it looks like I may be considering becoming a nun or a convict. Still, it’ll grow back eventually.

At least I won the bidding on a retro Kenwood Chefette on Ebay. The postage was twice the cost of the mixer. I just hope it arrives before I have to whip any cream. I should look for knee-pads on Ebay. I have been constructing another enormous bedspread but my workshop is lacking tables and a carpet so I had to crawl on the freezing concrete floor to pin the borders and cut the backing. Putting it together will have taken longer than I intend to spend on quilting it. I am simply doing wobbly lines of quilting horizontally and will turn the whole quilt and go back the other way to get very lazy but contemporary cross-hatching. I think this is what I will do for my yurt roof on the whole.

I spent a few evenings watching Jamie Oliver cook up easy-looking festive dishes. With imagination, you could just pretend that a stale mince pie and custard is one of his recipes. I decided that I will roast a proper free-range turkey this year. It was a little eerie to drive past their empty field this week after watching them grow up since the summer so I will try to do it proud and keep an eye on it on Christmas Day so I don’t burn it.

I quilted at supersonic speed and got the Bloody Big Xmas Bargello finished and bound! I was quilting so fast that I think I have loosened the bolts on my quilting table – the whole thing feels decidedly wobbly so it could all do with a check-up.

I declared Friday a yurt day and night as I felt that it was all a bit neglected and there was a bit of mould on some of the rugs due to all the damp weather. I lit the stove in the morning and enjoyed coffee and sherry with friends. My Uncle paid a surprise visit for afternoon tea and as the fire was so toasty, Tania and I shared a bottle of fizz in the evening as snow fell outside. I think the yurt is perfect for Christmas entertaining so I gave it a Solstice Clean and filled up the baskets of logs and peat ready for the holidays. All I have to do now is finish the enormous bedspread, get annoyed in the supermarket, not let the children eat any of the Christmas food, start the workshop painting, run over the butcher if I can’t get Ginger back and decide whether to poison my friends with curried venison.

I hope everyone who reads this blog has a great Christmas week – eat, drink and be merry. Enjoy a bit of Christmas telly and sneak off into your sewing rooms when you get a chance… Merry Christmas!!

It would seem that a burglar has broken in, ignored all the modern technology and Christmas presents in the house and STOLEN my ancient hand-held Kenwood Chefette mixer. It has simply disappeared. This trusty old blender is irreplaceable – it has 2 sturdy beaters and a very fast motor that doesn’t get hot. It has gone a bit yellow with age and has a dodgy plug but I can’t live without it. I needed it to make frosting for Fergus’s Dalek cake. The substitute modern flimsy beater whooshed icing sugar all over me, the toaster and the wall so I threw it out! After watching lots of make-your-own Christmas telly, I decided that I would make some biscuits for Freya’s teachers and friends. I will have to write to the Domestic Goddess who wrote the recipe and tell her she got it all wrong. I had to double up the quantity of flour and they got burnt. The venison was delivered but I was informed that it was a bit “ripe”. Hmm, I don’t think you are supposed to get a whiff of Camembert every time you open the freezer. The Americans on the APQS Forum all gave sage advice on field-dressing deer but I don’t really think mine had the same care and attention. I will defrost it and re-sniff but Bambi Balti may be off the menu.

I spent a whole day in town doing Christmas shopping, helped Barbara at Milton Studio with her fabric sale and dutifully went out for lunch twice. I had been keeping a low profile with Quilters and only had 2 more customer quilts pending. This meant that I could start the New Year doing the Yurt stuff. However, a customer arrived with a basket full of quilts that she wanted me to baste/tack. I said I would rather not do that. There was one with large areas of appliqué which she wanted untouched and I have had strict orders not to “over-quilt”. There are 2 more that are crying out for intense custom which she doesn’t want. I will have to pluck up the courage to attempt some feathers and proper cross-hatching on a large scale.

My time-keeping is taking a turn for the worse. I arrived for the quilting project at School a whole hour early as I forgot that the time on my mobile phone is an hour ahead. I had to take Freya to Church as she was playing her flute with the School recorder group. She had already complained, “It’s so inconvenient – why does it have to be on a Sunday?” (I did point out that Church is usually held on a Sunday). I knew that she had to be there at 3.45pm so why did I decide that I needed to leave the house at 4.30pm to be there on time? I was even writing Christmas cards before we left as I thought I had half an hour to spare!

I finally started quilting the Bloody Big Bargello. For ages I thought about how I would quilt it - possibly a simple cross hatch or maybe I should use a template board… in the end I realised that all those seams had to be captured so shells were the best option. I had a frustrating first hour where the tension went peculiar. The test area of backing and wadding was fine but as soon as I reached the pieced area, the stitches were all over the place. The only different thing was the wool wadding. I think I need to adjust the height of the hopping foot but the screw is too tight and I can’t shift it. After some tinkering, I got going but I was not pleased with my quilting at all. For one thing, I have decided that I don’t like variegated thread. When the dark green part of thread crosses onto the cream squares, it looks odd. The trouble is that I am in a tearing hurry. I would have liked to have done tiny shells but then it would never be finished by Christmas 2009. It really is a shame if my own quilts get a lower priority than other people’s quilts. Really, BBB is meant to be a simple bed quilt so I should stop being so fussy and just get over it!

I collected a box of lovely tender Ginger bacon but the rest of the meat was not on the premises so the butcher promised yet again that he would drop it off “sometime”.

The one good thing about it being December is that I feel you can officially eat mince pies and drink a small sherry with friends at coffee time. We don’t tend to do this during the rest of the year so it’s quite a treat! I arrived for my coffee at Mo’s in a more dishevelled state than usual. I told her that I had been foraging and had something in the back of the Landy. She made a comment that most people forage for berries or wild mushrooms and don’t usually appear with a large deer.

That morning the dogs headed into the gorse 2 fields away from the house and started barking. I found them having a go at a wounded deer that had struggled up from the road with both of its front legs broken. I decided to take the dogs home and return to put it out of its misery. The sloping ground was so wet that I couldn’t drive the Landy up, remembering the poachers who got stuck on a neighbouring farm last week. Armed with a Stanley knife, I thought that if I cut its throat, it would die quickly. This is where TV gives a totally false impression of events. The deer seemed to cling onto life for quite a while with its big Bambi eyes looking accusingly at me. Rather than leave the carcass to the mercy of predators, I decided that Mo and I could make use of some nice venison so I pulled it out of the bushes where it turned out to be larger than I first thought. I planned to carry it across my shoulders like a gamekeeper but it was too big so I had to drag it back home which was heavy going. Surreal thoughts went through my mind - like if you ever murdered someone it would be VERY difficult to move the body!

It was a week of unusual happenings, actually. When I was driving back from Banchory on the back road one evening a huge cat shot across the road. It was the size of a fox, stripy, with tufted ears and a lynxy tail. There have been several sightings of Scottish Wildcats in our area and this was most certainly one of those.

I had an argument with receptionist at the Hairdresser. She told me that I did not have an appointment on Tuesday but I was insistent that there was a note on my fridge to the contrary. When I got home I shamefully admitted to myself that I had missed an appointment in November. This was the second time I have done that this year!

I received an email from “Road to California” to inform me that LSD has been juried into their January quilt show.

I will not be going to see it in person but decided that I will send it on from there to MQX as it will already be in the USA. I went to the Post Office to buy a parcel box but was told that they had been flooded a few weeks previously and the stock of boxes had all got wet and spoiled. This reminded me of customer services in Bethlehem 2000 years ago when local hoteliers all knew a large census event was taking place but they didn’t plan ahead and ended up with “No room at the Inn!”

I got dressed up in my new frock and shoes to accompany my husband to a posh work do. It was an absolutely fabulous carol concert in the Chapel at Haddo House. It is National Trust Scotland property decorated lavishly in 18^th Century style and crammed with enormous old portraits. It was also unheated apart from a few log fires so visits to the loo were kept brief. Champagne and canapés were followed by a sumptuous dinner in the library. It actually put me in the Christmas spirit and I have had to stop denying that the proverbial goose is getting fat.

The coming week is going to disappear… Mo wants me to squeeze in a bedspread, 2 sets of friends want to go out for lunch, I want to try and get to grips with the new laptop which won’t communicate with the existing modem and there is a fair bit of clearing up to do in my workshop. The messy stuff is almost done so I will have to repaint the walls and floor, hang new calico from the ceiling, wash everything down and put everything back. Finally, I will be able to use it as a proper studio again. I am organising my first APQS training session at the end of January when a technical expert from USA comes to stay. I also have a fairly large project to attend to!

I managed to squeeze in a quilt for a friend for her elderly mother’s birthday and load up another one ready to start next week. I decided that the “Bloody Big Bargello” is big enough at 96” square. I wanted to give it some borders but laid it on the bed which is not actually king sized and realised that it is already huge. Now I have to decide whether I can be bothered to piece the back or buy some wide fabric. The choice is not inspiring but it is quite expensive, especially since I want to use wool wadding and would prefer to get it all from one supplier so I don’t have to pay twice for carriage.

A letter arrived from the QGBI President informing me that my bid for the travel bursary had been unsuccessful and that they have awarded it to someone who has never been abroad for a quilt show. I wonder if the recipient will pass on as much knowledge on her return as I would have done. The Guild could have done with a resident longarm expert – YUK, the taste of sour grapes!!

My sister’s baby arrived safely so now I am an Aunt to Daniel. I have not been an aunt before so I suppose I have to decide whether to be indulgent or formidable! She and her husband are delighted by their new arrival and I’m advising her to ignore the health visitor even though I know she will feel obliged to do everything she is told by a professional, just like my Mother told me to ignore the health visitor…!

I attempted to go and fetch the bacon pig twice but on both occasions the butcher promised he would be driving past and drop it off. I have decided that I will need to hold up the butcher’s shop if necessary in order to reclaim Ginger – and there will be trouble if my Tamworth bacon has been swapped for a common pig!

I had a frustrating couple of days when the email was on the blink. It turned out that my website server had been hit by a virus or maybe lightning. It drove me mad and made me realise that I am completely addicted to email. I received a great letter from an ex- teaching colleague but she has moved to Skye and doesn’t have Broadband yet so it looks like I will really have to use pen and ink to reply.

I packed up lots of thread, gadgets and books for my trip to see 2 APQS customers in the middle of England. As it would have been a very long trip of more than 8 hours for the Landy, I flew from Aberdeen to Birmingham. Angie and her husband collected me at the airport. She had a mini quilt to wave in case she didn’t find me but the green boots were a giveaway. They looked after me very well and we spent several hours over the next 2 days testing out threads and freehand techniques. Angie was a very willing pupil and was relieved that we had managed to sort out a major thread jam over the phone the evening before I flew down. We even fitted in a jaunt to the impressive “Bramble Patch” where 3 workshops were going on. It’s a big shop with lots of studio space.

I travelled onto my next destination by train. I always like to give public transport the benefit of the doubt but there was a major breakdown in Birmingham so the short trip was diverted around the whole city and I missed my connection to Shrewsbury. By this time, it was chaos at Birmingham New Street and the trains were full. People were tightly packed in like sardines. No-one ever seemed to get off at any of the stations but more people fought their way on. A young couple drank most of a bottle of bright red vodka then he struggled his way down onto one knee and begged her to have children with him. She was understandably moved and everyone on the train was grinning. I wonder if they will stick to their decision after the hangover wears off.

Diana’s husband met me in Shrewsbury and we drove towards Oswestry (that’s almost Wales). I was made very welcome there too and after supper we spent a couple of hours in Diana’s studio giving the machine a good going-over. She had not managed to bond with her machine previously. There had been some teething troubles and eventually she received a replacement. We decided to start from scratch and talk about thread, tension and technique. She is actually a dab hand at pantos and even got me doing one. When I was a beginner I thought you had to stay right on the line but it always went wobbly. Now I see that you just aim in the general direction with confidence BUT lining the next row up and planning where everything goes with the tricky ones is a bit of a science! Diana has a studio and shop above a dental technician business called Castlecroft Quilter. She has an impressive line-up of tutors and a fantastic and refreshing range of fabrics. Since she struggled with tension issues in the early days she has a vast collection of thread. We tested a lot of them and decided that a different colour of the same type and weight of thread can behave differently to one that worked perfectly well before. Diana even demystified the Towa tension gauge for me. Hopefully she has gained some confidence and will now be able to enjoy quilting with her machine.

I was impressed by Aberdeen Airparks who had been looking after the car. They picked me up as soon as I had landed and had the Landy waiting – engine running, heater on ready to go. It felt great to be back in my own vehicle again. I had even toyed with the idea of getting a more practical car for my travels over the weekend but I just love that muckle, green beast!

George had fitted a new workshop door and insulated the workshop ceiling while I was away so all I have to do now is get the rest of the work done, re-paint, re-do the ceiling calico, get rid of the dust…

The new computer did not get delivered as I was out and they can’t say accurately when they can redeliver so perhaps I will have to go into Aberdeen to fetch it. There was snow on the hills this morning and I’m afraid the blog was a day late as I caught up with washing, unpacking, emails, customer queries and helped Barbara at the shop. And still plenty more to fit in this week…

This week’s weather is a mirror of my fortunes. Beautifully still and sunny one minute but torrential rain and gloomy the next. That’s a bit melodramatic but this week has brought several ups and downs! I have obviously been preoccupied since I haven’t taken any photos. I’ll have to go and find something on the web for this week’s photo…

What about a tattoo... shall I get one? This is a transfer so it would wash off if I didn't like it!

I finally finished the Kaleido quilt with spirographs and it looks great. Some of the designs are not absolutely central but it’s hardly noticeable. I even made full use of my channel locks to do piano key quilting; I only had to listen for the magnets to click into place for horizontal or vertical. I also worked away on the Bloody Bargello and have half of it all sewn together, the other panels are ready to attach and I really can’t see the mistakes now. So that was all good progress BUT still no sign of George the Builder, the Boiler Man or the Butcher.

I finally made up my mind to purchase a second laptop, small enough to take on my travels. I had hankered after a netbook but they don’t have DVD drives. I made some calls for advice, posted a query on the APQS forum about what everybody likes, talked myself out of a Macbook and settled on a red Dell. I purchased it online with my credit card BUT the cash that I had put onto it at the bank had not cleared so it was declined. I decided to use my brand new Business card but it was refused too. This is the card that I can’t read the PIN number on because it is a scratch and reveal system so sensitive that every time I get one I scratch it off completely. The bank said the card was fine and I had funds so then I called Dell back. After I had been put on hold, transferred several times and been cut off, I wondered if I had made a good choice. It got ordered and paid for in the end.

I was feeling great that I had been paid commission for my APQS sale and would be able to pay for the flights down to England on my credit card BUT then I received a bill from the architect who drew up the plans for the workshop conversion. He wants 6% of the lowest tender which is £10 000!!  I had to call him and say that since the work wasn’t going ahead on this over-priced project, £10K seems a bit steep. I reminded him that the original brief was for accommodation costing £80 000 max, that would give me an income to pay off the ensuing mortgage and now that I can’t afford to get the work done I have no income. I explained all this calmly despite feeling hysterical and he said he would draw up a fee based on the time spent working on the plans. I daresay he will still manage to charge £5000…

On Friday I gave 2 ladies a thorough Longarm Demo. They wanted to figure out whether they should invest in one to start their own quilting business. They had a long list of questions about cost, reliability, VAT, insurance, what sort of a market there is for longarming, extras, and techniques. They were very impressed by the R&S boards and the Quiltazoid as an economical alternative to a computerised system. They went away seeming very enthusiastic with plenty to think about and discuss.

I handed Tania a vast pot containing a bacon hock, lentils and veg and asked her if she would turn it into soup for the Quilters coming to the Area Day on Saturday. She made a wonderful vat of soup; I decided to forget about home-bakes and get Mr Kipling to make some “exceedingly good cakes” for me. The Area Day went well and I didn’t forget anything crucial. There were only 15 quilters there, including 2 very enthusiastic Young Quilters, aged 6 and 8 but they all enjoyed the project , admired my half finished Bloody Bargello, produced some wonderful quilts at “Show & Tell” , and proclaimed Tania’s soup delicious.

In a week where I lost 2 whole quilting days to working in the shop, attending meetings about forthcoming meetings and a school project it was obvious that the remaining time would be taken up by things not running as smoothly as they should. The boiler repair man failed to appear because he went to the wrong house, the dishwasher blew up with a bang and I spent 3 hours unpicking 3 minutes worth of longarming. I thought I had the sequence for setting up Quiltazoid spiro designs off pat; I had read the instructions several times, after all. I stitched a super spiro design but it was decidedly off centre. I looked at the DVD again over a cup of coffee and realised that I had not completed the set-up properly. I started all over again, checking that everything was in place but still the design was not as central as expected. It was at this point when it dawned on me that I have been working on a very wonky quilt. The blocks are not equal in size and the whole thing is skewed. I decided that this piecer would not notice what I was noticing at close range so stippled around the spiros and used my channel locks for some rather nice piano key quilting.

I had 2 new enquiries about APQS machines this week. I am delighted to be able to offer detailed and helpful advice but there are still details that I need to check and lots of emails or phone calls to the USA or Australia for advice. I had hoped to get 2 customer quilts done but that didn’t happen so the yurt project has gone untouched for another week!

I have made some progress with the “Bloody Christmas Bargello.” Something got out of sync in one of the first 2 sections despite keeping very orderly piles of strips. Perhaps I should have tackled this project all at once and not moved until it was done. No-one apart from me will be able to see the mistake and it is not destined for a show BUT that is not the point and I expect it will annoy me for some time to come!

My bank account is in serious need of funds. This week I have ordered Claudia Pfeil’s new Feather DVD, 5 sets of Darlene Epp Pocket Guides for Freehand Quilting, and plane tickets to Birmingham with a rail detour to Shropshire for a weekend of tuition at the end of November. I also phoned the Westin Inn, Rhode Island and made a booking for MQX since there was no availability on the Internet.

I can always spend quilting money without a qualm but I had to do some other shopping for a posh Carol Service that my husband’s company is hosting. After unsuccessfully trying to get a frock on in M&S, I dashed into Phase Eight where I instructed the assistant to locate a little black dress with sleeves that would last me forever so that I would never have to buy one ever in my life again – I gave her 20 minutes…she did it! I informed the shoe shop assistant that I needed black evening shoes that were wide and comfy, didn’t look like old lady shoes and would do for every posh occasion that I am ever invited to in the future. She had a sense of humour and that mission was also accomplished.

George the Builder managed to fit 2 new windows in the workshop and I have compromised on the stopcock issue. The new door will go where the old door was so we don’t have to dig up pipes and can get on with the job.

I had a near disaster when I attempted to take Fenella to a pony-riding birthday party but didn’t actually have any directions. I thought it was somewhere on the way to Stonehaven, realised it wasn’t, texted a friend who believed it was near a garden centre, flagged down a cyclist and a dog-walker and discovered that it was somewhere entirely different. In the end I found it, off the dual carriageway near Dunnotar Castle and was only 15 minutes late. I apologised profusely, the lesson was still getting underway and Fenella has been sworn to secrecy not to tell anyone at home how lost we were!

I was determined to learn how to operate my 2 new gadgets. Typically, I expect to attach the gadget and produce perfect results without practice. The reality is that it all takes a little getting used to. I bought some long template boards for quick and easy customer quilts and to show beginners how quickly they can get going. These were easy to set up but I had the occasional wobble and being a bit of a perfectionist, was a bit put out. I decided that if I was a complete beginner I would have been quite happy and on a busy quilt this would be completely unnoticeable. I decided to get a shorter stylus to eliminate any “play”. The other contraption that I played with was the Quiltazoid. At first I felt like I was learning how to drive and wondered if I would be able to remember all the steps of putting it all together but after a few spirographs, I was having great fun. The designs are fast and accurate. I especially want to produce Celtic looking patterns. I have even ordered a Spirograph kit from Amazon to fiddle about with some doodles.

I am irritated that new licensing laws in Scotland mean that I can no longer go shopping before 10am. Well, I can go shopping but I can’t buy any wine.  I really feel that this is a penalty that the Government is imposing on housewives in particular. I want to go for groceries first thing then get on with all of my other activities. Hardened alcoholics won’t be up and about at that time of day…!

The registration opened for classes at MQX in Rhode Island on Monday. I sort of knew it was coming but hadn’t really been thinking about it. When I received the email notification I felt like a rabbit caught in headlights – what decision to make? MQX or elsewhere or Houston? If I did decide to go how on Earth would I decide which longarm classes to book? Several emails flew between Ellen until we decided that Boston or New York should be the easier and cheaper flight from Scotland. I asked my husband if he would mind me going to USA for 2 weeks next April and before he had time to really consider it, booked 4 classes. We only have to sort out the accommodation, flights and the rest of the trip! It will be great fun. We are wondering whether to make a mini trip to New York while we are at it.

My first longarm pupil came to stay this week. Breda arrived from Ireland and we got along very well for her 2 day visit. She wanted to see if she should invest in a longarm machine for her small business making baby quilts. We discussed business strategies, suppliers, varieties of thread, techniques, gadgets and everything else under the sun. We went to visit a George machine in a table and she established that it would not be a realistic solution for a quilting business. It was a very packed couple of days. I was a bit of a slave driver and kept Breda practising so that she began to feel more confident with the machine. I have officially sold a Millennium on behalf of APQS this week so now anxiously await its safe arrival in the UK and need to schedule in a teaching weekend before Christmas.

It must be a sign that I have been rather busy and have not taken any pictures this week apart from Breda’s cat quilt. I managed to get it done on time so that she could see how various different patterns can be used.

I did some more piecing on the enormous Christmas mystery bargello for the Aberdeenshire Area Day but it is still a long way off being finished. Another week has gone by without any yurt progress and the forthcoming week is filling up with commitments, meetings and distractions. If I don’t make any significant progress by Christmas, I will have to batten down the hatches in January – refuse all customer quilts, not switch on the computer and stay in the workshop until I have used up every spool of thread and piece of tweed!

Aberdeenshire has had an incredible amount of rain. Water just runs off the fields. Our garden usually drains away pretty well but it is so waterlogged that a vast puddle is lapping up to the door of the yurt. I think sandbags might be a good idea. Despite the rain, I had a go at dowsing for the lost stopcock. I can’t plumb in the sink in my workshop or move the door until we find the tap to turn off the water and it is hidden somewhere deep in the shrubbery. I was delighted that Mo and I both managed to pinpoint the same area with our divining rods. One set even spun around wildly. We have followed a line from the outside tap to an area where I need to persuade my husband to dig to see if we have dowsed correctly.

The other magic involving water has been dyeing with the Columbus powder from Hungary. I want to dye larger pieces than is actually recommended so I decided to compare boiling in a large pot on the cooker and using the washing machine. The colours are fantastic. I have used white cotton prepared for dyeing from Whaleys just to see how true the colours are. They are very close to the colour card. In future I may use unbleached cotton for an even subtler effect. The dyeing can also be done in a jug in the microwave but obviously only with smaller pieces. My first attempt on the cooker was a little patchy but only because my piece of fabric was far too big to mix properly. I decided that I love using the washing machine. It was all rinsed properly and no dye residue was left behind in the machine. I bought 15 colours but there are actually 58 altogether. I think I will definitely invest in this product to resell in the UK.

I spent a whole day doing admin; emails, phone calls, filing and accounts. I began to get withdrawal symptoms from my workshop but I did get a lot done. I have persuaded Aurifil to allow me to order wholesale direct from Italy, The Edgerider Wheels company is keen for me to become a UK agent and I completed my first order form as the UK Sales Rep for APQS. I have been asked to do a talk and workshop in October next year by a quilting group and I will feature in a book on contemporary Scottish quilters published by Loch Lomond Quilt Show! I still don’t know where I will be going for Advanced Longarming classes next year. The QGBI has not yet announced who will be awarded the travel bursary – it would be fantastic to receive it. I spent an afternoon at Durris School launching a sewing project for Festival of Quilts 2010. I decided that they should enter the School Competition on the theme of “Cityscapes”. I actually offered to do a project last year when I was slightly less busy but my offer was only taken up recently by the school staff and I could hardly refuse…

I put up a super sturdy shelf unit from Costco. Once I finally worked out what the instructions were getting at it was really easy. My piles of tweed and other stuff look really professional now so feeling all organised, I finally felt ready to do some quilting. It took me a while to get started. I really felt rusty and lacking in imagination at first. I did a simple Christmas tree log cabin mini quilt then got started on a funky cat quilt with 3D parts. I was torn between doing simple quilting and doing my usual of “less is not more.” Now that I have decided, it is going well and Aurifil Mako 50 cotton is my new favourite thread. The tension has been absolutely perfect (sshh!)

HM Customs received £118 from me so that I could redeem my new Quiltazoid from their care. When I unpacked and saw all the bits involved I wondered if I would be able to understand how it all works. The instructional DVD is so clear that it looks like it will be a great tool. It is one of those gadgets that needs me to spend time to familiarising and practising all the functions – and some imagination to make the designs look really unusual. I want to make up some Celtic designs but I will want to fill in all the spaces, no doubt. It will be interesting to see if I can use thicker thread for the motifs and maybe paint…

The French holiday continued to be fantastique! I had a great time trying to remember my very basic French and picking up new ones… par example: “Wellington est un epangleur mechant!” The weather was bright and sunny until the last 2 days. I really enjoyed the markets, sitting in cafes, drinking wine and reading a book in the afternoon, stationery shops and the beautiful scenery of endless vineyards. I did not find any French fabric and the patchwork sections in the few Merceries that I went into were pretty sparse. I left the directions to the shop in Narbonne in the car – doh! As we drove further north from Edinburgh airport back towards Aberdeenshire, the rain got worse and it has hardly stopped since. The trees have now almost lost their leaves and everywhere is sodden. I could be quite easily persuaded to move to France. I could keep wild boar, make stinky cheese, run quilting retreats and wear my favourite stripy jumpers…

I remained in a holiday mood for another couple of days. There was a mountain of post, 439 emails and 10 phone messages. I need a whole uninterrupted day sorting all of my correspondence out. I have had a couple of requests to teach Longarming and even do a talk so I need to jot these all down in my diary. We had Fenella’s 6th Birthday party. She is delighted with her little red sewing machine and is quite happy just sewing scraps of fabric together to make Sylvanian Family blankets and pillows. We had hoped to have a campfire and some fireworks but it was too wet. We had traditional party games in the house and dangled doughnuts from the kitchen lights. There was pumpkin soup, followed by Splodge burgers and the usual party fare of crisps and cakes. Now I need to write out some Thank You letters for Fenella to finish off.

We spent Sunday moving and adjusting Milli into the newly insulated part of the workshop. It is definitely warmer in there now. This is a task that I had been dreading but we tackled it methodically and everything went back together again. I used the opportunity to put the Edgerider wheels on at last. I have had a very quick doodle and haven’t quite decided whether it is slightly stiff but it feels pretty good. I felt very rusty and in need of practice but I never feel that I do anything worthwhile on scrap fabric. I need a real quilt to make me try harder. It is tempting to move more sewing stuff into the studio but I need to leave a space to shift things when the other part of the studio gets insulation and new windows. If the postal strike allows I should have a fun quilt coming to squeeze in before a weekend of longarm tuition so that should help to blow the cobwebs away.