Keep Calm and Ceilidh On

Finally… I corrected all of the typos that I could find, tidied up the photo files, figured out how to print contact sheets, stuck hundreds of cut-out pictures onto my draft and SENT my Ebook off to the publisher!! The internet has been slow here so I sent it as a parcel of printed pages and a USB stick. No doubt there will be some redrafting to do and the video clips to add, but it felt satisfying yet peculiar to have “finished” the draft at last.

I phoned Yurtman to ask him about finding a sail-maker to sew a new cover for the garden yurt but to my relief, he offered to do it himself. We measured up and discussed modifications such as a perspex roof dome and a porch. I hope he can manage to fit this job in soon so the kids can start using it again as the nights get lighter. 

I quilted Ann’s “Storm at Sea” quilt with a simple allover design called “Ebb and Flow”. It looked very nice when done and this just proves that not every quilt needs customised quilting. 

I didn’t want to start anything complicated during the Easter holidays or just before I go on my USA trip so I decided to have a go at using a piece of wool tartan that Mo gave me to make another Merchant & Mills trapeze dress. I knew what I was doing this time around except that I still managed to sew the neck facing and one of the sleeves inside-out! It is NOT perfect by any means but it looks pretty good and is a super colour. I almost matched up all of the tartan lines except around the hem where they went a bit skew-whiffy. I may have to think about fixing that eventually.

Tartan is a far more complicated fabric than you might think at first glance. I decided to have a go at drafting a quilt from a wool tartan sample. Where the weave changes there are overlaps of thread colour so a 3-colour tartan can have at least 9 shades. I tried using tiny graph paper but I think I might be better off using several sheets of ½” squared paper. Really, I should be using EQ7…!

My new tartan frock had an outing at Freya’s Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Team ceilidh. The team themselves made up the band and they managed to sell more tickets than they had expected so they are well on their way to meeting their target for canoe-training expenses and equipment hire. The dance floor was packed all evening with no awkwardness such as there would be at a disco. It was great to see so many young folk in T-shirts, kilts and converse shoes or Docs. 

Nell had a starring role in her last ever school show at Durris Primary. She played a great Blousy Brown in “Bugsy Malone” and many people thought it was the best school show that they could remember. The backdrop and costumes were super and the kids had put a lot of effort into learning their lines and songs. Nell must get her dramatic talent from me - except that I have never been able to memorise any speech or song words accurately!