After returning from cloudy France, North East Scotland was even damper and far more grey. We put the Yurt frame up but could not find a dry spell or a patch of blue sky for any outdoor photos all week. Mo, Tania & I pretended that it was summer and drank a couple of bottles of pink fizz in the Yurt on Friday night with the wood stove keeping us warm. Everyone seemed a bit gloomy so we took the children to the Banchory Show on Saturday. We ate hog roast on a ringside bench watching the pipe band and parade of prize winning cattle in the pouring rain until the kids begged to go home. On Sunday I took a chance and put the quilts onto the frame despite the heavy black clouds and poor forecast. I just about had long enough to take a good selection of outdoor shots. At least I now have permission to raise the Yurt at Aboyne Castle, where I first encountered Yurts. Mo and I may take it there in time for the Aboyne Games and if it is likely to be wet it can go up in the old barn called the Coo Cathedral.
I completed dyeing all of the white glazed chintz. They look like a proper faded seashore palette and I may try to whizz together a simple quilt in time for FOQ. Some of the fabric has been cut into jelly roll strips and some is 12" squares. I looked on YouTube to see if I could get a demonstration on how to roll the fabric strips professionally. There was a video by Nancy's Notions showing a cutting mat called the June Tailor Shape Cut Pro that interested me. Instead of investing a lot of money importing the Accuquilt Studio cutting system and then finding that no-one wants to buy my jelly rolls, I decided to spend £50 in the UK and cut enough dyed fabric to use in workshops. I remembered that I had bought a crimped blade for my rotary cutter and wondered if I might get a smart pinked edge on my cut pieces.
I received a promising reply from the Colorado Yurt Company when I asked if they would consider sponsoring a USA made frame but a decision has not yet been made. I spent a long time catching up on computer correspondence at the beginning of the week but I was frustrated by not receiving all of the replies that I had hoped for. I am starting to make checklists for FOQ and need to work out the size of van that I will have to hire. A straightforward customer quilt got done so I stared quilting overlapping circles onto a Yurt panel to make a pumpkin seed effect to be in-filled in places. At first I got myself in a muddle and made too many overlaps so I decided to make a feature of that corner and say that I designed it deliberately. I have got it sussed now and written myself some instructions for the next time. I have been drafting a list of workshops as I have started to get enquiries from Quilt Groups. I need to plan classes that are challenging but also achievable AND make up some samples. If I keep writing lists and ticking things off then I must be making progress!
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