Resourceful

I admitted that my sore throat was not getting any better and finally phoned the surgery but predictably, it proved impossible to speak to a doctor. Mo was able to provide me with a second-hand set of unfinished antibiotics which I took for a couple of days that seemed to ease the symptoms. I came across an interesting recipe for an onion and chilli gargle which I may try as a kill or cure remedy. I accompanied Fergus' class on another school trip at the local trout fishery and we all had fly-casting lessons. It was a beautiful day and we saw plenty of fish but they were obviously far too wise to be caught by noisy school children. Later that afternoon Tania I collected a bag of wild elderflower heads which had been in full sun so we hoped that they would help us to make a batch of perfect "champagne". We wondered if the liquid would look too brown since we chose to use unrefined sugar. Several days later I was amazed to find that it was actually fizzing in the bucket so we will bottle it and hope for the best.

Despite making several more batches of bread and some delicious brown bread ice-cream, which tastes far nicer than you would expect from its humble ingredients, I eventually got going in the workshop and completed the quilting on Celtic Circles2. I decided to keep it very close to the original version but there seem to be even more circles to paint this time.

On Friday I drove down to Stirling for the biannual QGBI Region 16 residential weekend at Stirling University. I felt a little guilty at taking time off to have fun when I have so much else to do but it is such a great weekend that I soon relaxed and began to enjoy myself. It is lovely to be catered for and spend the whole weekend sewing and catching up with quilting friends. Everyone is friendly and visitors from outside our Scottish region are made especially welcome. My tutor was Katherine Guerrier and all of the students were delighted with the work that she inspired us to create. The piecing techniques were not as complicated as they seemed but the results looked impressive. We tackled curved piecing fearlessly without any special equipment or fiddly instructions as Katherine's demonstrations were so well explained. I worked as fast as I possibly could and pieced an entire yurt panel using up scraps. It is a wackily random piece but by the time it has been quilted with circles it will fit in perfectly with all of the others. Many people made favourable comments about the Quilted Yurt and asked what I would be working on next. I have had a few interesting ideas ticking over for a while. However, I seem to have agreed to have a go at creating a suit of horse armour for the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in 2012...!