Easter Eggs and Fiddling Around

After an early start on Monday when I had a slight panic that I did not have an E-ticket for my flight home, I arrived back home at lunchtime then headed straight out to Finzean for a fiddle workshop with Nell. We were surprised that only 6 people had turned up for a Masterclass with Alastair Savage and felt it would be rude not to agree to appear in the evening concert. Nerve-rackingly, this involved learning a couple of tricky new tunes, arranging some harmonies and being prepared to do a couple of little solos and duets. Luckily, the small audience was most impressed and we were pleased with our efforts. 

I completed all of the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on the turquoise magic-spirals customer quilt then attached the binding and finished it off with a touch of machine embroidery. Immediately afterwards I loaded another variation of the same quilt which I aim to start next week. The customer has requested sashiko-style quilting because she used a striking Japanese feature fabric. 

I finished hand-sewing beads onto the fuchsia pink leather and later on will add a couple more rings which are close to the binding. Now I have started on the autumn coloured skin using amber, goldstone and tiger’s eye beads. 

Fenella has decided that she is in charge of the new hens so she was delighted when we collected our first eggs in odd shapes and sizes, including a double-yolker. Fergus was not particularly impressed that I substituted chocolate eggs for a Lindt bunny each this year even though they are irresistibly delicious.

I found the box of Dutch chintzes too tempting and I just had to cut into them. Instead of cutting 384 triangles with a template, I cut a pile of 4” squares to make a batch of quick half-square triangles. It felt like “bunking off” with so many other projects that need to be done - maybe if I get this little project done quickly it simply won’t count;)

Fenella and I drove down to Fife to visit my uncle who is really poorly. She showed him the ropes on his new iPad which seemed to help distract him for a while. He also enjoyed the gingerbread that we took with us. My folks were also there to see him and they decided to come and stay with us over the weekend. We made the summerhouse into a luxury guest bedroom and planted some new solar-powered lights outside by the steps. 

We had great fun waiting for Freya’s tall ship to arrive in Aberdeen, occasionally catching glimpses of harbour dolphins through the binoculars. She had a fantastic week with 11 other students from across Europe. She mucked in with chores, learned how to navigate, experienced sea-sickness, steered the ship at night, and took refuge from stormy weather  in Hartlepool. 

We had such lovely weather on Easter Sunday that we had lunch outside. This does not happen very often here, even in high summer. The simnel cake that had been badly burnt by my oven tasted fine after extensive surgery and it even looked presentable after we covered it in marzipan and fluffy chicks. The wild cherry blossom appeared overnight and reminded me how fast this year is going by already. It should be business as usual this week once I have got a reluctant boy back to school on Monday morning…