Busy Times

As you can see, the quilting for "Hot Log Cabin on a Driech Day" has now been done. The machine quilting was done in slightly wavy and irregular vertical channels to look like rain running down a window pane. The hand quilting was done using big stitches and hand-dyed silk thread. This photo was taken at an angle so you could see the machine quilting.

I have now affixed the hanging sleeve and the binding and just have to tack the binding down by hand, which I'll do next Monday afternoon at So and Sews. Today, though, I will begin work on the third quilt I hope to finish before next Wednesday. I have been having a problem coming up with the image of a Hebridean island that I want to use. Today is "make or break" time.

On Monday morning, Don gave a talk to the local Inner Link Club about his new career in distance learning. It went down a treat from what some of the attendees have told me. One woman confessed that she expected to be bored to tears and was surprised to be totally fascinated. While he was at Inner Link, I was at the Writer's Group in Crieff with our Comrie friend Norma Nairne. We each read a prose piece on the topic of Survival. What a nice variety of treatments the subject received. I am so glad Norma kept after me for a year to get into this group.

Don has been able to play a lot of golf this week. His game has been up and down, though. The "high" for him was winning second place in the Comrie Senior Men's Round on Tuesday and coming in second today in the St. Fillans Men's Round this morning. Coupled with last Saturday's first place win, he has had quite a good week of golf! Sadly, he had to return his winners' cup from last Spring's Probus Club Golf Outing so that it is ready for the president to present to this year's winner. We need something to fill the empty hole on the sitting room shelf. Who knows what will happen at this year's outing?

I went to Pilates on Tuesday morning and on the way back through Crieff, stopped in at the Art Class Open House at the Crieff Bowling Club Clubhouse. I know a number of the artists who had works on display, Norma Nairne being one of them. There was some outstanding work by people from the area. I was most impressed with the range of styles and the amount of talent on view. Of course, Norma has been trying to get me to join this group too but I am not giving up Pilates for it. I was invited to join Inner Link too, but I have to leave time for quilting and gardening.

On Tuesday evening we went with Robbie and Peter Innes to Pitlochry for a unique theatrical event. We went early for a meal and then queued for the march up the hill to the Pitlochry Theatre's alternative venue, a warehouse, where the National Theatre of Scotland presented a play, Black Watch, which was a smash hit at last year's Edinburgh Festival.

We were forewarned that although the warehouse would have heaters, we'd still need to dress warmly, so we were all bundled up. Unfortunately, before the show began, there came an announcement that one of the two blower-heaters had "packed it in" and so it could be quite cold for that evening's performance. We were given the option of getting our money back or tickets to a future performance, but no one budged. On each seat there was a Black Watch plaid fleece lap rug to help keep us warm (ours to use for the evening). Coincidentally, it just happened that Tuesday might have been the coldest night of the winter so far as the temperature after dark fell to zero (32F). Many of us sat through the entire performance with gloves, hats, and scarves on as well as our coats and the fleece. Even though the actors were supposed to be in the hot Iraqi desert, we could see vapor coming from their mouths with each speech!

The evening was worth whatever we went through. The play by Gregory Burke, was based on transcripts of interviews with Black Watch soldiers from Fife in Scotland who had done 2 tours of duty in Iraq. It was honest and raw and had quite an impact. There was lots of action on the floor (the audience were seated on either side of the floor where the action took place) as well as on scaffolding and props at each end of the warehouse. Much of the action had been carefully choreographed and, in fact, was quite balletic in some ways. The sound effects were amazingly able to give us a stark impression of what strafing, sniping, and mortar fire might sound like as well as bombing and other explosions in the distance. The sound effects were handled so well that you got all of the emotional impact but never any of the ear-splitting discomfort that you might expect in a warehouse war scene. The acting was superb and wrenching. You can see a film of the trailer for the show at the National Theatre of Scotland Website. By the way, this is the same group which put on the outstanding and innovative staging of MacBeth which we saw at the Perth Theartre last year.

After sitting in the cold for 2 hours without moving--and in metal folding chairs to boot--we were perishing and numb when we left. Once home, I had a hot whisky by the gas fire to thaw out. I woke up on Wednesday with a sore back which I'm still not over. It was somewhat better yesterday and better still today, so I think whatever it was is losing its grip. I certainly hope so as there's nothing like a bad back to make you feel old and decrepit! Besides, I have too much work to do.