I haven't posted all week because I've been hard at work on the art nouveau quilt. I must submit my entry forms by the end of this month and each quilt I submit must be finished before I take the photos to accompany the forms. I am so pleased with the way things are turning out so far, though, that I just had to share my progress with you.
Here you see the quilted hair in both full shot (or almost full) and detail. I used a variegated thread that went from golden blond to a rich reddish brown, just perfect for a Celtic woman. I've noticed, however, that her face is becoming a bit distorted by the quilting and also that I've put her eyes too far apart. Sadly, there is nothing I can do about that now, but I can help the problem, I think, by doing some strategic hand-sewing with thin thread. In fact, doing so should render her face more three-dimensional. As she is highly stylized, I'm not really too fussed about her eyes. After all, if we're going to get literal, we'll have all sorts of complaints about her proportions, not to mention all that hair!
I have begun work on her gown but have some finishing touches to make on that before I put up photos of the rest of her. I have done some foiling, adding a gold bracelet on her right wrist as well as gilding the Glasgow Rose. On her left hand, I have placed a gold ring on her first finger. There could be a rare gem on it but as her hand is palm out, we'll never know. Can you tell I am having fun?
In truth, I have been very busy this week. On Monday morning there was the long-awaited meeting of the Crieff Writers' Group where our guest, Perthshire Writer-in-Residence, Ajay Close, critiqued our poems. I was chuffed when she pronounced my rhyming one "a very accomplished poem"! Actually, there were many accomplished poems, several much more accomplished than mine. I think I have joined a very clever group of people. Our next assignment is a prose piece (truth or fiction) on survival. I've been thinking about the topic and what I might do with it all week. There was So and Sews that afternoon and then a tough but good chorus rehearsal that night. It looks as though we'll be in pretty good shape for our concert on the 18th as we still have 3 rehearsals to go.
On Tuesday morning I returned to Pilates after a 6-week absence. You may recall that I decided to stop out for a while because I was having trouble getting up and down on the mat and didn't find using the rings the teacher had brought in very satisfying. In fact, she stopped using the rings and, according to Trish who has been going all along, the sessions have been pretty much what we had been doing all along. This and my 17-lb weight loss convinced me to return. I was pleased on Tuesday to find that it was much easier to get up and down. More importantly, however, I found the exercises much easier to do than they had been. Instead of rings, the teacher was using weighted balls for many of the exercises. These I found very helpful and pleasant to use. My body has been telling me ever since I am doing something I haven't done for a while but in the long run, I feel better for it and look forward to next week.
Wednesday was coffee with the altos at The Royal Hotel as usual. The last concert of the Strathearn Music Society Series was that evening. Our guest artists were the Skampa Quartet from Prague. They were marvelous! Perhaps the highest quality performers yet and, mind you, they have all been very good. They played works by Haydn, Shostakovich, and Dvorak. Judging by the reaction from the audience and comments overheard during the interval (which immediately followed the Shostakovich), Don and I weren't the only folks to have been pleasantly amazed at how wonderful we found the Shostakovich. In fact, Don said that if he'd heard it announced on the radio, he would likely have turned it off without listening. He was so glad he had heard it live and played so superbly. Whata great concert to end the season!
Yesterday morning I held my first tutoring session with my friend Margaret. I taught her to do a crazy quilt block using paper foundation piecing. We had a good time and both look forward to the next session on the 22nd. We both have such busy schedules in the coming weeks that it will then be 3 weeks after that before our next meeting. She is off to London at the weekend to attend the premiere of her son, Gerard Butler's, new film, 300 about the 5th century Greek Battle of Thermoplyae based on a Frank Miller novel. It wouldn't be our cup of tea but some of our kids and grandkids could be part of the target audience. If you've seen the posters or a trailer at the movies or on TV, Gerry is the bearded guy wearing a red cape and looking as though he will eat you alive. Yes, he's the star! He's actually a very sweet guy.
I think I've mentioned before that Comrie and Crieff have (or have connections to) an inordinate amount of film talent among the younger generation: aside from Gerard Butler, there is Ewan MacGregor from Crieff (and his uncle Denis Lawson, from the previous generation--who played Gordon Urquhart in Local Hero and pilot Wedge Antilles in the first Star Wars), then there are two Bonham-Carter kids: Helena's aunt and uncle own the big farm at the edge of Comrie where she spent many summers; and her cousin, Crispin Bonham-Carter, who played that nice Mr. Bingley in the 1998 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice has had many other roles in both film and television. But I digress.
This afternoon I go to Aquafit and this evening the Friends of Cognac are laying on a wine tasting. I know what you're thinking: Didn't they just have a wine tasting? Actually, that was a chocolate tasting with infinitesimal amounts of both chocolate and wine to go with. There will be a coach to take us to and from Perth tonight so not to worry.
Anyway, don't ever let anybody tell you that life is dull in a rural village.
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