A Winter Hello

It's been a while but I'm still here!

 One more craft fair to go this Saturday! There was a good turnout of tables selling lots of wonderful things at the fair last Saturday, but sadly, not enough of a crowd spending. We'll see how it goes this coming Saturday ;) chin up!

 Going back a bit to mid September, I had the honor of a visit from Julie of Mixed Media & her lovely husband Stewart, staying in our B&B for a couple of days before their week in a cottage down the road from here. It's amazing, you chat to someone thru blogs for 4 years & when you finally meet them in person, they're exactly as you thought they'd be; warm, kind & great to get to know more about. It was a lovely visit.

 She very generously brought me a notebook covered by her fair hands, beautiful fabrics

 reminiscent of her wonderful Horizons quilt, I thought & now I have my own mini version! I've been

using it for notes & sketching.

 In return, I gave her a cuff & an earring to match - I did offer to make an as near as I could matching earring as a pair but now we are twins in our single earring wearing ;)

 When my sister in law visited the following week, there was one day available around work/guests arriving that we could  go off & explore. We chose to visit Sandaig, where the DH had been before with the kids, but in 14 years living here & looking at the Sandaig Light every night from our house, I'd never been. I was looking forward to going over to where Gavin Maxwell (of Ring of Bright Water fame) lived & looking back to my home on Skye.

 I wasn't sure I would be as sure footed as the DH on the 'bridge', specially as I was carrying the small pack at the time... So sil & I went along the path thru the person high bracken instead...which enabled me to collect 5 tick bites, 3 of which reacted with a red circle large enough for the Doc to give me antibiotics for 2 weeks to prevent Lymes Disease. 1 in 20 ticks carry it apparently so I had a 1 in 4 chance & the fall out if you don't have the anti B's is awful apparently. Next time I'll cross the river!

 In the middle of the pic above is a small byre & to the left of that was where Gavin Maxwel's house was, just behind the grassy mound. It was knocked down, what was left after a fire & buried to prevent visitors collecting souvenirs I think.

 & the above is a small part of what he would have seen. Skye is behind the rocks on the top right the coast of the mainland, left.

Such space

 a blocked up window in the byre

looking up from the grass thru GM's boat, well, there had to be rust

& one of the many rock mark pics I took ;)

Here is the actual lighthouse removed from the rocks by Sandaig, when replaced by a modern 'light' (I do find it comforting to watch tho, day in & day out altho at the moment it's invisible in the mist & stormy waves!)  renovated & saved for a tiny information point by the Glenelg to Kylereah ferry crossing, lovely to step right inside a lighthouse.

October was meant to be used for a production line towards the November craft fairs. I didn't want to leave lots of things to make for when I got back from my flying visit to meet my daughter in law to be's parents, & my family. Well, I made a start...

I also put 4 CD sized pieces into Inchmore Gallery, selected & cropped from a pile of monoprints in a wip pile. They've got to live somewhere, haven't they? They'll look good mounted up with a few inches of white around them when they come back.

I made up some hearts from the fabric I was making way back in September at my exhibition & stitched up a couple of books too. Then I got on with some red & blue reconstructed fabric, oh so many tiny pieces to stitch - I may go bigger next time. I took it away with me to hand stitch during moments of inactivity, marking out on the back  the things I wanted to make as I went along.

 

 Back home I started to cut & free motion stitch a purse, a book cover, a button & a card & a couple of cuffs, with a coffee warmer (I know), a coupe of hearts, a couple of glasses cases, earrings, more buttons, a needle case, maybe even some bits & pieces left over for some tags, inspired by a beautiful one that Sue sent me attached to a Brother bobbin. Oh yes, I bought myself a little Brother, the basic computerized one - frightens the life out of me every time I turn it on as it chirps hello!