Scotland and Quilting

Mum and I got back from Scotland very late on Friday night. We had a lovely time. We stayed at Lochearn House in Lochearnhead, a B&B that I highly recommend, for the location, the atmosphere, the friendliness and hospitality of the owners, the food and yes, the quilting service. Lochearn House is owned by Dianne and Matthew; Matthew being the chef and Dianne the quilter. We ate like kings thanks to Matthew's stupendous breakfasts (smoked salmon and scrambled egg one morning) and hearty evening meals (home made chicken liver pate, warm duck salad, salmon in white wine sauce, sticky toffee pudding, lemon flan ...... shall I go on?)

Scotland is as beautiful as ever. We rented a car and managed to take in quite a lot of the scenery and visit some really interesting places. We motored through the Trossachs:



and took a boat trip on Loch Katrine, visited Lochs Lomand, Earn and Tay amongst others

We drank excellent hot chocolate in Oban, were awed by Glencoe and checked out a hydro-electric power station and a whisky distillery. After the distillery tour I decided to drive up the glen to the source of the water (Loch Turret) and on the way we had to drive through this little lot! I had to wait ages for them to move out of the way. No hurry, after all, they were resident and we merely visitors!

The weather was kind - mostly. It rained on our second day and on Friday we woke up to the world looking like this:

Whilst Mum and I were bombing around central Scotland, Dianne dealt with my quilts. Here she is in her studio:

And here's an action shot of my quilt being done on her Gammill long arm machine.

In three days Dianne didn't just quilt my monster scrap quilt, but also another smaller one I haven't shown you yet. They are both beautiful. I've got the binding machine stitched to the scrap quilt, and now have the mammoth task of sewing it to the back by hand before it's done.

On the knitting front, I took my Ribby Cardi with me for peaceful evening knitting sessions and now it's done bar the sewing up. In fact, it's blocking on the dining room floor as I type.