Posts

There and Back Again - An Unexpected Journey

Image
Outside of Thurso - looking out over the fields, across Dunnet Bay, with Dunnet Head in the background and the Orkney Islands beyond that.  In the movie, “The Hobbit,” Gandolf is trying to convince Bilbo to go on a journey. Bilbo is completely resistant and his response is, “We are plain, quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!” Gandolf goes on to woo Bilbo by saying, “You’ll have a tale or two of your own to tell when you come back. And if you do, you’ll not be the same.” Unlike Bilbo, Mike and I were eager to go on a journey and have an adventure. Like him, we did return with a tale or two. And we are not the same. I am often unaware of how things in my life are strung together until I look back on them.   You know that saying, “Looking back gives you 20/20 vision” ?  That is how I am able to see how God worked through circumstances and experiences to prepare me for my time in Scotland. Thr
2 comments
Read more

From the Highlands to the Homelands

Image
Leaving Thurso was hard. I will admit there have been far more tears leaving Scotland than there was leaving our Washington home. But that was probably because we knew we would only be gone for a while. We knew we would be returning to our house and to our family and to our friends. But there is no guarantee that we will return to Thurso, or even Scotland.    We felt so content and so at-home there in Thurso. We had made friends. We had groups of people we belonged to. We felt like we were a part of the community. We loved the pace of life there - no hurry, no bother.  After the packers had packed all our stuff and after the hired house cleaners had cleaned out the apartment, we stayed at the Forss House for our last night there - a big, old Scottish hotel with tartan carpeting. The Forss River runs past the house with a waterfall and the salmon run up twice a year. It’s a place fishermen like to stay. It's where Mike stayed for a week when he went to Dounr
1 comment
Read more

The FQQ’s Quilt Exhibition – and Other Quilty Things

Image
It’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed since the last Fat Quarter Quilters’ Quilt Exhibition. I was so hoping to be here again for another one, and I was.  Lucky me! Prepare yourself now for a lot of pictures of quilts. I want to show off my friends' work (and a little of my own). While some of my friends feel that I am a prolific piecer, I have not done a lot of piecing this year by my own standards. Instead, I decided early in the year to focus most of my attention on practicing my free motion skills with Daisy on other people’s quilts. However, that did not mean I didn't make anything ..... Not everything we make are quilts. This is a rug I made.  If you read the post, “Daisy Makes New Friends,” you will have seen a handful of the quilts Daisy and I quilted for others.   After that post, I quilted a few more for friends - mostly FQQs.  I would love to show you close-ups of the quilting on these, but this post is already full enough of pictu
1 comment
Read more