Boys, Girls and the Border Union Show

First the boys...

We visited Anne's wee flock of Shetlands last night to admire the lambs and their newly shorn mums. Two of the wether lambs will be coming to live here in August, to enjoy a long and idle life eating grass and giving up a lovely fleece each year. Well, that's the plan... 

And the girls? Still able to pose for the camera while reclining after a good long walk with Hugh at the weekend.

And The Border Union Show...this Friday and Saturday at Kelso. Always a good agricultural day oot. 
And tucked into the Food Hall this year (dangerously close to lots of lovely delicacies) you'll find the Crossing Borders stand. Drop by, stay and chat to us and stroke my lovely skeins of handspun while you admire the work of other CB members. Now's the time to grab yourself a booklet about our forthcoming Art Trail...

Warped Up

My Edinburgh jaunt today had a few bonuses. Once I'd handed over my visa application to the powers-that-be (with new improved pictures of self), I did a little light mountaineering round the endless tram works in search of sensible footwear before meeting an old friend. 

We were ladies-who-lunched in a nice wee cafe gallery that neither of us tried before. Possibly ate a little more than was good for us (didn't want to pass up on beetroot and ginger cake...).  

Then I carefully headed to the wrong museum to see the Stitching Times exhibition. Set off again in the right direction but spotted the banners promoting Weaving the Century at the Dovecot Studios in Infirmary Street and dived in there instead. Glorious! Such a wonderful selection of work on display and very accessible. You can get up close and really study the gradations in colour and texture that these talented weavers incorporate in their work - sometimes renditions of existing paintings, sometimes work designed specifically to be woven. And then you can hang over the gallery and look down on the working studio. (Also, if like me you are old enough, you can reminisce about when you used to swim here when it was the Infirmary St baths)

On until the 7th October, free, and a wee cafe there to keep your strength up too.

Social Media

..isn't a pleasing expression but there's no getting round that it's here to stay. Blogging and Facebook I enjoy but I have not tiptoed into Twitter yet. (note the yet)

Yesterday I attended a fascinating afternoon at Tower Mill in Hawick, entitled 'How to Spread the Word'. Accomplished authors Sara Sheridan and Nicola Morgan spoke about marketing, social media and e-publishing for writers. From their considerable combined experience they were able to give us lots of advice and examples of what (and what not) to do, and how to create and manage a professional but approachable online presence to promote yourself. Lots of lessons there for all creative people. The afternoon was facilitated by the excellent CABN which provides support to the creative arts sector in the Scottish Borders.

Spinning in the Rain

 Incessant downpours do at least stop me from getting sidetracked too often and the hand spun stocks are building nicely. There have been more additions to the Sweet Trolley of fibre blends too - so there are now Key Lime Pie and Rhubarb Crumble, Black Forest Gateau and Tropical Fruitcake to choose from. Buy the fibre blend to spin or felt and get the recipe too!

 After watching Linda and Ali at our recent-ish book artists get-together, I have been experimenting with making 'paper cloth' using muslin, salvaged papers and PVA. Amongst other things I've made book covers for my all-important India Journals! 

Talking of which, if you check the pages tabs at the top of the blog you'll find one that takes you to my new home for all my Indian experiences. It's there you'll find more detail about the residency/exchange, who the other participants are and what we aim to get out of it all.

experiments in stitch and paper