Lesson 8 was focal length.  I wasn't sure if I could fulfill this lesson as I was poorly earlier that week.    I think it's a middle ear infection as I was a little disorientated and sick on the Tuesday.   I felt better as the week went on and managed to get to my hairdressing appointment on the Thursday.

When I was chatting with my hairdresser she mentioned a place I had visited before but hadn't been for a while - Beecraigs Park.   It was a lovely day and I got some good photographs.

It was a nice walk ...

Another week another Digital Photography lesson.   This week was aperture priority.   I was attempting to get the photographs in focus with the background out of focus (blurred).


I wanted to get out and about and take some landscapes to try some other depth of field images but I am afraid the decorating has kept me indoors (except getting into the garden to take these photos).   We are all but finished the decorating - thank goodness.   I have started getting things back to normal again. 

Hopefully next week I can get back to my studio and get some sewing done - fingers crossed.

Lesson 6 was all about "noise" or blur - shutter speed.   I took many pictures with different settings but when you look at them, as the one above, you see little difference between them it's only when you enlarge them in PSP or Photoshop that you see the noise.   

The most difficult thing is staying still to take the photographs trying to avoid blur but I managed by sitting cross legged with my elbows resting on my knees.    This week (Lesson 7) we can use a tripod.  

We are busy redecorating the hallway - upstairs and down - so we are extremely ...

I have been busy working away on Lesson 5 of the photography course with Jessica.  Lesson 5 focused (excluse the pun) on shutter speed and shutter priority.   Having never before moved the dial on the camera from Auto this was a real eye opener for me.    I have to say I haven't returned the camera to auto.

The assignment was to take 3 "frozen moments".   This sounds easier than it was.

 I spent a day at the Falls of Clyde.   A 5 hour walk which was delightful.  The above photograph was one of many I took that day.   I ...

Lesson 4 on the Digital Photography class was bringing what we learned in the previous 3 lessons together.    We were to set up and photograph a still life.    Although this was very challenging I learned a lot.  

Yesterday I spent the day at the Clyde Falls in New Lanark.   I was trying to get some photographs of the Falls for Lesson 5.    The Peregrine Falcons are sitting on their eggs and we managed to see the  mother sitting on her eggs.  

The digital photography class is a wonderful class and I have already signed up for another of Jessica's ...

Lesson Two was all about light.   The sky photographs were taken in order to see how much colour there was in the sky.   I took these on the same day at different places.   One was taken outside my house and the other was taken when we visited the quilt shop in Jedburgh. 


Although we have had some really bad weather the Saturday we visited a new to me quilt shop was a gorgeous day.




 I bought new fabrics for my classes that start back in September.  I already have the designs and colours planned I just needed the correct fabric ...

I have just started an online Digital photography course.  Week one was to use the camera just as it is with no enhancement in any software to take pictures in our garden.    These are the 5 photographs, we were allowed 5, that I submitted to Jessica, the tutor, for comment.

I have already learned so much from the course and am looking forward to the rest of the course.  Details of the course I am taking HERE.

Now I just have to learn about the changes Blogger has made to the uploading of photographs.

Oh! it worked just fine when ...

I have made the Turkey Red quilt design available as a PDF for those who don't have Electric Quilt.   Click HERE to view and download the file.   I used to use Googlepages to make my tutorials etc available to readers of my blog but they have changes it to Google Sites and I am finding my way around it.  I hope the link works for you. 

I have finished making the tote. It has been great fun to make. I used Kaleidoscope Kreator for the four panels which I created from one of my own photographs. It's just like designing your own fabric - great fun.

Since I got my car it has been difficult for me to take my sewing machine to class. The boot isn't big enough to take my lovely fabric trolley! I have had to carry everything this past few weeks as I am teaching a get to know your sewing machine class. Norman saw this lovely trolley online and bought ...

I have completed Block 6 of the Latte Quilt. Actually I have made two of them. This is a lovely block . The flower hearts and baskets are stitched on water soluble and then appliqued to the background. This was a fun block to make.


I have been playing around with the Bernina circular tool on my new Bernina. This is the result. I am trying it on a bigger quilt but I need to practice a little more as it seems to be puckering a little too much for my liking. I have made some progress but I need to ...

I named one of my quilt designs Turkey Red and June asked about the source of the name.

Turkey red is a color named for the place, not the fowl. Turkey red was the name given to a red dye which had been developed from the root of the madder plant. The knowledge that madder was an effective red dye was not new. The Greeks, Libyans and Romans all used it as did the Moors. After its use was lost the Dutch rediscovered its cultivation in 1494 and for the next three hundred years were the world’s largest exporters ...

I bought some lovely Japanese fabric together with a plain to match - I can't remember what project I had in mind for it now. I have decided to make a tote using the plain fabric and some of my kaleidoscope designs from Kaleidoscope Kreator. It will be a nice quick project to work on whilst my Late quilt embroidery is busy stitching.

I took the photograph I used last summer and it has worked out beautifully. It is designed in Electric Quilt by importing the images from KK3.

I have been playing with two colour quilts this time. I love the simplicity of the red and cream/white. If you have EQ6 just click on the images to download the project files. You can play around with as many colours as you like.


My husband bought me Jinny Beyer's new book for Christmas The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. There are 4050 blocks in the book - and they are all in colour which is different from the other book of blocks I have Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman ...

I have been playing in EQ6 with two block quilt designs. Here is one of them. You can download the EQ6 project file by clicking on the image. Enjoy.

I have been busy playing around with EQ6 (Electric Quilt V6) and Kaleidoscope Kreator. Santa brought me the V3 upgrade for Christmas. I imported the images from KK to EQ and designed this quilt. I plan on playing some more and will post the results. You can get my EQ6 project file by clicking here.

I have managed to get another four Latte Quilt blocks made. The photographs aren't great as I have them stacked on top of each other and you can see the shadow of the blocks underneath but I think you can see what I have been busy with.

I have to say I am learning so much from making this quilt and I am glad I started it. I now have eight blocks made (two of each of the four designs). I think it's time to decide which of the blocks I want to make another two of. Whilst ...

I thought I would share some photographs I took on Xmas Eve. We have had snow every day now for two weeks, a couple of inches or more each day. Keeping the drive clear has been a major task.

The novelty has worn off and I just want it to go now. As I sit here writing it has started again covering all the clearing I did this morning. The trouble now is finding a place to put all the snow we move from the drive and pavement!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year however you may be celebrating ...

A very happy Christmas to all the visitors to my blog. Thank you to the people at Electric Quilt for the above animation which is available for download from their blog here.

We have both beel full of cold for the past couple of weeks but I have managed to get some work done in the studio.


I finished off the two parasol blocks by adding little flowers around the centre and outside embroidered stitches and also 3D flowers on the parasols and centre design.

I have also completed two of the Royal Bluebell block, Block 2 in the design. I had some problems with some of the embroidered stitches but I bought a new foot 34C and all was well.

I am really enjoying working with the Bernina 730. I made ...

I have been busy working on some of my own work but also getting ready for the start of my classes at Currie High School. The taster sessions went well with the Monday session full to overflowing, what a buzz, and the Thursday class was quiet but I enjoyed it.

On the Monday one of my students mentioned she would like to make a Christmas table runner and so I made this one this week, I hope she likes it, it certainly went down well on Thursday and so I shall carry on and layer and quilt it.

I bought ...

For September's EQ6 project I have been playing around with traditional blocks. I removed some lines and added some curves. Some work well some are not quite so good but it has been a lot of fun and I am sure I could come up with even more interesting blocks if I had more time.

I am offering the project file showing the blocks in their various stages of change to let EQ users see what I have been doing. You can download the project file from HERE. I hope you enjoy it and try to create some of ...

Huge congratulations to Mike Perham for becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single handedly - he's just 17 years old.

What an amazing 9 months it has been following young Mike on his personal challenge in Totallymoney.com. He is one very brave and talented young man. He stood up to every challenge he faced and he faced many.

Well done Mike.