Just a little update..

 The little quilt top is done.  It's a pretty enough pattern.  I'd thought that I'd have enough of the border fabric to use as backing, but I'm slightly short.  It will only take a metre of fabric, but I've nothing that looks totally right at the moment.  Horrors of horrors, but I don't feel like fabric shopping right now.    When I do get it backed and ready to quilt, it will be the perfect size to practice fancier machine quilting techniques.

The plum tree is blooming.   We had quite the frost last night, so no idea whether it will still be in flower this afternoon, but it is pretty for the time it lasts.   The tree is fairly wild, shadowed by Cedar and Maple trees, so doesn't get enough  light or nutrients to produce more than a few small plums, which are sour.   Still, it's a glorious sign of the beauty of spring.  I'm just happy that the pear trees haven't blossomed out yet.  The pears are edible and abundant.   I've been debating trying to make perry with them this year as we've had several large harvests of small pears.  However, the past couple of springs, I've done some pretty major pruning to the younger tree and maybe this year will be the year that we get not quite so many, but larger and easier to harvest fruits.  The old tree is very old and hollow.  I fear that pruning would stress it more than necessarily.  It will have to come down soon, but until then, the pears are a delcious, old and sweet Bartlett  type and too yummy to lose if not necessary.

Scottish Traditional Dye samples by Margaret Stalker

Two nights in a row I've been to guild meetings which were energizing and inspiring.   The first was a new guild that I joined.  I've been debating this for a while as it's a bit of a long drive to get there but they are such an exciting and active group of people, that I finally broke down and joined.  The program was mechanical sock knitting machines, which was well presented but not quite an area of my interest, but the people and the projects presented were awesome.    Last night at my home guild, we had Margaret Stalker in, speaking on Traditional Tartan dyes.  It was more than fascinating.  It makes me want to veer off into deeper dye studies , play with tweeds and tartans, spin, dye and weave.