Mull and Malvern

A week on Mull as the chef to 12 birdwatchers did not leave me as much time to stitch as I had hoped, but it did convince me that "Strata" as it is currently configured is not what I really want it to be! I think it will end up as 2 smaller pieces! It did give me time to plan out an alternative,

drawing it up full size ready for when I got home.
Now I need to dye much larger lengths of fabric with Bren next Saturday so that I can really get a move on to meet the FoQ deadlines.
I also had time to investigate some wonderfully dilapidated boats, yes I know Pauline Burbidge has done these, among others, but I'd really like to try my hand at it. If its true that once a famous quilter had "done" a theme if any of us do it, its plagiarism, what price creative freedom!!
Yesterday I went to Malverm - my first visit - and I'm afraid I was a little disappointed. There were some extraordinarily well made pieces, but to me no soul, a lot of bed quilts which I would have loved 10 years ago, but almost no contemporary work. The exception was "Echinacea Purpurea" by Hilary Beattie from Lincoln which was a stunning hanging, full of detail and a really eye catching design. The programme was so badly put together it was a nightmare trying to find out anything about the pieces you were interested in! I'm unlikely to go again!