Last day in Glasgow

Having had a bit of a sudden start to my day, a little poetry en route to the SECC this morning came as a welcome surprise and a few minutes reading and photographing this window by the entrance to the Art College were well spent.

Another slow start to the show meant that I could spare a few minutes giving the Extreme Knitting workshop a go. Rather fun - and we learned a very simple trick to keep a firm edge to a piece of straight knitting which will be useful in all kinds of projects.



After ten minutes or so, a small girl hovered on my right shoulder so I gave up my place in the hope that a youngster might get hooked! It was really great to see so many young girls taking such an interest in all kinds of crafts here. Let's hope they will continue to pursue needle skills of all kinds so that they don't get lost to future generations.

Five o'clock and the welcome announcement that the show was closing and the five Treasures set to work.

Two hours later, all that remained:

See you in Birmingham!

Wake up

Never underestimate the importance of reading the fire notice in an hotel room. Fortunately I was dressed when the alarm went off this morning and though I remembered to grab my hotel room key, my phone and my coffee before heading downstairs and out of the building, I forgot to grab my coat!

Luckily it was a false alarm and though three fire engines turned up, just one fireman left the warmth of the cab to investigate. We all stood on the opposite side of the road, as one curtain after another was pulled aside and a sleepy face looked out to see if anything was happening. Only after everyone was out was the all clear instruction announced (though did anyone check everywhere?)

A bit of a wake up for those who'd been out of the razzle last night. But for the good, clean living Textile Treasure....no problem!

A new word

I took my usual route this morning, past the School of Art, admiring the black ironwork as I dodged the raindrops.

The exhibition was fairly steady all day - hardly busy but there were usually enough people around to keep spirits up and to make conversation. There were not too many to prevent us from exploring one or two "opportunities" however, and at 2 o'clock, I joined the "Quick Make" workshop to do a Spiral Rope sample. I had played about a bit with this technique before but appreciated the reminder. Best of all was learning a new word - pochle - "the most useful word in a needlewoman's vocabulary", according to the Beadworkers Guild tutor and subsequently discussed at length with our Scots Rural friends.

Got a knot in the beading thread? Then pochle it out a bit and all will be fine. Miss a stitch? A bit of pochling will sort it out...

So, from now on, there'll be no bodging around here. We'll pochle away until it all looks great (even though it might have been fiddled a bit!)

Entertainment of the day came around 3.30pm when this chap came round with the Ewbank. As far as we could tell, he was making very little difference, but as he did our exhibition space too, we didn't complain.

And he withstood the teasing of a few Englishwomen very well, too!

Did you ever see?

...a stranger version of haggis, neaps and tatties?

Something tells me that this Glasgow restaurant has moved a little upmarket.

Another steady day which went totally quiet around 3pm. We met some lovely ladies from Arran, had visitors from Norway and Australia and thankfully, no challenges today!

We are the Textile Treasures

A happy bunch today meeting our friends from the Scottish equivalent - the Rural Women's Institute who've helped us with our exhibition. The show was fairly quiet at times but became a little busier in the middle of the day and, as usual, everyone was overwhelmingly complimentary about the exhibits. It's so rare to see "everyday" needlework of such quality at shows such as these and it's clear that there is a great deal of interest in it all.

The Scots ladies are so friendly and welcoming and it's fun chatting to many of them. The temperature stayed comfortably warm for most of the day until late afternoon when we were getting tired and it got rather chilly. We'll take another layer tomorrow "in case".

Three days to go...