Orkney Skies

The Orkney Islands are a truly amazing place to see beautiful skies. We visited several galleries and all the artists told us they are inspired by the Orkney Skies. I can see why.

These pictures were taken around the self catering house we rented on the island of South Ronaldsay.

This was the sunset on the last evening we stayed there:


And this was the view from the windows of the house one evening, and when I went outside...

I saw this on the opposite side of the sky:

You can see how this sunset reflected on the sky in the second picture, and how that sky reflected in the sea. The colour of the water was amazing. I have never seen anything like it.

These pictures were taken to use for inspiration for watercolour paintings, but I honestly don't know how I would ever do them justice.

WIPs On Wednesdays

Sorry for ignoring you.

It is once more Wednesday, time for Wips On Wednesdays on Esther Aliu's blog.

I'm still working on Heart's Desire. The whole quilt layout has been revealed. Have a look on Esther's blog to see her gorgeous quilting on it.

The centre block has had some things added to it in the last layout; more leaves and berries. I've started adding the leaves, some are still basted.



I'm still dithering which border to use, the one with the stripey scallops....

Or the one with the pink fabric with roses:

What do you think?

o-o-o

This is my other WIP at the moment: Vignette in Stitches by Leanne's House. The first block is still in progress. There is a LOT of stitchery to do.

I had a mishap with the mini-block with the bird and my name, I cut it slightly too small, so had to add a narrow border:

And my third WIP is this pretty sampler: Sampler aux Bouquets. Not a lot of progress since the last update:

I promised you pictures of Orkney sunsets in my last post, but they will have to keep for a few days, otherwise this post would get a bit long!

Thanks for your lovely comments on my Scottish wild flowers and all your well wishes for my legs. It turned out not to be vasculitis, because it healed all by itself within a week.

Sampler aux Bouquets & Scottish Flowers

First of all thank you for your lovely comments on my recent trip to Orkney.

Here is my progress on Sampler aux Bouquets by Jardin Privé
I started in the middle stitching Sampler aux Bouquets II, and I will add I and III to both ends once this part is done.




The colours Nathalie chose are so pretty!

And for those nature and Scotland lovers out there, here are some flower images I took last week whilst staying in Orkney.

This is the path down to the shore from our self-catering house. Unfortunately I did my legs in because of some flower or grass growing there. The rash has now developed into allergic vasculitis :o( But his means lots of sitting with legs up and therefore lots of stitching!

Thrift and wild orchids (I believe Northern Marsh Orchids) growing on a ledge near Brough of Birsay:

Detail of the beautiful wild orchid:

Lupins growing by the side of the road near the Hoxa tapestry gallery:

And foxgloves, which seemed to be growing everywhere:

I hope you enjoyed these wild flowers. Next time I will share some amazing Orkney sunsets with you.

Happy stitching.

Orkney

Since my last post, I have been spending some time visiting the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland. I had never been there before and was pleasantly surprised of how lovely it is out there. We stayed in a self-catering house on the island of South Ronaldsay, and this was our view:



Given the northern location of these islands, the sun sets at about 11 pm and it never actually goes dark.

We visited the Island of Hoy on Friday. The most famous landmark is the Old Man of Hoy, but seeing it involves a very long walk, so whilst my friends were doing that, I spent a long time in Rackwick Bay. I came across this bothy (old cottage) on my way to the bay:

And this is Rackwick Bay in al its glory:

We visited the Ring of Brodgar, an amazing ring of standing stones on Mainland Orkney:

And visited the Brough of Birsay in the north of Mainland Orkney. Unfortunately we arrived at the wrong time of day to visit the island you can see in the background. There is a little causeway footpath, but the tide was rising and we had to go back after only a few minutes:

I didn't have a lot of time to stitch, but I worked on Vignette in Stitches and started Sampler aux Bouquets.

We also visited an amazing tapestry gallery at Hoxa, on South Ronaldsay. The artist Leila Thomson makes enormous woven tapestries, some of them include beautiful words. A must see if you ever visit the Orkney Islands.

The islands are home to many great art galleries. One of the ones we visited is Jane Glue's gallery in Finstown on Mainland Orkney. I would love to go back and have some tuition!

Next time I will show you my progress on Vignette in Stitches and Sampler aux Bouquets.