From Macbiehill to Venice

What a day and a half this turned out to be. When we woke this morning we were greeted with approx. 20 cm (8") of snow and I gave up all hope of visiting the quilt show in Ingliston, near Edinburgh, for the day. To make sure that I definitely could not get out the lane I even took Rueben with me and walked about 1 mile along to investigate the situation. Because there was a lot of wind as well, the snow had been drifting and was definitely too high for my car to go over it so I retreated to my studio and picked up my quilt to do some hand stitching.

Just when lunchtime loomed, I spotted a tractor with a snowplough attached to the front passing our gate going towards the main road, so I dropped everything, jumped in the car (John just managed to fling a snow shovel in the boot) and off I went. It was a bit of a slithering journey with back wheels spinning in the snow but I made it out!! Boy, I'll be a ice road trucker yet, all be it in a small Volkswagen which is not even 4 wheel drive.

The main roads around Edinburgh proved to be clear and wet rather than snowy so I made it to the show safely. One of the reasons I really wanted to get there was to see my Venice Journal Quilts and all the other JQs in the Travellers' Tales competition. Venice must be very popular (and who can wonder at that??!!) as there were quite a few Venice themed JQs.

Although I enjoyed the quilts and the retail therapy (I felt I really deserved to buy stuff as I had put in such an effort to get there! I know this is illogical but still!), the thing I love most about quilt shows is the opportunity to chat! It's great to meet fellow quilters as well as readers of this blog and simply talk quilt! Making art is quite a solitary occupation and writing this blog, although I love it, still is not as interactive as meeting people face to face.

To top it all, I also managed to return home without a hitch although my back wheels went away from under me occasionally!