Thanks so much for your helpful comments about the Siblings Together quilt (yes, what does my husband know?:-). Opinion was mixed about the yellow and black combo and I have decided to persevere. Does anyone but me find it really hard to work with big prints? They seem so difficult to use without waste as I think they'd look odd unless the pattern is centred within a block.
I haven't made any progress though as the children have been doing "Scottish Week" activities at school which is when I realised that they needed tartan and the only stuff we have in the house is my husband's kilt. I went uptown and had a look in the tacky tourist shops - the kind that sell ginger wigs attached to hats - to see if I could find anything suitable and cheap (I probably felt more shameful slinking in than I would the Ann Summers shop next door.) No luck there but I did get a very fine McSween's haggis from Marks and Spencer.
I wimped out of one made in a sheep's stomach, which is traditional, but if you're not familiar with haggis I thought you might like to see the ingredients.
I promise it is very good! My children won't eat it though, and our friends have cancelled because of illness so my husband and I will be living off it for days.
In the end my local fabric shop came up with a metre of polyester mix black watch tartan which made two skirts (one which had to be delivered to the school as I was still getting the waistband on at lunchtime.) This was the first time I've made french seams - they turned out a bit whiskery and so I learned to sew a very scant quarter inch first seam, and a generous quarter inch second seam to make sure to conceal the raw edges. They look ok though and apparently the performances of "The Gruffalo" translated into Scots and "Heid, Shooders, Shanks and Taes" (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) went down all right.
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| Haggis, tatties and neeps on a background of homemade tartan skirt - only needing to be photographed in the rain to complete the picture. |
Have a great weekend!
haha - aye haggis takes some getting used to. I ate my first and only haggis in Finnland (odd place I know). Well the Whiskey testing and my grannies traditional southern German "cuisine" helped a lot. Just pretend you don't know what you are eating and concentrate on taste and texture.
ReplyDeleteI always "import" a special kind of liver suasages we eat with sauerkraut. I even had only 6 people cancelling on that one - 2 actually turned up.
My potato salad is a hit though - I never get to make anyhing else for bbq, when the list's coming round put your name up for what you want to make, mines usually arealdy there.
Well I like introducing all those "weird and strange" foods I grew up with to these "foreign lands" - so much for globalisation. Can't even get lye rolls here ... ahh well I'm moving a little closer to "civilisation" in a few weeks.
Happy Burns Night to you Catherine - enjoy your haggis. I haven't eaten it in years - pork lung eek! I love the sound of the Gruffalo in Scottish and heads, shoulders etc.,!
ReplyDeleteI love haggis, although I draw the line at the deep-fried version with chips that my eldest son is partial to!
ReplyDeleteThe Gruffalo in Scots, now there is an image to conjure with :)
I also find it difficult to work with large prints. I have some beautiful large print fabric that I haven't been able to decide what to do with with because I can't settle on a design that could highlight the print.
ReplyDeleteI never had haggis, well I haven't had meat in over 18 years... my dad I think would love it. My grandma used to make black pudding or black sausage for him and he loved it.
Enjoy.
Haggis looks interesting... Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYeah haggis doesn't have the most appealing ingredients list but it goes down well with my hubbie and the kids (yes I'm not that keen, although the veggie version is pretty tasty).
ReplyDeleteA scots version of The Gruffalo sounds like it'd be brilliant!
I'd love to have haggis but my other half insists on adding gravy to his and I can't take the cultural insult!
ReplyDeleteWe are on the haggis tonight - Saturday - haggis lasagne! Its fab and we are having a McSween haggis...but no 'wee dram' as we are having a dry month! :( Have a nice weekend! Rona.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! National days all round, it's Australia Day here... Quite impressed by the haggis ingredients- seems additive free and wholesome, if fatty! I have had haggis once before at our Scottish heritage University College in Dunedin NZ and in a stomach too. It was actually very tasty!
ReplyDeleteOh I just discovered your lovely blog, and am so inspired to try a few of your lovely tutorials. I also love the slow bloggers idea and wanted to link up for the end of January. Maybe I am being a bit premature, since I am in Australia and we get the day before anyone else in the world. So it is already February 1st here. . Let me know if you will be doing it, and I will link up.
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