Before November closed, I met a neighbor who lives on the other side of Teac Jack. Her name is Marian, and she is one of the local artists. Actually, Leah and I met her once before, a year ago, when we were walking on the road. We had spoken with her briefly, and we never met again. This time, she was looking for me, as she and some of her friends are interested in learning some patchwork. I brought some little quilts over to her house, and over coffee and biscuits (that's cookies to our American friends) we talked of patchwork and many things. She and her friends take art lessons three evenings a week. We are hoping to get together a little quilting workshop in the new year in a venue close to home.

I continued to quilt and use up more fabric throughout the month. I also made my first fabric postcards, which is an interesting learning process in itself. They take a long time to make, and I don't have all the supplies that would be readily available in an American quilt shop, so I have to improvise. Not all of my experiments have been successful, but I am gaining an appreciation of the fancy stitches on my machine, and the possibilities presented by different stitch combinations and different types of thread.

Moving on, I heard that there would be a craft fair in Derrybeg and that the tables were free, so I reserved a table to show some of my smaller quilts. The fair was held in a smallish room in the Crannog, and there were about ten vendors, many of them being artists with paintings to sell. There was also knitwear and jewelry, a selection of soaps, books, jam and giftware, and then there was Margaret's booth (remember Margaret, the artist I met last winter, who makes the handbags and uses many different art forms?). Her offerings included paintings with three-dimensional elements, painted and embellished cushion covers, an amazing variety of handsome handbags, and all sorts of embellished items, including a handy cork-board. Marian and several other artists were there with their paintings, too, and it gave me the opportunity to meet some of the other artists and to renew my acquaintance with Margaret. By the way, to my knitting friends in Alpine, Margaret was wearing a hand-knit jacket/cape that was gorgeous. I apologize for not having the camera with me.

Craft Fair at the Crannog

Later that evening, I joined Marian and her friends from the art class for their Xmas dinner party at Teac Jack (how convenient that I could walk there!). They are a very friendly bunch with busy, interesting lives, and some of the gals at the dinner are interested in the patchwork classes that we are planning to set up. There were a few men there, too, but I doubt that we can persuade them to take up needle and thread. They haven't heard about Ricky Tims, John Flynn, Kaffe Fassett or Michael James, or the growing trend for retired men to start quilting when their wives buy a quilting machine. Nonetheless, we had some lively conversations over the very good food that we were served, and I didn't have to bring my own cranberry sauce.

So now we await the arrival of my daughter, Leah. She will spend Xmas with us, and attend the concerts during the Frankie Kennedy Winter School before she returns to Greece.