Festivals

There's nothing like the Edinburgh Festival season; Jazz Festival, Film Festival, Fringe and of course The Edinburgh International Festival. During the Festival period, allegedly, real Edinburgh people go abroad for two months and rent out their houses to festival goers at exorbitant rates. Since I don't know anyone who does that, I'm prepare to believe that it's a vile calumny on the good citizens of our beautiful city. That said, I do tend to avoid 'going up the town' during The Festival.

Which brings me on to March 2003 and "Festivals"

This was another Patchworks Macmillan Challenge. I had seen the fabrics a week before the start of the challenge and they had not spoken to me, but when they became available the colours made me think about the view from my kitchen window, looking south towards Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat and over the New Town to the castle. Apart from the bright orange, the colours were mostly dark and subdued. It struck me that they could be cut and layered to look like the rooftops seen through the summer darkness and then various outlines of buildings and windows could be stitched on top of the fabric.
There is a massive fireworks display every year to accompany a classical concert, so I put in the orange from the pack as a narrow line to show the glow of low level fireworks, with circles of brighter fabric for the cascades from higher flying rockets. There are usually searchlights so I added the two bands of light coming from Calton Hill (on the left) and the castle (right) to make a St Andrews Cross. The pack included the blue star fabric at the top - I did not stitch all the little stars myself! As a wise person once told me, "Life's too short for stuffing mushrooms."

Festivals came out a bit 'rough and ready', I could have done a better job of the silhouettes and the hand embroidery, but I enjoyed making it, and that, after all is the important point. We should enjoy  our embroidery, even those bits that didn't go too well.