The weekend before last I was in Edinburgh to teach at my Bearpaw and Stitch Gathering. I have taught there before, three years ago. I love Edinburgh so I was really excited to go back!
I arrived on Friday afternoon and after dropping my bags off at the hotel I met up with my friend Julia and we spent a lovely afternoon chatting and sketching. It was a bit windy so we snagged a window seat in Starbucks in Princes Street. Although we weren’t facing Edinburgh Castle at first, but I still quite like the sketch I did of the spire of St Cuthbert’s at the west end of Princes Street.
I had dinner at Franco Manca, a very nice vegan pizza. :-)
Saturday was the first class, at my Bearpaw. It is a lovely fabric (mostly) shop owned by Jo Avery. It was a great class, where we (well, not so much me) did some slow stitching. I wish I could have done more stitching, but when you’re the one teaching, you can’t really do that. ;-)
I love teaching slow stitching classes, seeing how everyone approaches it in a different way and each piece is completely different.
When I checked into the hotel, I asked if they had any rooms with a view, and how great is this view?! Looking west along Princes Street towards Edinburgh Castle!
In the daytime. Sadly, the windows were pretty dirty so zooming in made for a less than great picture! If you are in Edinburgh, and you want this very view, book yourself into the Travelodge hotel in Waterloo Place and see if they can give you room 324. :-D
On Sunday, I taught a ‘draw your own mandala’ pattern class at Stitch Gathering and that was So Much Fun! There was a great energy in the group and I loved seeing all the different mandalas that were made. Most also started an embroidery of one of their mandalas and I hope you will share what you made if you’re reading this! :-)
Stitch Gathering is such a lovely day of stitching in various shapes and I can highly recommend it if you’re near-ish to Edinburgh.
The entry ticket for Stitch Gathering was to make a piece of hooped textile and just look at all these fantastic hoops! All so different and very inspiring.
I even spotted two embroideries from my book Mandalas to Embroider. One is exactly like the one I stitched for the book (285) and the other was stitched using different colours and different stitches from the ones in the book (291). I love seeing any embroidery from my books but I particularly love seeing when people make them their own.
There was a fabulous goodie bag at Stitch Gathering. See this Instagram post if you want to know who sponsored the various goodies.
On Monday morning I had a bit of a lie in, lovely! I had an afternoon train back to London so I had paid an extra £10 for late check out from the hotel. And you know what, that was totally worth it! I didn’t have to rush and I had time to go for a little walk in the morning.
This is on the Royal Mile, looking towards Holyrood Castle. I did a sketch at this spot but it was quite windy so it was just a very quick pen sketch, I added watercolour later on the train.
This is also the Royal Mile, this time looking towards Edinburgh Castle and you can see St Giles Cathedral.
Edinburgh Castle! I hadn’t planned on walking all the way up there but then I was almost there and it seemed silly not to go all the way. I also did a very quick sketch here, but it was quite difficult to keep hold of the sketchbook because of the wind. Even just holding the phone to take pictures I had to hold on really tight! I’m glad I wasn’t wearing a skirt or a kilt like that old chap in the middle of the picture! :-D
Walking from the Royal Mile along Cockburn Street. I really like this little curving street.
The end of Cockburn Street with the Scott monument in the background. I was taking a picture of the coffee shop in the middle but also got the jewellery shop, Perre, on the corner in the picture. I actually ended up going in there AND treating myself to a pair of earrings! :-D
Waverley Bridge looking towards Edinburgh Castle and the Scottish National Gallery. I’m really happy that I had time to spend some time walking around, last time I was in Edinburgh I barely had time to do that. It is such a beautiful city, even when it’s windy and cloudy and rainy.
When I was packing my bags for the Edinburgh trip, Blake tried to stow away! :-D
