Digital photography course

Well if you have been reading my blog (you haven't I've seen the stats :-) you would know my shame at my appalling photography skills, my non existent photography skills!
So I went on a course, digital plant photography at the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh to be precise. Now what on earth do I know about plants? Sweet nothing is the answer but I figured plants ... Fabric ... What's the difference?
Soooooo what did I learn?
First thing is, don't get lashed into the wine the night before, always make sure you know exactly where you are going, saves on those pesky taxi fares *sigh*
It was a great course, fab tutor, really knew her stuff, was great with all the participants. I had been reading the manuals before hand but after today they make more sense. I now realise that my wee compact is probably a bit too simplistic and husbands big SLR thingy is a bit too complicated.
Now I am not going to talk confidently about ISO, depth of field etc, but neither will I feel like a complete numpty if someone else talks about them. I do now know what all of the buttons on the cameras do.
Having looked at my photographs, I now feel way more confident about experimenting, using different settings, i need to translate this into the quilty world, but all that need is practice!
I would thouroughly recommend this course to anyone in the Edinburgh area, if you are from further afield then have a look around and see what is out there, look at colleges, local camera clubs etc. Cameras are not cheap and I now feel I may just be starting to get  my moneys worth.
Here are a selection of pics from the day, it was a 2 day course so these are the ones I am taking back next week for the tutor to critique.

Ch, ch, ch, changes

I must come across as a bit fickle, only two weeks ago I was rhapsodising about my quilt class now I am on here saying it is all change!
I thought long and hard about going back, it costs a fair bit, about £65 for a seven week block so its a fair investment in both time and money, one night a week is a lot out of my schedule.
This week I went and didn't really enjoy myself, my (smaller light weight) machine was playing up, wouldn't feed in the fabric on point, kept on chewing it up. The ladies at the class are nice, they are not unfriendly, but I didn't actually speak to any of them, they were busy catching up with each other. Fair enough but it got me thinking what am I getting out of this? I am certainly not an advanced piecer by any means but I would say I am a fairly good intermediate piecer, I haven't needed any help from the teacher, the quilt is nice but one I could easily make from a book or magazine.
So I am cutting my losses and not going back, there were only two more nights to go.
Instead I got in touch with the Stirling Castle Quilters, their second meeting was last Thursday so off I trotted.
What a lovely bunch of ladies, made me feel so welcome. It's £20 for the year so I don't feel I have to go to every meeting, but I think I will. They only meet twice a month which is more in keeping with my schedule.
Sometimes you find yourself doing things out of habit, I need to question what I do more often, I am looking forward to these changes!
Just so I can add a picture of what I have been up to here is a pick of the latest bloggers block of the month from the BOM by Canton Village Quilt Works.

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Falling in love again

I have totally fallen in love with the Farmers Wife quilt along. I did manage to do three blocks last week, two fairly easy and one more tricky one, but, if I stick to the templates and don't rush at it, I seem to end up with some pretty accurate blocks, now how did that happen :-)
Motto of this tale is read and follow instructions and take your time.
Here are my wee beauties:

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