frayed at the edge

A puzzling photo

Why is this mug sitting on the chair in the hall?

 

was it fed up living in a cupboard?  Did it feel tired and needed to sit down for a minute?  Perhaps it liked the cushion and wanted to sit next to it?  OK, I'll stop being silly!  You might recognise it as the mug I had my cuppa in on Tuesday evening at Abbey Quilters.  When I went to get the mugs out of the cupboard for our cuppa this morning, I found that Malcolm had put it away when he had emptied the dishwasher, but I like to put it back in my bag ready for the next meeting.  So I put it on the chair, which is where I put things which have to be taken out to the studio. 

 

There are more signs of growth out in the garden.  This lupin shoot was full of rainwater

 

the winter jasmine has finally flowered

 

these tiny buds on the ornamental quince are just the size of pinheads

 

for our Friday cake we had chocolate cupcakes - yum!

 

as you know, I don't like white chocolate, so I gave my little bits off the top of the cupcake to Maureen!

 

the forecast for Sunday isn't too good, so we may not get out for our walk - although I am sure we will still have our sconnage!!  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

The Year of the Kit - 1st report

Now that we are just over two weeks into the new year, I thought it was time for my first report of work on my collection of kits.  Before starting anything new, I decided to finish up various kits, one of which only needed its little hanging loop made and attached

 

 

next to be finished were these two little cross-stitch kits, which Malcolm gave me for my birthday last year.  I haven't yet decided to do with them ....... but I will probably incorporate them into some sort of needle case or sewing bag

 

I had made a start to this sashiko pincushion last year (after having the kit for about ten years!)

 

I marked out the sashiko pattern using a special pen - the marks vanish when ironed

 

it didn't take long to do the stitching, then I popped it on the ironing board, ready to remove the marking pen

 

the marks vanished as soon as the iron touched the fabric - so much easier than any other sort of marking pen or pencil that I have tried in the past (but of course I always do a test first, so make sure it will come off the fabric)

 

I had already made the little pincushion to go inside the cover, so it didn't take long to sew it all together

 

I shall use the pincushion when I finish this sashiko sample, which I started at a recent Abbey Quilters' meeting

 

the next kit to to be tackled will be this one - it shouldn't take too long to make the two birdie brooches

 

when we were in Hawick this morning, we had a potter round the Oxfam shop, and came home with these goodies, which were all on the "reduced" table.  The serving plate was 50p, the mirror (which will be decorated with driftwood or corks) was £1, and the knitting needle box was 99p

 

 

Before the sewing update ........

........ we have had a frequent visitor to the garden, an occasional visitor, and some little birds that I have only seen in the garden once before in the seven years we have been here!  So first, the frequent visitor, the robin

 

next the occasional visitor, the nuthatch

 

then, this afternoon, some long-tailed tits swooped into the garden.  I just had time to take two photos before they flew off again.  The only other time I have seen them in the garden, several years ago, they swooped in, attacked the fat balls and flew off again.  Fingers crossed I don't have to wait so long to see them again

 

now for the sewing!  Yesterday I made Stuart's camera bag.  Fortunately he has the same camera as me, so there was no problem with getting the measurements

 

to start, I got out my project book, and tape measure

 

I measured the circumference

 

then used my 6" ruler to measure the height

 

I cut the fabric to size and stitched the short seam, finishing it with a zigzag stitch

 

I centred the seam and stitched across the bottom seam, again finishing it with zigzag stitching

 

next, I folded over the top edge a quarter of an inch and pressed it, then folded it over another half an inch and pressed it.  I opened out and flattened the seam at the top, and stitched round the opening for the cord

 

I flattened the corners, and marked a line to stitch

 

after stitching, I cut off the corners

 

the finished bag

 

I have written the details down in my project book, so that I can make a bag for my camera

 

next was a little bit of repair work.  This is a little Cath Kidston bag, which was a free gift some time ago with a magazine.  I keep it in my handbag, and we had used it to put driftwood in when we had our walk on the beach at Berwick recently.  However, the amount of driftwood we crammed in was obviously too much for the little bag and the seams gave way

 

so after washing the bag, a quick session restitching the seams, and the little bag was ready to go back in my handbag

 

a quick change of thread in the sewing machine, and I got on with the little Linus quilt.  I stitched the outer blocks together, and stitched the side strips on

 

when I added the top and bottom strips, as you can see, they didn't quite fit

 

but a quick trim with the rotary cutter, and the top was finished

 

I still have a pile of leftovers .........

 

I got out this little top, which was the prototype for my Country Cottages pattern.  I added this colourful boder, and once it is quilted, it will be another quilt for Linus

 

before Christmas, I offerred to make a quilt top for Lucie , which she will then longarm quilt.  Then she will give the quilt to a very worthwhile cause, Quilts for Comfort.  Some years ago I made a quilt using black and red fabrics for Malcolm's Dad, which was very striking (it was so well loved and used, that by the time he died it had worn away into holes in places!), so I looked out these fabrics.  I think I will use the same design, which was half square triangles

 

last night so many of us turned up for Abbey Quilters' monthly meeting that more tables and chairs had to be brought into the room!  We were embroidering name badges for the exhibition in the summer

 

we always stop for a cuppa (and possibly a biscuit might have been consumed!)

 

I think Sheila should be promoted from beginner to fully fledged quilter after making this lovely bag!

 

ps - how did I take photos of my camera?  I unearthed my little Fuji from the depths of my camera bag!

Cute cups!

Just a very short post, as it is Abbey Quilters' monthly meeting tonight, and I have to leave shortly after dinner to pick up Maureen.  We are making name badges tonight, in preparation for our exhibition in the summer.

I was delighted when Stuart and Alison gave me these cups for Christmas.  I can sense you thinking, why is she so pleased with a motley collection of china cups?

 

perhaps the next photo will explain why, when you see them with a normal sized cup

 

yes, the tiny cups are measuring cups, and are much more stylish than my red spoons, which I have had for more years than I can remember!

 

very cute cups indeed!!

 

back tomorrow with lots of sewing, including the camera bag.

You've seen Gorrillas in the Mist* .........

........ so now I bring you Donkeys in the Mist!!  Yesterday we awoke to the hardest frost of the winter so far, and a heavy mist, but we still headed out for a walk. We decided to have a stroll past the donkey sanctuary.  As you can see, the frost was so heavy it almost looks like snow

 

aas soon as they saw us, the two donkeys and the horse in the first field came over to the fence, no doubt hoping for something to eat

 

in the next field, this donkey was looking quite magnificent

 

as we walked on down to the river, I was sidetracked by frosted seedheads ........

 

......... and icy puddles

 

the footbridge across the river was decorated with beautiful spiders' webs

 

on the way back to the car, wwe passed the donkeys and horse in the first field, busy munching on hay

 

we went to the Woodside Garden Centre for some delicious sconnage

fruit

 

cheese

 

while we ate our scones, we were entertained by finches on the bird feeder stuck to the window.  Sorry about the quality of the photos - but the window was dirty!

 

on the way home, the mist had mostly lifted, but there were still some low lying pockets

 

Fatlips Castle seemed to be floating in the air

 

in contrast to the mist, it was nice to see some blue skies and sunshine when we were out on Saturday

 

* I have to admit that I haven't seen Gorillas in the Mist - and having read about it, I think it is a bit too serious for me!

More leftovers ........

........ but this time they aren't fabric.  Malcolm had several things left over from his Christmas Fair, so when Stuart and Alison were here, they had first pick and went off home with a driftwood mirror, a cork notice board and a cork clock.  I then acquired a cork clock for the studio

 

a cork notice board, also for the studio

 

my dislike of cats has been well documented here, but although he is a cat, I love the Garfield cartoon strip

 

and lastly I acquired this fabulous driftwood mirror for my bathroom

 

when I was taking the photo of the mirror, I realised that I had forgotten to include this little owl in yesterday's post.  Why is he in the bathroom?  Because he is an emery board!  The delicious, gorgeous, fabulous toiletries in the bowl behind him were in the tin that is now filled with my Mrs Billings stuff

 

when I was looking back through my photos for the clock photos, I found photos of my laundry bag, and realised that I hadn't shared them with you.  The bag turned out to be a bit bigger than I had originally intended ......... I had planned to make a bag which we could pop our laundry into when we were away for a few days, but at 36" long, it is just about big enough to hold laundry from a two week holiday!!

 

I had a very enjoyable afternoon at patch'n'chat, catching up with everyone's news and sewing ......... and then there was the Friday cake.  Today's offering was the delicious Norwegian apple cake ....... and there were also tiny doughnuts!

 

as always I will be in the studio over the weekend (leaving Malcolm to enjoy football on tv, without my complaining that it is boring!).  The forecast is reasonable for Sunday, so hopefully we will get out for a walk ......... and some sconnage!  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Ruling the roost

Our little parliament of owls grew significantly at Christmas .........

 

........ the beautiful card on the left was given to us by Maureen - she had bought it at the German market in Edinburgh specially for us.  The painted owl at the front, and the wooden owl behind it were from Meredithe - the wooden owl has little holes in it for cross stitching, but I think I will work it with long and short stitch to look like feathers.  Malcolm gave me the tin - it had sweets in it, which were soon eaten, and now contains pins.  And keeping all the little ones in order is a large fabric owl, which matches a little one on the yucca.  I had seen the big one in Sainsbury's before Christmas, but couldn't really justify buying it - but then after Christmas it was reduced to £2, so, of course it came home with me.

Malcolm gave me this tiny kit - I have put my 6" ruler behind it to show how small it is

 

it really does contain everything you need to knit the bootees - a tiny pattern book, yarn, stitch markers, pink and blue ribbon, darning needle ...... and the tiniest circular needle that I have ever seen!

 

Malcolm also added to my button and bead stash, and the lovely brooch on the card will look good on my new cardigan

 

when we were at Stitchin' Heaven before Christmas, I couldn't show you one of the things I came home with, as it was my big Christmas present from Malcolm.  It is the pattern for the amazing Mrs Billings quilt.  I first saw the quilt on Meredithe's blog (and when I spent the day at her house in October 2012, I was actually allowed to touch her award winning Mrs Billings), and when Anne decided to order the pattern for the shop, I immediately put my name down for one

 

this detail shows the centre of the quilt

 

the pattern comes with a set of templates and ten packets of tiny hexagons (I've just shown one here) - a total of 1,000 hexagons!  I am keeping them in this fabulous tin, which was full of my favourite toiletries (half-price in the post-Christmas sales!)

 

there are twenty five pages of instructions, as well as several pages of detailed photos of the sections of the quilt, so I invested in a folder and poly pockets to keep them in order.  I will now have to decide on a colour scheme, and start collecting fabrics

 

in the back garden, I noticed some dwarf narcissi

 

buds on the hellebore (which flowers at random times throughout the year)

 

new growth on the climbing rose on the pergola

 

and on one of the clematis

 

in the front garden, daffodils are through in a sheltered corner

 

the honeysuckle is flowering

 

and there are a few buds on the climbing rose!

 

I started with owls, and I am going to finish with a sparrowhawk!  I was sitting in the lounge reading, when I glanced out of the window.  There, on the grass, was a sparrowhawk tucking into a sparrow.  Fortunately the camera was on the table beside me.  The first photos have the bird feeders in the top corner, as I didn't want to risk moving

 

I then moved very slowly across the room to get a better angle

 

Malcolm was out in the back garden, so I wennt out to tell him about the sparrowhawk, and we tip-toed round to the front garden ........ but it had gone.  Fortunately it had taken the remains of the sparrow with it!

<

Secret sewing

You may recall that I couldn't show you some of my sewing before Christmas, as it was for presents.  The first thing was a badger wallhanging for Stuart, made with a Gail Lawther pattern that I bought when I did the workshops with her during the summer

work in progress

 

the finished wallhanging

 

Alison loves shoes, so I decided to make her some drawstring bags to keep her best ones in.  I found this wonderful fabric here

 

I had an email the other day from Stuart, asking if I could make him a similar drawstring bag to keep his camera in.  Malcolm suggested looking for camera-related fabric, and I found this fabric on the same website as the shoe fabric.  I got enough to make bags for my cameras too!

 

the fabric arrived in the post this morning, as did a book for Malcolm.  Then a delivery man arrived with a big box for me

 

I bought a magazine last week, which had this little catalogue in it (this is the back page)

 

as soon as I saw the little angels, I wanted to make them, so I was delighted to find that not only did the website have the pattern available to download for free, but I could also buy the supplies to make them

wonderful patterned felt

 

cute faces and little wooden decorations

 

I did some more work on the leftovers quilt this afternoon, sewing the centre blocks together

 

then adding a border, which I overcut, so that when I sew the outer blocks together, I can trim the border to fit

 

over the last few weeks, I have been working hard on my hexie wallhanging in the evenings.  I have now stitched almost half of it.  As you can see, I decided to have a change of direction

 

this is a very important post, as it marks my 5th blogiversary!!  It is hard to believe that I have been doing this for five years - and as I said last year, I still haven't run out of things to say!  I really enjoy writing the blog, and sharing my world with you.  My photography has improved a great deal over the five years, and my camera is (almost) always within reach.  For me, the best thing about blogging is all the wonderful friends that I have made, most as online friends, but I have also had the great pleasure of meeting lots of fellow blogggers in the real world.  I must give a special mention to Lee in Sydney and Meredithe in Melbourne, who made us very welcome when we visited in 2012.  In the past to celebrate my blogiversaries I have had giveaways, organised a postcard swap and last year I gave awards for all sorts of categories.  So what to do this year?  Well, I decided that YOU can do something!  Just a little thing ........ having been a Brownie and a Guide, I have always tried to do a good deed every day, so all I'm asking is that you perform a Random Act of Kindness, and if you want, leave a comment or email me and let me know about it.  To make my RAK special, I am going to make a little something (I haven't yet decided on the recipient) using a little bit of this wonderful fabric that Meredithe sent me for Christmas

 

 

 

A day at the beach

Last Thursday, the weather was much better, so we went to Berwick.  We had a potter round the shops, a quick lunch in the nearby garden centre, then we went for a walk on the beach

 

the sea was still running high after the stormy weather

 

I couldn't decide whether to have the lighthouse on the right or the left of the photo!

 

 

 

two of my favourites - weathered wood and rusty bolts

 

trying to be arty with seaweed and rocks!

 

more weathered wood

 

the beach theme has continued in the studio, as I have been working on two quilts for Linus, which I had started some weeks ago when we had a Linus day at Borderland Fabrics.  The two quilts are the same

 

once the tops were made, it was time to layer the quilts, ready for quilting.  I taped the backing fabric to the table

 

then cut the wadding to size

 

the last stage was to add the quilt top, then pin the layers together

 

there are differing opinions as to whether or not cutting certain things blunts scissors.  I think cutting paper definitely blunts scissors, and I also think cutting polyester wadding does too, so I have different scissors for different tasks - from left to right, embroidery, paper, pinking, wadding/general and fabric.  Malcolm knows never to use my scissors without asking - but then I wouldn't use his tools without asking!

 

I also have different pins for layering quilts.  The ones on the left were all that were available when I started quilting more than twenty years ago.  I then moved on the the curved pins, which are easier to use.  The coloured ones on the right are wonderful - they are very thin and very sharp, very easy to use.

 

as always, I cleaned the machine and inserted a new needle, ready to free motion quilt.  I used a big meander in the centre, and a loopy, wandering line round the borders.  You can see the stitching best on the back

 

today, I got organised to trim the quilts, ready to put the binding on.  I have folded the quilt, so that you can see the two boards lined up.  I also used two rulers

 

the two quilts trimmed ready for the binding, which I had made some days ago

 

having stitched on the binding, I folded a bit over and clipped it in place, to let you see what it will look like once I have hand-stitched it on the back

 

 

but, what to do with the leftovers?

 

first, I cut strips of varying widths and layed them out ready to stitch together

 

the strips stitched and the seams pressed

 

the next stage was to get out my revolving mat, small cutter and 6" square ruler

 

the squares are cut on the diagonal - this is the first square

 

I managed to cut eleven squares ......

 

then was able to make the last one from leftovers

 

I put the blocks up on the design wall

 

these are the leftovers from the blocks from the quilts

 

I think with a bit of effort, I can make the borders fit round the centre blocks!

 

to finish ....... little JDthetractor was most annoyed when he saw last night's post, as he said the photo did not do him justice.  So he popped out to the studio this morning to pose for me

 

but he's not just a handsome tractor, he is hardworking as well!!

<

Happy New Year!

I requested a photo of braw laddies in kilts to wish you a Happy New Year, but instead I got this photo of Stuart (on the left) and three of his friends!  Stuart apologisies for the quality of the photo, but it was taken with his phone in poor light

 

casting my mind back to before Christmas ......... Stuart and Alison came for the weekend, and on the Sunday morning we decided to go to the Waterwheel cafe for a cuppa.  But first we went to have a look at the archimedes screw.  There was a tremendous amount of water going over the cauld ......

 

...... which had caused some problems leading to the screw being stopped.  The doors to the building housing the workings for the screw were open, and several men were standing about discussing the probblem.  Of course, Malcolm and Stuart, as engineers, immediately fell into a very technical conversation with one of the men, while Alison and I looked as bored as this little dog!

 

the vast volume of water meant that some was diverted into the old mill race, and the wooden wheel was turning - in seven years that is the first time that we have seen it turn

 

on our way home, we stopped to take photos of the snow on the hills.  Fortunately, we haven't had any here

 

 

 

the weather has been awful - although not as bad as some parts of Britain, which have suffered storms and flooding.  But in between the showers, we have been out and about.  Can you see what Malcolm spotted?

 

a heron on the tree, high above the river

 

looking out over Hawick

 

a rather handsome duck

 

a walk in the park in Hawick

 

back home, the nuthatch has returned to the garden, but I haven't managed to get a good photo yet

 

of course we have to have some food!  There hasn't been much sconnage consumed

 

but we are enjoying having a piece of Christmas cake with our afternoon cuppa

 

I still have lots more to share with you, which I'll do over the rest of the week.  To finish, I must have been a very, very good girl, because Santa brought me my very own tractor - and not just any tractor, but a John Deere