frayed at the edge

Murder most horrid!

Don't worry, I haven't set about Malcolm with the frying pan!  This is the sight that greeted us when we got up this morning.  Looking at the feathers, I think it was a pigeon ...... and of course next door's cats are the prime suspects.*

 

at least the swallows are safe on the phone wire

 

when we had a rainy day on holiday, dozens of swallows suddenly appeared and settled on the electricity wires just beyond the garden

 

I mentioned that growth is lagging way behind in the garden.  This little tree is usually smothered in blossom by now

 

but it is only just starting to flower

 

there is no blossom on the cherry tree, and although the quince is smothered with flowers, there are no bees or insects because of the cold, so we probably won't get any quince again this year

 

but there are a few splashes of colour

 

when we were out and about yesterday, Malcolm bought this little jug for me

 

then I spotted this large oval serving plate in a junk antique shop

 

this morning in Hawick we had a browse round the Shelter charity shop.  Malcolm spotted this rustic casserole dish.  It is very heavy ..... and it looks as if it has never been used

 

*you know that this is normally a cat-free blog, but even I had to take photos of these cats on holiday!

 

Jessica got in touch to say that she has been having problems leaving comments, as sometimes they simply disappear.  On investigating, I discovered that Typepad has been randomly putting comments into a spam folder.  I haven't yet discovered how to stop that happening, so until I do, I'll check the spam every day and retrieve any that shouldn't be there, so please do keep leaving comments, as I love to get them!

 

Freezing!

We got back home at teatime on Saturday ..... and we have been shivering since then!  Yesterday I was threatening to get the next plane to Majorca, to go back to this

 

and perhaps have some cake

 

and an icecream

 

I have over 6oo photos to sort through, so that is just a little taste of our holiday.  Back home, the garden is still lagging behind.  The snakehead fritillaries have finally flowered

 

This clematis is in a sheltered spot

 

you know that I have been very quite good keeping to my resolution to buy fewer magazines, but it is entirely Malcolm's fault that I came home with these, as he kept pointing them out to me when we were in the newsagents buying newspapers!

 

after indulging in cakes and icecreams (and the occasional glass of wine!), it was back on the straight and narrow for dinner tonight (this is Malcolm's salad, I don't like tomato)

 

I'll be back tomorrow with the sewing that I did on holiday, and some stunning photos of the Caves of Drach.

 

Spring!

It has been wet and windy here, but it has also been much milder ....... and suddenly the garden is bursting into life.  Some of the plants look a bit muddy, where they have been splashed by the heavy rain

 

but there is one thing that is showing no signs of growth.  This wisteria was planted by the previous owners, and has only ever put out a few leaves.  We eventually moved it to a sunnier spot, where it put out a few more leaves, but I think that it is now on a shoogly nail ........

 

........ I tried in vain to find a suitable link to explain shoogly nail (or shoogly peg).  I think the original saying was "his jacket's on a shoogly nail", meaning that his job was in jeopardy (shoogly meaning shaky), but generally now it means that something or someone is for the chop!

 

I shall be back tomorrow with some exciting news .......

No snow!

Hooray - it hasn't snowed today, but it has still been very cold.  So when I went out for a quick walk this morning, I had to wrap up well.  The donkeys were sensible and staying in their stable, but the ponies weren't bothered by the cold

 

although it didn't snow today, there is still snow on the Mintos

 

there was a little bit of colour in the big flower pot in front of the church

 

my favourite view on the way home

 

back home, I had a potter round the garden.  The flowering current is flourishing .....

 

...... but the ornamental quince still has tightly furlded buds.  It was in full flower this time last year, when we had unseasonably warm weather, but the consequence of that was that there were no bees or flies about to pollinate the flowers, resulting in very few quince in the autumn

 

this clematis is in a very sheltered spot in the back garden, so is much further on than the other clematis

 

the hellebore has flowered all through the winter!

 

the honeysuckle is also in a sheltered spot

 

now that I only have the last block to finish of the Leanne's House wallhanginng, I thought I would make a start to putting the blocks together  The first stage was to press them well, on the wrong side

 

then I trimmed them

 

the first three blocks stitched together

 

then the next three

 

then the two rows stitched together

 

I also did some work on the mystery project ...... shall I give you a sneak peak?

My life in clothes

Until recently, I hadn't heard of Yvette Jelfs, then I found her wonderful new hat shop in Hawick.  Shortly after that there was a big article about her in the paper, then she popped up again on Saturday (click on the photo to enlarge it)

 

I thought it would be fun to give you my answers to the questions!

q: what's the last piece of clothing you bought

a: these two summer dresses which I bought on Monday - not from a fancy designer shop, but from Sainsbury's!  I am perhaps being somewhat optimistic that we will have a good summer!

 

q: best ever bargain

a: I bought this jacket some years ago when we were on holiday in Hampshire.  I can't remember what I paid for it, just that it had been very expensive, but I got it for about a quarter of the original price.  It is a silk/linen blend, with beautiful embroidery and beading

 

q: who has great style

a: the Queen!

 

q: name your favourite High Street shop

a: does M&S count as a High Street shop?

 

q: what are you addicted to buying

a: cute little cardigans

 

q: any fashion disasters that you'd care to tell us about?

a: that would have to be the electric blue platform boots from the mid 70s.  Sadly I don't have a photo of them .... I think they were abandoned to the back of the shoe cupboard as I couldn't walk properly in them!

 

q: what's your favourite item in your wardrobe?

a: I am embarrassed to admit that my favourite is my comfy everyday trousers from M&S.  To make it worse, I remember my Mum wearing them years ago!  I am probably wearing them in most of the photos you see of me - I have them in black, navy and brown.

 

It has been snowing again ...... this was the front garden this morning

 

the garden has been full of birds

blue tit

 

blackbird

 

sparrow

 

robin

In a rush!

I've just popped in for a quick post, as it's the Abbey Quilters' monthly meeting tonight.  There was still snow in the garden this morning, but the sun was shining, casting a strong shadow of the pergola

 

the tiny daffodils are still flowering, despite the freezing weather

 

in the studio, I was doing some more work on the textured applique wallhanging - I will be handing out the requirements list tonight, for my evening of showing how to do it next month

the flowers all stitched in place

 

some embroidery added

 

a cluster of French knots

 

an edging of French knots

 

a tendril

 

and to finish - some more sunshine.  The sun shining in through the Velux highlighted some of the photos on the wall

Goodbye Mr Badger!

On Saturday, we were up bright and early to drive up to Larbert to stay with Stuart and Alison for the weekend.  After a welcome cuppa, we popped round to visit Fraser and Linsey, to deliver Mr Badger.  Fraser was delighted with him, and he was soon settled in on a very large cushion

 

then it was back to Stuart and Alison's to get on with making the Roman blinds.  While I was busy sewing, Malcolm and Stuart screwed battens to the walls above the windows, and cut the battens and the dowels for the blinds.  The sewing didn't take as long as I thought it would, and soon the blinds were ready

 

I was pleased with the way the pattern on the kitchen blind fitted in with the folds

 

I have to admit that I miscalculated guessed wrongly how much cord I needed for the blinds, so the one in the hall is temporarily held up with string!*

 

on our way home yesterday, we popped into the Mayshade garden centre for a cuppa.  We shared a taster plate of cakes, cutting them in half to have a taste of each one...... except for the one with white chocolate, which Malcolm got all to himself, as I really don't like the stuff!

 

the weather on the first part of the journey was awful, with driving wet snow making for poor visibility

 

however, as soon as we reached the Borders, the sky cleared and the sun came out!  The only snow was left over from last week

 

there was more sunshine today, so I went out for a walk after lunch.  The donkeys were as cute as ever

 

the sun was shining on the Mintos

 

this blackbird was enjoying a thorough bath

 

do you remember a few weeks ago I showed you photos of the new hat shop in Hawick?  This article was in The Scotsman on Saturday (click on the photo to enalrge it)

 

there may be peope in Hawick who are willing to pay £600 for a hat ...... but I'm not one of them!!

 

* while I was in the middle of writing this, Stuart phoned.  He bought more cord yesterday, so the hall blind is now finished!

 

Unhappy bunnies!

Our morning started ok - we exercised, had breakfast, read while enjoying a big cup of tea, showered, dressed ....... then phut!  The electricity went off.  We knew that some workman had just arrived at the farmhouse just along from us, so we thought perhaps they had severed a cable.  However Malcolm phoned the power company to ask why the power was off, and was told that it was planned work, and that we should have had notification.  Well, we were just a little bit cross (ok, we were hopping mad) given that we had no power all day last Tuesday.  But we couldn't go out for the day as we did last week, as we were having a load of logs delivered.  OK, we had heat and we could cook, but we have a rather serious drawback when the power is off ...... our little sewage plant stops working, so we can't flush the loo!!  The other great annoyance was that after so many grey days when the solar panels produced next to nothing, it was a lovely bright morning, so they would have been churning out lots of lovely power.

I retreated to the studio, and the warmth of the stove, to finish the hand stitching on the badger

 

we were just finishing lunch when Malcolm got a phone call from the driver of the delivery lorry to get directions to the house (I have a completely basic phone in the studio, which unlike the phones in the house, doesn't need electricity to work!)

 

as the lorry drove away, it had to stop at the traffic lights, which were there in case a driver couldn't see beyond the few yards that the workmen were occupying for oncoming traffic

 

hooray, the power came back on at 2.30 (Malcolm had been told it would be 4.30) and I was able to get on with making up the badger cushion.  I found a lovely fabric in my stash for the back and the binding ...... and I forgot to take photos of how far I progressed, because I kept nipping out to take photos of Malcolm and his logs

 

anyway, enough whingeing, on with the updates!  First, my fabulous new sewing table

 

it fits in under the edge of the extension table

 

and provides a large level area for machine quilting

 

which leads us on to the sewing update. On Saturday I layered the girlie quilt and chose this thread

 

the thread looks dark against the fabric, but the trick is to unspool a length and puddle it on the fabric, which gives a better idea of how the stitching will look

 

I decided to use an allover pattern, rather than try to quilt round the various elements of the design

 

on Sunday I made a start on the owl quilt, and finished it on Monday.  Again I used an allover pattern

 

when we came out of Ikea last Tuesday, I stood with the trolley in the loading bay, while Malcolm fetched the car.  I saw a member of staff putting assorted bits of wood into a container, and being nosy went over to have a look at the notice on the container.  It said that the bits of wood were free, if you could use them.  Of course some bits came home with us.  One bit was sawn up to make the supports for the sewing table

 

and another bit was used to making something which I had asked for some time ago - a stand for my various quilting rulers

Love is in the air!

We may have been together for 30 years, but we are still romantic ....... just look at these lovely presents we gave each other for Valentine's Day.   Malcolm gave me

 

and I gave him

 

yesterday it snowed all day, then in the evening it turned to rain, so that when we got up this morning almost all the snow had gone.  As it was also a bit milder, I decided to go out for a short walk at lunchtime.  The sun was shining on the hills

 

there were shadows from the clouds on the fields

 

these herdies were several fields away, so even with the big lens and the digital zoom, this was the best photo that I could get

 

I braved the muddy track again, but there was only one lamb at the top end of the field

 

back home, I spotted these tiny daffodils in the back garden

 

Malcolm was busy painting his log store

 

by the end of the afternoon, he just had the roof left to do

 

and now, a bit later in the week than usual, the sewing update!  At the weekend, I made the two quilt tops with the fabric that I got at Anne's

the first border on

 

the finished top

 

the first border on

 

the finished top

 

progress on Mr Badger

 

looking back through the photos looking for the sewing ones, I realised that I hadn't shown you these super buttons, which Katy got for me

 

I am the star turn at the Abbey Quilters' April meeting, and as I need to give out the requirements list at the March meeting, I thought I should make a start to designing the project and making the samples ...... here is a little sneak peek of what I will be showing you tomorrow!

 

to finish, this is the warning on the back of the magnets that I gave Malcolm ....... would you give them to a small child?

Leftovers!

I only took two photos today!  So I have had a quick look through the photos that were left over from this week's posts.  I looked out my Baltimore blocks and put them on the design wall.  I have run out of enthusiasm for them, so I have two ideas for what to do with them.  The first idea is to join them in a row to make a runner which could go across the bottom of the bed, the second idea is to make them up into a quilt with plain blocks, which would be handquilted, perhaps with a feathered wreath or heart

 

when Lucie suggested using up scraps in January, I thought I would make several small projects, and had looked out these books ..... but then got sidetracked with the scrappy strippy blocks

 

when I went to put another log on the fire the other day,  I was a bit puzzled by this one.  It looks as if a branch had grown, then another branch had formed round it

 

while I have been busy sewing, Malcolm has demolished the log store (except for the base) and has started building another one

 

now for today's photos.  First, the Friday cake.  Today's delight was Annette's delicious light-as-air chocolate sponge

 

my lovely friend Katy said that she had a special present for me ....... something which she had seen, and immediately thought of me.  What could it be ...... diamonds, a little sports car, a ticket to an exotic destination

 

I hope she meant that she remembered that I like Cadbury's chocolate, and not that she thought I look like the monstrous spider!  As usual, we hope to go for a walk on Sunday, but the forecast isn't good.  No doubt a scone will feature at some point over the weekend!  Whether or not you are eating scones, I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne