frayed at the edge

Jumbo!

I recently got these jumbo binding clips as a free gift with a magazine

 

this shows just how big they are compared to standard ones

 

but as it is only the end of the clip that grips the binding, I can't see the point of the jumbo ones .......... unless you were adding a very wide binding

 

I can hear you now, asking why I have used fabric with (yeuch) cats on it!  It was included in a bundle of fat quarters, and I didn't realise until too late that there were cats (nasty little beasties) on one of the fabrics

 

the lovely Margaret, she of the exquisite appliqué quilts, has started coming to Abbey Quilters Monday afternoon sewing sessions.  So she needs a mug bag (we all take our own mugs to use).  I looked out this almost finished one - it is inside out at this stage.  Then I delved in my various stashes and found a suitable piece of fabric, and a length of cord

 

a tip for when you are cutting cord, which likes nothing better than to unravel at the cut.  Wrap a piece of sellotape round the cord

 

snip in the middle

 

ta-da, no unravelling ends!

 

and you can stick a pin through the sellotape for threading it through the channels for the cord

 

then once you have tied the two ends together, you can take the tape off and fluff out the ends

 

here is one side of the mug bag

 

and here is the other.  I even found a pretty mug in my stash to put in it!

 

"sock war" is hotting up, with Little Miss Smartypants now knitting toe-up socks!  Well, the honour of Scottish sock-knitting rests on my shoulders, so maybe one or two pairs may appear from these books

 

but maybe not these weird-looking things!

I've never been one ........

...... to shirk a challenge, so when Little Miss Smartypants Meredithe mentioned knitting 16 pairs of socks in 2016, of course I said I would too.  The only problem was that she was on pair 12, and I had knitted one!  However, I bought some sock yarn to knit up when we went to Hampshire - I knew I would get a lot done in the car during the long drives there and back.  This is the first pair ........ I do like to start the second sock at the same point in the colour sequence as the first one

 

but I had just gone past the start point of the first sock when I got to the toe

 

and that part of the sequence didn't appear again until the heel, which was far too much to wind off, so they don't quite match

 

I bought this sock wool in the wool shop in Alton, as Malcolm said he would like a pair

 

I thought I had started in the same place, but as I was knitting in the evening with just the light of a small lamp ...... oops.  Fortunately Malcolm isn't bothered, as you won't see them when he wears them with his winter boots

 

hooray, this pair turned out matching!

 

this pair match down to the heel turn

 

but then the sequence has a slight hiccup

 

this is the latest pair - I should finish this first sock tonight

 

and now for a tale of woe!  When we got home, I popped into Fun2Do in Hawick to get a ball of wool to do another pair for Malcolm.  I started knitting .......

 

........ then there was a slight problem with a break in the yarn

 

but on closer inspection, it looked as if the yarn had been cut, and there were several more ends in the ball.  I took it back to the shop yesterday, and the member of staff who served me was as puzzled as I  was.  She too thought that it looked as if the yarn had been cut, rather than breaking when the ball was being wound.  She is going to send it back to the manufacturer ......

 

........ and I got a replacement ball.  But unfortunately there wasn't another ball of the manly colourway, so I just had to get another girly one!

 

on Saturday, Berwick was invaded by rather a lot of Goldwing motor bikes (they look like a cross between a motor bike and a large armchair!)

 

I promised you handsome young men, but I don't think these chaps qualify

 

nor do these ones

 

here they are ........

 

........ who can resist a well-turned out Minion (well, I can't!!).  The bike owner found it quite funny that I wanted to take photos of his Minions, not his bike!

 

there weren't any bananas on offer for the Minions, but if they were really peckish, they had the choice of burgers, donuts and ice cream ....... which I think are the three major food groups!!

Sewing, knitting ..... and cakes!!

On Tuesday I finished tacking the hexies to the wadding, so that I could then trim the excess wadding off.  I found that it is easier to do it that way, rather than cut out hexies from wadding and try to line them up accurately with the fabric hexies.  On the right are the bigger hexies for the backing

 

I put the first hexie sandwich on my revolving cutting mat, and lined up the ruler for the first cut

 

then I just kept turning the mat to do the next cut

 

by the end of the afternoon, I had made a good start to all the trimming.  The offcuts of wadding can be used to stuff something

 

on Wednesday afternoon I finished the trimming

 

then paired each trimmed sandwich with a backing hexie

 

as you can see, there are twice as many fabric hexies as stitchery ones.  The next stage is to fold and pin the backing hexies in the same way that they are on the stitchery ones, and quilt them

 

having done that, I was sitting looking at the various kits and projects in this storage unit, thinking perhaps I could stitch up a quick one

 

I picked this kit to make a cushion, which I bought in 2000 in Christchurch (that's the one in New Zealand, not the one in England!)

 

I sorted out and labelled the various fabrics (and found there was an extra piece!)

 

the instructions said to put together a strip of tan fabric and a strip of blue fabric and cross cut squares.  Then, the instructions said cut the squares in half on the diagonal, and stitch the diagonal to make squares.  No,no,no!  Those diagonal edges are bias edges, and the first thing they do is stretch!  Before, I would have drawn a diagonal line, then stitched om either side with a ¼" seam, but I recently discovered this ruler.  You line up the centre line on the ruler with the diagonal, the mark the line on either side - it is supposed to be much more accurate

 

but by the time I had marked all the lines, it was dinner time, so you will have to wait until next week to see how the squares turn out

 

we came over to the flat yesterday, and I brought my hexie wallhanging to work on.  The photo doesn't show the true colours, which are much deeper.  I have been working on it on and off for quite a few years.  The original plan was just to stitch all the hexies together on the diagonal, but I got a bit bored, so headed off in the opposite direction, then later on reversed the direction again

 

these are all the hexies that are left, so I shall stick in and get it finished

 

now for the knitting.  I have finished the two snoods.  First the cabled one

 

and second the moss stitch one

 

we had a walk over to town this afternoon, and popped into Miele Patisserie for a cuppa ........

 

......... and cakes.  A lovely sharp tarte au citron

 

and a delicious sweet fruit tart

 

as we strolled on round the town after our cuppa, I had to stop to take a photo of the church spire against the wonderful blue sky

 

and this was the sky over the town at sunset last night

 

we were on the beach yesterday, and I have lots of photos from that, then I have lots more from our walk round the town this afternoon.  I shall have to get them all sorted out for Monday's post!  The forecast for the weekend is sunshine and showers, but hopefully we will get out and about between the showers.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

 

A knitting report!

I thought I ought to get a bit more work done on the various bits of knitting that will be entered in the Jedburgh Flower Show in September, so I started yesterday by clearing one of my sewing tables, and covering with a heatproof pad

 

this is the rubber-backed stuff that your Granny protected her beautifully French-polished dining table with.  I used a sticky roller to remove stray bits of thread

 

first, I pinned out a tiny matinee jacket

 

covered it with a piece of white cotton fabric

 

and gave it a gentle steam press

 

then I did the same with a much bigger white matinee jacket

 

the white and pink baby blanket, pinned out and pressed in the same way (I also did the cream blanket, but I forgot to take a photo of it!_

 

these little shoes needed to have their little ankle straps added

 

the first one done

 

I had a hunt through my button drawer (what, doesn't everyone have a button drawer?) and found these little ones

 

but I didn't think they looked right, so I tipped out this jar

 

and found these two tiny heart buttons - perfect

 

in the same jar, I found these dark pink ones for the white jacket

 

and these paler ones for the turquoise jacket.  I followed the pattern, which instructs you to sew the buttons on the top band, and then use press studs to hold the front together - it's a bit of a faff and next time I will do normal button holes

 

one of the garments on the schedule is a snood, so I had a look through my stash and found this delicious Noro yarn which has been in my stash for several years, so it must be about time to use it

 

in contrast, the navy yarn is a cheap and cheerful supermarket buy, but it has a lovely glossy finish

 

in my knitting basket, there is also this tangle of pieces, which will become a hooded child's jacket

 

I made a start to the first snood last night - it is much darker than this - my camera just doesn't like taking photos of blue things!

 

so, on to this morning, and waiting in for the telephone engineer.  I thought I would make good use of my unexpected morning at home, and first I did they ironing.  Then I prepped some strawberries and measured out the same weight in jam sugar

 

I zapped the strawberries for several minutes

 

until they were starting to soften and give up their juice

 

then I stirred in the sugar

 

and zapped them some more, until setting point was reached

 

using a jam funnel makes it so much easier to fill the jars

 

four jars of delicious homemade strawberry jam, which will be eaten in no time at all

 

now, I could lie and say that I also whipped up a quick batch of scones ...... or I could tell the truth and say that I bought them in the garden centre some weeks ago and popped them in the freezer!  They were defrosted in time for our afternoon cuppa (sadly there was no cream in the fridge!)

 

but what about the engineer, I hear you cry!  Well he didn't turn up (short pause to put more money in the swear box!!).  But the phone is working again.  How?  Malcolm did some research online, went and bought a specialist tool in the local diy store (such a specialist tool it cost him 23p) and checked out the wiring in the various sockets.  He found a wire that seemed to be wrongly attached, removed it ........and the phone has been working since.  Hooray for practical husbands, and a great big raspberry for TalkTalk!!

Our Sunday walk

This post has to start with a confession!  When we went out on Sunday morning to buy the papers, not knowing that we would be having lunch at the Town Hall do, we popped into the garden centre for a cuppa, and shared a delicious cheese scone.  So having then had our lovely buffet, Malcolm suggested that we should walk round the town walls to work off all those calories, before heading back to the flat.  Good idea - except for one small detail ....... I had on high-heeled boots, and I knew that there was no way that I could walk that far in them!  So we went back to the flat, I changed my footwear, and we headed back to town.  That meant we had already walked a mile before we started the walk

 

the "for sale" sign has gone from the "money pit" house ....... I will be very disappointed if it has been sold, as I had a grand plan to turn it into a luxurious quilting retreat .......

 

while I was looking up, capturing architectural details .........

 

........ Malcolm was looking out to sea.  He gave me a shout when he saw this little boat capsize, with the sailor struggling to right it

 

fortunately help was at hand

 

and he was soon under way again

 

this chimney is all that remains of a factory that made fertiliser from fish guts!

 

I had fun playing with this view, first focussing on the houses in the distance

 

then focussing on the wall

 

while this pigeon kept an eye on me

 

of course we have to have a photo of the lighthouse

 

the allotments looking good in the afternoon sun

 

and of course I have to have an arty shot

 

this thrush just wouldn't cooperate and face the camera

 

as we ended our walk round the walls, we paused to look down Marygate to the Town Hall

 

you can't see the old bridge behind the new bridge from this angle

 

but it came back into view as we walked under the new bridge

 

to finish - maybe it was as well that the wool shop was closed when we passed it, or I might have bought the pattern and yarns for these delightful tea cosies!

The final stitch!

On Sunday night, I put the last stitch into the 32nd stitchery!

 

these are the last two, pressed and ready to trim, before adding the backing fabrics

 

the pile of thirty two, ready for quilting

 

I had already decided to use this thread and big stitches - although I find it hard to quilt with big stitches, they tend to get smaller as I go

 

I have quilted round the stitchery, and the inner edge of the edging

 

I will also quilt round the outer edge

 

I had a search through my stash yesterday for backing fabric for the big runner.  Not only did I not have anything with a beach or nautical theme, but I didn't have a piece big enough (I don't like joins in my backing fabric).  So it was into my precious stash of Laura Ashley fabrics ........ I have to admit that I have had this stash since the 1990s, when I was able to buy a big pile of remnants which were a quarter of the original price

 

all pinned up, ready to quilt

 

I thought it might be difficult to work the pattern across the whole runner, so I started by quilting down the middle row of squares

 

in places I stitched into the squares on either side, and left spaces so that I could stitch into the centre squares from each side

 

as I quilted down the second row, there was a bit of a clank and a clonk, and I thought the thread had jammed, but the spool had run out

 

fortunately a quick search of my thread stash (!) uncovered another reel of the same colour

 

the second row quilted, showing where I have stitched from side to side over the centre seam

 

the third row stitched

 

it didn't take long to trim the runner and machine stitch the binding to the front.  Now all I have to do is hand stitch the binding to the back

 

this is the blanket that I knitted for the Jedburgh Flower Show industrial section competition.  It has still to be blocked, which will show the pattern off better

 

but a certain bear was most annoyed that Jemima got to show off the blanket, as she also showed off the pink one, so he had to have his photo taken too!

 

I thought the plain cream blanket was perhaps a little bit boring, so I have started one with a different coloured border

 

I have to admit that I put this matinee jacket (also for the competition) aside, as I don't like sewing up knitting ........

 

....... and started on a slightly different version, which will have short sleeves

 

Maureen gave me this piece of fabric on Monday to include in a Linus quilt ....... I'll show you tomorrow what I have done with it so far

 

 

A little bit of knitting

Just a quick post, as it is Abbey Quilters' monthly meeting tonight, which means an early dinner before I pop over to Jedburgh to pick up Maureen, and then on to Kelso.  Tonight, one of the members, Elaine, is showing us how to do shadow applique.  

So, a little bit of knitting.  The latest Linus blanket is coming along nicely

 

some weeks ago, Maureen suggested that I might like to enter some knitted items in the Industrial (handcraft) section of Jedburgh flower show.  She sent me the list of items, and when we were in Berwick last week I popped into the little wool shop and bought these patterns for the baby knits

 

then it was into the stash for some yarns.  I like white for tiny matinee jackets

the hooded jacket will be in a bigger size, so I chose this vibrant red, as I think it will show off the pattern well

 

come back tomorrow, and I will show you what I did with these four fat quarters!

Thoroughly spoiled!

 

Yesterday was Mothers' Day, and Stuart as usual sent a cheeky card

 

as he was unable to visit (he and Alison will be down next weekend instead), Malcolm stood in for him and spoiled me all day.  I had a cup of tea in bed, then despite a dusting of snow ......

 

..... we headed out for breakfast.  I had the most delicious French toast with bacon and maple syrup

 

while Malcolm had scrambled egg and goat's cheese, with toast

 

as we left the coffee shop, I was given a little bunch of daffodils, which was a lovely surprise!

 

back home, Malcolm slaved all afternoon making a special dinner for me (ok, he had been to M&S for a meal deal!!).  Exquisite duck legs, cooked sous vide, with rosemary potatoes, to which he added green beans and carrots

 

and the pudding - oh my, a deconstructed millionaire's shortbread

 

and now, back to Saturday, and some sewing.  I added the next border to Mrs Billings

 

then made a start to appliqueing the small hexies

 

this is part one of the stitcheries - there are eight parts in all, but none of them shows a photo of the completed quilt, just a construction diagram

 

as well as the 32 stitcheries, there are 62 blocks with patterned fabric centres (I was going cross-eyed counting them, so decided to number them!)

 

I've made a start to cutting the necessary hexies (and look at all those lovely scraps)

 

and this morning I managed to track down a photo of the finished quilt on the Rosalie Quinlan website.  I think instead of having the hexies sticking out at the tio and bottom, I will put in half-hexies

 

meanwhile Malcolm was in the garage sorting out wood from his stash for his piece of furniture

 

there are serious power tools involved in this project!

 

and to finish ........ lambs!!  These little dark ones were in the field across the road when we came back from Berwick on Saturday morning

 

then this morning there were these teeny tiny white ones

 

the last two photos are a bit blurred, as these two lambs were quite a distance away - but they are so cute I had to include them

 

Knit one, stitch one

First up today is the animal Linus quilt.  Having  machine stitched the binding on the front, I sat down to watch a dvd while I hand stitched the binding on the back

 

all finished,a lovely bright quilt, which has cosy fleece on the back

 

then it was on to the first of the two brushed cotton baby quilts.  Having stitched curves in the small squares, I was sitting wondering what to do in the big squares when  Malcolm came into the studio.  "What will I do in the big squares?" I asked.  "Straight lines" he replied.  "Moi, stitch straight lines, I don't think so!"

 

but I changed to the walking foot, stuck on a strip of masking tape as a guide .......

 

....... and stitched straight lines

 

ok, he was right, the straight lines look good

 

so I used them on the other one as well

 

the next job was to darn in all the ends, so I got out my new easy-theading needles

 

they have a slot in the top that you pull the thread through, which saves a lot of time if you have lots of ends to sew in

 

ends all dealt with, I folded the backing fabric out of the way, and trimmed off the excess wadding

 

then I trimmed the backing fabric to an inch bigger all round than the quilt top.  I folded the backing fabric over to the front and stitched it down to make false binding ...... and forgot to take a photo of that stage!

 

here are the two finished quilts

 

and here are the latest two knitted blankets

 

along with the blanket I had already finished, that's a nice pile to go to Linus!

 

I prepped the next four stitcheries

 

then pinned the big hexies in place in the remaining two borders

 

and pinned a strip of small hexagons in place to see how they looked 

 

I may have bought some fabric this morning ...... I'll tell you about it tomorrow!

 

All gone!!

Hooray, when we got up this morning, the snow had gone, so we headed out for lunch at Lochcarron, in Selkirk.  I was delighted that they had Thai chicken soup on the menu today

 

while Malcolm chose their lentil soup - both of them were delicious, as was the sun-dried tomato bread

 

I haven't made much progress with my socks, as I don't take them to Berwick

 

but I've made good progress with my latest blanket for Linus, as I can work on it in the car on the way to and from Berwick, which amounts to two hours of knitting

 

on the sewing front, I have prepped another four stitcheries

 

I have also cut out the eight hexies I need for the remaining stitcheries

 

there has been more work on Mrs Billings - I have stitched together the remaining hexies for the other three large borders

this afternoon I got out a pile of small hexies which I had previously prepped

 

and laid some out on the narrow border

 

having stitched them together I found that I was one short!

 

as I so enjoy sitting stitching hexies, I decided to have a big bite at this project, and by the end of the afternoon had completed two rows

 

I have been having a sort out of our DVD collection, with a view to giving some of them to a charity shop when I have watched them for the second, third or even fourth time (having checked with Malcolm that he doesn't want to watch them again).  This afternoon's offering was the Minority Report, with Tom Cruise, who is not one of my favourite actors*, but it is a good film

 

we had a glorious sunset tonight - a nice change from recent grey skies!

 

please think of me tomorrow morning, when I have a dentist's appointment at 9am - much too early to endure such torture!!

* my favourite actor is, of course, George Clooney ...... closely followed by Robert Downey Jr.  I have gone off Johnny Depp recently - he seems to have turned a bit weird!  And of course there is the delicious British actor Richard Armitage - oh, those smouldering good looks, that deep brown voice - excuse me, I shall have to lie down now in a darkened room!!