frayed at the edge

Cakes and dogs

It was back into the old routine today, house work in the morning, then off to Borderland Fabrics for patch'n'chat.  But there was one difference, as I had my sewing in my new basket, which Malcolm bought for me on holiday

 

Margaret was working on one of her stunning applique quilts.  She is always reluctant to let me take a photo, but after a bit of pleading and cajoling, she allowed me to take one

 

however, I wasn't happy with the photo, as the electric lights in the room we sew in give everything a yellow look.  So I nipped through to the main part of the shop so that I could take another photo at the window - and what a difference that made!

 

but it wasn't just the sewing that looked yellow ....... Annette wasn't in the shop today, so her husband Norrie was holding the fort, aided and abetted by their fabulous Dandie Dinmont Barley.  He wags his tail constantly, as you can see from the blur!

 

of course Friday means cake, and as well as this afternoon's offerings ........

 

....... I thought you might like to see some more of the delicious cakes we had on holiday

 

whether or not you are eating cake, I hope you have a good weekend, love, Anne

Beware of dragons!

The second Saturday of our holiday was a bit cool and wet, so we decided to visit the Caves of Drach ...... the Dragon Caves.  Our friends Lee and John in Sydney had recommended that we go to see them, as they had visited them when their cruise ship called in at Majorca.  We knew from their description that the caves were going to be amazing - but we hadn't imagined just how amazing!!

 

the lighting shows off all the stalactites and stalagmites to great effect, and you can easily imagine dragons lurking, waiting to pounce on unwary travellers!

 

we wandered on, oohing and aahing

 

we arrived at a large chamber with a lake in it.  We were directed to rows of benches, and after everyone was seated (probably several hundred people), we were told that boats were going to appear, carrying musicians who were going to play some classical music pieces for us.  The lights were dimmed, and three boats appeared.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos during the perfomance, but I was able to snatch a quick snap as the boats left

 

it was an amazing place to visit, and I am sure we will go back next time we go to Majorca

 

on our way to the caves, we had seen a sign for a restaurant, which said that it was in an ancient monastery.  We decided to call in on the way back for a late lunch. 

 

there didn't seem to much evidence of old buildings, but we didn't mind, as the food was so good.  We decided to share a "mixed meat grill"

 

just as we manfully (and womanfully?) put the last helping on to our plates, the chef appeared with more!

 

I had to admit defeat, so the delightful waitress took my plate away and came back with a doggy bag ...... whch we enjoyed for lunch the next day!  While we were eating, we could see this fine fellow

 

but when we left, he had tired of strutting about the branch, and had settled down for a snooze

 

to finish, my holiday sewing.  I finished the applique and embroidery on the April block for Lucie's "A is for Applique" challenge, and as I had decided to "quilt as you go", I made a start to the quilting

 

I had asked Lucie what the theme for May's block was, so that I could work on that one too.  It didn't take long to think of a block for "happiness is ....."

 

I'm off out this evening for Abbey Quilters monthly meeting - hopefully I will be able to take some photos to share with you tomorrow.

 

 

Shopping!

When we were in Hawick this morning, we saw a new shop

 

of course we have to support any new shops, so we went in for a browse.  The shop is full of all sorts of lovely things, with lots of shabby chic furniture, old china, sets of crystal glasses ......

 

I spotted something which I thought Malcolm would like, so I sent him to wait outside while I bought it.  He had to stand in the rain for quite a long time, as the shop owner was very chatty!!  However, he didn't mind so much when he saw this 1930s barometer (which has been painted with Annie Sloan chalk paint)

 

of course I bought something for me too!  A rather quirky magnetic notice board

 

if you are visiting Hawick, do pop in to the shop, which is in North Bridge Street (the same street as Fun 2 Do).

and now, back to Home is where the heart is.  I wanted a curved line to meander between the two rows of words, so I got out my flexible ruler

 

I used a reel of thread to make the curves

 

having transferred the words and curve to the fabric, I added some little flowers and hearts along the curve.  Tha last stage was to pin the applique pieces in place

 

all I have to do now is start stitching!

 

 

Home is where the heart is ........

........ is the theme for the April block for Lucie's  "A is for Applique" challenge.  In a previous post I showed you the fabric that I had chosen, and the little stitcheries that I hoped to use in some of the blocks.  I don't very often draw out a proper pattern - I just scribble a vague plan.  This was the first version ......

 

....... and this was the second version

 

I had decided to use the idea of hearts as flowers

 

as always I used a cereal packet to make my templates.  Here they are ready to mark out the pieces on freezer paper

 

I stitched the little stitchery to two pieces of fabric, the top piece is for another stitchery, and the larger piece is for the applique

 

after a great deal of thought, I came up with this wording for the stitchery

 

I'll show you the next stages tomorrow.  It has been very windy today, and when I opened the back door to go out to the studio, two of the Indonesian puppets under the hall table blew over!

 

this is how they should look

 

these bigger puppets are too heavy to blow over

 

to finish, some rather sad photos!  We had a pair of collared doves in the garden for several weeks, but now there is only one of them, who flits between the front and back gardens, calling for its mate.  For the past few days, it has taken to sitting on the wooden steps in front of the lounge window

Hoarse!

I have been croaking a bit today, after talking loudly yesterday evening!  I asked my friend Anne S to take photos for me, and she has captured some good action shots (and some less flattering ones that you are not going to see!)

showing off the (almost) finished project

 

some inspiration

 

lazy daisies

 

showing the samples

 

working my way round the room, giving advice

 

helping Caroline

 

why am I laughing?

 

because Katy was trying to distract me (while Maureen got on with her sewing)

 

a last look at the wallhanging, now called Abbey Flowers

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and I hope the members did too.  When I got home, Malcolm poured me a very welcome glass of wine, then it was off to bed to dream about applique flowers!!

The big night!

After all the preparation, my big night teaching textured applique at Abbey Quilters has arrived.  So just a quick post before I have my dinner and head out for Kelso.  I didn't finish all the quilting, as I wanted to leave some ares free of stitching, to show the difference that quilting makes.  I also used several different stitches to show how that can change the look of the work as well

the almost finished piece (which still doesn't have a name!)

 

echo quilting

 

continuing a section of quilting out in the sashing

 

cross hatching

 

seed stitch - time-consuming, but effective

 

echoes of the tendrils

 

turkey tracks - another time-comsuming stitch

 

tiny leaves

 

the only lines that I marked were the ones for crosshatching (I didn't have a ruer in the house, so I just used the edge of a bookmark, which is why the spacing is a bit uneven!).  I don't generally use any fancy sort of marking pencil, unless I need a white pencil to show up on dark fabric.  I like mechanical pencils .... and shock, horror, yesterday I used up my last one!  But look what Malcolm got for me when he was out this morning

 

ps - the fabric the pencils are sitting on is the one I got to use as a background for the cottages.

Spectacular quilts .....

...... but they aren't mine!  Kay calls in to Borderland Fabric on the first Friday of the month with the quilts which she has longarm quilted.  First out of the bag was Kath's quilt, which is much brighter than it looks in the photo

 

next was Elizabeth's stunning quilt, which is entirely hand-pieced

 

the next two wallhangings were made by a man (!), Ray

 

at first glance, the second one looks like the first one, but if you look at the flying geese border, you will see that the colours are reversed

 

this detail shows Kay's wonderful quilting

 

Doreen's quilt is fresh and bright

 

Jan had brought a stunning blue and white quilt top in to have a chat with Kay about having it quilted, and to ask if the wadding she has would be suitable

 

Sandra had brought in this gorgeous quilt which she is making for her daughter.  She still has the outer borders to add - we are looking forward to seeing it when she finishes it

 

then, of course, we had the highlight of the day ...... cake!  This week we had a new one, a very, very delicious banana cake (although poor Maureen doesn't like banana cake and had to make do with a shortbread biscuit!)

 

over the weekend, I will be finishing my preparatons for my big night at Tuesday's meeting of Abbey Quilters, and making a start to the new version of my Country Cottages wallhanging.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

 

Fingers crossed!

Acting on advice from Rattling on, I am using a different browser today .... so here goes!

 

I had a good trip down to Anne's yesterday, it was dry, bright and clear and the hills looked spectacular with their covering of snow.  But as always there were no laybys that I could stop in to take photos!  So I came up with a briliant idea - a camera that is linked to my eyes.  All I would have to do is look at something and blink and the camera would take a photo.  Now I just have to find someone to make it for me!!

There was a lot of sewing going on yesterday.  If you think Annie's hexagons are small .....

 

..... she had some that were even smaller

 

I think I might make some for an applique project

 

Frances was working on her wonderful seahorses.  She has had to restitch some of the pieces as they didn't fit together properly - I think I would have thrown it in the corner!

 

Susan was working on miniature log cabins blocks, which several of the Friday patch'n'chatters are also doing.  I think I would soon get bored of producing block after block - you need an awful lot of them to even make a cushion!

 

Ros was working on an applique block which is part of a quilt that she is doing at classes at the shop

 

Karen was working on the same block

 

Margaret was hand quilting a beautiful double wedding ring quilt

that's Margaret on the left and Annie on the right

 

I showed off my Country Cottages, and was delighted when Anne said she would sell the pattern (and perhaps kits) in the shop.  So I immediately chose these ten fabrics to make a revised version (and then afterwards I remembered to choose a background fabric for the cottage blocks, but I haven't taken a photo of it yet)

 

as you saw in an earlier photo, I had my applique wallhanging with me, to continue the hand quilting.  Before I started the quilting, I had to decide how to do it.  Perhaps with traditional cross hatching

 

or with echo quilting

 

I decided to echo quilt - I am seriously out of practice with my handquilting, so the stitches are larger than I would normally do

 

Well, I have uploaded the photos today without any problems, so I may just continue to use this browser in future for writing my posts!

 

Country Cottages

Inspired by all the quilts that I have been making for Anne, I decided to have a go at designing one!  The first step was to work out what I wanted the blocks to look like, and having drawn out the diagram which you have already seen, I chose these fabrics from my stash of small prints

 

using a plain cream fabric for the centre square, I made up this sample block

 

but what to put in the middle?  I decided to have little cottages, but as I have mentioned before, I can't draw!  So I handed Malcolm some sheets of paper with six inch squares drawn on them, and asked him to draw some cottages for me.  You saw the first stage of the first cottage, with the pieces bondawebbed in place.  I then stitched round the pieces with black thread, and stitched in the windows and doors

 

then I added the borders

 

next, I made another three blocks

 

the next stage was to add sashing between the blocks, with a nine-patch in the centre

 

I then added an outer border and more nine-patches

 

this is just a first version, and I can see some things I will do differently, including a lighter-coloured fabric for the sashing - the green is too dominant.  I have enjoyed doing it, and I'm looking forward to making an improved version!

I have also finished Leanne's House, and will be going down to Longframlington tomorrow to give it to Anne - I just hope that she likes it after all that work!

 

Lucie has started a challenge, to make a quilt called "A is for Applique".  The theme for the first block is "home is where the heart is", and following Lucie's suggestion, I had a look through some magazines for inspiration

 

knowing how easy it is to while away time looking through magazines, I gave myself a time limit of thirty minutes!  I saw a red, white and bue quilt, which reminded me that I had this fabric in my stash, which I bought at Quilt Expo in The Hague in 2004

 

another quilt reminded me of these little stitchery blocks, which I designed some time ago

 

I was momentarily distracted by thhese fabrics, which were in the same project box as the stitcheries (I don't know why!).  I immediately thought of the calico applique - this would look good!

 

but back to the challenge!   I now have to think of a way to combine a stitchery with some applique (I hope that's allowed in the rules!).  Of  course I'm thinking of hearts and houses - this may turn out to be a big block ...... but then using all that fabric will be another big contribution to "the year of using it up"!!

I have also started handquilting the textured applique wallhanging .   I can't remember giving it a name ....... can you suggest one?  But you know what I'm going to say now ... here is a sneak peek, I'll show you more tomorrow!

Two walks!

Although the weather continues to be cold, it has been dry and reasonably bright, so we not only went for a walk yesterday morning, we also went for one this afternoon.  Yesterday we headed to Harestanes.  We hadn't been there for a walk for some time, as when we had the wet spell of weather we knew that the paths would have been very muddy ...... and the Visitor Centre closes over the winter, so we would have had to go elsewhere for our post-walk cuppa!

very large bits of old trees

 

a new bridge under construction

 

I wonder what this trap is for

 

another new bridge

 

perhaps Malcolm could build a log store for the owner of this magnificent log pile!

 

we had a cuppa and a scone - but it was just a run-of-the-mill scone, not worthy of a photo!  Being retired, Bank Holidays are really just like any other day for us, but we decided to have an afternoon off from our usual Monday routine, and headed into Hawick for a walk in the park

a hint of blue sky!

 

a tree caught on the bridge after the last floods

 

 

the rear end of a tree creeper!

 

the memorial bust of the late, great Bill McLaren

 

crocus

 

primrose

 

I don't know what these are!

 

we popped in to the museum in the park ......

 

........ as there were three new exhibitions that we hadn't yet seen, on old postcards, street photography and 75 years of photos from the Hawick camera club.  I couldn't take photos of the exhibitions, but I was able to take a photo of the old classroom - I sat at desks like these when I was at primary school and my teachers had similar tall desks!

 

we went to the Mill for a cuppa - but as this is one of my Fast Diet days, sadly there was no scone!

 

I'll  be back tomorrow with a sewing update .....  here is another sneak peek of my new project