frayed at the edge

Nip and tuck

Don't worry, I'm not heading off for cosmetic surgery!  Instead, tomorrow I am going to Borderland Fabrics to do a workshop with Jennie Rayment.   If you haven't encountered her before, I would suggest that when you look at her website, you click on 'lectures' (but don't do it if there are young children or men with weak hearts in the room .....)

So this afternoon, it was out to the studio to get organised.

   

First I had to choose nine fabrics.

 

I hope you like these batik fabrics that I chose.

 

Next, I had to cut various squares and rectangles.

 

Then I laid everything out and checked (and checked again) that I had everything on the list.

 

Finally, the machine went in its case and everything else into my workshop bag.  You can see the power lead and the foot pedal in the machine case - I think that at every workshop that I have been to, someone has forgotten their lead or pedal!  At least tomorrow I don't have to worry about taking a packed lunch, as a soup and sandwich lunch is included in the price of the workshop (and I believe home baking was also mentioned!)

I'm sorry if the quality of this last photo isn't too good - I didn't get round to scanning  some photos from my time in Indonesia, so I took a photo of this photo!

 

These are some of the ladies in my little patchwork and quilting group, showing off their sewing.  (you will recognise the Amish blocks from yesterday's post)  We were called the Wacky Patchers - but that wasn't a comment on our personalities!  It was because we were all members of WAC - Wanita Asing Cilegon, which translates as the Foreign Ladies of Cilegon (although it can also be translated at the strange ladies ... ).  We had a lot of multi-cultural fun - cooking national dishes (I did porridge, mince and tatties and pancakes), Scottish Country Dancing .....and some of us got together on Friday mornings to play a card game called 99 (the money we put in the pot each week was used to buy things for a local orphanage - just before I came home, we bought matresses for the kids - they had been sleeping on the floor ... ).  And did you spot our youngest member?

I don't think I'll be in a fit state to do a post tomorrow - I've done a workshop with Jennie before, and she makes you work hard!  So come back on Monday and I'll tell you all about it.

ps - if you're wondering what I'm going to do with my block, I'm going to make an ABC  (that's quilterspeak for another b****y cushion!!

Stir crazy!

After all the snow yesterday and the enforced day in the house, I was glad to get out this afternoon!  I headed off to Jedburgh, for 'chat and patch' at Borderland fabrics.  I thought I would have a rest from the chickens and took along some handquilting to do. 

 

This Amish wallhanging started out as sample blocks when I taught some ex-pat ladies in Indonesia patchwork and quilting, so it is a very long-term project!  Most of the ladies were Japanese and at first they were very formal, but as the weeks went on they gradually relaxed, although to the end they called me 'Mrs Anne'.  (I will tell you more about my time in Indonesia, but I will need to scan the photos into the computer, as I didn't have a digital camera then.)

 

On this detail, you might recognise the snowdrop (on the black border) - it is also on the sample piece that featured in a previous post.  You can still see traces of the white pencil I used to mark the design, but this will rub off.

But now, of course, we come to the main item of today's post.  Malcolm has had his glass of wine to fuel his number picking ability .... and the winner is .... Tracy.  (I'll e-mail you, Tracy, to get your details)  I'm sorry if you didn't win this time, but thank you for reading my blog and taking the time to leave a comment.  It was very scary when I started, but I am now really enjoying it and it's lovely to know that more and more people are reading it.

Tomorrow, I will tell you all about the exciting day I am going to have on Sunday, so do visit again.  Hope you all have a super weekend.

Change of plan

This afternoon I should have been heading to the hairdressers (what, you thought I'm a naturally stunning blond?)  However, that plan had to change when it started snowing while we were having breakfast .... and it forgot to stop!  Instead, I put the unexpected free time to good use, and finished my 2-at-a-time socks.

 

I am really pleased with them.  Helen's wool is wonderful to work with and the colours are lovely.  I enjoyed  doing the two at a time method.  You do have to be careful not to pull on the wrong loop as you move the stitches round, or you discover you have pulled them off the needle - yes, I found that one out the hard way!

Lunch today was a bowl of good rib-sticking homemade soup ....

 

... if I had known it was going to be so tasty, I would have taken photos as I made it - although it is a very simple soup (my soups tend to be made with what's in the fridge, rather than to a recipe).  It's roasted Romano peppers, sweet potato and red onion - peeled, deseeded, whatever, cut into chunks, sprayed with OneCal olive oil and roasted in a hot oven.  I then tipped them into a saucepan, added hot water, some salt and some veggie stock. I simmered it briefly, then blitzed it.  We both enjoyed it and it was just what was needed as the snow continued to fall.  Don't worry about the toast - I know it looks as if we were eating nasty white bread, but it is Hovis 'Best of Both' - looks like white, but with the goodness of brown!  (Could I get a job writing adverts?)

I may have mentioned that I like tea and you will have also noticed that I like patchwork, so my teapot will come as no surprise ...

 

..... I guess it would appeal to arty people too.

Don't forget that you have until teatime tomorrow (Friday) to post a comment if you want to be included in the draw for the giveaway (and there will be a little extra surprise in the parcel!).  I shall have to make sure my wonderful random number generator is fully fuelled - I think a large glass of wine will do the trick!

ps - it did eventually stop snowing and it's melting - but there's an awful still to go!

Out to lunch

It's Wednesday, so that must mean we went out for lunch!  This morning we had headed up the A7 to Galashiels, to do the boring food shopping thing in Tesco.  Then on the way home we stopped in Selkirk at Lochcarron.  It's not the sort of place to take photos in, so please do have a look at the website.  The coffee shop is warm and inviting and I can recommend the soup.  Malcolm had cream of wild mushroom and I had tomato and basil.  They were both delicious.  My pot of tea was good and I thought Malcolm's cup of coffee was enormous - until he said that was their small size!  After lunch we had a browse round the shop.  They sell the most wonderful things - cashmere sweaters to die for - but I can't wear them as they would make me itch (which is probably just as well considering the price tags).

On the road back to Hawick, we stopped in the carpark of Homebase, so that I could take this photo ...

   

looking over the valley to where we live, although our house isn't in the photo - I would have had to looked more to the right to include us, but the view is much more interesting of the hill,  called Ruberslaw, which is an extinct volcano.  As you can see, we still have rather a lot of snow.

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment, it's nice to know that you are enjoying my meanderings!  Another item has been plucked from the studio to be added to the gieaway - an appropriate item for this time of  year - a handbag tissue holder (complete with tissues) for those winter sniffles ...

A nice cup of tea

It hardly seems two minutes since they were last here, but it is two weeks, so this morning saw me getting organised for Kist.  Of course, you can't have a bunch of ladies without providing refreshments, so the first job is to get the coffee on and lay the tea-table.

 

I hope you like the tablecloth - I bought it when we were living in Indonesia (but like New Zealand, that's a story for another day).  I am well known for the amount of tea I drink, so when I had to part company with Greenpark Quilters in Polmont (which is near Falkirk ... and if that doesn't help it's in Stirlingshire) when we moved to Indonesia, they all made me a block with a mug on it.  I used them to make this wallhanging, which appropiately is called ' a nice cup of tea'.

 

In the first photo, you can see the painted cupboard that the kettle and coffee machine stand on.  I did that way back in the mid-90s, when paint effects and stencilling were all the rage.  It has moved house several times now (and even had a spell under a dust cover in the garage) and I wouldn't part with it.  On the wall above the cupboard are family memories ...

 

In the middle is the sampler that I did for my Mum and Dad's Ruby Wedding in 1986.  Sadly they never got to celebrate their Golden Wedding, as my Mum died in 1995.  The photo above it is my grandparents in their shop in Glasgow.  I don't know exactly when the photo was taken, but I think it was before the War.  I embroidered the 'R' for my Mum one Christmas - can you just see it has roses twined round it?  I also did one for my Mum-in-law - her name was Doreen, so was her picture perhaps a lovely dahlia?  No, it was a dandelion!  The drawn-thread picture is my first and last attempt (again it was a present for my Mum) - not a method of working I wanted to do again!

I couldn't finish without a wee mention of the giveaway ....

 

Another little thing has been added - this time a lavender bag.  Now, it's not filled with namby-pamby French lavender - this is the real stuff, grown right here in my garden, good Borders lavender!  So leave a comment and it could all be yours.

Not more snow!

Yes indeed.  We got up this morning to find more of the nasty white stuff had fallen in the night (I don't mind a few days, but this had gone on for a week).  As we live on a back road, it meant another day of not venturing out (I had a bump in the car last year, so I really don't want to have another one!)  However, the snow does provide some amusement ...

 

Do you think Mr Owl is warm under his snow hat, sitting in his garden niche?  Although it did warm up enough later in the day for the road to clear, it was still cold enough for these icicles - even with the sun shining on them, they weren't for melting!

 

But that's enough about the snow and the cold weather.  With all the sewing that was going on over the weekend, I wouldn't want you to think I have been neglecting my knitting.  I knit in the evenings, when we sit down after dinner to warch tv, and here is my latest project ....

 

Of course, this is Helen's wonderful sock wool that I got last week - I told you it would go straight to the top of the to-do list!  As you can see I am using a pattern from my 2-at-a-time book.  I have stretched one of the socks over my hand to show the pattern off better ...

 

I love the colours, it makes the socks look really cosy.

And now for the giveaway ....

 

As you can see, I've added something.  But what is it, I hear you cry ...

 

It's a piece of beautiful fabric from Hinnigan made right here in the Borders.  It measures about 15"x30", so would be enough to make a small cushion or a book cover.  Remember all you have to do to have a chance of winning is to leave a comment on any of this week's posts. 

Sew far, sew good!

 

I can't remember when we had so much snow and snow that stayed with us for so long.  This photo was taken yesterday and shows the path through the back garden out to the studio.  However, with the stove lit and some music on, I was able to forget the weather and get on with some sewing.

 

I have started the quilting on Sunset over the Bay.  At the moment, I am quilting random leaves, using big stitches, as you can see in this detail.  I haven't marked the leaves on, I am just doing them by eye, unlike the next piece, which was very carefully measured and marked out ...

 

This is quilted with very small stitches, as you can see in this detail ..

 

This is a far-travelled piece of quilting, as I took it with me in 2001 when I went to New Zealand (but that's a story for another day!).  I came home via Los Angeles, so together we have travelled round the world.

As I have been writing this drivel nonsense blog for a month, in time honoured blog tradition I am going to have a giveaway ....

 

If you would like this kit ....

 

.... with which you can stitch this little thistle, then leave a comment. (I might find some other little things in the studio to include in the parcel)  At the end of the week, I will use my wonderful, sophisticated, highly technical random number generator to pick a winner.  What ... you don't have one of them?  Mine is called Malcolm and when you say 'give me a number', he responds instantly!!

ps - there was some frantic stitching this afternoon, as I can't find the original samples I did when I designed the thistle kit, so I had to quickly stitch this one.

It must be love!

 

Malcolm and I are both lovers of routine and one of those routines is doing the housework on a Friday morning.  But a sub-routine is stopping in the middle of all that hoovering and dusting for a cuppa.  As we are nearing Valentine's Day, this morning's was a little special.  A mug of ginger hot chocolate for me (real, proper chocolate, none of that low-calorie nonsense) and a mug of frothy coffee for Malcolm.  Don't you just love his heart-shaped mug, with the little hearts on it (bought for him by his loving wife) ... and I put a heart-shaped dusting of chocolate on the top!  Now I could lie cheat pretend say that I made the delicious strawberry shortbread hearts, but I shall tell the truth - I bought them in Morrisons!

Have a lovely weekend!

Gorgeous!

I wasn't planning to post anything today (yes, there is a small amount of planning goes into this!), but then I looked out of the window and had to take this photo to share with you ...

 

.... look at the wonderful blue sky.  You can see the snow-covered Minto Hills in the distance.  I'm so lucky to have such lovely scenery right here on my doorstep.

The other thing that happened to brighten up the day was the arrival of the postman ....

 

with a parcel from Helen. The top yarn is this month's Totie Toe sock yarn and the bottom one is the first one from the Selkie lace yarn club.  Aren't they just absolutely gorgeous.  If you haven't yet visited Helen's blog, pop over now and be prepared for a visual feast!  They are both so nice, I just don't know which one to knit first - everything else on the knitting to-do list has just been moved down two places!

Welcome to my world

   

I've spent most of today in the studio, so I thought you might like to visit.  Obviously, this photo was taken last summer, when we actually had a sunny day!  Why don't you come inside....

 

First, we step into the 'office' area, although as you can see from the rail on the left, my quilts get everywhere!

 

This is my knitting and general craft fabric stash.  The studio is on two levels - you can just see the steps on the left.

 

The French doors on the upper level also have outer storm doors.  I didn't open them today as it was a bit miserable.  You may notice I have one or two books and magazines!

 

This is the patchwork stash, which I am gradually using up (honest, I haven't bought any fabric for weeks ... well maybe just a little bit!).  You might notice at the top of the storage unit is the Patons logo - that's because I bought the units from Fiona, when she closed Woolly Ewe.  They are fabulous units and I was very fortunate to get them.

 

And now for the final report on the 2-at-a-time socks.  I finished the second 'pair' last night, so I now have two matching pairs - they are just toddler size, really cute.  I enjoyed knitting them and once I got the hang of the method, found it quite easy.  I will certainly have a go at a pair of socks for myself - at least I know they will turn out the same size, unlike most of my socks!