frayed at the edge

A chilly walk

Yesterday we decided to head into Hawick and go for a walk along the river - but we almost changed our minds when we realised how cold the wind was!!  However we kept walking and I'm glad we did, or we would have missed all this .....

ducklings with their mum

 

a young swan

 

an adult swan

 

heron

 

goose

 

goslings

 

an old fence post

 

mossy tree roots

 

I was surprised to receive a parcel in the post this morning, as I knew I hadn't ordered anything!  I opened it to find a lovely card .....

 

........ and a packet of biscuits.  Sarah sent them to me, after I had complained recently about Malcolm getting a biscuit with his coffee and I didn't get one with my tea when we were out for a cuppa!  So now I will be able to have a biscuit too

 

I have almost finished the Christmas stitcheries

 

and did you notice some Love Notes on the right?  Yes, I am now doing a Love Notes quilt for myself!  I have layered Lilly Pilly with some of this lovely cotton wadding (batting)

 

 

 

But Lilly Pilly will now languish on the table for the next three weeks because ......... yippee, we're off on holiday!!  We'll be leaving about 2am tomorrow, to drive down to Newcastle airport, to fly to Majorca.  Longterm readers will know that we go every year at this time  - but this year we are going for three weeks, rather than our usual two.  Stuart and Alison are joining us for the second and third weeks - they are looking forward to relaxing after all the stress of moving!!

But don't worry, you can still pop in, as I have scheduled posts to appear every day.  They are just short posts, with photos of my sewing over the years.  They aren't in any particular order, but generally the embroideries are the oldest, followed by the counted cross stitch, then the quilts.  And something very exciting will happen when I'm away ........ my 1,000th post will appear!!  Of course that means a giveaway ........ so, when I come back and check which post was the 1,oooth, I will ask Malcolm to pick a winner at random from the comments.  You can either leave a comment on the day you think is the 1,000th post, or you can leave a comment  every day.  I will have to find something very special to bring back from Majorca for the giveaway!!

 

I have packed the rest of my Love Note stitcheries to do in the evenings, and of course we have lots of books on our Kindles to read.  No doubt we will eat lots of delicious food, drink a bottle of two of wine, and generally relax (not forgetting the wonderful cakes to have with our morning cuppas!)

I hope you enjoy the little posts, and I'll be back in three weeks with tales of Majorca!  Love Anne

 

 

 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

I thought I was going to have to have a look in the archives for some shadows, so that I could join in at Shadow Shot Sunday 2 ........ but the sun came out this morning, and Iwas able to capture some garden shadows!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What time was it when I took the photos?

Magazine junkie

Hello, my name is Anne and I am a magazine addict ........ yesterday I showed you the magazine that I bought in the morning - but I didn't show you the one that I bought in the afternoon when I was on my way to the hairdressers (that's all my pocket money spent!)

 

The most irresistible of the ten irresistible projects is this bag (and I know I have suitable fabrics in my stash)

 

When my hair is long, I get very lazy about changing my earrings to match my outfit, and wear my gold hoops most of the time.  So now that my ears can be seen, I made the effort this morning to look out earrings to go with my black and grey top and trousers.  Stuart gave me these lovely earrings some years ago for my birthday

 

While I was looking in my jewellery box, I came across this brooch which I bought a few years ago.  I don't wear it very often, as it is made with modelling clay, and I am always worried that I might break it

 

At patch'n'chat this afternoon, Cathy was showing off her latest makes.  A very cute elephant, complete with pink toenails ........

 

....... and an adorable owl

 

And now, the most important photo of the week ....... yes, the cake!  Today we had the most delicious fruit loaf. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

 

The day got off to ......

....... a rather dreary start!  We have had a lot of rain - the river is running hard, and the poor heron looked somewhat bedraggled and miserable

 

Things did brighten up a bit, when I bought one of my favourite quilting magazines

 

and this little quilt would brighten up the dreariest of days!

 

I'm still stitching away in the evenings.  I have to admit that I haven't quite finished this block, as it involves satin stitch, which I'm not fond of

 

This little fairy is so cute!

 

I spent the afternoon in the hairdressers.  I asked Melissa, my lovely stylist, to cut my hair a bit shorter than I have had it of late. 

oops!

 

OOPS!!

 

Oh dear, I hadn't meant quite this short - but never mind, it will soon grow again!

 

ps - if you liked my sheepie notebook yesterday, you can buy one for yourself (and lots of other sheepie things) here

Here comes the sun

I was delighted yesterday to discover that I have been given an award by Kay, aka the Borderline Quilter

 

To accept the award, I have to give a link to Kay, tell you something about myself, spread the joy by nominating other bloggers, and of course let them know that I have nominated them

I have already given the link to Kay above - she is the wonderful longarm quilter who recently made our fabulous new comforter.  She won several awards at the Scottish Quilt Championships last year ..... and has an obsession for feathers (the quilted kind!)

 

I've done several of these "something about myself" things when I have been given awards in the past ...... I usually end up asking Malcolm, as I never know what to say about myself!  So here is a potted history of me.  Although I was born and grew up in Scotland, I am half English (through my Mum) and one of my great-grannies was Welsh!  I worked for British Rail, in the Chief Civil Engineer's department, so know obscure things about continuous welded rail, concrete sleepers and pandrol clips.  My singing is terrible, but that doesn't stop me singing along to the radio - especially when I'm driving.  I've sewn and knitted since I was little - as a hard-up teenager I used to make my own clothes.  I love to read - I have books in almost every room in the house - although not in the bedroom or bathroom!  Since I started blogging, I have become more and more interested in photography, and take photos every day.  And lastly, I can't write without using excessive amounts of exclamation marks!!

 

Now for the hard part - nominating other bloggers.  I think I have already nominated most of my favourites for other awards, so this time I have chosen

Cathy - I am in awe of her amazing artistic talents, as try as I might, my efforts look like a five-year old's drawing!

Rachel - her embroidery is beautiful

Pat - I love reading about her many children and grandchildren (and we have a name in common .... her married name is my maiden name!)

Thanks again Kay for the award!

 

As you know Malcolm now looks after the garden - but I had to do something this afternoon.  The harebells have spread, and underneath this clump .....

 

........ is the fabulous bees balm, which I would be upset to lose.  Some energetic pulling up, and the invading harebells were (just about) gone

 

This tiny clematis

 

already has a bud on it

 

This shot of the tree .....

 

..... doesn't show that the blossom is almost open

 

Meanwhile, in the front garden, the sparrows were squabbling on the fat ball feeder

 

and eating the emerging blossom on the tree

 

At least these little metal birds behave themselves

 

I whiled away a pleasant half hour or so, taking photos of the sparrows.  I tried to count them, but they kept flying off!  I think we probably have about two dozen of them - and we'll soon have more, as I think they are nesting under the roof again!

 

 

 

 

When we were in Melrose this morning, we popped into the National Trust shop for a browse, as they always have lots of lovely things ........ and today, this notebook just had to come home with me

 

Well ....... could you have resisted it?

Quilts, cattle and Katy

On Sunday we drove over to Cornhill, to visit the quilt and craft show.  As I paid the entrance fee, a disembodied voice from the back of the hall called out "Hello Malcolm, how are you Malcolm .... 0h hello Anne"  It was the redoubtable Katy, mainstay of the quilt show.  The first quilt we looked at was this wonderful one which she made for her husband Farmer Allan.  It shows his beloved Highland cattle, from the Douglas Fold at The Hirsel in Coldstream

 

Lovely as the Highland cattle are, of course I prefer the other quilt that she made for him ........ tractors!!

 

You saw bits of this cushion before, when Katy was working on it at patch'n'chat

 

So who is Katy?  She is a super fun friend, with a wicked sense of humour, and a willingness to have a go at anything .......  currently she is planning to abseil from the Forth Bridge to raise funds for charity.  This was her last fund raising effort - sitting pretty as Miss April on my studio wall

 

When we went through to have our cuppa and cake (there are always cuppas and cakes at quilt shows) a woman came up to me and said "You're the lady who writes the blog, aren't you, you're frayed at the edge".  I admitted that I was, and in turn said to her "You must be Audrey"  Yes indeed, she was Audrey.  So why does she know me, and why did I guess who she is.  Because her daughter is my blog friend Nicola.  I can't remember how Nicola and I discovered each other, but I love readiing about New Zealand, where Nicola now lives, and she loves when I write about Cornhill and the surrounding area, which she still misses.

When we were looking at the display of Christmas quilts, Malcolm pointed out this one

 

Although it has been done in very different colours, he recognised that it is the same pattern as ours

 

On the way home, we stopped for lunch at the Cream Puff, in Denholm

 

We had never been to the Puff  - it is only four miles or so from the house, so we had never really thought of going "out" to lunch there.  But someone recommended it, so we thought we would give it a try ..... and we are very glad that we did, as we had the most delicious celery, potato and stilton soup

 

Back in the studio, I listened to my latest cd, by The Civil Wars

 

 

To finish, I remembered this morning to take another photo of the Christmas stitcheries.  As the quilt also has red and white blocks, I put some red fabrics on the design wall

Siblings

We had surprise visitors today ...... Malcolm's sisters!  The younger one, Judith, is staying with the older one, Jennifer, in Morpeth for a few days, so they phoned this morning to say that they were going to pop up to see us.  Of course this meant going out for lunch!  This photo should have shown the three of them enjoying their lunch ....... but Jennifer moved, Malcolm looked as if he was crying and Judith looked awfully serious - so I have cropped the photo and instead you can enjoy the delicious food!

 

We had lunch at Harestanes, and as always had a walk round.  Malcolm was rather taken with this log pile - I hope he doesn't decide to move our logs from the log store and pile them under the windows!

 

There were a lot of woodworking tools in the courtyard - these rather large axes caught my eye

 

When we got home, the sun came out and we sat out in the garden to have a cuppa

 

We were amazed to see a pair of swallows swoop through the garden - it's very early in the year for them to have arrived.  Unfortunately they were much too fast for me to get a photo of them ...... but I did capture this sparrow sitting on top of the garden wall

 

The alchemilla mollis showed evidence of an earlier shower

 

The grape vine is just coming into leaf

 

and the herbs are growing well

 

I had planned to tell you about the quilt show we went to yesterday, but our surprise visitors of course changed that plan!  So I'll tell you about it tomorrow, and finish with a sewing update.  First, Lilly Pilly is all bonded, ready to be layered up with wadding and the applique stitched

did you spot the birds among the leaves?

 

Then, second, the Christmas stitchery is progressing well  - I took this photo on Saturday and have actually stitched quite a bit more over the weekend (yes, I forgot to take a photo today!)

Shadow Shot Sunday

The weather hasn't been very good today, so I though I would have to dip into the archives again to play along at Shadow Shot Sunday2 ........ but then the sun came out, providing some excellent shadows on my work table

 

 

 

A small detour

On my way to patch'n'chat this morning, I had a small detour to my friend Ali's house, as she was having an open day.  As with her last one, she had all sorts of luscious fabrics and trims to buy, but as I haven't yet used the ones I bought then, I resisted!  However, I did buy some gorgeous handmade paper, to make tiny books with ......

 

and two bags of offcuts of handmade felt, which I will use for jewellery, applique, and just generally having fun with

 

I made one more purchase - this one at Borderland fabrics, where I bought this little remnant to add to my collection of small prints

 

Now, the most important part of the post - of course that's the Friday cake!! This week it was the delicious apple and sultana cake

 

We hope to pop over the Border to Cornhill on Sunday, to go to a quilt show ...... whatever you are doing, I hope you have a good weekend.  Love, Anne

Turning over a new leaf

I nipped out to the studio this afternoon to do some work on Lilly Pilly, before I had to attend to my domestic duties ........ doing a large basket of ironing and making chicken curry with spicy potatoes for dinner.  I got Malcolm to hold the bottom edge of the background fabric while I eased out the paper pattern, taking care not to disturb the layout of the trunk and branches.  I then covered it with non stick parchment ........

 

........ and bonded the pieces in place

 

I then numbered the first thirty leaves, and traced them on to bondaweb, using the leftovers from cutting out the trunk and branches

 

I laid out the ten fabrics for the leaves on the heatproof covering, and ironed three leaves on to each one.  There then followed the same process of putting the pattern sheet underneath as a guide to placing the leaves, then Malcolm was summoned again to hold the background fabric in place while I carefully removed the pattern sheet.  A quick iron with the non stick parchment, and the first thirty leaves were in place (only another 120 to go!!)

 

I have been watching my box set of "Lost" while in the studio

 

We watched it when it was on tv, and this is the second time I have watched the DVDs ...... and I have to say I am still lost as to what it is all about!!  But I do know that I much prefer bad boy Sawyer (played by the delicious Josh Holloway) to goody-goody Doctor Jack!

 

Heading back into the house, I paused to take a photo of our new clematis, which is flowering prettily