frayed at the edge

Dear Santa, please disregard ........

........ my previous requests for tractors/large farm machinery.  Instead, can I please have this REALLY large piece of farming kit?

 

I saw it this morning at The Barn at Beal, where we stopped for a cuppa and a cheese scone (just one between us!)

 

we were on our way to The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  Malcolm had checked the tide tables, as you have to cross a causeway

 

and we didn't want to have to take refuge here .......

 

...... because this had happened

 

fortunately Malcolm had read the tide table correctly, and we soon arrived on the island

 

the skyline is dominated by Lindisfarne Castle.  We didn't have time to visit it today, so just had to admire it from afar

 

Malcolm last visited Lindisfarne when he was a child, but he remembered that there were old boats upturned on the shore, being used at sheds.  So 50 years on, were they still there?

 

I had to wait for another photographer to finish taking photos so that I could take this one

 

I don't think you could rely on this anchor

 

Malcom spotted this gate

 

and I spotted this one!

 

this is the first time I have seen a snipe!

 

having already had a scone, we shared a roast beef baguette for lunch.  The coffee shop was exceedingly "green" - the food came in a paper bag, and the cups and cutlery were compostable

 

I still have lots of photos to share with you, but I'll save them for tomorrow.  To finish - as we walked back to the carpark, I felt that someone was watching me ........

A hive of activity!

On Friday, Maureen gave me her leftover piece of iron-on bias for my New Zealand vineyard wallhanging.  There was a great holding of breath as I measured it ........ then a great sigh of relief that it was long enough.  I ironed it in place on Saturday afternoon - as you can see there was just an inch left over

 

I stitched the remaining bias strips in place.  I will do some more quilting before I put the binding on

 

I cut the borders of the Mount Fuji wallhanging

 

and added the binding to the front

 

usually when I make templates I use cereal packets, but when I made my flowers on Sunday, I used these pretty pieces from a tissue box

 

I put my two fabrics right sides together and drew round the circle template five times

 

the three stages of making the flowers, after stitching round the cirlcles and turning them right side out

 

I have also been working on the red, white and blue blocks.  By the end of Sunday afternoon I had three of them on the design wall

 

and this afternoon I added the fourth one

 

the next stage will be to machine quilt the blocks, then I shall add some embellishments

 

tiny birds

 

and teeny tiny bees

 

and now for the beehive.  The woodwork was finished at the weekend

 

then it had its first coat of paint

 

to finish - I know I have lots of projects on the go, but I'm already planning the next one!  I got these fabrics recently from Stitchin' Heaven ...... but what am I going to put in the centre?

 

ps - Typepad has resumed its wicked ways of putting comments in the spam folder, sometimes days after you have left them!

Goodnight John Boy, goodnight Jim Bob

I had to retune my little tv in the studio last week, as some of the channels were being changed.  On Saturday I was scrolling through to see what was on, when I found one of the new channels ...... and look what was on - The Waltons!

 

John Boy was not amused when his siblings invaded his bedroom, when he was trying to write

 

yesterday morning we headed to Newtown St Boswells, to go for a walk.  As we headed towards the River Tweed, there was a lot of traffic noise from the main road above us

 

this plump bee wasn't bothered by the noise

 

however we soon left the road behind and meandered through the trees

 

  We stopped to admire this new wooden bridge ........

 

......... which looks so much better than this old one

 

it has obviously been a good year for the ducks, as we saw several pairs shepherding their broods along the river

 

we thought it rather strange that this boat had a plastic chair in it .......

 

then on round the bend we saw another one!

 

we missed the turn-off to take us away from the river and back to the village - as you can see the vegatation is somewhat overgrown.  I don't think I would sit on the bench, in case a strange creature jumped out!

 

my legs were complaining by the time we had climbed these three sets of steps!

 

I don't know why this sheep has a traffic cone in the field!

 

we couldn't decide what these three old buildings were for

 

of course, after such a long walk we were in need of a cuppa and sconnage.  We went to The Jammy Coo, where we enjoyed a cheese scone ......

 

....... and a fruit scone

 

I'll be back tomorrow, not only with a sewing update, but also with a beehive update!

Warning : cake overload!!

Maureen brought in her chicken wallhanging

 

funny face!

 

elegant double prairie points

 

Katy was working on an diamond shaped log cabin block

 

then it was time for tea ....... and cake!  First, my orange teabread was well received

 

opinion was divided on the salted caramel shortbread - some of the ladies weren't aware of the current popularity of salted caramel

 

Maureen brought in these wonderful courgette and cocoa muffins

 

but I wouldn't want you to think that everything I ate today was naughty ...... I had a bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast!

 

several of you have guessed that Malcolm is making a beehive ...... however we are not going to be keeping bees!  It is an ornamental one, which he intends to use for garden storage.  I think he is going to paint it to match the summerhouse.  Hopefully he will finish it over the weekend.  As usual I will be busy sewing, and weather permitting we will have our Sunday morning walk.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Salty!

Some of you guessed what I was making with yesterday's ingredients - it was indeed my version of the salted caramel shortbread.  But of course, being my version, it is a cheat's version!  I started with shortbread fingers (do you like the plates - a packet of them cost a whole 10p when they were sold off after last year's Jubilee celebrations!).  I put them on two plates, as I was going to top half of them with plain chocolate, and half with milk

 

I spread some caramel on each finger, then sprinkled a little salt on top

 

after chilling them in the fridge to firm up the caramel, I melted the chocolate and covered them.  They might not look very elegant, but they tasted good (we have been very restrained and only had one piece each!).  I think if I made them again, I would use a bit more salt.  I'll take this plateful tomorrow - we will have the even less elegant ones!

 

I do have a proper recipe for caramel shortbread - I wrote it in my little notebook years ago, when I still had neat handwriting!

 

I baked the cake this afternoon.  The recipe came from this book, which was published in 1977!

 

it's a very easy recipe.  Having soaked the fruit and orange zest in tea overnight, this morning I added flour and a beaten egg

 

just out of the oven, and it smells delicious.  Of course you will have to wait until tomorrow for a report on how it looks and tastes

 

while I was busy in the kitchen, Malcolm was doing more of his project.  I think you may now guess what it is

 

out in the garden, the flamingos are settling in.  Maybe we should turn the water feature on for them!

Although Garfield is a cat ........

........ I always laugh at his cartoon, and yesterday's made me laugh more than usual

 

when we were out and about today, we popped into Lochcarron for a bowl of soup for lunch.  We had hoped that their wonderful Spicy Thai chicken soup was on the menu, but it wasn't.  However the lentil soup was delicious, as was the sun-dried tomato bread

 

over the weekend, I got on with a lot of sewing, working on my two pieces that I started at the Gail Lawther workshops.  I quilted the  Mount Fuji wallhanging (don't worry about the bit of bias tape hanging off, I ironed it back in place after I finished the quilting!)

 

a detail of the sky and the top of the mountain

 

and the foot of the mountain

 

I then got out my mini iron

 

to iron on the rest of the bias tape

 

all that's left to do now is trim the outer edge to match the shape of the inner border, then back and bind the wallhanging

 

then it was on to the vineyard piece.  I did some of the machine quilting

 

I then added more of the bias tape

 

all that was left was the four strips round the border.  I looked at the amount of tape I had left, and thought that I might not have enough.  I measured it, and found I only had enough for three sides!!  I sent an emergency email to Maureen, as we had shared a reel of the tape when we were at the workshop.  Back came the answer that she had a piece left that might just be long enough, plus a couple of smaller pieces - if I have to have a join I can put a button over it!

 

Yesterday I got out this box

 

which contains the latest project for Anne - Nice people, Nice Things

 

it is a double-sided quilt,  but I am doing it as two quilts, as there isn't anywhere to hang it in the shop that would show off both sides.  One side has stitcheries of little pictures, the other side has stitcheries of sayings.  The pattern comes with iron on transfers, so I sorted out the fabric and transfers into two bundles

 

there are six stitcheries on each transfer, and after a great deal of ironing-on, I had eighteen pieces of fabric, ready to be layered up with thin bamboo wadding

 

I wound the embroidery threads on to plastic bobbins, and decided to use my cute sheepie tin to keep them in

 

I forgot to include this photo yesterday - Malcolm had kept it for me on Friday, when it was in his newspaper (we read different papers!).  Perhaps I could offer to do another review of all the wonderful scones they didn't mention?

 

I made a start to my cake today, as the mixed fruit, orange zest and brown suger has to soak overnight in tea ( I used Earl Grey)

 

I also made something with these ingredients - I'll tell you what tomorrow

 

while I was busy in the kitchen, Malcolm was starting a new project in the garage ...... can you guess what it is?

Take two!

Fingers and toes firmly crossed that it all goes to plan tonight!  So what vanished yesterday?  On Sunday we went to the Philiphaugh Estate, for a walk by the river.  The waterwheel isn't working at the moment ......

 

........ because major work is being done beside the river

 

I want one of these

 

in a few weeks' time these little berries will be big, fat, luscious brambles

 

we have had many walks here, but this was the first time we have taken this path, along the edge of the run-off from the waterwheel

 

we thought at first that the concrete edge was just on one side, but a bit further on we realised that it was on both sides.  The other bank had been hidden by the vegetation

 

after an enjoyable walk, we popped in to the Waterwheel Cafe, to enjoy some serious sconnage (I'm delighted to see my word (a combination of scone and tonnage) appearing elsewhere.  Should I contact the OED to tell them I invented  it?

fruit scone

 

cheese scone

 

we stopped in Selkirk at the Studio on the Green, but we weren't there for a dance class.  The Nomads Tent (I think there should be an apostrophe in Nomads) were there with a selectin of goodies from their shop.  We had seen them several times before at Chesters House and we had always bought a little something.  And it was no different on Sunday.  Some of the goodies were displayed in the beautiful garden, and I was delighted to be given permission to take some photos

 

so what did I buy?  First, there was an addition to my collection of shopping bags

 

and then there were these very cute flamingos

 

we have lots of birds in the garden - both real and ornamental- and the flamingos have settled in with these wonderful birds which I bought in Indonesia, way back in the late 90s

 

I'll be back tomorrow with a big sewing update, but to finish tonight ........ do you remember some weeks ago I mentioned that the cherry tree had very little bossom?  Well, on Sunday I took a photo of this year's crop of cherries

yes, one cherry!!

 

ps - Susan has asked about buying a Country Cottages pattern.   If you would like a copy, send me an email (there is a link at the top of the sidebar) with your name and address.  I will send you a Paypal bill (you don't need to have a Paypal account to pay it).  The price : in the UK, £10 incl p&p, elsewhere £12, incle p&p.

One thing leads to another!

I was busy sewing on Saturday afternoon, when the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone right on the needle area, making it hard to see what I was doing.  I glanced up the velux, and saw that it was in serious need of being cleaned (as was the other one).  So I thought I would clean them while waiting for the sun to move round a bit.  Having cleaned the insides, Malcolm offered to clean the outsides, an offer I gladly accepted as it's very awkward to do the outsides.  When he had finished, I thought I might as well do the two sets of French doors, then as I still had soapy water left, I fetched a scrubbing brush and gave my chair a good scrub, ready for repainting

 

back in the studio, I admired the lovely clean veluxes

 

Typepad has just thrown a major wobbly and I have lost the rest of the post, so I'm sorry but you'll have to wait until tomorrow, as I can't face doing it all again!!

Trying harder!

I started my efforts to take more photos last night, when I just caught the sun before it sank below the horizon

 

when I was cleaning the bathroom this morning, I noticed the flowers in the planter on the windowsill showing through the glass

 

we have a cuppa in the middle of the Friday morning housework, and this morning we finally had a taste of the salted caramel shortbread (I can't quite believe it either that we have had it for almost two weeks without eating it!)

 

I was going to cut it into lots of little squares, but having tasted a little bit before I cut it, I ended up cutting it into somewhat larger pieces - it is delicious!!

 

at patch'n'chat this afternoon, Anne S. had brought some more of her daughter Roberta's fabulous tiny teddies for us to see

 

Andrea has almost finished this stunning wallhanging.  It is her first attempt at free motion quilting and she has done very well!

 

Maureen has finished her Gail Lawther wallhanging

 

a real treat for the Friday cake - Annette's wonderful chocolate sponge, with fresh cream and strawberries

 

next week's cake might not be of quite the same standard ...... Annette and some of the others are heading to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts, so I have volunteered to bake a cake.  It's not that I can't bake, it's just that I rarely bake ..........

I hope you have a wonderful weekend - preferably with cake or scones on the menu!  Love, Anne

<

Another accidental purchase!

When Ruth and Annie were reorganising the fabric yesterday at Stitchin' Heaven, they also sorted out some bolts of fabric that have been in the shop for some time, and just haven't sold.  Anne has decided to have a permanent "sale" section at the back of the shop - all the fabric on these shelves are now £6 a metre.  So if you are going to be in the area, call in and bag yourself some bargain fabric!  While they were sorting out the sale pile, there was one fabric whichh caught my eye, and when Malcolm came back for me, he picked the same one!   Somehow, two other fabrics jumped off the shelf and went to the counter with me

 

so which was the fabric we both picked?  The apple one

 

the fabrics came home in my sewing box, which had taken the patterns and kits to the shop (do you like it, Meredithe?)

 

we have had quite a lot of rain, and the raindrops on the hosta caught my eye as I headed back into the house after a short session in the studio

 

I haven't taken many B&W photos recently, but inspired by Annie, after taking the photo of the hosta, I set the camera to B&W.  First, I took two photos of the climbing rose on the pergola

 

the roses are pink, as is this osteospermum

 

this might look like something from a sci-fi film, but it is a hosta flower, which is just starting to open

 

this is my favourite.  I think this leaf on the grape vine looks metallic

 

and that's it - a poor day for taking photographs!  I shall try to do better tomorrow!