frayed at the edge

Blooming orchids

We may be in the middle of winter, but I still have orchids flowering on the kitchen windowsill.  This one has been flowering now for months

 

I bought this one recently in one of the local supermarkets - it only cost me £5!

 

this one isn't doing too well - it has only managed to produce three little flowers, which haven't managed to open properly

 

I have solved the problem of the too-hot chilli chocolate - I grated some into my hot chocolate this morning, so that it was tasty but not fiery

 

when we had our afternoon cuppa at patch'n'chat, we were joined by a customer and her husband ...... fortunately there were plenty of Annette's delicious fairy cakes

I forgot to show you the prize that Caroline won for the best suggestion for a New Year's resolution.  I gave her a selection of magazines from my stash, three Australian and two Spanish.  I think she has already bookmarked several projects!

 

we are heading over to Berwick in the morning.  Today's weather has been much better, so we are hoping that continues over the weekend and we will be able to go for a walk on the beach.   I hope you have a geat weekend, love Anne

 

My 3rd Auntlet's report

I have been stitching and stitching to get my blocks finished, to catch up with the schedule, as set by the wonderful Thimbleanna, who is co-ordinating our quiltalong.  Of course I would have had more done if I hadn't got sidetracked on a related project.  My block keeper wasn't big enough for the blocks, so I decided to make a new one, using the two orphan blocks that I showed you recently

the front

 

the back

 

the inside

 

the first blocks

 

so, on to the blocks.  By today, I should have completed six pieced blocks and three applique blocks.  So how have I done?

first and second pieced blocks

 

third and fourth

 

fifth and sixth

 

having completed all the pieced blocks, how have I done with the applique blocks?

block one - finished

 

block two - almost finshed

 

block three - about two thirds done

 

so not quite finished, but not too bad!  Here are all the blocks on the design wall - I am looking forward to adding the next three blocks next month, another two pieced blocks and one more applique block

 

do pop over to Thimbleanna, where all the participants are listed on her sidebar.  I'm off to have a look, to see how everyone has done this month!

 

Hot chocolate!

When I picked Maureen up to go to Abbey Quilters last night, she said that she had a bar of chiili chocolate for me.  It had been given to Alan, her partner, for Christmas.  He had tried a small taste of it, and after she had revived him, he declared that it was simply too hot to eat!  So, of course, she gave it to me, knowing that I like spicy food.  We had a little taste this morning after breakfast ....... and yes, it is very hot - I coped slightly better than Malcolm!  So I suggested that I could have some in my afternoon mug of hot chocolate.  When Malcolm brought the hot chocolate out to the studio this afternoon, I assumed he would only have put a little bit in, and took a normal sized mouthful ......... big mistake.  I eventually managed to draw breath again, and then taking moderate sips, thoroughly enjoyed it (Malcolm says he only put the smallest piece in).  So whether you want to try, or avoid, the chilli chocolate, here it is

 

Maureen also gave me this exceedingly cute owl as a thank you for giving her a lift to Abbey Quilters every month - he will be joining the Parliament on the yucca plants in the back lounge

we went for lunch to the Woodside Garden Centre

 

where we enjoyed delicious carrot and lentil soup

 

on the way home we could see snow on the hills in the distance

 

and Fatlips Castle standing proud on the crag

 

it may be the middle of winter, but in the sheltered corner of the front garden, the daffodils have appeared

 

in the garden this morning, the sparrows were perplexed by the frozen birdbath (don't worry, Malcom defrosted it after I took the photos)

 

the seed and fat ball feeders needed refilled, so there was a bit of squabbling over the peanuts

 

while the blackbird just hopped about looking handsome!

 

I'll be back tomorrow with my latest report on the Aunts' Quilt ......... have I managed to complete all the blocks in time??!!

Spooks-athon!

You would think with all those channels on Freeview, I would have plety of choice for something to watch while sewing in the studio

 

so I got out my collection of Spooks DVDs ............

 

......... and settled down to get on with my stitching on the Aunts' Quilt blocks ......... when I could tear my eyes away from the delectable Richard Armitage

 

if you haven't seen him on tv, you may have seen him in the Hobbit films - he played Thorin Oakenshield.  As Johhny Depp doesn't look so good these days, I may have to replace him with Richard (although perhaps George Clooney should get the boot from my most desirable list, as he didn't wait for me, but went off and married someone else!!)  But I would have to put my foot down and demand that Richard shaves - I don't like stubble!!

 

there was a heavy shower this afternoon of hail/snow ....... I couldn't quite decide which it was

 

after the usual Christmas overindulgence, we're back pn the dreaded Fast/5:2 diet.  Yesterday I had made a pot of chilli to have for dinner today.  Rice has far too many calories for a fast day, so I made a batch of cauliflower and carrot "rice", with a tasty extra ingredient

 

I made the chilli with pork mince (simply because I has some in the freezer) and added lots of mushrooms and celery to give a good sized portion, without adding very much to the calorie count.  I was a little bit generous wiht the chilli powder, but it was just the sort of chilly day to tuck into a big bowl of hot chilli!!

 

I'll be off shortly to pick up Maureen, to go to Abbey Quilters for the monthly meeting.  We are going earlier than usual, as we are on "setting up" duty - putting out the tables and chairs. This evening one of the members will be demonstrating how to make a small cushion which resembles a strawberry, for resting your mobile phone on when it is charging.  As I have no need for such an item, I will be doing some more stitching on the Aunts' Quilt!

 

Team work

On Friday afternoon at patch'n'chat, Maureen ordered commanded asked me to turn on my Hudl, and head for this website.  Once there, she directed me to patterns which were in the sale.  Having found the patterns, Margaret was then summoned to look at them, as Maureen was certain that she would like them.  It turned out that she already had some of them, but she didn't have this one, and as she doesn't do the internet, I was tasked with ordering the pattern for her.  I ordered it on Friday evening, and it arrived this morning ..... excellent service!

 

I should have been showing you photos of the snow on Saturday afternoon, but I had a slight oops when I was transferring my photos to my laptop this evening, and accidently deleted some of them (I also deleted photos that Malcolm had taken of a rainbow this morning - sorry dear!!).  Because of Saturday's bad weather, we didn't go for a walk yesterday morning, but we did go for a delicious cheese scone at the woolen mill in Jedburgh

 

after all the snow and rain over the weekend, the rivers were very full in Hawick this morning.  The small island where the trees are was completely submerged

 

the water in the Teviot, in the foreground, was flowing so hard that it was holding back the water from the Slitrig, coming in from the top right of the photo

 

the noise as the water crashed into the bridge was amazing - drowning out the traffic

 

although the rivers were running hard, they were nowhere near flooding, much to the relief of the local residents

 

I have been knitting away on the ball end sweater and finished the back last night.  So to finish, here is Malcolm patiently modelling it for me, after I poked and pulled to get it to sit properly

 

The first of the year

It was good to be back at patch'n'chat today, to catch up with what everyone had been doing during our break.  Margaret has been busy working on yet another of her stunning applique quilts - here are three of the amazing blocks

 

Margaret had also made this fun Christmas wallhanging (the background fabric is a much darker blue - my camera just doesn't like blue!)

 

Maria was working on a crochet blanket for Linus

 

Sheila was busy cutting fabrics for the next jumbo block for a sampler quilt

 

in contrast, Katy was working on tiny hexie flowers - as you can see, this one is sitting on an inch square

 

for our first Friday cake of the year, Annette had made out favourite apple and sultana - delicious!!

 

while we were having lunch, we were visited by Sew - ot was it Sew?  Sew (or Sew) preferred the Ladies toilet to our company.  I am amazed that the two butterflies have survived so long in the shop!

 

We were going to go to Berwick for the weekend, but as snow is forecast, I think we shall just stay at home.  Whatever the weather, I hope you have a great weekend, love Anne 

 

Blowing the cobwebs away

I haven't been doing much walking recently, so I decided to head up the road past the church before lunch.  It was rather chilly, with the wind making it feel even colder.  So I wrapped up well and set off.  As soon as I was out on the road, I had to stop to take a photo of some sheepies tucking into hay

 

I had only gone a few yards further when there was another stop to capture the donkey-owning neighbours' snowdrops

 

however I then managed to walk quite a bit further before encountering these sheepies

 

over the years that we have been here, this old tree has lost all but one little branch, but it is still alive

 

I still see a monster when I look at it!

 

of course on the way back home I had to stop again to admire my favourite view

 

I had taken a little bag with me to collect some bits and pieces, and back home I made a little still life on one of Malcolm's many wooden plates/bowls

 

to finish ...... I made a good start to the ball end sweater last night.  The photo doesn't do the colours justice - I could do with wearing my sunglasses while knitting!

An amazing bargain!

When we were in the local DIY store recently, we noticed two solid wood bath panels lying on a trolley, with stickers on them saying that they had been reduced from£65 to £5 each!  I immediately claimed the oak one, which is now a very stylish shelf in my studio

 

Malcolm claimed the other one, which is beautiful tongue and groove pine ....... no doubt some marvellous construction will appear from the garage - perhaps a piece of garden furniture?  I have pinched stolen acquired one of Malcolm's driftwood trees, to display little bits and bobs on (it's on the much less stylish shelf, made from the top of an ancient old computer desk)

 

at the weekend I reorganised my quilts and wallhangings that are stored in the lower level of the studio, using two portable clothes rails

 

When Stuart and Alison visited at Christmas, Stuart said that he had a bit of an odd request for me from his friend Fraser.  Fraser's Dad has taken up archeology in his retirement, so Fraser thought it would be fun to give his Dad a "ball end"  sweater, as worn by the late Mick Aston when he appeared on Time Team.  

photo from Wikipedia

 

Always happy to accept a challenge, I tracked down some cheap and cheerful yarn, which arrived today.   It will be fun knitting in random stripes

 

when I was ordering the yarn, I hadn't enough in my basket to qualify for free p&p, so I added a ball of sock wool to the order.  As you can see, it co-ordinate nicely with my footstool!

 

A little bit of sewing!

As I moved a half-done project out of the way on my work table, I thought that perhaps if I just made the effort to finish it, in the long run it would save me time, not having to keep moving it (I hope you followed that!)  So that's what I did.  I had stitched the sashiko some time ago, so all I had to do was assemble the bag

 

the lining is a very pretty Japanese fabric

 

I have to admit that I am very good at starting things, but not so good at finishing them, so spurred on by the pleasure of finishing the little bag, I looked out my Baltimore blocks which were waiting to be made up into a scarf/runner for across the bottom of our bed.  I found the perfect fabric for the sashing in my stash and soon had the blocks stitched together.  It is too long to show you in one go, so you will see the centre block in both photos as I rotated it to show both ends.  When I go to patch'n'chat on Friday I wil get wadding and backing fabric , so that I can quilt it

 

woo hoo, two things done, what can I do next?  When I did the beginners class at the college, the last thing they made was a little bag.  Of course I had prepared several bags, taking each one a stage further.  I got them all out, finished them, and now instead of tatty polythene bags stuck to the edge of my work tables with masking tape, I now have very smart fabric to collect rubbish in.  I made five - one of them is in the house and the other four are pinned to the table edges - here are two of them

 

some time ago, along with a lot of others, I got caught up in the "Farmer's Wife" quilt fever.  However I soon recovered, as I didn't enjoy putting the blocks together - they were "non-standard" sizes and some of them had so many pieces it was hard to be accurate.  When I unearthed them, I found that I had actually made sixteen blocks, enough for a small quilt.  However some of them were decidedly undersized, so I needed to have a bit of a pochle* to get them all to fit.  I stitched borders round all the blocks, then trimmed them all to the same size.  I like the way the inner border makes the blocks "float" on the quilt.  Now all I have to do is quilt it

 

next up was an ongoing, rather than an unfinished, project.  In the evenings I had appliqued the hexie flowers to their background squares, and I have now stitched them together, ready to go on after I have made the next section

 

I have also been stitching away on the hexie pyramids, and have finished another nine

 

I have also made something using these two orphan blocks, but as it is connected to the Aunts' Quilt, you will have to wait until my next Auntlet's report ot see what it is!

 

when Malcolm brought me my afternoon fix of hot chocolate, he also brought me a piece of Christmas cake ....... bliss!!

 

to finish - a little oops!  I had been using this plastic template the other day, and hadn't put it away when I finished with it.  I then was cutting something with the rotary cutter and didn't notice the template on the cutting mat ....... oh dear!

 

* pochle can mean to cheat in a criminal way, but we quilters use it simply to mean adjusting or manipulating bits so that they fit together.

 

Happy New Year!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my break - and not just from blogging.  I have spent very little time online, and have taken very few photos.  So now I am refreshed and revived, and raring to go with another year of blogging.  The weather hasn't been very good, so when we woke up to blue skies on the Sunday after Christmas, we decided to seize the chance to go for a walk.  We parked at the Waterwheel cafe just outside Selkirk, but instead of heading towards the cauld, as we usually do, we went the other way along the millstream.  Since we were last there, the undergrowth has been cleared, and several large trees have been cut down

 

this photo may look upside down ........ but the trees are reflected in the still water

 

although it looks as if it had been snowing, it is actually a heavy frost

 

the bright blue sky provided the perfect backdrop for two "arty" photos ....... first, some electrical gubbins

 

and then a dried seed head

 

these chickens were enjoying the sunshine

 

having enjoyed our walk, we rewarded ourselves with a cuppa and sconnage

delicious cheese

 

and an unusual lemon curd scone

 

I do enjoy a glass (or two!) of wine, but I don't know a great deal about it ........ so if in doubt, I simply choose the bottle with the best label!

 

the weather here was dreadful over New Year - very wet and windy, with some snow flurries.  So with the forecast of better weather in Berwick, we headed over yesterday morning, and enjoyed a good long walk along the beach.  The sun was shining on the lighthouse

 

I think I always take photos of these old wooden posts!

 

I can't decide which of these two feathers stuck in the sand to show you ....... so I guess I'll show you both!

 

it was such a lovely morning we sat outside the cafe on the promenade for a cuppa ....... but no scones as we were heading back to the flat for lunch

 

the sun shone all day, lighting up this small fishing boat in the dock

 

then this morning we were treated to a fabulous sunrise as we ate our breakfast

 

I mentioned at the end of the last post that there might be a prize for the best suggestion for a New Year's resolution ....... I am delighted to announce that the winner is Caroline.  I will see her next week at Abbey Quilters, so will be able to give her the prize then - so you will have to wait to find out what it is.

I'll be back tomorrow with lots of sewing, but to finish, we have a little bit of silliness!  I think SockMonkey has overindulged over the holidays, and probably should not be in charge of JDtractor