frayed at the edge

Something for (almost) nothing

As Malcolm was going to be out for lunch today, I had to decide what I would have.  This is one of my two fast/5:2 diet days, so it had to be something very low in calories (the diet recommends no lunch, but I need a little something at midday!)  I had a look in the fridge and produced a leek, a very small potato and two small carrots, all of which were almost at the point of heading for the compost bin.  A quick bit of peeling, slicing and dicing soon produced this

 

normally I would sweat the veggies in a little oil (or even butter), but today they just had to be simmered until they were tender.  Then a quick whizz with the stick bender

 

and I had a delicious, low calorie bowl of soup for lunch, made from nothing much at all!

 

when I headed out to the studio, I took my special tea in another special mug (I didn't realise quite how many "special" mugs we have, as opposed to the everyday ones that go in the dishwasher)

 

I started my day's sewing by finishing off the challenge block for Abbey Quilters (or it will be completely finished when I find the piece of paper that tells me what size to trim it to!)

 

next I did some more prep on the last applique block for the Aunts' Quilt

 

I have finished my tenth stitchery, so it got pressed and put up on the design wall  (only twenty two more to go!)

 

I was on a roll now, and had a quick session of machine quilting on the bed runner

 

I was looking for some more woolly bits for my Sue Spargo project, when I came across this little pattern, and decided to make it as a further practice before I embark on the big project

 

I'm doing the Needle Keeper, and needed to pink the edges of the inner woolly bits, which gave me a chance to use my rotary cutter with the pinking blade

 

this is fun!!

 

at this point, Meredithe might be planning to send me an another owl, this one bearing a Howler (if you haven't read/seen Harry Potter, you can find out here what a Howler is), which will berate me for not working on Mrs Billings!  But I was saving the best for last, and spent the rest of the afternoon working on Mrs B.  But what, I hear you ask, is that little wooden gadget?

 

it's an "iron", for pressing seams

 

by the end of the afternoon I had two corner blocks done for the next border

 

to finish, I have someone else's sewing! Fran, who is one of my lovely readers (thank you all very much for reading me!) emailed me a photo of a quilt that she made for her son.  I immediately emailed her to ask if I could include the photo in a post, as I think it is fabulous!  Fran has only been quilting for eighteen months, so this was a major project for her to tackle, and she has made an excellent job of it.  The quilt is for her son, and he helped to choose the fabrics - needless to say he is delighted with it!

ps - it is snowing as I type this!!

 

 

A blowy day

When we arrived at Berwick on Saturday, we decided to go for a walk on the beach before lunch.  It was just a little bit windy, as you can see from this poor little dog's ears!

 

we both took photos of the sand blowing past the wooden groynes, but I won't say who took which ones

I had to get down on my knees to take these "arty" shots!

 

I had to get up early yesterday to go to the loo, and I thought we had left a light on in the lounge, as there was a line of light under the door ....... but when I went into the lounge, this is what was lighting it up -  a spectacular sunrise

 

by the time we had breakfast it had started to rain, so we decided to head up the coast to St Abbs, for a walk roung the harbour and a cuppa

 

I wonder if anyone would notice if I acquired one of these lobster pots?

 

and perhaps a brightly coloured float or two?

 

the stones that have collected in this crab shell give you an idea of how big it is

 

when we went for our cuppa, I was slightly peeved that while I had a plain white cup for my tea, Malcolm got this one for his coffee

 

however when we shared a very tasty toasted teacake

 

I got a posh plate to put my half on!

 

there were no swans in the dock this morning, and when we walked over the old bridge to the town, we found out why -  they were all in the river

 

to finish ........ we saw this poster yesterday in St Abbs.  I have cropped the photo to remove the phone number, as I didn't want the poor man to be inundated with calls from all of you!

 

Recycling

Earlier this week, I broke a wine glass ........ I was most annoyed as it was a very nice wine glass!  However as I wrapped up the pieces of broken glass to dispose of them, I put aside this piece, as I am sure I can recycle/upcycle it ....... I just have no idea at the moment what I'll do with it!!  (any suggestions will be very welcome, there may even be a little prize for the best one!)

 

I took the Linus quilts with me to patch'n'chat, to give them to Sandra, our lovely Linus Lady

 

this afternoon Betty (who was one of my students at the College) demonstrated an all-singing, all-dancing cooking machine.  She made dough for rolls (which were then baked in the oven), soup, sorbet, bechamel sauce and other things which I can't remember.  Yes, it's a wonderful machine, but as it costs over £900 I won't be buying one!!  (even if it does have a self-cleaning mode!)

 

in the midst of all the cooking, we paused to have our usual Friday afternoon cuppa.  I forgot to ask Annette what this concoction is called, but I can tell you that it is sweet and delicious!

 

apart from the photo which I have for the end of the post, that's all the photos I have taken today, so I thought I would share some more from last weekend

fortunately I didn't have to climb these steps up from the beach

 

I think this boat needs some tlc

 

we rather liked this house!!

 

I had to buy this tin of biscuits!!

 

the swans headed off when these canoeists appeared!

 

is this the Loch Ness monster on holiday in Berwick?

 

and so to the last photo for today ...... why can't my chocolate bunnies breed like rabbits?  Every morning I get up and hope that they will have multiplied in the night!!

 

a bit of a mixed weather forecast for the weekend, so maybe we will be able to dodge the wind and the rain for a walk!  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Painted sheep and little lambs

After we had fun playing with the paint sticks and stencils at Abbey Quilters, Maureen asked if I would like to borrow a stencil of a sheep.  Of course I would!!  So yesterday I got organised ......

 

I used a polythene bag as a pallette

 

and soon had three colourful sheep

 

I don't know what I'll do with them - for the moment they are on the design wall

 

when we were coming home this morning, Malcolm spotted these lambs in the field at the bottom of the road.  So, as soon as we reached the house, I grabbed the camera and trotted back down the hill.  As usually happens, the lambs had moved and were at the limits of my zoomage capacity (I just made that expression up!).  The first two are very young

 

but these two are a little bit older

 

I had to consult my bird book about this bird, which visited the garden this morning.  My first thought was that it is a female blackbird, but then when I got a better look I thought that it might be a thrush, because of its speckled breast.  My book says it is indeed a female blackbird, and not to confuse it with a thrush, because of ....... the speckled breast!

 

this afternoon I got out my next three blocks for the Aunts' Quilt

 

it didn't take long to do the two pieced blocks, then I started the prep for the applique block ...... but you will have to wait until next month to see the finished blocks!

Several miles of thread later ......

........ I have finished the basic background quilting on the Baltimore bed runner.  Because it is too big for the design wall, I had to take it into the house and put it on the bed for photos!

 

the little pin is to remind me that there is a raw edge that needs to be fixed

 

now that I have quilted the backgrounds, the next job will be to embellish the leaves and flowers with quilting

I have finished another stitchery - this is the ninth one!  It took a bit longer, as there was a lot of satin stitch

 

over in Melbourne, my lovely friend Meredithe gets together with Miss GJ and Miss H on Tuesdays to stitch.  They decided to call themselves the Eliott stitchers, as they watch  The House of Eliott while they are sewing.  I had suggested in a recent email to Meredithe that I should get the box set and watch on Tuesdays too, as that is my man sewing day.  A couple of clicks later and the box set of the three seasons was winging its way to me.  I remember watching this on tv years ago, and I am looking forward to enjoying all the beautiful clothes again

 

it should have been Malcolm making dinner today, but I had to take over his duties as he was otherwise engaged, stacking his delivery of logs!

 

 

Buildings large and small

As the weather was good on Sunday, we headed down the coast to Bamburgh, to have a walk on the beach, although, of course, I had to pause on the way to take photos of the castle

 

then there was another pause to take a photo of this gate across the path through the sand dunes

 

but finally we reached the beach, where I was promptly waylaid by shells marooned when the tide went out

 

and a worm cast

 

and of course from the beach you can see the whole castle

 

after our walk on the beach, we had a stroll through the village.  This weathered rock caught my eye - do you, like me, see a face?

 

we will have to come back through the week, when this establishment is open!

 

of course we went for a cuppa, but I'll save those photos for the end.  As it was such a lovely day, we decided to go on down the coast to Beadnell, which we hadn't visited before.  After the splendour of Bamburgh castle, this quirky house, which was having a lot of work done on it, was at the other end of the scale

 

the village is known for its limekilns

 

these beautiful doves had made themselves at home on one of the kins

 

Malcolm wouldn't let me play with the big machines on the beach!

 

and I had to tell him not to go right to the edge of the pier

 

 

in the distance we could see Dunstanburgh Castle

 

driving back towards Bamburgh, as always we commented on how the castle dominates the landscape

 

and now ........ the cuppa!  We popped into The Copper Kettle

 

a lovely, traditional tearoom

 

where we enjoyed fruit scones with jam and clotted cream (as always we were going to share one, but the waitress brought two by mistake ........ and they looked so good we decided we would have one each!!)

 

 

 

A very, very busy weekend!

Oh my, we managed to squeeze so much into the weekend, this will have to be a two part post!!  So, let's get going!  We went for a (rather chilly) walk on Saturday, stopping first at the Coastwatch Tower

 

we were invited to go up to the balcony for a better view, but when I saw the ladder, I decided that I would remain on the ground!

 

while Malcolm was upstairs, I took these two photos to show how strongly the wind was blowing

 

a quick selection of our progress along the beach

 

I wondered what this group were doing, so of course when we went past, I stopped to ask!  They were making a dinosaur sand sculpture ...... and I think the adults were having more fun than the children!

 

I wondered what had left this mark on a rock.......

 

when I saw this on the next rock

 

and while I was taking that photo, Malcolm pointed out this on the next rock!

 

I'm glad that the dog that left this paw print in the sand wasn't still on the beach!

 

we encountered quite a lots of birds on Saturday

 

there was a very high tide on Saturday - a combination I gather, of the 18-year lunar cycle and the eclipse.  Combined with the wind, the waves were coming over the breakwater 

 

we had an excellent day out yesterday, but I'll save that for tomorrow, and instead I'll skip forward to today.  We were woken up in the early hours by a lot of noise coming from the dock, so we weren't suprised to see a large ship when we got up this morning

 

its cargo of grain was being unloaded into large lorries

 

we popped into town for some shopping, and decided to try out the new coffee shop

 

which is very nicely decorated

 

but I don't think I'll be rushing back to have a cheese scone served with salad!!

 

Would we or wouldn't we .........

........ see the eclipse?!  The weather forecast last night wasn't very encouraging, with talk of clouds.  When I got up at 6.30 it was misty, then as the mist cleared it was indeed cloudy, but with little bits of bue sky showing through.  By 8.30, the sky looked like this

 

we waited anxiously as the cloud came and went, then we had just the right amount of cloud to let us see the eclipse and take photos

a few minutes later, you could see that the moon had moved further on past the sun

 

the birds were discombobulated - they stopped feeding and returned to their roosts.  This sparrow landed on the roof before disappearing into the ivy where it usually spends the night

 

the little baby cardi is coming along nicely.  I have knitted the back, both sleeves and one front.  Once I have knitted the other front, I will knit the yoke.  It has been a very quick knit, and I will have to see if I have other neutral-coloured yarns in my stash to knit another one

 

at patch'n'chat this afternnon Katy was auditioning fabrics.  She had originally made this sample log cabin block with plain navy on the other side, but had decided that she wanted  a different colour.  I don't know how many bolts of fabric we looked at before she decided on this pink one

 

Annette was back from her holiday, and had made her light-as-air cupcakes for us.  It was hard, but I resisted having a second one!

 

the weather looks promising for the weekend, so there may be some beach combing!  I hope you hav a good weekend, love Anne

A frosty start .......

........ but once the sun came out the day warmed up, and I got sidetracked on my way to the studio, to take photos of the garden.  There is lovely strong growth on this clematis

 

and this one is now in leaf

 

as is the honeysuckle

 

this is the climbing rose on the pergola

 

one of the grape vines

 

the forsythia is about to bloom

 

I love alchemilla mollis, but it self-seeds all over the place!

 

little pockets of sunshine from the miniature daffs

 

you know there is always a plant I don't know/can't remember the name of!

 

those were all in the back garden ...... I had to wait until later when the sun moved round to take photos in the front garden.  The ornamental quince is almost flowering

 

and the honeysuckle already has a bud on it!

 

the flowering currant looks as if it has been dipped in icing sugar!

 

Malcolm has tidied up the area round the bird table

 

this wonderful piece of driftwood was a recent find 

 

in between taking the two sets of photos, I was busy in the studio finishing the fourth space quilt.  It was most annoying when the bobbin thread ran out with only this small area of the centre left to quilt

 

I had been looking forward to taking a photo of the quilt in the sunshine, but by the time I finished it some clouds had appeared and the sun had vanished

 

I am delighted with the four space quilts, and am looking forward to handing them over to Sandra, our lovely Linus Lady

 

and of course there are the two girly quilts as well

 

you may have thought that I was a bit extravagant on Sunday when I made eighteen yards of binding ......... but this is all that is left!

to finish ....... while I was busy sewing, Malcolm was fitting the garden door, aided by our neighbour, who is delighted with it

 

Very cute knitting, but first ..........

......... let's get the food out of the way!   We went to Melrose this morning and popped into the deli for lunch.  Malcolm had a cheese and pickle toastie

 

and I had cheese savoury sandwiches (usually I am good and have brown bread, but today I just fancied white bread for a change!)

 

so, the cute knitting.  I was delighted last week to learn that my bloggy friend Rachel is to be a Granny later in the year (I'm not giving away secrets, she has posted about it!!)  When I told Malcolm (some of you may remember his valiant attempts to repair her dishwasher?!) he suggested that I knitted the booties in the tiny kit that he had given me some time ago

 

so I did!

 

then I started a teeny cardigan as well

 

I finished knitting my hot water bottle cover, designed by the wonderful Kate, some time ago

 

but needed to use these

 

 

for the finishing touches

 

I have finished my first sock (and have started the second one)

 

I decided that I couldn't put up with these disorderly scrap baskets any more

 

so while Malcolm was perusing a hundred and one kinds of screws this morning, I bought this extra large pink bucket

 

that's better!

 

I had planned to work on the remaining space quilt this afternoon, but got sidetracked into having a good tidy, but I did remember to take photos of the three that I have finished

 

and to finish - why was Malcolm looking at all those screws this morning ....... to finish the garden door for the lovely neighbours