frayed at the edge

A rather different Friday

You know I have my Friday routine ....... after breakfast I do the housework, have a shower, then head off to patch'n'chat.  But today that was changed for two reasons, both of them unpleasant.  First, I had an appointment at the dentist this morning, so no housework, then second, Borderland Fabrics, where we go for patch'n'chat, was flooded on Wednesday, so of course the shop is shut.  Having survived the dentist (an impression, unpleasant, but not painful), I decided to treat myself to lunch.  You might wonder what sort of premises there could be up this close

 

and the doorway isn't particularly inviting

 

but what does the exterior matter, when they serve food like this!  Creamy scrambled eggs, served on toasted bloomer, with smoked salmon, creme fraiche and chives, with a rocket garnish ..... and even an arty balsamic drizzle (we won't mention the tomatoes, which were left on the side of the plate)

 

after lunch I walked down to the river, to see how it looked after Wednesday's floods. You can see a tree suspended between the wall and the bridge, with cables dangling down

 

in this photo you can see the residue from where the path was under water

 

there was much less water going through the bridge, and there wasn't the frightening roar that there was on Wednesday

 

the water wasn't pounding the wall today

 

and the level was much lower here

 

although there was no patch'n'chat, I wasn't deprived of cake this afternoon, as Malcolm and I shared this last wedge of our Christmas cake

 

this morning we were battered by Storm Gertrude, and the forecast for the weekend is atrocious, so we have decided to stay at home for the weekend.  No doubt I shall spend some time in the studio, with my wonderful stove to keep me warm

 

we have our fingers, toes, eyes and anything else that can be, firmly crossed for, first, the Murray brothers ....... Andy in the final of the singles and Jamie in the final of the doubles, then second, Gordon Reid who is in both the singles and doubles wheelchair finals.  Three Scottish players in the finals - pretty good going for a small country!!

Do remember to leave a comment to be included in the draw for the giveaway for my 7th blogiversary.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

 

Charity

This is a page from the Scotsman (newspaper) magazine, from last Saturday .......

 

....... showing a very cute "Hamish" Shaun the Sheep, which is being sold to raise money for charity.  You can buy him for £35.  It doesn't say how much of that goes to charity, but I just thought that if I was spending that sort of money, I would want it all to go to charity, no matter how cute Hamish is .......

 

....... so I cut out the picture and put it on my notice board, and instead will, over the weeks and months to come, spend money on fabric for Linus quilts

 

this quilt cost me very little to make, as I got the centre panel and border fabric from Sandra, our wonderful Linus lady.  I just added some bright orange fleece for the back

 

Stuart liked his Star Wars quilt so much, I thought I would make one for Linus too.  The camouflage fabric came from Sandra - someone had donated a large piece

 

there was enough camouflage fabric for a wide border and backing fabric, and I used an 80/20 wadding.  This is the quilt layered up ready to quilt

 

you can't really see the quilting, but the whole centre has been quilted

 

then I set up the walking foot, to stitch in the ditch between the centre and the border

 

normally I would then quilt the border, but I wanted to bring the backing fabric over to the front, to make a false binding, so the next stage was to put the cutting mat under the wadding

 

and trim the extra wadding away

 

after that I trimmed the excess backing fabric away, leaving an inch

 

then it was over to the ironing board, where I pressed the inch of backing fabric in half

 

at the corner, I folded it in to meet the corner of the quilt

 

then folded it over again

 

after pressing the first fold of the sides

 

I folded the sides over again and pressed them

 

pinned ready to machine stitch

 

the false binding complete.  I had used the false binding method so that there was no hand sewing to do, as there is in the usual way I do the binding.  The camouflage fabric is very tightly woven, and would have been difficult to hand stitch

 

the last job was to quilt the border with a random zigzag

 

and here is the finished quilt - at fifty four inches square, it is the biggest quilt I have made for Linus.  I am sure a teenage boy will love it!

 

when I was sorting out the photos for the post, I came across this one ...... poor little sparrows in the recent snow

 

and another reminder - leave a comment between now and Sunday to go into the draw for my 7th blogiversary giveaway.

 

A small diversion

As usual on a Wednesday we headed out for lunch, planning to go to Milestone Garden Centre.  However Storm Jonas has dumped an awful lot of rain on us, and we had to turn back as the road was closed by flooding.  We decided to go into Hawick instead, and after parking we walked over to look at the River Teviot.  It was getting near the road on this side

 

and was just starting to go over on to the road on the other side - both roads were closed to traffic, as were several others through the town

 

the river  was roaring under the bridge

 

and pounding against the wall

 

it was frightening watching the speed of the water going under this bridge

 

at the other end of town, the River Slitrig was flooding

 

the house in the middle has a "for sale" sign on it, but I doubt it will sell any time soon

 

this is where we sometimes see a heron sitting on rocks!

 

we have never seen so much water going through here

 

it was a relief to pop into the Damascus Drum for lunch, to get away from the constant roar of the water.  This is my cheese and pastrami toastie.  Malcolm had a cheese and pickle toastie, but as it looked like mine, I just took one photo

 

it's not often that you see a tractor in the town centre!

 

I got Malcolm to drop me off at the bottom of our road, so that I could take these photos.  The water running off the field has formed streams

 

which run into this drain

 

which comes out here

 

and then runs into the stream

 

which flows under the road and on down the hill

 

as I walked on up the hill, the clouds parted and there was some blue sky!

 

BillytheFarmer's stable yard is flooded

 

Malcolm went out later with his big spade and dug a drainage channel in the verge, so that the water would run away off the road.  He has to do this regularly, as the council no longer do it

 

but the moss on this section of wall likes the rain!

 

I forgot to include these photos yesterday.  We had popped into Berwick Garden Centre for a cuppa yesterday on our way home, and I bought this bucket, which has some tasty nibbles in it .......

 

....... but the main reason for buying it was the price!  This has to be the bargain of the year - a quarter of the original price.  We will probably use the bucket to create a miniature herb garden to put on the deck, and of course we will enjoy the nibbles

 

don't forget to leave a comment to be included in the draw of my 7th blogiversary giveaway!

I've got my eyes on you ......

 

........ we were somewhat startled, as we walked to the beach on the other side of town on Sunday, to see this little creature - or rather just its head -  watching us!

 

the "money-pit" house is still for sale ...... but we still aren't tempted to buy it

 

 

I was delighted to see these snowdrops - I just can't get them to grow in our garden

 

but what's this?  Did the lighthouse pick up its foundations and move along the breakwater

 

no, here it is in its usual place!  What you don't see in the photos I usually take of it is that there is a turn in the breakwater- on the right of the above photo - which has created the illusion that the lighthouse had moved!

 

there used to be a steep drop from the path to the beach, but the storms have levelled it out

 

and deposited a huge mound of sand further along the beach, next to a landslip

 

when we walked over to look at the landslip, we could hear a strange plinky-plonky sound.  It turned out to be water dripping from the cliff hitting these plastic bottles

 

Malcolm kindly provided the scale for these huge mounds of rotting, smelly seaweed and other rubbish

 

no, we don't know either how this enormous rock landed on top of what looks like a shopping trolley

 

there were several interesting pieces of wood on the beach, but they were all much too big to take home!

 

on a much smaller scale was this tiny dead crab

 

a whole shell

 

and shells with holes

 

on the way back to the flat, we popped into Maisie's for a cuppa

 

I ordered a salted caramel hot chocolate.  The brown on the rim at the back of the cup isn't part of a pattern .......

 

........... it's chocolate!  The cup was dipped in a chocolate fountain before the hot chocolate was added, and as well as the chocolate over the outside of the cup, where was also a thick coating inside.  It is the best hot chocolate I have ever had, surpassing the amazing one I had years ago in a Starbucks in San Antonio, Texas!!

 

don't forget to leave a comment, if you would like to be included in the draw for my 7th blogiversary giveaway!

A tale of two scones ........

....... but before we get to the scones, we'll start with Abbey Quilters' sewing day on Saturday.  I had layered up two identical small quilts for Linus, and soon had the machine set up ready to do some fmq

 

as the quilts are small, it didn't take too long to quilt the centres

 

using a little loopy flower stitch, instead of my usual lazy meander

 

Sheila was working on her little wallhanging ........ as you can see, her leaf blocks, unlike mine, are the correct size!

 

Sandra H had made this cute quilt top for Linus (it is actually deeper and brighter than this photo shows - my camera just doesn't like blue!)

 

Margaret had her first go at foundation piecing, and soon got the hang of it, producing this tree block

 

Val, as always, made sure we had plenty of fuel to keep us sewing, with her wonderful cheese scones

 

and delicious carrot cake - there was a slight oops with the icing, as it has stuck to the clingfilm covering the plate, but of course that didn't stop us from tucking in

 

after lunch, I changed to the walking foot and stitched in-the-ditch between the centre and the border

 

by the end of the afternoon, all I had left to do was finish the binding

 

so, why are we called Abbey Quilters?  Is it because we meet in the Abbey Row Community Centre

 

a magnificent building ......

 

........ which was a school

 

or is it because of the Abbey?  (actually, I don't know!!)

 

and now to the scones!  We didn't have a scone yesterday, after our walk on the beach (I'll tell you about that tomorrow), but when we popped over to town this morning, pausing on the old bridge to take a photo of the seal and a heron .....

 

........ we went to the delightful Mielle Patisserie

 

where we shared one of their delicious Provencal scones

 

but then this afternoon, we popped over to Wooler for a potter round the shops, and went for a cuppa (I forgot to take a photo of the coffee shop).  We were only going to have a drink, but then we saw scone with jam and clotted cream on the menu!!

 

and to finish - I realised yesterday that I had, yet again, forgotten about my blogiversary!  I have now been writing this nonsense rubbish informative blog for seven years!!  I am sure when I started it, Malcolm thought it would last for a few weeks, or months at most, but here I am, still rabbiting on.  Through blogging I have made many friends ...... mostly online, but some are now firm friends in the real world.  So, to celebrate, I think I'll have a little giveaway, as I haven't had one for some time.  What the giveaway will be, I don't yet know - I will have to wait until I have a hunt round the studio!  So all you have to do to enter is leave a comment between now and next Monday, when I will employ my random number generator (aka Malcolm) to pick a winner.  I'm quite happy to post the parcel anywhere in the world, so everyone can enter ........ and if you leave a comment everyday, then you have more chances!!

 

Return of the mojo!

I don't know what happened to my knitting mojo.  I think it went on holiday and has been sunbathing on an exotic beach, being brought bright pink cocktails, full of fresh fruit, by handsome young men!  But eventually it dragged itself back home and I finally finished the socks I have been knitting for rather a long time.  Here they are soaking, before being put on the blockers 

 

why are you shouting at me?  Oh, that's why, the not quite matching socks.  I have to admit that I just couldn't face working the rest of the pattern, so finished the second sock in one colour ......

 

........ but you won't see that when I wear them with my snazzy new boots, which Malcolm gave me for Christmas

 

and as I waited until after Christmas to get the boots in the sales, I was thoroughly spoiled and got these ones too.  I love the way they look as if I have already worn them for months

 

 having finished the two colour socks, I had a look in my stash and came up with a ball of sock wool which I bought on our last holiday in Australia

 

although the pattern says child's first sock, it has been sized up to fit an adult

 

I am really enjoying knitting this pair

 

and it won't be long until they are finished

 

I have even bought another ball of sock yarn, to knit another pair!

 

I may have been slightly influenced by the smart packaging when I bought these needles 

 

and look what I found when I opened them - tiny test tubes!

 

and so to the Friday cake - Annette's deliciously spicy fruit loaf

 

I am looking forward to our sewing day tomorrow - I hope to get the two little quilts finished that I layered up yesterday.  Then we will head over to the flat on Sunday.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Fingers firmly crossed!

Well, after spending a great deal of time on the phone to both our broadband provider (me) and our landline provider (Malcolm) ........ and getting nowhere .......... Malcolm did some research online, and we hope we have now solved the problem (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's posts were composed when we were over at the flat, where the broadband speed is much better, and scheduled to appear).  I will be delighted if all is well, as I want to get back to my Monday-to-Friday posts, now that all the busy-ness of the festive season is over.

So, what better thing to start with, than this morning's breakfast.  I know I have shown you my tractor egg cup before, but I love it so much I thought it deserved another appearance!

 

over the past few weeks, I have layered several quilts, using safety pins

 

I use the edge of my nail on my first finger of my left hand, which isn't very good for it ...... and last week my poor abused nail broke (I can't recall when I last had a broken nail)

 

so I decided to invest in a gadget which closes the pins

 

which will save my poor nail from further damage

 

across blogland, people have been choosing their word for the year, but I have chosen a phrase ....... small bites.  Let me explain.  I have mentioned before that I work most efficiently when I spend a set amount of time working on each of several projects in the course of the day.  If I plough doggedly on, trying to finish something, I get bogged down and my work gets slower, and I get fed up and put that project away.  So I have decided to give my method the title of small bites.  The idea came from the answer to "how do you eat an elephant?" ....... "one bite at a time".  So this afternoon, I layered two small quilts for Linus, as we are having an Abbey Quilters sewing day on Saturday.  The photos above with the pins give you a glimpse of one of the fabrics, but you will have to wait until next week to see the quilts.  I also looked out these leftover strips from a jelly roll to make the two lots of binding

 

next I got out my panda block.  I had asked Alison if she would like it, as she loves pandas.  She had said yes please, and we decided that I would make it into a cushion

 

I ran a line of stitching round the edge to keep it stable.  I just used the blue thread which was in the machine, as it won't show when the cushion is finished

 

having trimmed the edges, I looked out this lovely dark green fabric from my stash, for the back of the cushion and the binding

 

then I looked out my somewhat neglected Mrs Billings

 

and pinned the first row of diamonds in place, ready to applique them

 

and finally ........ I just couldn't resist it any longer!  I looked out these wonderful fabrics which I bought when I spent the wonderful five days with my crazy mad adorable Australian quilty friends in October 2014, and one of them, Mrs Mac, gave me some extra fat quarters to go with them

 

so, what was I going to do with them?  Well, I chose this fabric and this stitchery

 

I drew round a template to give me a bigger hexie than the stitchery to cut out

 

on the ironing board, I centred the stitchery on the wrong side of the fabric, pinned it in place, folded the first side of the larger hexie in half, and pressed it

 

I then folded it over on to the stitchery, and again pressed it

 

I continued folding and pressing until all the sides were done, and pinned in place

 

as always at this time of year, I am determined to only use fabric and thread from my various stashes, so I looked out this beautiful blue thread.  I will stitch the border in place with big quilting stitches, then work a line of smaller quilting stitches about a quarter of an inch in from the border

 

so, it was altogether a very productive afternoon!  Do pop in again tomorrow, as I have some knitting to share with you!!

 

All sorts of sewing

 

Shortly before Christmas, I saw this post by Jenny of Two Crafty Brownies, and decided that I had to make an angel for the tree.  I pulled out these bits and bobs from my various stashes 

 

and started by cutting out my circles

 

and making my yoyos - but now you will have to pop over to see how Jenny makes the whole angel!

 

here is my little cutie on the tree

 

I got this cute panel and spotty fleece from the lovely Sandra, our Linus lady

 

the spots from the fleece showed through the panel, so I got a piece of thin wadding from my basket of wadding offcuts

 

it didn't take long to have the quilt layered .......

 

ready to quilt with my favourite big lazy meander

 

Sandra was delighted with the finished quilt!

 

I looked out my revolving mat to start trimming the stitcheries to size ...... I had cut them out too big, to allow for the embroidery pulling the fabric out of shape

 

when I started cutting I changed my mind about which ruler to use.  It makes it so much easier (and safer) to be able to turn the mat on its base as I cut each side of the hexies.  I stuck little sandpaper spots on the template, to help keep it in place

 

they are looking good on the design wall

 

with all the problems last week, I didn't get to show you photos from the Abbey Quilters' meeting.  These are three of the members waiting for the meeting to start, and looking at all the things I had brought to demonstrate

 

and committee member Val demonstrated what she does best ....... baking!  A delicious cake

 

and even more delicious scones!

A walk on the beach

On Sunday morning we headed out for a long walk on the beach, and of course the camera went too!

is this a replacement for the lighthouse?

 

no, it's still there!

 

there is still a lot of stuff on the beach from the bad storms

we thought this looked like a dolphin - but it was too heavy to take home

 

there are lots of washed up traffic cones .....

..... and tyres

 

old wood, rusty nails and a long shadow - excellent!

more old wood

 

old wood and rusty bolts

 

an arty shot!

 

a long shadow of the old wood ......

 

..... and a longer shadow of me!

 

this would look good in the garden, but again it was too heavy to lift

 

alas the cafe was shut

 

an interesting rock formation

this has worn away to show two kinds of rock

 

an interesting piece of pink rock jutting out from the grey

 

this should also have a warning that the water is freezing!

 

this shows how much sand was washed up on to the promenade during the storms

 

yummy - a Devon scone made with buttermilk, enjoyed after our walk

 

and to finish.  I have had these Timberland boots for more than ten years (I bought them in Singapore!).  They may be too shabby to wear for best, but they are excellent for walking on the beach!

Bright skies

We decided on Saturday morning to head over to Berwick after all.  As we headed out to Malcolm's car, I paused to take a photo of my poor little car, still covered in snow from Thursday ......

 

....... and the road at the foot of the drive, which still had rutted, frozen snow and ice on it

 

the display on Malcolm's dashboard shows how cold it was

 

and this shows how he can change his driving mode

 

but before we get on to photos from Berwick, here are some from our trip out for lunch last Wednesday - the first ones are from the drive over to Melrose ..... fortunately the big beastie in the third photo had pulled off the road out of the way

 

the Abbey was looking good in the sunlight

 

Malcolm spotted this big clump of "chicken of the woods", which is a fungus, on a tree stump

 

I liked the delicate coating of ice

 

on the way home, we passed this pack of hounds ...... but we didn't see the hunt

 

so now on to Berwick.  Once we had unpacked, we went for a (chilly) walk into town.  After a potter round the shops, we popped in for a cuppa and scone for lunch ...... this is a delicious Provencal scone, with feta cheese, sundried tomatoes and olives (I pick out the bits of olive!)

 

on our way back over the old bridge, we could see clusters of people all looking down at the river and busy with cameras and phones.  Why? Because the seal was posing prettily for pictures!

 

and to finish ...... a photo of a swan!  It came into the dock this morning before it was quite light, so the photo has a slightly blue tinge!

 

yesterday morning we went for a long walk on the beach - pop in tomorrow to see the photos!