frayed at the edge

Lots of fun and stitching!

Here are my lovely ladies, getting ready to make their Santa wallhanging.  With her back to the camera is Margaret, facing her is Anne, on the left is Marcia, on the right Sandra, and lurking in the corner, making a cuppa, is Liz 

 

tracing the pattern pieces on to fusible web

 

Margaret is a fast and efficient worker, and her pieces were all bonded in place while the others were still cutting theirs out!  And don't you just love her background fabric

 

Sandra has her placement sheet under her background fabric, using it to ensure that the pieces are in the right place

 

Anne is using baking parchment when bonding her fusible web to the fabric - this saves having nasty accidents where the iron ends up with a very sticky mess on it

 

Liz's pieces of the coat and hat, bonded, ready to cut out

 

checking out my wallhanging, to make sure the correct bits are tucked under other bits

 

this is Sandra's

 

this is Marcia's

 

this is Liz's

 

and this is Anne's

 

 

and here we are, at the end of a very enjoyable day!

 

and of course we had plenty of treats!  There may have been fun sized chocolate bars and liquorice allsorts (which we eat because someone once told us that they are good for osteoporosis prevention!), and best of all, a delicious carrot cake!

Leaves, leaves and more leaves!

I didn't go over to Berwick with Malcolm yesterday, as tomorrow I am teaching a workshop at Abbey Quilters.  So after lunch, I decided to pop into Hawick and go for a walk in the park, to enjoy the autumn colours.  But this first photo was taken before I got to the park!   The heron looked miserable sitting all hunched up

 

but if he had just turned to his left, he could have enjoyed this view of the river

 

in the park, everywhere was carpeted with leaves

 

there were even leaves floating down the river, under the footbridge

 

I did think about running through the leaves, kicking them up and throwing them about - but I am sure if I had an old-fashioned park keeper would have appeared and told me off!!

 

someone has had fun with a chainsaw, turning a tree stump into a magnificent fish

 

the old wooden hut that housed the tearoom and the toilet has been demolished, but they seem to be taking a long time to build the replacement

 

autumn colours are my favourites - and someone with an eye for colour has planted these trees to show off the best of the colours

 

not quite so organised, but still glorious

 

if only the keys had been left in the ignition, I could have had fun roaring through the leaves!

 

the colours of the bandstand are a nice contrast against the trees

 

if only I could paint ....... I would certainly have a go at reproducing this scene

 

where was Malcolm when I needed him to give the scale to this tree stump?!

 

in this view, can you see the little flash of pink?  That is my glove, so you can work out just how big the stump is

 

I walked out of the top of the park to visit the walled garden.  Someone had decorated the vegetable plot with some quirky scarecrows!

 

what a stunning acer!

 

this paved area is new since I last visited the garden, but the greenhouse has yet to be refurbished

 

a late raspberry - no doubt a hungry bird will eat it

 

I think this is a lily seed pod

 

this old door is obviously still in use

 

unlike this one!

 

I headed back into the park to finish my walk.  There was no one in the shelter - I think it was a bit chilly for sitting about!

 

I said I would show you what I bought on Wednesday at The Quilt Shop.  First, some excellent cotton wadding (a girl can never have too much wadding!)

 

and four fat quarters of greens - these will probably be used for stems and leaves in an applique quilt

 

knowing that I wouldn't be going out for a cuppa and cake today, I popped into one of the local supermarkets yesterday after my walk.  I found this amazing piece of cake ........ chocolate and salted caramel lumpy bumpy cake.  Perhaps not the best of names,  but it was delicious!

 

when I am busy teaching tomorrow, I will have to remember to take photos to share with you on Monday!  Have a great weekend, love Anne

A touch of frost!

  It was decidedly chilly this morning, with frost on the deck

 

and the sky was full of contrails from early morning flights

 

now, before we get to the rest of the day, we need to rewind to Sunday afternoon, when I was busy working on Santa Stop Here - this is the wallhanging ready to be pinned before quilting

 

it doesn't take long to pin something small like this

 

I started by stitching the applique in place, using monofilament thread, which of course you can't see, so this is the wrong side

 

I then quilted the background with a small meander

 

again, it shows up better on the back

 

trimming the edges after quilting

 

the binding stitched on the front, ready to be hand stitched on the back

 

lots of buttons and beads sewn on (you can click on the photo to enlarge it, to get a better look at the buttons)

so now we have arrived at this morning, when we set off over the Border to Morpeth, to deliver the walhanging to Sue for the shop (you can read about the shop in this post), along with copies of the pattern (and one has already sold!)

 

just look at these luscious new fabrics

 

delicious colours

 

oh, I could have brought all these batiks home with me!  I may have bought a little something, I'll show you on Friday

 

I had taken Mrs Billings with me to work on ....... and you can see how pathetic mine is, compared to Sue's.  (stop laughing Meredithe, just because yours is brilliant too!!)