frayed at the edge

Oh the joys of technology!

I'm sorry that I am a day late, but we had no internet yesterday ....... and it has been misbehaving today!

 

My blog is usually my sunny little world, where bad things aren't allowed to intrude, but of course I have to start today by saying that, like all of you, we have been shocked by the dreadful happenings in Paris on Friday.  I heard someone on the radio on Saturday say that the best response is to go on with our normal lives, so that is what we will do here, starting with walking over the old bridge on Saturday morning, braving the cold wind.   The swans were clustered on the mudbanks ....... probably because the water was so cold!

 

can you see the seal on the left of the photo, sneaking up on the cygnet?!

 

between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we had a great deal of rain. as you can see from the puddles

 

the wind had dropped overnight, so it was reasonably pleasant when we went for a walk on Sunday morning.  We parked the car and headed for a section of the river front which Malcolm had explored before, but which I hadn't seen.  These little boats were marooned, as the tide was out

 

this building would make a lovely studio (just saying, Malcolm!)

 

the tiny figures show how enormous the old walls are

 

I don't think this boat will be going far

 

although the owners could try launching it down these remains of a boat slip

 

a view of the three bridges, from across the river

 

as we walked on, Malcolm reminded me of my own advice, to remember to look up ...... otherwise I would have missed this cupola 

 

a lovely piece of old weathered wall

 

this tree is hanging on to its leaves

I do like old garden gates and doors

 

a welcome splash of colour on a grey day!

 

two of our favourite shops have moved over the river into the town centre.  First, Miss Polly's Paint Pot

 

and behind the scaffold is The Furniture Barn

 

as I took the photo, Malcolm pointed out that one of the scaffolders was posing for me!

 

by this time we were more than ready for a cuppa, and headed to Lowry's at the Chandlery

 

we had one of our famous two-scone-lunches, sharing a very tasty cheese scone, and a delicious fruit one with jam and cream

 

I'll be back tomorrow with lots of crafting, and an exciting piece of news about a photograph and a magazine!

 

Some serious crafting!

Before we get into the crafting, here is the finished jelly roll quilt (which a certain bear perched on the pillows didn't want to part with!)

 

my first crafting effort yesterday was a straightforward one.  I had bought some lovely organic scented soaps from the Green Shop in Berwick and looked out these scallop shells to put them in

 

I tied some raffia round the shells

 

and added little bits of driftwood

 

my next project was slightly more taxing, as it involved copper foil and cookie cutters

 

it took a bit of effort, but in the end I was pleased with my little tree, which is the first of four that I cut out

 

once I have given them the verdigris treatment and embellished them, I will mount them on pieces of driftwood

 

you will probably have seen pictures like these - they are in lots of craft shops and are all over Pinterest.  This was just a trial run, but when I do them properly, I will stick the stones in place and get Malcolm to do the arty additions, given my lack of drawing skills!

 

I also started building some little stone stacks, which I will glues together

 

meanwhile, Malcolm has been making more boats

 

he has also been making clocks

 

and there is a pile of half done clocks sitting by the stove, to make sure the driftwood is fully dry (not content with having the garage to work in, I think he is making a take-over move on my studio!)

 

after all that crafting, my thoughts turned to a sweet treat, and I decided to make some chocolate fudge

 

I started by melting 250g of butter with 500g of dark chocolate and two teaspoons of vanilla

 

then added the tin of condensed milk

 

after mixing in the tasty bits, I put the fudge in a tray, then put it in the fridge to set

 

this morning I cut it into squares, and set aside some to take with me to patch'n'chat

 

at teatime this afternoon, as well as the fudge and Annette's fruit dumpling .......

 

....... Betty had made apple cake.  Maureen joined me in the arduous task of tasting everything, purely so that I could use such words as delicious and scrumptious!!

 

the apple cake was so good it deserves a close-up

 

the weather forecast for the weekend isn't that good, so if you fancy a new blog to read, do pop over and read Jenny and Lucy's blog here.  They have got off to a very good start, and I am sure you will enjoy it!  I hope to make some progress with my brioche knitting!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

In a bind

Yesterday morning, I got organised to put the binding on the jelly roll quilt

 

this is a detail of the quilting

 

the first job was to trim the edges

 

the next job was to cut the strips for the binding

 

then stitch all the strips together, using a diagonal seam - I used to draw a pencil line to follow, but I have now done this so often I just do it by eye

 

I trimmed off the triangles, lining up the seam on the quarter-inch line on the ruler

 

and pressed the seams open

 

I folded the binding in half and pressed it

 

after stitching the binding on, the last job was to join the ends

 

I left the dog ears, so that you can see how the diagonal seam staggers the bulk when the binding is folded over

 

all that remains is to hand stitch the binding on the back of the quilt, which I plan to do this evening.  On Sunday I finished the twenty-second stitchery

 

today we went to The Mainstreet Trading Co for lunch

 

I was rather taken with my diminutive teacup and saucer .......

 

........ and the tiny teaspoon, seen here with Malcolm's normal sized coffee spoon

 

we had the most delicious sandwiches ....... I ordered wild boar sausage and ale chutney,while Malcolm ordered pastrami and leek jam(!), then as we often do, we swapped so that we had one of each

 

after lunch we had a look round the books ....... I was surprised to see Alex Salmond's tome in the biography section, when of course it should have been filed under fantasy! (it was a rare UNSIGNED copy!!)  We then headed out to the deli and home building (I love the colour of the paint) where two very small bars of chocolate may have been purchased

 

to finish ....... the birds are back in the garden for the winter, and enjoying the food in the feeders

 

but this tiny wren wasn't too sure about having a bath!

A scone is not enough!

On Saturday afternoon, Malcolm headed over to town, to have a potter round the shops. As the weather wasn't very good, I elected to stay in the flat.  When he came back, he handed me this box of Christmas cards

 

we have been invited to have a table at this year's Christmas Fair in Jedburgh, so Malcolm has been busy making more of his driftwood trees.  I offered to make some of my little folded gift boxes to hang on them, for which I needed inexpensive Christmas cards.  I made a start to the first box, then realised I couldn't remember where the second fold went ........ but all was well, as my first ever Tuesday Tutorial, way back in 2010, shows how to make the boxes.  You can find it here.  After a great deal of measuring, marking, cutting and folding, I had a pile of forty boxes

 

Malcolm declared that he would reward me with a scone when we went out for a cuppa on Sunday morning, but I declared that a scone was not enough for all the work!  So after Malcolm had ordered his fruit scone .......

 

........ I consulted with the waitress.  What did she have in the way of chocolate cake, because only chocolate would suffice.  She had tiffin, but it had a white chocolate topping, and you know that I don't like white chocolate.  She also had rocky road, which I was going to have, when she suggested a little something from the dessert menu ........ chocolate brownie baked cheesecake, with fresh raspberries.  By the time I had eaten this, my sore fingers from all that folding were feeling a lot better!!

 

and I washed it down with an excellent pot of Assam tea

 

we were in the lovely restaurant where we went for Malcolm's birthday dinner in September.  I do like this section of one of the walls

 

I popped to the loo before we left, and I took the camera, as I remembered from a previous visit that it was rather splendid

as we left the restaurant, I paused to take this photo.  I wonder if in times past shoes were made here?

 

we thought we should go for a walk on the beach, to use up some of the excess calories, but on the way I spotted some more things to take photos of

an ornamental air brick

 

a stylish detail on an old lamp post

 

I love these old stairs

 

a memorial plaque

 

it was rather windy over on the beach, and these little boats were flying along

 

we tried not to laugh when this boat tipped over

 

but he soon recovered

 

this chap preferred to supply his own power

 

the waves were crashing in

 

after being almost blown off the beach by the chilly wind, another cuppa was needed ........ and somehow we managed to eat a mince pie as well!

 

back at the flat, I was going to do some more practice on my sample of two-colour brioche knitting, but when I read the instructions, I realised that I needed stitch markers ....... which of course were all at home in my knitting basket.  Still, I am making progress with this rather complicated stitch

 

I don't know if we saw three different herons over the weekend, or the same heron three times!

 

and of course we have to have swans

 

 

and a cygnet

 

and to finish ........ I thought I might buy this little boat (complete with lobster pots) for Malcolm's Christmas ...... but for some reason he wasn't too keen!!

All sorts of sewing

I had a busy day in the studio yesterday, starting with taking photos of the latest two stitcheries that I have finished.  These are number twenty and twenty one ........ so only eleven to go!!

 

I raided my stash for fabrics for borders for the beautiful block that Margaret gave me for my birthday last month

the first border on

then the outer border added.  The next job will be to layer it up and decide how to quilt it

 

I looked out my dinosaur templates

 

and traced round them on to fusible web

 

I ironed the fusible web on to some scraps of fleece and cut them out

 

I drew a rough plan for making a small quilt

 

I added a bit of colour, so I have an idea of what I will do when I work on it again

 

today at patch'n'chat we made a start to quilting the quilt tops that we made during the summer when we had our Ladies Race Day.  As I was first to arrive, I soon had mine clamped to the table to pin it

 

making a start to the quilting

 

the quilting shows up better on the back

 

I got the quilting finished, so I have brought the quilt home with some bright orange fabric to make the binding ....... but you will have to wait until next week to see that.  No matter how busy we all were quilting, of course we still stopped for the Friday cake!  There were two on offer today, so purely in the interests of research for the blog, I had a piece of each!  The one with the slightly lurid pink icing had a ginger biscuit bottom, with a coconut and condensed milk filling, and then topped off with the aforementioned pink icing.  It wasn't as sweet as it sounds!!  The other one we have  had before, with cranberries and bits of marshmallow ...... it is a bit sweet, but delicious.  (I wasn't the only one to have a piece of each cake!)

 

to finish ....... I realised yesterday that I had yet to show you my little hare that I made just before I went on holiday.  When you last saw it, it had still to have the verdigris added.  I am really pleased with how it turned out, and have already ordered supplies to make some other animals - once Malcolm draws them for me!

 

the forecast isn't too good for the weekend, so there may be no walking on the beach, but hopefully there will be sconnage!!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

A tale of two beaches

On Saturday, we went for a walk on "our" beach.  There have been some very high tides, and the sand has shifted quite a bit, revealing the wooden groynes again

 

then there is the usual dilemma of the lighthouse ...... should it be to the right or the left of the photo

 

then on Sunday we went for a walk on the beach at Bamburgh

 

the sun was shining on the Farne Islands

 

but Lindisfarne was hazy in the distance

 

this family was enjoying a game of croquet on the beach

 

a rather large dead crab

 

Malcolm wouldn't let me play with this big (toy) truck!

 

on Saturday morning when we walked over to the town, I only had the point and shoot with me ........ so of course the seal was sitting on a mudbank!

 

look how much the tide had come in, when we returned home about 45 minutes later

 

we were delighted to see some cygnets come into the dock with the adult swans

I know there has been very little sconnage on the blog of late, so we took steps to correct that, having this delicious cheese scone on Sunday

 

and this even more delicious (and even bigger) cheese scone on Monday, on our way home

 

the trees are now blazing with their autumn colours

 

Maureen came over for the day yesterday, so that we could have some fun needle felting.  Before she arrived, I looked out all my felting stash, and most importantly, Gretel's excellent book

 

I had bought these rovings in Australia

 

I thought we should start with something simple, so chose the little mouse

 

my little mouse was soon under way

 

I just have a little bit of stitching round his tummy to do

 

but at the other end of the table, things weren't going so well, and there was a great deal of muttering from Maureen.  Having consulted the book, she decided to turn her mouse into a penguin!

 

however she then had a go with my embellisher, and in no time at all produced this super picture

 

while she was doing that, I made a start on a penguin

 

to finish ....... you know that I like tractors, but not when they are taking up the whole road!!

Our holiday - part 3

A quick last look at some of the delights of our holiday, before catching up on what we have been doing since we got home

were we tempted to take on a refurbishment project?  NO!!

 

beer for Malcolm, wine for me ...... and my terrible taste in holiday reading!

 

pomegranates

 

sunset

 

sunrise

 

swordfish with mango and coconut sauce - delicious

 

Malcolm ate a lot of olives (I don't like them)

 

very old olive trees

 

and one last lingering look at the wonderful pool

 

back home, the rowan tree in the back garden was looking glorious.  Although it was a bit damp and grey on Wednesday morning, I took a photo of it, which is just as well, as soon afterwards it rained and rained, and when the rain stopped, half of the leaves had come off!

 

the creeper on the back wall is looking glorious

when we were on holiday, there was no sign of Christmas at all in the shops ........ then we came home to shops overflowing with Christmas stuff, adverts on the radio and television ........ and even my Christmas cactus has buds on it

 

at the weekend, we had two walks on the beach, which I will tell you about on Wednesday.  To finish today ....... how cute is this little seagull, which we saw on the beach at Bamburgh yesterday

Down to Earth

We were delighted to find a wonderful new shop and cafe had opened, just a short walk from our hotel

 

we went there several times for lunch ..... you have already seen the smoked salmon and egg that I had, and Malcolm enjoyed his quiche

 

and we also sampled the wine of the week

 

but I wouldn't want you to think that all we did was eat tasty lunches and dinners ....... no, we also ate delicious ice cream.  Mango and passion fruit for me, and rice pudding and caramel for Malcolm

 

to work off all those calories, we regularly walked the long way round from the hotel to the town centre.  Since our last visit, this amazing boardwalk has been built along the cliff top

 

the views are stunning ...... specially on the days that the sea was stormy

 

and of course we have to have some arty scenery photos!

 

and we mustn't forget the beach

 

I have one more batch of photos to share with you on Monday, but to finish, I have this stunning photo

 

it's just a pity that I didn't take it, but merely took a photo of this advertising hoarding!!

 

we'll be popping over to the flat tomorrow ....... hopefully the rain will stay away and we will be able to go for a walk on the beach.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

A foggy, soggy return!

So, where have we been for the last two weeks?  We have been having a very, very lazy holiday in Portugal, with some lovely sunshine.  Then we arrived back at Newcastle Airport yesterday to nasty fog, and this afternoon it has rained steadily!  We went to Carvoeiro, where we have had several very enjoyable holidays in the past.  We stayed in the same hotel as we did two years ago

 

we spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool

 

and enjoying an occasional glass of wine in the colourful lounge

 

of course we had lots of delicious meals

 

I have dozens of photos still to sort through, but you will have to wait until Friday to see a selection of them.  I have a lot of sewing and knitting to do between now and Christmas, so I am going to blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the next few weeks.

To finish ...... I have mentioned before that walks with Malcolm always seem to involve lots of stairs! 

 

 

I may have been knitting .......

....... since I was seven, but I was intrigued when I saw this article in a knitting magazine, as I had never encountered this stitch before (and yes, that is a man prancing about in a dress!!)

 

so of course it was over to Mr Google, and by good luck I found a class on Craftsy which was half-price.  I watched the first section, then started on my sample piece.  The brioche stitch produces a reversible fabric, and you can do knit or purl brioche ....... it looks the same, it just moves the stitches

 

but having worked a reasonable practice length, I didn't have time to watch the next part of the class to see what came next, so I branched out (groan) and produced a tree!!

 

to which I started to add some leaves

 

but then Malcolm came to the rescue and gave me this book for my birthday (it's Nancy's class that I am watching on Craftsy)

 

as soon as I have mastered all the stitches, this scarf will be first on the to-do list!

 

Malcolm also gave me this fun little kit for my birthday, which I'm looking forward to knitting

 

when we were out for lunch on Wednesday at Harestanes, we spotted this apple tree.  What a waste, all these apples left to rot - yes, they will feed the wildlife, but surely some of them could have been picked and used

 

I had to dissuade Malcolm from attempting to take this impressive log pile home with him!

 

 

for our Friday cake, Annette had recreated one of her Mum's recipes

 

little individual pies which were a cross between a sponge and a pastry ........

 

......... filled with apple - they were delicious, and some of us may have eaten two!!

 

we came over to the flat as soon as I got home from patch'n'chat, and we have had fish and chips for dinner - the perfect start to the weekend!  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne