frayed at the edge

And the winner is ........

I have enjoyed reading all the horrid things you have eaten!  It didn't take long to pick a winner ...... as soon as I read Tracy's comment, it shot to the top of the list.  But then you might like the sound of this and plan to make it for your dinner!!

 

The worst thing I've ever eaten is something called "scrapple," it's a Pennsylvania German traditional food where I come from in Pennsylvania in the US--it's basically a mush made of pork scraps (anything leftover from pig butchering basically) and cornmeal made into a loaf, which is then sliced and the slices are pan fried before eating. It is foul, nasty stuff and smells about as good as is sound... GAK!

 

Well done Tracy!  So, after that exciting start, a bit more sewing.  Another of the textured flowers for the applique wallhanging is made with a yoyo/suffolk puff.  I started by drawing round a circle template

 

then cutting out the circle with a quarter inch seam allowance

 

I turned in the seam allowance, and stitched round the edge with a running stitch

 

then drew the gathers in tight and fastened off the thread

 

the finished yoyo

 

but that sample yoyo is much bigger than the ones that will be on the wallhanging - I made it that size to make it easier to take photos

 

I took this photo earlier in the week - I have done more work since then, but the light wasn't good enough this afternoon to take a photo - it has been grey and wet and generally horrid all day

 

but of course there was a bright spot this afternoon, when we tucked into chocolate cake!

 

the forecast for the weekend isn't very good, so I may just have to light the fire, put on a DVD, and sew!!  Whatever your weather, I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

I love it!

We early arrivers at patch'n'chat had hardly finshed our lunch, when Kay arrived with the latest batch of quilts which she had longarm quilted. I was jumping up and down with excitement while the first one out of the bag was ooohed and aaahed over, knowing that next was my Notes of Love.  Kay had already sent me this photo of the quilt on her longarm machine

 

she has made the most fantastic job of the quilting, but by the time I got home, the light wasn't good enough to take photos of the full quilt, so I shall just tease you with two details.  The quilt is beautiful - I love it!  I shall have to clear some wall space to hang it (as soon as I put the binding on!) 

 

during the week I prepared the binding for the girlie quilt

 

and squared up the edges

 

I knew that the four strips that I had cut to make the binding would only just be enough - but I did think I would have slightly more than this left!

 

after stitching the binding on, I sat last night and did the handstitching of the binding on to the back of the quilt. I had intended to take a photo of the quilt on the spare bed this morning, when the sun was shining in the window - but I forgot.  So when I got home at teatime, I had to make do with a couple of quick photos of the quilt on the rug in the front lounge.  I shall take a better photo at the weekend

 

as ever there was Friday cake.  This week it was an Australian recipe for a spicy fruit cake.  It had crushed pineapple in it, which made it very moist

 

as always, weather permitting we will go for a walk on Sunday, and I have lots to keep me busy in the studio.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

 

ps - remember for a chance to win a little prize, leave a comment or email me, answering this question

what is the worst thing you have eaten?

Being polite!

On our way out for lunch today, we passed a young woman on a horse.  She had a hi-viz waistcoat on, with writing on the back.  It said something like "polite request please slow down".  We did slow down (we always do), but unfortunately the woman wasn't polite in return, and didn't even look at us as we drove past, never mind giving us an acknowledgement

 

never mind, the sky was blue and the sun was shining, casting shadows  across the road

 

if we had turned in here, we would have been disappointed, as the coffee shop shuts for the winter!

 

however just a few yards further along the road, we turned into the left, and headed up the rather bumpy lane to the Woodside Garden Centre.  But having parked, we didn't go into the garden centre.  Instead we headed off down the footpath for a walk through the woods

snowdrops

 

wild garlic

 

daffodils

 

an escapee chicken from an adjacent farm

 

when we were walking through the garden centre to the coffee shop, I spotted these colourful crocus .....

 

..... and tiny tulips - although I wouldn't have known they were tulips if it hadn't been for a helpful label

 

we usually have soup for lunch at the Woodside, but cream of spring onion didn't appeal to me, and aas I had carrot and coriander soup yesterday for lunch, I didn't want the carrot and ginger.  There was then slight pause as I decided which of the delicious sandwiches to have.  I finally chose the tuna and sweet chilli relish - very tasty

 

Malcolm too decided on a sandwich, choosing beef and tomato

 

I was going to watch a DVD this afternoon in the studio, but I remembered that we still have a collection of VCDs (video compact discs) which we bought in Indonesia.  This system never reached the UK, but was popular over there.  As well as legitimate discs, pirated films were on open sale in shops.  Some of them were films of films ...... someone sitting in the cinema with a camcorder, so you were liable to get a shot of the back of someone's head as they got up to go to the loo!

 

the films have Indonesian subtitles, and I still recognise some words (but not these ones!)

I was busy in the studio all afternoon, then as I headed back into the house, a passing plane left a perfect contrail in the beautiful blue sky

Goodbye Mr Badger!

On Saturday, we were up bright and early to drive up to Larbert to stay with Stuart and Alison for the weekend.  After a welcome cuppa, we popped round to visit Fraser and Linsey, to deliver Mr Badger.  Fraser was delighted with him, and he was soon settled in on a very large cushion

 

then it was back to Stuart and Alison's to get on with making the Roman blinds.  While I was busy sewing, Malcolm and Stuart screwed battens to the walls above the windows, and cut the battens and the dowels for the blinds.  The sewing didn't take as long as I thought it would, and soon the blinds were ready

 

I was pleased with the way the pattern on the kitchen blind fitted in with the folds

 

I have to admit that I miscalculated guessed wrongly how much cord I needed for the blinds, so the one in the hall is temporarily held up with string!*

 

on our way home yesterday, we popped into the Mayshade garden centre for a cuppa.  We shared a taster plate of cakes, cutting them in half to have a taste of each one...... except for the one with white chocolate, which Malcolm got all to himself, as I really don't like the stuff!

 

the weather on the first part of the journey was awful, with driving wet snow making for poor visibility

 

however, as soon as we reached the Borders, the sky cleared and the sun came out!  The only snow was left over from last week

 

there was more sunshine today, so I went out for a walk after lunch.  The donkeys were as cute as ever

 

the sun was shining on the Mintos

 

this blackbird was enjoying a thorough bath

 

do you remember a few weeks ago I showed you photos of the new hat shop in Hawick?  This article was in The Scotsman on Saturday (click on the photo to enalrge it)

 

there may be peope in Hawick who are willing to pay £600 for a hat ...... but I'm not one of them!!

 

* while I was in the middle of writing this, Stuart phoned.  He bought more cord yesterday, so the hall blind is now finished!

 

Friends, fun and ...... food

There were a few flurries of snow when I left home this morning, but fortunately they didn't come to anything, and I had a good journey up to Edinburgh.  As always on arrival at the show, the first stop was the Ladies, then the second stop was breakfast ..... a bacon roll and a mug of tea

 

On the way round the show, I had to keep stopping, as I met friends ..... some of them I now only see at the shows, so there is always a bit of news to catch up on.  Then there was one lady who said hello, and started chatting, while I was thinking "help, who are you?"  Fortunately I remembered who she was - I taught her to quilt years ago!   There is always the worry about posting photos of quilts,taken at shows, but I am sure Bonnie and Jan won't mind if I show you their small wall hangings.  The three of us were Quilters' Guild reps some years ago, and used to have lots of fun. 

 

 

I saw this one and went wow (perhaps a little higgledy piggledy fence might find its way on to Lillyanny?)

 

then I read the little story to go with the quilt - what a wonderful use of the picture

 

 

There was a large display of quilts by Sandie Lush .  Her handquilting is exquisite

 

one day I will make a quilt like this!!

 

by then it was lunchtime.  I don't even look at the menu - it has to be macaroni and chips (well, I only have it twice a year, at the spring and autumn quilt shows!)

 

I had another potter round the quilts - there was a large display of quilts by Sheena Norquay, but they all had "no photography" signs on them, and then I indulged in a little bit of shopping (remembering all the time that I am supposed to be using my stash, not adding to it!).  So, what did I buy?

 

the quilting hoop and the cotton perle thread came from here

 

the tiny bells ......

 

..... came from here

 

the magazine came from here and the fusible wadding (which isn't in the main photo, but is under the bells!) came from here.

 

Mr Badger will be going to his new home tomorrow - hopefully there will be photos on Monday!  I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

 

ps, I have just read over the post, and realised that I didn't mention the brochure for the quilting retreats.  I shall have to have a chat with some of my friends about a retreat .... although it it a long way to go from down here in the Borders!

Sunshine!

Hooray, it was a lovely day yesterday, so we decided to head for Selkirk, to go for walk in the grounds of  The Haining.  The sun was shining brightly enough to cast shadows

 

I can never resist an arty photo of a dried plant

 

It's some time since we were last there, so we were surprised to find building work of some sort going on in the old stable block, which had been turned into housing

 

sadly, no work seems to have been done on the main house, which is looking decidedly delapidated

 

Malcolm provided the scale for this huge tree .....

 

...... after having a seat while he waited for me to catch up with him - as usual I was lagging behind taking photos!

 

a few random photos from our walk

 

we spotted this stump of a tree which had just been cut down. It looks as if two smaller trees had somehow been enclosed by a bigger tree

 

on the way back to the car, I spotted this post box.  It is an Edwardian one - Edward VII was Queen Victoria's son, so it is about 100 years old

 

all that walking in the sunshine gave us an appetite, so we headed to The Waterwheel Cafe for some sconnage!   A very tasty cheese scone

 

and a very, very delicious apple and cinammon one

 

I'll be back tomorrow with not only the sewing update, but also with the sewing table update.  To finish - the sun might have been shining yesterday, but not all the mud had dried out!

The new project

At the April meeting of Abbey Quilters, I will be showing the members how to do textured applique flowers.  I thought that I would design a little project, rather than just show them how to make the various flowers.  I started with a sheet of A4 paper, and drew a frame an inch and a quarter from the edges.  I folded it in half to make sure that the design was centred, then drew a line for the top of the bowl, and marked the points for the bottom, then drew in the curve for one side

 

the quickest way to make sure the other side matched was to fold the drawing in half and hold it against the French door, so that I coud see the line to draw in the other side

 

next, I drew two long leaves , to give me a framework for the design

 

then I sketched in a rough placement for the other elements

 

I went over the main parts with a black marker .......

 

..... so that the markings would show through on the other side, as I need a reverse image to make my templates.  I glued a copy of the pattern to a piece of card (ok, it's a breakfast cereal box)

 

while the glue was drying, I made a start to stitching some of the flowers.  I started with a strip of fabric, 18"x2".  I pressed the two long edges  to the centre

 

I marked one edge at intervals of 1"

 

then on the other edge, I started half an inch in, then marked at 1" intervals

 

I would normally use a matching thread, but I have used one that will show in the photo.  Starting at the corner and using a running stitch, I stitched across the end, and then to the first mark

 

there should have been another photo here, but it was somewhat out of focus (oops!).  When you get to the edge, you take the thread over the edge, before stitching to the next mark.  So moving on to the next photo, the first few zigzags stitched

 

I pulled on the thread to gather the section I had stitched

 

I continued stitching and gathering, until I reached the end of the strip

 

the final stage is to form the strip into a flower, stitching the layers together

 

I'll show you more next week, as I have some other things to share with you.  I love the stamp on this envelope, which arrived this morning

 

and the spotty tape round the address label

 

the label on the back of the envelope

 

so, what had I bought from Jen?  This wonderful print (I left the little thankyou note in the corner for you to see)

 

at patch'n'chat, Maureen brought in her Christmas wallhanging

 

and a wonderful dinosaur quilt that she is making for Linus

 

Katy is making a log cabin quilt - she finished the first block this afternoon, but I had trouble taking the photo, as behind my back, Anne S was making her roar with laughter, pulling funny faces!  Eventually, she calmed down to just a broad grin!

 

of course there was Friday cake.  Today we had cupcakes - so light they almost floated off the cakestand!!

 

I forgot one of the things that I bought at Ikea - this beautiful orchid!

 

the forecast is better for the weekend, so hopefully we will get out for a proper walk on Sunday.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

Love is in the air!

We may have been together for 30 years, but we are still romantic ....... just look at these lovely presents we gave each other for Valentine's Day.   Malcolm gave me

 

and I gave him

 

yesterday it snowed all day, then in the evening it turned to rain, so that when we got up this morning almost all the snow had gone.  As it was also a bit milder, I decided to go out for a short walk at lunchtime.  The sun was shining on the hills

 

there were shadows from the clouds on the fields

 

these herdies were several fields away, so even with the big lens and the digital zoom, this was the best photo that I could get

 

I braved the muddy track again, but there was only one lamb at the top end of the field

 

back home, I spotted these tiny daffodils in the back garden

 

Malcolm was busy painting his log store

 

by the end of the afternoon, he just had the roof left to do

 

and now, a bit later in the week than usual, the sewing update!  At the weekend, I made the two quilt tops with the fabric that I got at Anne's

the first border on

 

the finished top

 

the first border on

 

the finished top

 

progress on Mr Badger

 

looking back through the photos looking for the sewing ones, I realised that I hadn't shown you these super buttons, which Katy got for me

 

I am the star turn at the Abbey Quilters' April meeting, and as I need to give out the requirements list at the March meeting, I thought I should make a start to designing the project and making the samples ...... here is a little sneak peek of what I will be showing you tomorrow!

 

to finish, this is the warning on the back of the magnets that I gave Malcolm ....... would you give them to a small child?

Powerless!

If I show you what we had for lunch yesterday, a lot of you will know where we were!

 

yes, we were at Ikea!  (sorry, I had started to eat before I remembered to take a photo).  We had gone out for the day because we had had a letter last week, letting us know that we would have no electricity between 9am and 4.30pm.  As there was something I wanted to buy from Ikea (more of that later), we thought we might as well have a trip  up to Edinburgh.  There was still a lot of snow on the hills

 

on the way home, we had a stop in Peebles, where we visited Moy Mackay's new gallery.  Her felt pictures are fabulous (if a bit expensive), but you can buy prints of her work. The photo of the gallery was taken at an odd angle ......

 

........because this rather large vehicle prevented my taking a photo from across the road!

 

so what did I buy at Ikea?  I wanted  a table top, as Malcolm is going to make a new sewing table for me, based on a similar one that I saw some time ago on Anne's blog  The plan is for Malcolm to cut a hole in the table top, into which I can fit the sewing machine, giving me a very large level sewing table, which should make it much easier to work with large quilts.  We found this bright red table top in the "scratch and dent" corner.  It is ideal, as the highly polished surface will make it easier to manouevre quilts

 

of course that's not all I bought!  I got new mattress covers, some scented candles (but I resisted the tealights!)  funnels and bottles for the flavoured gin and vodka that I made in the autumn ....... and this  fabulous set of tins (could you have resisted them?!)

 

we got back home at 4.15 to a cold house, and waited for the power to come back on ...... and waited and waited.  Malcolm eventually phoned to see what the delay was, and was told there was "a problem"!  Hooray, the power came back on just after five, and I had a rush to get the dinner made, as I was heading out to Abbey Quilters.  We were making Japanese folded patchwork brooches.  Mine looks a bit lumpy because of the pins!

 

we have started making a group quilt, which we will raffle at next year's exhibition.  I picked these fabrics for my block

 

I'll be back tomorrow with the sewing update, but to finish ....... Malcolm was very upset that I wouldn't let him hijack this timber lorry!

V.I.P.

No, I didn't meet someone famous at the weekend ....... the VIP is for Very Important Post.  Why is today's post important - well you will have to wait until further down the post to find out!!

The weather wasn't great yesterday morning, so when we got to Jedburgh we decided not to go for a walk.  Instead we bought the Sunday papers and headed for a cuppa.  Shock, horror, the scones weren't ready, so we had to make do with a toasted teacake (which was delicious!)

 

so, why is this a special post?  Well ....... recently we haven't been using the back road when we have been heading to Jedburgh or Kelso, partly because there are a lot of potholes, and partly because it is inches deep in mud in places.  But Malcolm decided to go that way yesterday, and when we went past Marian-the-neighbour's field ........ oh joy, oh bliss, the first lambs of the year!  Malcolm was going to stop and reverse to the gate so that I could get some photos, but I had the small lens on the camera, so I told him not to bother, that I would walk up to the field when we got back.  Of course when we got home it was snowing!  I changed into my windproof trousers, my windand waterproof Helly Hansen jacket, put on my warm hat and got my old boots from the garage.  The donkeys weren't out in the field next to us, but these hardy ponies didn't seem bothered by the snow  (the photo looks grainy, but that's the snow in the air)

 

on my way up the hill, I thought I would have a look in the other field where there are Jacob's sheep, to see if there were any lambs, which meant negotiating this muddy track

 

I could see that there were lambs, but they were too far away to take photos.  So I walked on, and found a (very small) gap in the hedge to squeeze through, then stepped over the rusty wire fence

 and crept through the trees, to be rewarded with these exceedingly cute lambs

 

I walked on round to Marian's field, sneaking up to the gate so that I wouldn't frighten the lambs.  They didn't seem at all bothered by the snow

 

you can't really see the snow in the photos of the lambs, but you can see it in this photo of the goose (or is it the gander?) .........

 

...... and the blackbird sitting on the hedge

 

there were lots of snowdrops in the verges

 

as I trudged back down the hill, the snow went off, and the hills appeared

 

this is my favourite view on the way home

 

I won't be here tomorrow - I'll tell you why on Wednesday!