frayed at the edge

A chilly walk

Yesterday we decided to head into Hawick and go for a walk along the river - but we almost changed our minds when we realised how cold the wind was!!  However we kept walking and I'm glad we did, or we would have missed all this .....

ducklings with their mum

 

a young swan

 

an adult swan

 

heron

 

goose

 

goslings

 

an old fence post

 

mossy tree roots

 

I was surprised to receive a parcel in the post this morning, as I knew I hadn't ordered anything!  I opened it to find a lovely card .....

 

........ and a packet of biscuits.  Sarah sent them to me, after I had complained recently about Malcolm getting a biscuit with his coffee and I didn't get one with my tea when we were out for a cuppa!  So now I will be able to have a biscuit too

 

I have almost finished the Christmas stitcheries

 

and did you notice some Love Notes on the right?  Yes, I am now doing a Love Notes quilt for myself!  I have layered Lilly Pilly with some of this lovely cotton wadding (batting)

 

 

 

But Lilly Pilly will now languish on the table for the next three weeks because ......... yippee, we're off on holiday!!  We'll be leaving about 2am tomorrow, to drive down to Newcastle airport, to fly to Majorca.  Longterm readers will know that we go every year at this time  - but this year we are going for three weeks, rather than our usual two.  Stuart and Alison are joining us for the second and third weeks - they are looking forward to relaxing after all the stress of moving!!

But don't worry, you can still pop in, as I have scheduled posts to appear every day.  They are just short posts, with photos of my sewing over the years.  They aren't in any particular order, but generally the embroideries are the oldest, followed by the counted cross stitch, then the quilts.  And something very exciting will happen when I'm away ........ my 1,000th post will appear!!  Of course that means a giveaway ........ so, when I come back and check which post was the 1,oooth, I will ask Malcolm to pick a winner at random from the comments.  You can either leave a comment on the day you think is the 1,000th post, or you can leave a comment  every day.  I will have to find something very special to bring back from Majorca for the giveaway!!

 

I have packed the rest of my Love Note stitcheries to do in the evenings, and of course we have lots of books on our Kindles to read.  No doubt we will eat lots of delicious food, drink a bottle of two of wine, and generally relax (not forgetting the wonderful cakes to have with our morning cuppas!)

I hope you enjoy the little posts, and I'll be back in three weeks with tales of Majorca!  Love Anne

 

 

 

 

Magazine junkie

Hello, my name is Anne and I am a magazine addict ........ yesterday I showed you the magazine that I bought in the morning - but I didn't show you the one that I bought in the afternoon when I was on my way to the hairdressers (that's all my pocket money spent!)

 

The most irresistible of the ten irresistible projects is this bag (and I know I have suitable fabrics in my stash)

 

When my hair is long, I get very lazy about changing my earrings to match my outfit, and wear my gold hoops most of the time.  So now that my ears can be seen, I made the effort this morning to look out earrings to go with my black and grey top and trousers.  Stuart gave me these lovely earrings some years ago for my birthday

 

While I was looking in my jewellery box, I came across this brooch which I bought a few years ago.  I don't wear it very often, as it is made with modelling clay, and I am always worried that I might break it

 

At patch'n'chat this afternoon, Cathy was showing off her latest makes.  A very cute elephant, complete with pink toenails ........

 

....... and an adorable owl

 

And now, the most important photo of the week ....... yes, the cake!  Today we had the most delicious fruit loaf. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

 

Quilts, cattle and Katy

On Sunday we drove over to Cornhill, to visit the quilt and craft show.  As I paid the entrance fee, a disembodied voice from the back of the hall called out "Hello Malcolm, how are you Malcolm .... 0h hello Anne"  It was the redoubtable Katy, mainstay of the quilt show.  The first quilt we looked at was this wonderful one which she made for her husband Farmer Allan.  It shows his beloved Highland cattle, from the Douglas Fold at The Hirsel in Coldstream

 

Lovely as the Highland cattle are, of course I prefer the other quilt that she made for him ........ tractors!!

 

You saw bits of this cushion before, when Katy was working on it at patch'n'chat

 

So who is Katy?  She is a super fun friend, with a wicked sense of humour, and a willingness to have a go at anything .......  currently she is planning to abseil from the Forth Bridge to raise funds for charity.  This was her last fund raising effort - sitting pretty as Miss April on my studio wall

 

When we went through to have our cuppa and cake (there are always cuppas and cakes at quilt shows) a woman came up to me and said "You're the lady who writes the blog, aren't you, you're frayed at the edge".  I admitted that I was, and in turn said to her "You must be Audrey"  Yes indeed, she was Audrey.  So why does she know me, and why did I guess who she is.  Because her daughter is my blog friend Nicola.  I can't remember how Nicola and I discovered each other, but I love readiing about New Zealand, where Nicola now lives, and she loves when I write about Cornhill and the surrounding area, which she still misses.

When we were looking at the display of Christmas quilts, Malcolm pointed out this one

 

Although it has been done in very different colours, he recognised that it is the same pattern as ours

 

On the way home, we stopped for lunch at the Cream Puff, in Denholm

 

We had never been to the Puff  - it is only four miles or so from the house, so we had never really thought of going "out" to lunch there.  But someone recommended it, so we thought we would give it a try ..... and we are very glad that we did, as we had the most delicious celery, potato and stilton soup

 

Back in the studio, I listened to my latest cd, by The Civil Wars

 

 

To finish, I remembered this morning to take another photo of the Christmas stitcheries.  As the quilt also has red and white blocks, I put some red fabrics on the design wall

Siblings

We had surprise visitors today ...... Malcolm's sisters!  The younger one, Judith, is staying with the older one, Jennifer, in Morpeth for a few days, so they phoned this morning to say that they were going to pop up to see us.  Of course this meant going out for lunch!  This photo should have shown the three of them enjoying their lunch ....... but Jennifer moved, Malcolm looked as if he was crying and Judith looked awfully serious - so I have cropped the photo and instead you can enjoy the delicious food!

 

We had lunch at Harestanes, and as always had a walk round.  Malcolm was rather taken with this log pile - I hope he doesn't decide to move our logs from the log store and pile them under the windows!

 

There were a lot of woodworking tools in the courtyard - these rather large axes caught my eye

 

When we got home, the sun came out and we sat out in the garden to have a cuppa

 

We were amazed to see a pair of swallows swoop through the garden - it's very early in the year for them to have arrived.  Unfortunately they were much too fast for me to get a photo of them ...... but I did capture this sparrow sitting on top of the garden wall

 

The alchemilla mollis showed evidence of an earlier shower

 

The grape vine is just coming into leaf

 

and the herbs are growing well

 

I had planned to tell you about the quilt show we went to yesterday, but our surprise visitors of course changed that plan!  So I'll tell you about it tomorrow, and finish with a sewing update.  First, Lilly Pilly is all bonded, ready to be layered up with wadding and the applique stitched

did you spot the birds among the leaves?

 

Then, second, the Christmas stitchery is progressing well  - I took this photo on Saturday and have actually stitched quite a bit more over the weekend (yes, I forgot to take a photo today!)

A small detour

On my way to patch'n'chat this morning, I had a small detour to my friend Ali's house, as she was having an open day.  As with her last one, she had all sorts of luscious fabrics and trims to buy, but as I haven't yet used the ones I bought then, I resisted!  However, I did buy some gorgeous handmade paper, to make tiny books with ......

 

and two bags of offcuts of handmade felt, which I will use for jewellery, applique, and just generally having fun with

 

I made one more purchase - this one at Borderland fabrics, where I bought this little remnant to add to my collection of small prints

 

Now, the most important part of the post - of course that's the Friday cake!! This week it was the delicious apple and sultana cake

 

We hope to pop over the Border to Cornhill on Sunday, to go to a quilt show ...... whatever you are doing, I hope you have a good weekend.  Love, Anne

Looking after the pennies

We had a rather unusual day out today ...... we went to a "wealth management" seminar!  My, doesn't that sound ground - but let me explain.  Some weeks ago, Malcolm got a letter inviting us to this seminar.    We don't know why we got an invitation - Malcolm must be on a mailing list somewhere - as we certainly aren't wealthy!  His first reaction was to recycle it as junk mail, but as he read on, he spotted the words free, lunch and wine ...... so we thought we might as well go!  We were very glad that we did go, as this was the venue, Tilmouth Park Hotel

 

We got there early, so had a chance to walk round the grounds.  Looking up at the hotel, I could see this room has a four-poster bed

 

The trees are much further open than here

 

and the rhododendrons are flowering

 

 

When you enter the hotel, it is easy to picture the original family living there, as all the original features have been retained.  We were welcomed with a cuppa in this beautiful room

 

A quick trip to the Ladies before the seminar got under way meant that the camera had to come out to capture the fabulous wallpaper and general luxury!

 

So, what was all the wealth management stuff?  It was mostly advice about making the most of savings/investments/pensions - of course the firm running the seminar will do it all for you, for a fee.  I managed to stay awake until we had a break for another cuppa, in another lovely room

 

The ceiling had an unusual painted plaster centrepiece

 

as did the room the the seminar was in

 

it also had a very sparkly chandelier

 

I also managed to stay awake during the second session (I knew Malcolm was paying attention and taking notes!) ...... then, hooray, it was lunchtime.  We both chose lasagne, with side salad and garlic bread (and we had a glass of wine)

 

It was delicious ....... and then the very pleasant man who had served us came over to the table and asked if we would like anything else.  Well, the other choice had been chicken in white wine and cream sauce with rice, which also looked delicious, so we had some of that too (almost everyone had a second helping of whatever hadn't been their first choice!). 

We are glad we went, as we did get some useful information on making the most of our money ..... and a delicious lunch.  We usually have dinner quite early, but we will be eating much later tonight!

 

On the sewing front, progress is being made on the Christmas stitcheries.  Using just the one thread makes it much quicker, without all the stops and starts to change colours ...... and there are none of those dreaded French knots on the lettering, which took so much time on the "Love Notes" stitcheries.

 

Backtracking

After being sidetracked by the little lambs yesterday, back to what we did at the weekend.  On Sunday, we went for a walk aloong the river in Jedburgh, where this seagull flapped his wings, just as I clicked!!

 

The butterbur is just starting to flower on the riverbank

 

We went past the John Deere dealership ...... if only I had somewhere to park this!!

 

Although the blossom was springlike ........

 

......... it was decidedly chilly, and we abandoned the walk.  We headed to Border Meringues, where we had cake for lunch!  We shared a delicious cheese scone

 

and this sticky sweet confection, with marshmallows, cherries and coconut

 

On both Saturday and Sunday I was working on the prep for the stitcheries, cutting out the blocks, then ironing on the transfers for the embroidery

 

 

The last task was to tack the blocks to thin cotton wadding

 

I also made a start to Lilly Pilly, tracing the tree trunk and branches on to bondaweb

 

then cutting the pieces out and arranging them on the fabric

 

This afternoon, I covered the fabric and bondaweb with some nonstick baking parchment, and bonded them using a hot iron

 

Next, I cleared the worktables and put a heat proof cover over them, then put the paper pattern on top - I had turned it to the wrong side and traced the outline of thhe tree, as the pattern is reversed when you use bondaweb

 

I added the background fabric, then put the tree in place

 

I will need Malcolm's help with the next stage ..... carefully pulling the pattern out from underneath, so that I can then bond the tree in place.  Then I will have to cut out lots and lots ..... and lots of leaves!

After the cute little lambs yesterday, here are some ewes snoozing away the afternoon in a neighbour's old apple orchard

 

 

 

Cheap and cheerful reading

When I was looking for a book to read in the bath this week, I found this one that I have had for years, lurking at the back of the bookshelves (I don't read the Kindle in the bath in case I drop it - the only book I have dropped in the bath for some time of course belonged to Malcolm!)

 

It's a very lighthearted, entertaining story, and reading it I remembered that I also loved the previous book with the same characters, which I had borrowed from a friend.  I had a look on Amazon to see if it was available for the Kindle, which it wasn't.  However I discovered that I could buy it from a bookseller for 1p, plus £2.80 p&p - a bargain, and I happily employed that "buy with one click" button!

 

Did you notice my bookmmark peeping out of the first book.  I bought these bookmarks for the two of us last time we were in Australia ....... Malcolm is the Virgo and I'm the Libran

 

Of course all the good points, and none of the bad ones, apply to both of us!

 

Having missed patch'n'chat last Friday, I enjoyed the cake even more this afternoon ..... Annette's lovely light chocolate sponge

 

We have a new pet - a big black spider that Malcolm has named Hector (no, I don't know why he chose Hector!!)  He's hiding at the moment, but hopefully he will come out to play tomorrow!

 

I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

Strolling along the river

There was a brief flurry of rain as we left the house yesterday morning, but fortunately it had gone off by the time we got to Melrose, to go for a leisurely walk along the river.  The river level is quite low, as you can see from this fisherman - usually he would be in water just about up to his waist

 

Every time we go on this walk, I take a photo of this boat!

 

The air was full of the scent of wild garlic, with great swathes of it running down to the river .......

 

....... and carpets under the trees

 

The garlic may be a bit smelly, but it does have a lovely flower

 

There were other flowers along the riverbank

 

 

 

 

Malcolm spotted this strange creature watching us from the end of a branch!

 

On the way back to the car, I spotted this dovecote - perhaps Malcolm could make one for me?

 

Of course you know what comes next - yes, we went for a cuppa!  It is some weeks since we last went to the Old Melrose Furniture Studio ..... and we were somewhat surprised by how much had changed!  A new carpark has been laid out behind the buildings, leaving the courtyard free, and the large pile of old doors has been removed from in front of the farm shop.  The pots are full of herbs

 

We ordered a toasted teacake and a cheese scone, then as usual shared them - delicious!

 

Back home, the snakeshead fritillaries have started to flower

 

To finish ..... you never know when you might need your camera.  I took this photo when I was in the Ladies at the furniture studio - I know Malcolm has some nice pieces of wood in his stash in the garage ...... perhaps he could make a picture frame for me (once he has made a dovecote!)

 

Still shining ......

....... yesterday, but today the sun has gone, the skies are grey, and it has been trying to rain (and we just won't mention that snow is forecast!).  To make the most of the sun, we headed over to Harestanes yesterday morning.  This is one of our favourite walks, with lots to see.  We started at the childern's play area, where there is this amazing thatched play house

 

 

Although we had some rain on Saturday, it was dry underfoot, and the level in the little stream was low

 

 

There was no breeze to make  these daffodils dance, but they still looked wonderful

 

These frilly ones were glowing in a patch of sunlight under some trees

 

I have been looking in my new wildflower books, but I haven't been able to identify this

 

The new growth gave me the chance to take some of my favourite "arty" photos!

 

 

 

 

Of course a long walk has to be followed by a cuppa and a scone ....... I wasn't quick enough to take the photo - Malcolm had already cut the scone in half!

 

I've been busy sewing over the weekend and today.  Here is just a little taster, I'll show you more tomorrow!