frayed at the edge

Warning - more food!

I know there has been rather a lot of food this week, but we had such a delicious lunch at our patch'n'chat Christmas party, I am sure you will enjoy seeing it!  We all took a plate to share ......

 

We also had a small glass of wine, and a cracker

 

You might recognise the bags of painted pine cones - I took along the ones left from the Christmas fair and gave everyone a packet

 

Then it was on to the desserts - pavlova twice in one week ...... I don't think I'll get on the scales any time soon!

 

After lunch, Sheena bought a piece of this lovely fabric - she doesn't have a specific plan for it, she just couldn't resist it (it actually has a white background, but as always the strip lights make it look slightly yellow)

 

We then played a very entertaining game ......

 

We were all so full of food, the title of the game probably was a good description of our efforts to play.  To end our enjoyable afternoon, we all got our 'secret santa' present.  I was delighted with this strip of quilt labels and the pretty spotted scissors

 

My cold seems to have gone as quickly as it arrived - it was a great relief not to have to blow my nose every two minutes.  Thank you for all your good wishes!

I hope you all have a good weekend - I am planning to put up our Christmas tree and decorations.  Love  Anne

Thank you to the person .......

....... who invented elasticated waists, because after our wonderful lunch yesterday, I had another excellent one today!  Fortunately when I got up this morning, I discovered that most of the snow had gone, so I was able to meet up with Lorraine to head to Kelso for our knit'n'natter Christmas lunch.  The main part of my lunch was actually very healthy - chilli bean stew with a baked sweet potato and salad

 

However dessert was somewhat more indulgent - a slice of lemon tart (sprinkled with edible glitter to make it festive!)

 

On the way home, we called in at Borderland Fabrics, as Lorraine needed some fabric.  Of course I wasn't going to buy anything ....... until I saw these small prints in the 'last chance to buy' basket.  I do have a project in mind for them, honest!!

 

Just as it got dark, we were treated to a fantastic display of hundreds of crows flocking past the house - the photos are slightly blurred because of the long exposure time

 

I promise there will be no photos of food tomorrow!!

There was a slight panic this morning .......

....... as we had more snow last night, and the road wasn't looking too good.  So why the panic - because this was the day for my housegroup Christmas lunch!  However, Lorraine, Tricia and Anne all braved the elements - although poor Tricia did have a slightly scary moment when her car skidded.  Unfortunately Ali was poorly and Lizzi had a prior appointment, so perhaps we will have to do it all agin in the New Year. 

The snow may cause travel problems, but it does make things look pretty

 

Of course Christmas lunch means pressies, so I had these little parcels ready

 

Then came the best bit of the day -  usually we have our lunch in the kitchen, but today I laid the dining table with Christmas placemats, the best cutlery ....... and

 

lots of lovely food - we all contributed a dish (although perhaps I should have taken the photo before putting the bottle of chilli sauce on the table!).. That's Lorraine's hands on the left, dressing her caesar salad

 

For dessert, Anne brought the makings for a pavlova.  When we finished the main course, I carefully put the cream in the middle of the meringue, then tastefully arranged the strawberries round the edge before filling the centre with raspberries ..... then forgot to take a photo!  So you will have to make do with this photo of the leftover portion (which Malcolm had after dinner)

 

Anne also brought some chocolate teddies - Malcolm has already eaten his, but I am saving mine!

 

I sat the teddy on my coaster to take the photo, so it occurred to me that you might like to see it (there may be a glass of wine sitting on it as I write this!)

 

so of course that means that showing you Malcolm's coaster too!

Snow!

Yes, the white stuff has arrived!  Yesterday there was just a little bit on the hills ......

 

 

........ but when we got up this morning, a couple of inches had fallen in the night

 

 

I decided that there was nothing urgent on the shopping list, and instead of heading into Hawick for the weekly shop, I baked the Christmas cake, turning this ......

 

...... into this

 

I've been busy working on the snippets wreath - but had a mishap on Saturday

 

That's the first needle I have broken in quite a while - in fact it is the first one i have broken on my new machine.  This is the back of the wallhanging, showing the first stage of the quilting

 

Having stitched the ivy leaves in green, I added some more in red, and quilted the centre

 

I added some baubles

 

then made a start to quilting silver spirals round the outside

 

I also stitched another Farmer's Wife block - I am going to have a break from this project until after Christmas, as I have rather a lot to do at the moment

 

I cut out the pieces according to the book, and you can see that the block is stitched properly ....... so why do I have two pieces left over?!

 

I have been getting on well with the scarf - I have finished the first side and have picked up the stitches from the provisional cast-on and started to knit the second half

 

To finish, some snowy scenes and several cute birds!

There hasn't been enough bright daylight .....

...... for some of the photos I wanted to take this week.  First, there is my lovely twiggy arrangement in the hall.  Because I had to turn the overhead light on, some of the colour is washed out, so you can't see that there are two colours of twigs, and they are all sparkly ....... and sadly you can't smell that they are infused with cinnamon and nutmeg (no, I haven't been very clever, I bought them in Sainsbury's on Monday when I did the  weekly shop!)

 

Then I wanted to take a photo of the little picture that I picked up from the framers, after Malcolm hung it under the picture of the hare.  But it was difficult to get a photo without reflections.  This was the best I could do - you can see the wallpaper on the facing wall, and a bit of the ceiling light!!

 

I usually take photos of the birds in the afternoon, but these days when I come in from the studio it is too dark (never mind, it's not long until we get to the shortest day).  So I made the effort to take these photos this morning when it was quite bright

 

 

 

I almost finished the Christmas tree wallhanging this afternoon.  I just have a few more bits of bling to add ........

 

........ but the one thing that did photograph clearly, despite the light levels, was this afternoon's cake.  This was just delicious - very sweet, but oh so tasty.

 

I can't remember all the ingredients, but there were cranberries, crushed biscuits and Ovaltine

 

I am planning to bake the Christmas cake at the weekend ....... whatever you are planning to do, I hope you have a good time.  Love Anne

 

ps - don't forget to pop in over the weekend to see the wonderful shadow of Melrose Abbey that I will be posting for Shadow Shot Sunday!

 

A pinch and a punch ........

....... for the first of the month!  Yes, it's now December, so we can mention Christmas - hooray!!  I spent the afternoon quilting my 'snippets' tree.  You might not see the first lot of stitching in this photo

 

so here it is from the back

 

Having stitched the tree and the doves, I had to decide how to stitch the background.  When Malcolm brought me out a mug of hot chocolate (he is very good to me!!) I asked him what he thought the stitching suggested.  After a moment's thought, he said strings of Chritsmas lights ....... which was the right answer!!

 

 

I added the binding

 

Although it looks like Christmas fabric, it is a William Morris design

 

Hopefully tomorrow at patch'nchat I will get the binding sewn down on the back, then I can add some 'bling'

 

When I switched out the light in the studio when I had finished sewing, I was drawn to the cosy glow of the stove ......

 

...... while outside, the sunset was reflected in this little cloud and the moon was already out

 

To finish, what was the special treat for dinner tonight?

 

Lovely pots of tapas.  I added some spicy potatoes, and mixing cuisines, a focaccina.  This is dinner just out of the oven.

 

It was all delicious (and we now have three terracotta dishes to make more tapas in) ....... but we probably shouldn't breathe on anyone tomorrow, as we will probably reek of garlic!!

I think we might lead a sheltered life .......

 as we got all excited today about going to ........ a different supermarket!!  Not only a different shop, but one in a another country (ok, England is only thirteen miles away!!).  As we approached the border (on the side road, before we joined the main road), there weren't any cars behind us, so Malcolm stopped the car, I opened the window, and took some quick photos of the hazy hills

 

 

Further down the road, the sky grew more dramatic

 

You are not supposed to shop on an empty stomach, so we thought it advisable to stop and have an early lunch .......simple, but delicious, poached eggs on toast

 

I love this blue and white china

 

So why the excitement over the supermarket trip ....... because it was to Waitrose, which are few and far between here.  It is a very posh supermarket, and we oohed and aahed over the wonderful choice (well, you know how much we love our food!)  We bought something special for tomorrow's dinner - I will have to remember to take photos before we eat it all!  Of course we didn't just go all that way to do a bit of supermarket shopping.  We also had a wander round the nearby garden centre, then called in at Kirkharle, to browse round the wonderful craft shops.  We bought a Christmas present that I can't tell you about, and after I remarked that I really liked some necklaces, Malcolm bought one for my Christmas - but I will have to wait to see which one he got!

 

Back home, I popped out to the studio to start on a new project.  I decided that instead of continuing with fmq samples, I would find something among my UFOs to quilt.  I found this ....

 

...... and this

 

I have to admit that these are ten years old!  I did them at a workshop with Cindy Walter.  It was the first workshop that I ever did at Houston - but I nearly didn't get to do it ........ first, the friend I was going with pulled out of our trip at the last minute, my flight to Paris was delayed by fog and I missed my connecting flight to Houston.  Having managed to get another flight - I got to Houston, but my luggage stayed in Paris for two days.  So of course, I didn't have my stuff for the workshop.  However when I explained to Cindy what had happened, she organised everyone to give me bits of fabric, gave me some of her steam-a-seam  and let me use her scissors.  The pieces were made by putting steam-a-seam on a selction of fabrics, then cutting them up in to little bits (remembering to take the backing paper off first!)  Then we arranged the little bits into the wreath and the tree and pressed them into place.  Simple but fun.

I have layered the tree ready to quilt, using lots of pins round the tree, as it was too much of a struggle to pin through it

 

The final thing I did was decide which thread to use.  Much as I love veariegated thread, I knew that it would be lost among all the busy fabrics, so I got out this set of threads with strong clear colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bliss and blisser

It was exceedingly miserable this morning when I went to Kelso, to pick up my latest picture, which I bought from Gretel, from the framers.  I also did a little bit of Christmas shopping, then stopped in Jedburgh on the way home for a bit more shoppping ...... the rain had got steadily heavier, and this was the view through the windscreen when I parked

 

This isn't the best photo of the picture - I'll take a better one once it has been hung

 

Now for the bliss - I had seen recipes for limoncello on a couple of blogs recently, then I saw a recipe in a magazine, so yesterday I bought the ingredients .......

 

...... vodka, unwaxed lemons and caster sugar (it might seem extravagant buying Smirnoff vodka, but it was on special offer and was the same price as the supermarket own-brand).  The last ingredient needed was water.  Having dissolved the sugar in the water, I added the lemon peel and simmered it for 15 minutes

 

The next stage was to add the lemon juice (it's not a good time to discover that you have a papercut on your finger, when you are squeezing lemons) and simmer it for another five minutes.  Finally, I divided the syrup between two jars and topped them up with vodka.  All that remains to be done is to gently shake them every couple of days for the next two weeks, before straining and bottling the limoncello (if you are reading this Stuart, yes, there will be a bottle with your name on it under the Christmas tree!)

 

Now for the blisser - when I was looking through a food magazine last night I found a recipe for Turkish Delight vodka .   I thought I had reached vodka heaven when I had chocolate vodka years ago ........ but Turkish Delight vodka sounds even more delicious!!  Very simple ingredients for this ........

....... vodka, Turkish Delight and rosewater, which I bought this morning.  The recipe  also has caster sugar, saying that the sugar on the Turkish Delight should be rinsed off ....... but that seemed a bit daft, so I just shook the excess off before adding it to the vodka (you pour some out to make room) and popping in the rosewater through a little funnel

 

Now it just needs a little shake every day over the next two weeks, then it can be bottled.  The recipe says it will keep for a year ....... I doubt I will put that to the test!!

 

Oh dear - I've just read over what I had typed so far ........ I don't really drink that much vodka (I prefer wine), and I have certainlly never bought two bottles in two days before!!

 

It may have been miserable for most of the day, but finally the rain went off, and we even had a little bit of pink in the sky as the sun set!

All the fun of the fair!

On Saturday morning, Malcolm headed off into Hawick as usual and I packed all my goodies in the car and headed down the road the Southdean Village Hall.  There was a moment or two of panic when I saw the size of my table - how would I ever fit everything on it!  I wasn't the only one with that concern, but the idea of the organisers was to have lots of small tables to provide a wide variety, rather than just a few large tables.  Eventually most things were squeezed on

 

with the bargain basket on a chair in front of the table

 

Then I realised that the bunches of dried lavender were still in a poly bag - oops ...... so that meant another photo!

 

My friend Lorraine had the table next to me  - and she sensibly had brought an extra little table to add to the front to give her more display space for her wonderful, cakes, jam, chutneys, liqueuers ...

 

..... and her fabulous marzipan fruits

 

So how did it go?  Quite well ...... of course I would have liked to have sold more, but I did sell a reasonable amount (and then spent a large part of what I had made buying something for Malcolm's Christmas!)  There is still rather a lot in the bargain basket, but the rest of the stuff is now packed into one box (except for the painted pine cones - I only sold one packet of them!)

 

And I may just have bought something for myself ....... well, could you have resisted this!  It's only about two inches tall - I think I will put it in a little box frame

 

Yesterday we went to Melrose, as we had a voucher for free entry to Melrose Abbey.  You can read about the Abbey here and here.  Although there was a chilly wind, the sun was shining and the sky was a brilliant blue.  Most of the photos will be appearing in future Shadow Shot Sundays, but here is a little taste

 

 

Back home, by the time I had tidied away the leftovers from the fair, I just had time to do a little bit of sewing.  You might have noticed that I didn't do my Farmer's Wife blocks last week, so I thought I had better get one done!

 

Then a quick fmq ....... a little bit of background filler

 

...... and back to basics with a little bit of stippling - I love this variegated thread

 

Now to the knitting update.  I have finished one sock .....

 

..... but haven't done the heel on the other one, as I knitted (yet) another pair of Cranford mitts.  I finished them on Friday morning, just in time to take them to patch'n'chat to give to my friend Jane - sorry, i forgot to take a photo!  I have also finally made a start to the Glimpse scarf.  Although it looks complicated, it is fairly simple to knit.  The blue edge at the top is the provisional cast-on.  This will be the centre of the scarf.  After knitting the first half, I'll pick up the stitches from the cast-on edge and knit the second half

 

To finish, two photos which I took on the way home yesterday.  The first one isn't too clear, as I was pointing the camera towards the sun .......

 

....... but in this second one you can see that it is a shepherdess, complete with crook and two sheepdogs!

 

Slipping and sliding!

I had ordered something online at the start of the month, and waited and waited for it to arrive.  When it didn't, I emailed the company.  When they didn't teply I emailed again, and when there was no response, yesterday I phoned.  Profuse apologies were offered, somehow my order just hadn't been dealt with.  So I was delighted this morning when the postman came to the door with an envelope to be signed for  .......

 

.... followed by an email apologising again and saying that the item in question had been sent out recorded delivery, and that hopefully by the time I read the email, the parcel would have been delivered.  So what was it that I was so anxious to receive?  A Supreme Slider, which I am confident will magically transform my efforts at free motion quilting into works of art

 

The pictures on the back of the package make it all look so simple ........ I will let you know on Monday how I get on with my first attempts!

 

Last night I knitted my little swatch for the Glimpse scarf.  It proved to be quite straightforward!

 

The hole was really quite easy to make - I haven't done a pattern like this before, so I'm looking forward to knitting the scarf, as it is very pretty

 

The front garden was alive with sparrows this morning, but one little blue tit was brave enough to use the peanut feeder

 

I love the bold markings on the male sparrows - they would make a good quilting design ....

 

It's Friday, so of course that means it is time for cake!!  Today we had Annette's lovely light cupcakes ....

 

...... topped with chocolate sprinkles - delicious

 

Over the weekend, as well as playing with using my new Slider, I will also be making some more things for my sales table for next Saturday (oops, starting to panic slightly!!)  I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne