frayed at the edge

Turning over a new leaf

I nipped out to the studio this afternoon to do some work on Lilly Pilly, before I had to attend to my domestic duties ........ doing a large basket of ironing and making chicken curry with spicy potatoes for dinner.  I got Malcolm to hold the bottom edge of the background fabric while I eased out the paper pattern, taking care not to disturb the layout of the trunk and branches.  I then covered it with non stick parchment ........

 

........ and bonded the pieces in place

 

I then numbered the first thirty leaves, and traced them on to bondaweb, using the leftovers from cutting out the trunk and branches

 

I laid out the ten fabrics for the leaves on the heatproof covering, and ironed three leaves on to each one.  There then followed the same process of putting the pattern sheet underneath as a guide to placing the leaves, then Malcolm was summoned again to hold the background fabric in place while I carefully removed the pattern sheet.  A quick iron with the non stick parchment, and the first thirty leaves were in place (only another 120 to go!!)

 

I have been watching my box set of "Lost" while in the studio

 

We watched it when it was on tv, and this is the second time I have watched the DVDs ...... and I have to say I am still lost as to what it is all about!!  But I do know that I much prefer bad boy Sawyer (played by the delicious Josh Holloway) to goody-goody Doctor Jack!

 

Heading back into the house, I paused to take a photo of our new clematis, which is flowering prettily

Did you hear .....

..... the squeals of anguish coming from the studio late this afternoon?  I had finished sewing for the day, put the quilt up on the design wall, taken photos, tidied up, had one last look at the quilt before I went back to the house ....... and no no no no ......

But to start at the beginning of the latest progress of the quilt.  Havinng finished eleven of the twelve stitcheries ( and almost finished the last one), the next job was to trim them to size, making sure the stitching was centred

 

I then added them to the design wall, first of all just putting them in the spaces as I trimmed them

 

But then I consulted the pattern, and ended up with a much more balanced distribution

 

I then stitched the blocks together in rows, then stitched the rows together

 

When I went out to the studio this morning, I thought it wouldn't take me long to add the three outer borders.  WRONG!!  First I added the plain border and the flying geese to the top and bottom.  This was a slow process, making sure I didn't cut off any of the points (this photo shows my second attempt, as I had stitched the bottom row of geese on facing the wrong way, as they are supposed to fly clockwise round the quilt)

 

I then had to stitch short strips and squares to the other two sets of flying geese, as well as the plain inner border, before adding them.  Now, having sewn one lot on the wrong way, you would think that I would have been extra careful to get the second lot correct.  But not only are the right hand ones going the wrong way ....

 

...... I didn't notice when I took that photo, and still didn't notice when I put a couple of strips of the outer border in place and took this photo

 

However, apart from the naughty geese flying the wrong way, I am delighted with how it looks.  The same cannot be said for today's weather!!  We didn't really take the forecasters seriously when they said we would have snow, thinking we would maybe see a few flakes ...... another WRONG!  This was the view through the lounge window this morning

 

 

And this was from the bedroom window - that's my car windscreen, covered with snow, in the background

 

Then this was the view at tea time

 

 

However, the roads are clear, and it is unlikely the snow will linger.  To end on a cheerier note, I captured the sparrows having fun in the birdbath yesterday evening

 

 

 

 

 

Bumblebee

Despite several attempts, this was the best I could do to capture a big fat bumblebee which was buzzing about the garden this afternoon

 

Over the last two severe winters, we lost two rosemary plants, but as you can see, this one is flourishing.  It looks a bit of a funny colour - it's because that part of the garden was in deep shadow

 

The lupin was also in the shade ......

 

....  unlike the pot of herbs, which are growing well already, having survived the winter

 

Also basking in the late afternoon sun was the Linus quilt, which I had just finished

 

You know I like getting parcels, so you can imagine my delight when not one, not two .... ok, five boxes were delivered yesterday

 

Lots of lovely jam jars and bottles - and spotty labels to match!

 

I had taken this photo of the celeriac I was about to peel and chop to make mash to have with last night's dinner - then I forgot to take a photo when I dished up, to show how something so strange looking ends up being something very tasty!

Little sparrow, little sparrow*

I love to see you on the feeders

 

I enjoy seeing you using the birdbath

 

I don't mind when your friends, big and small, call in to visit you

 

I'll even wait patiently to take photos when you and your entire family sit in the hawthorn tree and ignore me

 

But please, little sparrow, will you not make such a din outside the bedroom window at 5.30am and wake me up!!

 

I was still stitching away on the latest Baltimore block this afternoon at patch'n'chat ....... this block has an awful lot of pieces!

 

This afternoon's cake was the wonderful chocolate sponge that just floats off the plate and melts in the mouth

 

Taking bird photos requires a lot of patience - for every usable photo, there are several like these!!

 

I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

 

*Do all you Dolly Parton fans now have the song playing in your heads!!??

 

 

A frustrating day

I cleared the work tables this morning of the accumulated clutter (I'm very tidy in the house, but not in the studio!) to make room to layer up the latest Linus quilt

 

Several dozen pins later it was ready to quilt

 

I changed the free motion foot, as the large plastic one is better for quilting when I use fleece on the back of a quilt (I had to get the instruction book out, as I couldn't remember how to change it .... the tiny screw on the underneath  releases the bottom bit of the foot)

 

I thought I would try this thread, which I have had in my stash for some years

 

Although it is a thicker thread, the label says it is great for machine quilting - but unfortunately it wasn't great when I tried a sample.  The thread has a lot of slubs, and just wouldn't run smoothly through the needle.    So I changed to my everyday quilting thread and ........the thread broke, the thread jammed, the thread just wouldn't behave!  There is a lot of debate among quilters as to whether it is the fault of the thread, the machine or the quilter when it all goes wrong.  After many, many years sewing, and having had several brands of machines and many brands of thread, I would say it is probably a mixture of all three.  After some tedious unpicking, I switched to the walking foot, quilting the centre panel with a sort of scallop-shaped stitch

 

and using straight line quilting to create a secondary pattern of squares in the middle of the triangles.  I haven't decided how to quilt the other borders yet!

 

Malcolm in the meantime was having a more successful afternoon, cutting both the back grass ......

 

........ and the front one

 

He also had a successful morning - finding this fleece reduced in Asda to a mere £2.50!!  It will provide backing for two small quilts for Linus

 

ps - it's not the photo that's fuzzy, it's the fleece!!

Please scrub my back!

These photos of the robin were taken hurriedly through the window as it was getting dark  yesterday  - so not ideal conditions!

 

I am rushing to get this post done, as this is my night for going to Abbey Quilters.  When I joined in the autumn, I signed up to do a quilt, with part of the instructions being given to us each month.  Despite my best intentions, I hadn't yet started mine, so I thought I had better make an effort.  I choose this bright fabric for the centre

 

then picked out this dark patterned fabric and calico to make the first border

 

having marked the diagonal lines on the calico, I sewed a seam on either side of the lines, then cut the squares apart, not only on the diagonal lines, but also on the centre lines

 

this gave me lots of units like this

 

which I then sewed in groups of four to make pinwheel blocks.  But then, when I went to trim the squares .... a little problem - they were much bigger than the pattern said

 

You can see from this photo the before and after sizes.  So what went wrong?  I had missed the bit in the instructions which said to trim the units before I sewed them together in fours.  However, they turned out ok in the end!

 

I stitched them into rows, then added them to the centre panel (I forgot to take a photo of this stage!)  Then I read the next part of the instructions - oh dear, cut strips, cut squares blah blah - so as you can see I simple added a plain black border ......

 

..... then a fun chicken border

 

...... and finally a red border

 

So ....... not quite what I had intended when I started, but I am pleased with how it turned out!

Soaking up the sun

As usual we went for a walk yesterday morning, choosing Melrose for a stroll along the river.  Last time we were there, there was snow on the ground, but yesterday was glorious!  Although I think perhaps these fishermen would have felt it a bit chilly round their nether regions, standing in the waters of the River Tweed

 

For a change, we crossed the footbridge and walked along the far bank

 

The air was full of the scent of wild garlic, which grows in profusion along the bank and under the trees

 

These shaggy ponies are usually in a field over beside the Abbey ...... they look quite content in their new surroundings

 

There were signs of spring everywhere

On our way to have a cuppa after the walk, of course I had to pause to take a photo of the Abbey

 

Having worked up an appetite after a longer-than-usual walk, we decided to have an early lunch ...... the bacon rolls were delicious!

 

Perhaps I should have saved a bit to give to this dog, which watched us with big sad eyes as we walked past, on our way back to the car

 

One last pause, to take a photo of this quirky chimney

 

As well as embroidering the stitcheries for Anne's quilt, I have also been busy in the studio doing the piecing.  This is as far as I can go until the stitcheries are finished

 

When I was looking for something to watch on tv, I found this programme

 

You might think they are somewhat mad, capturing large alligators, but there is a lot of money to be made!

 

I learned from the programme that alligators never stop growing - I wouldn't want to face a little one, never mind some of the huge ones the brothers deal with

 

It was so warm yesterday afternoon, we had our cuppa in the garden.  I fetched the camera and set the timer to take a photo of us, Malcolm with his coffee and me with my hot chocolate ......

not a very good photo, let's try again

 

now you can't see Malcolm's face and I've somehow acquired several chins!!

 

A head for heights

For someone who doesn't even like standing on a chair, being this high would be a nightmare!!  We couldn't see what the workmen were doing to this building in the middle of the High Street ..... and it was giving me shivers seeing them so far off the ground

 

Back home, there were more signs in the garden that spring is just about here

forsythia

 

clematis

 

honeysuckle

 

Malcolm has started work on changing this border, building a small drystone wall at the front

 

In the front garden, the sparrows were refusing to pose on the feeders ......

 

But these other birds were more obliging!

 

 

 

 

Still knitting!

You might have noticed that there hasn't been much knitting mentioned recently ....... because I haven't been doing very much!  One reason is all the sewing I have been doing for Anne, but the other reason is that I just lost my enthusiasm for a few weeks.  I also haven't been at knit'n'natter this year - again there are two reasons - first, my friend Lorraine that I car shared with was away for several weeks (she went away a granny and came back a great granny!!) and second with the ever-increasing cost of fuel, I have been using the car a bit less.  However Lorrainre and I decided to meet somewhere nearer, so today we had our first get together ....... and of course cake was involved!  A very delicious orange cream sponge

 

When I was sorting out some knitting yesterday to take with me today, I realised that I hadn't shown you this book, which Jennifer gave me recently

 

There are so many lovely dolls, it was hard to decide what to knit first.  I finally narrowed it down to these two - they have the same basic body, so once I have done that I can choose which one ...... but of course the Johnny Depp lookalike is very appealing!!

 

 

I have to admit that there was much more nattering than knitting, and I am too embarrassed to show you the little bit that I did!!  When I got home, the front garden was full of birds, so while Malcolm made the dinner (sausages and mash with onion and mushroom gravy - delicious) I took these photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

The robin isn't always so good at posing ...... this is just one of the many photos in which it hopped off just as I snapped!

 

Has spring sprung?

Looking round the garden this morning, it would certainly seem so!  First in the front garden

the hawthorn hedge

 

flowering currant

 

lupin

 

poppy

 

Then in the back garden (oops, I've forgotten the names of the first two plants)

 

 

The helebore suddenly has several flowers

 

 

It's not just the plants that think spring has arrived - the first sighting of a greenfly!

 

This tiny seedling must have grown from a seed from one of the cones that I has put in this large  pot

 

When we were in Hawick this morning, we popped into the Shelter charity shop ....... I was doing my bit both for charity and the environment by handing in an empty printer cartridge.  We had a browse, and found these little books.  They are beautifully produced, and have excellent photos of lots of wildflowers - as they were only 50 pence each, I splashed out and bought all three!!

 

After lunch, I started work onn my next sample for Anne.  The beautiful fabrics ......

 

...... the patterns for twelve stitcheries

 

and the embroidery threads

 

will (eventually!) make this quilt

 

I started by cutting the squares of fabric, and the squares of thin wadding, for the stitcheries, then used the iron-on transfers - a quick and easy way to mark the fabric.  Next I tacked the wadding on to the back of the first stitchery

 

The last job of the afternoon was to wind the threads on to card bobbins and select some embroidery needles

 

I'll start sewing later, once I've had a browse through my favourite blogs!!