frayed at the edge

Making a splash

Fortunately on Friday I had the camera handy when this male blackbird decided to have a bath.  He had a very good splash, before flying off

 

 

 

More at home in the water is this heron, which we saw yesterday morning when we went for a walk along the river in Jedburgh

 

As always after our walk we went for a cuppa.  We thought we would try Border Meringues, as it is now open on a Sunday

 

They are famous for all sorts of cakes, not just meringues.  I have tasted some of them before, when Annette has served them at patch'n'chat, when she has been too busy to bake.  The coffee shop is lovely, light and airy, and the cakes are fabuous.  I succumbed to a slice of lemon meringue pie

 

and Malcolm had a slice of Border Tart (needless to say after all that cake, we didn't have any lunch!)

 

We also had a tiny meringue each, which came with our drinks - crisp on the outside, chewy in the middle - perfect!!

 

Back home, I had a busy afternoon, quilting the frog quilt and putting the binding on

 

 

As you can see from the first photo, I had still to stitch down the binding on the back, so I pinned a corner to let you see what it looks like  - it also shows you the pretty variegated thread

 

I had another piece of the frog fabric, but I didn't have another fleece, so I had a look in my stash and found this brushed cotton sheet, one of several that I bought half-price in a sale some years ago, knowing that I would use them eventually for quilt backs!!

 

I made a start to the quilting yesterday, then finished it this afternoon. I used quite a thick polyester wadding, so you can see that the quilting is much more defined

 

 

To finish - I was tempted to indulge in a spot of dognapping yesterday - it was hard to resist the sad expression of this dog patiently waiting for its owners at Border Meringues!!

 

 

 

Stop splashing!

This afternoon, instead of going out to the studio to sew, I stayed in the lounge, so that I could take some photos of the birds in the garden.  I was immediately rewarded with this lovely photo of the sparrow on the rim of the birdbath looking most disgruntled at being splashed!

 

This great tit was tucking into the peanuts .......

 

........ while the sparrow enjoyed the seeds

 

They were joined by a big fat pigeon

 

But the pigeon is small compared to the heron, which swooped in to land on the River Slitrig this morning .........

 

.....before stalking along the edge to look for a tasty fish

 

Some more postcards .......

Lisa

 

Mary Ann

Mary Ann

 

Pat

Pat

 

To finish, a silly photo .......

Stop standing on my head!!

Just when it was all going well .......

I've been working hard on the quilt top, and this morning I finished the first phase of putting on the sashing, which gave me three piles sitting on the work table

 

Once I had sewn all the strips and pressed them, I put them up on the design wall,  except for one strip, which there wasn't room for

 

I then took the leftover strip, and the top one from the wall and stitched them together

 

oh no  ........ I had stitched two similar strips together, so then had to unpick them.  When I then went to put them in the correct order on the wall. I kept ending up with two similar squares together, and every time I changed them, I still couldn't get the arrangement correct.  In the end, I took the strips into the house and enlisted Malcolm's help.  Of course he at first said how could I have got them muddled, it was surely easy to put them in order - but he sooon found that it isn't as easy as it looks!  However we eventually sorted it all out, and the strips are now labelled, ready to be stitched together.

In the evenings, I have been working on the Blankit - it is looking good

 

It has been cold for the last few days, and we have had lots of birds visiting the garden

 

 

 

 

Sitting pretty

I have been doing more work on Cobweb - although as I wasn't happy with her wings, I ended up frogging them, and will knit a new set.  But she was quite happy to pose for photos ......

 

....... especially as she has lovely purple flowers in her hair!

 

Yesterday morning we went to Melrose for a walk along the river.  Although it was cold, with a little snow on the ground, it was bright, and it was good to get out and stretch my legs after spending rather a lot of time asleep on the couch last week!

Don't worry, Malcolm hasn't started carrying a manbag, it's my camera bag, and the other bag has the Sunday papers in it

 

It took several goes to capture this crow, as it kept turning its head

 

On the way back into town, in search of a hot drink, we came across these shaggy beauties

 

I enjoyed my hot chocolate, while Malcolm declared his americano to be excellent

 

The Post Office building in Melrose is very stylish .......

 

....... the ER over the door refers to Edward VII, not Queen Elizabeth, who is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year

 

I saw this little knitting sheep in a cake decorating shop window ........ if the shop had been open I think I would have bought it!

 

Another bit of fun to finish - someone in this furniture shop has come up with eye-catching signs!!

 

Seeing squares, not spots!

Usually you talk about seeing spots before your eyes, but after a serious amount of sewing today, I'm seeing squares!  This morning I laid out all the squares that I had cut on Sunday, arranging the piles in pairs

 

As always when I have repetitive machining to do, I chain pieced the squares, feeding in the next pair without cutting the thread

 

Once I had stitched one of each pair together, I moved the top right hand pile to the bottom and moved the others up, to change the pairings.  I kept doing this until I was about halfway through the pile ........

 

Then I rearranged the piles, pairing the left hand piles together followed by the right hand piles.  This ensured that I had a good mix of pairs.  The next step was to press all the pairs, and then sew them together in twos, ending with a large pile of blocks

 

By the time I had finished sewing, it was just about time to head into the house to make the dinner, so I pressed a few of the blocks and popped them on the design wall to let you see how they look (one of these days I must invest in a 'daylight' fluorescent striplight, so the colours are true!!)

 

Having taken time to make sure that my seams were neatly lined up ...... I remembered that all the centres will be covered with applique circles!!

 

I was distracted this morning by a blackbird who stood for some time with his back to me - but eventually he turned round enough for me to take a photo of him - you can see where the end of his beak is dirty, from where he had been poking in the mud

 

As I was crossing the garden at the end of the afternoon, a little gleam of colour caught my eye ...... a bright green shoot amongst the dead foliage on the clematis

 

Recently, Pat asked me where my studio is, as I sometimes mention going out to/being out in the studio.  It isn't that far away, it's at the end of the back garden.  This is the back of the house, with the back door on the left .....

 

...... if you go past the summerhouse, you'll find the wooden storm doors to the studio (inside the wooden doors are glass French doors) ......

 

 I still can't leave comments on Blogger blogs which have word verification - no matter how many times I correctly type in the word, I am told I have typed it wrongly and am given another one.  It is so frustrating!  However, I am still reading all my favourites, and if I could leave a comment, I would of course say that the posts were fascinating/interesting/moving/amusing (delete as applicable!!)

 

ps - Malcolm has pneumonia pleurisy flu a bad cold and has spent the day with his feet up, reading the paper, doing the crossword, watching tv.  He has now given it to me - do you think I'll get to spend tomorrow in a similar fashion??!!

900 posts .......

....... and I still haven't run out of things to say!!  When I started the blog, I never thought I would still be writing it three years later and that so many people all round the world would read it.  Thank you to everyone for reading and commenting - there wouldn't be much point in doing it if it wasn't for you!

As always for a Monday, I have lots of photos, all clamouring 'use me, use me, I want to be in the blog'.  So here goes.......

after the chocolate bunnies, mint chocolate lambs - yum, yum

 

the new curtains, looking good

 

I could see this from the back door of the studio - I want one!

 

the frosty start to yesterday's walk

 

sorry Malcolm, I couldn't squeeze this wood pile into the camera bag!

 

Malcolm provides the scale for this very old tree

 

not snow, but heavy frost in the garden this morning

 

icicles dripping from the sill of my (very dirty) car

 

the tit has its feather fluffed up to keep warm

 

this horse doesn't look very happy

 

and this one looks pretty miserable too

 

I'll keep the knitting update for tomorrow, as there are several photos to show you. 

It will be Burns' Night on the 25th, so one of the local butchers has an eye-catching sign in front of the shop, to remind folk to buy their haggis

 

Refreshed, revived.......

....... and raring to go!!  I amazed myself at managing to go without blogging for so many days - but now I am looking forward to another year of writing drivel entertaining and informative posts!  (perhaps I should make a New Year's resolution to use fewer exclamation marks!!)  As well as not blogging, I have also not done any knitting ...... over the next few days I will have a browse through all the patterns I have on my to-do list, and decide what to do next.  Perhaps it will be something from this wonderful book that Stuart and Alison gave me

 

Both Alison and I fancy these flip-top mitts

 

But sneaking to the front of the queue could be Cobweb, the Dark Fairy .......

 

....... from this wonderful book, which Malcolm gave me

 

While I am making up my mind, I can enjoy a cuppa in my pretty new mug, which was also one of Malcolm's presents

 

While having a break from my normal round of sewing and knitting, I haven't been completely idle!  I finished this cross-stitch set of needlecase, pin cushion and scissor fob, which I think I started this time last year, then lost interest in

 

I found some blocks that I had made quite a long time ago ...... the fabric that I had was enough to make 48 blocks, but I like square quilts (don't know why, I just do) so I put the blocks aside, intending to make an applique block to put in the centre.  However, having found them in the UFO pile, I decided to be sensible and just make them up into a rectangular quilt

 

Oh dear - did you spot the mistake ...... the blocks in the top left corner are wrong - not only are there two similar blocks together, but there are two blocks turned the wrong way.  A quick unpick and restitch, and all was well.  Now I just need to add an outer border and it will be ready to quilt

 

Next Sunday is my third blogging anniversary (and amazingly this is post number 888!!).  Instead of a giveaway, I have decided to organise a swap to celebrate.  I know that at this time of year we are all a bit skint and a bit weary of crafting after the last minute rush to finish Christmas gifts, so it is going to be a very inexpensive and simple swap, so I hope lots of you will sign up for it ..... come back tomorrow to find out more.

 

To finish, I have some bird photos that I took at the garden centre this morning - we had popped in for a cuppa to get warm after a very chilly, but nonetheless enjoyable, walk

 

 

 

 

A bit draughty!

I had my hair cut this afternoon, so it is feeling a little bit draughty - even if I did only have about half an inch cut off!  I have had a somewhat lazy day - my usual Wednesday morning soak in the bath with a mug of hot chocolate and my book, then lunch at the garden centre before the hairdressers (macaroni cheese, one of my favourite lunches when I am out)

 

The temperature has gone up quite a bit today, so I am sure these little points of daffodils in the front garden will be much happier, after the recent freezing temperatures

 

When I was in the kitchen last night, Malcolm shouted to me to come through to the hall with the camera.  Why?  Because there was a very, very big spider sitting there looking menacing (I took the photo with flash, so the colours are washed out - the carpet is actually green)

 

I have been a bit disorganised with the blog this week ....... I still have photos from the weekend to show you!  I have started another piece on the embellisher - this time just doing a random, abstract sort of design, using up the bits left from the landscape

 

Like the landscape, it makes quite a difference to put it in a mount

 

I usually watch tv in the studio, but for a change at the weekend I listened to some music

 

 

This is the fabric I bought last Thursday when Lorraine and I went to Anne's new shop - it shows how much I like it that I bought it despite there being cats on two of the pieces!

 

Anne popped my purchases into this super carrier bag .....

 

...... the Christmas tree is made with cute snowman fabric

 

Over the last few weeks, because of all the fmq that has been going on, I have neglected my Baltimore blocks, so on Sunday I made a start on the prep for the next block

 

Well, I think that's me all caught up on things!

Drip, drip, drip

Hooray, the snow has almost gone, with the promise of much milder weather for the rest of the week.  All day there has been a constant drip, drip as the snow melts, with the occasional rumble as another lot slides off the roof.  But it did look pretty when we went out for a walk yesterday morning at Harestanes

 

 

 

We were about to leave the car park when a van arrived, a couple got out and unloaded four beautiful dogs - according to the writing on the van they are a sled dog team

 

 

We popped into the Old Melrose Tearoom for a cuppa ........

 

...... and to check out the newly opened farm shop.  It didn't look much from the ouside, with a pile of old doors sitting in front of the window

 

But what a delight when we went in!!  The shop is in the old dairy, and they have retained the old white tiles, giving the shop a lovely light, airy look

 

Considering that it has only been open for a week, the shop was well stocked with all sorts of goodies - a lot of it local.  They have plans to stock locally grown vegetables and meat from local farms.  Of course we bought something ........ a wedge of local cheese

 

....... and some fabulous rocky road marshmallows (which was made in Edinburgh, so hadn't travelled too far!)

 

I was able to capture some wonderful views on the way to the Tearoom

 

 

 

and more on the way home

 

 

 

On Saturday afternoon, when I opened the back doors of the studio, I could here noises from the neighbour's stable next door

 

The horse was having a good huff and puff and snort - I guess it didn't like being shut in

 

Another animal photo to finish with - this is one of the neighbour's cats, perched on a fencepost

 

Not so co-operative!

It's just as well that Lorraine and I had our day out yesterday, as this was the scene that greeted me this morning

 

The sky was so leaden and full of snow that the view looked black and white

 

Despite the heavy snow ......

 

...... the birds were still busy feeding - you can see snow on the tit's tail

 

The poor robin was not his usual chirpy self

 

But these two sparrows looked content to sit in the snow covered bush

 

 

The sheep just kept on eating!

 

 

Now for some colour!  One of the tiny orchids had just started to flower - you can see the much smaller flower on the left, compared to the large flowers of the other one

 

Because of the weather, I missed this afternoon's patch'n'chat, so, sorry, but there is no Friday cake to drool over!  I also didn't manage to take a better photo of the fabric I bought yesterday, as the light was so poor all day. 

 This is the  last of the wallhangings - I know you have seen the tree several times, but this is to show that it is finished!

 

I spent quite a lot of time this afternoon sorting through a large batch of my many, many photos, putting them into folders and transferring them to my external hard drive for safe keeping.  While I was busy, Malcolm pointed out the colour in the sky - I was so lazy I simply lifted the camera and pointed it out of the window!

 

 

 

There are changes afoot for Shadow Shot Sunday - I should be able to tell you in tomorrow's post what is happening, when I will also show you the last of the photos from Melrose Abbey.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne