frayed at the edge

Gold!

I don't like it when I get letters in plain brown envelopes ..... usually they contain a demand from the taxman, or an invitation from the NHS to have intrusive and painful things done to my female bits.  But the brown envelope this morning contained something much better - a promise to give me lots of money in return for my gold jewellery!

 

So did I whip off my gold bangles and remove my lovely hoop earrings .......of course not!  But I did keep the bag and envelope to use (I will turn the envelope inside out).

 

Remember the bowl of hyacinths which our visitors gave us some weeks ago.  Now that the hyacinths have finished flowering and have been put away to keep for next year, I have put the bowl in my bathroom.   Despite not having visited the house before, the visitors managed to pick a colour which goes well with the newly redecorated bathroom!

 

I am enjoying embroidering the little stitcheries for the quilt I am making for Anne.  I have now completed three and started the fourth (they look a bit wrinkled, as they have still to be pressed)

love delights in the little things

 

a loving kiss is carried all day

 

love is a chance to deliver happiness

 

love and joy are united as one

 

At patch'n'chat this afternoon, I finished the prep for the Baltimore block

 

Our teatime treat was Annette's wonderful cupcakes

 

It was hard to choose, but in the end I decided to have one with pink sprinkles!!

 

 I hope you all have a good weekend, love Anne

 

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!

 

 

 

 

Hi ho, hi ho .........

...... off to work I went!!  We headed off down the road to Longframlington this morning, so that I could deliver my samples to Anne.  She was very pleased with them, and produced the pile of stitcheries that she has done to be added to the quilt top.  While I was busy choosing fabrics for my next sample quilt top, Malcolm made his debut as assistant blog photographer, and took photos of a few of them

 

 

 

 

When Anne was stretched out her length cutting some wadding for me, she made the mistake of saying to Malcolm that it would make a good photo for the blog ....... so of course he snapped her (and me ....... oh dear, I must stand up straighter!!)

 

Laden down with all the fabrics, wadding and embroidery threads for the new project,* we went on down the road to Morpeth, and picked up Jennifer to go for lunch.  There was a slight delay on the way, as we had to stop at a level crossing ........

 

....... although I was expecting the train to hurtle past (this is the East Coast Main Line from Edinburgh to London) I still jumped when it appeared, and before I could take a sharper photo, it was gone!!

 

We went to one of our favourite places for lunch

 

While Malcolm was up at the counter placing our order, the people at the next table got their food.  Jennifer and I took one look at their chips, and decided we wanted some too!  I went to ask Malcolm to add a portion of chips to our order, but he was walking away from the counter ........ but, hooray, he had ordered chips (can you tell that a) I like chips, and b) very rarely eat them!) 

delicious chips with salt and vinegar

 

my lunch - poached egg and black pudding salad

 

Jennifer's - a wholemeal roll with coronation chicken

 

Malcolm's - a roll with roast beef and horseradish

 

Malcolm was under strict instructions to slow down/stop if we saw any lambs.  (Only, of course, if it was safe to do so!)

 

*By the time we got home, the light wasn't good enough to take photos of the new project, so I shall do that tomorrow!

Why did it rain all day?

Because I had an appointment at the hairdressers!  I should have been there last week, but I had to change the appointment because we had visitors - who sent us this photo of the two of us in the churchyard (or should that be three of us - the "village idiot" is behind us)  (note to self - the tails of a long cardigan hanging down below a jacket is NOT a good look!!)

 

As I spend some time at the hairdressers getting my colour done, I always take a book to read.  Today's book might not be intellectually challenging, but it is very enjoyable - and obviously has lots of knitting in it!

 

When the post arrived this morning, I was a bit puzzled to receive a small parcel fromLynne, which contained a lovely card and something wrapped in tissue paper ........

 

....... a lovely crochet mat which Lynne had made for me in return for my knitting mitts for her

 

When I was in the chemists this morning, I spotted this bottle of my favourite bubble bath .... marked down to half price

 

Excellent, because my other bottle is almost finished

 

Do you like the cacti on the bathroom windowsill?

 

And did you notice that they are actually candles?!

 

I went to the jewellers on Monday to get a new battery put in my watch ...... but it wasn't the battery that wasn't working, it was the watch.  The jeweller told me that if I wanted it repaired he would have to send it away and that it would probably cost £50.  I said I would think about it - although I really like the watch it's a lot of money to spend on it.  I do have another watch, but it is a tiny, dainty, delicate one, not really suitable for everyday wear.  However Malcolm offered to lend me his old watch - he has very slim wrists, so it wouldn't be too big.  There was just one drawback - it needed a new battery!  All I have to do now is put the date right!

 

I have almost finished the little house - last night I added some embroidery

 

I think I have now received photos of  most of the postcards from the swap, so I must get them organised to share with you next week.

I won't be here tomorrow as I will be out until very late - I'll tell you all about it on Monday (although of course I'll be back as usual on Saturday with Shadow Shot Sunday).  So, a day early, I will wish you all a good weekend, Anne

 

I'm back!!

Thank you for all your good wishes and suggestions for remedies!  I am still coughing a bit, but generally feeling much better (I can manage a whole day now without having a nap!).  On Wednesday, Malcolm took me out for lunch to cheer me up, and on the way home we stopped to check on the Jacob's ewes ........ wonderful, the lambs have started to arrive!

 

 

 

As ever, the goose and gander were protecting the flock!

 

Yesterday we had visitors, and after lunch we went for a walk.  Wonderful - more lambs have arrived!

 

 

 

This time it was the old donkey who was watching over the new arrivals

 

I had been making good progress with the quilt top for Anne - I will have to catch up at the weekend

 

 

I was delighted to be well enough to go to patch'n'chat this afternoon, as that meant I could enjoy the Friday cake.  This week it was the Ovaltine tray bake - it is so delicious there was silence in the room as we all tucked in!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

The picture of misery!

 

I'll be back in a day or two, when my nose stops running and I stop coughing!!

The old and the new

Malcolm and I hadn't been to the Woodhorn Museum before, and we had assumed it was just a collection of the mine buildings and machinery .... so we were amazed to see this visitor centre (Malcolm and Jennifer kindly supply the scale!)

 

They are looking at this

 

The plaque made us smile, as the word jobbie means something quite different for us!!

 

This memorial is for the men who died in the 1916 pit explosion

 

We will have to go back, to have a closer look at the various buildings and large pieces of machinery

 

After getting off to such a good start knitting the fairies, I seem to have got bogged down finishing them.  I am still fiddling about attaching the wings to wire to shape them, but I have made a start to doing Cobweb's hair.  I haven't stitched it in place yet, but I think it looks good!

 

As always I was at patch'n'chat this afternoon, and there were cheers when we went through for our afternoon cuppa, and found our favourite apple and sultana cake!

 

I hope you all have a good weekend - no doubt I will be chained to the sewing machine!!  Love Anne

 

Tradition

All over the world, Scots are celebrating the anniversary of the birth of our national poet, Robert Burns.  I was, of course, brought up on Burns, and at a very early age won this certificate (although for some reason I didn't recite a Burns poem!)

 

Some years later, I chose this book ........

 

..... when I won the English prize in 3rd year.  It was special to win this, as the prize was given by our family doctor, in memory of his son who had died when he was fifteen

 

The label was written by my latin teacher Wee Jimmy Russell, who had also taught my Dad, and the Rector of the school, W.C. Henderson (of course he was known as Flush) had been a young teacher in charge of the school cricket team that my Dad was captain of.

To celebrate Burns Night we had haggis for dinner ..... but this year we didn't have a traditional
haggis.  Instead we had these delicious haggis truffles ...

 

....... but we still had our traditional neeps and tatties with them

 

To finish, a little rant!  Our traditional way of life in Scotland is under threat because of the grandiose plans of Emperor King President Dear Leader Alex Salmond, who keeps claiming that he is speaking for all of us when he demands independence for Scotland.  Not so!!  The majority of us wish to stay in the United Kingdom, and find his 'nationalism' unacceptable.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, with the usual knitting, sewing and food related post!

 

Helping a good cause .......

....... and having fun!  As planned, I went to Kelso on Saturday morning to join in the Linus Day.  I took along the quilt I had almost finished, and by mid-afternoon it was all done and ready to hand over to Sandra, our wonderful Linus Lady

 

At our table, while I was hand stitching, Katy was machine quilting .......

 

......... Tricia was machine piecing

 

and Anne S was sorting out some small pieces into bundles ...... and we were all chatting, telling jokes and generally having a grand day out!

 

Last year Sandra distributed over 400 quilts and knitted blankets in The Borders, so hopefully we can improve on that figure this year.  I came home with a pile of fabrics which had been donated for making more quilts

 

I think I will start with these fabrics ...... the white/cream rectangles can be pieced to make backgrounds for applique and the patterned fabrics will make pretty sashing.  This is  a detail of the first quilt I made many years ago for Linus - so long ago that I didn't have a digital camera - by the time I had the film developed, I no longer had the quilt, so couldn't take a better photo!

 

Yesterday afternoon, I started my 'job' ....... but it scarcely seems like work doing something that I enjoy!  I have cut a vast amount of squares for the quilt top .......

 

...... and made a good start to one of the kits (isn't it just so cute!!)

 

I didn't do as much knitting as usual last week - I was out on Tuesday night and we were late home on Wednesday, so I had a good session this afternoon catching up with work on the fairies.  I had done some of the sewing up on the first fairy

 

The next stage involved a length of dowel and double-sided sticky tape .........

 

........ and some stuffing

 

Having wrapped the dowel in stuffing, I inserted it up through the body and into the head.  I then added more stuffing and sewed the remaining body seam

 

There is a bit of work to do on her face before I add her ears and hair.  I thought I had some wire suitable to use on the edges of the wings, but it was too fine.  Fortunately Malcolm produced some from the depths of his stash in the garage and I was able to make a start to shaping the wings

 

I have now received several photos of the wonderful postcards that have been made for the swap - remember, if you haven't yet sent yours, the deadline for posting them is the end of the month.  Cathy has now received my card, so I can show it to you.  It is a felted landscape, which I gave the title of Bluebell Wood at Sunset

 

You may have noticed that there were no photos of our usual Sunday walk ...... that's because just as we parked the car, it started to rain, and as it was also windy it really wasn't very pleasant, we went to the garden centre for a cuppa and scone instead!!

The final countdown!

Perhaps I should have amended the blackboard to say two and a quarter days to go!!

 

A Christmas card for all of you  ..........

 

 

I'm going to have a little break, but I'll be back on the second of January, with some exciting news about celebrating my third blogiversary!!