frayed at the edge

Special gifts

When Anna came to visit, she brought some lovely gifts for me.  First, this delicious bundle of Riley Blake fabrics

 

then there was a super pouch with a see-through front for keeping a small project in

 

it is made with fun map-of-New-York fabric

 

and what was inside the little spotty bag that you can see in the pouch ....... these little goodies!  Thank you again, Anna, for such delightful gifts!

 

then, last Wednesday, a large box arrived, which upon opening revealed these two smaller boxes

 

oh my, two boxes of deliciousness from the (world-) famous Betty's.  So who had sent this cornucopia of comestibles?  The delightful Liz, to say thank you for making the baby quilt.  Those of you who read her blog will know that she is now the proud Granny of a bouncing baby boy.  In the smaller box were four of these beauties, known as Fat Rascals

 

then in the bigger box there were : a box of teabags, a jar of strawberry conserve, a tea loaf ..... and four scones.  Being such kind and generous friends, we gave Anna two of the scones (spread with homemade lemon curd) to sustain her on her train journey  to London on Friday!  Thank you again, Liz, for such a wonderful foodie gift!

 

the next "gift", I bought for myself ......... one of those accidental little purchases.  I know, I know, another notebook, but just too cute to resist (and its purchase raises funds for the RNLI, so buying it was a good thing!!)

 

it's Friday, so that means cake!  Today we had cupcakes which Annette had baked using a new recipe - they were light and delicious, but I was very good and resisted eating a second one

 

we will be heading over to Berwick in the morning, and weather permitting, will of course be walking on the beach.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

It might not be a John Deere .......

....... but this tractor panel is going to make a wonderful quilt for a special little boy

 

before I tell you who is visiting us next week, I have to tell you who sadly won't be joining us.  My very special blogging buddy Meredithe was to visit us next week, along with her husband The Golfer, but sadly Meredithe's Darling Dad has recently passed away, so of course they have had to cancel their trip.  So when I get together next week with my other very special blogging friend Thimbleanna, I am sure we shall shed a tear and raise a glass to our wonderful absent friend.  We have a very packed schedule, so you will have to wait until next Friday to find out what we got up to ...... no doubt there will be sconnage along the way!

Have a great weekend, love Anne

 

Oh dear!

Still a bit poorly, but don't worry, Malcolm is taking very good care of me!  I just popped in to share this wonderful photo with you, which Stuart took recently.  He then had fun with a photo editing programme ....... fabulous!!

Just a quick hello!

I've just popped in for a moment, as I am feeling a little bit under the weather.  Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow!

A double post!

I just remembered last night that my next report was due on my Aunts' Quilt!  So I shall start with that, then do the big reveal of the studio.  Having trimmed the applique blocks, I assembled all the bits ready to sew together the main part of the quilt

 

I put the pieced blocks up on the design wall, in the order that they came off the pile

 

then rearranged them to give a better balance of the darker blocks

 

I added the applique blocks as they are shown on the pattern

 

then I added the corner and setting triangles

 

I was delighted that it all fitted together - I only had to make a slight alteration to one seam!

 

I don't like the outer border on the pattern, so I will be doing my own thing - I'll tell you all about it next week.  So now to the big reveal of the bottom room of the studio.  On Tuesday, I got started early and painted the walls, then in the afternoon when the paint was dry, I added a second coat.  Then on Wednesday and Thursday I sorted out the new arrangement of the furniture - it was such a struggle to lift down the top parts of the units, I decided to keep them all at floor level

 

I did have my various quilts hanging on two clothes rails, but they took up a lot of room, so yesterday we popped into Homebase and bought this basic pine shelf unit

 

in the past I have never folded my quilts, but I lined the shelves with acid-free tissue paper and placed the folded quilts on them.  The WIPs/UFOs are on the top shelf, then small quilts, larger quilts, and then quilts with bits on them

the painted cupboard looks good in the corner

 

the office corner needs a bit of reorganisation -  do you think I have too many notebooks? (can you have too many notebooks?)

 

Malcolm and I are very popular with our favourite charity shop in Hawick, as we have taken in vast quantities of craft books and supplies over the last few weeks.  But it means my shelving is no longer stuffed full.  But I shall be very good, and not buy more stuff simply to fill the spaces!

 

having sorted out the bottom room, I thought I ought to tidy up the top room, which had become somewhat messy

 

it's Friday, so of course that means cake!  Today we had Annette's delicious spiced fruit loaf

 

we aren't going over to Berwick until Sunday, so I might catch up on some sewing tomorrow.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

A little bit of bling!

Some weeks ago, I saw a little feature on a beautiful ring in a magazine.  I tore it out, eventually got round to looking at the website and even printed out the guide to ring sizes.  Then I forgot about it until last week, when I got myself organised, measured one of my rings on the guide, and ordered the ring.  On opening the envelope yesterday, I found this delightful tiny drawer

 

which pulled open to reveal this little thing of great beauty

 

a moonstone, a pearl, a peridot and a ruby, set in silver ....... I am so in love with my new ring!  If you too would like one, then click here.  Not only is the jewellery beautiful, it is very reasonably priced, and the service was excellent (and of course I should say here that no-one is paying me to say this!)

 

we popped over to Pirn House for lunch today.  Over the months we have seen this house on the way being built.  Malcolm was able to stop this morning so that I could take a photo ..... it looks fabulous, and will be stunning when it is finished

 

Malcolm had a very tasty ham and cheese toastie

 

when I look at the menu, all I can see is "French toast, bacon and maple syrup", so that is what I had (yet again!!)

 

on the way home, Malcolm spotted these fat woolly bundles ....... and good soul that he is, he turned and went back so that I could jump out to take photos.  I think these Jacob's sheep are in dire need of shearing!!

 

I was busy sewing this afternoon, but I'll tell you about that tomorrow.  On my way back across the garden at the end of the afternoon, I stopped to take some photos.  These clematis flowers have survived the heavy rain showers of the last few days

 

we have lots of teeny tiny olives

 

and some teeny tiny grapes

 

the poppies may have finished flowering, but the seedheads still add interest to the border

 

to finish - the bees were so busy buzzing round the lamb's ears, that this was the closest that I got to a photo of one!!

Sweet treats

On Saturday, I got out my tried and trusted preserves book.  I bought it some years ago in a charity shop, but it actually dates back to the 70s

 

then I got out my snazzy new scales (the old ones are now over in the flat) to weigh the blackcurrants

 

I gave them a good rinse

 

and stripped them from the stalks

 

I added some water, and left them to simmer for about 45 minutes

 

while they were simmering, I weighed the gooseberries (I just wanted to show off the snazzy scales again!)

 

after washing them, I simmered them with a little water, then pressed them through a sieve

 

there then followed an awful lot of stirring ...... and stirring ...... and even more stirring

 

but it was worth to produce all these jars of delicious loveliness

 

by the time the curd was made, the blackcurrants were ready to go into the jelly bag to drip through

 

on Sunday morning, I transferred the juice to a jug and left it in the fridge while we went over to Berwick, then this afternoon I put it in a large pyrex bowl with some jam sugar and zapped it until it reached setting point.  It produced two jars of luscious jelly

 

although I think the set may be just a little bit on the firm side ........

 

while I was busy in the kitchen on Saturday, Malcolm was cutting to size the two tops that I bought for the chest of drawers and the right hand unit

 

I bought these four box shelves some time ago in a charity shop, but hadn't yet used them.  I was pleased to find that my cork board (made by Malcolm) fitted exactly in between them

 

we found these white box shelves half-price lasst week, and I already had the long shelf, so it was a low-budget job to give me display space for my tins

 

and there was room beside the tv for my old Singer sewing machine 

 

to finish ...... the gooseberry curd is a little bit runny, but it was delicious for pudding on Sunday, with meringue and a little taste of leftover strawberry and champagne cream!!

When we arrived at the flat ........

........ late this afternoon, there were so many swans (and a few geese) in the dock, that I had to take three photos to include all of them!

 

we came over today because of this ......

 

...... so hopefully I will have lots of photos to share with you tomorrow.  But now, as promised, the progress report on the studio.  Having finished the painting on Tuesday, yesterday I set about putting the furniture into its new arrangement.  I started with the two main units on the back wall.  I bought these some years ago from a wool shop which closed, and they are provide lots of storage space

 

then to the left of them I put my cd/dvd storage units, and my old pine chest of drawers.  I will be able to put my quilting hoops in the spaces

 

on the facing wall, I put the big storage unit in the corner, and the bookcase (yes, it's a Billy bookcase from Ikea!) beside it

 

my plan was for Malcolm to link the two with shelves, but I realised that the shelves could only be as deep as the bookcase, which wasn't deep enough for the storage boxes I planned to put on them.  So I turned the bookcase sideways on - much better

 

I put the tables back in the centre of the room, and by the end of the afternoon, the studio looked like this, as seen from the four corners

 

I have sorted out my (many, many) magazines.  I have kept my favourite Australian, American and Spanish ones (and a few British ones) but I am parting company with the rest.  I gave Maureen a big pile on Tuesday - once she has read them, she will pass them on to the ladies in the Church sewing group that she goes to.  Then I gave another pile to my Lovely Neighbour (the shoe shop owner) - she will pass them on to her Mum.  A third pile went to a charity shop in Hawick this morning, and there is one pile left.  As I restore all my fabrics, threads and craft items to the storage units, I plan to be equally ruthless, and only keep the things I know I will use - the rest can go to the same charity shop (Shelter) that the magazines went to, as I know they will raise much needed money for homeless people.  Some of the stuff was bought in charity shops, so it will be raising money twice!

 

to finish, I thought you might like to see what we had for lunch in the garden centre in Kelso.  We shared a delicious egg mayo and bacon sandwich, and a small bowl of chips

 

The phantom stone-stacker .......

........ has been busy again, this time on Cheswick Sands, one of the biggest beaches in Northumberland.  We had a long walk on the beach on Saturday, and I enjoyed assembling another little stone stack

 

looking to the north from the beach, you can see Berwick Lighthouse in the (blurry) distance

 

and to the south you can see the castle on Holy Island

 

some very hardy souls were braving the cold waters of the North Sea

 

this dog was having a great time, standing in the water and waiting for big waves to come crashing down on him!

 

we were rather worried that these stones beats would come to life ......

 

as usual, while Malcolm was striding out meandering along, I was lagging behind taking photos

 

as we walked back through the dunes to the car, I spotted this sign ......... 

I still have lots of photos from the weekend - maybe I'll be able to include them later in the week!  I was home earlier than expected from my day out with Maureen, so we were able to get on with the second coat of paint in the studio

 

 

when we were buying the paint last week, I spotted this bag to put the roller in - it was a lot easier than wrapping it up in yards of clingfilm!

 

to finish ...... do you remember some weeks ago I bought a tray of "living salad" for £1 from Lidl, and planted them out in our vegetable trough?  Well ....... look at them now!!

Memory lane : 7

Every year, for our first three years, we were given a certificate if we gained over a certain average percentage in the two lots of class exams.  I can still remember swatting for later exams on a Sunday afternoon, listening to the late John Peel on the new Radio One, on my tranny (transistor radio, not, as it now means, transvestite!) ...... he introduced me to the wonderful songs of Leonard Cohen.  This is my first certificate, signed by all my teachers.  I can recall some of them quite clearly, others I can't picture at all