frayed at the edge

A quick and easy quilt!

Friends of Stuart and Alison have recently become parents to a gorgeous baby girl, so of course I offered to make a quilt.  The brief ...... anything pink and with unicorns!

 

I had a look in my baskets of wadding leftovers, but there wasn't a big enough piece ........

 

which meant I had to cut a piece from this roll of wadding, which I bought recently at The Quilt Shop.  I use so much wadding it made sense to invest in a whole roll of it, as it works out cheaper than buying it by the yard ......... and Sue had a special deal on it!

 

I started by trimming of the selvedge from the unicorn fabric

 

then folding the fabric diagonally - after trimming off the excess strip on the right, I was left with a square metre of fabric

 

the easiest way to measure the wadding was to wrap the fabric round it!

 

I didn't trim the backing fabric, as it should be bigger than the quilt top, so I pressed it well and taped it to the table

 

I also gave the wadding a light press, as it was slightly wrinkled  - only do this to cotton wadding, never do it to polyester wadding!  Then having smoothed it out over the backing fabric

 

I pressed the unicorn fabric and smoothed it on top of the wadding, ready to pin the layers together.  This is the tedious bit, but it is worth making the effort to use a lot of pins to keep the sandwich stable while you quilt it

 

the next stage was to choose the thread - just as I was auditioning three threads, Malcolm came up the stairs into the Attic, and together we agreed on the turquoise thread on the left

 

I made up a little sandwich to see how the stitching would look - this was worth doing, as the top thread was showing on the back and I had to adjust the tension to get the balance right

 

I used a large, lazy, loopy meander

 

I found fabric for the binding in my stash

 

we came up to the flat this morning, so while Malcolm went out for a walk this afternoon, I sat and hand stitched the binding on the back

 

a simple, quick way to make a baby quilt

 

when Malcolm came back from his walk, he produced this bag of deliciousness!

 

and of course we have to have a bit of sconnage on a Friday ....... this cheesy delight was still warm from the oven!

 

tomorrow we are heading north over the Border, to visit Stuart and Alison, and then on our way home on Sunday we are going to pop into the Autumn Quilt Show at Ingliston (I may need to lie down in a darkened room on Monday after such a bust weekend!)  I hope you have a great weekend, love Anne

 

 

A glorious sunrise!

Regular readers know that on weekdays I leap jump stumble out of bed at 6.20, to engage with the implements of torture in my efforts to get fit (which begs the question, WHEN will I actually get fit??!!).  But there are advantages to getting up that early .......

 

...... when you can see spectacular sunrises from the kitchen window!

 

but there are disadvantages, when you encounter very large spiders in the hall

 

as usual for a Wednesday morning, I headed off down the A1 to The Quilt Shop in Morpeth.  Sue was busy folding fat quarters

 

with this pile of luscious new fabrics waiting their turn

 

I spotted this one at the bottom of the pile - it is much more blue than it looks in the photo, very cute

 

this piece of fabric may look as if it has been attacked by moths, but the holes are where Ros has fussy cut hexagons

 

her hexies are tiny, about the size of a fingernail

 

Ros brought me a squash and a courgette from her garden

 

and in return I gave her a bag of plums from our garden .......

 

left over after I made plum chutney

 

and plum jam

 

I have also made rather a lot of strawberry jam, which is my all-time favourite homemade jam

 

as we were away at the start of the month, I almost forgot about sharing the calendars with you.  As a dedicated disliker (spellcheck says that isn't a word!!) of cats, of course I like this month's page on the kitchen calendar

 

and out in the attic, we have a fine specimen of a young man on the quilting calendar

 

but sorry ladies, he is already taken!!

Making snowmen!

No, don't worry, winter hasn't arrived early!  Last Tuesday saw me trundling down the road to The Quilt Shop, to teach the second part of the snowman cushion.  Last month we had stitched our wonky borders, so now we were ready to appliqué the snowman

 

when Jill, who was looking after the shop for Sue the day of the first class, saw the cushion, she suggested doing one with a night time scene, so when I was sorting out a class sample, that's what I did.  I used a navy fabric for the background, white for the bottom border to look like snow, then a starry sky round the other three sides

 

the patterns for the appliqué pieces - they are reversed, so that the appliqué ends up the right way round

 

I traced all the pieces on to fusible web

 

then cut them out and fused them on to the wrong side of the appropriate fabrics

 

the pieces cut out, ready to fuse to the background

 

did you notice that his shoes changed colour ........ the black ones didn't show against the navy background!

 

set up at the shop, ready for the ladies arriving

 

sometimes when you are concentrating hard on your sewing, you need a little sweet boost to help your brain!

 

Ros had to leave early, as she had double-booked herself, but she got most of her appliqué done

 

Sonia doesn't like blue, so she used a lovely cream fabric for her background

 

Veronica missed the first class, so after learning the technique for the wonky borders, she then got on with her appliqué.  She had a little oops ...... somehow she managed to turn one of the boots the wrong way, making her snowman look like Charlie Chaplin!

 

I had also prepared this little sample to demonstrate how to do the invisible machine appliqué.  I simply drew round a tin for the body, and a reel of thread for the head - a quick and easy way to make a snowman!

 

and to finish ....... when I saw this in a shop on Friday, I just had to buy it!!

The last instalment

As a change to visiting castles, we headed to Scolton Manor.  As we walked from the carpark up to the house, we came upon this amazing carving

 

here is a small detail

 

further on, this owl was decidedly more weathered.  I think his talons are slightly out of proportion to his body!

 

then it was into the garden, which is being restored

 

this may look like a greenhouse for very small people

 

but when you go inside, you find that the floor level is much lower than the garden outside

 

these old straw bee skeps have been inset into the wall - I would love a feature like this in our garden ...... if only we had some skeps, and an old wall! 

 

this photo is for Kelly, a lover of old gates

 

there is a very productive kitchen garden

 

these freshly picked veggies were en route to the gift shop

 

as we continued our meander to the house, we then came across this carving, which depicts the French invaders surrendering to the women of Fishguard

 

the sign claimed that this is the Holy Grail ....

 

finally, we arrived at the house

 

it's always fascinating to see how people lived years ago

 

some things don't change - you could find a similar piece of embroidery in progress in our house

 

I have no idea what was kept in a Brain Jar!

 

"upstairs" dining was rather grand

 

"downstairs" was more informal

 

down in the cellar, even posh people have  a room full of junk

 

but they also have a room full of wine!

 

Malcolm wanted to take this clock home!

 

the next stop was the café for lunch

 

I had a cheese and pickle sandwich

 

and Malcolm had cheese and tuna.  We had expected dainty sandwiches with perhaps grated cheese - not great thick  slabs of the most delicious cheese ...... it's just as well we were doing so much walking to work off the calories!

 

on the way back to the car, we found more carvings

 

this one told a sad story

 

while this one

 

is symbolic of the struggles between Wales and England

 

this chap may have been a pirate

 

but he was a well-behaved one!

 

back at the car park we discovered this old engine ......

 

and signal box, which are hopefully going to be restored to their former gallery

 

we went for one last walk on the beach - no, this isn't us!

 

pausing to admire the scenery

 

do you prefer the sharp, jagged rocks

 

or the ones worn smooth by the waves?

 

the tide was out

 

so the boats

 

were high and dry on the sand

 

except for this one, which was nowhere near the sea!

 

it's Friday, so that means we have to have something tasty!  One morning I had the rare treat of hot chocolate, complete with whipped cream and marshmallows.  And we shared a Danish pastry, as there were no scones on the menu

 

but don't worry, we popped down to Heighley Gate garden Centre on Sunday to buy some bulbs for the garden to give us a show of colour in the spring, and while we were there we shared an exceedingly good cheese and spring onion scone

 

I was up early enough on Sunday morning to see the sunrise

 

ok - I was only up that early to go to the loo!

 

then later in the day, we had some heavy rain, followed by a double rainbow

 

it was so intense we could clearly see the seven colours

 

I'll be back on Monday with some sewing, and what I did with several kilos of plums from the tree in the garden.  Have a great weekend, love Anne

Some more holiday photos!

Today's report starts in Haverfordwest, where the water was so still .......

 

 

there were perfect reflections of the bridges

 

the ruins of the castle dominate the skyline

 

as we drove down this steep hill, it seemed that we would drive straight on to the beach!

 

I don't know why these three people had a quad bike on the beach, but I just liked the way their reflections were following them

 

the next stop was in St David's City, the smallest city in the UK

 

despite its tiny size, it qualifies as a city as it has a cathedral

 

next to the Cathedral are the ruins of the Bishops' Palace - they obviously lived in some splendour!

 

I liked this gate - perhaps it could become a quilting pattern?

 

now we are in Tenby - I was surprised to see the terraces of multi-coloured houses

 

this is where we had lunch

 

in a very old building

 

do come with me to the ladies' loo

 

wouldn't it be nice of modern loos looked like this one!

 

I love the name of this shop ........

 

........ and this street

 

you can just see the frogs on the shop windows

 

if only I could have brought this home to put in the garden!

 

 

another day, another castle!

 

this is Pembroke Castle

 

which is a magnificent structure

 

built by the English to subdue the pesky Welsh

 

but the ladies in the castle left the men to their fighting, while they got on with their needlework

 

on the drive back to the cottage. I spotted this line of sheep in the distance, walking up the hill

 

we had a small detour to look at this burial chamber

 

the top stone is actually only just resting on the upright stones

 

I took this photo ......

 

then took it again in B&W - which one do you prefer?

 

and to finish, a Welsh sheep - there are more sheep than people in Wales!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday Boy!

Hello my lovely peeps!  Did you miss me?  I certainly missed you - no wifi for a whole week!!  We had a super, if at times rather damp, holiday, and spent the week celebrating Malcolm's birthday.  We stayed in the town of Newport, in Pembrokeshire, which was a good base for being out and about sightseeing.  On the day of the Big Birthday, we went for a pub lunch, which is something we rarely do.  Malcolm had the most delicious cod and chips, with light, crispy batter on the fish

 

and I tucked into a spicy lamb burger

 

later, we had a rather eclectic birthday tea, with sushi, cheese, a glass of fizz, and a chocolate cake, complete with candles.  I think Malcolm's poor ears have just about recovered from my rendition of Happy Birthday!

 

on Wednesday, we had planned to have dinner in this restaurant, but it was such a lovely day, we decided instead to have lunch, sitting outside in the sunshine

 

a lovely lady sitting at the next table offered to take our photo, when she heard us telling the waitress that we were celebrating Malcolm's birthday

 

Malcolm has smoked salmon terrine, with gravadlax and salad

 

oh dear, I had another burger - beef this time ....... and I very generously shared the chips with Malcolm

 

after lunch, we strolled back to the cottage, and I popped out to take some photos

 

 

I had to step back off the road to avoid being squashed by this tractor!

 

I have about 500 photos to sort through, so I will be back on Wednesday with ruined castles and beautiful beaches, and for today I will leave you with this one.  You know by now that I have a quirky sense of humour, so as soon as I saw this sign, I had to take a photo.  Of course it doesn't mean that it is an exit for people called Allan - it is a dual language sign ....... we now know about four words of Welsh!

17 UFOs in 2017 : August report

It's time for the next round up of progress on my 17 projects.  (remember to head over to Meredithe's blog to see what everyone else has achieved this month)No finishes this month, but lots of progress!  First up on the design wall, the William Morris hexie wallhanging

 

I auditioned red and black for the border, deciding on the black

 

but before I could applique the hexie centre to the borders, I had to remove the papers.  This was a bit of a bind, as I had prepped the hexies quite a few years ago, before I saw the method of only stitching the fabric at the corners, not stitching through the fabric and the papers.  So there was a lot of tedious unpicking to do before moving on to the next stage

 

checking the distance from the edge of the hexies to the edge of the fabric, and folding in the corner to mitre it

 

the plan is to applique hexie flowers round the border, then randomly scatter single hexies

 

I've done a bit more since this photo was taken - most of the flowers are now stitched in place

 

next, Mrs Billings ........ or should I say, Not Quite Mrs Billings!  I decided to give up struggling on with it, and got out the hexie pyramids which form the outer border.  I will add calico borders to the centre, then applique the hexie pyramids in place.  I feel much happier, now that I have a plan and the end is in sight.  I had been so looking forward to making it, but quickly discovered that drawing round templates, cutting out the pieces, marking the seam allowances then stitching the bits together by hand was just not for me - give me my rotary cutter and sewing machine any day!!

 

I was given these blocks when I left Greenpark Quilters, when we moved to Hawick (11 years ago!!).  I had pieced them together, started marking out a quilting design on the sashings ....... then ran out of steam

 

I couldn't fine the template I had made for the quilting design, so I had to make another one, and have finished the marking.  The next stage will be to layer it up, and then get on with the quilting

 

The Aunts' Quilt is so big that it trails on the floor, so I had to put a chair under it!

 

I prepped a lot of circles for the lollipop flowers and pinned them in place - a small job, but at least it is some more progress

 

on to the gorgeous owl wallhanging, which my fellow "Squealer", the lovely Helen, gave me the last time we visited Melbourne

 

you can just about see the in-the-ditch machine quilting

 

and I am now hand quilting with crochet cotton and big stitches - a favourite method of the "Squealers".  (why are they called "Squealers" ......... simple - they squeal with delight at seeing their friends, at seeing each others' projects ....... and of course the wonderful food they have when they get together!  When I first met them 5 years ago in Melbourne, they graciously made me an honorary member, and when we visited again two years later, they stole me away from Malcolm for 5 days to go on a retreat with them.)

 

in other sewing news - I have prepped my latest 2 Potty McDotty blocks.  I am amazed that I have managed to keep up-to-date with the blocks

 

of course we have to have some foodie photos!  We didn't have breakfast this morning ....... instead we headed over to Longframlington mid-morning, to the Running Fox, for brunch

 

Malcolm had the "small" breakfast

 

and I had eggy bread and sausages.  It was delicious!!

 

and now for the continuing celebrations ......... we are heading to South Wales tomorrow for a week's holiday, to celebrate Malcolm's birthday.  It is a special birthday, as after being "retired" for 12 years, he officially becomes a pensioner, having reach the age of 65!  My birthday is in October, and I don't care what it says on my birth certificate, I am really only 29, not the same age as Malcolm at all ....... and in defiance of the passing years, I have just had pink streaks put in my hair!!

 

when we get back from Wales, I am going to resume my normal schedule of posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays ....... so do pop in on Monday 11th, to find out what we got up to in Wales!!

Celebrations!!

We are celebrating our wedding anniversary today ....... 31 happy years!

 

please pop back in on Thursday, not only for this month's 17UFOs in 2017 report, but also for news of another big celebration on Sunday!

Diet??

Oh dear, my best intentions to shed a few pounds keep getting thwarted!  First, it happened on Thursday, when we were heading up the A1 to Berwick.  Some miles north of Alnwick, just where the road becomes dual carriageway again, you pass this sign

 

then a little bit further on you pass this sign

 

and having taken the next turn on the left, you can enjoy (half, we shared it)a delicious bacon sandwich for an early lunch (we were too early for the lunch menu) at Carnaby's

 

I've mentioned before that my rule of thumb for buying a bottle of wine is the appeal of the label ........ so of course I had to buy this one - a sparkling Italian wine

 

and this one - a pinot grigio to drink day or night

 

but I bought this one because we first drank it in our favourite restaurant in Pollensa, when we were on holiday in Majorca  (don't worry, we haven't drunk all of them, two of them are still in the wine rack!!)

 

the big green machine had been moved on the dockside so that it was opposite the flat's front window ...... nicely placed for a photo

 

this is one of our favourite coffee shops in Berwick

 

and we can recommend this Provence scone, rich with the flavours of sun dried tomato, feta cheese and olives ....... and the coffee shop scores extra points for giving us two plates, knives and napkins when we say we are sharing

 

back home, Malcolm has been busy demolishing the top section of the deck, after he discovered that some of the boards and the frame underneath were rotten

 

the plan is to turn this area into a gravel garden, with planters and seating round the edges

 

on Sunday we popped over to Warkworth for a stroll.  Malcolm spotted these two old chimneys, butted up against each other, on adjacent properties

 

walking along the river, we were surprised at how red the rowan berries are - we wouldn't normally see them so red until at least next month

 

leaving the town behind, we walked down to the beach.  This is Coquet Island in the distance

 

on our right we could see Amble

 

and on our left, Alnmouth

 

this dog had been sitting, waiting for his owner to call him.  Once he called to the dog, he started to run towards his owner, then stopped and posed handsomely for a photo.  His owner said he is a very vain dog!!

 

this big black lump on the sand is sea coal, either washed out of coal seams under the sea, or dropped overboard way back when Amble exported coal

 

in contrast, this little crab has been bleached white

 

yesterday, Malcolm's sister, Jennifer, popped up from Morpeth for a visit, which of course meant we had to have a stroll along to Nelson's.  As it was a lovely afternoon, we sat out in the sunshine to have a cuppa

 

afterwards, we walked round to see these birds, which we were originally told were emus .......

 

..... but have subsequently been told are rheas

 

and to end, another scone.  I had a quick trip to Alnwick yesterday morning for some shopping, and popped into the Olive Branch for a cuppa and a scone (yes, for once I had a whole one all to myself).  It was described as a cheese and sun dried tomato scone, but had no real taste of the sun dried tomato.  When the waitress asked me if I had enjoyed the scone, I said that I was a bit disappointed at the lack of flavour.  She went through t the kitchen, and came back to say that they hadn't wanted to make the taste of sundried tomato too strong, in case people complained that it was stronger than the taste of the cheese ....... so in that case, why not just make some ordinary cheese scones for those who don't want the taste of sun dried tomato as well?

Sightseeing

 The weather last Thursday was glorious, so we decided to head over to Cragside, to both go round the house, and have a walk in the glorious gardens

 

first stop was the old stable block

 

which has several displays, one of which has this sketch of the house when it was built

 

William Armstrong, who had the house built

 

this shows important events in the early years of the house (click on the photo to enlarge it)

 

there was also a long time line - for Malcolm this was the most important event!

 

I was more interested in this poster!

 

I took this photo for Stuart, as he is a mechanical engineer (Malcolm was in shock for weeks when Stuart said that he would not be following in his footsteps as a chemical engineer!)

 

this poster was actually in one of the rooms in the house, but I have included it with the other technical stuff.  This was of great interest to Malcolm, as when he started work with BP, they used Tangye engines and pumps

 

we sat out in the sun in the courtyard at the stable block to have some excellent sandwiches for lunch

 

after lunch I popped into the facilities - I think it is the first time I have seen a fireplace in a ladies loo!

 

this is the view from in front of the coach house -we both thought it looked like Canada.  I thought that from photos that I have seen, Malcolm thought that because he has been there!

 

this family walking in front of us provide the scale to show just how tall the trees are

 

this is one of the first electric lamps, mentioned in the wheel of events

 

I always enjoy seeing kitchens in old houses

 

I don't think you would be allowed to impose such strict working conditions now!

 

one of several patchwork quilts

 

the view from one of the bedroom windows

 

I got fed up waiting for this woman to stop looking at her phone and walk out of the photo - but then, she shows the size of the fireplace (and how can you walk past such magnificence and not look, finding your phone more fascinating!!)

 

out in the gardens, I wasn't entirely happy walking down the steps in the rockery

 

but it was worth it to see the view over the bridge

 

and then to see the small wooden bridge on the other side (you can see both bridges in the sketch at the start of the post)

 

this glass house is undergoing major renovation work

 

the rabbit has been back in our garden - maybe we need to get a big fence and a gate like this to keep it out?

 

some of the cottages in the grounds are available to rent for holidays - look at the stunning views this one enjoys

 

it's just as well we don't have a big tree in the garden, or Malcolm might be tempted to cut it down and carve an owl on the stump

 

beautiful water lilies

 

they almost look as if they have been carved from wax

 

in the rose garden

 

there was a riot of colour

 

and lovely old fashioned scents - so many modern roses have no scent

 

a last piece of engineering - an Archimedes screw.  Normally Archimedes screws lift water to a higher level, but this one has the water running down it, turning the screw to generate electricity (thank you to my engineering guru- aka Malcolm -  for the information)

 

and so to the Tuesday cake - we shared this delicious Palmier yesterday.  It was stuffed with jam and cream ...... delicious!