frayed at the edge

Not quite .......

........ a place for everything, but we have just about squeezed in everything that we brought over to the flat.  These are some of my orchids, which have survived being moved ....... they are prone to dropping all their flowers if they are unhappy

 

we usually just have cacti in the flat, as they are low maintenance, but of course we have had to find room for the house plants

 

I have always had house plants, except for when I had two brief stays in an apartment in Singapore.  When Stuart was little, macramé plant hangers were all the fashion, so the plants were hung from the ceiling away from little fingers!

 

I know my daffodils look a bit ill-arranged in the jug .......

 

....... but it's because there is a section in the middle of the jug that you fill with ice to keep your white or rose wine chilled

 

so far I have only found a place to hang up this calendar

 

I don't really want to put pins in the walls to hang up my almost naked men

 

my delightful Minions (which I bought half-price last month!)

 

and my fabulous tractor calendar, which Stuart and Alison gave me for Christmas

 

the bed in the back bedroom is the opposite of the princess and the pea ....... instead of a great pile of mattresses, there is a great pile of quilts and wallhangings

 

 

it's Friday, so that means cake!  I had to pop back over to Hawick this morning, to have my poor sore leg treated by the nurse.  As always I was early, so I popped into the coffee shop in one of the local supermarkets, and treated myself to a pot of tea and a chocolate fudge cake

 

I removed the paper wrapper to reveal this beautiful confection - I am sure it contained my entire calorie allowance for the day! 

 

tomorrow I am heading over to Kelso for an Abbey Quilters' Linus/UFO day.  I haven't seen the girls for several weeks, so it will be good to see what everyone is working on (and catch up on the gossip news!).  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

A very tasty scone!

As there has been a definite dearth of sconnage on the blog recently, I thought I would pop in and share this delicious scone which we shared this morning in Café Crema in Berwick ..........

 

cheese and sun dried tomato, still warm from the oven!

A moving tale!

 This was my studio when I was in the middle of packing it all up

 

and this is how it looked on Monday afternoon - after I had vacuumed all the thread off the carpet!

 

I was just thinking that I would miss watching the many birds that visit the garden .......

 

....... when this little fat robin popped in to say goodbye

 

this was the very last box to be packed ........ and the last things in were the coffee mugs and the kettle!

 

however, today we have embraced our interim stay in the flat, and headed to the Garden Centre for lunch.  There was a special deal of a bowl of soup and a cheese scone - perfect!

 

we then went for a walk along the promenade.  We would have walked on the beach, but I have a bit of a sore leg, as I had a mole removed (on Friday the 13th, I should have known better and changed the appointment!) and unfortunately the stitches became infected, so I am hobbling about the place!

 

but if we had wanted to walk on the beach, we would have had a problem using this stairway, as recent storms have deposited all sorts of detritus

 

we weren't quite sure what this little beastie was, grinning at us from the beach

 

but we were impressed with this dragon, guarding a house

 

this tree is very, very big ........ but we could see fresh saw marks way up at the very top, where it has been trimmed by a tree surgeon

 

another old post box to add to my collection

 

it was cheering to see a splash of colour

 

this was the entrance to the Berwick and Tweedmouth Gaslight Company

 

Malcolm wouldn't let me play with the machines!!

 

as we headed back to the car, we saw one of the little fishing boats coming in

 

and to finish, a bit of fun!  Is this a little ghost looking in the window to say goodbye

 

and was this his little friend?  No, it's bird poo that I hadn't cleaned off our bedroom window!!

17 UFOs in 2017 - my first report

 Hello my lovely Peeps ...... thank you all so much for your good wishes for my recovery from the very nasty bout of flu - and a special thank you to Dawn, who sent me a lovely get well card.  Three weeks on I still haven't fully got over it!  But the good news is that our house is sold, and as from yesterday we are living in our little flat in Berwick, until we can move into out new home.  So I will be able to go for long walks on the beach to get fit again.

 

Unfortunately, being laid low by the horrid flu has meant that I didn't do an awful lot of work on my UFOs ........ although I am sure Meredithe will let me off with a "do better next month" warning!!  I had made a good start on substantially progressing my BFF hexies, and slowly but surely reduced this pile .........

 

...... first pressing and pinning the borders

 

then securing them with big stitch quilting (which presents a challenge, as my stitches keep getting smaller!)

 

I am really looking forward to finishing the plain hexies, so that I can stitch them together with the stitcheries

 

I have also been working on my William Morris hexie wallhanging when we have been at the flat.  Having decided the wallhanging was big enough, I started stitched hexie flowers.  I brought it all home to pin it on the design wall.   I have decided that I will add borders, although I haven't yet decided on the colour for the borders, then I will applique the hexie flowers in place

I still have hexies left, so I will add them as stepping stones between the flowers

 

I did also cut out lots of circles for the outer border of The Aunts' Quilt, but, I have to admit, I forget to take a photo (oops).  

So that is my first progress report of reasonable substantial progress on some of my UFOs ...... some of my nominated projects won't be worked on until we are in our new house, as most of my sewing stuff has gone into storage, including my sewing machines.  It was a bit upsetting seeing them being loaded on to the removal lorry yesterday - I did ask the nice young men to take good care of them, and they assured me they would be careful not to damage them!  (they were probably thinking, silly old woman, getting upset at being parted from sewing machines for a few weeks!!)

Do pop over to Meredithe's blog (click on the link above) to see who has joined in this month ........ and remember, you too can join in, and have fun making progress on neglected UFOs!!

 

Still a bit poorly!

Hello my dearest peeps!  Thank you so much for all your lovely good wishes for a speedy recovery.  Unfortunately the horrid nasty flu is reluctant depart - most evenings I am in bed at 8pm, sleeping through to 6am!!  However, I thought I would pop in and share some photos.  We start with the first snow on the winter

 

it did get a bit deeper than this

 

but the roads were clear, so there wasn't much disruption

 

I took this photo of the full moon in the early morning (of course that is through the window, I didn't go outside!!)

 

Malcolm has had to do most of the packing - fortunately I had packed these before the flu struck

 

I had to raid my secret emergency chocolate stash - even the awful flu doesn't seem quite so bad if you can eat delicious chocolate!!

 

I'll be back soon with my first report on 17 in 2017!

 

A bit poorly

Hello, my dear peeps.  Since I was last here, I have been struck down with a nasty, awful bout of the flu. I have hardly stirred from my bed since Friday night!  I have coughed so much I'm surprised that my lungs haven't turned inside out!  The last time I had flu was in 1995, the winter after my Mum died.  I sincerely hope it's that long until I have another bout ....... no, actually, I hope I never have another bout!

Hope to back to normal blogging next week, love Anne

Righting a wrong

I realised that it is quite some time since we had cut creatures on the blog, so after lunch I popped out with the camera to put that right.   The ewes are getting plump - they will probably have their lambs at the start of April

 

it's a tiring life spending the day eating grass!

 

the grass is still very green for this time of year

 

I wonder if they get bored with grass?

 

these two look as if they have had a shampoo and blow dry

 

I don't think I have seen sheep before with their fleece parted in the middle like these three - and did you notice that amazingly they all faced the camera and didn't turn round and present their bottoms as they usually do!

 

I walked on up the road to have a look at the horses.  The field was very muddy

 

and this one looked extremely fed up with the cold windy weather

 

this donkey was having a good scratch against the back of the trailer

 

while this one peeped round the corner from the stable

 

we have had a visiting bird in the garden for some months that I just haven't managed to take a good photo of

 

they mostly turn out like this

 

as it bobs up and down

 

so finally, a reasonable photo!  I had wondered what sort of bird it is - it looks part blackbird and part thrush.  Then I saw a mention in a newspaper that it is a European blackbird.  It is quite a bit bigger than the pair of blackbirds that live in the front garden, but they co-exist quite peacefully, pottering about under the bird table picking up spilled seed

On the move

We were out and about in Northumberland again on Saturday, this time visiting Alnwick.  First stop was this imposing old church ......

 

........ which is so big it wouldn't fit in one photo!

 

I assume this sad little headstone marks a child's grave, but there is no inscription on it

 

unlike this one, which tells you in detail of the deceased

 

in days gone by, if you were trying to invade the castle .......

 

if you didn't impale yourself on these vicious railings

 

you would have been bombarded

 

by the defenders from above

 

as we walked on round the town, I rather liked this pile of beer barrels, with their bright stripes

 

a dainty garden gate

 

but why have a door, when you can simply walk round the end of the wall!

 

why is this pub world famous?

 

for a rather scary reason

 

you can just make out one of the dirty bottles

 

there was a delicious aroma of cheese in the air as we passed this shop

 

the castle and gardens are closed for the winter

 

but you can walk past this magnificent gate

 

can you spot the lock, and where the gate opens (you can click on the photo to enlarge it)

 

a detail of one of the birds on the gate

 

and one of the beautiful glass flowers

 

sadly the ice cream kiosk was closed .......

 

we drove on to Bamburgh, and there were the usual problems of taking a photo of the castle from the car - a bump in the road and you get more sky than you want

 

or the car in front won't get out of the way!!

 

when we parked, we found that most of the shops and tearooms were shut ........ but fortunately there was one open, serving the most delicious scone with jam and clotted cream - bliss on a plate!

 

yesterday morning when I got up and looked out the bedroom window, I was rather surprised to see a naval vessel sitting offshore.  It sat there for a while, then sailed off, so I will never know what it was doing there

 

some weeks ago, I teased you with talk of being out and about in Northumberland as part of a BIG project.  So now it is time to reveal some of what we have been up to.  The empty shelves in my studio give a small clue

 

then there are all these boxes sitting in the hall

 

and pictures down from the walls and stacked in the "fitness room"

 

yes, we are moving!!  The house had been on the market for some months, when suddenly, just before Christmas, up popped buyers.  Barring any last minute hiccups, we move out in three weeks' time!!  So where are we going ...... yes, you've guessed, we are moving to Northumberland, where Malcolm was born and grew up.  We have had our offer accepted on a house, but it is very early in the  lengthy process of buying it, so I'll wait until things are further down the line before I tell you about it.  When we move out of this house, everything will go into storage, and we will go and live in the flat - we are fortunate that we have that option, otherwise we would have had to rent a house.  However, I will still be sewing, and I will definitely still be blogging!!  (and working on my 17 in 2017!)

 

 

A little bit of sewing

I'm the star turn at the February meeting of Abbey Quilters, showing the members how I hand quilt, so I thought I ought to make a start to making my sample.  I drew this design and popped it on my light pad

 

covered it with another sheet of paper, got out  a Sharpie marker

 

and traced it with much heavier lines which will show up better for the members when they trace it on to their fabric.  I don't draw over my original drawing, in case the pen slips and spoils it.  The dashed lines are to help position the pattern in the centre of the fabric

 

there are all sorts of methods for marking the design on the fabric, but I like these Frixion pens.  I know a lot of purist quilters don't like them, but I'm not using them to mark heirloom quilts, just small everyday pieces

 

I started by marking a cross in the centre of my fabric

 

then popped the fabric over the pattern on the light pad, lining up the cross with the dashed lines

 

after I have quilted the piece, I will simply waft the steam iron over the lines and they will vanish

 

a choice off threads and a choice of needles - but now you will have to wait until February to see what I did next!

 

in common with lots of people, we are trying to eat less, after over-indulging at Christmas (and we are still eating our Christmas chocolates) ......... but that was ignored today!  We had a voucher for two meals for the price of one at the Garden Centre in Kelso, so we popped in for lunch on our way over to Berwick today.  Malcolm had ham, egg and chips, which had at least a nod to healthy eating with a (very) small amount of salad

 

while I had my favourite macaroni cheese and chips!  We did only have a bowl of homemade soup for dinner, having eaten such a large lunch

 

and because of my dedication to my blog and to you, my lovely peeps, I of course had to have a "Friday cake" to share with you!!  (don't worry, I only ate half of it, Malcolm ate the rest!!)  A delicious chocolatey fruit and nut slice - it was so sweet and rich, I don't think I could have eaten the whole piece!

 

over the weekend, I will be working on one of my 17 UFOs - progress is being made! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

 

Endings and beginnings

Last Friday, as the year drew to an end, we went for a potter round Berwick, and as always I had to take a photo of the lighthouse ....... and you can just make out Lindisfarne on the horizon

 

this shabby old door may be upgraded soon .......

 

as major works are going on behind the wall

 

we will have to watch the progress of whatever it is that is being built!

 

I think I took an arty photo of this plant growing out of the top of a wall during the summer!

 

another favourite subject - old chimneys, against the blue sky

 

there doesn't seem to have been any progress on the Money Pit.  I shall have to try to see inside one day - Malcolm said I should simply tell them that I have peeps all round the world (slight exaggeration) watching the refurbishment!

 

a lot more work has been done on this old building, at the end of the old bridge, with smart new windows installed

 

it will be interesting to see how they restore the old shop front

 

and so we go from the end of last year to the beginning of this one.  We went for a very chilly walk on the beach on New Year's morning, and again the lighthouse was first up for a photo

 

the pattern in the sand would make a good quilting pattern! 

 

a forlorn wellington - I wonder where the other one is

 

the sand has shifted again after the recent storms.  The last time we were on the beach, these wooden posts were taller than me - now they are about knee-height!

 

Malcolm pointed out these two with their shadows behind them

 

I don't think this driftwood boat will be seaworthy!

 

it was cold and windy, and the sea was rough, so we weren't surprised that there were no mad folk about having a New Year's Day dip!

 

I saw a flash of colour up ahead, but it wasn't an exotic shell or plant, but rather a sad and bedraggled ball, left behind by a dog

 

and to finish, we spotted this chap having fun on the beach ...... the wind in his kite had him bowling along at a good speed!