frayed at the edge

17 in 2017

 Hello everyone!  It's great to be back after my festive season break from blogging!  We had a very chilly walk on the beach yesterday, and Malcolm wrote this message in the sand for you

 

so let's jump straight in to this year's challenge.  After the success of our sixteen pairs of socks challenge, Meredithe and I came up with the idea of working on 17 UFOs.  If you click on the photo at the top of the sidebar, it should take you to the list of rules.  If you want to join in, then click here, and you can find the link for taking part.  Don't worry if you haven't yet made your list, as the link will be active for several more days

I didn't take long to come up with 17 UFOs (I won't say how many are still lurking in deep, dark recesses in the studio!)

 

First, we have Mrs Billings, closely followed by the Aunts' Quilt.  These are the biggest projects, and I hope to make significant progress on both of them

 

the third one is Best Friends Forever, and 4th is Twas the Night Before Christmas

 

at number five, and already on the design wall, is the felt tree, and number six, the Sheepies wallhanging

 

number 7 is Circles, and number 8 is Red, White and Black

 

at 9, the Baltimore bed runner (I ran out of enthusiasm to make a full quilt!) and 10 ........ well, this is an embarrassing one.  It is called the Goodbye Quilt, and is made with blocks given to me by the members Greenpark Quilters, when I left the group 10 years ago, when we moved to Hawick ........

 

this Amish wallhanging, coming in at number 11 (which is darker than it looks in the photo) was made with the sample blocks from teaching my little house group when we lived in Indonesia ....... as we came home on 2000, it is definitely time to knuckle down and finish it

 

number 12 is the William Morris hexie wallhanging, which I have been working on when we are over at the flat

 

number 13 is a beautiful Japanese wallhanging, given to me by the lovely Helen two years ago in Melbourne.  I couldn't decide how to quilt it, and set it aside - so now I must decide what to do.  Then as for number 14 - well, in 2002 Malcolm and I went to the big quilt show at Houston.  It was the year of chicken quilts, so I bought a kit to make a very large quilt for Malcolm, as he liked all the chicken things.  To cut a long story short, the large quilt has so far become 3 wallhangings - and this is the fourth one waiting to be quilted!

 

before I went over to the dark side of quilting, I used to do counted cross stitch, and these two projects have been languishing for some years in a dark corner of the studio - I was sure they were nearly  finished ....... so they joined the list at 15 and 16

 

and finally, at 17, my red and black sampler quilt

 

so, if the sampler quilt is 17, what is this?  Well ........ I thought I would do a little bit of work on the cross stitch map, but the stitches are so small, I just couldn't cope with it.  Yes, I could get one of those enormous magnifying glasses that you hang round your neck to help, but instead I donated it to a charity shop!  So this is my replacement - a Hawaiian wallhanging which I made some years ago as a challenge to myself, using needleturn applique, which I don't like!

 

remember, we don't have to finish our UFOs, just make significant progress.  I do hope you will join in ....... and if you don't have a blog, you can send progress photos to either Meredithe or me, and we will post them for you.

So let's get stitching!!

Warning - a lot of cake!

We were out and about in Northumberland on Wednesday.  We popped into Otterburn Mill for our morning cuppa, and tucked into excellent mince pies - as you can see there was so much filling, it was oozing out!

 

we decided to have lunch at Wallington - as we are NT members we got in for free.  The sun was very low in the sky, creating an unusual effect in the photo

 

 

this is one of the two shops

 

these are just so cute

 

as are these

 

I think Santa's little helpers were visiting, judging by the washing line

 

although we saw his sleigh, we didn't see Santa

 

I did think about making a swag for our gate ........ but I didn't get beyond thinking!

 

lunch was a bowl of hearty vegetable soup

 

was Malcolm remembering when he too had a body like this?

 

on our way home, we called in at Kirkharle, and these little earrings had to come home with me (you can buy them online here)

 

Stuart and Alison are coming for the weekend, for an early Christmas celebration.  We thought this would be a tasty addition to the cheese board

 

can we have a loud fanfare please ........ the 16 pairs of socks are finished!

 

and here is my sock drawer ........

 

........ I won't need to knit any more socks for several years!

 

it's Friday, so that means cake!  We couldn't get a table in any of our favourite cafes in Hawick, as they were busy serving Christmas lunches, so we headed to the coffee shop in the supermarket, where we had the same as last time.  Malcolm had apple pie and cream

 

and I had the (rather sweet) meringue Christmas tree

 

and what better way to finish this year's blogging, than with a photo of the Christmas cake!  As you know, I don't like marzipan, but Malcom does ....... so I put marzipan fruit on the cake, and he gets one with each slice - a good compromise

 

so all that remains to do is wish you a very happy Christmas, and a prosperous New Year

with lots of love, Anne

 

Party time!

Last night was Abbey Quilters' Christmas party, and a very good time was had by all!  Unfortunately Trisha, who was going to show us how to make these felt candle mats, was unable to come along, as her husband is poorly - we wish Trevor a speedy recovery.  So our Chairman, Sandra, stepped in, ably assisted by Maureen and me (well, we sort of muddled through!)

 

Marcia had brought along these little stag heads to decorate her mat.  She let me take the photo in return for my having threaded her needle for her - not with my fancy all-singing, all-dancing needle threader, but with a basic, cheap-and-cheerful loop of wire one!

 

there was severe sewing basket envy when Sheena produced this thing of beauty (she made me give it back after I took the photo!)

 

our Vice-Chairman Gill was definitely in party mode!

 

and you know that no quilters' occasion is complete without a delicious spread of food  (I made sure to take a photo before the ravening horde members got near the table!)

 

and there was a good selection of (non-alcoholic) drinks to wash it all down

 

looking forward to next year, I had taken in these hand-quilted cushions and quilts, as I will be doing a little project with the group at the February meeting.  I have it designed in my head, so I had better get it drawn out and the samples made

 

I will be back on Friday with my last post of this year, as I am taking a short break over the festive season

Night lights

To make up for not taking photos during the day on Friday, I took lots when we walked over to town in the evening.  They were taken with my point-and-shoot, so some of them are a bit blurry!  First, we have the rather impressive tree in the town centre

 

then a decoration on a building .........

 

....... and a slightly blurry row of them

 

the tree in front of the Town Hall

 

this is true!

 

these cuties are in the window of the wool shop

 

another tree - this one at the entrance to a car park!

 

lots of lovely gifts

 

it's just as well this shop was shut, or I may have come home with a tractor mug!

 

the lights on the new bridge

 

and to finish ........ the lights look as if they are floating in the night sky

Exciting times!

We have had a very busy day, working on a top secret project that you will have to wait some weeks to find out about!!  These are the only photos I took all day!

First, a dainty little shortbread star with our morning cuppa

 

Malcolm's lunch - a cheese savoury baguette

 

and my lunch, a coronation chicken baguette

 

no doubt like us, you will be busy over the weekend with preparations for Christmas (I must remember to give the cake its next dose of brandy!)  Have a great weekend, love Anne

Blingtastic!!

Before I show you Nelly and all her bling, I realised that I hadn't shown you the finished Advent calendar.  Here it is hanging on the kitchen door - and there may be one or two little chocolate treats hiding in the pockets

 

so here is the fabulous Nelly, auditioning some beads, and a button for her eye

 

the gold ric rac looks good on her saddle cloths

 

aaaaah - that's better, with her eye and ear stitched in place

 

her ear is only anchored on the left

 

next, I added her ankle chains

 

all this bling is looking good!

 

I decided to add a bit of colour to the sun, using foil

 

a light sprinkling of glue granules over the sun

 

the foil laid over the sun

 

then covered with baking parchment, to protect it while I used the heat of the iron to melt the glue

 

after letting the foil cool, I peeled it off, leaving behind the patches which had stuck to the glue

 

she's looking good!

 

but what's that hanging from the corner?  It is a little handmade silk tassel

 

when I was working on her on Monday, one of the Abbey Quilters, the lovely Lorraine, gave me this bling to add to her

 

there followed some discussion about where to position the dangles - just below her feet

 

over the binding

 

or under the binding

 

under the binding got the thumbs up ....... so here is Nelly all finished, looking fabulous!!

 

a little bit of fun to finish!  They say you should have a varied diet, so that's what we did on Sunday to vary ours ........ instead of sharing two scones, we shared a scone and a mince pie!!

The Sewing Machine Guy

I left home at 9.30 this morning, after having scraped the frost off the car (it was minus 6 degrees) and headed for Kelso.  We were having a special session at Abbey Quilters, as Ian, The Sewing Machine Guy was joining us for the day, to service our sewing machines

 

by lunchtime these ones had been done

 

with these ones waiting patiently in the queue

 

gulp ....... this is my machine in bits!

 

but it wasn't just Ian who spent the day with us.  His wife, Ellen, had brought a selection of goodies from their shop

 

all sorts of loveliness

 

to tempt us into spending our pocket money!

 

we had a very special afternoon cuppa, as the lovely Sadie celebrates a very special birthday tomorrow

 

so instead of a biscuit with our cuppa, we had a choice of two delicious treats (some of us may have had one of each ........)

 

Nelly is now looking totally blingtastic, as you will see on Wednesday

Piling on the bling

On Tuesday morning, I settled down in the studio, with the latest episode of The Quilt Show on the laptop, and got to work on Nelly

 

first, I finished hand stitching the binding on the wrong side, so that she is nicely framed in black

 

then I started stitching beads and sequins in the loops of the fmq, and having got bored with that, did some beading ......

 

to make a fringe on the edge of her cap

 

after that I had a little play with some fabric pens

 

colouring the stamping round the edge of her saddle cloth

 

by the end of the session, I had almost finished adding the beads and sequins in the loops - she's looking good!

 

we had to stay at home yesterday and today,  when normally we would be at the flat, as we had unexpected visitors coming this morning.  Before they arrived, I sneaked out to the studio and disassembled the charity shop necklace

 

there is a good variety of bling to add to Nelly

 

when the post arrived this morning, there was a very interesting package for me

 

all the way from India!

 

whoever had wrapped the package was a bit heavy-handed with the parcel tape, so it took a bit of effort to get it open

 

finally I freed the contents

 

a set of carved Indian stamping blocks

 

which I bought online here

 

I had already got some ink

 

from here, and I am looking forward to having lots of fun stamping!

 

I bought this set last week - which you might find odd, as you know that apart from the Christmas cake, I don't bake

 

but I am hoping to use them as stamps ...... doing the outline in one colour, then doing the bones in another one

 

I love this month's calendar page - you know that I love sheepies!!

 

after the departure of our unexpected visitors, we went out for a walk, then went for a cuppa.  Malcolm had a slice of apple tart - I took the photo before he poured the cream over it

 

my strange looking confection is a meringue Christmas tree!  It consisted of two meringues which were vaguely tree shaped, with chocolate on the inside face, sandwiched together with strawberry cream.  Sounds a bit strange, but it was delicious!!

 

if you didn't see yesterday's post, do scroll on down to it, to read about the big challenge for next year ........ 17 UFOs in 2017.  We'll be heading over to the flat tomorrow morning, then there is great excitement for Monday, when I will be getting my sewing machines serviced!!  I hope you have a great weekend, love Anne

A new challenge

As we neared the end of our 16 in 16 challenge, Meredithe and I had a discussion about a challenge for next year, and as we didn't really want to knit another 17 pairs of socks, we decided to have a sewing challenge.  So we decided on 17 UFOs in 2017.  This is a pile of most some of my UFOs

and this is Meredithe's pile.  As you can see, knitting can be included too ....... and crochet and craft projects, anything you want to work on 

 

we realised that we couldn't say we would actually finish 17 UFOs, especially as several of Meredithe's are major hand quilting projects, so we decided that we would make the effort to achieve significant progress, posting our efforts once a month.  Now, here's the good bit - we would love you to join us!!  So Meredithe wrote the "rules", which you can read below.  Read her post here for her suggestions about how much time to allocate to each project.  I do hope you will join in the fun ....... and if you don't have as many as 17 UFOs, you can still join in

 

::  You have between now and the beginning of January 2017 to decide on which 17 projects you’d like to nominate for your year’s work, and we will have (hopefully, if I get it right!) a linky party to kick off the year during the first week of January in which you will list your nominated 17.

::  At the end of each month there will be a linky party so we can see what progress has been made.

::  If you don’t have a blog but would like to join in, you can send your progress pics to Anne or myself and we will post them for you.

::  There is a button you can use on your blog which you can get from Meredithe.

::  Projects can be anything you’ve already started (UFO = unfinished object), quilts, knitting, crochet, it’s up to you.

::  It doesn’t mean you can’t start something new or work on a project outside your nominated 17, they just won’t be included in this challenge.

::  This is not a sponsored event, so there are no prizes, just the satisfaction of your achievements!

 

We do hope you will join in the fun, and perhaps by the end of 2017 we will have some lovely finished objects to enjoy, instead of piles of UFOs!!

It's beginning to .......

........ smell a lot like Christmas, as I baked the cake this afternoon.  As always I used the recipe in this book, which I have had for years

 

as I always make the same size, I long ago highlighted the column, to make it easier to follow

 

is it just me that is getting a bit bah-humbug about the Christmas-isation of so many things ..... I just don't see why the butter has to have special packaging!

 

the ingredients assembled

 

I washed and dried the cherries, then cut them in half.  I added them to the fruit, which had been soaking in brandy since Monday.  I then stirred in a spoonful of flour - this helps stop the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake

 

the cake tin buttered and lined, and wrapped in brown paper to stop the outside of the cake from cooking too quickly

 

a little tip - before you put the cake in the oven, poke a hole in the middle - this helps keep the top of the cake flat

 

testing the cake with a skewer, to see if it is cooked in the middle

 

the cake tin is a loose-bottomed one, so standing it on a tin makes it easier to remove the outer ring

 

cooling on the wire rack, before being wrapped first in baking parchment, then foil.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will feed it with brandy before I ice it

 

it got rather overcast and dull later in the afternoon, but then we had a glorious sunset

 

with the dark clouds contrasting nicely with the pinks and oranges

 

hopefully the clouds will stay, and it won't freeze overnight

 

Little Miss Smarty Pants sorry, I mean my dear friend, the lovely Meredithe, is now on her 16th pair of socks, while I am on my 15th, so we should both complete our "16 in 16" challenge by the end of the year.  When I showed Malcolm my latest effort, he said what you are no doubt shouting at me ........ you numptie, you forgot the heel!!

 

but this is a pair of "afterthought heel" socks.  The pink stitches were knitted with an oddment of wool, which I removed to reveal the stitches for the heel

 

and here is the sock with its heel

 

I will be back tomorrow with an extra post, to make a very special announcement, so please do pop in to read all about it!!