frayed at the edge

The continuing story ......

......... after the technical problems, let's hope this post is problem free!

So, on Wednesday morning, we popped into Hawick, and walked round to see how much water was roaring over the rocks in the River Slitrig

 

did you notice the heron - I don't think he had much chance of catching anything!

 

we popped into the Damascus Drum for lunch

 

we both had soup, which came with delicious thick slices of bread.  Malcolm had leek and potato, and I had Lebanese chickpea

 

after lunch we walked round to look over the bridge at where the Slitrig runs into the Teviot.  The Slitrig had carved out two deep channels and created a new island  

 

and can you spot another heron?

 

when we got home, I grabbed the big camera and went out for a quick walk.  First stop was to take photos of some sheepies for Anna

 

the I walked on to see if there were any donkeys for Bumblevee.  There were horses (or are they ponies?) in the field

 

then as I turned for home, look who peeked out from behind the stables

 

we didn't seen many birds in the garden when the weather was so bad, but on Thursday they started to reappear.  First, the nuthatch, which is an infrequent visitor

 

then Mr Blackbird

 

several blue tits

 

but the star of the show was the red, red robin, bob, bob, bobbing

 

yesterday we had our Christmas lunch at patch'n'chat, with a special visit from Fairy Twinkle ....... but you will have to wait until Monday to see her!!

 

 

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!

Typepad is still misbehaving, and won't load any photos.  I have even tried a different browser to no avail.  I'll take the laptop with me tomorrow when we go over to the flat, and hopefully will be able to do a post, as I have lots to share with you.

So in the meantime, I will wish you a great weekend, love Anne

Variety is the spice ......

....... of blogging!  So let's start with the promised sewing.  I finished the wallhanging which Margaret had asked me to quilt

 

I have also finished the Santa wallhanging, which is a present for someone who doesn't read the blog

 

after quilting the wallhanging for Margaret, she asked me if I could put the binding on this quilt.  She hand-pieced the top, and Kay longarm quilted it for her

 

it didn't take long to make the yards and yards of binding

 

I only had to machine stitch the binding on the front, as Margaret will hand-stitch it on the back.  However, as the quilt is in my favourite autumn colours, and looks good on my guest bed, I may just forget to give it back to her!!

 

there has also been some secret Christmas present sewing, which I can only give you little glimpses of

 

last night was Abbey Quilters' Christmas party.  Maureen showed us how to make Christmas trees with polystyrene cones and ribbon

 

we had a lovely supper, but as I was sidetracked by someone asking me for advice, by the time I reached the table it looked as if a plague of locusts had gone before me, so instead of lots of tasty food, the only other photo I have is of my tree

 

 

oh dear, the original post was much longer, but Typepad threw a wobbly and lost the rest of it, so I shall save that for Friday!!

A casualty of the weather

On Friday morning, we headed to Jedburgh Town Hall to set up for the Christmas Fair

 

once we had finished setting up, Malcolm dropped me off at patch'n'chat.  As the afternoon wore on, I started to worry as it got very windy, and by the time Malcolm picked me up again at the end of the afternoon it was very windy indeed.  We had fish suppers for dinner, then headed to the Town Hall, and waited for the Fair to open.  Last year great crowds came in as soon as the doors were opened, but on Friday there was only a trickle.  We found out later that less than half the number of people turned up this year, compared to last.  As the evening progressed, the weather got worse, with heavy rain.  Sales were few and far between, not just for us, but for all the stall holders.  Even the cupcake lady didn't sell all her delicious confections ....... yes, a box of them came home with us

 

along with several others, we packed up and went home early, and had to leave everything in the car overnight as it was so wet and windy.  Saturday was no better, it just rained and rained and rained.  When we got up on Sunday the rain had finally stopped and the wind had dropped, so we decided to head into Hawick for a walk and a cuppa.  The river was very full

 

people had taken precautions, with sandbags and special plates to seal the airbricks, to prevent the foundations flooding

 

as we walked on, we could see evidence that the river had actually flooded over into the street

 

we had thought that we would cross over the footbridge, to walk back along the other side of the river

 

but the footbridge was closed, as this had happened just beyond it - you may have seen this on news bulletins

 

further on, we stopped to watch some ducks struggling against the fast flowing water

 

this footbridge across the road from Sainsbury's was closed

 

perhaps because of the tree wedged under it

 

at the end of our walk, we came across this bunch of men, armed with brushes and shovels, offering to help clean out flooded premises

 

I'll be back on Wednesday with some sewing, and hopefully some cheerier photos!

 

I forgot to say

........ that I wouldn't be here today, as of course we are at the Christmas Fair!

I hope you have a great weekend, and hopefully on Monday I will have tales to tell of selling lots and lots!!  Love Anne

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

....... smell a lot like Christmas!!  Yes, somewhat later than most, I have baked the Christmas cake!  The fruit had been soaking in brandy for two days, and I assembled the other ingredients this morning

 

but before I started baking, we popped out for lunch at Lochcarron.  Malcolm had lovely thick lentil soup

 

and I had Moroccan chicken - deliciously spicy.  The thick slice of bread was very tasty too

 

I have made the Christmas cake so often, I only need to consult the recipe for the amount of each ingredient, not the method.  So it was soon in the oven, and the delightful smell of Christmas was wafting through the house.  After taking it out of the oven, I had already taken the brown paper collar off before I remembered to take a photo

 

oh yum, a thing of perfect beauty!  Over the next couple of weeks it will be fed more brandy, before it is iced

 

yesterday afternoon, I made a start to quilting the reindeer wallhanging

 

after quilting the main body of the quilt with a little loopy meander, I stitched in the ditch round the border

 

and then made a start to stitching straight lines on the borders.  I hope to finish it tomorrow

 

I keep forgetting to show you my little Sue Spargo needle case, that I have been working on at patch'n'chat.  Having stitched all the pieces in place

 

I have made a start to the embellishment, stitching round the wings with bullion knots and coral stitch

 

then working on one of the flowers, with French knots in the centre, and over-wrapped bullion knots round the edge

 

those of you who have been reading this nonsense rubbish drivel informative and entertaining blog for a while, may remember that over the years I have suffered from bouts of nasty pain in the right hand side of my face.  During the summer, I saw an ENT consultant at our local hospital, as I have a funny lump inside my ear which my GP might be a factor in the pain.  The consultant said that it wasn't to blame, and that he thought that I had trigeminal neuralgia.  But as that comes under neurology, I had to wait for another appointment, to see a neurology consultant.  That happened yesterday, and he confirmed the diagnosis.  So it has only taken ten years to finally find out what is the cause of the pain!  There isn't any real treatment for it, although he did recommend a drug that I have not yet been given (the ones I have had so far have nasty side-effects) but he told me about a last resort operation that I could have, but as it would involve drilling a hole in my skull, I'll pass on that!!

Busy,busy, busy!

I have been in denial about Christmas, but I now have to admit that it is getting close, and I had better get on with my sewing!  I finished the hand stitching on the Santa wallhanging

 

added the borders

 

then layered it up, ready for quilting

 

and I have been working on this little wallhanging, which I started last year! 

 

I had a slight oops when I was quilting it, as I didn't notice that the backing fabric had become folded over

 

fortunately I was able to snip the caught bit off

 

as it was at the edge, where it would be trimmed off

 

the next job was to put the binding on

 

I finished the hand stitching of the binding on Saturday, when I was at Abbey Row with some of the members of Abbey Quilters, but I haven't taken a photo yet.  There was lots of sewing being done.  Lorraine has stitched another stunning hexie quilt

 

we have a new member, Margaret, who was working on her very first quilt!

 

Rineke put together this quilt top for Linus

 

Sandra, who of course as well as being our Chairman is also our lovely Linus lady, had all sorts of fabric for us to choose from to make Linus quilts.  I loved this panel with elephants, and the spotty fleece is perfect for the back

 

and of course I had to have this panel with big machines! 

 

of course you know that we quilters love our food, and we were delighted when Val popped in with some of her wonderful baking, despite the fact that she couldn't join us, as she had to work.  First, her fabulous cheese scones

 

then a deliciously sticky carrot cake

 

Elaine brought in this sweet confection ...... she said that if we liked it, she had made it, and if we didn't like it, she bought it on Friday evening at a Christmas Fair!

 

I have kept the best sewing for last ........ recently at patch'n'chat, Margaret asked me if I would quilt a wallhanging for her, as she wants to give it to a friend for Christmas.  She brought it in on Friday ....... isn't it FABULOUS!!!!!

I'll never hear the end of it .......

....... at the moment, Malcolm is (slightly) in the lead with votes for his wreath!!

 

I am in the middle of an enormous update on my laptop, and everything is as slow as treacle, so there is no point in trying to do a normal post.  So I will just wish you all a very good weekend, and I'll be back on Monday with lots of sewing!  Love Anne 

Two very different lunches

Yesterday, after arriving at the flat, we walked over to town for a bite of lunch.  I ordered a tuna, cheese and gherkin ciabatta (unfortunately they didn't have any gherkins!), and Malcolm ordered cheese and ham.  Then as we often do, we swapped half (and I gave Malcolm the tomato from my salad)

 

back at the flat, there was activity on the dockside, as a lorry was unloaded

 

with not one, but two, machines whizzing about

 

this seagull was keeping an eye on proceedings

 

but these seagulls were too busy gossiping to be bothered with what the humans were doing

 

this ship was far too large to come into the dock, and sailed on down the coast

 

I was somewhat worried by this little boat on the far side of the river, as it had a definite list!

 

they say the camera never lies, but these photos contradict that.  This is the scene as the moon came up at teatime yesterday

 

but when I zoomed in on the moon, the camera saw things somewhat differently

 

a little bit later, some cloud appeared

 

but again, when I zoomed in, the camera saw the scene differently

 

today, we had an invitation to a very posh lunch at Eshott Hall Hotel ...... it was so posh I couldn't take photos of the food, but I can assure you that it was delicious!  Then after lunch, we thought we were just having a demonstration on how to make a Christmas wreath, by Christine, a florist from Lavenders Blue in Morpeth.  But after her demonstration, we were all given a wreath to decorate!!  The hotel gardeners had gathered lots of greenery from the grounds, and we were each given a goodie bag of decorations.  So, who produced the better wreath, Malcolm or me?!  I'm not going to tell you which wreath is which, I will just ask you to leave a comment  saying which one you prefer.  Bragging rights for months to come are at stake here ......

Stuck up!

I have been gluing a lot of things together over the weekend (including, at one point, two of my fingers!).  Some things had to be re-glued, as the first glue used wasn't strong enough, but eventually I had produced ........

sea glass boats

 

beach combing paperweights

 

a beach combing scene on slate

 

sea-washed brick paperweights

 

stone stack paperweights

 

slate and sea glass hearts

 

a cute stone dog

 

another cute stone dog

 

these have now had hanging loops of ribbon added

 

after I took this photo of the copper Christmas trees, I thought they looked a bit plain

 

so I added these little presents (they are actually buttons!)

 

the studio was somewhat messy by the time I finished!

 

Malcolm made the driftwood stars, raiding my string and ribbon stashes, and using some of the little boxes - I have been making more of them

 

when we got up on Saturday, there was a sprinkling of snow

 

and the bird bath was frozen for the first time this winter

 

so I was very glad to have my stove to keep me warm ....... I took the photo at the end of the afternoon when it was dark, and turned the light off to highlight the flames

 

then, when I went out to shut the back storm doors, I saw these sheep on the skyline, with the sunset behind them

 

yesterday morning we popped out to get the Sunday papers, and to have a cuppa ....... and a wonderful cheese scone!

 

to finish ...... on Saturday, Malcolm was doing a bit of tidying in the garden, and found these grapes  Sadly, still not enough to make wine!