frayed at the edge

I was nearly Hitchcock!

These mornings when I go out for my walk, I am greeted by lots of swallows ..... they are gathering before they set off south for the winter.  They are very noisy, and constantly swooping through the air, so this morning I thought I would try to film them.  I've never inserted a video clip into the blog before ....... and I won't be doing it this time, as it was taking forever to upload (next time I'll make the film much shorter!)  However, I can show you them sitting on the wire

 

 

There was a beautiful clear blue sky this morning, full of contrails .... this one made me smile - did the pilot change his mind about where he was going?

 

 

When I saw this tractor and trailer coming towards me, I made sure I stepped as far back on to the verge as possible!

 

 

This afternoon, I headed out to the studio to start making something on the new sewing machine.  It didn't take me long to decide to use this pattern ...... I saw it recently on Thimbleanna's blog and just had to have it!  I was delighted last week when the pattern arrived

 

 

I like to keep my patterns intact, so I photocopied the pattern sheet, stuck it to a piece of card and cut out the bits

 

 

Then of course, I had to choose some fabric ....... I decided to use the beautiful fabric that I bought at the NEC ....... a bit extravagant perhaps?

 

 

I drew the head, ears, paws and feet onto a folded piece of calico

 

 

I set the machine up ready to sew - after picking the stitch, the screen showed me the settings to use

 

 

Sewing round curves is not one of my strongpoints - I am better with straight seams, but eventually all the pieces were sewn and cut out with a small seam allowance

 

 

Now, I have a confession to make ......... I should have then turned all those pieces right side out and stuffed them, ready to use when I stitched together the body.  BUT ....... I sat down in the summerhouse to have a cuppa with Malcolm, and picked up the book I have been reading.  I was almost at the end ..... and couldn't put it down until I finished it!  So you can blame Stephen King and his latest book 'Under the Dome' for not seeing any more sewing!!

 

While I was having fun in the studio, Malcolm was hard at work in the garden.  The pergola has become completely overgrown by a clematis, honeysuckle and climbing rose, so he had decided to cut everything back.  Having made a start yesterday, he finished the job this afternoon

 

 

I'm off to the dentist tomorrow afternoon to have my troublesome tooth out ....... I will have to practise my deep breathing exercises to stay calm!!

   

 

   

 

 

Festival of Quilts

Sorry not to have done a post yesterday, but the hotel we stayed in last night wanted £15 for internet use (it was free in the hotel in Chester!).  This is just a quick post, as we had a long journey home, including crawling along in a huge tailback on the motorway and coping with torrential rain!

So yes, we went to the Fetsival of Quilts (I will sort out all the correct guesses later and pick a winner for the little prize that I bought at the Festival).  It was very busy, as you can see from this photo, with a great atmosphere as people oohed and aahed at the quilts

 

 

Of course I would love to show you photos of the quilts, but as always I can't because of copyright issues ...... but there were lots of stunning quilts, including some of the smallest miniatures I have ever seen (even Malcolm was impressed with them)

 

Tomorrow's post will as ever be my Shadow Shot Sunday (yes, I know that it's Saturday, but it will be Sunday in Australia, from where Tracy organises things) so you will have to wait until Mondayfor the rest of our adventure (including something very special that I bought!!)  But I'll finish with a photo to tell you where we went this morning.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love, Anne

Anne and Malcolm's Big Adventure!

We set off bright and early (well, it was 9am, so fairly early) for the first stage of our trip.  We headed across the country to Dumfries and Galloway, then over the Border in to Cumbria.  Then ... after driving on single carriageway roads ..... motorway

 

 

and of course no motorway would be complete without miles of traffic cones .... and not a workman in sight!

 

 

After about three and a hlaf hours, we arrived at the first destination of our trip - the city of Chester.  We had a quick bite of lunch, then set out to walk round the city walls. (unfortunately the weather didn't co-operate. so no lovely sunshiney shots!)

 

 

This was our first view of the walls, looking up from street level

 

 

then looking down to the street

 

 

I laughed when I read the wording on this building, as it now houses a dentist - I think most people would have more fear of the dentist than the Lord

 

 

Further on , we saw this modern doocot - complete with pigeons!

 

 

Everywhere we went, we saw strange painted rhinos (I guess it's some sort of street art), but I'll just show you one just now, and save the others for a fiture post, as I'm just doing a quick post from our hotel room before we head out for dinner

 

 

Tomorrow we will be up early to travel to Birmingham ..... but why are we going there?  If you think you know, leave a comment and I will choose someone at random from the correct answers to give a little prize to (connected of course to where we are going!!)

 

ps - I hope to be able to post again tomorrow, but if not, we'll be home again on Friday.

 

Get up lazybones!

For once that wasn't me talking to Malcolm as I headed out for my walk, but what I thought the standing horse was saying to the other one!

 

 

....... and the friendly horse which usually pops its head over the hedge was having a lazy start to the day as well

 

 

The new house being built down at my turning point is coming along at a great rate ...... I am fascinated by this octagonal room on the front

 

 

On the way back up the hill, I had to search to find a raspberry ..... there are only a few left now

 

 

But never mind, soon there will be lots of plump, juicy brambles

 

 

Everytime I pass this gap in the hedge, I am startled by these green humps - have strange animals invaded?  Fortunately not, it is silage (animal feed) tightly wrapped in plastic, waiting to be collected and stacked for the winter.

 

 

I took this photo last week, but it never made it into a post.  The old donkey took exception when I walked past his field - I think you can see from his posture that he was vociferous in his objections!

 

 

We will be heading off early tomorrow morning on an adventure.  We will be away two nights ..... we should have internet access in the hotel, but if we don't then you will have to wait until Friday to find out all about our trip!

 

 

 

The start of a new season!

Don't worry, I don't mean that autumn has come early, but that the new football season has started (yawn).  So now when I come in from the studio on Saturday afternoons, Malcolm will be watching a programme in which several retired footballers sit watching matches on monitors and getting over excited at missed chances and bad tackles.  Then on Sunday afternoons, there is usually a match on ...... it's all about as exciting as watching my fingernails grow!!  Having said it's not yet autumn, I could have been persuaded when out this morning that it is well on the way.  It was very misty - so misty that when I got to my turning point, the hills had disappeared!!

 

 

Last year when there were lots of berries in the hedgerows, I said to Malcolm that it was a sign of a hard winter to come ..... he pooh-poohed that as an old wives' tale ..... then we had the worst winter in 40 years!  Oh dear, there are lots of hawthorn berries

 

 

and far more rosehips than last year

 

 

The heavy mist meant that these spiderwebs were visible in the hawthorn hedge

 

 

You can see the droplets of moisture on this one (the photo should enlarge if you click on  it)

 

 

The swallows are starting to gather in the mornings and evenings - a sign that soon they will head off south

 

 

Yesterday morning we went for a walk, then headed to The Main Street Trading Company for a cuppa (and a cake!).  Of course I had to have a browse round the books ..... and yes, I bought one.  (Actually I bought two - the other is for Malcolm's birthday next month)

 

 

There are lots of fabulous projects .... including making your own knitting yarn!

 

 

Much as I am enjoying knitting Maia, it does need a lot of concentration, so I thought I would start a pair of socks to do as well.  I chose a pair from this book

 

 

unusually, the cuff is knitted first, then stitches are picked up along one edge and the socks then knitted traditionally on four needles

 

 

ps - I was at the dentist this afternoon.  There had been a hiatus in my treatment, as my lovely dentist a) fell off her bike and broke her arm and b) decided to go back home to Greece.  So this was my first appointment with my new dentist.  He was very thorough, poking and prodding and taking xrays.  The outcome is that I need to have a tooth out, a bit of reconstruction on a tooth which has broken and the usual thorough cleaning (followed of course by the pain of the bill).

 

 

 

Cragside : part 2

After seeing round the house, we adjourned to the Tearoom for a bite of lunch (very tasty but a bit pricey!), then headed off for a walk round some of the forty miles of paths (I think we will have to go back quite a few times before we walk all of them!)

 

looking up at the house from the rockery

 

 

the iron bridge (it wobbles a bit when you walk on it!!)

 

 

a much older bridge!

 

 

no barriers, just a polite request

 

 

I think this might be an orchid, but I haven't been able to find out for sure

 

 

back at the house, I took first this photo ........

 

 

then this one of the doorstep .... quilt blocks perhaps?

 

 

I took this from the car as we drove home - the purple on the hill is the start of the heather flowering - soon there will be a blaze of colour all around the Borders.

 

We hope to go back before the house closes for the winter, as there is a walk to see the autumn colours - no doubt lots of photos will be taken!!

 

Cragside : part 1

We have been members of the National Trust for some time, but we haven't made full use of our membership, so today we decided to rectify that!  We headed for Cragside in Northumberland ........ but we had a couple of delays on the way.  The first was a heavily laden timber lorry

 

 

but we didn't really mind having to stop until these sheep went past

 

 

This was our first view of the house, a magnificent Victorian house built for Lord Armstrong.  Its greatest claim to fame is that it was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power

 

 

This information board tells you of the other wonders of the house

 

Unusually, photography is allowed in the house, but no flash, so some of the photos are a little bit dark.  If I had lived/worked in the house, I would have made the butler my best friend - check out all the champagne bottles in his pantry!

 

 

When we walked into this room, we were stunned by the magnificence of this fireplace

 

 

But there were small details to catch the eye as well - like this exquisite wallpaper

 

 

Of course, the main theme of this blog is craft, so I was delighted to see several patchwork quilts. Unfortunately, the lighting in these rooms was even lower to protect the fabrics, so this is the best photo I managed to take

 

 

You know one of my obsessions is post boxes, so imagine my delight to discover that the house had one of its own in the hall

 

 

This next photo is for Malcolm, who likes both woodcarving and owls!

 

 

It has been hard to pick which photos to share with you .... tomorrow I'll show you some of the grounds - there are 40 miles of paths, so we didn't quite manage to walk all of them!  In the meantime, you can read more about the house here, here, here and lastly, here.  I know that's a lot of link, but they all have different bits of information, so it's worth having a look at all of them!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you mean .... 'on the way back'?

On Sunday morning we decided to go for a walk .... so of course we headed for our favourite place for Sunday walks.  There are several different walks, and there are two we usually choose, but this time we decided to try a new one.  The first thing I spotted to take a photo of was this oak tree - the leaves are already turning

 

 

This crop looked as if it is ready to be harvested.  We weren't sure what it is, but when Malcolm had a closer look, he found that it has lots of little seeds, so we think it is rape.  Given how small the seeds are, it must take a great deal of rape to produce oil

 

 

We would have gone through this gate, but for some reason it is several feet from the path!

 

 

When we passed this (very) large boulder, Malcolm thought it would look good in the garden.  He said I could just pop it in my backpack on the way back ........ excuse me, what do you mean on the way back, I thought all these were circular walks?  Oh no, we have to turn round and retrace our steps, he said, as we headed down a rather steep slope .....

 

 

And now ..... the mysterious tower.  Malcolm pointed and said 'I wonder what that is'

 

 

'What?' I said.  'That' he said

 

 

We scrambled up the hill to have a better look and discovered that it is a doocot  There was nowhere to stand to get clear photos, as it is fenced off due to its delapidated state, so these are the best I could manage

 

 

If you look through the door, you can just see the pigeon holes on the far wall

 

 

I haven't been able to find out anything about this doocot (Malcolm even spent some time online this morning looking at old maps), but I did find a photo of this one at Mertoun House  - it's not too far from here, but we didn't know about it!

 

 

After such a lovely walk on Sunday, the weather has gone somewhat downhill and this morning I got soaked on my walk.  But the strange thing was the rain stopped just short of the house, so Malcolm was a bit puzzled when I staggered in the door dripping wet!  However there was a brief break in the rain to allow me to take this photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Keeping the boys happy!

The Gnome Brothers were very unhappy when their sisters got the first toile cushions, so they were delighted when I finished theirs yesterday!

 

 

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to have a proper go at wet felting, so I got out my book and assembled all the ingredients

 

 

Usually, ofcourse, I would show you photos of all the stages ..... but my hands were wet and soapy all the time!  When I have another attempt I'll have to make sure that Malcolm is available to take the photos.  After much rubbing and rolling, this is what I produced

 

 

When I did finally dry my hands, I took this photo to let you see who was keeping me company in the kitchen - a very young-looking George Clooney!

 

 

When I took my little piece of felt out to the studio this afternoon, I had a play using some bits I had felted some weeks ago ...... I produced this flower, with the 'wrong' side on show

 

 

I actually cheated a bit - I held the flower in place on the back with one of those plastic clips that hold new shirts on the card packaging!

 

 

Yesterday morning we went for a walk - come back tomorrow and I'll tell you more about this building we found hidden in the woods!

 

 

 

Fabulous fabric from France

There was a distinct nip in the air this morning when I went for my walk .... we are definitely into late summer!  The farmers are still busy - this field was cut for hay yesterday

 

 

The crops have been harvested from this field, and the straw baled

 

 

This afternoon I made a start to my cushions using my lovely piece oftoile fabric, which was originally made in France.  The first job was to disassemble the sample curtain

 

 

I then cut the pieces for the back of the cushion

 

 

To make sure I hemmed the correct edges and put the matching pieces together, I used different coloured pins on the edges to be stitched

 

 

Despite the dozens (and dozens) of threads that I have, I had trouble finding a brown one - I eventually unearthed this rather old reel

 

 

I like to listen to music when I am sewing, so there was a slight pause while I put on another cd - this one was pure nostalgia - I used to love watching Ally McBeal (and I cried when Billy died!!)

 

 

Having hemmed the pieces for the back, I then had to decide which pictures to use for the fronts.  Having picked two, I then had to mark cutting lines.  I used my twelve and a half inch square ruler to centre the picture, then added another ruler to give me my line to mark

 

 

These are the two pictures I chose

 

 

The first cushion pinned and ready to sew

 

 

After stitching, I turned the cuchion cover right side out and ironed it well.  I wanted to topstitch it an inch from the edge, so I put a quilting guide on the sewing machine

 

 

I only had time this afternoon to finish one of the covers - I should get the other one done over the weekend.  They are for the big chairs in the back lounge - I am pleased with how this one looks .....

 

 

....... and the Gnome Sisters like the new look for their chair!!