frayed at the edge

Thoroughly spoiled!

 

Yesterday was Mothers' Day, and Stuart as usual sent a cheeky card

 

as he was unable to visit (he and Alison will be down next weekend instead), Malcolm stood in for him and spoiled me all day.  I had a cup of tea in bed, then despite a dusting of snow ......

 

..... we headed out for breakfast.  I had the most delicious French toast with bacon and maple syrup

 

while Malcolm had scrambled egg and goat's cheese, with toast

 

as we left the coffee shop, I was given a little bunch of daffodils, which was a lovely surprise!

 

back home, Malcolm slaved all afternoon making a special dinner for me (ok, he had been to M&S for a meal deal!!).  Exquisite duck legs, cooked sous vide, with rosemary potatoes, to which he added green beans and carrots

 

and the pudding - oh my, a deconstructed millionaire's shortbread

 

and now, back to Saturday, and some sewing.  I added the next border to Mrs Billings

 

then made a start to appliqueing the small hexies

 

this is part one of the stitcheries - there are eight parts in all, but none of them shows a photo of the completed quilt, just a construction diagram

 

as well as the 32 stitcheries, there are 62 blocks with patterned fabric centres (I was going cross-eyed counting them, so decided to number them!)

 

I've made a start to cutting the necessary hexies (and look at all those lovely scraps)

 

and this morning I managed to track down a photo of the finished quilt on the Rosalie Quinlan website.  I think instead of having the hexies sticking out at the tio and bottom, I will put in half-hexies

 

meanwhile Malcolm was in the garage sorting out wood from his stash for his piece of furniture

 

there are serious power tools involved in this project!

 

and to finish ........ lambs!!  These little dark ones were in the field across the road when we came back from Berwick on Saturday morning

 

then this morning there were these teeny tiny white ones

 

the last two photos are a bit blurred, as these two lambs were quite a distance away - but they are so cute I had to include them

 

The strange case of the missing coat hanger!

When I read Meredithe's post this morning about covering a coat hanger, it reminded me of a lovely blue velvet coat hanger which my Mum had given me many, many years ago.  I looked through all my clothes hanging in my wardrobe and couldn't find it.  Where was it?  I eventually found it in the back of Malcolm's wardrobe!!

 

I heard you asking what was that on the hook above the coat hanger ....... it is a tiny macaron case, which my lovely Aussie quilting friend GJ sent me a kit to make

 

after I had indulged in my usual Wednesday morning soak in the bath (complete with book, mug of hot chocolate and chocolate biscuit), we headed out to Melrose for a bite of lunch.  I was rather taken with these rusty chickens

 

and I think Malcolm was glad that this shop was shut so that I couldn't add to my owl collection!

 

after considering several places, we ended up in our favourite Rhymer's Fayre for lunch

 

Malcolm tucked into the "super" toastie - stuffed with ham, cheese, pickle, tomato and onions

 

while I had the tuna melt - tuna, cheese, sweetcorn and mayo

 

and of course we have to have a photo of the Abbey!

 

back home, I had finished another little knitted blanket for Linus

 

with, just for Amy, a crocheted edge!

 

the Linus bundle is looking good

 

and so to the fabric that I bought yesterday.  As you know, Borderland Fabrics, where we go for patch'n'chat, was flooded recently.  The sad news is that Annette has decided to close the shop ........ but the good news is that she is having a major sale first, with 25% off almost everything.  So I popped in yesterday, and this is what I came home with

 

I have already used some of the red fabric to put a border on the black and red quilt

 

which I couldn't show you on the design wall because I had started another quilt.  I had cut these strips years ago from a pack of fat quarters, but then I had realised that I had turned the fat quarters the wrong way, and the strips were the wrong length for what I had in mind

 

so I sewed them together in pairs, then cross cut them into squares

 

I put them up on the design wall

 

then today I cut squares from the white fabric that I bought yesterday

 

and decided that I would put circles, made from the scraps, in the white squares - I prepped this one to see how it would look

 

this afternoon I stitched the last of the large hexies in place on Mrs B, which had to be left over the ironing board, because of the new quilt on the design wall

 

and back in the house, there is another Linus blanket on the needles

Knit one, stitch one

First up today is the animal Linus quilt.  Having  machine stitched the binding on the front, I sat down to watch a dvd while I hand stitched the binding on the back

 

all finished,a lovely bright quilt, which has cosy fleece on the back

 

then it was on to the first of the two brushed cotton baby quilts.  Having stitched curves in the small squares, I was sitting wondering what to do in the big squares when  Malcolm came into the studio.  "What will I do in the big squares?" I asked.  "Straight lines" he replied.  "Moi, stitch straight lines, I don't think so!"

 

but I changed to the walking foot, stuck on a strip of masking tape as a guide .......

 

....... and stitched straight lines

 

ok, he was right, the straight lines look good

 

so I used them on the other one as well

 

the next job was to darn in all the ends, so I got out my new easy-theading needles

 

they have a slot in the top that you pull the thread through, which saves a lot of time if you have lots of ends to sew in

 

ends all dealt with, I folded the backing fabric out of the way, and trimmed off the excess wadding

 

then I trimmed the backing fabric to an inch bigger all round than the quilt top.  I folded the backing fabric over to the front and stitched it down to make false binding ...... and forgot to take a photo of that stage!

 

here are the two finished quilts

 

and here are the latest two knitted blankets

 

along with the blanket I had already finished, that's a nice pile to go to Linus!

 

I prepped the next four stitcheries

 

then pinned the big hexies in place in the remaining two borders

 

and pinned a strip of small hexagons in place to see how they looked 

 

I may have bought some fabric this morning ...... I'll tell you about it tomorrow!

 

Crash, bang, wallop!

You will have to wait until the end of the post to discover what went crash, bang, wallop ..... but we will begin with sunrise in Berwick this morning

 

we walked over to town later in the morning, and stopped on the old bridge to take photos of a heron (and his reflection)

 

and a last look at the beautiful blue Berwick sky

 

so, on to the promised sewing.  I have finished another stitchery (only four to go!!)

 

I have added a second row of large hexies to Mrs Billings

 

and I've done more fmq on the animal quilt, working a sort of curvy design on the chicken border

 

and spirals on the outer border

 

and in one of those little serendipitous moments, when I turned over, the spirals had outlined the eyes on two of the owls!

 

then it was on to the red and black blocks.  I stitched together the top left hand corner

 

then the top right hand corner

 

when I stitched the bottom left hand corner and put it back on the design wall, an idea was starting to form .......

 

and by the time  had stitched the last section, I knew what I would do next

 

I stitched a sashing strip between the two top sections

 

and having trimmed the block I made with the scrappy leftovers, I added a central strip

 

 

then added a sashing strip to the bottom two blocks and stitched it all together

 

this detail shows the fun fabric I used for the sashing

 

but now I have another pile of scrappy bits left over!

 

on Saturday afternoon, our lovely neighbour (the shoe shop owner) appeared at the back door of the studio.  As I walked round the table to open the door to talk to him, there was a bit of a rattle ..... then the aforementioned crash, bang wallop.  The lid had come off this tin on the top shelf

 

and some of the contents had landed on the lower shelf

 

and the rest had landed on the floor.  A thousand pre-cut paper hexies (a gift with a magazine) to be picked up ........

 

 

My few purchases

I really was quite restrained in my purchases on Friday.  First some new pins - I have used so many pinning the edges of the stitcheries that I had run of of pins this size.  These are lovely fine French pins

 

I was delighted to get these patterns at what I think are very reasonable prices

 

my biggest purchase was this new cutting mat.  Here it is sitting on the old mat, which shows round the edges

 

although both mats were sold as measuring 24" x 36", that is the overall size of the new mat, but the working area of the old mat

 

when I had popped through to the kitchen on Saturday night, two things caught my eye.  First, the light thrown by this little fishy wax burner

 

and second, this candle, which appears to be floating in the air, but is actually sitting on the kitchen table!

 

we had stayed at home for the weekend, as the weather wasn't very good, and when we went to Jedburgh yesterday for a walk, I decided to switch the camera to B&W, to go with the grey skies.  First, we have two views of the old bridge

 

this may need a little bit of refurbishment

 

unlike the house next door, which is for sale

 

and this recently refurbished one on the High Street is also for sale

 

this tiny window is in Mary Queen of Scots house

 

as is this stone detail

 

and is this Mary's ghost looking out of the window ........ or is it just my reflection (with Malcolm looking on)!

 

of course we have to have a couple of shots of the Abbey

 

then it is back to colour for the delicious cheese scone we shared after our walk

 

we came over to Berwick this afternoon, and I have just been hanging out the bedroom window to take this photo of the rising moon!

 

A grand day out

Maureen came over at nine this morning, and we set off, not in my little car, but in Malcolm's bigger and better car (thank you, dear, for lending it to me!).   We were off to the spring quilt show at Ingliston.  You know the form, I can't really show you the quilts because of copyright issues, so this is just a general view of quilts based on Church Saints

 

but then, what is this ....... our very own Kay Bell had a display of her quilts, and when I asked her if I could put some photos on the blog, she said of course I could (thank you Kay)

 

this is Kay's description of the white quilt

 

 

and this is her description of the lavender quilt above it 

 

I could quite happily have taken this one home with me

 

Kay makes it sound so easy!

 

I love the way the straight lines of the centre are softened by the applique

 

she doesn't mention the beautiful scalloped border!

 

unfortunately the lighting wasn't very good on this stunning quilt

 

Kay mentions her free-motion quilting

 

here is just a little sample of it

 

you now by now that when I go to the quilt show I have macaroni cheese and chips for lunch.  I was delighted that they have gone back to using proper plates, after serving it up in nasty polystyrene containers

 

I met up with so many friends that I think that I spent more time blethering than looking at the quilts!  All too soon it was time to head for home, but we stopped off at the garden centre for a cuppa, and we shared a rather tasty cherry and coconut scone

 

amazingly, I hardly bought anything ...... come back on Monday to see what I got!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

Scraps

After making the red and black blocks, I was left with a pile of scraps

 

so I started sewing them together

 

randomly adding bits

 

ending up with this block

 

but now I have scraps of the scraps!

 

today was orchid-watering day (I only water them once every two weeks) and I thought you might like to see which ones are flowering.  This one has only just started to flower 

 

a lovely pale flower with delicate markings

 

this one is darker

 

with much stronger markings

 

this one is a stronger yellow than it looks in the photos

 

the flowers are waxy looking

 

and now a very special treat - a guest photographer!  Stuart recently upgraded his camera (I am very envious) and took it out for a walk on Sunday.  He sent me these three photos, which he was particularly pleased with.  First an arty shot of a pine cone

 

next, an elegant swan

 

this is my favourite - a very sharp image of a robin

 

to finish - there was a bit of a commotion in the kitchen this afternoon, and this is what I found when I went to investigate.  I had left some tubs of home made soup to cool, before I put them in the freezer ........ and Malcolm had somehow knocked a pear out of the fruit bowl into one of the tubs.  As he went to clear up, I was, of course, shouting "leave it until I take a photo"!!

 

All gone!!

Hooray, when we got up this morning, the snow had gone, so we headed out for lunch at Lochcarron, in Selkirk.  I was delighted that they had Thai chicken soup on the menu today

 

while Malcolm chose their lentil soup - both of them were delicious, as was the sun-dried tomato bread

 

I haven't made much progress with my socks, as I don't take them to Berwick

 

but I've made good progress with my latest blanket for Linus, as I can work on it in the car on the way to and from Berwick, which amounts to two hours of knitting

 

on the sewing front, I have prepped another four stitcheries

 

I have also cut out the eight hexies I need for the remaining stitcheries

 

there has been more work on Mrs Billings - I have stitched together the remaining hexies for the other three large borders

this afternoon I got out a pile of small hexies which I had previously prepped

 

and laid some out on the narrow border

 

having stitched them together I found that I was one short!

 

as I so enjoy sitting stitching hexies, I decided to have a big bite at this project, and by the end of the afternoon had completed two rows

 

I have been having a sort out of our DVD collection, with a view to giving some of them to a charity shop when I have watched them for the second, third or even fourth time (having checked with Malcolm that he doesn't want to watch them again).  This afternoon's offering was the Minority Report, with Tom Cruise, who is not one of my favourite actors*, but it is a good film

 

we had a glorious sunset tonight - a nice change from recent grey skies!

 

please think of me tomorrow morning, when I have a dentist's appointment at 9am - much too early to endure such torture!!

* my favourite actor is, of course, George Clooney ...... closely followed by Robert Downey Jr.  I have gone off Johnny Depp recently - he seems to have turned a bit weird!  And of course there is the delicious British actor Richard Armitage - oh, those smouldering good looks, that deep brown voice - excuse me, I shall have to lie down now in a darkened room!!

 

 

Home alone

The phone rang just after eight this morning,  It was Maureen to say that she was poorly, and would have to go to the doctor, so she wouldn't be able to come over for our sewing day.  She was very upset to let me down at the last minute, but of course I didn't mind (I deny that I was thinking, oh good, more cake for me!!).  I had been expecting a day  of hand sewing, interspersed with cups of tea, biscuits and cake, and of course gossiping blethering erudite conversation.  So what did I do instead?  First, I pressed the latest knitted blanket for Linus

 

then while the table was clear, I layered up the two brushed cotton baby quilts, using my latest gadget

 

then I got organised to make more blocks for the black and red quilt (or is it red and black?).  I forgot to say that Abbey Quilters' exhibition is in July and I thought I ought to start making some quilts for it!!  I looked out these fabrics

 

and cut lots of strips

 

which I stitched together

 

by then it was time for lunch, and I headed into the house.  I often mention going out to the studio or into the house, so here is my journey from the house to the studio.  From the back door I cross the deck

 

then go past the garage 

 

round the summerhouse

 

and into the studio

 

I had my favourite home-alone lunch (Malcolm doesn't like it)

 

then it was back to work, cutting squares on the diagonal from the stitched-together strips

 

having cut four squares, I put them on the design wall

 

and added some of the black and red squares

 

then I stitched together more strips and cross cut them into squares, and cut squares from the red fabrics

 

and turned them into more squares

 

by the end of the afternoon, I had this on the design wall

 

and now, the moment you have been waiting for, my Friday cake!  This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven yesterday

 

the recipe says it can be served with or without butter, so I cut my piece in half to try it both ways ...... as I don't eat a lot of butter, I would be quite happy to eat it without it.  It is a lovely moist fruit cake, although it has no fat in it.  I would say it is a cross between a traditional fruit cake and a dumpling

 

there is snow in the forecast for the weekend, but hopefully we will still get a walk on the beach.  And of course it is Valentine's Day on Sunday, so we will be having a romantic dinner with a glass or two of fizz.  Have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

 

I baked a cake!

Yes, it's true, I baked a cake today!  As there is no patch'n'chat tomorrow, I asked Maureen if she would like to come over for a sewing day, and rashly said I would bake a cake for us.  Yesterday I looked out a recipe, and as directed soaked the fruit overnight, ready to make the cake this morning

 

we had a little piece with our afternoon cuppa (just to check that it was edible!) but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see how it turned out!  I thought I should also tidy the studio, so that we had slightly more than a square foot of table to work on.  First, the two "before" photos

 

ok, there is a third "before" photo, but it is a bit embarrassing to show the state of the carpet

 

after a bit of tidying, and quite a lot of vacuuming, here are the "after " photos

 

did you notice that I had a little play with the black and red blocks?

 

when I was doing the housework this afternoon, the sun was shining in the bathroom window on my little box of succulents

 

but the succulents aren't quite what they seem to be - if you look in the centres you will see wicks.  Yes, they are candles!  And this last photo doesn't have a dirty mark across it!  It is the telephone wire on the other side of the road, which is out of focus behind the sparrow!