frayed at the edge

Busy stitching!

I have been busy stitching away over the last few weeks,including making some samples for the next Abbey Quilters meeting, where committee members are going to give hints and tips, and demonstrate gadgets.  I started with making binding, then stitching it on, but I have shown you that several times, so we'll start with making bias stems.  The first version uses a bias bar.  This makes a heavy stem, but it wastes material

 

I started by cutting a 1" strip on the bias, which makes a stem a quarter of an inch wide using this method

 

folding the strip in half, wrong sides together, I stitched it just a fraction over a quarter of an inch from the fold

 

then comes the wasteful bit, as you have to trim away half the seam allowance.  I have tried cutting a narrower strip, but it is too fiddly to stitch such a small seam allowance

 

the bias bar is then pushed through the tube, and the seam centred

 

the last stage is to press the tube as you slide it off the bar

 

I used this method years ago when I made this small quilt

 

the second method is using bias tape makers, which are available in different sizes

 

again I cut a 1" strip on the bias, but the difference this time is that it made a stem half an inch wide.  You simply insert the strip into the maker, then draw the maker back along the strip as you press the folded edges

 

this is my preferred method of making binding, it's quick and economical with the fabric

 

I used this method when I made these two samples ...... it was only when I went to use the photo that I realised that I should have put the pieces the other way round, so that winter, spring, summer and autumn would have been in the right order!

 

the third method is for when you want your stem to come to a point.  Again, I cut a strip on the bias.  I folded it in half and pinned it in a curve on a piece of background fabric

 

I would normally hand stitch the seam, but to save time I did it on the machine.  I started with a wide seam, then gradually narrowed it to a point

 

like the first method, this one is also wasteful of fabric, as you have to trim the seam allowance

 

after trimming the seam allowance, you fold the stem over, and stitch it in place.  I have just pinned it, so that I can show what to do

 

you can see the finished stems on this piece, which I made some years ago

 

I then thought I ought to make a start to this wallhanging, which several of the group are making

 

it didn't take long to make the first two leaf blocks

 

and then the next two blocks

 

then there was a slight oops, as I realised that I should have made three leaf blocks!

 

after piecing the remaining blocks, I put them in their places on the design wall

 

and realised that there was a major oops!!  I had misread the pattern, and made the leaf blocks too big.  What to do - I could make another three, or I could pochle* the pieces of background fabric which link the pieced blocks together.  So I started by sewing the bottom row together, which gave me the width to work to

 

then fitted the other pieces in

 

I added the applique pieces, using fusible web.  They will be stitched with buttonhole stitch

 

I have also been working away on the stitcheries when we have been over at the flat, and have completed another three

 

*the lovely word pochle has various meanings, including to cheat (particularly at cards), but in this instance it means to fudge or fiddle the sizes to make it all fit together

 

and just to return briefly to the snow ....... I wasn't the only one stuck in the snow on Friday

 

this photo from one of Saturday's newspapers shows the village of Denholm, which I drove through on my way home.  I have never seen such big snowflakes!

 

although it was raining rather than snowing when we went out on Saturday (in Malcolm's car, which shrugs off bad weather!) it was still very cold

 

and to finish on a happier note - the first sconnage of the year!  An exceedingly delicious cheese scone

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

What better way to wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016, than with some braw laddies in kilts!  From left to right, they are Fraser, Paul, Stuart and Brian.  Stuart has known Fraser and Paul for over twenty years (they were at school together) and he was at university with Brian

 

we had a lovely early Christmas celebration with Stuart and Alison, then we had our usual lazy Christmas Day, watching some good films on tv, eating chocolates and drinking a glass of two of wine, then tucking into a delicious dinner cooked by Malcolm.  

Stuart&Alison and Malcolm know what my favourite toiletries are ...... and bought me the same set!

 

Malcolm and I had a chuckle when we opened our presents ....... not only had we given each other the same car air fresheners, but we had both cut the price off the same way!

 

we also gave each other a map from the Berwick Tourist Information Centre

 

but for some reason I didn't give Malcolm a cute little owl .....

 

....... which opens to reveal a pot of lavender-scented hand cream

 

and now I can reveal the secret Christmas sewing!  First, a Christmas lap quilt for Alison

 

and a Star Wars lap quilt for Stuart ...... he has grown up with Star Wars, and has already seen the latest film

 

on the Wednesday before Christmas we were over in Berwick, and popped into the Garden Centre to see the donkeys ...... who looked rather bored!

 

and to finish ....... when Maureen gave me my Christmas present, she said there was a little extra present - something which she had seen in a shop window in Edinburgh, and had promptly thought of me.  She said she knew it would make me smile ......

 

...... a lovely little tin with shortbread in it - and one of those nasty beasties on the front!!  I didn't just smile, I laughed out loud ....... and I am now plotting my revenge!

 

 

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!!

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!!!!!

Hands up .......

....... if you want one of these!!  Maria brought her puppy, Lily, to patch'n'chat this afternoon, and she is so cute there was not a lot of sewing done as we played with her

 

Maria told us that Lily is almost blind, but as dogs rely more on smell and hearing, it is not as great a handicap as it would be in a human.  This is Maureen trying to get her to turn towards the camera

 

a lot of photos turned out like this!

 

when we went through for our afternoon cuppa, I was allowed to look after Lily.  Maureen promptly took the camera and started snapping

 

after we had finished our cuppa, Maria took this photo of me with her baby

 

but I did get some work done!  I made a start to a Santa wallhanging, which is to be a Christmas present

 

I gradually assembled the pieces

 

I did get all the pieces in place and started stitching ....... but I forgot to take another photo (I wonder why?!).  But I do have another piece of sewing to share with you - I forgot to take my knitting with me last weekend, so I finished another stitchery - that's 23 done!

 

and of course we mustn't forget the Friday cake, a lovely rich gingerbread

 

we're staying home this weekend, as we want to get everything organised for the Christmas Fair (it's in two weeks time!!).  Snow has been mentioned in the weather forecast, but hopefully we won't have any.  Whether you are freezing in the Northern Hemisphere, or enjoying the sun in the Southern one, I hope you have a great weekend, love Anne 

Some serious crafting!

Before we get into the crafting, here is the finished jelly roll quilt (which a certain bear perched on the pillows didn't want to part with!)

 

my first crafting effort yesterday was a straightforward one.  I had bought some lovely organic scented soaps from the Green Shop in Berwick and looked out these scallop shells to put them in

 

I tied some raffia round the shells

 

and added little bits of driftwood

 

my next project was slightly more taxing, as it involved copper foil and cookie cutters

 

it took a bit of effort, but in the end I was pleased with my little tree, which is the first of four that I cut out

 

once I have given them the verdigris treatment and embellished them, I will mount them on pieces of driftwood

 

you will probably have seen pictures like these - they are in lots of craft shops and are all over Pinterest.  This was just a trial run, but when I do them properly, I will stick the stones in place and get Malcolm to do the arty additions, given my lack of drawing skills!

 

I also started building some little stone stacks, which I will glues together

 

meanwhile, Malcolm has been making more boats

 

he has also been making clocks

 

and there is a pile of half done clocks sitting by the stove, to make sure the driftwood is fully dry (not content with having the garage to work in, I think he is making a take-over move on my studio!)

 

after all that crafting, my thoughts turned to a sweet treat, and I decided to make some chocolate fudge

 

I started by melting 250g of butter with 500g of dark chocolate and two teaspoons of vanilla

 

then added the tin of condensed milk

 

after mixing in the tasty bits, I put the fudge in a tray, then put it in the fridge to set

 

this morning I cut it into squares, and set aside some to take with me to patch'n'chat

 

at teatime this afternoon, as well as the fudge and Annette's fruit dumpling .......

 

....... Betty had made apple cake.  Maureen joined me in the arduous task of tasting everything, purely so that I could use such words as delicious and scrumptious!!

 

the apple cake was so good it deserves a close-up

 

the weather forecast for the weekend isn't that good, so if you fancy a new blog to read, do pop over and read Jenny and Lucy's blog here.  They have got off to a very good start, and I am sure you will enjoy it!  I hope to make some progress with my brioche knitting!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

 

 

In a bind

Yesterday morning, I got organised to put the binding on the jelly roll quilt

 

this is a detail of the quilting

 

the first job was to trim the edges

 

the next job was to cut the strips for the binding

 

then stitch all the strips together, using a diagonal seam - I used to draw a pencil line to follow, but I have now done this so often I just do it by eye

 

I trimmed off the triangles, lining up the seam on the quarter-inch line on the ruler

 

and pressed the seams open

 

I folded the binding in half and pressed it

 

after stitching the binding on, the last job was to join the ends

 

I left the dog ears, so that you can see how the diagonal seam staggers the bulk when the binding is folded over

 

all that remains is to hand stitch the binding on the back of the quilt, which I plan to do this evening.  On Sunday I finished the twenty-second stitchery

 

today we went to The Mainstreet Trading Co for lunch

 

I was rather taken with my diminutive teacup and saucer .......

 

........ and the tiny teaspoon, seen here with Malcolm's normal sized coffee spoon

 

we had the most delicious sandwiches ....... I ordered wild boar sausage and ale chutney,while Malcolm ordered pastrami and leek jam(!), then as we often do, we swapped so that we had one of each

 

after lunch we had a look round the books ....... I was surprised to see Alex Salmond's tome in the biography section, when of course it should have been filed under fantasy! (it was a rare UNSIGNED copy!!)  We then headed out to the deli and home building (I love the colour of the paint) where two very small bars of chocolate may have been purchased

 

to finish ....... the birds are back in the garden for the winter, and enjoying the food in the feeders

 

but this tiny wren wasn't too sure about having a bath!

All sorts of sewing

I had a busy day in the studio yesterday, starting with taking photos of the latest two stitcheries that I have finished.  These are number twenty and twenty one ........ so only eleven to go!!

 

I raided my stash for fabrics for borders for the beautiful block that Margaret gave me for my birthday last month

the first border on

then the outer border added.  The next job will be to layer it up and decide how to quilt it

 

I looked out my dinosaur templates

 

and traced round them on to fusible web

 

I ironed the fusible web on to some scraps of fleece and cut them out

 

I drew a rough plan for making a small quilt

 

I added a bit of colour, so I have an idea of what I will do when I work on it again

 

today at patch'n'chat we made a start to quilting the quilt tops that we made during the summer when we had our Ladies Race Day.  As I was first to arrive, I soon had mine clamped to the table to pin it

 

making a start to the quilting

 

the quilting shows up better on the back

 

I got the quilting finished, so I have brought the quilt home with some bright orange fabric to make the binding ....... but you will have to wait until next week to see that.  No matter how busy we all were quilting, of course we still stopped for the Friday cake!  There were two on offer today, so purely in the interests of research for the blog, I had a piece of each!  The one with the slightly lurid pink icing had a ginger biscuit bottom, with a coconut and condensed milk filling, and then topped off with the aforementioned pink icing.  It wasn't as sweet as it sounds!!  The other one we have  had before, with cranberries and bits of marshmallow ...... it is a bit sweet, but delicious.  (I wasn't the only one to have a piece of each cake!)

 

to finish ....... I realised yesterday that I had yet to show you my little hare that I made just before I went on holiday.  When you last saw it, it had still to have the verdigris added.  I am really pleased with how it turned out, and have already ordered supplies to make some other animals - once Malcolm draws them for me!

 

the forecast isn't too good for the weekend, so there may be no walking on the beach, but hopefully there will be sconnage!!  Have a good weekend, love Anne

All sorts of stitching!

I realised that my sewing has been somewhat lacking in recent posts, so I have rounded up several projects to share with you.  First, I have made yet another new cushion

 

I have still been working on my little stitcheries when we are over at the flat ....... this is, I think, number nineteen

 

and I have almost finished number twenty

 

recently Sandra, our lovely Linus Lady, mentioned that one of the organisations that she passes our quilts to had requested a quilt for a blind child.  Sandra promptly found a volunteer to make one, but it started me thinking about making a quilt for a blind child.  I had a quick play one afternoon in the studio and came up with this idea.  I started by cutting a square of fleece, a square of fabric and a square of thick polyester wadding

 

I used a square shape simply for speed, but you could cut any shape from the fleece for little fingers to feel.  I pinned the three layers together 

 

and stitched round the edge of the fleece

 

I turned the sandwich over and trimmed away the wadding round the square

 

I turned it back over and sandwiched it with a piece of cotton wadding and backing fabric

 

and quilted round the square, which is now raised proud of the background because of the extra wadding.  After I had made this sample, I thought that I could also do blocks incorporating different textured fabrics, as well as different shapes

 

having bought the fabric for the border of my Aunts' Quilt, I thought that I ought to get on with making the bias for the applique which I am going to work on the borders, instead of the scallops on the pattern, which I don't like.  So I looked out the ones I had pressed so far, along with the much greater pile of ones still to be done

 

and in no time at all it was all done

 

and last, but not least .........  I have been working on Mrs Billings

 

I had got bogged down with it, as I don't like hand piecing, but found I couldn't piece the diamonds accurately enough on the machine.  I tried using English paper piecing, and still wasn't happy, so just packed the whole thing away until I decided what to do with it.  Then this week I had a brainwave, and decided to use applique.  This will seem an overly complicated method for some of you, but it suits me, and means I will now make more progress.   This is what I had stitched so far

 

I added the next border, using strips of the background calico and the corner squares

 

then added the next small border

 

this gave me the framework within which I shall applique the diamonds

 

next came another calico border, which will have small squares on point appliqued on it

 

then came a dark purple border, to tie in with the sashing on the hexie flower border

 

I had cut the purple border wider than the pattern said, thinking that I might have to do a bit of adjusting to get it to fit.  But there was a slight problem, as instead of being too big, it fitted exactly ........

 

which means the wider border doesn't line up with the sashing

 

there are two ways I could fix this, one of which involves a lot of unpicking and restitching ......... or I could simply add something over the offending joins, such as the pyramids which will form the last border

 

so now I can sit and happily applique first the diamonds, which are prepped ready to stitch, and the squares, which are all cut out, which I will enjoy much more than all that horrid piecing by hand!!