frayed at the edge

Friday again!!

The days just seem to be whizzing past at the moment ....... but I don't mind, as it bring me closer to meeting a very special bloggy friend - but I'm not going to tell you yet who it is!!  After all the sewing photos that we have had through the week, today I shall share with you the other photos that didn't yet make it into the blog!   First we have a pale sunset

 

then a much more colourful sunset

 

out in the garden, the bottle brush has flowered

 

the clematis which was the first to flower in the spring has decided to flower again

 

Malcolm repainted the planter that he made some years ago, and I bought some new plants for it

 

if you don't like snails, scroll quickly past the next photo!

 

the other morning, there were so many starlings on the phone wires that I couldn't fit them all in one photo!

 

as I was taking photos of the starlings, a flock of swallows flew past in the distance

 

we had our favourite Friday cake, the delicious apple and sultana one

 

to finish, I have a very special treat for you!  The lovely Margaret recently entrusted me with some of her spectacular quilt tops, as I had offered to take photos of them for her.  All her quilts are entirely hand sewn and embellished ...... hour and hours of work.  She has given me permission to share some of them with you .......

 

there is a bit of a mixed forecast for the weekend, but perhaps we will manage to have a walk on the beach.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne 

A varied batch of sewing

First, we have the latest stitchery to be finished - I think this is number 18.  I have to admit that some of the circles should have been satin stitch spots, but the more I do satin stitch the less I like it!

 

as all the pattern packets (there are eight of them) are over at the flat, I had to remember to extract this page from one of them to bring home, as I want to make a start to trimming the stitched hexagons to size, and also start cutting out the larger fabric hexagons ...... they will be the backing fabrics, and will also fold over to the front, in the fashion of Japanese folded patchwork

 

then, second, I made covers for two seat pads ....... I had previously done two for the dining chairs in the flat, and when we bought two folding chairs for when we have guests, I had meant to cover the other two, but hadn't yet got round to it.  Fortunately I was able to buy more of beach fabric

 

then for the backs, I used the offcuts of the Ikea curtains that we have in the flat

 

the two covers cut out and pinned ready to stitch - the unpinned area at the top is the opening for putting the covers on the cushions

 

after stitching, I cut off the corners on the opening edge

 

then, for the two corners on the front edge, I flattened out the corner and marked a line where it measured an inch

 

after stitching, I trimmed off the points

 

I also stitched along the seam line on both sides of the opening, to give me a straight line to turn in and press the seam allowance

 

I had left the ties on the cushions, so I just had to stitch the opening shut

 

and here they are, two cushions with their new covers

 

now, the third lot of sewing! This morning I added the borders to the Lovely Baby quilt

 

and made the binding

 

I taped the backing fabric to the table

 

and covered it with a layer of lovely soft cotton wadding

 

then I added the quilt top and pinned all the layers together, ready for quilting this afternoon

 

I had a trial stitch on a scrap of fabric and wadding, to check that the tension was ok

 

I quilted the centre panel ........

 

with a large loopy meander

 

I finished this afternoon's session by making a start to the straight line quilting on the border ...... not much more to do now!

Another Lovely Grandchild!

Recently, Liz revealed that she is to become a Lovely Grandmother ....... which of course means another Lovely Baby Quilt!  After an exchange of emails, a squishy parcel arrived in the post, containing these lovely bright fabrics

 

I popped the squares from the charm pack up on the design wall

then spent some time moving squares around to get a pleasing balance.  But as always happens, the more I moved them, the more I ended up with two similar squares together.  I summoned Malcolm and he moved a few round, still with the same result, but eventually we reached this arrangement

 

assembling a quilt like this is very straightforward - I started by sewing the first two rows together

 

then repeated that with the third and fourth, then the fifth and sixth rows

 

I then sewed these pairs together into rows

 

after that I sewed the rows together in pairs

 

and finally stitched all the rows together

 

I had intended to do some more work on the quilt yesterday, but unfortunately domestic duties got in the way.  I had a huge basket of ironing to do, as I hadn't ironed last week because of all the decorating and organising of the studio, then I did some cooking for the freezer, and lastly I remembered I had to filter the limon-ginno

 

and bottle it

then I noticed that the one developed olive had fallen off Malcolm's olive tree - oh no, catastrophe, we had high hopes of our own estate-bottled olive oil!!

 

and worse was to come - some nasty little beasty had nibbled it!

 

I trimmed off the nibbled bit, but for some reason Malcolm declined to taste it (I don't like olives)

 

it even had a perfectly formed stone

 

so back to the Lovely Baby quilt.  This afternoon I measured, measured and measured again, just to be sure, before I cut the strips for the binding and the borders, leaving a large enough piece for the back of the quilt

 

I then put that aside to do some other sewing, but I'll share that with you tomorrow, and end for today with our delicious lunch, which we had at Born in the Borders ..... we both had the sausage and bacon sandwich

 

and how stylish was my cuppa?!

Sewing!

You may have thought that with all the other stuff going on, that I haven't been doing any sewing!  But I have been working very hard on my Aunts' Quilt, to make sure that I had this month's stage finished.  I started by trimming the applique blocks

 

but you will have to wait until next Friday to see the full report!  The little elephant stitchery is finished

 

and I have made a good start to the next one

 

yesterday I sent Malcolm up into the loft to retrieve two pieces of furniture for me.  First, this half-moon piecrust table, which belonged to my Mum and Dad.  I can vaguely remember them buying it when I was little, so it must be at least 50 years old!

 

I am going to paint it with this Annie Sloan chalk paint, and bring it over to use as a hall table in the flat

 

we had this little chair in the hall of the Victorian house which we lived in, in the 90s.  It was the time of paint effects and stencilling.  I think Malcolm used a stencil for the basic design, then embellished it.  But it too is going to be painted with the chalk paint, and will go in the guest bedroom at the flat.  While I am painting it, Malcolm will recover the seat.  There is a tale to tell about the fabric that is on it at the moment, but I will have to look out the relevant photos to go with the story

this cupboard is now in my studio, another paint effect and stencil job

 

I painted the cupboard in the paler paint, then sponged it with the darker one.  I then stencilled it - even stencilling rosebuds on the handles

I also painted the inside of the cupboard!

 

I wasn't at patch'n'chat this afternoon, as we came over to Berwick.  For a change, we came via Duns, and popped into the Garden Centre for a cuppa.  So there is still a Friday cake ....... the most wonderful scone, filled with blueberry Eton Mess

 

for those of you who may not know, Eton Mess is broken up meringue, mixed with fresh cream

 

the forecast is good for tomorrow, so we are looking forward to the Seaside Festival

 

I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

It's back!!

Hooray, The Great British Bake Off started again last night!  I love this progamme, with the brilliant judges and presenters (if there are funny black shapes on the right of the photos, it is my rubber plant, getting in the way!)

 

I don't know how many photo I took of Mary, and in every one she was pulling a face!

 

but Paul just smouldered as usual, with those piercing blue eyes

 

and Mel and Sue were as madcap as ever

 

fortunately the sight of this cake didn't make me hungry, as it is a walnut cake, which I don't like

 

Marie was named Star Baker

 

while Stu was the first to leave

 

when we were on holiday, we saw some driftwood mobiles that had little fish and other sea creatures dangling from them.  I said to Malcolm that when we got home I would get some air-drying clay to for us to have a go at making some ....... and I have finally got round to getting the clay!  This block is about the size of a shoe box, but it weighs 12 kilos!  I could hardly lift the parcel when it arrived

 

I also got a set of sea themed cookie cutters

 

and a basic set of modelling tools, so now we just need some time to have a go

 

inspired by some of the things we saw at the Gallery on Sunday, I also got this collection of "silver" charms (what we we do without ebay!!)

 

this afternoon I made a start to clearing the bottom room of my studio, so that we can get it painted.  This side is just about empty

 

but I shall have to find a place to put all this stuff from the other side

 

I made this quilt years ago for my Dad when he was in hospital after falling and breaking his hip.  The ward was far too warm, so the nurses would open the windows, but that meant Dad got cold, sitting all day in his bedside chair.  So I unearthed a pile of log cabin blocks and put together a quick lap quilt, with cosy fleece on the back.  I now use it as a table cover in the studio

 

the weather still isn't very summery, so I decided to have some summery music while I was busy - I can play CDs on the built-in DVD player in my little tv

 

to finish ...... I made this little wallhanging years ago, but I don't think it has ever appeared on the blog!

You have seen the before .......

......... so here is the (not quite finished) after.  Having already sorted out my magazines, today I turned my attention to my books.  I find it hard to part with books, but I was very strict with myself and ended up with a big pile to go to the charity shop.  The bookshelves were looking good, with even a small space left on the top shelf

 

but then I went out to the garage to bring in some more stuff ...... and found more books and magazines!

 

I have sorted out my fabric (none of that is being given away!) and stored it all away neatly.  OK, I admit it, I took the photo before all the fabric was in place!!

 

so here is the view from the four corners

 

and now for some sewing!  I have finished another two stitcheries ....... so that's half of them done!!

 

or perhaps I should have said almost, as I ran out of brown thread and have still to embroider the tree trunks

 

did you notice the big project box on the table?   That's my Aunts' Quilt box.  Yesterday afternoon I looked out my Perfect Circles

 

ready to make a start to the many, many circles I need to finish the applique on the corner and setting triangles

 

the circles for the first triangle

 

the method is simple - a line of running stitch round the edge

 

put the circle in place and draw up the thread

 

a quick press, and there is the first perfect circle

 

this is the last you will see of the circles until next month's report!!

What do you do .......

....... when you have to wash a black and white quilt, and you have visions of the black dye running all over the white bits?

 

Panic!!  But after thinking about it, you buy a packet of Colour Catcher

 

so that when you wash the quilt, any loose dye is absorbed by the colour catcher sheet .......

 

and your quilt looks clean and fresh, spread out on the bed in the guest room, until it can be hung back up in the studio

 

do you think I should sue E L James for stealing the title of my quilt?  And if you are wondering why it is called Shades of Grey, this is the reason, as written on the label on the back of the quilt

 

buoyed up by the success of washing that one, I decided to also wash the two batik quilts which hang in the studio

 

again the Colour Catcher did its work

 

and the batiks are bright and fresh again

 

yesterday, I unpicked the borders for Mrs Billings that I was unhappy with - it took less time to unpick them than it would have taken to mark and cut out new pieces

 

a quick press, and they were ready to use

 

so after packing up more bits and bobs in the studio, I watched some of the tennis while I prepped the diamonds.

 

 

I had to give up watching Sharipova, as she got louder and louder as the match went on.  It brought to mind a saying, which I will express in a more polite form ....... she sounded as if she had caught her bosom in a mangle (photo from Ebay)

 

while I was sewing, Malcolm was busy painting the back garden gate - the black paint looks very smart

 

I won't be here for the rest of the week, as I just have so much to do, but I will be back on Monday.  To finish ..... Malcolm picked up this flyer when he was out this morning

 

despite being born, and growing up in Airdrie, I have never heard of the Airdrie Boys, so I was even more surprised when I looked at the other side, and saw that they went to Airdrie Academy, where I went many years later.  I don't remember them ever being mentioned at school, and there weren't any prints of their work in the art classrooms

Before I tell you .......

....... why Malcolm was banished to Berwick at the weekend, I have some photos of the stunning sunset on Friday night

in contrast, I got up on Saturday morning to a prolonged thunderstorm, and torrential rain that was bouncing back out of the birdbath

 

which was in contrast to Thursday, when Mr Blackbird enjoyed a leisurely bath

 

then a little bit of sunbathing to dry off

 

ok, lets get on to the main topic!!  The studio needs redecorated, which of course means that I have to pack everything up.  I decided it would be much easier to do it on my own, as I am very fussy about how all my treasures are treated!  So Malcolm was sent off to have fun in Berwick, while I tackled this (I am embarrassed at how untidy it all is!!)

 

as I started the packing, I was distracted by this little tin, which was given to me by a friend years ago - she obviously recognised my many talents!!

 

but I realised that if I kept stopping to take photos, I would never finish!  By the middle of Saturday afternoon I had had enough of carrying boxes out to the garage, so watched Wimbledon instead!  However, I was busy packing when Malcolm came home at lunchtime yesterday.  He went up in the loft to get more boxes for me, so that I could pack up my books.  There was no way I could carry these heavier boxes, so I used the sack barrow

 

this afternoon, I packed my fabric into bags - the first packed were these three bright bags, which I bought in Majorca in May

by the end of this afternoon, quite  bit of progress had been made

 

to finish - if you don't like snails, go no further!  This one was slithering up the studio door yesterday

It all went Pete Tong!*

It was one of those mornings ....... I had just pegged out an enormous basketful of washing, when it started to rain.  So I had to take it all in again (I may have said "Oh bother, that's annoying!").  Then I had just settled down to some work in the studio ........ when there was a power cut!  (I may have said, crivens, crikey jings, help ma boab, that's irritating!").

Oh well, on with the work.  Stuart and Alison had asked me to make curtains for their guest bedroom, and brought the fabric down with them last weekend.  A luscious Laura Ashley fabric, to match the wallpaper on the wall behind the bed

 

Stuart had drawn a diagram of the two windows and all the necessary measurements (just what you would expect from an engineer!)

 

my drawing isn't quite so detailed!  I am going to use the fabric sideways, which will give two very full curtains, and if they want, they can put up one long rail covering both windows and the space in between, so that the curtains will meet in the middle when closed.  Once I get the lining and header tape, it won't take long to make them - although as always I shall have to get out the instruction book for the sewing machine to remind myself how to do blind hemming

 

then it was on with my own sewing.  I have finished the next stitchery - this is number 13

 

I have been struggling with the hand-piecing for Mrs Billings - I simply don't enjoy it, and I'm really not happy with the way the last border strips turned out.  Then, the other day, when I was blog-hopping, someone mentioned that as they didn't enjoy hand-piecing, they were going to use EPP (English paper piecing) instead.  Woohoo, lightbulb moment!!  I decided to re-work the borders using EPP, and use it for the remaining borders.  I started by drawing templates for papers for the triangles and diamonds, which are a quarter of an inch smaller than the acrylic templates

 

I marked out some paper pieces, so that I could work a small section to check that the size were correct

 

the pieces ready to sew

 

this is the hand-pieced version

 

and this is the EPP version - much more to my liking!

 

it will look very neat when stitched on to the previous border

 

next I made up a master sheet

 

and after running off several copies, I had a pleasant afternoon cutting out the papers

 

to finish, there was annoying consequence of the power cut (the power eventually came back on after lunch).   The smoke detectors in the studio are wired into the mains, so when the power goes off, the detectors beep, and beep and beep (using the back-up batteries) until the power is restored.  It's just as well I couldn't reach this one, which was beeping away above my head, or is might have suffered a bash or two!

Six months to go!!

I don't want to worry you, but it is only six months until Christmas!  So I thought that I would do a bit more work on "Twas the Night before Christmas", instead of waiting until the middle of December.  When I made this quilt some time ago as a shop sample for Anne, I really didn't enjoy making all the foundation pieced stars

 

so I thought I would do this one differently.  I popped all the stitcheries on the design wall, although I have still to press and trim them to size

 

I decided to remove these two stitcheries, as they don't really relate to the words 

 

then I decided to remove this one as well, as it is a lot bigger than the others

 

next, I had a look in my stash for a Christmas fabric, and found this lovely rich, dark red one

 

at first glance it doesn't look like Christmas fabric, but this close up shows  little sprigs of holly 

 

a rough layout - I think once it is pieced, I will do some applique on the plain blocks, of Christmas related things

 

I don't usually open a jelly roll until I use it, but I couldn't resist a sneak peek at the one which I won last Friday - delicious!

 

the stacking bug has struck again ....... this little seaglass stack appeared in the studio this afternoon!

 

to finish ...... I have great admiration for wildlife photographers who spend days, weeks, months and even years waiting for the perfect photo.  My latest attempt to capture some of our sparrows resulted in these three photos

blending in with the foliage

 

refusing to turn round

 

flying off!!