frayed at the edge

Ill-gotten gains

The harbour at Eyemouth is dominated by Gunsgreen House, which was built by John Nisbet, using money made from smuggling!  We didn't have time to explore it yesterday, but have put it on the to-see list for another day

 

as we walked along the harbour, we wondered what a group of people were looking at in the water.  I edged my way in, and just had time to take one photo of this big fat seal before it disappeared under the water

 

there were lots of seagulls about

 

this might be a young one, but it was enormous!

 

I rather liked this old car, but as the driver was just getting out of it, I didn't like to take any more photos

 

just look at the blue sky ....... bliss!!

 

while Malcolm was watching the World Cup over the weekend, I was multi-tasking.  First, I was watching some Crafsty classes and some Ricky Tims tv shows on my laptop (using headphones).  Second, I was paying a little bit of attention to the football.  Third, I was drinking a glass of wine.  And fourth, I was prepping an awful lot of plain hexies for Mrs Billings

 

I had already stitched these three coloured pyramids together

 

they will be alternated with plain ones round the quilt, to form the final border

 

I have two photos to choose between for the "to finish" spot.  Should I show you the heron that I saw this morning when I was in Hawick?  I saw him as I meandered strolled walked  briskly over the footbridge where the Teviot meets the Slitrig

 

or would you like this tractor, which was sitting unattended in the field behind the house?  I did think about taking it for a spin round the field, but I would have had to climb on to our neighbours' wall, which is about five feet high, then climb over a fence, which you can't really see in the photo. So I settled for leaning on the garden gate and admiring it!!

A sticky situation

I did my prep for today's class on Sunday, first tracing the hearts on to the paper side of the fusible web

 

I fused three of the big hearts and both small hearts in place, keeping the fourth heart to use as part of the class this morning.  I also fused an extra little heart on to a piece of calico, to use to demonstrate the blanket stitch

 

then I assembled the stages of the other block, the maple leaf

 

I also sorted out all the patterns and samples 

 

there were only three students today, as Betty is on holiday.  It didn't take them long to trace and cut out their hearts.  This is the first one being ironed on to the wrong side of the fabric, with both the iron and the ironing board protected with baking parchment

 

Susan's hearts, ready for blanket stitching

 

Jo-an is using my favourite autumn colours

 

Jane's soft greens are very pretty

 

after cutting the pieces for their maple leaf blocks, they were happy to sit and chat while getting on with their blanket stitching

 

Jane didn't learn to sew as a child - no-one would take the time to teach her, as she is left-handed.  She struggled a bit at the start, so was delighted today when she got the hang of the blanket stitch right away!

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow with photos of one of our clematis, which I think has been taken over by aliens!

Leaving home

On Saturday, I set up the camera on the tripod, to take photos of the blue tits

 

the parents were tireless, flying back and forward to feed their brood

 

this is one of the chicks, impatient for its next meal

 

and still mum and dad flew backwards and forwards

 

reluctantly, I put the camera away, thinking that I would take more photos on Sunday ........ but when we came back from our walk, there was silence in the garden, no cheep, cheep, cheep as the chicks called for food.  While we were out enjoying our scones, they had flown the nest!

 

so, what did I do to the little applique wallhanging?  Well, I wasn't happy with the binding, especially the bottom left hand corner, so I took it off, and put new binding on.  Much better!

 

I was delighted to receive another parcel in the post this morning, although this one wasn't squishy

 

it contained a little print, which I bought from here.  I only ordered it on Sunday evening, so was delighted that it arrived so soon (click on the photo to enlarge it for a closer look)

 

back to the College in the morning - my students will be using fusible web for the first time.  I have lots of baking parchment packed, to protect the iron and ironing board!

 

Squishy!

You know that I love getting squishy parcels from far-flung places. so I was dancing round the kitchen when I saw this .......

 

....... as Iknew it contained the most delicious fabric that Thimbleanna had sent me.  I love the Ghastlies fabric, and this latest one is rumoured to be the last one ever (boo-hoo!)

 

I don't know what I will make with it - I think I will just admire it and stroke it for a litle while, before I cut it up!

 

but that wasn't all that was in the parcel.  Anna also sent me this super-cute little ID holder ...... perhaps I could put my College staff pass in it

 

and now for the sewing.  I am still working away getting every thing finished for Abbey Quilters' exhibition next month.  I stitched the binding on the little landscape - and have since done the hand-stitching of the binding on the back, but I forgot to take a photo!

 

I hadn't yet sewn in all the ends from quilting the lines across the fields, so I decided to make them part of the design

 

this shows both the binding and the sleeve on the sashiko piece

 

a pile of wallhangings waiting for their sleeves to be stitched on

 

Malcolm, meanwhile, was busy finishing his planter

 

filling it with homemade compost

 

hopefully the vine will flourish in its new home

 

and catch up with the other one, which is under the guest bedroom window

 

Malcolm then transferred the olive tree to the other end of the planter, as it had outgrown its pot

 

I also made some alterations to this little wallhanging - but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see what I did!

Sunshine on a plate

I love this time of year, when I can feast on the most wonderful Scottish strawberries and raspberries - the best in the world!!  For breakfast this morning, I added some blueberries and Greek yogurt ....... delicious

 

if you thought Frances' blocks were tiny, at patch'n'chat this afternoon Katy produced these teeny tiny hexies - again I have put my thimble in the photo for scale

 

I was still working away on my Sheena Norquay sampler

 

today's cake was the delicious dumpling-like cake, fruity and rich with spices

 

back home, Malcolm had put his sign on the summer house - I was delighted when I found this sign in a garden centre, as there are very few things available with Malcolm on them!

 

it looks as if we will have another good crop of lavender, as there are several clumps like these dotted round the garden

 

as always we hope to go for a walk on Sunday morning.  I have lots of sewing to do, and Malcolm plans to give his planter a second coat of paint ........ we are busier than ever in "retirement"!  Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

Teacher's pet!

It was only when I was looking at today's photos that I realised that the three photos that I remembered to take of this morning's class are all of Betty's work!  First we have an action shot of her trimming the selvedge of her background fabric

 

she decided she would rather finish her bag in the same way as the mug bag, instead of putting the handles on it

 

Betty is so enthusiastic, that not only has she neglected her house and garden to get on with her sewing, but she had also prepped her diamonds ahead of today's class

 

now, the big reveal of yesterday's purchase

 

so what is inside the little container ........ a tiny eggcup pin cushion

 

this is a very special pincushion, the story of which is explained briefly in the next two photos, and you can read more here

 

in the evenings, I am still prepping hexies for Mrs Billings.  My box is slowly filling up

 

I still have quite a few more to prep, but I have sewn a few of them together

 

Malcolm has done some more work on his planter

 

and has started painting it

 

when I was sitting in the lounge this afternoon, I saw the robin land on the bin store.  I grabbed the camera, pointed it at him ........ and he flew off!

 

but he only flew as far as the big wooden owl, and even turned towards the camera

Wet, wetter, wettest

It was raining a bit as we set off this morning to drive down to Stitchin' Heaven, but I was hoping that it would dry up and I would be able to take some photos of the early summer scenery.  Alas, the rain got heavier and heavier, and it rained all the way home too, so no scenery.  

However there was lots of sewing going on.  Except for Ros, we were all working on Mrs Billings, Robin's Nest,  a combination of the two patterns, or an interpretation of the patterns.

This is Frances' Robin's nest

 

she was working on some tiny blocks for the next border - my thimble shows you just how tiny!

 

this is Annie's Mrs Billings

 

she is planning to do a lot of beading on it

 

Margaret was working on her Robin's Nest - she has changed the centre

 

Anne is combining elements of both patterns

 

her colour choices for the centre are similar to mine

 

Sue was patiently cutting out the pieces for her next border

 

so what was Ros working on?  An applique block in my favourite autumn colours

 

did I buy anthing?  Well, I didn't buy any fabric, bit I did buy a little something which I will show you tomorrow.

I took this last photo yesterday evening.  The sparrow looks a funny shape ....... but it is a second sparrow sitting behind it!

 

 

 

 

A sense of proportion

I have been working on my challenge piece - the horrible nasty revolting delightful foundation-pieced landscape.  The little bit you saw yesterday was the start of a row of trees.  I then added the trunks

 

then I added a higgledy piggledy fence across the bottom field

 

then I thought I would have a bit of fun and add some sheepies.  Unfortunately the best field for them was the green one at the top, so the sheep are way out of proportion to the rest of the picture!

 

I made the sheep with little bits of wool, held in place with some free-motion stitching, and machine embroidered the faces and legs

 

feeling reasonably pleased with the results, I showed it to Malcolm.  Once he had stopped laughing at the gigantic mutant sheep roaming the hills, he remarked that my trees look as if they had been drawn by a five year old.  Regular readers will know that my drawing skills have never progressed since I was five, so I wasn't too insulted!  Following his advice, I did some more stitching on them - and Malcolm then said that they looked like palm trees!  At least that means that the monster sheep are terrorising a tropical island, far, far away!

 

the next job was to quilt the little sashiko wallhanging

 

you can see the quilting on the wrong side

 

I also finished the quilting on this little landscape, which I started at a workshop with Sheena Norquay

 

I also did my stage-by-stage samples for this week's class

tumbling blocks

 

friendship  star

 

to finish ......... if you had one of these, what would you do?

 

if you are Malcolm, you start making a planter for the garden

 

 

Would you like to know the time .......

........ then let me consult my new watch.  I bought this fun watch and matching bracelet on the plane coming home from Majorca.  It was inexpensive and good fun - and if I get fed up with it I can always re-use the beads

 

I bought this little box in Pollensa - it was actually made in India, but it was too lovely to resist

 

I was busy stitching on my Sheena Norquay sampler at patch'n'chat.  I finished off the French knots, then filled in this square with random stitches

 

I have now finished the basic stitching, and can start adding  decorative elements

 

I was entertained yesterday evening by these young sparrows

 

it's Friday, so of course that means cake!  Today's was Annette's wonderful chocolate sponge, topped with cream and strawberries - delicious

 

hopefully we will get out for a short walk on Sunday morning, and of course as always I will be busy sewing.  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Back to work!

It was a bit of a shock to the system to be heading out to work before nine o'clock this morning - usually I am heading for the shower then!  When I got to the college, I was delighted to find that Tracey had the kettle on, ready for me to make cuppa.  I quickly got everything unpacked ready for my students arriving, and Tracey gave me all the paperwork that goes with the job.  Once the ladies arrived I went through all the important information - the fire exit, the assembly point, the location of the first aid box, where the toilet is etc etc.  We were so busy getting started on their sampler quilts that I forgot all about photos!  When I remembered, the ladies were quite happy to pose for this photo - you will recognise them as being four of the students from the first class

 

did you notice the bags on the table from the first class - this one is Susan's

 

the room we use is so small, there is nowhere to properly display the quilt, so I pinned it to a cork notice board!

 

back home, I set about making dinner.  After all that cake eating on holiday, I am very firmly back on my Fast/5:2 diet.  I had looked through some of the Fast recipes the other day, but hadn't seen anythinng that I really wanted, but then I remembered that I had this book

 

the recipes in it are fat-free, making them low in calories - perfect!  I settled on this one

 

so this afternoon I assembled the ingredients 

 

at least, that's the quantities given in the recipe, but I was making twice that amount, so that I could freeze some, so I added another onion and two more cartons of tomatoes.  I quite often use the frozen cubes of garlic - living in the middle of nowhere, I can't just pop to the shop if I discover that I don't have any fresh garlic, so I always have garlic, chillies and ginger in the freezer.  While the onions were softening, I browned the meat in batches

 

I measured out the curry powder using one of the cute little measuring cups that Stuart and Alison gave me for Christmas

 

way back in the 80s, I was a great fan of Madhur Jaffrey .......

 

....... and her Indian cookery

 

one of her pieces of advice was to add some water to the curry powder and make it into a paste

 

and another was to stir the paste in and continue cooking for a few minutes to cook out the raw curry flavour ......

 

......... before adding the liquid ingredients

 

the curry is so low in calories, I was able to have a small portion of rice, a spoonful of fat-free yogurt and a spoonful of lime pickle ....... but alas, no mango chutney for me, that was for Malcolm!

 

when I came home at lunchtime, I was only a short distance from the house when I spotted this naughty lamb out on the verge, munching on the weeds