frayed at the edge

What's that on the wall?

It's a little bit of sunlight!!

 

I was in the studio at half past nine this morning, and spent the day working on several projects.  First on the design wall was the batch of strips that I stitched over the weekend

 

I cut 22 squares from the strips, with a big pile of offcuts left to make more squares from

 

I put them on the wall, along with the other squares that I had made previously (it was only later that I noticed some of the squares are the wrong way round!)

 

after joining up bits of the offcuts, I ended up with 64 squares (I think they are all the right way round this time!)

 

when Stuart and Alison moved into their new house last year, they asked if I could make roman blinds for their kitchen and hall windows.  For a variety of reasons (including being out of the country for a total of 8 weeks!) I hadn't made a start on them, but a couple of weeks ago one of the curtain fabric shops in Hawick had a closing down sale.  We popped in for a look and I found a length of fabric that I thought might do for the kitchen.  The earthy background colours go well with the cupboards and floor tiles, and the purple spots match their accessories

 

I sent them a photo to see if they liked the fabric - but it wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't, as it cost the amazing sum of £1.75!!  It didn't take long to check the measurements and cut the fabric to size, but then I had to put it aside as I will have to get some curtain lining

 

I had a hunt through my stash to see if I had anything suitable for their hall window.  I knew they wanted something to go with their black and cream colour scheme, so I pulled out these two fabrics

 

I bought them some years ago from a wonderful little shop in Selkirk, which sadly has closed down

 

they are both beautiful pure wool fabrics, and I sent them photos to see if they would like one of them.  They decided on the black and grey one, but just to be sure I sent them swatches - and they changed their minds!  I decided to use the black and grey fabric as the lining fabric, which you might think is very extravagant - until I show you the price tags!

 

it's just as well I tidied the lower room, as I needed to lay the fabrics out on the floor to pin them

 

I stitched down one side, across the bottom and up the other side.  I then turned the blind through to the right side.  After pressing it, the next job will be to stitch channels across it to take thin pieces of dowel.  I have folded it to give you an idea of how it will look

 

on Saturday, I got one of the little quilt tops from the free motion quilting pile, and layered it up with some cotton wadding and backing fabric

 

I started in the centre and stitched a sort of flower with tendrils, and a filler stitch in the surrounding triangles

 

I then stitched flowers in the flying geese that make up the centre sections

 

on Sunday, and then again today, I stitched more flowers in the dark squares.  I am starting to get into a rhythm with the stitching, with just the odd squiggle where I have gone over lumpy seams

 

in the evenings I have been doing the embroidery for the Leanne's House quilt.  It is slow going, as the flowers are quite small, and I can only stitch for a couple of hours before I start to go a bit cross-eyed!!

 

Stuart recently received a somewhat cryptic email from his friend Fraser, which said "do you think your Mum could make this?" followed by this link.  Hmmm - a knitted badger cushion.  I could do it, but it would take a while, so instead I suggested an applique one.  The message came back from Fraser that an applique one would be fine, and offering payment in chocolate and wine!!  If he had wanted a knitted one, I would have had to buy some knitting graph paper - knitted stitches are rectangular, so you need graph paper with rectangles rather than squares to design on.  However the only specialist equipment needed  for an applique badger is a Malcolm ....... it's handy being married to someone who can draw!!

A pain in the bahookie*

It's snowing again ....... it has been snowing off and on all day.  Our road would probably be described as "passable with care", but I really didn't care to drive down it to go to patch''n'chat!  So with an unexpected free afternoon, I thought I would tackle the pile of magazines which has been sitting beside my chair since before Christmas (I haven't bought any magazines for weeks, as I felt guilty for not finishing the ones I already had!)

 

however, I have succumbed to buying a book, after seeing it on Lucie's blog

 

the instructions are very clear, taking you from the most basic stitching (I'm thinking of you, Meredithe!)

 

through decorative stitching

 

how to fill in shapes

 

ending with designs like this one, which looks complicated, but as the title of the book says, it is a continuous line of stitching

 

I forgot to take a photo of tonight's dinner ..... as it's Burns' Night, we of course had haggis, neeps and tatties!

The garden has been full of sparrows

 

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I shall be going to an Abbey Quilters' workshop.  I hope you will join me in cheering on Andy Murray, who reached the final of the tennis today, having "bitten" Roger Federer!  Whatever your weather, be it too hot or too cold, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, love Anne 

 

*I am sure you guessed what bahookie means, but if not, you can find out here

Criticism!!

We had lunch in the studio today ........ and Malcolm said it was looking very untidy, if not downright messy!!  Well, ok, maybe there were one or two things lying about .........

 

what's that you are shouting at your computer?  You agree with Malcolm?  Oh dear, I had better tidy up then

 

Now that it's all neat and tidy again, on with the sewing report!  I have finished not one ......

 

....... not two

 

but all three runners

 

and with the offcuts, I made a cushion cover!

 

and then I stitched together the offcuts of the offcuts ....

 

....... but you will have to wait to see what I did with that last piece!!  I have become addicted to making the scrappy strippy blocks

 

and the crazy scrappy blocks with the offcuts

 

whenever I go out the front door, the birds start chirruping at me, demanding more food.  I don't mind, as long as they then earn their dinner by posing for me!

 

I wonder if the drip above the sparrow landed on its head?

 

the horses in the field across the road scrape the snow away to get to the grass

 

the  scenery does look good with its blanket of snow

 

after sewing yet more strips ...

 

....... I thought I should clean the machine

 

..... and change the needle.  If you look closely at the old needle on the left, you can see how rough the shank is!

 

when we are using the implements of torture in the morning, we have the tv on.  Because the machines are noisy, we have the subtitles on.  Most of the time they are accurate, but sometimes they are hilariously wrong ...... as happened yesterday morning.  The reporter said that "Andy Murray has beaten the Frenchman" ....... but the subtitles said " has bitten the Frenchman" ........ conjuring up a visionn of Andy leaping the net and sinking his teeth into the Frenchman's neck!  Could this be an idea for a film ...."The Vampire Tennis Players Massacre" could be a possible title!!!!!

A very special day!

I think you know by now that we will have a celebration for anything and everything ....... but yesterday was definitely a special event.  As well as celebrating our wedding anniversaries, we also celebrate the day we moved in together/became a couple ....... and yesterday was the 30th anniversary of that special day!  You also know that we don't need much of an excuse to have something tasty to eat, so the day got off to a good start with smoked salmon and toasted brioche for breakfast (sorry there is no lemon wedge, but as we were snowed in on Monday and couldn't get to the shops to buy a lemon, we had to do with a splash of lemon juice from the bottle in the fridge!)

 

lunch was comfort food - boiled eggs and toast soldiers (sorry, no photo of that) then for dinner, I chose a recipe from this book

 

we don't particularly like parsley, so I left that out, and I didn't have any gherkins to sprinkle on the top, but it was delicious - I'll definitely make this again

 

for pudding, I got the icecream out

 

and topped it with rhubarb which I had cooked in ginger and lemongrass syrup, and crushed up biscuits (the little ones that you get with a coffee)

 

and of course a celebration means something bubbly to drink (Stuart and Alison gave us the glasses for our Silver Wedding)

 

the snowy weather continues - I took these photos yesterday

a confusing ruler - there was 5" of snow on the garden table (better than the 20" of two years ago!)

 

the birdbox looks cute with its snowy hat!

 

the view over the back garden gate

 

icicles on the ivy

 

because of the weather, I have been doing much more sewing than usual.  Yesterday I finished piecing Notes of Love, although I still have a little bit of embroidery to finish. 

I'll be back tomorrow with lots more sewing, but to finish, photos I took of the scented candle on the kitchen table, which we light after dinner to dispel any cooking smells

Next time I meet a shepherd .......

........ I shall ask him if this morning's skies were a warning

 

yesterday I finished piecing the last block of Leanne's House, and brought out the first block from the house, as I had finished the applique and embroidery

 

or rather, I thought that I had finished  - but when I went to take a close-up, I found that I hadn't done the satin stitch on this flower

 

Malcolm has been doing quality control, and has criticised the stitching of this point!!

 

there is a great deal of embroidery to do - this is just a small part of one block  There is even embroidery round the applique hearts

 

I was going to make more scrappy strippy blocks, but decided that I would instead get on with the runners I am making with the wonderful Australian fabric that Lee gave me for my birthday.  Having stitched some of the blocks together, I then prepared another batch of strips

 

today I finished stitching this runner

 

then made this one with crazy blocks from the offcuts

 

and almost finished a third one.  Here they are being tried out in the hall

 

all this talk of using things up reminded me of an email that I was sent years ago.  I liked it so much I printed it out and put it on my notice board (click on it to enlarge it)

that, I hope, will be me!!

Are ewe lost?

When we came home from lunch, there was a herdy ewe on the verge just along from the house.  Of course as soon as Malcolm parked, I jumped out with the camera, to find her posing very prettily for me!

 

I have to admit that today's lunch has added to the week's sconnage total!  We went to Border Meringues in Jedburgh, where we enjoyed the most wonderful cream of cauliflower soup and a fantastic savoury scone

 

the scone was so good, it deserves a photo of its own!

 

and you get a little meringue with your cuppa

 

we haven't had any more snow (although lots of the stuff is forecast for Friday), but everywhere was white with frost.  As we drove home I was busy snapping away, and Malcolm even stopped a couple of times (we were on a quiet road with no other cars in sight) so that I could get good photos, especially where there were bands of fog

 

I got sidetracked on my way out to the studio by the amazing shapes of the frost

this is the top of a garden lamp

 

this looks like a thorny plant, but it is just frost on a clematis

 

no sign of a spider on this frosty web

 

this web might inspire a knitting pattern for a shawl

 

a pretty string of webs on the railings beside the back door

 

after all the chilly photos, something bright and cheery to end with

a jug of sunny daffodils on the kitchen windowsill

Grumpy old woman!

Yes, it snowed this morning, yes, the temperature has been hovering just about freezing ......... but I don't need hysterical weather forecasters telling me to wrap up warm and take care on icy roads!!  I know some parts of the country have had much more snow than us, but we haven't yet had as much as we had the winter before last, and the one before that

 

ok - grumping over, on with the blog!  Malcolm  ate the last biscuit, so I was able to take the tin out to the studio.  Anne (that isn't my usual Anne, but the other Scottish blogging Anne) told me that the wording on her tin was wrong, so I checked out mine.  You can just see that it says "said to me" instead of "sent to me"

 

I had already decided which project I was going to put in the tin.  I bought these templates .......

 

when I went on the road trip with Meredithe, Helen and Mrs Mac

 

I looked out these fabrics from the scrap basket - a mottled fabric for the background, and an assortment, including Christmad fabrics, for the stars.  I don't intend to make a star a day, but it will be good to have a small hand-piecing project to work on

 

I also got out two biscuit tins from last year, to put my scrappy blocks in

 

next I put this up on the design wall .......

 

....... I am sure you are wondering why I am showing you what appears to be a piece of plain fabric ...... but if we look up close

 

it is a partly marked out wholecloth cot quilt, which I got out after seeing Tim's wonderful handquilting.  I started the quilt at a workshop with Dorothy Ostler.  The designs are from her book

 

this is one of my oldest UFOs, as you can see from the date that Dorothy signed the book

 

my excuse is that we moved to Indonesia the next year, and I was limited in how much I could take with me, so the cot quilt got packed away, and then when we came home in 2000, it somehow never made it on to the to-do list!  I am planning to finish the marking and making a start to the hand quilting (I still have the thread!), but for the moment I am concentrating on the sewing for Anne.  I have been busy all day piecing the blocks, but I didn't quite get the last one finished before it was time to make dinner!

 

I should have been going to Abbey Quilters monthly meeting tonight, but it was cancelled because of the weather.  We had to prepare a square composed of two fabrics with wadding in the middle, which was to be turned into a bag with lots of little pockets ...... but I shall just have to wait to find out how it is done

 

to finish, some photos of the snow in the back garden this morning

a few flakes on the ice on the surface of the water butt

 

a snowy primrose

 

chilly frogs!

 

the bird house is sheltered by the ivy

 

snowflakes caught on a spider's web

A healthy diet*

When we set out for our walk yesterday, there were just a few flights of snow, but it got heavier as we went, so the camera stayed in the bag, only coming out when we went to the Mill for a cuppa.  We got there just as they opened, so I was able to take a photo of the coffee shop

 

you will be pleased to know that we didn't have a two-scone lunch!  We did share a delicious cheese scone

 

and then instead of a fruit scone, we shared a wonderful slice of banana cake

 

it was still snowing - a conveniently parked car provided a good background to show the snow

 

when we got back home, Malcolm as usual went through the Sunday papers, removing all the junk that comes with them

 

as planned I spent a lot of time sewing on Saturday, Sunday and this afternoon.  The scrappy strippy blocks are coming along nicely

 

and I have started making "crazy" blocks to use up the smaller offcuts

 

I have pieced another block for "Leanne's House", the project that I am working on for Anne

 

I thought I would get all the cutting done for the remaining blocks.  This is part of the next one

 

I was starting to worry as I got to the last two blocks - was I going to run out of fabric?  Not quite - I have a pile of small scraps left

 

I had tidied the studio before Christmas ...... but it is now back in its usual state!

 

although it snowed for most of yesterday, when I headed bback into the house at the end of the afternoon, there was only a dusting in the garden

 

I keep asking Malcolm to buy me one of these trucks - I don't know why he keeps refusing to (perhaps it's because most of the time there is only me in my car, and I get twice the mpg that I would get with a truck!)

 

We were on our way to bed on Friday, when Hayley from next door came round to say that one of her (many) cats was in our garage (the garage window looks out into their back yard).  When Macolm opened the garage door it bolted for a very small space between the wall and some old kitchen cupboards.  When Hayley came into the garage to get the cat, it had vanished, and we assumed that it had run off when Malcolm had gone to open the gate to let Hayley in.  However, come Saturday the cat was still missing, so Malcolm ended up taking the kickboards off the cupboards ...... and there was the cat (sorry didn't get the cat in the photo).  He has left the kickboards off, in case the stupid thing comes back ...... last year it spent a night on their roof, when it was just a tiny kitten!

 

*now for the details of a "healthy" diet, as compiled by my friend Jean and I some years ago.  We know that we have to eat lots of fruit and vegetables to stay healthy ........

breakfast - blueberry muffin

mid-morning snack - carrot cake

lunch - strawberry cheesecake

mid-afternoon snack - beetroot and chocolate cake

dinner - lemon meringue pie

and to wash it all down, lots of wine, as of course it is made with grapes

Starry, starry .......

...... morning!  Now that I am back into my routine, I got up at 6.30 (or as my friend Anne S. calls it, stupid o'clock).  As always, I looked out the window ..... and for the first time for weeks, saw lots of stars in a clear sky.  A very welcome change after all the grey and dreary mornings we have had recently.  I endured the torture of the cross trainer and rowing machine, knowing that I have to work off the extra calories from the chocolates and Christmas cake that we have been tucking into.  The morning stayed bright, so I was able to take a photo of the latest Linus quilt in the garden - as yoou can see, it was the version with the patterned centre which got most votes

 

before Christmas, I said that I couldn't show you my knitting as it was for a present.  I still can't show you, as it isn't finished ...... there is a mistake in the pattern, and I have yet to work out a correct version.  However, I can show you Malcolm's ripple rug ...... although you will probably notice that I have yet to darn in the ends!

 

yesterday I finally made a start to using up my scraps, which I am doing along with Lucie.  I am making the same kind of blocks that I made with my Australian fabric, joining lots of random strips......

 

 ........ then cutting out squares on the diagonal

 

it might look wasteful, but you can join up the leftover bits to cut more squares

 

I am using up lots of bits of batik fabrics, and have a pile of strips sitting beside the sewing machine, so that each time I finish working on something else, I can stitch another batch together.  Here are the first six blocks

 

this morning, we headed over to Jedburgh.  Malcolm remarked that we would come back by the back road, so that I could get some good photos of the scenery with the sun shining.  As we walked to the coffee shop where we were going to have lunch, the sky was bright blue, the sun was shining and the Abbey looked magnificent.  We had an excellent lunch.  Malcolm had carrot and lentil soup

 

and I had coronation chicken sandwiches

 

then we came out, ready to take photos ....... and a whole lot of cloud had appeared, and the sun had vanished.  So I didn't bother to take photos of the Abbey, but I did still take some photos from the car as we drove home

 

this afternoon I was busy embroidering some of the blocks for my latest project for Anne.  I'll show you photos tomorrow.

I can't think of a title .......

...... for today's post!  I was trying to think of something involving pink skies,or scones,or ....... so let's just get on with the photos!  This may look like a sunset, and it is the portion of the sky where we usually see the sunset, but it is the sunrise reflected on the clouds

 

we went to Selkirk yesterday morning, planning to go for a walk on a path we hadn't walked before, but unfortunately after a few hundred yards the hard surface ended and we were faced with a soggy, muddy grass path.  We abandoned the walk, and headed to the Waterwheel Cafe.  The last time we were there, we were disappointed to find that the owls were no longer there, so I asked the lovely lady who served us what had happened to them.  She said that their owner was no longer able to care for them, so they have been given a new home by a man who specialises in looking after owls and birds of prey, so while we will miss seeing them, we are glad that they are ok.  We had a two-scone lunch - I forgot to take a photo before we cut up and buttered the scones - we shared a cheese one and a cherry one - delicious!

 

on Saturday I stitched the binding on the black and white Linus quilt, then made a start to another Linus quilt, which I also worked on yesterday.  I started by cutting 6" squares from a plain fabric and a patterned fabric

 

having drawn a diagonal line on the plain squares, I stitched a plain and a patterned square together, with a line of stitching on either side of the line

 

having cut them apart and pressed them, I then trimmed them to size

 

I arranged the blocks on the design wall .......

 

...... and then rearranged them

 

which version do you prefer - the one with the patterned centre, or the one with the plain centre.  Leave a comment or email me, and I'll make the version which gets the most votes.  I'll be back tomorrow with a bit of fun to celebrate my 4th blogiversary, but to finish, some more braw laddies ..... Stuart and some of his friends at a rather posh do on Hogmanay.  The chaps in the splendid red jackets are in the TA (the Territorial Army) - the one on the right is engaged to Stuart's stepsister Claire