frayed at the edge

A very long day!

Before I tell you why I am so late posting tonight, I will first show you how last night's dinner turned out ........

steak and kidney, dumplings and buttered carrots

 

........ and show you this quilt top.  We have been getting the instructions month by month at Abbey Quilters, and mine should look like this, minus the outer borders.  It should look like that, but I haven't actually started mine (oops!)

 

So, on to today.  We left home at 9am to go to Newcastle, as Malcolm's car had to go in for a service.  The plan was to drop the car off, go for a cuppa, then later some lunch, before heading home the long way round so that we could call in to see Anne in her new quilting shop.  BUT, Malcolm got a call to say that new brakes were needed and that we wouldn't be able to get the car back until 3pm, instead of 2pm.  THEN, when we went for the car, it still wasn't ready, so we didn't get on our way until after 3.30.  After visiting Anne, we still had a 90 minute journey home ........ so we detoured into Hawick and bought fish suppers for dinner!

I am just simply too tired to start writing a long post, so I will tell you all about our day tomorrow.  But I'll leave you with this photo to whet your interest!!

a strange tin of sardines!

It's just the day for ......

.......rib-sticking, heart-warming comfort food!  The frost has gone and now we have raw, damp weather, with the possibility of rain later (I'm not complaining though, because it's heaps better then what it was like this time last year!).  I decided to make steak and kidney with dumplings for dinner, so I started by sweating onions and mushrooms in my new cast iron casserole, which was a Christmas present from Malcolm

 

I put the meat in a bag with well-seasoned flour and gave it a good shake

 

After browning the meat ......

 

I stirred in boiling water and my secret ingredient

 

Ready to go into a low oven to gently cook for a couple of hours

 

While the dinner was cooking, I popped out to the studio to make the next two farmer's Wife blocks.  It is so much easier to cut out the pieces on my new revolving board

 

With the blocks turning out the correct size

 

 

 

After adding thhese two blocks to the design wall, I have decided that once I have made the next two, I will make them up into a small lap quilt, then do the next batch of blocks in different fabrics

 

Now, a day late, the knitting update.  By the weekend I had finished all the body parts for the fairy  (and her skirt) .....

 

....... and had even knitted a second one!

 

I was unable to get a suitable sparkly yarn for the wings, so I decided to buy this plain (but slightly fluffy) one and add beads.  The usual way to include beads in knitting is to thread all on to the yarn before you start knitting - but this is a much simpler way.  All you need is a very fine crochet hook, which will go through the hole in the bead.

 

you then slip the stitch where you want the bead on to the crochet hook

 

pull the stitch through the bead

 

slip the stitch back on the needle and knit normally

 

The beads sit neatly in place at the base of the stitches

 

The wings are knitted in two parts

 

However I won't be sewing the fairy up tonight, as I am off out to the monthly meeting of Abbey Quilters.  We have to hand in our embroidered blocks tonight

 

As it's for a challenge, I made sure the back was neat too!

 

You will have to wait until tomorrow to see how the dinner turned out - because I am going out, I am posting this before dinner, rather than after as I usually do!!

Life in miniature

This afternoon we had two miniature creations to admire at patch'n'chat.  The first was Katy's miniature quilt.  The little pieces are one inch square, and this is half of the quilt (as usual, the lighting makes everything look a bit yellow)

 

Then Cathy showed us this miniature sewing machine, which she has just been given.  It is about four inches high, and as you can see needs  a bit of a clean.  First the front

 

then the back

 

a detail of the decoration

 

and the tiny original spool

 

I hadn't done any more work on my hexagons since last Friday, but I got quite a bit more stitched this afternoon

 

Then of course there was cake - or more accurately cakes, as Annette had made a batch of her delicious cupcakes .....

 

..... topped with chocolate sprinkles

 

The forecast for the weekend is for bright frosty weather, so we are looking forward to getting out for a long walk on Sunday morning.  I hope you all have a good weekend - I shall be working on my postcard!  Love Anne

I hope the neighbours didn't see me .....

...... when I was out in the garden before eight o'clock this morning, taking photos of the moon!

 

Do you remember my sparkly, scented twiggy things I got before Christmas?  Today they went to a new home, when I took them out to the studio and put them on the windowsill, decorated with little hearts and butterflies, and with my big felt flower in the middle

 

Did you notice the card on the left of the windowsill - a very cheeky Mothers' Day card from Stuart!  I  would like to think that I look just like the woman on the card (except for the cigarette)

 

I was busy today making the next two Farmer's Wife blocks - helped by another of my Christmas presents from Malcolm ........

 

........ a small revolving cutting mat, which makes it much easier to cut out small pieces using the templates

 

This may look like an old radio

 

but it is a biscuit tin, in which I now keep all the templates for the Farmer's Wife blocks

 

The pieces for the first block

 

and the finished block

 

The pieces of the second block

 

and the finished block (by the time I finished it, I had turned the light on, so the colours look different!)

 

I had an email from Linda asking for clarification on the swap.  She first of all wanted to confirm that the postcards should be sent by the end of January ...... yes.  She also wanted to know if she was to write on the postcards, or leave them blank so that the recipient could use them if they wanted to.  Having thought about it, I would suggest that you write on the postcard of your home town, and leave the handmade one blank ...... however it is up to you - you might want to leave both of them blank and write a little note to send with them.

 

To finish, another photo from our Sunday walk - a dried seedhead ....... I can't convince Malcolm that the background is supposed to be out of focus!!

 

Stretching our legs

We haven't been for as many walks as usual. because of the weather, so we were glad yesterday to get out and have a good walk at the Leaderfoot viaduct .......

 

....... crossing the river by the old bridge - you can see the ugly modern replacement behind it

 

As we started to cross the bridge, we could here someone using a chainsaw.  Looking across the river, we saw a man cutting up the smaller branches of an enormous tree, which probably blew down in last week's storms - compare the size of the man with the size of the tree trunk!!

 

When we last saw this bridge, there was major repair work being done.  The workmen have made an excellent job of the stone walls - they just need to weather for a year or two to blend in with the old stonework

 

As we walked back through the woods, we wondered what this black blob was

 

but then we saw this, and realised that it was some sort of fungi.  I poked it with the toe of my boot, and it felt quite hard and woody

 

On Saturday, I added the borders to the Hawiian block.  I was going to make it up as a small quilt for Project Linus, but I like it so much, it is going to be a wallhanging for me!!

 

However, I will give this one to Linus.  The photo doesn't really show it at its best - the dark fabric stands out in the photo, but doesn't when you see the quilt

 

Yesterday afternoon I finally sorted out my scrap basket.  I am much too embarassed to show you a photo of what it looked like, spilling bits of fabric out on to the floor, but here are the scraps all sorted out and put into labelled bags

 

Later this evening I will start knitting my first fairy - I am looking forward to having something on the needles after my short break

 

And now to the swap ...... I put the names in my best velvet hat (I had to turn the pieces of paper over, as they also had the addresses on them!)

 

So here is the list of swapees

http://cathyholtomdustylane.blogspot.com/     and me

http://mytategallery.blogspot.com/   and Caroline

http://www.lovethosecupcakes.typepad.com/   and Lisa

Yvonne (sorry Yvonne, I've lost the link to your blog!)   and Linda

http://sweetmarynz.blogspot.com/   and Karen

http://www.mousybrownshouse.typepad.com/   and http://www.bunmountain.blogspot.com/

http://www.lloydsgirl.blogspot.com/   and http://www.cheviots.blogspot.com/

Dee and Carol

http://www.leemills.typepad.com/   and http://circles-of-rain.blogspot.com/

http://www.fraiing.blogspot.com/   and http://www.rattlingon.typepad.com/

Emma and Judi

 

If you asked to join in and I've left you out, please let me know ....... and it's not too late to join in ..... just email me (link above right) before the end of the week and I'll do another draw.  I've sent out emails with your swap partners, so if you haven't received your email, again, please let me know.I didn't include email adresses in the email, as they aren't really needed, and I would still be there typing if I had!  However, you will have seen that I have shown the blog addresses for those who have one  in the above list.  One last thing - instead of setting up a flickr group, I thought it would be easier if you could just email  me a photo of the postcards you send, then once they have all arrived at their destinations, I will do collages to share them with you.

 

To finish, I haven't shown you one of my quirky photos of a falling down fence for a while ......

We laughed till we cried!!

We had a wonderful afternoon at patch'n'chat ...... I think we were all glad to get back into our normal routine after the Christmas and New Year break.  Katy and Cath as ever had a fund of jokes to tell, and we ended up with tears of laughter running down our cheeks ...... but sadly, I can't share the jokes as they were all a bit rude!!  However, I can share the fabrics I bought.  First, for the Hawaiian block, I chose two very bright fabrics for inner and outer borders

 

then for the other top I got a dark fabric for the inner border and a lovely patterned fabric for the outer border

I forgot to include this photo yesterday ..... when I was heading back down the hill from my walk, I heard a horse approaching.  I just had time to take this photo before stepping onto the verge well out of the way, as it went past at a fast trot

 

Then this morning I was distracted from doing the housework by this woman working her beautiful horse on a long rein, in the field across the road

 

It was quite chilly this morning, and the robin had his feathers fluffed up to keep warm

 

We didn't just have fun and laughter this afternoon - we also had cake!!  The first of the year was one of Annette's lighter than air chocolate sponges - delicious

 

I did manage to fit in a little bit of sewing - I have stitched the first fourteen hexagons together

 

Remember you have until the start of the week to sign up for the swap, and I'll be back tomorrow with Shadow Shot Sunday - I really missed it during my break!  have a good weekend, love Anne

I think the hexagons .......

....... have been breeding!  There seemed to be a never ending pile to prep - but eventually they were finished.  I wondered just how many there were - a quick calculation gave me the answer of 950 - no wonder it took so long to prep them!  The next stage was to lay them out ...... I could picture the pattern in my head, but I thought I should lay them out to make sure that it would work out ok.  I started by laying out one hexagon of each fabric .....

 

.......then added more rows, each time moving the fabrics one place to the right

 

I wasn't happy with the placement of the very dark red row, so after consulting with Malcolm, I moved it along two places to the right - much better!

 

The next stage was to number one of each of the different  hexagons

 

and pop them into numbered bags, held shut with  tiny pegs

 

All packed up, ready to take on Friday to the first patch'n'chat of the year

 

Thank you for your response to the swap - quite a few of you have signed up already!  Several of you have asked if there is a time limit for sending the postcards, as you are busy with all sorts of things.  I woud suggest that they should be posted by the end of the month, which will give you about three weeks to make then after you receive the details of your swap partner next week.  This afternoon I looked out this curtain sample from my stash, and a packet of Stix2Anything (yes, it does!)

 

I fussy cut a flower from the fabric, stuck it on the postcard and added a bit of ribbon round the edges

 

For the next postcard, I looked out the old road atlas that I had bought last year to make bunting with.  I still had the page with Hawick on it, so it was a simple job to cut it out and stick it on.  I then drew a circle round Hawick

 

I had given the third postcard to Malcolm to draw something on - he produced this, which rather puts my efforts in the shade!!

 

The full details of how to take part are at the end of yesterday's post, so if you missed it just scroll on down.

To finish - the wind may have dropped, but it was a raw, miserable day, so we were glad to have a warming bowl of lentil soup and a delicious piece of cheese bread when we were out

 

ps - do let your friends know about the swap!

 

Weather extremes

While Rattling On and Emily were running round their gardens in the middle of the night, rescuing things being battered by the wind, Meredithe was melting away to a greasy spot - what a pity we can't mix the weather in a large pot and get rid of the extremes!  It was very windy, wet and generally miserable here, so it was definitely a day for lighting the stove and having fun in the studio.  Having watched quite a lot of television over the holidays, I decided to have a day of listening to music.  I like all sorts of different music - here is what I listened to  ....

 

It was a busy day, doing a little bit of lots of things.  I have started the machine embroidery on my landscape

 

I had added quite a bit to my other experimental piece ......

 

....... and today looked out a fancy yarn

 

which I needle felted on to the background

 

I think I might add some beads next ...

 

I also did some more prep for the next Baltimore block

 

I made this throw the other day - I bought the fabrics in San Antonio, Texas, in 2005, so I thought it was time that I made it.  You should have seen the mess when I cut the pieces!  The animal prints are a sort of velour and a huge amount of bits came off all the cut edges, then the candlewick fabrics shed fluff everywhere.  It took ages to vacuum all the bits off the carpet!

 

Although the weather has been miserable, it has been very mild.  When we went for a walk in the park the other day, the daffodils had grown  quite a bit since our previous walk

 

I would have got closer to take this photo of a lone snowdrop flower - but you can see that the ground was very muddy!

 

Now, the moment you have been waiting for ....... the swap!!  It is very simple - make a postcard and send it to your swap partner, along with a postcard of your home town.  The postcard can be made using any method - this is a fabric one that I received in a swap some years ago

 

this one was posted just as it is, but you may prefer to put both postcards in an envelope to send

 

Why did I pick postcards?  I wanted something that could be made by anyone - you could draw, paint, collage, glue on fabric or a photo......  also, it will be cheap to send the postcards - I know that some people are put off joining swaps because of the high cost of postage.  The swap is open to everyone who reads the blog - you don't have to have a blog of your own.  If you want to join in, send me an email (there is a link at the top of the right hand sidebar) with your name and address.  I'll put all the names in a hat and  pull out pairs.  I'll let you know next week who your partner is.  To show how simple it is, I took a piece of card this afternoon, and cut out three cards, measuring 6"x4"

 

I used a fine black marker to draw a line down the centre and write Post Card

 

I'll have a bit of fun decorating the fronts tomorrow - I might get Malcolm to do one, as he is much better at drawing than me!  I do hope lots of you will join in!!

Refreshed, revived.......

....... and raring to go!!  I amazed myself at managing to go without blogging for so many days - but now I am looking forward to another year of writing drivel entertaining and informative posts!  (perhaps I should make a New Year's resolution to use fewer exclamation marks!!)  As well as not blogging, I have also not done any knitting ...... over the next few days I will have a browse through all the patterns I have on my to-do list, and decide what to do next.  Perhaps it will be something from this wonderful book that Stuart and Alison gave me

 

Both Alison and I fancy these flip-top mitts

 

But sneaking to the front of the queue could be Cobweb, the Dark Fairy .......

 

....... from this wonderful book, which Malcolm gave me

 

While I am making up my mind, I can enjoy a cuppa in my pretty new mug, which was also one of Malcolm's presents

 

While having a break from my normal round of sewing and knitting, I haven't been completely idle!  I finished this cross-stitch set of needlecase, pin cushion and scissor fob, which I think I started this time last year, then lost interest in

 

I found some blocks that I had made quite a long time ago ...... the fabric that I had was enough to make 48 blocks, but I like square quilts (don't know why, I just do) so I put the blocks aside, intending to make an applique block to put in the centre.  However, having found them in the UFO pile, I decided to be sensible and just make them up into a rectangular quilt

 

Oh dear - did you spot the mistake ...... the blocks in the top left corner are wrong - not only are there two similar blocks together, but there are two blocks turned the wrong way.  A quick unpick and restitch, and all was well.  Now I just need to add an outer border and it will be ready to quilt

 

Next Sunday is my third blogging anniversary (and amazingly this is post number 888!!).  Instead of a giveaway, I have decided to organise a swap to celebrate.  I know that at this time of year we are all a bit skint and a bit weary of crafting after the last minute rush to finish Christmas gifts, so it is going to be a very inexpensive and simple swap, so I hope lots of you will sign up for it ..... come back tomorrow to find out more.

 

To finish, I have some bird photos that I took at the garden centre this morning - we had popped in for a cuppa to get warm after a very chilly, but nonetheless enjoyable, walk

 

 

 

 

Drink, drink, drink

You will remember that some weeks ago I started making sloe gin, then added Turkish Delight vodka and limoncello.  Yesterday afternoon I bottled them using the smart bottles that I got here.  First was the vodka - I poured it through a fine nylon sieve, to remove the few lumps of Turkish Delight which hadn't dissolved

 

Then it was the turn of the limoncello - I have kept the slivers of lemon peel, as they will be good added to other drinks

 

and lastly the sloe gin ....

 

Malcolm recently saw a suggestion for using the sloes after making the gin - adding them to port, so that is what I did!

 

We are sacrificing giving a bottle of each one to Stuart and Alison, so today I added some labels, pretty ribbon and gift tags

 

Also today, I got organised to ice the cake

 

The first stage was to heat some of the apricot jam to brush over the cake, which I would normally do in a small saucepan ...... but there was a slight problem as Malcolm was cleaning the cooker

 

so instead I zapped it in the microwave and soon the cake was glazed with the jam

 

Oh the joys of rready-rolled icing - open the packet, unroll it, and pop it on the cake

 

Then it only took another minute to add Lorraine's wonderful marzipan fruits and some ribbon (I don't like marzipan, so I don't cover the cake with it before icing it, and instead add the marzipan fruits for Malcolm!)

 

Over the last few weeks, Malcolm has been decorating the bathroom, just doing a little bit every afternoon (except for the final coat of emulsion, which I did, as I make a better job of it!).  I kept forgetting to take photos along the  way .... so here is the reveal

the cactus on the windowsill are actually candles!

 

I only noticed the plant when I put the photos on the computer - it should be on the side of the bath!

 

a smart new shower curtain

 

I forgot to get a piece of red ribbon for the wreath wall hanging, so I have used this gold one instead .... but I have attached it with a tiny gold safety pin so that I can change it

 

I forgot all about the knitting update yesterday.  The scarf is now finished - but I forgot to take a photo of it (I'm not doing very well, am I!!)  I am having a break from knitting until after the New Year - instead I am finishing prepping my hexagons.  I can't start stitching them until they are all prepped and I can lay out the pattern, so I want to get them done!

ps - the little bits of Turkish Delight from the vodka weren't wasted - we had them with some icecream for pudding last night ..... delicious!!