frayed at the edge

Love is in the air!

The garden is full of birds sorting themselves out into couples, but the only ones I managed to capture this morning were these two pigeons, who were billing and cooing on the phone wire

 

 

Down below them in the garden, Malcolm was deep in conversation with the man who is hopefully going to install our new septic tank.  Holes were dug, water poured in and drainage time was noted

 

 

Borderland fabrics has had a sale on for the last week, so this afternoon, business was brisk as stashes were enhanced and new projects planned.  These fabrics were waiting to be restored to the shelves after the required lengths had been cut

 

 

 

As ever, there was cake to go with our mid-afternoon cuppa - a lovely light chocolate sponge

 

 

It is a week since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and many bloggers today are either not blogging, or are observing a minute's silence, to show their support for all those affected.  This miniature fan (it is only 3 inches high) was given to me by a lovely Japanese woman whom I taught to quilt when we were living in Indonesia, so perhaps you may like to pause and admire it, while thinking of those who died, and those whose lives will never be the same again.

 

 

I hope you all have a good weekend - Malcolm's sisters are coming to visit, so no doubt we will be out and about with them.  Love Anne

Things old and new

To start, I have something fairly old - an Edwardian post box.  This is the first Edwardian one that I have found - I'm glad that we crossed the road for a closer look when we were out for a walk yesterday!

 

 

I think if the paint were to be cleaned off, this would look like the one on the left of the photo in the link.

 

 

Next, something considerably older!  We went for a walk after lunch today, heading up the bridle path.  We have on occasion looked for the remains of a tower house, which we know is somewhere in the woods.  I have tried to find out about the house, and this link has a very informative piece - especially the bit about the army using it for demolition practice!  Today, we wandered down a different path, and there, suddenly, through the trees, we spotted the house

 

 

Later additions to the house have mostly gone, but this date stone shows when it was first built

 

 

It must have been an imposing sight before it fell into ruin

 

 

We were surprised that the house hasn't been fenced off - or at least had warning notices posted.  This section of stonework looked ready to fall

 

 

As we walked round, a flash of colour caught my eye.  This must have been a floor in the Victorian part of the house

 

 

Now for something considerably newer - the tractor quilt!  At the weekend, I finished quilting the centre panel

 

 

a detail of the front .......

 

 

....... and the back

 

 

It's Monday, so time for the latest knitting news.  The egg bunny cosies turned out as cute as they looked in the book

 

 

This week's project is a bead necklace, so that won't take long to do!  The pattern is for nine beads, but the only packet I could get in my local craft supply shop contains eight - maybe I could put something else in the middle!

 

 

 

 

 

I'll tell you what I want ......

....... what I really, really want (with apologies to the Spice Girls!).  I spotted our neighbour Billy the farmer driving this wonderful machine across the field this morning (yes, that's snow on the hills in the background) - I want one!

 

 

But what I really, really don't want is one of these ........

 

....... why?  Because it's the tanker for emptying the septic tank!  Fortunately the tank is on the far side of our neighbours' garden (we share the tank with the neighbours on either side of us), so at least I didn't have to see the proceedings!  We have a lot of bother with the drains, and Malcolm is the only one who sorts it out.  He is so fed up with it, that we are looking into having our own separate system installed.  In August we celebrate our Silver Wedding, so won't that be a really romantic present - a nice new septic tank!!

Last Friday, I told you about Alison finishing her late Mum's quilts.  This week, she had another one with her.  One of the last projects that Agnes had been working on involved making dozens of tiny log cabin squares.  This is the stunning quilt which Alison has made with them

 

 

Each square measures four inches, and Agnes had stitched most of them by hand

 

 

Annette didn't have time to bake a cake for us this week, but fortunately there is a wonderful cake-making business near the shop, so she popped in there to buy not one, but two tasty cakes for our afternoon cuppa

 

a wonderful rich gingerbread

 

 

a lovely moist raspberry and white chocolate cake

 

Earlier in the week, we had colourful  visitors to the bird feeder

 

 

 

I was sorting out some of my (many) photos yesterday, whe I realised that I hadn't shown you these two.  As you approach this building, you wonder why the pipe goes through the window

 

 

But when you draw level, you see that it is several inches away from the glass (although why it's there at all is a mystery!)

 

 

We've just seen the forecast for tomorrow - more snow!!  I hope your weather is better and that you have a good weekend.  Love Anne

Grand living

When I visited Callendar House two weeks ago, it wasn't just to take photos of the beautiful building. 

 

 

 Back in 1996/97, the quilting group that I was a member of at the time, Greenpark Quilters, made a wallhanging for the house, to celebrate the life and times of William Forbes, one of the owners.  Unfortunately, I didn't see the wallhanging when it was first hung in the house, as I had moved to Indonesia!  Some years ago, we eventually got round to going to see it, taking Malcolm's Dad with us.  When I said that I had made the central panel of the wallhanging, he kept saying 'you never did that'!  I had to show him my photos to convince him that I had.  So today I looked out the photos (yes, real photos) so that I can share them with you.  I'm sorry the quality of some of the photos isn't very good, but the originals were very glossy prints and it was difficult to take clear photos of them (one day I'll master my scanner!)

I started with this drawing

 

 

I used it to make this working drawing

 

 

Of course, way back then, I didn't know that one day I would have a blog, so I didn't take lots of photos, which means we have to skip a few stages.  This is the basic block that I produced

 

 

I added some shrubs at the sides and an outer border

 

 

 

And this is how the final block looked

 

 

This (not very clear) detail shows you the stitching on the windows ........ and Malcolm's contribution - he painted in the shadows on either side of the tower with fabric paint

 

 

Once the quilt was assembled, it was hand quilted, with all the group members taking turns - this is Grace working on it

 

 

We were all delighted with how the quilt turned out, and others obviously agreed with us, as we won an award at the Scottish Quilt Championships

 

 

So, to return to my visit to the house ....... did I get to see the wallhanging again and take more photos - NO!!  It has been taken down and is in storage, as they have revamped the museum amd it didn't fit in with the new exhibits.  However I did take lots of photos - including two of scenes in the grounds of the house that featured in the wallhanging.  First is the old bridge

 

 

 

and second, the entrance to the icehouse

 

 

 

Inside the house, there is a portrait of William Forbes

 

 

 

To end, in contrast to the very old house, here is something very new ...... a tiny rabbit which Malcolm spotted hiding under the hedge in the front garden this afternoon

 

 

However it wasn't long until it hopped out and started eating my oriental poppy!

 

 

However, the little thing was just so cute, I didn't grudge it a little nibble (as long as it doesn't come back with a horde of brothers and sisters!)

 

Like mother, like daughter!

Some weeks ago, we lost a very special member of our Friday afternoon patch'n'chat - the lovely Agnes Glendinning.  Although Agnes was in her eighties, she was still a prolific quilter, as her daughter Alison discovered, when she came over from Austalia, where she now lives, first for the funeral and then to sort out her Mum's estate.  Alison is trying to finish some of her Mum's quilts before she heads back home.  Today she had this beautiful teddy bear quilt with her - her Mum had stitched the teddies and made the tiny patchwork quilts, then Alison assembled and quilted it.

 

 

When asked what she was going to do with the quilt when it is finished, Alison said it would be going back to Australia with her, where she would put it away in the hope of one day giving it to her first grandchild!  Here is a detail of one of the adorable little teddies

 

 

There were more teddies this afternoon - Anne S was about to start the blanket stitch round the teddies on a small wallhanging for her (grown up!)daughter

 

 

When the post arrived this morning, there was a bit of a scuffle as we both tried to open a card which had arrived addressed to both of us.  Malcolm insisted on opening it, as he said the writing on the envelope was that of his younger sister Judith.  However when the card was opened, it was from my friend Sarah.  She said when she saw the card, she immediately thought of us, as it reminded her of the old telephone box near our house

 

 

It was Sarah who sparked my interest in pillar boxes, and when she visited us in the summer of 2009, she brought me a felted pillar box that she had made for me, based on a photo of a Victorian pillar box which I has included in a previous post.  She then sent me a pack with stamps featuring pillar boxes, so I had them framed together (sorry for the funny angle of the photo, but it was to try to eliminate the reflection on the glass)

 

 

I was sad this morning when I had finally to accept that my African violet had died.  This little plant was special to me, as I had given it to my Dad as one of his presents for his 80th birthday in 1999.  When he died five years ago, the poor plant only had two leaves on it!  But I repotted it, and it then recovered and flowered for months on end.  However recently it has been looking a bit sickly, and today I had to send it to the compost bin

 

 

It's Friday, which means I have two important things to do to finish the blog.  The first, of course, is to show you the Friday cake ....... a wonderful chocolate sponge

 

 

And now ...... a fanfare and a roll of drums, as I announce the winner of the giveaway!  The 'random number generator' (aka Malcolm) picked a number, and the winner is .......Tinky.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend - I am hoping to quilt the tractor quilt.  Love Anne

 

Catching up!

I've got lots of photos to show you, starting with this one from Saturday, when I finished the quilt top for the Linus tractor quilt - now I just need to layer it and quilt it!

 

 

When we were about to get in the car on Saturday morning to go to Hawick, the postman arrived, with a mysterious parcel for me.  It was from Amazon, but I knew that I hadn't ordered anything!  I opened it to find it contained a present from Rachel   (thank you  Rachel) ...... this wonderful book of vintage socks

 

 

It is packed full of the history of socks and the vintage patterns the book is based on.  There are clear instructions for the construction of the different heels and toes

 

 

and who could resist knitting a baby's bootikin!

 

 

Last week I bought a bunch of beautiful lilies.  When I left on Thursday morning only one or two of the blooms had opened, but when I came home on Friday, they had all opened

 

 

In the mirror, you can see a little bit of this embroidery, which I did many years ago for my Mum and Dad

 

 

Although we have had some frosty mornings, it has been warmer during the day, and there are more signs in the garden that spring is just about here.  This is new growth on the forsythia

 

 

and this is one of our many clematis

 

 

This next photo is actually from about ten days ago - I was just pottering round the garden, hoping to see some new growth (while lamenting the plants which haven't survived the winter), when I saw a flash of colour under the old leaves of the hellebore.  I immediately fetched the secateurs and snipped off the tatty old foliage

 

 

We went out for a walk after lunch today.  We were going to go up the bridle path, but it was extremely muddy!  Instead we walked through the wooded area beside the road.  This little holly has a long way to go before it it as tall as the trees round it

 

 

Two other flashes of green caught my eye - the first one is a welcolme sight of new growth

 

 

But it won't be long until this nettle is big enough to sting an unwary walker!

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this round up of photos that nearly didn't make it into the blog - I need to lie down for a rest now!!

Another day out

 
Yesterday, I headed down the road to Chesters, for a Woolgathering - where a bunch of us get together and indulge in all things crafty.  It was a beautiful morning, so I had a quick stop on the way to take some photos.  Ruberslaw stood out against the sky

 

 

Looking back down the road, I had a good view of the Mintos and the Eildons

 

 

Oh dear, we were so busy talking and working all day, I forgot to take any photos!  But I can show you the progress I made on my scarf

 

 

But on to more important things ........ lambs!  I went out for a walk after lunch, and as I did last time, I struggled through the hedge and over the fence to try to get closer photos.  I was somewhat embarrassed when a woman appeared in the field, accompanied by a little girl and a small dog.  I thought I had better explaing what I was doing, but she had realised that I was taking photos and ....... she asked if I wanted to come into the field to get closer!!

 

the lambs are getting big

 

 

this is the tup (he has broken one of this horns)

 

 

they are just so cute!

 

I was delighted to get so close to the lambs ........ and I have permission to go into the field again to get more photos as they get bigger!  There were some ewes in one of the other fields - I wonder if the one on the right knows that she is different from the others

 

 

As I was walking along looking for things to thake photos of, a bit of colour caught my eye.  A closer look showed it to be a rotten apple!

 

 

Then later, when I was squeezing through the hedge, I noticed another little bit of colour - a ladybird!

 

 

It's Monday, so that means an update on the knitting project.  The little floral corsage didn't take long to do

 

 

This week's item won't take long either - a washcloth!

 

 

I still seem to have quite a collection of photos to show you - I will have to do a catch-up tomorrow!

 

Quilts galore!

There were quilts as far as the eye could see, traders with all sorts of wondeful things to buy ...... but first - breakfast!!  (yes, the bacon roll was as tasty as it looks) (and yes, I got some funny looks taking the photo!)

 

 

Suitably fortified, it was time to look at the quilts.  Since I started the blog, I have only shown general shots of quilts at shows, because of copyright issues.  But I have seen lots of quilts on other blogs - and by the time the quilts have been seen by the thousands of visitors to the shows, I really don't think there will be too much harm done if I show you some.  However, I have permission to show you these first two quilts, as they were made by one of my friends, and I saw her at the show.  They were part of a challenge to make 'journal quilts' - they are all the size of A4 paper

 

 

 

The next two quilts were made by another friend - I'm sure she won't mind my sharing them with you

 

 

 

There were several quilts with beautiful applique (the colours aren't true, as the lighting was rather dim)

 

 

 

The secondary pattern formed by the darker colours is much clearer in the photo than it was looking at the quilt!

 

 

I wish the colours were true in this next photo - I came round the end of the row and stopped in my tracks ........ the quilt is VERY bright

 

 

So did I buy anything?  Well, I didn't buy any fabric (although I was tempted!).  I got these two magazines, as they aren't available in shops here.

 

 

Then I was intrigued by this set of continuous line quilting patterns.  As I definitely need to practice my machine quilting, I thought this would be a good investment

 

 

This is part of one of the patterns

 

 

I also stocked up on my favourite thread for using in the bobbin

 

 

After all the bother of doing the post last night, I was glad to pick up my knitting and do a few relaxing rows.  But then I saw so many people wearing these scarves today, I have gone off it a bit!  I shall have to do something to customise mine.  I know I should have popped out to the studio and draped it round my mannequin to show you the progress, but by the time I got home, I just laid it on the rug in the lounge .......

 

 

Of course after seeing all those wonderful quilts, I should be spending the weekend chained to the sewing machine ...... but I'm off out for the day again on Sunday!  I'll tell you about that on Monday, when I'll also show you more of the photos from yesterday - and I'll also be using some of them tomorrow for Shadow Shot Sunday.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

It all started ........

........ when Rachel sent me a link to this beautiful blog.  One of the things that caught my eye was a super knitted cushion cover with cables.  Now, this is when a problem arose.  If I knitted something similar, was I stealing someone else's design, or was I just inspired to do my own version.  I decided that as I was only knitting one for myself, and not writing a pattern to give to others, it was ok.  Next problem - can I show you my version?  Well, here is a peek at what I've done so far

 

 

Still on the knitting front, on Friday at patch'n'chat someone was knitting an unusual scarf.  Then yesterday, when my friends arrived for Kist (my housegroup), one of them, Anne D, was knitting one of these intriguing scarves too.  Well, it wasn't just me, we were all making plans to go and buy a ball of the yarn.  I bought mine this morning when we were in Hawick (more later as to why we were there today instead of tomorrow)

 

 

If you hadn't seen how this yarn knits up, you would think it looks nothing special

 

 

But the yarn has a secret - you need to pull it open, to reveal a mesh

 

 

That's when I encountered a slight problem - although Anne had shown us yesterday how to knit with the yarn, by this afternoon I had forgotten.  Not that I'm the only person to forget things - I'm in good company

 

 

and obvioulsy I learned something new today, which pushed the knitting method out of my brain

 

 

However, thanks to a quick google, I found a tutorial, and I was soon underway.  You don't cast on in the normal way, you simply put the needle through the edge, leaving a gap of about an inch and a half each time

 

 

It's hard to show you the next stage - instead of wrapping the yarn round as normal, you leave a gap and put the needle through the edge, then use that to make the stitch

 

 

This is how it looks after two rows

 

 

On the sewing front, I got the fleece for the back of the tractor quilt - the same one that I used for the quilt that I made Stuart for Christmas

 

 

So, why were we in Hawick today instead of tomorrow ...... I am abandoning Malcolm again - this time for two days!  Tomorrow morning I am heading for Falkirk to visit Stuart.  Of course, you are thinking, why isn't Malcolm going with me?  It's because on Friday, I am going to the spring quilt show at Ingliston.  However, I don't think Malcolm minds too much, as he has made his famous lasagne (Stuart loves it) for me to take for dinner tomorrow (there was even talk of a bottle of Chianti to go with it).  All I have to do tomorrow is pop it in the oven!

 

 

But don't worry that Malcolm might be going hungry - of course he made some for himself!

 

 

On my way to Falkirk, I will be making a detour to take some very special photos to share with you tomorrow ....... and I may just have to have lunch at a garden centre!

A special quilt

For some years now, I have made quilts for Project Linus.  It is a wonderful charity, which gives quilts and blankets to sick and traumatised children.  One of our Friday afternoon group, Sandra, has recently taken over as our local 'Linus Lady', so on Sunday, I started a quilt to give her.  Lots of quilters make lovely, pretty, girly quilts (yes, me too!), so I thought this time I would make a real little boy's quilt.

From my stash, I unearthed this tractor panel, and a pile of green fat quarters

 

 

I ironed the fat quarters,arranged them in two piles and cut strips (I know in the photo that it looks as if the left hand strips are wider, but they are overlapped!)

 

 

I joined the strips in pairs, then joined the pairs together (and had one extra strip to add, as I used nine fabrics)

 

 

I then cut the long strips into shorter sections.  I put the tractor panel on the design wall and put the strips round it, to get an idea of how it will look

 

Once I sew the strips in place, I will use some cosy fleece for the back.  I will make the binding with some of the leftover fat quarters.  It is lovely to snuggle under a quilt when you are poorly, so I hope the little boy who receives this one will enjoy using it.