Happy Birthday Jim

A bank holiday weekend, not much sewing done. Friday afternoon at The Fat Quarters I got Mrs Perkins off to a good start. As it has been sunny we have been out and about in the Scottish borders at the weekend. (Although I did manage to buy some more buttons and an Anchor embroidery thread from Louise at Woolfish. Get that blog up to date Louise, you have those great hats in the shop to show off.)

Saturday was my DH birthday and here he is with his birthday present.

Sunday we joined Go Wild Berwickshire for one of their natural history walks. We visited Dunbar, the home of the natural historian John Muir. As a child he emigrated from Dunbar in Scotland to Wisconsin in the USA in 1849. His pioneering conservation work led him to being named America's founder of National Parks. After a very educational tour of his birthplace museum here we went for a guided walk through the John Muir Country Park, which is on the edge of the sea over looking the town of Dunbar and the mouth of the Scottish River Tyne.

Monday was very windy but we had a relaxing day just pottering about taking photos at St Abbs. This is one of many shots of the harbour and the bay in the Sunshine.

These tiny bronze statues are a small monument to those lost in the Eyemouth fishing disaster of 1881. The Great Storm of 1881 claimed 189 lives of the fishing fleet from Eyemouth and the surrounding villages. Sculpted by local artist Jill Watson, this memorial shows the figures of the 3 widows and 4 children from Coldingham Shore looking out to sea, scouring the horizon in vain.

Bird houses and Bunnies

Yesterday I went shopping to Hexham with my sister. After lunch in the Cornmill coffee shop we did a trawl of the charity shops. On the way back to the car we passed the Cancer research charity shop and in the window I spied these little bird houses. Purely decorative and quite expensive, I couldn't resist it as knew it would look lovely on the blog as well as in the garden. This picture is completely over the top, birdhouse, quilt and blossom tree!! This was made before I started machine quilting and there is not enough quilting on this quilt. It was quickly pieced from 4 charm packs, the fabric is Bound to the Prairie 2 from Moda.

Not a lot of sewing done this weekend, although the heart quilt from Little Quilts is coming along.

The next project is already in the queue, Mrs Perkins by Melly and Me. I have joined the Fat Quarters Club 2008 and I am looking forward to the exclusive Rosalie Quinlan and Melly & Me designs we will be getting from July onwards.


And finally a cute picture of the bunny in the garden.

Happy Quilting xxx

Happy Birthday Margaret

The Friday afternoon class at the Fat Quarters were celebrating Margaret's birthday. Sorry its not a very good photo but you were concentrating on the cake not the camera. Dawn made her a lovely gift bag bag filled with goodies from the Buttonberry blog and I made Margaret a bag for life from a pattern in patchwork and quilting magazine. We all enjoyed the chocolate cake from Mandy!!! Calories don't count on a Friday afternoon. This is the only sewing I have done this week because I have been finishing off the Debbie Bliss baby cardigan, Now I'll have to make one of those buttonberry gift bags to put it in.

Today the weather has been fabulous again so we went to the seaside. Druridge bay on the Northumberland coast is a long wild stretch of sand and dunes. It was little breezy but the beach shelter solved that and everyone managed to relax in the sunshine.

The sunshine has brought out the best of the apple blossom in the garden so I couldn't resist a shot of that too.

The secret garden

This bank holiday weekend has been too sunny and warm for sewing (although I have done some knitting which should be finished by the next post). Today we went to Wallington Hall along with about 3 million other people and their screaming kids. The walled garden was not the peaceful haven it usually is but the flowers were lovely especially in the conservatory. Michael showed me how to use the Macro bit on my camera so here are a few flowery shots.






Inspired, when I got home I planted a couple of pots with some plants I bought on Friday.

Cherry Blossom time...

Last weekend we visited Gibside Chapel for their food festival. A National Trust property, the 17th century chapel was built be George Bowes in the 1760s. The landscaped forest gardens are lovely for woodland and riverside walks.

The chapel is not actually sloping like my picture but what do you expect after sampling a few local brews.There were lots of local food producers represented and much fun was had sampling their wares. Here is some of the loot we bought. Trees can't dance are growers of chillis from sunny Northumberland. The plum sauce and the hot african sauce are both scrummy.

Sunday was wet and miserable so I settled down to play with the embroidery stitches on my machine. I even managed to work out the button sewing function. Inspired by a card I bought from the stand of the Northumbrian and Scottish Borders Textile Forum at the Pins and Needles show,I made my own.

The weather at the end of the week is brightening up so I have been out in the garden again taking pictures of the cherry tree in blossom and these lovely tulips.