2022 December

 Hi all - hope you had a good Christmas and wish you and yours all all the very best for 2023

I know some of my visitors have had a bit of a rubbish 2022: please know  I'm thinking of you, and hope that things improve or get manageable 💗

My December in pictures:

A few Christmas gifts were created

 

A class of Christmas napkins was taught

some Dachshunds were embroidered

Lots of Gingers were embroidered

The La Passacaglia rounds were taken apart and added to tote bags instead

 

Some uniforms were embroidered

A quilt was made for a customer (I know the name is at a strange angle, but it's so it reads right when it is used as a wrap ... and isn't being photographed in a mirror!)

A baby quilt was made for a friend's first grandson

A knitted Queen was received (isn't she great!), thank you Debs

And a conical peg bag (love this), thank you Jane

A Christmas tree was put up and decorated

And Christmas Lunch was enjoyed by all

Slippers were received (in a fab hexie box)

Hair was styled by little miss 8, thank you Nina

Hat and gloves were received, thank you Deb

Mr Nutcracker was received and created, thank you Jackie

But sadly at the end of Christmas we lost this lovely lady: as she would say, she was my first husband's mother!

She was 95, her lower limbs were more metal than bone, she hated having to rely on carers, and she's been asking us to bring her a gun for the last 5 years . . .  I think it's safe to say she was ready to go.

Rest in peace Mrs Hickley xxx

2020 Week 51

 This dotty paper foundation pieced quilt was finally finished this week

The binding was black (with small white dots) onto black fleece - I'm glad that's finished, it was really difficult to see where each stitch was 

The upteenth attempt to start my crochet spiral circle is actually working!  As I cant start a crochet piece I'm in the hands of others as to how it's going top look, but Lisa made a great choice in the style of this one - I'm using the variegated wool and the cream wool together!

My friend Louise had her first baby, Jessica, the same day I had Lisa - that's actually how we met - in adjoining beds.  We used to see a lot of each other but over the last 29 (!) years life has moved on so its less frequent but it's always a joy to see her and her three girls.  Grandchild number 3 has a feeding issue and has to be tube fed . . . could I find a way to add front / belly zips to baby vests so the port can be accessed.  I started with creating a lined opening and trying to add the zip to the front but it was a lot of fiddling ... so for this one I added a second zip put to the zip, stitched it on the outside, then opened the zip and cut away the now unnecessary fabric behind it - took about 5 minutes!  It's gone in the post to them - if it works for them I can easily adapt other vests for baby M

Louise's second daughter, Claudia, is my God Daughter, and she has just become a mum - baby William was born earlier this week.  This EPP quilt seemed a perfect gift - with three big cousins who can use the fussy cut hexies to invent stories for him!

So I've added his name and this has gone in the post too!

The girls and I did another on-line Brush Party painting class - it was great fun but we are not natural painters so would like to do one with a real life person - when ever we are allowed to!!!  Anyway, I don't think these are too shabby!!!

A very good friend of mine is Jewish.  She ordered a few Christmas gingers from me: I added a Hanukkah ginger for her - just mixing my faith and non faith celebrations!!!!

More Gingers - these went to Manchester to my childhood best friend (I love that we've reconnected through Facebook!)

For a quite week there seems to have been a lot happening!  It was mum's birthday last weekend - but we were not allowed to meet in a home so we agreed to meet for a walk and a picnic - come the day it was *pouring*, so we chucked the gazebo into the car too and used the boots of the cars as seats!

A birthday we wont forget in a while!!!  Mum enjoyed it!

Nat used the Elf Ginger costumes

My friend Jane crocheted me an awesome Julenissen

And Barbara made me a mask with a matching zippy - isn't it great!!!!

If I'm not in touch with you before "the" day - I hope it's a great one even if it's not what we hoped for and we cant see the people we want to see, but by doing the right thing this year we can see each other next year.

Lots of love xxxx