Happy Birthday Gran

My Gran would of been 81 today so I thought I'd share a few memories of her

Years ago when I was maybe 8/9 we were on a day trip to Llandudno and as we walked over a crossing her shoe fell apart so she walked into the shoe shop at the end of the crossing and asked if they sold shoes!

My brother used to call her the old witch and one year he gave her a witches broom for her birthday along with a poem he'd written, he held the broom at arms length to give to her and then ran down her garden path.
My gran was to busy laughing to tell him off, she held on to that broom for 20 odd years until it fell apart and when we were clearing her house out I came across the poem.

In the last couple of years of her life she lost most of her sight and I used to take her to the hospital for her appointments, because she couldn't see she always said that she'd follow me because she could see me as a shape (and because I always made sure I wore a bright top).
I kept threating to buy one of those extending dog leads to tie on to her walker, the last time I said it she replyed with ' well it's my birthday soon'

My Gran was the type of person that could take a joke and gave as good as she got, we frequently insulted each other knowing full well that nither of us meant it as an insult.
She hated that her memory was going as well and would often ask the same question several times in the space of a few minutes, it got so bad that at times I would time how long it took for her to ask it again and tell her, I sure that at times she did it on purpose!

I miss her dearly

Peacock Chair

I've finished the stitching part of it, I'm sorry the pics not that good but it's a little cloudy today
All the pieces are cut out and pressed now, the card parts are stuck together and whileI'm at Mum's today we're going to make a start on putting it together

Needle felting

Yesterday was Spinning guild day and after a very quick AGM, an hour or so of chatting over coffee and lunch we were shown how to do Needle felting by a couple of other members.
Some folks went off and did 3D things and others went with the flat, me being one of them.
This is my effort

The base is Needle felted dyed Merino that was pre done and the edge is Wensleydale curls dyed with natural dyes rather than acid ones.
By far the least imaginative one of the bunch (other members efforts included a Seagull, a landscape and a Polar Bear that started out life as a Yorkshire Terrier but the fleece decided otherwise and wanted to be a bear) but I'm quite pleased with it

The good, the bad and a WIP

First of all the WIP, Enchanting Lair's Cookie Dragon.
He was my Birthday start last year and I aim to have him finished by my birthday this year

The fabric is a Sparklies Solitaire and the reason I'm telling you that is because it brings me onto the good :)

Sparklies is one today and all year Kate has been taking submissions for the Gallery to do a prize draw, the winner get's a half metre of fabric in total or 36 skeins of her hand dyed floss or a combination of both and I'm the lucky winner of the draw this year. After the pain filled day I've had finding out I'd won really made my day all I have to do now is decide what I'd like

So the bad, as I said above I've had a pain filled day today. It started off with aching knees when I woke up this morning, as I was leaving to go to Mum's I remembered I needed my book to read while I took her car for it's MOT (it passed, yay) so I turned and twisted my ankle a little. Next up was a small cut as I made lunch followed a couple of hours later by the car door being blown onto my ear as I got stuff off the back seat, last but not least I dropped a pair of scissors on the foot that's swollen from twisting my ankle earlier in the day! I was suppossed to go to a Haflah this evening but decided it much was safer for me to stay home with my foot up besides I'm going to visit my framed Riddle on Friday at the NEC so I need it to be feeling better by then

Feb progress & March goals

For Feb I said
Finish The Riddle Done
Finish one of the small new starts Done
Maybe do an ornie Never gave it another thought
Make some more progress on the Birth Sampler Done
UFORR Done
Work on my Peacock Chair Done

For March I'd like to
Finish the Peacock Chair
Make progress on the Birth Sampler
UFORR
Become a Gran

I had a pretty good month really considering how busy it was, I stitched for 89hrs 21mins, made 2 new starts and had 4 finishes and only one day with no stitching (the day I helped DD move)

A couple of finishes

Both are off to SOLAK for a lady who loves the USA.
First is LK Liberty freebie from a quite a while back


Second is from an old issue of JCS

I've had a leap year start this evening, Enchanting Liar's Be A Dragon, so far I've done maybe 30 stitches then put it down to come online before heading for bed

The Riddle is finished

I finished Saturday lunch time and 30 mins later was on the road to take it back to Chris!
I hope to have a pic of it framed in a few weeks as Chris is going to be at Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC and I'll be going as normal so if I get chance I'll take a pic

General update

First of all I finished the snowman I mentioned I'd started on Jan 17th, he's on a Sparklies Solitaire fabric and I used all the called GAST and SSS

Last weekend I went down to Joy's for the GTG she mentioned earlier in the week and had a great time although I did spend a small fortune on stash! I've been meaning to take a pic of it all week and haven't got round to it yet, maybe tomorrow I will (well today really as it's 1.30 am as I write this!)

Mum is currently in the local hospital after having her right knee replaced on Tuesday, I went to visit her for the first time today (I stayed away because I had a cold) and she's doing well, she can do the bend but not the lift she needs so she's going to be there at least another day.

DD#1 moved into her new house on Tuesday, she got a call on Monday and had until Wednesday morning to be out of the temp one or face paying £27.58 a day in rent on it.
I walked out the door at 7.30am and didn't get walk in it until 10.40pm (ish), that was a long and tiring day!
Tuesday was also the 2 year anniversary of my starting life on my own.

Friday I went to Chester Cathederal to see The Quaker Tapestry that's visiting all this month, they have roughly half of it here and was really impressed by it, the pics on the web site don't do it any justice at all esp. The Prism it's so much brighter IRL and has mettalics that just don't show in the pics.
If your in this area and have the chance to go then do, it's worth the trip and entry to the Cathederal is free while it's here so you can be a tourist as well if you've not been there before
I saw 6am for the second time in a week to go something that normally happens once every few months if I'm unlucky, I'm really not a morning person and getting up at stupid o'clock means it can take me several hours and a few coffee's to become human

DD#2 has spent her half term week doing some work experiance at a local pet shop, although she did 2 weeks at a stables last summer they can't count as the 2 weeks she's needs for Reaseheath because she want's to do animal care and not Equine.
She's has enjoyed and catching fish is fun she tells me although she did complain about one full time member of staff that was always taking over whenever she or one of the other work experiance girls was in the middle of dealing with a customer.

DD#1 texted me a couple of days ago to say that the baby's head is down but could still move again in the next week or so and that's he's bigger than he should be.
My gut is telling me that there's no way she's going to make it to March 23rd if the head is down already but all we can do is stick to the plan of my going down there over Easter for the time being.

January progress & Feb goals

A few days later than planned!

For January I said
Finish the Riddle No but I made good progress
Start all the new projects I want Yes, inc. a couple I didn't plan on
Try and work on a WIP or two Crimson Poppies and an old UFO got worked on

For Feb I would like to
Finish The Riddle
Finish one of the small new starts
Maybe do an ornie
Make some progress on the Birth Sampler
UFORR
Work on my Peacock Chair

Riddle update

Not much more to go now, just the rest of the band that's got a tree top, the block of writing to finish, a repeat of the top band and the remaining border
I'm spending the weekend with Mermaid and Monday with Fantasy Sampler so I'll be back to it on Tuesday after I've done my hour on my UFO and aim to get that band finished by the end of the week

All day today I've been trying to get into Webshots and I can't :( I've no idea if it's just me or if they are down for some reason.
I want to add the pic to my album so I can post it on the BB's I visit because I'm not that keen on directing people here but if it's still the same tomorrow I guess I'll have to

I'll post my monthly goals tomorrow at gone 1am I really should be heading for bed!