Furtling April

 Well April has been a funny old month. Lots of good times but not a huge amount of sewing going on. I have been doing lots of  FPP, which I love but I must must must remember to de floof the sewing machine otherwise it gets upset and does things like this ….

I’m getting cracking with the temperature spidersweb embroideries. 

I got a new phone which has an amazing camera, been doing lots of close up shots!

I have been cracking on with the quiet play in the garden blocks, really loving them but oh my goodness the teeny tiny pieces! But it will be worth it

I did have a super fab online sashiko class with Yiranduan https://www.yiranduan.com/onlineworkshop

What a super fab class! Lovely to do it with chum Kim. Am trying to finish off tonight.

And this happened! Happy 50th birthday my wonderful Scoobs ❤️

March furtle

 Happy Budsmam? I think so 😊 real life, still tentative, but real life all the same!

fence posts will always remain, i love a fence post.

so, sewing! life has been all a bit bonkers recently, when hasnt it! but i have fitted in some sewing, keeping up with the quiet play BOM, In the garden.

ooohhhhh bit more real life! i got back to the rural! sold my rafflees!

got a cup of tea and a biscuit!

got to see the Donks too!

ahhhhh more sewing! finished the Jessica Long embroidery bingo, loved making this.

Bother, all my block pics are the wrong way round! youget the jist though.

Bosies, what a great word, its Doric (my local dialect) for hugs, we all need bosies dont we!

we are coming to the end of our 2nd watching of the big bang theory, love this show, got us through several lock downs!

We went to visit the Glasgow necropois, love a graveyard.

My Linus co ordinator put a call out for more quilts so i hastily whipped some up for her.

More real life! great chums, cup of tea and a tunnocks, cannae beat it!

3 for linus

When your project Linus co-ordinator puts out a plea for quilts then what do you do? Well you delve into your stash chop up into 5 inch squares and whip up some cosy quilts thats what you do! when you have fab fabric then you dont really need a fancy pattern do you 😊

U3 and Killearn

 Things are all very very challenging just now on a number of levels. But things are also returning to some sort of pre pandemic levels too, I am not going to say new normal, I hate that phrase but things are getting better. This is the calendar in my home office, how appropriate, “where there is laughter happiness likes to be”

And on Saturday the 5th there was a lot of laughter! I rocked up at Killearn where i was scooped up and brought out of my slough of despond …. Friday had been a difficult day where lots of things conspired to chip away at my faith in myself. As ever the Killearn chums righted that wrong.

Then i went out to a real life restaurant!!!!! OMG how incredible was that ! It was Andy and Jacky - U3, we had Andy’s Prosecco bar to start with then off to Blonde! This was my dessert, I had ham hock croquettes for starter then duck confit for main, all totally gorgous! Accompanied by a rather lovely bottle of Red and a glass of desert wine for me and Jacky.

I may be a leeeeetle bit happy in this pic! See my desert wine 😊

I stayed in a travel lodge as is my want, all utterly fabulous. Costa coffee drive through breakfast the next day, utterly marvellous!

Presents for chums

 Farewell lovely Jo! Awww happy sad memories! When I was first diagnosed with RA I put a call out for quilters which RA for tips and ways of dealing with it. Lovey Jo, quilty doings on IG replied and was so so lovely.

After a few chats we realised we lived within half an hour of each other and both worked in Edinburgh!! 

We met up for coffee a few times, went to the pictures, the cameo to see Alexander McQueen doc. I introduced her to Stirlingshire stitch, Killearn group and the rest is history.

Over the past two pandemic years me her and lovely Kim have kept each other buoyant. Car park picnics in kaleidoscope. Long lunches outdoors at the wood house. Chums like these don’t come along often and when they do you Cherish them.

Lovely Jo is moving back to England to be near family. We will still keep in touch but no more impromptu Friday/Saturday breakfasts or lunches. I had one last lunch with Jo at the wood house and gave her this as a leaving present. It’s a Hexie project pouch by vintage sewing box. Lovely pattern and I adored making the hexies, even the teeny ones with my new bionic eyes!

Awww Jo I will miss you, you are a great chum. We will still keep in touch and all the best my lovely.

World on fire

I really dont know what to say just now, March 2022 feels like March 2020 but on steroids and we are all burned out to boot. I was putting things away last weekend and i found this. It is probably from 2014, when I was Project Linus co-ordinator for my region. I gave out quilts to societies who helped children. One society contacted me, the Friends Of Chernobyl Children. They bring/brought across children from the surrounding areas of Chernobyl who are still suffering physically from the reactor disaster in 1986. These children weren’t born then, a lot are grandchildren of the families but the physical after effects come down the generations.

 I went along to a concert they gave, they sang and danced, at the end they came to a room with me and the organisers and we gave out the quilts. They loved them, they loved picking them the colours, one small girl asked me if she could take one for her baby sister who had just been born, of course she could get one. One little boy grabbed his and ran off with it firmly tucked under his arm, then he stopped, turned round ran back and hugged me around my legs and said “thank you”

this home made thank you card arrived shortly after, I had it up on my desk at work for years. It was packed away, but now it has come out again and sits on my desk in my home office.

I can only hope these children, most of whom will be adults now are safe, I will never know, but if I ever get the slightest bit stressed at work i look up at this and remind myself there is so much more going on. None of this day to day stuff matters in comparison with what is happening on the world stage. Also it reminds me why i do what i do, give people a quilty hug. 

Floral big cats - Lion!

I am slowly slowly catching up on life, still processing the events of the last few weeks, but very aware I am doing that from a perspective of privilege which is not afforded to many. I am safe, I have food and warmth. World has gone mad but life goes on. So, first up in the catch up! This beauty and oh my goodness how I love this floral big cat lion. Pattern by Hobby landing  I have all the current big cat patterns, this is my second. I completed the panther last year. I need to get a wiggle on but hey, a lot of time might free up later this year 😉