A little bit of festive spirit

Yesterday was sadly a fabric free day - the old fabric itch was no way going to get scratched - work and, in a very long way second place, the kids took up all my time. As you can imagine I'm suffering severe withdrawal symptoms today - seldom go a single day without some kind of fabric contact.

I started the day walking the kids to school and received a phone call on my mobile half way to school from my colleague in the office. Could I go into work early as we already knew she wouldn't be in the office for most of the day but both her and the head had forgotten that neither of them would be there before 11.30.

So I walked home from school, got changed into work clothes and headed straight for work - bang went my plan to sandwich the 'stars' baby quilt. Best laid plans eh?

My usual hours are 10.30 to 2.30 four days a week but as I was clerking my first governors meeting in post last night I was still at school finishing off the paperwork at 2.55 and dashed off just in time to collect the kids.

A very swift tea and help with times tables etc etc and then I returned to work at 6.15 until almost 10pm.

As you can imagine with concentrating so hard to make sure I noted all the relevant details in the minutes my mind had turned to midway between scrambled egg and mashed potato by the time I got home just after 10 o'clock.

A quick 15 minute update on the day with DH and I was ready for the journey up those stairs to my snuggly warm bed and off to the land of nod. I hadn't actually seen Nigel previously that day as he'd been in Essex the night before and hadn't even arrived home before I left for the governors meeting - a bit like ships that pass in the night but with frantic telephone calls en route to make sure he would be home in time to take DD1 to her rugby training. Mercifully the gods and the traffic were with him and he returned home in one piece on time - just!

So I thought I'd show you what I was working on at our quilting group earlier in the week.

Browsing round blogland a little while ago I came across a lovely Christmas wallhanging on Norma's blog. A lovely simple yet effective design that appealed to me particularly.

Oddly in our family my sister, my elder daughter and most unusually my father share the same middle name - JOY - what a cross to bear for my dad for all those years, especially as his first name is Basil which might not be a person's first choice either.

Apparently the reason for him being given such an unusual handle is when he was born in 1930 he was almost a 10 month gestation, his mother had a terrible labour with a brutal forceps delivery from which he still sports various dents in his forehead 76 years later and they both nearly died. In gratitude he was named after the midwife who brought him safely into the world and her surname just happened to be Joy.

My parents then named my younger sister Lorna Joy - my middle name is Patricia after my paternal aunt, Anne Joy would've sounded just too silly! - and Nigel and I then went on to give Sarah the same middle name - almost a family tradition in infancy here.

So when I spotted Norma's 'JOY' wallhanging I thought I'd make three of them - one for each Joy in our family. I particularly like the heart shaped 'O'

I decided I'd quite like the banners to have a 'V' shaped bottom so will add a red triangle to the base once the squares are in place and the bells will be the focal point of that.

Another few items on my home-made christmas present list underway :o)