A little bit of dyeing for light relief

Nigel and I spent a few hours one day this week sorting out our bedding, table linen and towels. What a romantic way to spend an afternoon I hear you say.

We have a corner cupboard in our bedroom which is a funny shape as it is tucked in under the eaves of the apex above our front door area. When we moved in last year we earmarked it for a linen closet. The removal men duly stuffed it full of boxes of linen and since then we've merrily pulled out bits and pieces as we needed them with no regard to their order or how we'd get it all back in again.

As you can imagine twelve months later we've now got to the stage that the door won't close due to the tide of linen encroaching on our bedroom

Time for drastic action!

All the linen out - all the linen sorted into sensible quantities to store for day to day usage and balance to store for future supplies (yes that's how much we've accumulated all this time, the kids won't need to buy any for university!) - sensible quantities for day to day usage returned to nice set of roller baskets for ease of access. Balance of linen on our bed to pack up for storage for future supplies

In and amongst all this for some reason it was apparent that all our lovely white fluffy towels are beginning to look decidedly grey and shabby - why is it that children seem incapable of rinsing off dirty suds before acquainting their hands with the lovely white fluffy towel on the rail

So instead of chucking out these towels I decided that as they had loads of fluffy life in them I'd buy some washing machine dyes and give them a new brighter lease of life

Of course being the lover of space dyed fabrics that I am I couldn't resist popping a few bits of white sheeting I gathered about my stash to join them in the washing machine

They are all quite light as I had them in with several towels being given a new brighter life but it was fun to see how they all came out and they will sit happily in my stash for future use

The photo shows the initial results

L to R Green overdye on some turquoise/denim blue I had kicking about

Green over dye on a piece of the pink neighbour

'Burgundy' space dye (told you they'd come out quite light)

As for other non quilty/fabric related things we've had further news on my dad

He's still on the Coronary Care Unit and should have gone for an angiogram today with the intention of possibly moving him to Sheffield in a few days for angioplasty

However he had a couple more of his fainting attacks so they decided to postpone it for a day or two

They've now decided they think these attacks are probably mini strokes so he's now down for a CT scan and a scan of his neck - all a bit scary really

When I spoke to my mum after the ghastly conversation with my sister she insisted I didn't need to rush to go up to see him and that they also don't need the worry of me travelling all that way on top of everything else

I have to say this was the response I expected although it doesn't make the discussions with my sister any less painful

Mum did reassure my by saying she'd tell me if things developed to a situation where I needed to go up and we've been keeping in touch on the telephone several times a day for reassurance and support for each other

It is hard being so far away although my brother has been a brick both with Mum and for me on the phone - as he's nine years younger than me and always been the baby of the family it feels very strange to rely on him now but he's proving more than capable of shouldering the burden and thankfully I haven't needed to talk to my sister again

We're all drawing comfort from the fact that Dad's in the right place and should anything drastic happen he stands the best chance of them dealing with it to the best of their ability rather than laying on the pavement waiting heaven knows how long for an ambulance to arrive

I just hope and pray that he will be okay but if it is his time to go that he can go in peace with dignity