Be mine!

My beloved son has inadvertedly passed his grotty cold bug onto me - hence I've not been into work for two days and some stitching has been gradually happening as and when the energy came to me in between dozing on the sofa and reading a little of my latest book.

This is my finished heart made with 4" string blocks - not too keen on the way there's a little nick out of each side where the solely background coloured blocks slot in - but can't be bothered to do anything about it.

I've just put and inch border round in a self patterned cream with tiny hearts on it. I thought I might like to add some words like 'Be my valentine' but because of the thickness of the string blocks I'm not sure that it would work to put anything else round the edges in only single thickness of fabric.

The other part of me thinks I might just add some batting and a backing and then turn those cream borders to the back to bind it.

I have to give credit to Elaine whose Chocolate gave me the inspiration to have a go at this.

So once I've had another doze on the sofa I'm not sure what I want to do next. My sister-in-law's new baby is due in about 8 weeks so I should do something to make a start on their cot quilt but when I asked them if they were still going ahead with the Winnie the Pooh theme they had planned for the nursery their negative answer coupled with a colour scheme of 'natural hessian' has stultified any creative inspiration I might have been subconsciously nurturing.

This one may prove to be a real poser - ideas on a postcard?

Eureka!!!

I've sussed it!

No not the meaning of the universe........... the reason we have children!

So they can sit on the cold playroom floor and ferret through the scrap drawer for bit and bobs of red, pink and cream fabric so I can play at making ...................

Half a heart!

Who knows I might just get to like this string-piecing lark :o)

(By the way you can tell from the background of the pictures I didn't get very far with this tidying up lark - never mind there's always tomorrow and DD1 has just read this over my shoulder so I guess she won't be sorting through that drawer again in a hurry!)

It's Finished!!!

No not the conservatory - that will hopefully be next week as far as the fitters are concerned - of course the rest of it is then down to us with lights, radiators, floor covering and furniture needed to complete the job.

My scrappy stars and hearts quilt top is done! Whoo-hoo!! I started it on 30th December 2006 so it's taken me about 17 days.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out - I do wonder if the four flower applique borders might be a bit too similar in background colour. As I've added totally different corner hearts I think I've negated that a bit, but now, looking at the photo, part of me does wish I'd done each side a completely different colour - oh well you live and learn.

Now all I have to do is sandwich and quilt it. Bet that won't be done in the next 17 days :o)

I've kept calling it my scrappy hearts and stars quilt but I think it deserves a better title than that - mind you I can't for the life of me think of one so any suggestions would be gratefully received.

My dearly beloved husband has been awesomely tolerant while I've been stitching this particular quilt top. As I've used so many different fabrics I've been spreading them far and wide in the play room where my machine is set up. Some of you might recall a post last year (Sorry it was May last year but blogger will not let me add a link ;-P ) where I showed off my nice neat stitching area - as you can see from these photos it'll take more than a bit of sorting and folding of fabric to get it back to that condition. Each time the occasional comment has been heard about not even being able to see the carpet I've used the construction of this top as an excuse for not tidying up.Now I can no longer use that excuse - GULP! - suppose the next job had better be a tidying up session - boring!

What a load of fuss over a bit of white plastic!

Well the conservatory fitters arrived this morning with the panels of glass. And hurray! they fitted - as you can see from the photo the vertical white line of plastic joiner lines up on all three (and in fact all the rest ) of the pieces of roof!

I can hardly believe it - after all these false starts they've finally got it right.

Mind you the story doesn't end there as they didn't bring the skirting board - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never mind at least Nigel can finally complete the electrics (that's what the pretty copper protuberances from the wall are waiting for) and our plumber can put in the radiators.

Then it's just this blessed skirting and some flooring and we can put furniture in and use the place - probably two months after it should have been completed. Now that all the glass is in place we should pay the third large installment of over £5000 ($9500) but having had all this hassle I'm just going to wait until it's asked for - let's see if their credit control/accounts department is as efficient as their order processing :o) It will be interesting to see!

This afternoon I've had two little people at home with me as neither Louise or Nick were well enough to go to school. Nick was proper poorly, Lou I suspect was coming out in sympathy for her brother but still not brilliant so I've been at home stitching the other 'heartstrings' blocks to go to Nancy. After making five in total I'm still not sure I like making these at all - I love the effect of them done but is it sufficient to make me sit there and stitch a load. I did have the germ of an idea for a Valentines Day wallhanging using them but I'm not sure if I can be bothered. I think I would have to get myself prepared with all the fabric conveniently cut in advance - we'll see.

Then the next job is those borders onto my scrappy hearts and stars quilt.

Oops! the forgotten chick!

Apologies to Pat - I forgot to add her photo - this is lovely as the daisies going round the circle are 3D and quite complex - hence why she hasn't got started on Part 3 yet.

Ostrich chicks

You may remember back in October the pictures of my version of the Ostrich I'm setting for our Monday morning quilting group.

Although I'm steaming ahead (well I do have all the instructions) the ladies at the group pestered me last week for Part 4 - the bias applique round.

My response was 'you must at least bring in your work to see how you're getting on'. They're a funny lot - they wanted this Ostrich but only one of them has actually worked on it at the group. Maybe it takes a little too much concentration and they'd rather do something you don't have to think about too much while they're chatting. Never matter they brought in their works in progress this morning and I thought I'd snap them for your perusal.

Some are going for a medallion arrangement, others are making blocks for each part and will assemble them at the end.

It's funny how three of them have all quite independently gone for a blue colourway. Some haven't quite got to Part 3 which was squares or nine patch. Part 1 was a star or something of your own choice and Part 2 was circles or any section thereof.

Suffice to say all of them are being made to think along different lines to how they'd usually work which is never a bad thing.

All four done - yippee!

Well thank goodness for that - all four of the borders completed at around 9.45 this evening. Nothing like as fast as I was stitching at the beginning but still got there in the end. Now I have to add them to the scrappy centre along with the light coloured corner stones. Finally a heart at each corner to complete the top. The four borders are a little uneven with varying numbers of flowers and arrangements of leaves but I like it like that and think it adds to that random scrappy charm. I will bow in the quest for balance and put the two with the most flowers on opposite sides and the two with the least on the other two opposing edges.

Probably very wisely I've decided against machining them onto the quilt centre tonight as I'm too tired not to mess it up.

The children and Nigel are still under the weather - we've had a bit of a run of it lately. Nick was sick yesterday morning and hot but shivery all yesterday and today which meant he didn't play in his football match yesterday morning. Nigel keeps thinking he's shaken off the horrid cold and chesty cough he had and just as he thinks he's rid of it it rears it's ugly head again which is cheesing him off somewhat.

Sarah seemed to have improved yesterday and came home from her job at teatime announcing that she felt better than she had for weeks. We all decided on that good old English tradition - a fish and chip supper following which she had to phone us to collect her from her boyfriend's house earlier than expected as she felt awful with stomach cramps and shivering.

One of the other mums at rugby is a nurse and told me that often, after a nasty gastro-enteritis bout, the body can become temporarily lacto-intolerant and struggle with fats too. She thinks this might be Sarah's problem and advised us to try some yoghourt with 'friendly' bacteria to reset the balance in her gut. It probably wouldn't do any of us harm to follow the same route. I think the fact that the weather has been so mild so far this winter isn't helping any by killing off all the nasty bugs and viruses doing the rounds.

I honestly thought Sarah wouldn't be fit to play in her match today but she was a lot brighter this morning and we headed for Clevedon to play a team we narrowly beat at home at the beginning of the season. Today we won 22-5, a more resounding victory and Sarah put 7 of those points on the board with one try and a conversion (in the picture)

This was the first match her boyfriend Dan had seen her play in and he won't ever be tempted to mess her about (not that he's that type you understand) - I don't think he could believe how scary she is once fired up :o) Mind you I don't think it's put him off thankfully!

It's my day off tomorrow and the conservatory fitters are due back to (please, please, please) finish the job once and for all!!! Nigel will be at home for part of the morning to get them started so I can sneak off to my quilting group and to do the school banking while I'm in town. If Nick is still the same I may have a poorly little chappie at home for the day too.

It never rains but it pours!

Still stitching and some super news

Fifteen years ago today I committed to spending the rest of my life with the love of my life.

He took a bit of finding - third time lucky for me, divorced once and widowed once, all before I was 30. But as an old friend of mine always says........"To find your prince you have to kiss a lot of frogs" :o) Luckily for me this one turned into my prince.

Sadly I don't have a picture of that day for you as our wedding photos were pretty poor and so far even the couple of nice ones haven't made it into the scanner to be recorded for posterity - some day maybe when I can remember which box they're packed in and how to use the scanner :o(

As anniversaries go today is fairly low key as he went to London yesterday for two nights for work but we're not the kind of couple who shout it all round the most expensive restaurant anyway - this doesn't mean we love each other any less and it suits us both, so that's what matters.

Tomorrow night we are due out for a posh meal at his works 'post-christmas do' and we'll celebrate there in and amongst everything else.

The stitching continues - not quite as speedily as earlier in the week but I'm making gradual progress - so nothing else to show on that front really.

THE best news today - Sarah (seen here in very scary 'give me that ball' mode - the other girl certainly looks terrified) is one of only five Somerset girls invited to trial for the South West North u17's regional squad. She will undoubtedly be the youngest there and is pleasantly surprised to be invited. The past two years she has been included in the u14's regional squad, winning the national championships the first of those times, but she has only just moved up to this age group and had low expectations because of that.

The trials are on the 28th of this month and there's no guarantee of a place for her in the squad of 30 but she will go along and give it her all, as she does with everything in her life, most especially her sport ................ one of the nicest anniversary presents we could have had today really!

More of the same and a birthday gift

A bit more progress on the applique borders made yesterday - I now have all four bias strips stitched down and am valiantly working through the flowers and leaves. I've deliberately made all four strips from different fabrics to continue the scrappy theme - so I shall keep plodding on each evening in between feeding the brood and acting as taxi driver. Someone asked me the other day if the applique was needleturn - it is, but with freezer paper on top to guide the shape - this is the original method I was taught and it works well for me.

Someone else asked about the conservatory - we're at a bit of a hiatus - waiting yet again for another set of 'correct' roof panels for the outside edges of the roof - they were going to order them immediately after the New Year and Christmas break and we're now waiting a call to arrange to come and fit them. If they follow form we'll probably get a call one afternoon to announce they're coming the next morning - if so they're in for a shock as Nigel is away tomorrow until Friday for a stocktake at an outside warehouse near London and then w/c 22nd he's in Ireland for three days...........Scrub that! - as I was just typing the last word, who turns up but the conservatory fitter with the replacement glass - I'm due to go to work in half an hour, DH can't get back here from work today, so we've sent them away and told them to arrange to come back on one of two alternative days next week that are convenient for us - we'd had no phone call, no letter, no message, nothing! Communication!!! Unsurprisingly the fitter wasn't at all surprised that no-one had pre-warned us of their intended visit. I'd really love to get the thing finished and in use but they have to get their act together and at least notify us when they're coming. Muppets the lot of them!!!!!!!!

Most of you by now will have seen at least one blog with these heartstring blocks under construction - I just can't commit to another group but Nancy asked people to make a block and send it to her for her birthday to add to the total - this is mine - who knows before I get round to packing it up and posting it off to her it might even be joined by a sister or brother or two. Can't say I'm that fussed on making these - certainly wouldn't bother to do a whole quilt myself but as is always the tradition in quilting circles many hands make light work and hopefully lots of different people will make at least one or two to send to her to add to the pile. It did surprise me going through my scrap drawer just how much red/pink and blue I have in there and little other colours.

Right I might just be able to stitch another flower or two before I have to head into work once I've finished steaming from the ears about the conservatory company - grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!.

Half way there

Well what a productive day!

After stitching quite a bit last night I managed to get loads and loads done on the coach - it made a very pleasant change not to have to drive - especially as the journey took the best part of two hours each way. I finally finished the last bits on the second border piece this evening

The rugby this afternoon was awesome! Both the under 14s and Sarah's team, the under 17s, played today.

Both their opposition teams from Cirencester were young inexperienced teams but they put up a credible fight. However as is often the case there's no match for experience and Taunton were hugely victorious in both games.

The under 14s won 75 - 15 and the under 17s won 73 - 7 with 11 tries and 9 conversions. Sarah put a whopping 33 points on the board with three tries at 5 points each and NINE conversions at 2 points each.

They all played well with some superb handling and passing but Sarah surpassed herself and was delighted to be back on kicking form.

This photo shows her passing out the ball from the scrum to the winger (No 14) who also scored four tries in total

And this one shows one of Sarah's conversions.

Finally here's Jack - the son of the team coach - their unofficial mascot - complete with the Taunton colours quilt I made him when he was born in October - wonderful to see it getting plenty of use. He was so impressed he slept through most of the match and both coach journeys. Just the sort of baby you need :o)

And most wonderfully when we got back home after 6pm we came in to find that my lovely lovely husband had roasted a chicken complete with roasted root veg, jacket potatoes, sage and onion stuffing and garden peas - what more could any woman want - I've truly found a treasure :o)

One done, three to go!

Well I stitched away like a little demon for every spare moment I had yesterday finally putting the last stitch into my first applique border about 15 minutes past midnight. Here we are - the first of the four borders completed and ready to stitch onto the centre. Sorry the photos are a bit smeary - not sure why - probably due to the tiredness of the photographer and the lateness of the hour!

Today will not necessarily give me as much opportunity to stitch as it is twelfth night - the day by which traditionally all Christmas decorations should be taken down here in the UK. Usually I take ours down as soon as possible after New Year, but this year I was somewhat distracted by the construction of a scrappy quilt so I left it. However now I can't leave it any longer so down will come everything today.

This morning Nick should have had a football match against the main competition in his league but the pitches are all completely waterlogged so it's been postponed. We've had a lot of rain over the past month or so and everywhere is very soggy and it's raining very heavily again this morning. The weather men tell us we're due quite a lot more this coming week with dangerous gale force winds around Wednesday so it seems like a good time to batten down the hatches and stay indoors and stitch - what a good thing the house is full of fabric :o)

No such luck tomorrow - Sarah has a rugby match in Cirencester, not that far from Siobhan these days, and the club have provided coach travel as it is a good 170-180 mile round trip. They estimate 2.5 hours each way - I don't think it should take that long as a lot of the journey is motorway but I shall take some hand applique to do on the coach - well never one to waste time just sitting! Mental note: must get that all prepared today so I can just stitch and stitch away as we travel. Hopefully the weather won't be too vile as the club we're visiting is pretty exposed on the top of a hill and we could get rather damp on the sidelines and not have the benefit of a hot shower afterwards like the players.

Right off I go - I do have a tree to take down you know :o)

Let the applique begin!

Well I've made a start on my outer dark borders.

Yesterday morning before work I cut out the four long strips and made lots of bias tubing in a pale green fabric - I did think about doing the tubing in all random greens but decided that it would look just too contrived so plumped for the same fabric for the bias and then I'll do the rest of the applique scrappy.

Last night life just kept getting in the way of the stitching!

DD1 has started her first paid job working at the local swimming pool as a Swim Assistant helping in the water with all the little learners. She did 5 til 6.30 yesterday so needed the services of 'Mum's Taxis'. Also before she headed off for work I had to help her fill in all her accompanying forms.

Then once she'd returned from work and we'd had tea, DH and I headed off to the supermarket - why do my children perpetually insist on emptying the food cupboards? What do they think it's there for - to eat!!!

Of course Nigel and I always go on the most romantic outings - an evening run to the supermarket - we might not have much money but we do see life :o)

So as a result of all this I didn't actually start to stitch until around 9pm and managed one long vine, a flower and two leaves which echo the heart shape again.

Hopefully tonight I'll get a good deal more done!

Wooohooo - onto the borders!

Just a quickie before bedtime........

Here it is - the centre completed and the first border round!

I decided this morning, instead of stitching the sashings to the first row of three as planned, that I would cut out all the sashings and cornerstones I needed. I really don't particularly like cutting out especially lots of fiddly individual bits so I had to steel myself to do this and got them all done just in time to go to work - funny that eh?

However it paid off as I've merrily stitched away during the late afternoon and evening in between feeding the brood etc and here we are.

Now it needs the wider 4" dark borders - I've selected the four very different red/brown fabrics but not cut them out yet and the major progress stumbling block will be persuading DH to get my light/bright green box from the loft as I want to stitch pale green bias tube stems along them before adding them to the quilt centre - maybe I can con DD1 into a foray into the loft in the morning for me - we'll see.

I then plan to stitch pale leaves and flowers along the length of each vine so I shan't complete the next stage quite so quickly :o)

Each final corner will then have a light 4" square with a random dark heart to match those in the centre and we'll be done ready to sandwich - the really fun bit :o(

Back to work tomorrow!

The two youngest and I return to school tomorrow - this marks the start of the hardest term of the year - winter but without the excitement of Christmas. For me it will also be another very steep learning curve as the new budgets for the next financial year will be put in place for April and with my Area Finance Officer's help this will be a totally new experience for me - I've never done anything quite like this before. However once they are set at least the next financial year will be less of a fog for me as I will know which pot things are to be paid from and when - no more muddling through treacle at least.

Sarah has another two days off for teacher training so returns on Friday - a very odd day to start back but she has quite a bit of coursework to get through first - that will keep her busy.

I've been in 'This is my last full day of stitching for a while' mode today and have stitched all of the other 18 blocks for my hearts and stars scrappy quilt. Here they are all laid out on the carpet with the completed half.

Next bit is all the sashing which is my least favourite especially as none of them are cut out yet but I'm going to set myself the task of sashing and joining at least one downward row of three blocks a day before I go to work - at least that way I will get them done over the next week or so and if I decide to do a little bit more each time then I'll get it done all the quicker in readiness for the borders.

I've decided to quilt it by close stippling the light areas leaving the dark star points, hearts and dark sashings standing proud. This will be great until I come to the borders as I can't really leave the 4" dark outer border unquilted, it will make the whole quilt totally unbalanced.

So I think I'll do free hand feathers along the 2" inner borders and close stipple round them and maybe applique scrappy floral vines along the dark outer borders and close stipple around them leaving them standing up and puffy

Mind you I do still have all that sashing to do first - running before I've even really got off the starting blocks here.

Right off to get some shut eye before work tomorrow.

Lots more stars and hearts progress

What a party - the knees, hips and back bear witness to the exuberant dancing and my age! DD1 danced the night away lots more than me and even managed to get her boyfriend up to dance with her - I'm not sure he knew what had hit him, as he's never seen her in a party situation before and boy can she ever dance but he was round again this evening so it's not put him off!

Sarah woke us this morning just before 11am (well we didn't get to bed until almost 2am) with a cup of tea and once breakfasted we decided to pop into town to feed DH's habit. Apart from loving vintage preserved railways he's a real glutton for old buses, lorries and cars. The cattle market in town was to be the starting point for a vintage vehicle rally - apparently it starts from here each New Year's Day but we knew nothing about it last year. So we took him to feed his own particular addiction :o)

Here are a handful of the beautiful vehicles on show so he's had his fix for a wee while. Believe me there were other colours than green!

The rest of the day was a general veg for all of us in the house watching the tv and stitching for me.

From this photo you can see I've been speeding along at a fair lick! This is now the top half of the quilt centre - woohooo! I've surprised myself at how much I'm enjoying this. Once I've completed the centre I shall put on a 2" border in random lights with dark cornerstones followed by a 4" outer border in random darks with light cornerstones complete with a heart in each corner and a light binding. I'm a great lover of square quilts the way the amish made them so they could be turned round and get equal wear on each side.

Finally we got round to our Christmas pudding after our dinner tonight - in true Christmas fashion Nigel drowned it in brandy and set light to it - I've never managed to capture this on film before - the kids love him to do this even though only he and I actually like the pudding. The two younger ones will down copious bowls of the accompanying white sauce and Sarah usually bows out with ice cream instead.

All the more for those who like it!!!

A good walk and a new project

After stitching that red and white star block with the heart in the centre it set my creative juices flowing and as I have a heap of all different fabrics cluttering up my sewing area from all the different things I've been stitching lately I thought I'd go for it and do a scrappy quilt using this block design.

Here is the initial block complete with hand appliqued heart - one down, 35 more to go! However I did make a start on the gross of geese blocks I will need and as of last night I'd stitched all 144 in completely random fabrics - lots of the muddy country style that I'd got out for my ongoing ostrich, but mixed in there are some red and whites, some Christmassy ones and also the odd bit of blue and white and pink, grey and purple from the two quillows - a real scrappy mix

It was a bit difficult at first not to plan what went next to what but I gritted my teeth and ploughed on - in fact occasionally if two neighbours were too similar I actually substituted one of them.

Yesterday we spent the day with friends - the first family we made friends with here in Taunton. Nikki is a great friend and thinks alike to me on so many things - the only difference being she's not a quilter but I may work on that in the future, her husband Alan is a quiet soul when you first meet him and is naturally reticent but like Nigel has a wicked sense of humour once you get past the reserved initial impression. Their two boys are the same age as Nick and a year younger than Louise and the whole family love to walk and camp like we do so we designated yesterday as our Christmas get-together day and whereas last year they invited us to theirs for lunch after a walk in the country we returned the favour this year.

Because they are both Taunton born and bred they know the area all around very well and have introduced us to lots of lovely walks in the vicinity.

Yesterday's was no exception - a walk round a couple of lakes in the Blackdown Hills to the south of the town. Tucked away with very sparse signage we'd never have found them on our own. The weather wasn't perfect but luckily kept dry until the final dash back to the car park.

Back home I'd had some mulled wine simmering away in the slow cooker so that made a welcome reception on our return.

A lunch of chicken casserole, jacket potatoes, roasted root veg which were absolutely scrummy and cauli and peas was a real warmer. This we followed with Eton Mess which is an inelegant but delicious mix of whipped cream, crumbled meringue and raspberries and an afternoon of lots of laughter, impromptu quizzes, the odd glass of something alcoholic and liberal quantities of chocolates made up for the low key days we had over Christmas itself.

Yesterday evening after their departure saw me back at the sewing machine putting together a few more of the blocks - what fun!

Tonight we shall spend the evening with this same family at a party held by the parents of another of Nick's friends. They hire a small local hall which is usually used for a youth club, bring in a disco and invite all their family and friends from nought to ninety odd years. Each family puts in a nominal sum of £10 to cover the hall and the disco and then everyone takes their own food and drink. Kids are all included so the problem of babysitters doesn't arise and everyone has a brilliant time at minimal expense to see the New Year in amongst friends in a party atmosphere akin to a family wedding or similar within walking distance of home.

Maybe this afternoon before we head off up there I'll get a few more blocks put together.

However let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy, prosperous, healthy and most of all peace-filled 2007.

See you all next year!

Leukaemia Blocks all done

Here are the rest of the blocks I've made to send to Clare for her Leukaemia quilts.
This makes nine in total and that'll be it for now because I'm bored of red and white - time to have a play with something different.

I quite fancy a totally scrap quilt - apart from my first bullseye I've never actually done one and the concept of just picking up and stitching the next piece in the pile regardless of colour or pattern is quite alien to me so it will be a bit of a challenge.

I've never been a great fan of piecing - struggle with triangles big time - but the flying geese that I've done for bits and pieces lately have been less tricky as I have a set of clever rulers to make them with so I think I might go for a star quilt using the block you see above on the RH side of the centre row with the heart in the middle of the star and go for totally in scraps just using darks and lights as the differential.

I shall make the points (the backgrounds of the geese bits) in the dark and the hearts in dark too with light backgrounds and then dark sashing with light cornerstones. Probably a 6" or 8" block with 1" or 2" sashings.

Mind you don't hold your breath I may well get bored before I've done enough geese to give it sufficient variety - we'll see!

As for Emergency Ward 10 in the Bebbs household, we're all improving, some quicker than others. The doc decided that Sarah was the victim of a very nasty tummy bug and thankfully nothing worse like say her appendix so that's a blessing but she's only returning to normal very slowly and feeling pretty washed out which is not surprising as she's had little of real sustinence for several days now. Still we are all on the mend which is the main thing.

Looking forward to the New Year now!

Blocks for Leukaemia

Well here's a little bit of stitching I've been doing over the last couple of days in and amongst watching some of the Christmas tv and generally chilling out.

Clare in the Dordogne (well she is usually, if not strictly at present as she's Christmassing back in the UK) has asked for red and white 8.5" blocks for her leukaemia quilts

Here are four that I've put together and will post them off to her in the next few days - who knows they might even get the odd mate or two to join them.

We've had a very mixed up unusual Christmas as a nasty tummy bug has been rampaging through the family over the past week to ten days.

Nick started it the weekend we went to my brother's by vomitting all over their downstairs loo floor - lino thank goodness!

Then Lou had a session on the Thursday evening before Christmas.

Fortunately both of these happened late evening and the respective child went straight to bed with the appropriate bucket and seemed to sleep off the ill-effects and woke up the next morning tired but relatively unscathed

Unfortunately for her Sarah got off a lot less lightly and started in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning - she still isn't right now and I shall take her to the GP later this afternoon as I feel four solid days is a bit too long for just a simple d&v bug.

Nigel was also pretty grotty but thankfully no explosions from the upper end - he's big enough and ugly enough to deal with the other end thank goodness but he has returned to work this morning still feeling pretty grotty if a little better - having felt like he'd been run over by a steam engine that is.

I also had a day like I'd been acting as Muhammed Ali's punchbag on Thursday so all in all most of us felt pretty much unlike any of the Christmas fare that's been on offer. In fact we were still deciding as we prepared for bed on Christmas Eve whether to cook the Christmas lunch the next day or save it for Boxing Day. Christmas Day won by a very short head.

Of course this year I just happened to buy the largest turkey we've ever had - in error I might add! and of course catered for the 5000 as usual so we have loads of leftovers loitering in the fridge. We've not bothered to touch the Christmas Cake, mince pies, sausage rolls etc and I didn't even bother to warm up the Christmas pudding after Christmas lunch - it's still in the packet. We shall save it and enjoy it when we all feel 100% again - probably on New Year's day when Nigel has another bank holiday off work.

The two younger kids have made inroads into the chocolates around the place but the three older members of the family really don't have much heart for them.

Still despite the lurgy we had a quiet but pleasant Christmas day trying out Lou's new scrabble game and watching the offerings on the tv - and to be honest because no-one's been 100% it's probably a good job we weren't planning any visitors or house guests.

Hopefully the doc will sort Sarah out over the next day or so and we can then look forward to the New Year's celebrations with a little more relish.

Compliments of the Season

I'm taking the opportunity of that haitus of time between setting the turkey off and opening the presents and then continuing with cooking the lunch to wish all my fellow bloggers out there and very Merry Christmas and a pieceful 2007

I participated in a made and a purchased Secret Santa with an online group I belong to and as always it was a delight to open my surprises this morning

The purchased present was a lovely set of fridge magnets in a pretty little tin which are way too nice to slum it with the kids ones on the fridge in the kitchen so I've commandeered DH1's redundant metal notice board which I shall persuade DH to put on the wall next to my sewing area so I can enjoy and use them on there - they came with a sweet little emery board with a quilting design on it - just the thing for getting rid of those snags on your nails that catch on all that lovely fabric when you're playing :o)

The made present was a set of 6 placemats in a lovely line of fabric which will go with my dining room - a real treat

Thank you to both my secret santas - have a lovely day everyone!

Christmas Preparations

Preparations are almost complete for Christmas - presents wrapped, shopping completed, tree up courtesy of the kids mainly, which only leaves the turkey to stuff and the veg to prepare today.

This tends to be a whole family affair now the children are a little older with sprout peeling, carrot chopping and yards of bacon being wrapped round the lovely farm shop sausages all around the table together. Christmas carols or Handel's Messiah in the background and a little glass of sherry at the elbow (this last one only for the adults you understand!) - what could be more festive?

We will have a quiet close family day as we're way too far out geographically for the rest of the family to travel to in the short window of holiday they have from work. But it actually suits us like that - it's very relaxing, the kids are free to play with their presents all day if they wish and there's little pressure as far as the cooking goes as it's just another roast dinner for the cook albeit with a few more trimmings but no pressure to feed the five thousand.

On a stitching note - this is the rear of the cushion front with the feathers I showed you the other day. Up to now, while I admire the beauty of the handiwork on wholecloth quilts, I could never quite understand the fascination. However having done this cushion front and then looked at the back of it I can quite imagine why someone would enjoy making a bed sized version - probably not me though :o)

The little tree in the turquoise and sand you see here (if you can get past the blinding flash in the mirror - with Sarah on the stepladder behind me fastening something to the light fitting) is one I made for last Christmas to match the colour scheme in my (then) new lounge. That's one of the nicest things about decorating the house for Christmas - bringing those boxes down from the loft and reacquainting yourself with all those friends, old and new. While the children were putting all the decorations on the tree there were repeated cries of 'Look Mum I've found the ...........' or 'I remember this .........'

All part of the special Christmas preparations.

And finally here's my newest Christmas baby - first of all I must apologise profusely for not acknowledging the source of the original idea. I spotted the cross stitch design earlier in the year on someone's blog and saved the photo for future reference but naughtily omitted to record the source - if it was from your blog I apologise. I loved the cross-stitch design for it's simplicity but changed the little white doves beneath the tree on the original design for our traditional British Christmas bird, the good old Robin Redbreast. I then surrounded the aida panel with some random plaids and added bigger buttons in the corners to echo the salvaged tiny shirt collar buttons I've used for the tree decorations. It will be just as delightful to uncover this one next year when we get those boxes down again.

But hey I must go - there's a turkey to stuff!