helen's quilt

Christmas Eve my daughter in law Helen said she would like me to make her a quilt; Christmas day i asked her what colours although I thought i already knew, i was right, shades of purple! luckily because these are also my favourites i had enough to take part in the quilttalk new years Eve mystery designed by Ann Smith of salamanca New York. I put the final stitches to the quilt on Tuesday and delivered it to my DIL yesterday in time for her birthday on the 29th; she was amazed that i had completed it so quickly and is pictured here with it; the handsome young man also in the picture is my youngest son Jay, her husband

amelia's quilt

this is the quilt that I have just finished for Amelia Elizabeth Ann Read, Clive's great neice born on 23rd December. It was a mystery quilt devised by Renee Belfour but I must admit that I peeped so didn't do it as a mystery.

quilts finished for Christmas

Well i had a sewing frenzy in the run up to Christmas and finished a quilt for Clive's great niece, Tori and at last completed the quilt for my eldest son and daughter in law which was supposed tpo be their Christmas present for 2005 but it was bigger than I have ever quilted before so although I finished the top quickly I baulked at quilting it; but it is done now although still not as nicely as I hoped, still they were pleased to get it at last. I gave Tori hers on 23rd, trouble is she had a new half sister on that day too so I have an order for another quilt, LOL

birthday party

My birthday and my elder grandaughter's are a day apart but since my son and his first wife are divorced he didn't have his kids for the weekend of our birthdays so we celebrated a week late, yesterday; we all went to a local carvery, 3 sons and their wives, me and Clive and 4 grandchildren. I had bought anew camcorder and was trying it out so only took one still photo of Hayley my younger grand daughter enjoying her icecream

advent

Last year I ordered an advent calendar kit to make one for Hayley; I didn't manage to finish it in time and as she was only a few months old didn't stress about it but a month ago I dug it out and finished it.......oh, finished is such a lovely word!

tea cups

The Market square Quilters in Newbury correspond with a group of quilters in Texas. 8 of us got together to make te cup wall hangings for them.

2007 Victorian boot swap

I belong to an group on the internet CQforNewbies and we are doing a victorian Christmas boot swap, this is mine

Downstairs bedroom in France

I haven't added a photo of the downstairs bedroom in France; this was completed first and is still my favourite as it is my favourite colours

bridges of France

The last few times we have been to France we have been through Le Havre; there ar two large bridges one after another

France 2

This is the outside of the house, or it was when we left in June, with all the rain the grass is probably knee high now

France

Well , no posts from me for a long time as I have been back and forth to France, once a month for the last 4 months. Work there is coming on a pace and at least going so often we have managed to keep the grass a bit more manageable

we are 1

Yesterday was my younger grand daughter's first birthday; she was surrounded by all her friends and family and had a lovely day and enjoyed her cake that Mummy made

2 new hearts

2 new hearts I have worked on that are available for swap

for maddie

a heart for a sick little girl in Australia

snow today

Well no posts recently as I have been working on a secret project but we have had snow fall today and my son asked me to take a photo so I did and here it is.

All 4 grand children

On Wednesday I had the joy of having all my 4 grandchildren together; the 3 older ones Jake, Jessica and Kyle, are my eldest son's children and the baby, Hayley is my second son's daughter

santa's elf

Here is Santa's newest recruit; my grand daughte Hayley is looking forward to her 1st Christmas.

Hayley update

Hayley is growing fast, she still cries when Clive and I walk through the door but after she gets used to us being there for a while she settles down and finds some smiles

I had an extended birthday on Wednesday as we went to Bristol and I was given more presents. son 1 gave me a painting of a patchwork cat that he had painted himself. Son 2 gave me a set of 4 CDs of saxaphone music abox of mint chocs and an autographed photograph of an actor that I admire, Ian Kelsey. I had already had mint chocs and a Meat loaf cd from son 3 and loads of presents from Clive and his family on my birthday.

malta holiday

We have just come back from a wonderful 7 day break in Malta. We stayed at a hotel with spa facilities and as we had already been to Malta for 2 weeks earlier in the year, we spent a lot of time in the hotel taking advantage of the spa facilities; so I am sea salt scrubbed, mud bathed, tuttifruitti massaged, soap scrubbed, moisturised and french manicured to within an inch of my life, LOL. We did take time out from all this pampering to go on a boat trip around the harbour, which was lovely but whilst all the other passengers were crowded on the top deck Clive and I sat on the lower deck where the view was just as good but we were out of the direct sun. We also went to the Ta Qali crafts village where we bought several Christmas presents and Clive bought me a silver and amethyst heart pendant for my birthday next week.
As it is my birthday next weekend and also my older grand daughter's the day before we went to Bristol yesterday and all 14 of us went to a carvery for Sunday lunch. It was lovely to have all mysons and hteir wives and all four of my granchildren all under one roof, for the first time, grand daughter Hayley was only born at the end of April and whereas I have seen each son individually several times since then it was the first time we were all together.