4 Wishes WIP

So here's my WIP as it is now:

And here's how it was when I picked it up:

My Pincushion

Thanks for your lovely comments on my last couple of posts -

Paula, Sally and I have offered Gina a quilting lesson at Dove Farm so there'll be plenty of it going on

Amanda, there are some gorgeous quilts on that link you bad enabler!

Jo, I'm glad you feel inspired - I can't wait to see what you are inspired to do LOL.

So, my pincusion.  I don't know why but I didn't have a pincushion and had never thought of making one until the quilting bug started rearing it's head again.  I used a wooden curtain ring for the base and just a large circle of fabric pulled into a ball and sewn to the ring.  Nothing sophisticated or particularly neat but hey, it does what it's supposed to!

I made a quilt!!!

Okay it's something I've done before but it's definitely not something I've done for a while LOL.

This was actually destined for my son at one point - to the extent that I'd cut it and started putting the piano key border together - but now it's being gifted to a friend who had a little boy a month ago after five years of trying and six miscarriages.

It was a kit from The Bramble Patch and I quilted it very simply - between the blocks, round the border and every eighth 'key' on the outer border.  Because I'd done all the cutting and some of the sewing I managed to get the whole thing put together yesterday including the binding so it's ready for me to take tomorrow when I go and meet the little guy

I've been bad!

And no I don't mean the lack of posting this month.

Yesterday I met up with three of my fellow stitchers/quilters and had a lovely day out.  We visited three quilting shops as well as beading and knitting stores and had a lovely lunch and gossip.

It was the first time I've been to a quilting shop since September and so I had a shopping list!

I got these fabrics to back a quilt I'm currently putting together:

 

These for a new project:

 

And these fat quarters just because I could!

In my defence I used birthday money. Well mostly birthday money ;-)

Oh and you might have noticed that these pictures are much better than my usual offerings.  I have a new camera!  One of the large supermarket chains in the UK has an offer on using up their reward vouchers for double their face value so I used mine to get a completely free new camera.

And what's more it's red:

I absolutely love it and now need to go and take pictures of all my WIPs and finishes again so they look half way decent LOL.

Happy Easter everyone

40 facts

about 40

1. It's the atomic number of Zirconium
2. Farenheit and Centigrade meet at -40 degrees
3. It's the Ruby wedding anniversary
4. It's the code for direct dial international calls to Romania
5. Ali Baba had 40 theives
6. Lent consists of the 40 days before Easter
7. Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the US
8. David Tennant was 40 yesterday
9. Noah spent 40 days on the Ark
10. XL is 40 in roman numerals
11. 40 is a 'semiperfect' number - ie you can add up a subset of its divisors to make 40 - 1+4+5+10+20 =40
12. Venus returns to the same place in the sky every 40 years
13. One of the prerequisites for a man to study Kabbalah is that he is 40
14. Jesus fasted for 40 days
15. and 40 nights
16. 40 weeks is the average term for a pregnancy (in the UK)
17. Muhammad was forty years old when he first received the revelation delivered by the archangel Gabriel
18. The M40 runs from London to Birmingham
19. Ewan McGregor is 40 years old
20. BBC Open University is 40 years old
21. The Quran says that a person is only fully grown when they reach the age of 40
22. There were 40 days between the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension
23. Some Russians believe that the dead linger at the site of their death for 40 days
24. A short nap is '40 winks'
25. Interstate 40 runs from California to North Carolina
26. Forty is the only written number whose letters are in alphabetical order
27. 40 is a song by Franz Ferdinand
28. Goliath challenged the Israelites twice a day for forty days before David defeated him
29. Decimalisation in the UK is 40 years old
30. Apollo 14 landed on the moon 40 years ago
31. On this day 40 years ago the Manson Family were sentenced to death
32. Jim Morrison died 40 years ago
33. Walt Disney World in Florida is 40 years old
34. Gary Barlow is 40 years old
35. Jo Frazier beat Muhummad Ali at Madison Square Gardens 40 years ago
36. Queen Elizabeth II is the 40th British Monarch since William the Conqueror
37. Louis Armstrong died 40 years ago
38. The Hebrew people lived in the Sinai desert for 40 years
39. Life begins at 40 because...

40. I am 40 today!!!

This weekend I...

- Dyed my hair - goodbye horrible grey roots LOL
- Went to pick up some extra blocks DH needed to build the wall around the patio
- Finished sewing the boy party bags
- Stitched on 4 Wishes
- Changed my haircut appointment from next week to today
- Had a lie in
- Completely finished the original Angry Birds
- Found out there's a new Angry Birds update released this week
- Cooked roast pork with FAB crackling
- Loved that I'm the only person in the house that likes crackling
- Coughed too much
- Painted my toenails
- Failed to tidy up

A long week

So my blogging has stalled a bit this week.  It's a number of things - I haven't been crafting that much so I don't really have anything to share on that front.  It's the school holidays here so I'm home playing with the kids rather than sitting on the computer and Lia's had a lot of friends around so I've been entertaining.

Along with all of that I've been trying to sort out my 'role' in the whole affair situation because it all became a bit too awful for me last week.  Without going into too much detail I had to pick Lia up from a BBQ at A&B's house and C&D were there and they all spent the evening together.  It was truly horrendous - watching the cheaters behave like everything was absolutely normal, her dancing around with his baby, him cooking the food even though it wasn't his house, all of that kind of thing.

Anyway I decided that there was absolutely no way I can spend time around them any more so I told A this today.  It's tough as we've been good friends for 18 months now and we've been really close - it was her who I left Lia with when I went into hospital to have Connor - but enough is enough.

It could yet turn crazy as she's told B that I've broken off the friendship because I don't approve of her drinking and flirting.  Anyone who knows me could tell you neither of these bother me so it's a bit of a useless reason.  Plus if she goes too far and starts telling everyone the problems are coming from DH and I then she'll find out that I'm not prepared to put up with slander.

I'm still feeling crap about the whole thing but DH has said that he can tell I feel better than I did.  I hope he's right as after this I'm out of options on how to deal with it other than telling all and I cannot do that and be responsible for destroying two families.

Ugh, not fun!  However I am putting it all in the past and getting on with life - it's my birthday in 4 days (OMG!) and I intend to enjoy myself not mope around.

And in other cool news Connor said 'bye' today.  Quite clearly.  Admittedly to a character on the TV but they were all saying 'bye' and waving and he responded.  He's been waving for a while now but the bye was definitely new.  He's saying 'ta' as well.

This weekend I...

- Enjoyed the glorious weather we've been having
- Bought my son his first shoes
- Got my daughter some shoes too
- Enjoyed a nice lunch out with the family
- Stitched on Four Wishes
- Played Angry Birds
- Cooked roast chicken
- Got lots of washing done
- Ate dinner outside
- Enjoyed an ice lolly
- Started the big tidy up
- Encouraged my husband to get going on sorting the patio out
- Spent two and a half hours on the phone to my best mate
- Got extremely excited about my party being less than three weeks away

A Paolo Nutini moment...

Hey, I put some new shoes on,
And suddenly everything is right,
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,
It so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
But long on time,
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
And I'm running late,
And I dont need an excuse,
'cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes.

Birthday Boy!

It's a year since we had this:

and now we have this:

Happy Birthday No 1 son!

Well it had to happen eventually...

I've reached the 5th April and I officially have nothing to say LOL

This weekend I...

- took Lia to her final swimming lesson of the term (and she passed stage 1!)
- got thoroughly spoiled
- failed to come up with an excuse to stop cheating friend coming over on Saturday aftenoon
- heard waaaay too much information about the cheating (yet again)
- did successfully ignore cheating friend for the whole of Sunday
- watched Karate Kid (the remake)
- stitched on Just Nan's Four Seasons
- got all my chores done on Saturday so I could veg out on Sunday
- did I mention I got spoiled LOL?

Happy Mothers Day

At least to all those Mum's in the UK.

I'm having a day of doing nothing - lie in followed by chilling whilst DH and Lia are at Greek school and Connor has a nap and then stitching in front of the TV for the afternoon watching what I want rather than what Lia wants!  DH is in total charge of the kids LOL.

DH is cooking dinner and then there'll be more stitching this evening.

Pretty much a perfect day

You know you've been stitching with overdyes too long

when you totally forget you can loop start.  And you get confused as to why you have an odd number of threads left.  Confused enough to throw one in the bin...

I pulled out Four Wishes by Just Nan last night and am now back in the rhythm of DMC LOL.

April

I think April was always on course for being my favourite month of 2011 and I hope it doesn't disappoint.  This month Connor turns 1, I turn 40 (gulp!) and we have our Christening and birthay party.  Yes I know I've mentioned them about a million times already but I'm just so excited!

I've been putting the sweeties together for the party bags and bombonieres and here are some of the kids ones: