A down and up day

I woke up to some really sad news this morning - my friend's dog was killed on the road on Saturday  The dog was a beautiful 18 month old cocker spaniel and my friend is devastated. Her husband died last year and the dog has given her something to focus on to help her through a difficult time. I later found one of my budgies lying dead at the bottom of her cage.

However my day improved when I went to the shops and managed to get an outfit for Ruth's wedding and this evening I went to the cinema to see The Life of Pi - a beautiful film.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring......

Malawi bears

In April Charlie and I are going out to Malawi to help out the Ravens Trust charity. I have been collecting fabric and sewing notions over the past few months and am now ready to get it packed up and on it's way in the next container.  I am also looking for hand cranked bobbin sewing machines. I am sure there are still plenty out there sitting in cupboards so if you know someone who has one please let them know or if you have one and want to make some space please consider donating it to this worthy cause.

Yesterday I was in Ikea and I just love these wee bears: they are very light and are beautifully soft, squidgy and grabbable for tiny hands. They are just £1 each and I decided to buy some to take out with me - aren't they cute? If you are in Ikea and have £1 to spare why not buy one and send it to me and I will make sure that it goes to a good home.

You can find out more about the Ravens Trust and their work at http://www.theraventrust.org/

Goodbye 2012 Hello 2013

I am just a wee bit sorry to leave 2012 behind because it was my jubilee year and I have great memories of an amazing year. 

I travelled a lot - I decided that as part of my jubilee celebrations I would try to go somewhere every month and although some trips straddled 2 months I achieved my wish. Some of my trips were in the UK but I also visited 6 countries and 4 of them were ones I had never been to before.

I celebrated my diamond jubilee with family and friends and we all had a great time - at least I did and everyone else seemed to enjoy it too. This was followed by a family get together and bbq organised by my children.

I have the most amazing family, including my wonderful nephews (John, Paul and Stephen) who came from far and wide to celebrate with me. I also found out that I have more good friends than anyone deserves and I thank them all for being in my life.

I had a wonderful 2012 and I have to be the luckiest and happiest person alive.

Having said that it continues in to 2013 starting with a great night tonight with lots of special friends. In a few weeks I am off on a wee trip to NY, NY ( so good they named it twice and another country I have never been to) with Iain and Catriona. Then in February the event that we have been planning for months -Ruth's wedding. It is going to be a great day and we are all looking forward to it. The year continues with a weekend with friends on Arran in March followed by a trip to Malawi in April/May. Already it is shaping up to be an exciting 2013.

I really am the luckiest and happiest person in the world :-)))

Happy New Year to my 2 followers - Sheila and Caryl.

We had a great hogmanay. 16 of us went to a local hotel and a great time was had by all. We are now waiting for the family to arrive for a day of family fun.

A lot has happened since my last post.

I celebrated my diamond jubilee - if the queen can do it so can I! I had a great party with all my family and friends at a local hotel. We had a ceilidh band and everyone had great fun. The only down point was that I had distributed 60 sky lanterns and had great visions of them gently floating up in to the night sky. Unfortunately it was blowing a gale and they were getting blown on to cars and the hotel roof so we had to abandon it.

The day after the party we had a family get together and bbq. It was a beautiful calm evening and we managed to release a lot of the lanterns that had been leftover from the night before. We had lovely food and great fun - thank you to my wonderful children who organised it.

On the quilting front I have done absolutely nothing but I am hoping to get some done during the holidays when I am confined to quarters because there is no bridge to go to. With bridge in mind it has been a busy month with various competitions followed by the Christmas parties. We will finish the year with a league match tomorrow evening followed by the final Christmas party on Thursday and another club night on Friday. Then we stop until the new year except for a charity festive fun day between Christmas and New Year.

I have managed to finish a couple of ornaments for my grandchildren. When I say finish that is exactly what I mean - they are cross stitched and I did that years ago so all I did was finish them - big effort!!!

Only 6 days to go until the big day........

Going Home

This picture is part of the inspiration for my piece. It hangs in our “good room”: so called because when our children were young we had 2 rooms, a living room and a “good room”.  As the names suggest we lived in the living room but when the children were in the good room they had to be really really good J. Anyway back to the picture – it is a print by a local artist, Charles Kelly,  and is coincidentally called “Coming Home“. I love the picture because I see it as the A77 - my road home. When I come down this road, whether I have been away for a few hours or for a few weeks I love my first glimpse of the sea and this picture mimics that view. To me there are two sides to Ayrshire – farming and the sea. I like the way this picture shows both aspects and I am going to use it as my basic layout. There are other elements I would like to include but they will come into at the design stage.  I am also considering including the road in my picture but that too will be decided later.

Yay I am on my way!

I attend bluepatchquilter Sheila’s quilting class. This year our project  is “Home is where the Heart is”.  We have to design and make a small quilt that is inspired by a place that we love.  I got really excited when Sheila told us about it because I have always wanted to do an art quilt. The finished quilt will be in vertical panels with each panel representing a feature of our chosen place – lots of chances to do some design work..

We have had basic lessons in colour and texture and now we are ready to think about the design of our piece. I have been mulling over my subject matter for weeks. I lived in Calgary in Canada for a wee while and thought of basing it on that,  I also considered a little holiday town that we used to go to when I was a wee girl and my husband and I have visited Africa a few times and we just love it so I considered it because it is so beautiful and I would be spoilt for choice as far as subject matter is concerned. I just haven’t been able to decide. Then on Thursday I was driving down our beautiful coast when  I decided that the best subject matter was right on my doorstep so  I have decided to use my home county, Ayrshire, as my topic.

Last night I drew out a spider diagram on the back of an envelope; it was the only thing I had to hand when inspiration hit!

 It looks huge but I just wrote everything that came to mind and I can eliminate as I go along.  I have a very rough layout planned now too so now I can work on the detailed design.

Yay I am on my way!