It’s a public holiday here today – Labour day….a good name for a day when we don’t have to labour I always think! It’s cool and rainy and if truth be told, a perfect day to stay home and potter…..what bliss. So today has been a bee block day….

Stitch Tease….

European Siblings Together….

I’ve also been playing with the Stitch Tease blocks I’ve received so far for my month – I love how they are coming together…this is going to be a really pretty quilt!

And now I’ve moved on to making a blouse with some pretty fabric I brought back from Japan. I haven’t made a blouse in YEARS. I don’t know why, I make enough skirts after all!

If I get anywhere with it I will be back tomorrow to show you.

Hope you get to have a lazy day too!

Helen

At the moment I seem to have reached one of those times in life where there is just never a free moment. Everywhere I look there is stuff that needs my attention, and sometimes all I can honestly manage is knitting socks!

If I’m honest, it’s all a bit much.

I’m trying to take baby steps and do something every day that makes me feel that I’ve achieved something. Today after work, (which finished a little earlier than usual because it was a public holiday) I called my mother’s doctor’s practice in England to check that we are all on the same page about her health and after dinner I made two bee blocks for Annabella  (which was actually the most enjoyable part of my day). I’ll try to make a photo of them in the next couple of days…when it stops raining and there is actually some light!

I also said no to something that a friend was asking me to do…..and which I secretly thought might break the camel’s back. Being able to say no gracefully and without feeling bad about it is something I’m starting to learn as I get older. I take the sinking feeling that forms in the pit of my stomach as the clue that I have to decline. I find it a hard thing to do because I naturally like to help people, but I’ve said yes too many times and then have ended up stressed and resentful not to have finally learned that ‘it’s OK to say no’! It’s a woman thing, isn’t it?

On a happier note, the clematis montana is flowering in my window box and I thought you might like to see it. The flowers are beautiful, the house, no, not so much! But it’s living proof that the winter really is over and spring is here.

More soon I hope. One day at a time!

Helen

A year or two ago I bought some lovely simple blue and grey fabrics at a delightful little quilt shop somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Switzerland. They are German fabrics, but I have about as much chance of remembering the name of the producer as I have of remembering the name of the shop – is this old age setting in? My memory is shocking these days.

The plan was really to make a large bag with the fabric, but you know me: why make a bag when you can make a quilt? So over the last couple of weeks I’ve whizzed this little thing together out of 4 inch squares, backed it in Ikea words fabric and quilted it very simply in the ditch. Probably the easiest quilt it’s possible to make. It fits perfectly in my bedroom and is right in line with my move to live a simpler life.

It has made me very happy.

Both in the making and in the having and using.

(It’s small by the way – just sits ontop of a double duvet, with no room to drop down the sides of the bed).

Helen

If truth be told, there is way too much going on in my life at the moment. Mostly worrying things over which I have only limited control, but where I would/will be the person picking up the pieces when all goes pear-shaped. There are an awful lot of health, family, school, work things which are sitting over my head like a big black cloud that is about to explode.

Surprisingly it isn’t getting me down too much. I seem to have absorbed a lot of my husband’s attitude towards life over the last 25 years: a problem is only a problem when it really is a problem. Until then put it out of your mind, because it may never happen. So no running through what if scenarios in the wee early hours and not being able to sleep because it. is. all. just. too. much.

Maybe I’m sticking my head in the sand.

But it seems to be what I need to do to get through all this and keep my sanity.

I’m taking one day at a time. Doing something about the things where I can actually do something and putting everything I can’t control to one side. I’m taking time to enjoy the simple things. The spring flowers in the garden, having a laugh with my lovely work colleagues, running and doing yoga. It makes me feel like my feet are firmly on the ground and I’m as ready as I can be to deal with what life throws at me…..but only when it actually does.

It’s the life of the middle-aged woman I suppose. It comes to us all.

Now I’m off to Newcastle to see my mother and to take my 15 year old to his first Premier League football match. I hope we win, but we’ve been rubbish lately, so it’s possible that the highlight of the trip will not be St James’ Park erupting with joy, but rather eating fish and chips out of the paper at the fish quay.

Happy Easter!

Helen

There hasn’t been a massive amount of sewing going on here recently…..life just seems to keep getting in the way, but I did manage to finish my Siblings Together quilt with the help of all the lovely ladies in the European Siblings Together bee.

(For those of you who haven’t heard of Siblings Together, just let me tell you that it is a British charity that organizes summer camps to keep siblings who have been separated while in the care system in contact with each other. All the kids who go to camp go home with a quilt….hence this one).

I hope whichever little girl gets this quilt will enjoy snuggling under it 😉

Helen