About Me

Weardale, Co Durham, United Kingdom
I am a keen quilter, enjoying both hand and machine quilting. I mainly machine piece and avoid too much applique! I have 12 silly chickens who are supposed to live in a run alongside the main garden, but they didn't read the instructions and keep escaping! I am a very part time teacher, just a few afternoons teaching French to primary children to subsidise my fabric habit.

Sunday 25 July 2010

new patio

Cambell arrived bright and early today to finish the two patio extensions!! We have given up trying to grow stuff either side of the patio, if the rabbits don't eat it, it just dies!! And the weeds just colonise the gravel!! It looks so untidy so I decided to get rid of the gravel and have the two areas paved, this way the swing bench can rest on level ground instead of sinking slowly into the grass! With luck it will last a bit longer as it will be protected from some of the winter weather being closer to the house. It's a good plan!!
Well he is here and by tomorrow we should have the swing moved and maybe teh two wooden chairs with the little corner table as well!! If it stays dry long enough to cut the grass we will be very smart before Sam and the girls come on Wednesday! We are really looking forward to their visit, it always gives Paul a lift and I just love having cuddles!!
I have been dutifully working through the fEQ7 lessons, trying to do some every day! I have nearly finished the pieced quilt lessons and I am determined to work through the drawing and applique lessons as well. Usually I give up then as I am not a drawer and applique smacks a little too much of perspective and clever stuff!! But I do like redwork and the look of naive applique, sort of country style so I have set my personal goal in retirement to master all aspects of the program!!
Needless to say while I have visitors and house disruption I wont have time for 'stripping' in the sewing room so the pile of fabric waiting to be turned into useful strips is sitting accusingly on the ironing board! I have remembered that I bought the June Tailor ruler that lets you cut multiple strips across the fabric fthough so maybe once I actually get in their it wont take too long to restore order!!
I was planning how I would spend my time, now I am a lady of leisure, I thought come September when life returns to normal I would spend one day a week in Durham County Records Office, researching the history of my house. Then one day a week on an away day, exploring the area properly, you know the sort of thing, checking out National Trust properties, garden centres, shopping cntres etc and being a lady what lunches. Then at least one day a week in piecing, one day a week handquilting on my cottage gardens and the redworks I have finished, one day a week finishing Daisy cross stitch advent calendar. Of course at least one day a week in the garden to put it to bed properly for the first time ever and start the hard landscaping needed. Then I kind of realised I would need one day a week each for housekeeping, curtain making, and decorating touch ups like re waxing all the internal woodwork and filling cracks!
The only problem I can forsee is there aren't enough days in the week!!!

Friday 23 July 2010

Dark days

Hello blogland! It's bben a while since I was last here. The good news is I have finally finished with school and am now officially a lady of leisure!! The last couple of weeks were hard going and it felt like I was never going to get there! My last day was Sport's Day and Summer Fair so not too arduous. As it was a slimming world day I went over to Hexham after school to get weighed and  joy of joys had even mamanged to loose another 1 and 1/2lbs!! Nearly a stone gone now and I feel better for it.
We had a lovely week down with Sam and the girls, despite Paul's nocturnal disruptions. Sadly, nothing seems to help the pain in his shoulders, which doesn't bother him during the day but which makes sleeping impossible. He is up two or three times in the night, making hot water bottles and hot drinks, waiting for painkillers to take effect. Needless to say it means I don't get much sleep either and it was difficult to manage away from home. I was terrified he would wake the girls, who aren't good sleepers at the best of times. So even when he came to bed and went to sleep I was awake!!
 He has been back to the Drs and has morphine now but it doesn't seem to make much difference, I don't know if it's a habit he can't break or whether this is the beginning of the end!! He has lost weight and seems very down. We have been in more contact with his sister which is good and she is coming to visit soon, she will be here when he has his next scan and oncologist visit, as she is a senior nurse I am  hoping she will be in on the consultation and give me the benefit of her expertise. He is due counselling with the Macmillan cancer nurses next week and maybe that will help. It's really hard to decide whether the cancer is active again or whether understandably it's worry and fear that's causing the problem.
We are due to go away for a week with Sam and the girls to Devon for a seaside holiday, I was really looking forward to it but now I am dreading it. It's so difficult to manage  his insommnia away from home and I am worried he will disturb the girls and Sam. She finds it really hard to cope with the evidence that her Dad is really ill and she is not good without sleep!!! It could be a nightmare.
Work on the decluttering, gardening and sewing have taken a back seat recently but I am trying hard to complete a cross stitch advent calendar for Daisy for this Christmas, I didnt make last !! The sewing room tidy has halted! I have a pile of fabric which needs cutting into strips and filing!! My boxes are neatly labelled, ready and waiting! I think most things will have to wait until September now. By the time we have been away and had our summer visitors it will be September and hopefully Paul will be back driving the school bus! Maybe he will improve then, I think some of it is boredom and too much time to dwell on every little symptom he feels. He has never really been ill before and finds it all very frightening. What a gloomy post!!  I wll try to be more positive next timex