Having a 'cushie' time

Sorry about the 'Good Morning ',it will be afternoon by the time I post this ,
and I will warn you
,this is a multi picture entry ,many of you asked to see what I had been making since I got the new sewing machine for my Birthday .The first picture is of Rachel my Great neice ,who shares a Birthday with me ,She is 11 and we are all extremely proud of her , she excels at swimming and has won many medals.She competes all over the country .

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So for her Birthday I made her this cushion scanning a picture of her then transfering it to a transfer that is then ironed onto fabric, the idea for this method was explained to me by Laura
http://vintage-laura.blogspot.com I am very grateful to her and her patience in talking me through it via Email

Next I made a cushion for my Taxi driver Muncha who is so kind, and takes me to all my meetings he lent me a picture of his little daughter and
voila ...they were all delighted and little Atitia wont be parted from Her cushin! I have to make one for her cousin now !

My Friend has been fighting a very nasty illness ,so to cheer her up ,I snagged a picture of her Granddaughter from Face book ,and made this one for her .....

Then for a bit of a change from cushions ,I made some wall pads for along side the wall by Great nephew baby Harry's cot

Harry's great Grandparents are from Ireland ,so I put a shamrock on the back of one of the blocks!

I was telling my friend Jackie about Harry's blocks she said she would love a set for her new Great Grandaughter so I made some for little Rubi ..

And then Joanne my neice was 40 , (Jo is Rachael 's Mum)
so of course ,another cushion seemed right !and since Jo likes cats I put some onto her
one ,holding ribbons attached to balloons.....

Another dear friend Violet had her birthday on May 16th ,the same day as my Daughter Kate so two more cushions were made and two more happy Ladies

Sorry the pictures arent as good as they might be , but I sure you get the idea and at least you can see what I have been doing with my time ....

As ever lots of love from

Good Friday 2011

A Very Blessed Easter time everyone ,I bet you can't remember me ! I am ashamed to say I havent posted since last October ,So thought it was time to put that right .I have been as busy as ever .I have been doing lots of sewing ,and for my 70th Birthday in February ,Maurice and the family all chipped in to buy me a super new sewing machine,one that does wonderful things because it is computerised I love it ,I ,must show you some of the stuff I have made some time ,not today though ,because I want to share with you all where I went this morning,I feel so good ,so uplifted and erm ..humble ......Each Good Friday all those that believe ,and of different faiths ,do a silent walk of witness through the town , following the cross ,as we all assembled on a car park ,on a gorgeous warm sunny morning,The Rector said a prayer, before asking for a volunteer to carry the cross ,a dear little boy piped up ,''I will '',However his Dad stepped in to do the honours ,accompanied by a very proud little boy and his even smaller brother ,we walked in silence right through the town (me on my buggy )quite away,until we came to the green beside the Church,St Thomas a Beckett,with the ruins of the walls of the old Ramsey Abbey behind us ,I was amazed how many people had turned out ,For a wonderful open air service ,with Easter hymns ,readings and prayers ,I did say how up lifted I felt, as you will imagine .Afterwards came the Dressing on the Cross,where we all threaded our flowers through the wire on the cross that stands permanantly on the green,Afterwards tea and coffee was served so we were able to sit in the sun and chat to our friends ......

This is the cross that was carried

Out side the Church afterwards

The Tall Gentleman with his back to us is our Rector

Wishing you all a joyous Easter ,and in the words of Our Lord 'Love one another '

As ever love from

October issue !

Once again my graphics are by Donna ,Thankyou Donna,





Now after the confusion on my last post ,the girl in the prom dress was my Beautiful Granddaughter Charlotte and not my neice as some of you supposed .So talking of Granddaughters here is Alice aged seventeen, who is the Granddaughter of Maurices's cousin Jim.Isn't she another beauty ?A real peaches and cream English Rose,but since her Grandparents are Irish ,I suppose that makes her a lovely little colleen as well .

Whoops ,what does this racing car have to do with things ? you might ask!

The car is in fact being driven by Alice ,and very well indeed ,Below are a few quotes from Alice and links to the story of her success My Renault is the identical car to Lewis Hamiltion’s UK car when he won the title at 18 yrs old. To reduce mechanics’ fees, the BARC championship does not allow gears cogs to be changed to suit track conditions, and there is a slight restriction put on the engine to extend its life. Both cars cost the same to buy.
I raced against UK’s top GT drivers (300BHP) in 2010, out qualifying ex-F1 driver Martin Donnelly: This link explains how I got my Renault title at a year younger than Lewis Hamilton: http://news.driverdb.com/2010/10/18/alice-powell-wins-formula-renault-title/ I only got a few qualifying laps on a cold track, near the end of the session, and I still managed to get a pole.

Alice has been supported and encouraged by her Granddad Jim ,and here is the link to her website http://www.alice-powell.com/

A champagne moment !

And Alice does after dinner speeches and has met many famous people ,From Prince Andrew ,to Sir Stirling Moss.

Well done Alice ! you are a clever and lovely girl as well as a plucky one and we are all very proud of you ,.....and as they say Watch this space .......





So as usual I will close ,with love from

Catching up ..Again !

Hello Every one ,yes it's me again ,I checked and my last post was August 4th ,that is bad ,I just don't know what happens to the time ,I'm not wasting it honestly ! Though I did spend two days in bed recently, with this throat bug that has been doing the rounds . My Header and my signature to day were made for me by Donna ,a very talented lady and dear friend in the States .The rain is very appropriate as thats all it did yesterday ,and doesnt look too promising today ,So what have I been doing since I was here last ? Well I was helping to prepare and take part in the Annual Tenants conferance ,I did a work shop ,'Computers for fun 'which was well attended ,and though I didnt do anything very techy ,Chris my friend and fellow board ,and forum member ,was able to deal with that part ,we hope we inspired people to go 'silver surfing' ,and since computers are to be installed in all the company's sheltered schemes for the elderly it seemed the thing to do .Here is a picture of me arriving on my buggy ,with all my props on the back and front of the buggy .In case you are wondering what the turquoise shoes have to do with the black and white theme they match my beads ,and nail polish !!!

My dear Granddaughter Charlotte has now left school and is doing a college course on' Hair and Beauty' she loves it, so Im looking forward to some treatments soon ,below is a picture of her at her school prom ,Charlotte is the' Lady in Red ' isn't she lovely ? Of course I might be prejudiced !(clutching mobile phone !! )

A couple of weeks ago we had a visitor ,Mark and Chrissy brought Sam over to see us ,perhaps some of you will remember Blue their previous dog ,he died and was so missed ,but now they have Sam and he is just as loving.... what a gentle giant he is ,

Though Kizzie is a bit in awe of him

We went shopping the other day for some more material ,I have yet another bag to make for my Daughter Sharon ,who has a Birthday on Thursday . Can you see the Elephant in the picture I won him ,and some gorgeous covered buttons with sheep on them ,just the job for our Kate's next project ! And some lovely green beads, I wear quite alot of green and they are super .The butterfly material I fussy cut to put onto appliqued projects ,

Sarah had called the Elephant Morris ,and he arrived with the other goodies in time for my Maurices Birthday ,I also bought him a new jacket and a Cardigan .Sarah We discovered ,lives not far from me ,well about 15 miles, small world isn't it ? And her Blog has the delightful name 'Happyness is a bottomless button box',do have a look and tell her I sent you

http://sarahlpayne.blogspot.com/2010/09/quick-catchup-and-my-100th-post.html Oh ...I nearly forgot Serendipity ,was five years old on the first of September ,So on that happy note I will send you my love as ever ....from

Birthdays and bags

Hmm ..guess what this is ?

Good morning ,every one ,,look what came in the post yesterday ,I was the lucky winner on one of Gina Farrari's Aniverary post ,celebrtation draws ,a beautiful hand made corsage ,some of her own postcards ,and some delicious fudge Thank you so much Gina I love it .Gina is an extremely talented Textile Artist . http://ginaferrari.blogspot.com/2010/07/sketchbook-project-iii.html

I was showing you some of the bags I had made for family and friends in a previous entry ,here are the latest oners I have made ,

one for ME !

Russian Dolls

And the back

Hmm ...look at this pile of material !

A bag of tomatoes ? So what was the first picture ?

Look Julie ! I used the letters you gave me ,Julia is another talented artist ,

can you guess what it is yet ? http://mixedmedia-jem.blogspot.com/2010/07/grand-day-out-and-cake.html

Yes it is a bag for my laptop
I love this material ,of a key board ,click on the pic to make it larger .

My Dear Granddaughter Charlotte was 16 on June 27th she shares her Birthday with her brother Stuart who was 25,

Charlotte likes animal prints ,and playboy items so,I combined the two and made her a handbag ........

Charlotte and Granny Jan

The Birthday boy and girl with their Mum and Gran

Iain was still on leave

Colin Maurice and Iain

These pictures were taken out side Sharon's pub

The world cup was still on ,so you can see the flags in some of the pics ,Oh yes Mark ,my eldest boy ? was fifty at the end of April ,EEEK my kids are all middle aged ,gosh what does that make me? ....'NO ! don't go there' hee hee ,and then Sam my Kate's youngest was 15 in July ,no pictures Sam hates having his picture taken ,I don't know why he is such a handsome chap ,like his bigBrother Matt ,who was 18 in August ,and has been accepted for the college of his choice ,but will work for a year first ,I am so blessed to have such as lovely family .

My sister Jean has a Birhday this month too ,guess what she has asked for ?

And what a Maurice and Kizzy doing whilst Im slaving away over a hot sewing machine ???
Why ,cruising around the garden on my buggy ,in the sunshine ,see my flag ? didnt do much good though did it ?

Well folks I had better get back to the sewing machine ,so as ever love from