Another post (and FoQ) catching up (again)

September 2017

It was a busy couple of weeks. I had a week with epic amounts of driving in horrendous conditions, followed by a visit to Festival of Quilts

Team meeting was in Chippenham (?) and the hotel had cows in a field next to the car park. Not impressed. Though I don’t think they were anything to do with the hotel!

My favourite quilt from Festival of Quilts

I’ve now got no idea why I picked this photo. Possibly because of the teeny milk jug.

....oops

I really had plans to blog more often. But since the app disappeared it’s not quite as easy.

So, I planned to do a couple of catching up posts, and then blog about a sewing day on Sunday. But forgot to publish them!

What happened in August? (This is 2017 we’re talking about)

J had job interviews and was offered a job that meant moving out, and away from Liverpool, so that was a big change.

He now lives in Stoke-on-Trent, has a new flat, been promoted and is quite happy there.

Although this is actually his second flat. The first was too far from work and took too long on public transport.

This was day 1 flat 1

Catching up: July

Nearly there!

July started with a sewing retreat, again organised by the lovely crew at Simply Solids
This time I gave a lift to Sue, who happened to be the person I'd made the secret sewer gifts for this time.  I'm keen, but not proficient, so it was a bit odd.

 I made this little purse using a Jelly clip frame.  I'd never made one before, and the glueing was a bit 'Blue Peter'










Sue does a lot of knitting, so I made her a pouch for her knitting things

And finally I made a Stash and Dash Organiser

There was a parkrun nearby, so a few of us did that on the Saturday morning!  I only managed one lap, Yorkshire has far too many hills!

I can't find the photos of my swap gifts. Here are 2 of them, a pouch with a really amazing heavy weight unpicker, and some bunting. But there was also a mini quilt, I know I took a photo of it, but can't find it on this computer.

What else happened in July?

J graduated from Liverpool John Moores University.

They picked up the caps and gowns at a building near to the Metropolitan Cathedral, where we met up with his friends and then walked to the Anglican Cathedral.

I don't think I've been there for a service since school - although I've been for a few school reunions.

I accidentally took a photo of myself!

And J took a selfie of us!

 I also went running a fair bit - including this one in Runcorn.

How's that for a view of the new bridge?

And I finished all the hand piecing on my Patchwork of the Crosses!

Catching up: June

I've nearly  caught up with myself!

I'm sure lots of things happened, but I can only go by the ones that are really vivid memories, or I have photos.

The major thing that happened in June was that J got his results.  My son got a First Class Honours Degree. Words can't express how proud of him I am.



And I realised that although I don't think I've lost weight, I've definitely changed shape.

Catching up: May

May was an EPIC month!

Couple of things happened.
I was still running reasonably regularly, if you could call a ploddy jog with lots of walking 'running', and I had my hair cut.

My son J finished his dissertation for his BSc in Cyber Security.   I proof read it for him, but it was mainly a check that he hadn't left random comments in 'put a picture here!' and then not putting the picture sort of thing. I've long since got past the stage where I actually understood it!

And he turned 30, on the day of his final exam.
Here he is, as a very cute tiny thing, only hours old.

And I went to Rhodes. Doing exercise. In the heat!

 Had an absolutely amazing week and met some fabulous ladies.
In this group were women who have never run before in their life, ploddy joggers like me, experienced 5 and 10k runners, and some who had run marathons. (Liza brought her London medal)
But we were all on a journey, and I learned loads.

By day 4 I'd plucked up the courage to wear a swimsuit and sit by the pool.

This isn't me!

We did yoga a couple of mornings, a couple of 5k's and some hills!

We also had lots of fun, but I can't find any of the photos!

Catching up: April

Absolutely no idea what happened in April.
I've trawled through my photos to remind me, and this is as much as I've got!

I've already posted this one - its the Retreat bag I made for my sister.  Or at least, I made it, my sister was going on holiday, so she ended up with it! Which amounts to the same thing really.

 This is a mini quilt I received. Absolutely beautiful, but need to find somewhere to put it!

I've presumably been to Scotland, as I have a photo of Teebay Services!

And I worked on putting my Patchwork of the Crosses quilt together

...and made myself a pouch to hold my passport and boarding pass

Catching up. March

March saw a surprise visit to Jersey.

I've never been before, and had a last minute chance to join Jersey Modern Quilters Guild on their weekend retreat.

The weekend started on Thursday, with the very short plane journey from Liverpool. Well it would have been short, if we hadn't been sat on the tarmac for hours because of a crew issue.


On arrival I made my way to the restaurant to meet the others, and make arrangements to meet my cousin the following day.

I had a lovely catch up with Jay, who I last saw about 6 years ago (in a family the size of ours, that's not unusual)
Here's Jay on the front at St Helier


We then drove to the venue - which was in an activity centre.




We had to bring with us a rainbow star block - this is mine - it was really tiny, but I only had a couple of days to prepare.

I made a couple of things during the weekend, heres a sample