Old Posts and The Most Viewed Post Ever

 Very short of blogging ideas and I know that when I said that a couple of weeks ago things turned up to write about but it hasn't happened this week. So I looked at some old posts and according to Stats this is the most viewed post ever = 12 thousand + views!!

WHY??

From Monday  4th May 2020 - when we were in the middle of lockdowns - which, thank God, we have all forgotten about.

I've finished another little cross stitch picture for a card

Koalas with googly eyes.

I have a request..........do you do cross stitch or know people who do. Please could you ask around and see if anyone has a chart for the little owl on the right. It would have been a free kit on Cross Stitcher Magazine but no idea how long ago -I'm guessing within in the last 10 years.

The  kit made a scissor case which, with the scissors in the case, made the handles look like the owls eyes. I don't need the kit - just the chart.
I saw these 3 kits on ebay and they sold for.........wait for it................. £19!!!

This is probably a vain hope but while I keep fingers crossed I'll start another little picture for a card.
Purple Irises this time I think

Lots of people commented about the kits and sent me links and the chart and I made the glasses case kit and have done hardly any cross-stitch since! But I really don't understand why this post has so many page views.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

E is For Embroidery (Including Tapestry and Cross Stitch)

 I remember the first ever embroidery I attempted - a VERY long time ago. Maybe I would have been about 8. Someone gave me some handkerchiefs that had a printed design on them with embroidery threads and hoop for Christmas. I had no idea what I was doing and the handkerchief ended up a grubby, muddle of stitching. But at primary school at much the same time we crossed stitched on Binca and then lined and folded and added press studs to make something like a large purse or make-up bag or pencil case. I kept it for ages.

I had no interest in any sort of stitching after that and we didn't do much needlework at Grammar School. All I can remember doing there was stitching ties in House colours onto our cookery aprons and making a cotton summer dress. My Mum didn't do much sewing either so I didn't learn "at mothers knee"!

Next attempt was a small long stitch embroidery on a printed canvas that came as a kit with a frame. I was given it to do when recovering from a major operation in about 1984. Then I don't remember doing any more until about  1992 when I bought a set of 3 small 18 count cross stitch kits on offer from a magazine. They came with small round frames and were vases of flowers. Goodness knows why I picked something so difficult for my first attempt at counted cross stitch. The little pictures have long gone.

After that I made several wool tapestries and we had a friend in the Smallholders Society who did picture framing in return for just the material costs and fruit from smallholding that he could use for Jam making.

I haven't kept everything and all that are left are these.................

Counted cross stitch fashions with embroidery threads (Pete - the picture framer didn't cut his own mounts and he said the man at the place he got them from almost had heart failure trying to do 4 ovals in one mount and keep them level)

Wool Long Stitch of a steam train crossing the Ribblehead Viaduct. This was Colin's favourite.

Collies and sheep - half cross stitch wool tapestry

Below is a wool long stitch that was  rescued  from a charity shop, and the colours are probably all wrong as there were lots of skeins of wool and numbers marked on a instruction sheet but  which colour went with which number wasn't always clear.

I think this was the most difficult to do. I had to dye the Aida first and it's 16 count cross stitch so quite fiddly to do with the different shades.

Most recently all I've stitched are small cross stitch pieces for cards and one or two that are mounted in things (coasters, key rings, trinket pots, book marks) for gifts. 

And the little sampler I did during lock down.

If ever I had a fancy to do something new (but I probably won't!)it might be this, which I saw online, although I would miss out the yellow sun, which spoils it in my opinion.

Edited in to say - if you can't see the picture the link is HERE

Back Monday

Sue

The WI Knit, Stitch and Yarn Group Again

 Here's the finished stitching for the little bookmark started last month- on the left is how it should have looked with the kit and on the right how I altered it to fit a smaller card.

 

 Double sided sticky tape soon got it fixed into the bookmark card and tucked away to make a little gift.

 That meant I needed something else to take along to the group this week .

This is one of the charts bought for 25p from the car boot sale last month. I bought it because of the tea-cup design as I knew I'd got a couple of plastic bits for making coasters that need stitching inside and a teacup seemed quite apt.

 

The original kit made another sort of book mark with the stitching backed with felt and attached by a plaited thread to that little tag thing - meant to represent a tea-bag - that  you can see above the teacup chart.

I'll just be doing the tea cup and will trim it to size, back with a piece of card and put it inside the coaster which is two pieces that clip together.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

A Week into September

Blimey, what a gloomy week it's been here in Suffolk. Dull, dull, dull as Craig Revel-Horwood says on Strictly, which BTW,  starts on the 18th - good news indeed.

What have I been up to this week? ......... Apart, that is, from watching as much of the Paralympics as possible. There was Nana duty one day and then the dentist the next. That was the last of my 5 appointments ....................thank goodness. He told me I had coped with it all very well! 

On Thursday a man came to fill the chip in the windscreen before it got any bigger. It's been there since before March when it passed the MOT, so it was about time I got around to doing something about it. It cost me nothing as it was covered in my insurance.

 

A text message arrived inviting me to book the annual flu jab later this month. Might as well go and get it done. I'm afraid I don't go in for the conspiracy theories that warn us about vaccinations etc saying that it's just a way of controlling the people. Someone said at the beginning of the pandemic that it was  a plan to reduce the world population....I answered that it would take more than a few million deaths to make a difference to the world population as it is now. I even heard that Covid vaccinations included a microchip to track us...........really? They don't need to do that......we're already tracked by our mobile phones or online presence.

Anyway, that's getting too close to politics so I'll shut up. 

The small sampler I  started earlier in the summer is finished and put into a frame at last. It's been added to my "art wall". There's still room for a few more small bits if I come across something I like at a boot sale or charity shop.

     I've finished this library book below and agree with the plaudits on the cover. The thought of the Queen investigating a murder is ridiculous but somehow after reading this it seems entirely plausible!

Don't bother reading it if you want something serious - because, just like Richard Osman's first crime book, - you have to forget proper police procedure. Also just like The Thursday Murder Club this is the first of a series.

Yesterday I finally got some more soil shifted from the bag out the front around to the new vegetable beds, there's still plenty of time until spring to finish, but the bag sits there shouting at me every time I go out the front of the house!                                                         

This week I'm grateful for

• Having a day with Eldest Granddaughter before she started school, now I'll see her less often.
• More Paralympics to enjoy on TV
• Spotting a Painted Lady butterfly on the white Buddleia. First I've seen among all the Red Admirals, Peacocks and Cabbage White
  
• The forecast for a bit of warmth on a couple of days next week

It will be a quiet weekend here I think, need to get the breadmaker on, the ironing done and maybe some scones made.

 Have a good weekend, I shall be back Monday

Sue

The Summer Cross-Stitch

 The little cross stitch sampler is coming along slowly, I'm only doing it now and again and  still a few rows of stitching to do as I work my way up, still making it up as I go along with ideas from my chart stash.

 

and after a few more rows................

 

 And after a few more..............

Thank you to everyone for comments over the last few days and apologies for not replying to each and every. A special thank you to people who've said they are commenting for the first time - it's lovely to hear from you.

Today I want to do a trip out for some more of the church visits from the book  '100 Treasures in 100 Suffolk churches'. It's almost 18 months since  my last one. I'm now having to go a bit further afield so hope the churches are all open again. Soon I'll need to travel even further if the other 50 still to visit are to be done.

I also want to be back in time to see the men's semi finals from Wimbledon.....better get a wriggle on.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Summer Stitching

First a tennis update......Lovely to see more Brits winning at Queens Club on the grass courts yesterday. Although of course there aren't many top players there so we stand more chance! Good to see Andy Murray back after all the trials and tribulations of hip replacements and  injuries. He got through easily in two sets.

I still haven't watched any of the Euro football matches properly all the way through, always reading or writing at the same time, then they all shout and I find I've missed the goal! Mostly I've turned over after a while to watch something on iplayer.

*************

 Must be a year or even more since I did any cross stitching but I had an idea to make a little sampler to fill a frame I already had to add to my art wall.

I'm making it up as I go along using ideas from two samplers I've done in the past and some ideas from other charts.

For an awful 10 minutes I thought I'd lost this cross stitch chart book in the move. Surely I'd not taken it with other craft books to the charity shop? found it at the bottom of the box of cross stitch fabric and kits....phew.... along with it's companion book of numbers.

Stitching from the bottom up is not really the way you're supposed to tackle a bit of cross stitching... ...although it could be from the top down until I stitch a house and a text.........  but it's how this one will be done so as to keep to the right size.
 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

More Crafts From The Box

The rest from the random box of crafts that I bought from ebay at the end of May.

4 kits - One is to make a felt chicken cushion - Quite ugly. And a cross stitch bag - with Black Aida - and if you've ever tried stitching on black Aida then you know it's not easy on the eyes. Both those have gone in the future car-boot box. There was another piece of Aida and a card blank I've kept in the 3rd kit and the childrens long stitch horse kit had been done all wrong so that was chucked.

Another children's new long stitch kit of a dog and the felt santa puppet have gone in the cupboard. Wool from the heart knitting is in the sewing box and the Aida and hoop from the penguin kit has been kept.

I have no idea what the 2 in 1 quilting tool is, if you want it let me know?  Another felt puppet has gone in the cupboard and the big Craft Collection kit into the car boot box. There was a piece of aida in the centre kit and some material and threads in another.

A finished Long Stitch picture of the house on the bridge at Ambleside in Cumbria. Not sure what to do with this, it's not something I would want to frame and keep. 2 dinosaur foam skeleton kits have gone in the grandchildren cupboard. The Cath Kidston Christmas Decorations Kit is a book and a huge bundle of felt pieces to make 12 Christmas Decorations. That's gone in the Christmas drawer.Probably the best thing in the box.

And Finally ................The Poppy Doll kit is for making  a complete fabric ragdoll. That's gone in the car boot box. The hoop is in the drawer with the DMC cross stitch book-mark kit - very pretty. The other thing was a weird piece of stiff canvas for a picture of bits of bamboo - it had been started but there was no chart and no threads. I chucked it - too horrible to keep.

So that was my box of things bought from ebay - was it worth it? Well, quite a lot was kept and several things to sell in the future so I think on the whole it wasn't a complete waste of money and it kept me happily occupied sorting it all for several hours.

But I won't be doing it again!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Unpacking the Box

I was keen to see the items in my Box of Treasure in real life as the on line photos hadn't really been clear due to there being so many bits and bobs.
Were they worth the buying?

There are some cross stitch charts in this book "Cross stitch from The Country Diary" but it needs a photo copier with enlargement feature to be able to see the pattern as the book is only 5 inches by 4 inches so charts are teeny. If anyone wants it give me a shout as I know lots of people collect Edwardian Lady Country Diary stuff.  I've kept the 14 count Aida and the hoop and threads.

A crochet kit - I'll send this off to someone who crochets . The felt penguin kit is sweet and has been kept as have the two cross stitch kits.

Some different coloured wool wound on card but no patterns, so the wool has gone in my wool bag for maybe teaching grandchildren to knit or for making pom-poms etc in the future. There's a peg doll kit also kept for grandchildren.Several skeins of embroidery cotton have been wound onto cards and added to my stash.

A crochet fox kit - another to pass on, a children's cross stitch kit -  to keep for grandchildren. It's very unlikely I'll want to stitch a unicorn so that's gone in the car boot box. Also there is a huge piece of Binca - which will be brilliant for grandchildren to learn to stitch. It's what I learned to cross stitch on at primary school - where I made a lovely lined purse, with a snap closure - wonder what happened to it?

And finally for today - The guinea pig kit had lots of fur fabric missing - shame - so that's been chucked. More cottons and another embroidery hoop. There's a big piece of rug making canvas - which I've put in the box for a future car boot sale along with a knitted book mark kit.

Five more pictures another day.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

A Box of Treasure

Scouring ebay for bundles of games and crafting things for grandchildren I happened upon a huge job lot of mixed Craft kits mainly for grown ups but including some that I could keep for the grandchildren. I was intrigued, it was the sort of thing I used to find at boot sales years ago - boxes of mixed treasures of card making stuff which I would spend happy hours sorting through and organising.

I dithered - after all I cleared out lots of crafting stuff last year, things I didn't want to do again, but the auction was nearly ended, the box had 40 different things, just over 50p each, several items were cross stitch kits and having settled into this new stay-at-home normal I'll have time to try something different.

I waited. I bid. I won.

The box  arrived.................I'll show you what's inside next week and find out if it was worth buying.................or not!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Owl

Remember me asking about the chart to make the scissor case a few weeks ago and all the lovely people who found a copy on line that I was able to print out?

The first one is finished,

the second has been started................... they will be little Christmas gifts.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Strange Times; Wednesday of Week 9

I have these on my table for a few days. They are so pretty but grow like a weed in the quarter circle flower garden. Cross pollinating and seeding themselves and however many I dig out they still smother everything again the following year.
It's a shame they don't last long indoors.

That wind was blinkin' cold on Monday, I was glad there was no need to venture out except for walking up and down the meadow a couple of times. Stepping out of the meadow onto the farmers field the first thing I spotted was this..............A heart shaped stone with the corner chipped off, just about right for the anniversary of Colin's passing away I thought.

Ventured out to the Post Office yesterday and the 4 envelopes containing the 1,000th post  giveaways have been posted. I thought it quite random that they went to Scotland, Wales, England and that other country.............. London! (Well it was Essex-on-the-edge-of-London really but at the moment that is almost another country!)
 
When I asked about getting a copy of the owl scissor case chart after seeing the kit on ebay someone said that another kit the same had come up for sale on there again. I watched to see how much it sold for.........£9! Plus postage - blimey! So thank you again to everyone who found a way of getting a copy online for free, the first stitching has been started. I'm hoping to make a few of these for Christmas gifts. Luckily I have pieces of felt needed to back the stitching - when I cleared out lots of craft stuff it was the cross stitch things and some material including felt that I kept (as well as some paper craft/cardmaking bits) what a good choice that was.

Thank you again for all the kind and caring comments on Monday, seems several people reading have had a loved one pass away recently. As  my SiL said .....there is an amazing caring support network in Blogland. Thank you also for comments yesterday. I was so busy trying to remember to write down everything I did for the Mass Ob. diary that I only replied to a few and had a fail day on leaving comments elsewhere too.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Strange Times Wk 8; Result! + TV In Lockdown

Warning................This is the most boring post this week! BUT first of all BIG THANK YOU to Angela (and everyone else) who tracked down online the page of the Cross Stitcher magazine with the owl scissor case so I can copy it. I spent ages looking online and she found it in a few minutes! Joy also found a photo online of the made up case. So I'm sorted.
My printer leaves lines over things but these came out good enough to see.

I'm so pleased I was able to print them out.  Sometimes it surprises me how I'm actually able to write a blog because I'm really tech adverse! It took me umpteen tries and hours the other day to try and send a video to someone on email and then when I managed it I had no idea how, which means that if I need to do it again it will be trial and error all over again! ((sighs in frustration!))

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The  £157.50 that I paid last month to renew my TV licence is worth every penny to me during these strange times. Perhaps if I wasn't alone it wouldn't be quite so important.
In a normal year in the last week of April and beginning of May I would have been watching the world championship snooker and probably reading at the same time.

But there are lots of things on now that are specially made for the times or shown on mainstream for the first time. It's wildly exciting!

Last Monday
The Brecon Beacons with Iolo William, beautiful photography. This presenter is often on BBC Wales.
Grayson's Art Club
The first part of a new series with Grayson Perry . Portraits this week - interesting to see him at home with his wife. He's a fascinating person.

Last Tuesday
There were repeats of Classic Snooker Games on all week to make up for the absence of real life and today I watched a bit of the game from 2003 with the lovely Paul Hunter who died tragically young from cancer just before his 28th birthday.
I caught up on the Daily Live Cooking programmes from last week with Jack Monroe and some old series of DCI Banks

Last Wednesday
The Repair Shop has to have some of the cleverest people on TV and proves to me every week that I never would have the patience to do what they do - let alone the knowledge.
The Great British Sewing Bee is something I've never watched before, so many people have said they enjoyed it so I thought I'd give it a go...............more people doing things I wouldn't have the patience for!

Last Thursday
The Lakes With Paul Rose - some more good photography of beautiful places in the Lake District.
Spring at Jimmy's Farm - made specially for Covid times. Jimmy Doherty is a great mate of Jamie Oliver and the farm has featured in lots of TV programmes. It's just on the outskirts of Ipswich. As well as the pigs he started with back in the 90's he now has all sorts of animals including Meerkats. It started as a Farm and Farm shop but is now a "Tourist Destination". We went just once when it first started and even then his sausages sold for £8 a pound - that £1 each!


Last Friday - Game Show Night
Question of Sport - made brilliant by the madness of Phil Tuffnell
Have I got News For You always good -even virtually
Q.I 

All week I've watched Richard Osman's House of Games, The One Show which is actually better without guests in the studio!  and the Government Briefings from Downing Street - just in case they announce something interesting.

Last Saturday
How did I miss trailers for a new series of Hunted? that strange yet compelling programme about staying hidden for 5 weeks to win a huge sum of money. It was on TV in February and March and now I've found it I'm watching the series on catch-up. There was a celebrity version too. Boris Johnson's Dad giving himself away by frequently using cash machines!

 I didn't read the book back in 2008- probably because it had so many people saying how good it was - puts me right off. But I watched the film on Saturday night.........  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society but stupidly missed the first 30 minutes and had to catch up on catch up later. I loved the film but was glad I wasn't in the cinema as it has................ SPOILER ALERT............... a snuffly happy-crying ending.


Last Sunday
Countryfile from the Lea Valley.
The second of the new Van Der Valk..........they've only made three - what a shame.


Next Saturday the film "The Darkest Hour" is on TV. I was going to borrow the DVD from son but will watch this instead.

That was a week of TV up the end of a lane - I'd be lost without my TV for company and I know people who don't own one and won't understand this.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Looking For a Cross Stitch Kit

I've finished another little cross stitch picture for a card

Koalas with googly eyes.

I have a request..........do you do cross stitch or know people who do. Please could you ask around and see if anyone has a chart for the little owl on the right. It would have been a free kit on Cross Stitcher Magazine but no idea how long ago -I'm guessing within in the last 10 years.

The  kit made a scissor case which, with the scissors in the case, made the handles look like the owls eyes. I don't need the kit - just the chart.
I saw these 3 kits on ebay and they sold for.........wait for it................. £19!!!

This is probably a vain hope but while I keep fingers crossed I'll start another little picture for a card.
Purple Irises this time I think

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Strange Times Wk 6 Post 1

Very excited to see my sister-in-law commenting on my blog, unless there is someone with the same name out there. I love it when people I know read and comment. If I had a friend or relative writing a blog it would be fun to read. (Although I now have friends who write blogs but I didn't know them before!)

Saturday was a cold, gloomy day with a bit of rain but not enough to do much good for the fruit trees and bushes.  I hardly stepped out of the door at all and watched my birthday present DVD of Midway, which is the 2019 film look at what happened in the Pacific after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. I've seen the film from the 1970's several times on TV and now want to see it again so I can decide which was best.....

Swallows or Housemartins returning have been mentioned on some blogs, no sign of them here yet, the cold east winds we keep getting are probably pushing them further west  but out cycling last Thursday I spotted the first Orange Tip butterfly and then two small Blue butterflies - presumably Common Blue. I've been increasing my cycling distance each time I've been out so that on Sunday I was able to do the 6 mile loop around all the parts of the village. Next I'm going to try the 3 and a bit miles to the community shop in the next village. I can go one way and come home by another little road to make it more interesting.

My hair was driving me nuts as it gets so heavy when it gets too long so thank goodness I kept the clippers after starting going to a hairdressers. A quick buzz with a 5 comb and there was a big heap of grey/white/black hair on the floor, although I missed a bit at the back  oh well!
When Col cut my hair all the time it was always the 6 comb but having been used so much it developed a tendency to fall off mid cut - which was one of the reasons for starting to visit a proper hairdresser. Heavens knows what Kirsty will think of the mess I've made of my hair when eventually she is allowed to open her little shop again.
 We did another Zoom meeting with 4 houses and all the grandchildren yesterday, it was lovely to see them again. Son had written a list for a scavenger hunt for the children. 

That was my weekend and now here we go into week 6 of  Strange Times and week 5 of  lock-down. Must go shopping one day this week, that will be exciting but frightening at the same time and I need to pick up prescription too......are fish and chip shops open? - I usually get my cheap pensioners meal when I go and pick up my tablets

 Kirstie Allsop has got a crafting programme on starting this evening at 5pm for everyone stuck at home, hope the ideas she has aren't too expensive. How glad I am that when I sorted the craft stuff I kept all the cross stitch materials. The frog got finished and I'm doing a couple of little bits that go onto  tea-pot shaped cards.

 My favourite colour tulips are the latest to open and a bunch are now indoors

Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Little Bit of Stitching

More cross stitch has been done in the last 3 weeks
than in the last 3 years!
Which didn't take much doing as I'd not stitched for ages.

This is the latest make - just a little lavender sachet using some Aida band which can also be used for bookmarks and to make cake bands.

I bought a couple of metres of this umpteen years ago and still have enough left for a few more sachets, and a small bit of calico left to make the pouches that hold the dried lavender inside the Aida. But I don't have much dried lavender so must remember to dry some more of my own this summer.




What next? I need some more birthday cards for men, so had a search though my box of charts. I have a box file full of charts mostly pulled from cross stitch magazines years ago and saved from kits bought at boot-sales. Most of my charts are small designs and some have been stitched quite  frequently when I was selling cards at the Framlingham Country Market.

This frog has been stitched at least once before, originally a kit from  Textile Heritage they don't list the numbers of the colours so I must have matched my DMC threads to the originals when it was stitched for the first time.

Several different greens in this but it won't take too long to do. I've been stitching for an hour or so in the morning, sitting by the front window where the sun has been streaming in........ better than housework!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Strange Times Week 2, Post 1

An annoying thing...........................
It was a lovely sunny weekend,  and I started cutting the grass with the ride-on mower - when Clunk! and whatever it is that engages the cutter blade - belt? cable? - broke. Botheration. I'll ring up the mower repair place.......again. I did some cutting with the small battery mower until that went flat and needed charging, then some strimming with the battery strimmer. .... the joys of owning an acre............machinery is needed. Luckily the weeding and cutting back of the flower beds only needs a hand fork and secateurs.

An amusing thing..............
My BiL A (Col's brother) the one who comes to help me sometimes with wood cutting, is a 60 year old bachelor, who spends his spare time in a pub. So I texted him to ask what he was going to do now the pubs are shut? He said he wouldn't have time to miss the pub as he's spending all his time reading his phone. I asked what on earth he meant and turns out after all these years he's got himself a smarter phone and is now on Facebook. He got someone to help him set it up and now he's getting bombarded with friend requests! I did say that he didn't actually need to look at his phone every time it bleeped at him! 

Lovely things...............
On Saturday the postman brought me a parcel for Mothering Sunday from the Surrey family......Lindt Lindor.....very bad for losing weight ......but very delicious, I shall try to ration myself to one a day. They are 100 calories each!
My children rang and texted - not quite what we had planned but that's the world now. Son and DiL called round with a card and flowers and to pick up a bag of books for Willow - with libraries all closed she needed a bit of variety.

An ignorant thing..................
I see the computer generated comments about  Baby Boomers spreading the virus and needing to die have gradually got longer and more prolific, the authors must have even more time on the hands. It's so funny as baby boomers are presumably the parents of the people who've started off these nasty comments. I just delete forever.

Sunday Worship.............
I'm not particularly religious but love a good hymn sing so I enjoyed  a blast from the past.......a Sunday morning service on TV as well as Songs of Praise. It came from St Davids Cathedral in Wales - somewhere I regret not visiting on all our Welsh holidays.

Greed.............
According to TV news there is now 1 BILLION pounds worth of extra food in people's cupboards. I have an awful feeling that greed will mean terrible waste later on - it's frightening how greedy some people have been. Where notices tell people to limit to two items some are taking all family members shopping, so each have a trolley. Crazy. Then I wonder how I would feel if I had a big family to feed and empty cupboards.......would I be the same?

A quicker stitch............
My last cross stitch took me an age to get finished, this seagull just took a couple of hours as it was one of the little Mouseloft kits. I think it was a gift from a penfriend. I'll get it into a card blank soon.

When I cleared out lots of craft stuff I kept all the cross stitch charts, thread, aida and some of the smaller kits that had been collected over the years. I think I might be grateful for them in the next few months.

Kindness............
My neighbours down the other end of the lane popped a note through the door with their mobile numbers just in case I needed anything as they are both classed as key workers so will be out and about. More neighbours from down on the proper road walked by when I was outside and said to call in if I needed any help and I already have the mobile numbers of my other neighbours in the lane so should be OK I reckon.



Today's Saint is GWINEAR
When St Patrick was trying to convert the Irish to Christianity in C5 he was rejected by King Clito. But the King's son Gwinear was converted and left the palace and became a hermit (Yes another hermit!). Later he took 770 men and women to spread the Christian faith in Wales and Brittany. He was martyred by Teudar a Cornish tyrant  and there is a Cornish village called Gwinear named in his memory.


I've got a final Suffolk Church Posts in drafts for tomorrow.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Windy Sunday

On Saturday I arrived at the big Boot Sale at the same time as it started to pour with rain, so I turned round and went out again.....and so did everyone else.
Didn't even bother to try on Sunday as it was grey, chilly and very windy. Instead I baked scones and went out for a walk across the back field.

I have no idea if this video will work,  and because it was so windy you can't hear the skylarks that I could hear and most of my words were blown away too.

The footpath down my meadow and out onto the field isn't used much and mainly by local people, but if I'd done this walk just a while later I would have turned round and seen a large group of ramblers appearing - which would have been quite a surprise. I looked online and found they were Ipswich Ramblers group doing a nine mile walk in the area.

If we all have to stay at home and isolate ourselves at least I'll still be able to walk the path in the middle of nowhere.

Later I finished  this cross stitch, after it had been sitting half done in a drawer for about 2 years.  I've been right off stitching for all that time.

I used to stitch this design a lot when I was stitching to sell cards at the Country Market. It's quick and easy but looks quite effective especially when done on this marbled blue Aida. Just need to get it into a card blank......which mustn't take two years to do.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Cross Stitch Rescue

From a car boot sale a couple of weeks ago I bought a big envelope full of  beautifully neat cross stitch pictures. The seller was one of those house clearance bods with boxes full of all sorts. I paid £2 for the lot and when I got home and had a proper look in the envelope I found 17 little pictures - mostly Christmassy -  right ready for putting in cards.

I've got plenty of card blanks so did some straight away - those on the right  -  and just need to iron the rest and get them mounted.

But then what?
Can I really pass them off as my own? There's hours and hours (and Hours) of work there and I wouldn't ever choose to stitch penguins and polar bears they are not 'me'.

So I thought I'd donate them to a charity but............ most of the chain charity shops sell their own Christmas cards anyway and I'm not sure these would be put out for sale.

So I'm still puzzling over what to do with them, maybe the Macmillan Cancer Information Centre at the hospital could sell them for fundraising - I shall ask but they might not be allowed to.

I'll let you know.

And thank you for most of the comments yesterday! 

Back Tomorrow
Sue