Hello, I’m back………I think

Its been a while, three years, I can’t  BELIEVE it. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun, or not as the case may be. I can't even work Blogger any more and it looks like all the settings have changed, I haven’t a clue what I'm doing here but bear with me.

So, why am I back and what’s been happening?  A lot was going on in my life three years ago, I’m not going back into it now but everything was just getting too much for me and I suddenly thought I can’t do this, I need to just stop! And I did, I even stopped quitting and sewing generally for a while. 

Why am I back now? That’s a hard one to answer. I officially retired just weeks before Covid hit, my life like most peoples was turned upside down. We had three parents to protect, and we did, they all survived. Then last year my Dad got a diagnosis, then my Mam got a similar one, they both needed 24 hour care which my three siblings had I provided. Mam died ten weeks later in September, Dad lasted until just into February.  Three weeks before Dad died my lovely father in law Jack died, we lost all three in just over four months. It’s been hard, devastating, I admit it, but in a letter to us Mam said she wanted us to enjoy our lives for all time, so this is me saying it’s been awful, one of the hardest times in my life, but it’s time I started living life for me, in the present, there’s no point dredging up the past. And putting it another way, I’m going to fulfill my parents last wishes.

Now that that’s over let’s get on to sewing. I say sewing because I’ve branched out a bit, but here’s a pic of the last quilt I was working on.

Chris and Sarah’s wedding quilt. On the back is a different design with all their autograph blocks, but I don’t have a pic I can show you of that. Anyway, they love it. I had to extend it a little from the original which took ages and it’s not as good I don’t think, but it’s done and as they say ‘finished is better than perfect’. I didn’t do the quilting, I had it longarm quilted locally, it’s not as I would have preferred but the autographs on the back are still visible which is important. The original design was from Nydia, she has a website and is on Instagram but I can’t remember how to add links, sorry. I did email her before I started making it though and she kindly gave me permission to copy her quilt.

I just finished another quilt for my sister’s latest grandson.

Yes it’s just a panel with a simple border of squares, but it’s perfect for a little boy, who doesn’t like Thomas the Tank Engine? I put a Thomas board book in with it and the parents loved it.

The last thing I will show you is my new sewing.

What do you think of Isabella, my first doll. She’s made from the Jan Horrox book and I just used fabrics I had in my stash. She’s a flat face doll, I’m delighted with how her face turned out, faces are hard, and I’m certainly not the best at drawing, but the instructions are excellent. 

Well, that’s all for now, maybe next time I will show you my latest quilt I’m making, it’s driving me nuts just now, I think I’m taking out every other seam, I put the pieces in the wrong way, honestly, I don’t believe the number of mistakes I’m making.

I’m not promising to be back in the next few days, but I will be back,

Until then with smiles from 

Kate x