Well, we have had a super Chrismas! Youngest Daughter Sarah made her house available for us all to gather in and we each took something for the meal. There was just one missing from the whole family and that was my eldest Grandchild Terry - he decided to spend it with his girlfriend and their baby son Louey. So we sat fourteen down for dinner.

Sarah has had a new extension built and the family gathered in there before and after dinner - she can seat us all.......it is that big! and what is usually their sitting room became the dining room - it worked very well, but a lot of furniture moving - we have to go and collect our dining room chairs later today - and my shoes - we just could not find them when we were leaving - so I came home in my slippers!

I got what I wanted from my Secret Santa - the dvd of Mama Mia - which I watched yesterday afternoon while the boys were all watching Chelsea win in the freezing cold.

Nativities

After a super holiday in the Lakes with my eldest daughter and her friend we have come down with a bump. Our birthdays are over and now we must prepare for Christmas......the time of the infant school and playgroup Nativity plays is upon us! Yesterday we went to our youngest Grandson's nativity play at his school and today we went to see our youngest grandaughters one in the Church. Joshua's one was good but Joshua was a sheep and we think he thought that precluded him from doing anything else in the play! he did not want to join in anything else -even th singing of songs he knew. On the other hand Emily this morning sung her little heart out with all the songs she had learnt, and played her part of an Angel well.

This afternoon Jackie brought the youngest of the family -her grandson Louie -to visit Gran-Gran and Great Grandad, he has grown since I last saw him and he was only just toddling, now he is going up and down stairs on his own. Next thing will be going to see him in his Nativity play when he is old enough to go to playgroup I suppose! We didn't manage to go to our other Great grandson's nativity as it clashed with Joshua's so his Mummy has bought a DVD of it and we will see him in that - probably get a better view of that than we did of Emily's this morning.

Holidays

The bags are packed - jast last minute things to do to night and we are on our way to Cumbria! We have taken a time share place quite close to my friends, so hope to catch up wth them sometime during the week! Brian is very pleased with the work done on his car and is very glad to have it back in time to go North. It was delivered late yesterday afternoon.......Brian checked all the light connections to the caravan before he would let the delivery guy go.
Jackie and her friend Sue are coming with us - there are three bedrooms in our apartment, so plenty of room for two girls and all their junk! I did ask Jackies DH to join us but he has used his holiday time this year.......ah well I am trying to get those two together again! So Sue is coming to keep Jackie sane - her words! and let us old foggies go and do our own thing while they do theirs.....
We have packed our cold weather gear and walking boots - don't know how much of that I will do - my ankles are playing up and when I went to London the walking round Leicester Sq and Piccadilly was very painful! I will have to see......but I shall take my sewing and my art stuff....I'll be fine while everyone else walks.
Brian is busy making a big batch of marmalade - he loves making this and his own specail recipe......while I have been making a top from the patches I bought of the charity table at Thamesiders on Monday - they are just simple stars but some I have unpicked and remade - some with different fabrics in the middle - now they are a cohesive whole and I think the top will work well.

thank-you's and quilts

When Jackie came in yesterday evening she brought me a thank you card from my Grandaughter and Great-grandson - apparently he loves the Caterpiller quilt I made for him! (no picture of him with the quilt - yet!)
He had helped Mummy to write the card by drawing on it - his version of an ice cream which spilled out all over the inside of the card! guess it's his idea of of something nice - ice cream!

This little lad has chicken pox - and has been very spotty, I have steered clear of him while he was in the infectious stage - I don't really want to run the risk of Shingles this near to going to Cumbria! but I have kept up with the progress of this infection! we will baby sit this afternoon while Mummy, Aimee, baby sits Jackies little charge (she is Nanny to two little girls , one goes to nursery and one stays home), while she goes to have a a mamogram. Complicated arrangement I know but Jackies charge is very uncertain of people she doesn't know very well and would probably have screamed from the time that Jackie left her till the time she came back. She is about 18 months old by the way! and although she has come visiting us occasionally she doesn't know us well.

On Monday evening I took cousin Dorothy and my friend Sue to our quilt meeting - we belong to Thameside Quilters - and on Monday we had a talk by Gill Turley on 'Something old Something new' where she told us about the quilts she makes from reclaimed fabrics - mainly mens shirts.
She had some lovely quilts with her and I wish I had taken my camera because she was allowing photos.....some of the quilts have been in books (Quick quilts to be made in a weekend, is one of the books.) so I have been able to have a look again at some of the quilts. She used to hand quilt with tiny stitches but these days (with failing eyesight - she says!) she now uses larger stitches and thicker yarns.......these quilts are beautiful and so soft and cuddly.

I was glad I took Dorothy, it was the first real outing since her mastectomy two weeks ago. She was begining to get a bit down from staying at home all the time - she is like Brian and likes to be 'out and doing ' and although she was tired when I dropped her off at her home she said she had a nice evening. She goes to the hospital to see the surgeon again today - and hopes that they will remove the last of the dressings. The plasters irritate her skin.

boys!

What a busy day today! Firstly Jackie arrives almost for breakfast with her grandson Louie - he is a darling, walking very well now and knows what he wants.....and holds great long conversations in a language no one can understand - but seems to mean something!

Then Kevin comes in for lunch - he has borrowed my KA for the last 10 days and gave it back ot me yesterday - he wanted to re-fill the tank but Tesco had no fuel yesterday so he is going to do it after lunch. We had barely finished when Stuart came with Charlotte - who I have not seen for a couple of months - she is now taller than me and growing to be a beauty and at 13 is very self assured.

The lads stay most of the afternoon, so Charlotte and I had some nice girly time together - looking at fabrics - for some reason that I didn't find out she wants some leopard print fabric - I told her that there was none in my stash, but she looked any way! she showed me her Beebo blog and told me how to get into it - I always learn something new from her.

The boys have now all gathered at Stuarts house to watch the Chelsea away game against West Brom. so I have the house to myself for a while - I have made Brian promise to take me out for a meal when he comes home.

Bigggg quilt top

This is one pattern from the quilt top I found this morning, the whole quilt is shown at the bottom of the picture.

Each block is about 15" square! and as you can see there are 12 and they are set on point ! So a very large top - too large for me to cart around to meetings......It is one of the Piece of Cake designs and I loved putting it together even this block with all those little circles - the instructions were so easy to follow.

I have found something smaller to take to meetings - it is a lap size quilt and with simple quilting it will be easy to do while nattering (picture another day)

Dh is complaining his neck is painful and put him off his snooker game this afternoon - even with pain killers - hope it doesn't last like this for long, poor love!

On Thursday last week some stupid boy did this damage to our car .... DH was waiting at a junction on a roundabout and a lad in a Landrover hit him! DH says it's a pity that it wasn't an ordinary saloon car cos our tow bar would have caused him a lot of damage!

The car has just been collected by the repairers and taken away and now we are wiating for a hire car!

Dh is fine except for whiplash......he went to see the Doc this morning as he has had an uncomfortable wekeend - the pain didn't start till late Friday - apparently this is normal. So now he is on Ibruprofen to reduce the inflamation...... if it's not one thing in this household at the moment it's another!

Having finished the Caterpiller quilt I am hunting for something to do - looking through some boxes I came across a quilt top I finished a long while ago - it needs quilting - but it's hugh - I need something to do by hand when I am at my groups afternoon meeting.......but is this to big to handle? when laid on my bed it almost touches the ground on three sides! I know it needs doing but it's going to be a long time in the doing! Going to see what else besides hexagons I cna find.....I'll let you know later what I find!