Comings and goings

Well, long time no see :)

How you all doing lovely people? Hope your all fine n dandy this Easter Monday/April Fools Day?

I've just got a few things to say today.

The first is, I want to thank you all for your support over the time I've had this ere blog.

I'm not going to be writing here any more, nor on my Teapotlane emproium one.

I will explain, but let me first say about the results from Belguim for my daughter.

I was gutted with them. Sorry, but there was absoultely no point in sending her to Beguim, and as far as I can see, it was a waste of NHS money. :(

They came back with ..well, we can confirm that she has 'frontal lobe epilepsy'...hmm... we had that confirmed 8 years ago!!

On the epilepsy front and nothing whatsoever to do with Belguim though, they are bringing out a new Epilepsy drug in June, which may or maynot help. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know. It will be her 15th drug!

Now for the other news. I won't be writing here anymore, as I'm having a fresh start from today in blogging and Etsy. I have recently had to leave  my husband after 23years, and feel a new start in eveything is appropriate. So if you would like to follow my new blog, then please email me at littletinystitches@hotmail.co.uk and i will tell you the www. I do hope you appreciate that I won't go into details on here my lovelies.

Anyways, thankyou all kindly for all your support and love. I shall still be popping in to see you all, and once I'm feeling better (I'm trying to be kind to myself at the moment! lol) I shall start my blogging a new.

Take care my lovely ladies.

Love n big happy hugs to you all,

Donna xxxx{{HUGS}}



Doings ::

You lot are a lovely bunch you know. I haven't been posting at all for ages, and when I wrote my last post you left such lovely comments to welcome me back. Thankyou most kindly :)

I have been a busy bee these past months. What with Christmas makes and the likes, I've managed to fit quite a bit in (well for me anyway!).

First up is a photo of the rag rug that I crocheted for my youngest daughter for Christmas..

This is the last photo I took whilst making it (sorry, I haven't taken one of it finished, and I'm too lazy to go and take one to load up -with the amount of time bloggers been taking!!)

In total is measures 3ft (36") in diametre and I loved making it as I knew how much she would love it for her room :)

Next is a quilt I made for a lovely little 'just nine year old' boy. He has very bad epilepsy, and a learning disabilty, and in early February he is going to Great Ormond Street in London to have major brain surgery (similar to what they would give my daughter if they found where her epilepsy came from).

I think he is such a brave boy, and I made him this quilt to take and cuddle. (I know he has it on his bed already, and I'm so pleased he finds comfort in it!)

It's a raggy quilt, and I have to say thatI did struggle a bit in choosing fabric and colours for a boy..

Then, when I gave it to his Mum, I thought that she might like her own quilt to take with her and get some comfort from whilst staying there during her sons operation, so I made her one too :)

I thought of bright sunny days when I made hers :)

Bless them, I have my fingers and everything crossed that all goes well. xxx

And I do have to admit to being a tad jealous that they have been able to operate on her precious boy at such a young age...if only they'd been able to do that for my daughter... :(

Oh dear, does that sound mean and whingy wishing that? ..   I don't mean it too...

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Then, I got fed up with trapsing all the weather in the utility room on muddy shoes, so instead of keep putting paper down, I made a rag mat for wiping feet. -Trouble is, now no one want to be the first to get it dirty!! LOL.

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Well, we got our snow didn't we?  It wasn't much really, and it does make me laugh that everything grinds to a halt in the uk when we get any weather a tad out of the usual. Don't get me wrong, I know some people have lost their electric and such, and we've had trees down due to the weight of snow on them, but after all, it does happen every year!!

And I couldn't leave you without introducing you to ......

......

......

GILLIAN !

Yes, this is Gillian. Our snowman (lady).  my youngest dughter made her, and I have no idea whatsoever where she picked the name Gillian from.

(I would just like to assure you Gill that this has no connection to you what so ever as my daughter doesn't read my blogs :D :D  xx)

Anyway my dears you take it easy and keep warm.

Love Donna xx

P.s.

I've also been in touch with Kings College re; my daughter. The good news is they have received the test results from Belguim. The bad news is *WE*  are still waiting to hear them.  GGrrrr.

But we know how long these things take, so it's another long wait till they pull their finger out and have a meeting to decide what, if anything can be done....

Take care. xx

'Tis the Season......

Well hello !

Long time no see :)

How are you? All fine n' dandy and ready for Christmas I hope?

I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a most fabulous happy and healthy Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.

I shall be very glad to see the back of this year! And I'm much more looking forward to 1st January 2013 than 25th December 2012! I know, I know, what a miserable scrooge!! LOL

Funny how we feel a change of numbers helps eh?  :D

I have just discovered some lovely emails in my blogging email address, which are quite a few days/weeks old!  So I apologise profusely to those who have emailed me, and I have not yet responded. As I haven't been blogging, I have hardly checked that account. I'm so sorry, but I shall get back toyou lovely people today!!

Just a quick update on my daughter :

We went to the hospital in Belguim in October. She had a weeks long session of tests and scans which proved very, very interesting. We have yet to be given the official results, but if I haven't heard from Kings College by early January, I shall be chivvying them along!

But I shall keep you all posted when I do hear!

I'm sorry for my long blog break, but alas we haven't had a very good year, and I really haven't felt like blogging, I would have been far to miserable! lol

I have been nosing around your blogs, but have been hiding in the background!!

I hope you forgive my lack of comments lovely people.

Now, you all take care, and have a most fabulous time over the holidays you hear?
It's the shortest day of the year today, so things only get brighter from today onwards... :D

Bless you all,

Donna xx

Thrifty fabric finds & a quilt tadaah..

Hiya lovely bloggers :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine n dandy this Wednesday evening!

Oooo, I'm getting good at this posting lark aren't I? lol.

But I do have to admit that I wanted to write this post Monday. Alas time gets away from me too quickly these days.

Thankyou all kindly for your comments on my last post -the first in my little series of 'spotlights'. I always think it's nice to find out about lovely blogs and people you may not have heard of. I shall be spotlighting another victim  another blogger this weekend. It may even be you :D

I had a little thrifty shopping to do the other day, and I was so pleased to find some large pieces of lawn cotton fabric, and a most beautiful feathered organza that I absolutely adore!  :: 

This is all of them together::

A lovely Aisan style lawn -2metres (£1.95)::

Another 2 metres Aisan style lawn -£1.95::

Five metres of dress fabric I think it's a viscose blend (£1.95)

A most gorgeous coloured, 3 metres of dress fabric that I'm going to make at least one skirt with! (£2.25)

And this most gorgeous feathered organza!! The colours of the feathers are so beautiful -especially with that aqua colour! -3metres £1.50!

So as you can tell, I had a bit of a spending spree!

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Here's some pictures of another quilt that I keep forgetting to show you.

I didn't make it to any pattern -which shows! lol-

I quilted in the ditch in the end. That's after free-machine quilting it all first, then not liking what I had done, so I unpicked the WHOLE quilt and started again.

This is the back.

I did actually make this for someone, but I was so un-happy with it, that I didn't give it to them!

Sometimes I do think I'm just a tad of a miserable old bag, 'cos when I look at this quilt now, I like it, and think they would have too!!

I think I was just being picky after being so disappointed at my first go a free-hand machine quilting.

I used my walking foot to stitch 'in the ditch', and it worked a treat.

(I ought to say that my friend didn't go without a gift, I gave her something else!)

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A fun patchwork pillow that I made my son :D

Yes, he is much too old for monster and Mr Men fabrics, but it made me grin, so he got it :D

Well, that's me for today.  I suppose that's it on our sunshine for a while now too :o(   Can you believe it's the summer solstice tomorrow!  Lordy, halfway through the year already!

You have a great week my dears, and take care. xx

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This photo is for all of you lovely bloggy friends.  xx

This photo is for Jo and Jennie, who I know are both having a very hard time at the moment :o(

You take care my dearies, and keep your chin up! xx

This message is for 'Trills'!

Dear Trills, thankyou so much for always leaving such beautiful comments on my blog posts. Unfortunately blogger won't let me respond to any of your comments for some reason, so I have no way of contacting you :o(

But i just want you to know that I so appreciate your lovely words (as I do everyones), and they help to make my day.

I'm looking forward to when you get brave enough to blog yourself my dear :o)

Take care down there, and have a lovely week. xxx



'Fabulous vintage rosey' scrap quilt :o) ---1st up :D

Well Hello again!

Two posts in one week from me seems amazing, but I frequently do amazing things (not) lol.

This post is mainly about one lady who IS amazing though!

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Since I have been blogging, I have *met* some of the most lovely people I have ever known.

Bloggers are in the main, the most inspiring, friendly, genorous people there are.

I have been friends with a few people for a few years now. We have exchanged gifts and cards, support, help and advice. You all reading this know who you are.

So I thought over the next few weeks, (and to encourage me to get back my blogging mojo) I thought I would do a little series on bloggers I know who are extremely inspirational, talented, funny, sad, happy, colourful..... you get the picture.

So ahead of time, I'm warning you that if I comment on your blog, if your blog makes me smile, inspires me, or I think you're amazing, I shall be writing about you here. I make no apologies beforehand for putting you in this little spotlight (and it is little, so don't fret dearies :D) and I won't be telling you individually beforehand either, you will just tune in and here you are. This is your warning :D

I do however, hope you like it, and take it in the way that you are meant to, in the fact that I think you are amazing for one reason or another, and this is my way of thanking you for helping me along in one way or another over the past few years.

So here goes and first up!  :D :D.

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The lady on todays post is the owner of the first blog I ever saw/read.

I used to do an enormous amount of fabric crochet. And one day when I was googling it on the web like you do, I came across a selling site called Etsy.

And right there was the most amazing rag crochet I had ever seen!

Oh boy, did I aspire to be as good as this lady, and I was amazed that you could actually sell items that you crocheted. (Yes I've led a sheltered life! lol)

SosoRosey is run my my best, best friend Jennie.  I *met* her about four years ago now on the web.

In that time I have come to realise that Jennie is one of the most talented, professional people in the world.

Not only does she run sosorosey, but she also sells vintage items in her shop sosovintage.

The range of vintage items are awesome, and one of her specialities are vintage sheets!

These are cut into fatquarters, or charm packs (or whole if you need that much fabric).

Out of these packs, she often has scraps left which she sells as scrap packs.  I bought a scrap pack not so long ago to make a little project (just $5 -around £3.25) and this is what I made for just £3.25.

I made this little scrap quilt-as-you go raggy quilt.

A bit unconventional in shape, and measuring nearly 3ft square (although obviously it's not quite square). It is so soft and cosy and my two teenage girls argue over who's turn it is to cuddle it and take it to bed. I just wanted to show you what can be made with just a little pack of scraps. Bear in mind that had i not 'quilted-as-you-go' this would make a 6ft x 6ft quilt top -easily as I have some left. That is an absolute beautiful bargain -a quilt top for $5 or £3.35!!

The vintage fabrics are awsome:::

(A $5 current scrap pack -photo shamelessly stolen from Jennies shop)

The crochet is awesome::::

(This photo has been shamelessly stolen from Jennies shop too !)

And now, Jennie has opened another amazing, original shop::

sosofabulous!

She adores vintage fabrics tremendously. And not being a sewer (although secretly I don't believe this, and think she would be a fantastic sewer) she has come up with the idea of stiffening her fantastic vintage fabrics, and making beautiful treasures with the stiff fabric-just like paper!! -Genius!!

I have stolen more photos from her shops!!

Just look at these!

Beautiful wedding favour boxes!!  ::

Amazing cupcake picks ::

Little treasure box ::

I mean can you believe that these are just made out of fabric with NO sewing?

I truly admire Jennie. She works tirelessly with absolute professionalism. Now working on three shops as well as being wife, mother, and daughter.

So, if you haven't met her, pop over to her blog and take a peek at all she does.

You too will be amazed at this lovely lady :o)

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Well, I hope you like the start of my little series. As I said, I just want to introduce you to others in the world, so they can see how amazing you are as well!

So look out B, G, J, L, V, S, G....to hint at a few, as you never know, you might be next week :D

Take care lovely people. Have a great enjoyable Fathers Day/weekend, and will speak to you next week. xx

P.s. I never knew that I knew how to steal photos, so I'm quite proud of myself at these little 'thefts' !

:D :D :D

Ta-Daah! :o)

Goodness me, over a month has gone by without any sign of a post from me!

Is anyone still there?

If you are still about -HELLOOOO!! hope you're fine and dandy, and the world is ok with you :o)

I've been a busy bee.

I've had a birthday! A lovely day was spent shopping, thrifting and crafting. I do have some thrify finds to show you, but I want to make them over first so's I can show you the before's and afters.

My son had a 15th birthday too. Goodness they grow up so fast. I'm now officially the shortest in my little family of five as well!

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Do you remember the quilt that me and my eldest were making for her Teaching Assistant?

Well, it's finished and handed over!

 

We made a label to sew on the back too. We called the quilt 'Bloom' as thats what the TA has helped our eldest do since she'd been at that school, and we used some fabric from one of my daughters old toddler dresses in the roses as well.  The lady in question cried when we gave it to her!

Oh it was so lovely to see her appreciate it. (I don't just mean cos' she cried lol)

I think Teaching Assistants are mostly amazing people and they don't get no where near enough credit for all they do either!

As you can see by the photos, we had some beautiful sunshine here during May didn't we?

Oh, I do miss it now!  I went walking in the rain last night with my two daughters, (we're getting thin n' fit :o)  and I had to wear thick clothes and my woolly hat as it was so cold - I was walking fast too!

I have lots to show you, but I'm (again!) going to try to post more regularly with smaller posts, so as this is the first of many over the next few weeks, I shall keep todays short and sweet! :o)

You take care now, and I'll speak soon.

Love Donna xx

Needlework Fiesta

Hello lovely bloggers :o)

Hope you're all well and happy?

Goodness, May already!  Where does the time go?!

Well I spent some time at the weekend visiting a local needlework fiesta. It was in Brockenhurst in the New Forest.  I took loads of pictures to share with you, and I did wish that several of you lovely ladies who read this blog were there with me!!  I just knew that you would have loved it, and appreciated it!

But anyway, I took some photos for you to share!

Gorgeous felt balls. Someone had been really busy making dozens of these things!

A most beautifully embroidered mirror.

This quilt represents the trunk of an oak tree. It measures 12 x 12". it won the quilting competition!

I did like this one better though!

A beautifully embroidered 'Fay Maxwell' cushion..

Honestly there was just so much to see, and I took dozens of photos.

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My eldest daughter had a friend round to do some cooking at the weekend too.

They made this lemon and almond cake totally between them..bless 'em...

It was delicious. (Yes Jennie, I naughtily had a tiny slice! lol)

And the quilt for my daughters Teaching assistant is still a work in progress.

The trouble is that as my daughter is the one doing the actual 'hand quilting' on it, she is also at the same time finishing off her textile art GCSE coursework. So obviously that was the priority.

But that all has to be handed in this Friday, so I'm hoping that she'll then crack on and get this quilting done.

I also have two more quilts on the go at the moment!  Talk about biting off more than you can chew!

Oh, and one thing I'm excited about is my eldest daughters prom in June. She has said all along she isn't going to go, but we had a shopping trip on Monday, and whilst there she decided to buy her prom dress!! I was so excited that she wanted to go! And her dress is really pretty. I'll show you in a few weeks.

As most of you know, she has epilepsy with seizures day and night. This means that she never ever wears dresses which I think is the reason she didn't want to go to the prom. But this dress (without ANY encouringing from me I promise!) just caught her eye, so I was just so pleased she's decided to take the plunge!

(I will be there hiding a corner of the prom room to look after her, so will make sure she is safe and covered if she has a seizure  -bless her!)

Anyway, that's it for me today.

You lovely people take it easy and don't let this grey weather get you down.

Take care everyone.

Love Donna xx