A Huge Finish

Hello my friends if there are still any out there blogging.   

A few months ago I made a decision to give up stitching.  With my eyesight deteriorating and my hands beginning to quiver I was finding it too difficult and lost interest.

So the problem then was what to do with all my stitching paraphenalia.  Well I gave away some to friends, and sold a lot.  All I kept were a few things I was not ready to part with yet, and what I needed to finish off a few old projects.

This included "The Book".   Which I am pleased to say is now completed. I feel I should be throwing a party.

It has only taken me about 9 years..but the contents include pieces of work from the sample cloth at my first lesson in 1994 to the last of the 2013 Tast as well as other bits and pieces I have completed at workshops.  

I have also written a separate  diary and each page of "The Book" has its own page in the journal where I have written a little story about the embroidery  and how it came about.   "The Book" contains samples of stitches from Tast, and from other samples of stitching I have done through workshops and lessons.  There are 24 double sided pages which means 48 individual pages.

I am so thrilled to have this project finished at last.

All finished!

While all this was going on I decided to put the  Tast stitches I worked on over the last few years into a Band Sampler.   It is 4.6 metres long.   Below are just some of the sections.

All finished!

I still have another UFO to finish.  I was going to give it to a friend to cut up for collage but she said no I should finish it.  So that will be my very last lot of stitching, and it will become a wall hanging.

Than you to all my followers and friends who have been such a wonderful support over the years and given me encouragement with each of my endeavours.   I consider you as family.

I dont know whether I will get on the blog again, but you never know I might suddenly take up another hobby in my dotage.

Enjoy your day everyone

A Long Time Away

It seems to be such a long time since I posted on my blog.  Unfortunately I have been caught up by Facebook, and neglected my blog, so to all my followers please accept my apologies.  I guess it is a sign of fashion in modern technology.

The time has come I am afraid, where I have cut down a lot on embroidery to the point where I have been selling some "stuff", and giving other things away to friends.  It has become harder for me to thread needles, and every time I stab my fingers I bleed a lot which is a damn nuisance. But I need to be on blood thinners for other aspects of my health.  Still have a few things, like, laces, beads, etc, and also books to go

I have had a go at water colours and still would like to explore this.  I went through the colouring thing, but my shaky hands would not let me stay within the lines so I now have lots of expensive pencils and other colouring bits and pieces languishing on the shelf.

Somehow I dont seem to be bored though.   I do still have a few projects to finish off e.g. the latest fabric is still unfinished and my band sampler needs the last couple of strips attached.  I have given up looking in the UFO box but I know the pieces and threads to finish are there waiting for me to get a burst of energy.


Anyway, thought I would just stop by and say Hi to all my blog friends who are still here.  You have all enriched my life so much over the years, for which I will be forever grateful.  Thank you all for the love and support you have given me as well.

I am on Facebook as "Maggie McGuire" should anyone like to get in touch.

We still have serenity, but I dont visit much these days. Here are some photos from "the farm"
Till next time 
xo

At Long last I am back

I am sorry this this is not such an interesting post, so I am interspercing the paragraphs with some of my stitching for the band sampler which is growing.

Good morning to my friends (if there are any left reading this).  It has been a while, hasn't it, but yes I am still alive and kicking!  I have found Facebook where Sharon Boggon has her Tast Site this year so that is why my poor blog has been neglected lately

Health issues continue to bug me, but on the whole I am going well.

At the moment am in the process of getting rid of skin cancers as a result of all the years I have spent on the beach.  One was a melanoma, but the best kind to get and has now all gone.  I have only a small BCC to be removed from beside my nose near the corner of my eye, and every time I think of the numbing injections in that area I wince.

Anyway it is all over by the shouting now.

Because the biopsy was so close to my eye, I havent been able to wear my glasses so have not been able to stitch but will add some photos of the recent efforts.   As a result of a nasty fall recently I have also had a black eye which hasnt helped matters much.

Last week I had a visit for a much loved grandaughter and her family.  She has two children, and girl and a boy.  I managed to de-stash some of my work to her because I know she will treasure and care for the things I have given her.

 My greatgrandaughter fell in love with this bear, and also the elephant and doll, so I just had to add my first crazy patchwork cushion to the collection   

We had a lovely couple of days.  When my great grandson looked out my door and saw the park, his words were "that is the biggest back yard I have every seen".

Click on the images to see complete versions.

Tyrell (Mr T) had a great time at the park with his soccer ball.  The park is right next door to my patio and when he looked  out his words were "That is the biggest back yard I have every seen Nan" (he is 7)

While misty was here we were remeniscing about old days and I showed her photos of my navy days.  This was her favourite. I was 18.

Well that is enough for today, I hope to get back here soon.

Poor Sad Garden

While I was over at Serenity recently it nearly broke my heart to see my lovely garden as it is now so neglected.  Some of the plants have died from lack of care and water.  

Because the remaining  rose bushes were so bad I decided to cut them out as well.  One was a beautiful Red, and the other a Yellow.  The Peace rose was just a gnarled stump in the ground with a small twig so that went too.  I just didnt want to see them die lingering deaths.

The top two photos of the collage are of the rock wall garden on the left when my son first made it, and the other photo was taken from the top as it is now.  You can still see a bit of sad rosemary bush among the grass and weeds.

The bottom two photos are of the rose garden, on the left in its glory, and on the right as it is now.   Among the grass are the remains of my shasta daisies, and a cactus.

Unfortunately himself is just a stubborn old git and has decided because he failed at growing a few beans when he was a boy he does not want anything to do with looking after gardens.  r.i.p. my garden...all those years I tended to you were for nothing, but gave me pleasure.

Top left the original garden with lavenders and rosemary . Top right looking down onto this garden from the top.    Bottom Left the rose garden how it looked when I was there.  Bottom right now full of weeds and grass.

I will just finish off with some old photos of the garden flowers.

till next time  enjoy

Fabric Book and Tast

Good Afternoon, my friends.  Despite my promises to myself to blog more often, I keep getting distractions.  II only hope that I still have some friends out there in Blogland.  I have only gone missing temporarily.

I dont know if anyone remembers the butterfly cushion I was working on eons ago, but I finally made it into a cushion cover...

 At long last the pages for my fabric book are being stitched together.  I finished all the individual pages and stitched them back to back.  Now I feel I am on the home run.  I thought if I did one page a day it would not take me long to get them together, but there have been other distractions.  I was going to stitch the pages together with herringbone stitch but my shaky hands will not allow me to slide the needle along the inside of the seam so I resorted to an easier way, which although not as tidy will work ok and will be covered up when the front cover goes on.  I have started by attaching the pages to the back cover which is made from the purple/blue fabric, and this is continued to cover the spine.

sewing the pages together

this is the pile of pages ready to stitch together

In 2013I started on a band sampler for something to do.  Nothing as efficient or wonderful as Sharon's, but just random stitching to keep my hand in to remembering the stitches.   I have joined the new Tast challenge for this year, and this sampler will be perfect to add the new stitches to.  Here are some photos of what I had done so far.

I have even taught myself to do a reasonable long and short stitch

While I was at Nanango I had a lovely coffee, chat and stitching morning with my friend and neighbour Julie.  She is working on a white on white schwalm cushion cover and this is when I started sewing the pages together.  I get more done when I have company.

Till next time enjoy your day wherever you are.

It's Been a While

It has been a while since I have been able to post photos.   My son and his wife have now settled into a house in Surrey in  the UK, and are thoroughly enjoying it.

This is the back yard of the house they are living in since moving to the UK.  It is in Surrey and the pups are having a lot of fun in the lovely garden, and intrigued by all the new types of wildlife.

This is the front of the house.

They were feeling the cold when they arrived

Since I last posted I have had my operation for the hernia, and also more heart troubles. Think the poor old ticker is getting a bit tired.  Last Thursday week I was admitted with heart failure.  An xray showed and enlarged heart and fluid , which was caused by the specialists in Brisbane changing my medications in February and taking me off the bloodpressure/fluid tablets and reducing the bloodpressure one to half the strength.

 I had been to the doctor with a choking cough and gasping for  breath, weight gain, and high blood pressure........only to be told it was a cold night, that I had asthma, and my BP monitor was faulty I couldnt possible have readings so high 170-180...when hers only read 166/whatever.

Anyway I insisted on something else being done, and she sent me for xray and a nuclear imaging test for clots in the lungs.   She was in a panic when I phoned her for the results, and told me to be careful and come back in the morning when she would contact the cardiologist because I had heart failure...........hello?  .......I wonder why she did not ring the specialist when she received the results to have me admitted to the cardiac ward......

I want to change doctors, but would I get anything different.

I must be a pretty tough old girl though because I have come through all this.......a lot weaker and more breathless, but alive.

 Does anyone remember the gum tree in the park next door behind number 3 unit at the back of where I live now.   It dropped heaps and heaps of leaves on the patios and did the same here.  I was forever raking up leaves and twigs, and could not walk outside for gumnuts sticking in my feet if I was barefoot.

Here is a photo of when a branch dropped onto the roof and the fence during one of the storms.

Well guess what!!!!   It has GONE!!!!!!  Evidently the council got tired of the complaints about the damage to the units with blocked up gutters.  To say nothing of the cost to the owners and their insurance.......
Yippee here it is now....

No more rotten leaves and blocked drains and gutters....wonderful.....happy face.

I cant understand why anyone would plant gums anywhere near buildings anyway.  So hope this does not upset  the greenies.....it was damn dangerous  and finally someone saw some sense.

Since I came home from hospital last week I am feeling better, but still having trouble breathing.  Thankfully Blue Care come and do my vacuuming and mopping for me and himself took me to do a stock up shop before he left.  

My new desktop is chugging along nicely and I have so much more space on my desk.  I have had all my files transferred over now, so have access to them.  My young tech Anthony did a wonderful job, and I learned so much from him......it is good to have everything working again.

For now I am just resting and doing a minimum of things.  Cant walk to the shops on my own  yet, because of the breathlessness,  but that will come.

The good news is that as I lose the extra fluid I also lose weight....am down to 64.5 kg from 68.5 kg when I went to hospital.

Bye for now, thanks for visiting and listening to all my health problems once more.  I will try to behave in future.

Long time with no post

Good morning everyone, it is quite a while since I posted because my everyday life took over.  I have had a lovely holiday and since my last post been in hospital 3 times.  So my time has been ruled by other things since before xmas.

My son has given me a new computer, which he has not had time to finish configuring.  He still has to transfer the files from my old computer to the new one.  The main thing is I have the basics for now.

He and his wife and the pups have today flown out of Australia to move to the UK, so it is a very sad day for me.  With what has been happening to my health issues, my plans to move there with them  are on a total back burner.  I am going to miss them so much.

As far as the computer is concerned he has put skype on, and a programme so he can remotely finish adding my files over to the new computer.

I am also waiting for my photos and the programme I use to come over to the new computer as well, so there are no photos with this post...... Sorry.

With my health issues, my heart just about gave way a few weeks ago, and I was lucky to survive.  While at the Gold Coast I had to go to hospital with what I had been told was diverticulitis, which meant an overnight stay and antibiotics.  It was the 3rd time I had had the same problem with excrutiating pain in my hip.  Then a couple of weeks ago it happened again, and it seems that there is no sign of diverticulitus, but the problem is bursitus, and also 2 hernias.

After 2 weeks I am still not pain free, and have an appointment on the 15th April with a surgeon to decide what to do.......so will keep you all posted.

Anyway folks, I am sorry for the lack of communication.  I am now on facebook if anyone wants to friend me......under the name Shirley Margaret.   (I didnt like to put my full name to keep it more private).   My icon is a vase of white lillies, and my header is a picture of yellow daisies.

Better go, and hopefully will have less boring things to blog about in the near future.

Hope all is well with my wonderful friends.