last christmas makes of 2013

Just a quick blog this,

I have enjoyed my short time in blogging, the people I have following "me" and talked to. I have taken part in 2 swaps, one needed no skill at all merely cutting but both were very stressful! Fun but stressful! I have read loads of  blogs, left loads of messages and had loads of fun emailing new friends. I have had a few people read my blog and had some lovely messages left on mine. Onward and upward for 2014. Oh, and I have won 2 competitions as well.

The big make of December was my Christmas Table Runner, already blogged about. I made mine for Lorna in Dun Laoighaire and received mine from Fiona in Dublin. Fiona's which is now proudly on my table is lovely, one I had much admired during the making. In honesty any of them would have been lovely they were all so gorgeous, but I did particularly like the little gnomes in Fiona's. I also like the bold, clear lines of her trees.

I have a good friend in work who is a non knitter (is there such a thing?) and she would really have liked a jumper to keep her wine bottle warm, so one was duly knitted for her. It is a little rough around the edges, a prototype I suppose for the next year. Anyhow she was pleased with it.

The last make was rather rushed. My father and his brothers and sisters meet once a month for afternoon tea. My dad's youngest brother was worried he would have a succession of funerals to attend and thought it would be good to keep up contact in between. I kind of gatecrash in along with another couple of cousins who are free that afternoon. Anyhow, the matriarch of the family, my much loved Auntie Eileen was 92 last Wednesday, the actual afternoon of the tea party. Eileen is quite eccentric or maybe  I mean eclectic, very unmaterialistic but loves the natural world and is quite arty even yet.  I racked my brains for a couple of days, she would not be expecting a present but at 92 it seemed right to buy her a present, but what. Eventually I hit on it, make her a cushion, when I gave her her present (made very very quickly) I realised she was expecting something home made, would have been disappointed with a shop bought gift. Just one downside - she was hoping for a blanket rather than a cushion, to keep her knees warm. The upshot is in the new year I will be making her a blanket! To match the cushion.  Would I be so great at 92. 

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year

and I am sorry Matthew you didn't get your rugby quilt for Christmas, 1sr on the list for 2014, sorry 2nd after Eileen's lap quilt.

Helen

x