A quick update

I'm disappointed to have missed Gifted Gorgeousness this month, first one I have not done this year but life is just too confusing just now.

Jo, I'm sure everyone had lovely gifts to share, I'll pop by and read up when I can.

I only have my Temperature Quilt to show,  it's definitely getting colder.

Temperature Quilt - day

Temperature Quilt - night

As I mentioned life for us has changed however DH and I managed a few days to ourselves, one of which was in London to meet the Chief Winemaker at Cellier des Dauphins. You can read about our superb evening in my latest blog post on my wine, food and travel blog.

Cellier des Dauphins 

Sadly Nick's Mum's partner passed away last week. They had been together 22 years sharing a lovely life in their village bungalow. It's a very sad time for us all. 

Needlecraft Haven Halloween Exchange

Needlecraft Haven is such a lovely forum, we are small in number with some days only one or two posts but we have been friends online for many years. 

I had great fun hosting this year's Halloween Exchange. Everyone who signed up had to stitch an ornament for their partner and include a trick and a treat in their exchange parcel.

I received a super ornament from Justine, I love owls and this 'Hoot' is beautiful.

My beautiful ornament from Justine

My trick from Justine was a large bag of 'Sweet Heat' Skittles. Each of the five flavours had a kick of spice haha, I'm not a chilli liker so I gave the bag to our son as he was meeting his friends for their final Dungeon and Dragon game. This was a campaign they had been playing for over a year. The report back was all the sweets were nice but some were very hot, they had great fun trying them.

My trick from Justine

My treat was a real treat, Justine sent me a beautiful grey scarf with small metallic owls all over it. It's perfect with my new winter coat. There was also some lovely owl fabric which has happily been added to my stash.

Thank you Justine for my super Halloween Exchange parcel.

My super Halloween Exchange from Justine 

My partner was Astrid who live in the US, because we were going away I had to send my parcel early so Astrid had temptation for quite a while. I stitched this pumpkin design from Just Cross Stitch Halloween magazine and finished it with orange zigzag and backing of orange fabric with black witches on.

The pumpkin ornament I made for Astrid

Zigzag edging

I forgot to take a photo of the gifts before I had wrapped them; in the treat parcel I put some 'fizzy fang' sweets and mini Smarties characters.

I had great fun with the trick .... or tricks. In the UK we don't have Halloween cards so I sent Astrid a Christmas card which she thought was the only trick.....

..... I'm more devious than that. I bought a re-useable shopping bag with a  Trick or Treat design. No trick there I hear you think, and Astrid did not find it without a clue ..... I had stitched it closed !!

My third trick was a wound skein of 666 floss, the trick being as Astrid unwound it I had cut it into lengths hee hee

The Halloween Parcel I sent to Astrid

I had great fun putting this parcel together, it's always fun to do this Exchange.

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I may not be blogging for a while, or I may be blogging and reading lots. Life has thrown us into a bit of a dark time. My husband's mum's partner (they are not married but have been together 22 years) was taken into a Hospice yesterday after being in hospital for three weeks, as he has terminal cancer. Just six weeks ago he was a fully fit 86 year old. As they live in a remote bungalow and my MIL does not drive she is living with us for a while, she is 83.

Life is quite tough, the hospital he was in is a 30 mile round trip, so many many long journeys. He moved to the Hospice yesterday which is still a long journey away. I'm struggling with the current situation as it brings back sad memories of nursing my Dad who passed away seven and a half years ago and the hospice is where my first step-dad passed away when I was just 17. My MIL has had her whole life upturned as she will need to move home as their home is not suitable for her on her own. 

So I may disappear or I maybe here to keep busy, who knows what the future holds! 

Trick or Treat Blog Hop

👻 Happy Halloween 👻

Our children are grown up so there is no-one spooky dressing up, instead I have dressed up the lounge with Halloween stitching I have received in the past; ceramic pumpkins, flowers and a cushion our daughter stitched in 2006 when she was twelve. I love having all the spooky things around and will be making 'ghoul'-lash for dinner tonight.

Beautiful flowers with a bucket of sweets
ready for any spooky visitors

My ceramic pumpkin Houses which I'll be lighting later

Our Halloween mantle

Philippa's cushion

The lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching has organised another super blog hop- Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2019 

To follow the hop simply visit each blog in turn to find the letters displayed and see everyone's Halloween stitched picture. The letters will reveal a Mystery Phrase which you need to leave in a comment on Jo's post.

Here's my letter for you

The next blog you need to hop to is

http://primpair.blogspot.com

This is my stitching picture for you, it's the ornament I stitched for Christine for last year's Needlecraft Haven Halloween Exchange. It's opening day today for this year's exchange, I'll be opening my parcel soon and will blog about the gifts tomorrow.

Enjoy your spooky fun - Happy Halloween 🦇

Gifted Gorgeousness - October

A very quick check in from France to say just before we left my order from 123stitch.com arrived in the post.

How is it connected to GG, well my friend Deb in the US gifted me a certificate which I used to buy a new needle minder and a chart I'd been looking at for a while, thank you Deb.

My new needle minder 

Great design

In my September Gifted Gorgeousness post I offered the seasonal hearts chart by The Needle and I that I had previously won on Rosie's blog.

The winner is ........ Jocodine

Please email me aimetu.clare@hotmail.com so I can post it to you - congratulations.

Gifted Gorgeousness is a great idea hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching,  if you visit her blog you'll find the links to everyone's Gifted Gorgeousness posts.

September update - giveaway winner announced

I cannot believe it's the end of September and we are just three months away from 2020!

I was very slow this month stitching my Temperature Quilts as we were away but I have now completed them both to 28th. The hot weather in France is very clear on my day quilt and a warm evening on my night quilt.

Temperature Quilt - day

Temperature Quilt - night 

I have been doing some more hardanger for my church tree but not ornaments. I've found an old chart in my stash for making a hardanger angel so I decided to make one for the top of my tree.

The chart is not the easiest to follow. It's a good job hardanger is something I know how to do as I don't think it would suit a beginner. It's looking ok so far and hopefully will turn out ok.

My angel 

In my September Gifted Gorgeousness post I offered the seasonal hearts chart by The Needle and I that I had previously won on Rosie's blog.

The winner is ........ Jocodine

Please email me aimetu.clare@hotmail.com so I can post it to you - congratulations.

Next month is Halloween so my focus for a while is doing my exchange stitching for Needlecraft Haven's Halloween Exchange - always an exciting exchange, this time we have to also include a trick and a treat !

Gifted Gorgeousness - September

It's that time of month when we share gifts we have sent or received. It's hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

At the moment I am in France enjoying a birthday (it was 10th) trip. We spent my birthday in Sancerre which is my favourite wine region. You can read about it in my latest blog post on Aimetu's- wine, food and travel.

I was stunned by the beautiful Sancerre bottle my friend Sarah decorated for me, it really is a work of art.

As we were going way I opened my gifts on Sunday - thank you Julie for the lavender cream, mats and zipper pouch, all so very useful. Thank you Christine for my Michael Powell book, there are some great designs in it. 

My gifts from Julie

My book from Christine

A while back I won one of Rosey's giveaways - Seasonal Hearts. I have finally stitched them, I did change the summer design as the original was very American.

Stitched on 11count plastic canvas using half stitches.

I'm offering the chart as a giveaway to anyone else who would like to stitch these hearts - I'm happy to post anywhere. I'm sorry I do not have a photo of the chart but it is on my GG February post.  Please let me know in the comments if you would like to be entered into this giveaway.

Finally here are two coasters I stitched for our friend's daughter and husband who have just moved into their first bought home. 

Thank you for calling by, I hope you've had a good GG September- au revoir from France!

As September begins ...

We've a busy month this month, it's my birthday month and we're going to France for 12 days. My Temperature Quilt has certainly had some changes in colour due to our holidays so far. I've stitched to August 31st but September stitching maybe a little late. Here's how they look now.

Temperature Quilt  - day time 

Temperature Quilt  - night time

The latest hot days and nights are from our few days in London. This trip was my treat to put the last two years behind us. We had a super time including Afternoon Tea at The Waldorf Hotel and a evening at the theatre to see Les Mis in concert.

I've blogged about our few days in the capital on my wine, good and travel blog - Aimetu's. Here's the link to each blog post:

Afternoon Tea at the Waldorf

My London treat 

I have been working on a seasonal chart that I received as a gift from Rosey in one of her giveaways. I have one piece to do and hope to have it finished in time for GG September although I'll have to take it on holiday to finish it.

I'm also hoping to get a few more hardanger ornaments stitched for my tree, which reminds me I need to order some more perle cotton.

I love cooking for dinner parties, especially if a themed evening. Last month we held a Turkish evening for our friends who are coming to Turkey with us in October. They have not been before.

I wanted a table runner but the one I found was very expensive. By chance Hubby and I popped into a charity shop where I picked up the perfect solution .... a silk scarf, it looked amazing.

Our Turkish dinner

Turkish nibbles

Baklava, Turkish Delight 

It was a great evening, I loved making the food. We did buy bread, baklava and the Turkish Delight from a Continental store that sells food from all around the world. I'll be cooking this again as two of our friends could not make the evening and having seen the photos have asked if we'll do it for them.

To end my not very stitchy post I have some photos to share. Our daughter and her partner have just returned from a holiday in Malta. Hubby and I have said it's somewhere we would like to visit too. They had a super time, staying in three separate locations so managed to explore all the island and Gozo.

One reason for choosing this Mediterranean island was my Dad was stationed there at the end of WWII. Her partner's grandfather was also there for a short while although we are not sure where exactly.

We do know where my Dad was from his photographs. He served in the Royal Navy in the R. N. Hospital in Bighi which is on the cliffs at Valetta. We managed to find the building on Google maps, amazingly it is still there so whilst on holiday they were hoping to visit.

Not only did they find the building but our daughter managed to stand in exactly the same spot as my Dad had stood in his photo.

Dad in his Navy whites aged 19 - 1946

Philippa - 73 years later !

Dad's photo of the hospital at night

Philippa with the hospital in the background - I love this photo

I was moved to tears when I saw the photos, tears of happiness and tears of sadness. I so wish I could show him but I'm sure he was looking down with pride.

I hope your September brings flying needles, peace and tranquillity as we move into the autumnal time of year.