Stitchers' Forum
Barbara Stone
Member
Hi all, are you still recovering after Christmas and the New Year, or are you all too busy at the sales to put anything on the forum?
What happened to Brenda's pigeon? Did it end up as some cats Christmas dinner, or has it flown off and hopefully gone found its way home? We need to know Brenda, keep us up to date on these things.
Auntie Beryl
Member
I was thinking that myself . Perhaps it is only you and I that are sober !! Happy new year to every one in the C.S.G .
SallyH
Member
I was also thinking how quiet everyone one was. Had a lovely Christmas with all of my family staying over.(12 of us) then on Boxing Day I went down with a cold and cough. Now feeling much better. Keith still suffering. Happy New Year to everyone and looking forward to catching up with everyone later in the year.
Helen Hawkins-Ainsley
Member
Happy New Year to you all
Unfortunately I think some of are still in shock after being hit on the head by a nasty 4 letter word on Monday. I'd forgotten that the day has 2 6.30's.
We had a really good Christmas
I have finally done all the stitching for the Bugs & Beasts Scissor Stand - just need to make up all the pockets now
Mick has roped me in to helping him do the Subs at our local Club & now half of them think I'm on the committee!! He said last night would be easy as most of the ladies who go to ladies night would be life members & we'd only have to tick them off on the lifers sheet - how wrong was he?
Monica Langstaff
Member
Happy New Year everyone.
Monday - yes well I may be retired and normally get up at 7.30 but on Monday my grandchildren had an Inset Day and I had to get up at 6.15! As luck would have it I was able to get home by 6pm, sometimes it is 7pm - not good. However Maisie was shattered having played with their choc lab Charlie all day and so we both went to bed at 9pm. It will be half term before I know it!
brenda midgley
Member
Well! - hello there everyone!! and good New Year to all.
I've had a good Christmas - had some playtime, which was really really nice and apart from obligatory cooking I slobbed around most of the time.
Saw the final of Downton Abbey, but personally I thought there were enough 'threads' there (sorry, no pun intended) that could've fostered another six episodes at least, but there you go Julian Fellowes has had enough of writing it, so I suppose we have to be resigned to it. At least it all ended up happily - we deserved that after he ruined Christmas for ladies all over the land when he killed Matthew off on Christmas Day some years ago......
As for my pigeon Barbara, yes he/she is still around. I did though Google on Pigeon Fanciers to see what I came up with and found a Strays page, so I entered up what information I could about it. Several days later I had a reply from the Cheltenham Registry place that Carol Frewin had mentioned. They were helpful but advised that the two digit number I was able to give them bore no relationship to a Registry as that would be something like GB followed by about six numbers. It was their opinion therefore that it was a private owners own method of identification. So, for the pigeon that's as far as it goes, but he's outside every morning for his breakfast and seems fine. Magpies, Wood Pigeons et al don't seem to bother him, although he's a bit wary of the squirrels, but they are such mad little blighters and charge all round the garden like furry little rockets - enough to put the wind up anything!! I'm waiting now for my window cleaner to come. He's a mine of information on all sorts of stuff so I shall ask him if he knows of anyone local who's lost a bird. He helped me some years back when I had one of those bloody great green parrots in the garden. 'Oh', he said 'he belongs to that chap in Salander Crescent, he's always getting out, I'll tell him'. It was a clever parrot - he could whistle to ten. I know that for a fact 'cos I took him out some breakfast one morning and he whistled at me, so I whistled back. Just a short staccato type whistle, then he did it again - twice, so I did the same, then he did three, so I did the same - and we went right up to ten. Dunno if he was training me or I was training him...... Anyway he disappeared and the next time I saw the window cleaner he told me the parrot was back home again.... Isn't life delightful at times!
Carol
Member
Glad to hear that the pigeon is still around Brenda, we have our share of feral ones and this year we have been visited by a hoard of long tailed tits, usually arriving at 1pm in a group of up to 20 at a time. Really good to see as we seem to have lost the goldfinches who were regular visitors for many years. Don't know why they have gone, maybe too much competition or perhaps a neighbour has tempted them away.
As far as stitching goes I have been doing a band sampler, Secret Garden I think it is called and I am proud to say I have just done the queen stitch bit (74 in total) without any swear words being uttered. But it is official, I hate queen stitch and will NEVER do another one.
Hope everyone is well and I am looking forwarding to seeing you at Swindon in March
Barbara Stone
Member
Glad to know that the pigeon is still okay, and that everybody survived the Christmas festivities. Hsppy New Year to everybody and look forward to seeing those of you who are going at Swindon in March.
brenda midgley
Member
My God Carol - 74 Queen Stitches!! you deserve a medal for that!! I do recall Secret Garden - it's the one that in Jane's own version does have a secret - which I'm sure she won't mind me mentioning as she did tell us all at the time. Roundabout the time she was putting it together her bearded collie Charlie died and she stitched some of his fur into the sampler as a special keepsake. I thought this was a lovely thing to do, perpetuates his memory - it can be very painful for owners to lose much loved pets.
As for not swearing when you stitched 'the Queens' - oh well done on that one too! I don't mind doing Queen Stitch personally, but we all have something that we sigh over a bit and my particular 'thing' is bullion knots. I love the look of them, and like a lot of these specialised stitches, you really feel you are doing 'grown up' stitching, but I have to say I never manage to do two alike.......
With regard to your Long Tailed Tits - yes - aren't they delightful! We get them in our garden as well and Barbara too will bear out that they always seem to fly around in largeish groups, which makes it absolutely wizard when you see them fly in all together.
Jean Strange
Member
Happy New Year to everyone.
I wondered about the pigeon too Brenda glad it is still around but a pity it hasn't found its way home.
Busy time here eldest grandson started Nursery at our local school this week. It doesn't seem right dressing a three year old in school uniform and sending him for 3 hours each morning. Only good thing is it is much quieter for those few hours!!!
He is very confident and goes into Nursery with no problems.
brenda midgley
Member
Hello Jean! - oh bless him, 3 years old and confidently attending Nursery - now if my memory serves me right this is the little one whose photo you showed me some time ago and I advised you to get his mummy and daddy saving now for his University fees - he had 'that look' about him - sounds like he's already starting to prove me right.....!
Carol
Member
I did know about the secret in the heart in the Secret Garden sampler Brenda, the trouble is that I don't have any pets alive or dead. There is a dog who kindly leaves a deposit on our front lawn on a regular basis, I have never actually seen it but going by the size of the gift I imagine it is quite large so maybe I could lie in wait with a large pair of scissors, I don't suppose it would miss a bit of fur! Alternatively I do have a Shaun the Sheep hot water bottle, maybe I could trim his fleece a bit.
I agree about bullion knots another stitch to cause palpitations along with French knots and cutting threads. Maybe I am getting paranoid and allowing my hobby to frighten me. I watch scary programmes on TV through my jumper, is it possible I can do the same with my stitching.
Jean Strange
Member
Yes Brenda that's the grandson! The younger one has a look of total mischief and at 11 months is standing pulling himself up on furniture or people's legs, getting into cupboards and starting to climb the stairs!!!!!
brenda midgley
Member
Hi Carol - well, blow me, I can see that Jane's got Secret Garden featured on the 'Welcome' page now anyway and that tells the secret...... As for fleecing the Sheep, well you could do that, or how about a little bit of your hair and a little bit of the husband's hair and tie it into a lover's knot and stitch that in - you could do that bit on your wedding anniversary or something as a romantic marker.
Intrigued now about watching scary TV through your jumper and I want to know is this the bottom pulled up or the neck piece yanked up?? Hope it's not the bottom - if you have visitors they might lose track of what's on telly if the view elsewhere suddenly becomes more interesting.......
Oh Jean ! - perhaps grandson no. 2 is going to be an acrobat then!! Whatever you do, don't leave a bit of rope lying around - you might suddenly find 'Tarzan' swinging through the living room........
Carol
Member
My goodness Brenda, what an old romantic you are. I may have to get Colin to grow his hair a bit, it is difficult to tie a knot when it is only an inch or so long. Not sure I can spare much hair either. May have to think about it for our signigicant anniversary this March. Just to reassure you I do pull the neck up of my jumper, so no frontal nudity in this house. I think sometimes it is the accompanying music that starts me off, Silent Witness is a good example of this. Anyway that is just me. My grandchildren think it is hilarious to try to frighten me, and unfortunately they succeed sometimes.
brenda midgley
Member
Oh Carol, yes - the music to Silent Witness - send chills down the spine, but I think mainly it's because of the purity of the treble's voice. I try to sing along with it but I'm no soprano so top notes are beyond my reach (alto you see.)
Always so sad when these trebles reach maturity and their voice breaks - something beautiful lost for ever. I think Aled Jones is a classic case - as a treble singing Walking in the Air his voice was divine but as soon as he reached the age where his voice broke he (to my mind, but no disrespect to him) just became a run of the mill tenor. Such a shame.
With apologies to Aled (and there's me as a run of the mill alto giving my 'professional' thoughts...... how dare I!!)
Barbara Stone
Member
Brenda, you can criticise Aled as much as you like. Even as a run of the mill soprano, I can still recognise that he's lost the sparkle that he had when he was a treble. Maybe there was something to be said for the castrato after all, but the way they achieved it was a bit on the brutal side.
Carol, I'm impressed with the 74 Queen stitches. I've done the sample, and stitched some of the fur that I had from Tashacat into it, but I can't remember that amount of queen stitches. Congratulations.
We are quite lucky here, that we get large flocks of Long Tail Tits, and Goldfinches in our garden. We also get a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, which are a treat. The male is quite laid back and just eats his food, then flies away. The female however, is quite another story. She gets very territorial and won't allow another bird into the tree while she's eating - she chases all the chaffinches away, and its quite funny to see.
Anyway, I'm going to go back to my Old Fashioned Sewing set kit. Its taking me a long time for some unknown reason, but it will be nice when its finished.
Jean Strange
Member
Talking about gardens the Camellia in my garden is in flower!! The mint is sprouting as are the chives etc.
Must share this my 3 year old grandson came to me a couple of nights ago with a bowl of chocolate buttons "my buttons have shrunk " he said. The night before he had giant buttons these were ordinary size buttons. They've shrunk he insisted I'm sure a 3 year old shouldn't have this concept but it was funny to see at the time!!
brenda midgley
Member
Ha! - so - we have a 3 year old who is aware of shapes and sizes....now let me see, what options are there for this diminutive budding genius.... engineer/draughtsman/architect... and I'm sure there are other possible careers along those lines; any of which he could aspire to in time.
Me as a 3 year old? - I would've just shoved all those choccie buttons straight into my mouth - yum, yum, ...says a lot about my intelligence levels.....
The conclusion of this then Jean is - yes - the saving should definitely start for Uni fees!!
Also - a Camellia in flower. Very often they are only at the tight bud stage at this time of the year, just goes to show what the mild December did for our garden delights! Lovely to feel that Spring is so close.
Barbara Stone
Member
We've got a Magnolia tree very near us that is just starting to come into flower.. God help it tonight, cos the temperature is forecast to go down to minus 2 here in Somerset, tonight. Pity the poor flowers, they don't know whether they are on their heads or their heels. This weather is definitely abnormal.
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