Comfort teddies

My mam used to love making things for charity: Quilts for families made homeless and heart shaped pillows for ladies diagnosed with breast cancer (the pillows tuck underneath the arm to give pain relief) were two of her favourites.

One of her quilting friends mentioned that she had started knitting little comfort teddies for children suffering from trauma. As the charity was in need of more teddies my mam dusted off her knitting needles and set to work.

When my mam died in March she left some quilts and teddies that needed completing. So instead of melting from hand sewing one of her quilts I decided this week to do something a little cooler. I finished knitting the teddies.

There's enough wool left to make a couple more so they may be getting some new friends soon.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Feeling hot, hot, hot !!!

If it hadn't been hot enough last week. Who had the bright idea to have a quilt on their lap and start hand stitching it?

The answer. Me !!!!!!

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

A lovely Wizz out

Seeing as it was a beautiful day yesterday Mr Gertie suggested we took a stroll in Wizzy* down to the seafront. I jumped (figuratively, not actually....) at the chance as ever since I became hipless four years ago, I've been pretty much housebound.  

There are two beaches here in Sunderland, Roker and Seaburn. During the Victorian times Roker was a huge tourist destination whilst Seaburn had yet to be developed so was just beach and fields. Today Seaburn is the more popular of the two.

Both beaches are next to each other and as we live pretty much in the middle it's easy to get to either of them.Yesterday we decided to give Roker a visit.

One of the nicest ways to get there is by going through Roker Park. It's set in over 35 acres and has everything from tennis courts, bowling greens, a miniature railway to a two acre boating lake.

The end of the park brings you straight to the sea front.....

where they even have their very own version of Baywatch.....

Last week was the first time I'd been left 'home alone' following my hip op as Mr Gertie went back to work. I'm pleased to say that everything well and I remembered to behave myself and do as I was told (so unlike me !!!!!!).

To keep myself myself amused on the sewing front I made a start on a little boy's quilt that my Mam had been planning to hand quilt. Sadly there's not much to show you at the moment.

Why not though pop over to Wendy's blog Handmade Monday to see what other crafters have been up to.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

* For those of you who don't know Wizzy is the name of my wheelchair.

Worth the wait

I'm a huge Wimbledon fan and have been since I was child. I was one of those whose kids who would hit a ball against a wall and pretend I was competing in the Women's final on Centre Court. Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova would try their best but would never take the title.

During Wimbledon fortnight normal life would be put on hold. Everything had to be done before the TV coverage started at 11.30am and meals would always be quick and easy so not to miss too much of the action stuck in the kitchen.

Shortly after I came home from London I decided to make a thank you card for the staff at the King Edward hospital. Whilst I could have simply bought a card I thought it would mean more if I made it myself (somehow I don't think they would get many handmade cards.....).

Under the supervision of Mr Gertie I went into my workroom and gathered together everything I needed to make the cross stitch card.

Normally a card like this wouldn't take very long to do. However because of the tennis it took me the whole two weeks !!!! I'd like to think it was worth the wait (and worth the wait for a British winner. Well done Andy).

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Bake of the month

Bake of the month is taking a break for a few months while I recover from my hip op.

Hopefully I'll be back baking fit very soon xx

A bit of this and a bit of that

Now I've been home from hospital for just over a week I'm slowly beginning to find my feet (sorry couldn't resist !!!).

The words 'do as you're told' and 'take it easy' are still ringing in my ears. I joked with Jennifer, one of the senior staff nurses at the hospital, that whilst I was down in London and Mr Gertie was at work, they had secretly installed video cameras in all of our rooms at home. Should I misbehave then a voice would boom down and tell me off !!!!!

Mr Gertie brought down from the loft the old kitchen table so I've been able to make myself a little den right next to the sofa. The phone, all my reading material, my laptop, my sewing, are well within safe reaching distance.

Close by are a couple of bags (all handmade of course.....) containing various other projects - another cable knit jumper, a cable knit blanket and the knitted trauma teddies and quilts originally started by my Mam that I'm finishing off.

I had hoped to show you what I've been up to this week but with it been Wimbledon fortnight, all I've done is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Hopefully I'll have something to show you next week.

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Four long months

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on last weeks blog (and also over at my other blog the BOGOF blog).

I really enjoyed reading what everyone had been up to over at Handmade Monday and tried to comment on as many as I could.

Knitnrun4sanity - thanks ever so much for the award you gave me. It was such a surprise. I tried several times to leave comments on your blog but for some reason the hospitals wi-fi wouldn't let me.

I can now though because I'm back home !!!!! Originally the Prof had estimated that I'd be in for about two weeks. However I made such good progress that he was happy for me to go home yesterday.

Normally when a patient has a hip replacement they're pretty much immobile for six weeks (for fear of dislocating the new joint). In my case it's going to be at least four months as the Prof wants to make sure that everything is completely healed before I'm allowed to put any weight on my leg.

Thankfully I have more than enough to keep me occupied: plenty of knitting, hand quilting, needlepoint, cross stitching, reading. I will miss my sewing - I'm banned from my workroom - but it'll be nice to do other things instead.

One of which is a tiger cub I'm cross stitching. Here's what it'll look like when it's finished.

This is where I'm up to at the moment

Have a great week.

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.