Grow your blog party.

Hi today I am linking up with Vicki at 2 bags full for her Grow your Blog party. The idea is to introduce ourselves and tell you about our blog. 

My name is Lyndsey and I teach nursing students and graduates at a university in London UK. I have been married to my lovely husband John for 30 years this year and we have 3 grown up children, 1 son and 2 daughters.

I have been interested in needle crafts for as long as I can remember. My mother was an excellent needlewoman and tried to pass on her skills to me. She also taught me to look at how things are made and to experiment which has proved a great help when the pattern makes no sense or is wrong.

Me and my mom when I was 7 years old

When my children were small I spent hours making their clothes and I had great fun embellishing items with embroidery. Unfortunately as they grew up and my work got busier I had less time to spend on my hobby and by July 2011 I was doing very little sewing.

That July Anne moved from Chester to London and was looking for a Guide unit to work with. She came to visit my group and has stayed ever since. The first night I met her she told me about her quilting and I started to feel I had been missing out on something that I really loved doing. That October I visited the Stitching and Knitting Exhibition at Alexandra Palace London and had a great time looking at all the cute fabrics, the amazing knitting yarns and all the accessories that goes with sewing. John seeing my excitement bought me a quilt kit.

I'd love to be able to tell you I rushed home and started it at once but I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to cut into the gorgeous fabrics in case I cut them wrong. So my lovely kit sat in a drawer and I got it out and stroked the fabric regularly.

Help was again at hand in the shape of Anne. The Guides wanted to do something to help the local community and Anne told them about project Linus. Her previous Guide unit had made prem baby quilts and had really enjoyed the experience. The girls in my unit loved the idea and Jacqui the local rep came to visit and show them some photos of the quilts that had been donated.

Soon our weekly meetings were a hive of activity. All the girls had to make a quilt but they could make more than one if they wanted to. As I like knitting I said I would knit up as many baby blankets as I could. 

I managed to knit 15 blankets in total. The Rainbows, Brownies and Guides also did very well making their quilts.

By now I was enjoying myself immensly and wondering why I had ever stopped sewing. I was sitting with my son one day whilst he was watching a podcast and catching up on reading a couple of blogs. For fun I googled quilting blogs and found a lot of lovely ladies sharing their joy of quilting. By the end of the evening  I had set up my blog and written my first post....oh that was scary. That was in April 2012  and since then I have had such fun and met lots of like minded people who I count as friends. I have taken part in;

1. Pets on quilts show

Picasso decided that the quilt sandwich just wasn't right.

Scamp needed to check on the cuddle factor of this quilt. It passed with flying colours.

2. Quilting Gallery's Friendship embroidery mini quilt swap.

My quilt went to Australia and I received a quilt from Kim in Texas

3 Another Little Quilt Swap 7 

My quilt went to Jan in New Zealand and I received a quilt from Scarlett in Chile.

4 Several blog hops organised by Madam Samm.

Wicked

Holiday Lane

In your own words.

Since starting my blog I have managed to make a number of quilts and other items, complete several knitting projects and almost finish my cross stitch sampler. I haven't quite managed to get back to doing my bobbin lacemaking but that will come with time. It has been a great year thanks to everyone who visits and leaves such kind, helpful and encouraging comments. To those of you who follow this blog a very warm thank you for your support. If you are visiting for the first time thank you for stopping by and it would be lovely to have you visit again. 

I have a give away for you, a FQ of Batik.

Give away now closed

I will mail this to anywhere in the world and all you have to do to win is leave me a comment.

You don't need to become a follower to take part but if you do it would be great. The give away will close at midnight on 1st February (Greenwich Mean Time) I'm not good at all the different time zones but I know we are 5 hours ahead of EST. Please make sure I have a means of contacting you in case you win.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll visit again.