Lots of things going on

Wow I didn't realise it had been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a post. I'm not sure where the time has gone but it has simply flown by. I've had the chance to do some sewing in that time, taken a long walk and been away over the weekends. First a quick update on my radiotherapy that I started on 21st October. Today was my last treatment and it has gone very well. I was warned I would be tired partly due to the treatment and partly to travelling to and from the treatment centre. Probably because I've worked all the way through my various treatments, and work involves quite a bit of driving, I haven't been any more tired than usual. Staying still in one position during the treatment is tiring and sometimes quite difficult. Yesterday morning I developed an itch on my nose but couldn't scratch it until it was all done. I so wanted to move but that would have added time to the whole thing. Anyway all completed and now moving on to regular checks to make sure I don't get a recurrence or develop it in my other breast. All the scans before I started treatment back in February showed it hadn't spread anywhere else in my body so it should all be good. Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support through this year, it helped me stay positive through the experience.

I decided that I needed to catch up on some mending, not my favourite job. I had several buttons to sew back onto some shirts and a trouser hem that had come undone. There was also the Rainbow bear. This is our unit mascot and she gets a lot of love and hugs but also gets thrown around and one of her seams had developed a hole.

This doesn't look a very large hole but when I looked at some of her other seams there were several more holes.  She had lost a lot of the beads that helped her to sit up but fortunately we had gathered these up and I was able to put them back. A little while later she was her usual happy self and ready to go back to the Rainbow unit.

This was the fun bit of my mending.

I made my quilt sandwich for my mariners compass quilt. This quilt finishes at 80 x 80 inches, so not massive but still big enough to be a problem to handle. I decided it would be easier to do on the floor but that was decidedly uncomfortable on the knees so I switched to the table.  John gave me a hand and in the end we had it pin basted in record time.  We folded it neatly ready for me to start quilting next week.

The oval shape of the table makes the job more difficult than it needs to be but I love this dinning table. I'm really looking forward to starting the quilting.

I also did a little conservation work on a small framed embroidery. It had got very dirty last year when we had some work done on the house. I'd put it away to sort out some time in the future but hadn't got round to it. Last week seemed like a perfect time to clean it up.

The embroidery itself measures 2¼ by 3 inches and is done over one thread on the even weave fabric using a single strand .of embroidery floss. It took some time to get the dirty marks out of the fabric and then I needed to repair a few stitches where it had been damaged. My eye sight was much better when I stitched this way back in the good old dark ages of 1980 and now I was very grateful for my magnifying light.

The fabric that has been exposed to the light still looks a little yellow but it's a lot better than it was. Now all I have to do is re-stretch it over the mounting board and put it back in the frame.

I've also spent some time knitting but I haven't taken a photo as there isn't much progress to show you. I need to get John's jumper finished as we move towards winter. Once I've done that I need to knit another Christmas stocking so Olly has one this year. I didn't finish Abigail last month and haven't looked to see who the bag lady for this month is, I really must do that tomorrow. I was away for the last two weekends and on both occasions I took my camp blanket with me to sew on more badges. I still have a huge number to add.

I got my machine out to make a Christmas present but I can't show it here as the intended recipient reads the blog. I can't even show you the fabric as they'll guess it's meant for them, so those pictures will have to wait. I'm starting to get a little excited about Christmas and it's still early November. One of our neighbours put their decorations up on November 1st and on our walk on Tuesday we saw another home owner who loves Christmas.

It's a shame it wasn't darker as we walked past.

Tomorrow I'll show you the photos from our walk but It's bedtime and it's been a long day and quite emotional with finishing my treatments so I need some sleep. Tomorrow is also my chance to catch up on reading the blogs I follow. I'm really looking  forward to that as I miss finding out what you've all been doing.

Lyndsey