Getting back to normal

It's been two months since I last wrote a post. Unfortunately my brother was taken ill with breathing and other problems and so we went rushing off to be with him. He was in hospital for quite a while but was back home in early March and has slowly been getting back to full strength. I took two weeks out to be with him but of course once you get back home you have to sort out the chaos that your absence created. 

We'd been back a day when we realised that Picasso wasn't walking properly and was having a lot of difficulty getting up onto the back of my chair which is his favourite place to sleep. That sent the family into another meltdown. Picasso is an older cat. We've had him 15 years and the vet thought he was a year old when we rescued him but he could have been older. He had an emergency trip to the vet, a full physical check and some bloods taken. Our vet felt it was arthritis in his back leg where he had a previous injury but it could also be problems with his spine. He had also lost some weight but not enough to worry the vet. He's now on daily anti inflammatory medication and is walking better. He can climb up to his favourite spots again and has regained his usual healthy appetite and I think he's put on weight. He was always a very active cat but he is now behaving in a more appropriate way for a cat of his age which includes not climbing onto the roof of our neighbour's house.

No sooner had we got Picasso sorted out than older daughter had a meltdown. She has been harassed and bullied at work by senior staff and couldn't deal with it any longer. She is now off sick,has put in her notice and is gradually putting her self confidence and life back together. So now in the middle of April we are back to a point where all family members whether human or pets are well or progressing back to health and life can get back to some semblance of normality.

Since the middle of February I hadn't done any sewing, not even hand stitching. I forgot to pack any stitching when I went to be with my brother. Instead I've done quite a bit of reading.  On Saturday John, Richard and I travelled to Derbyshire for a planned holiday and that evening I took out some hand stitching. A while back Barbara from Cat Patches showed a picture of a new hand stitching project. The design is by Lynette Anderson and I spent ages browsing the website.

I bought the rabbit pattern and decided to print it onto my last sheet of Fabric Solvy. I used this when stitching my 'It's a dog's life' quilt and it worked very well, soaking away once I'd finished my stitching. The last sheet went into my printer but managed to slip to one side but fortunately I didn't lose any of the design except the border on one side.The adhesive backing had lost its sticky so I stitched round the inner border to hold it onto my fabric

I like the pattern as it uses several different embroidery stitches which makes the piece more interesting to stitch. I also ordered the carrot and the snail buttons which will finish off the piece.

On  the Friday evening before we left home I spent time cutting up some of my scraps. I have quite a lot of scraps and they needed to be sorted so I can use them in a quilt. The whole process feels like it's going to be very tedious but the ironing and cutting for this pile was soon completed. It left me with a pile of two and a half inch squares and one and a half inch squares plus some strings. Any scraps smaller than one and half inch squares were thrown away.

When we get home I'll start on the next box of scraps. My little subscription box also arrived on Friday. The box always comes with a pattern or two as suggestions of what to make. I don't very often follow the suggestions but this month I think I might make the red work cushion for a friends birthday.

It's now 9 :30 p.m.and I'm going to stop writing and pick up my knitting for an hour. We're going to sit and watch a film, not sure which film as John and Richard have chosen it. Scamp is curled up next to me as the walking has completely worn him out. I'll tell you about our holiday in my next post.

Lyndsey