PIECING IT ALL TOGETHER

PIECING IT ALL TOGETHER ...... grew from an idea during my Mum's illness.  Mum died at the end of June having been diagnosed 5 months earlier with pancreatic cancer.  For the last month she had been cared for by a wonderful team of nurses at home where she wanted to be.  It has been a very difficult time for the family and without the help of the attentive District Nurses who attended to her during the day, and the caring Marie Curie nurses at night we would not have been able to fulfil Mum's wish to stay at home and in her own bed.

Many of us know about the wonderful work the cancer charities do but I had not actually realised how they helped families of sufferers and the terminally ill.  The Macmillan nurse was always there for us as a family - answering our questions and supporting us all along the tough journey.  However the true heroines for me are the nurses of Marie Curie Cancer Care.  This charity and the 'hands on' nurses who do a fantastic job are at the top of my list.  These ladies for the last month cared for Mum (and supported Dad) each night arriving at 10.00pm and leaving at 7am the next morning.  This allowed my brother and  I time to be with our own families and to get some rest, giving us peace of mind knowing our parents were in caring, loving and safe hands.  No words can describe the gratitude we feel towards each and every one of them.

Mum was a great needle woman, and passed many of her talents down through the family.  Making Christmas party dresses and Halloween costumes when we were in school, she even made my wedding dress, lovingly and time consumingly  hand sewing on each tiny  piece of lace around the bodice and my veil.  Mum knitted cardigans and jumpers for the whole family especially when the grandchildren came along.  Latterly a lot of her time when not doing the household chores, cooking meals or in  her garden, she was to be found under the daylight lamp and magnifying glass doing cross stitch or knitting walking socks with four pins.

Now the real reason for the blog.......  I have dabbled in most needle crafts too over the years.   Dressmaking, knitting, tapestry, cross stitch and my passion for the last 5 years or so - quilting.  Most of my quilts are now donated to charitable organisations.  Project Linus for children in trauma.  Alzheimer Scotland Hampden Park  project (more later), and most recently some of my quilts have been given to help the flood victims in Alberta, Canada.

As you may have now guessed I intend making quilts to help raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care to enable the charity to continue their work caring for and helping ordinary families like ours care for their loved ones, especially those wishing to stay at home.

During the last few months I have found it very difficult to find not only the time or energy, but any inspiration to sit at my sewing machine and quilt.  Many evenings would pass and I would go to the dining room where I normally sew, I would move a few pieces of fabric around and walk back out again unable to summon any enthusiasm.  NO LONGER!!  I have an aim and my drive is back I hope.  Today I picked up my bin of scraps - this will be the  piecing it all together, the first quilt I hope of many, watch this space.

I hope to try and blog regularly about the progress I'm making,  but this is all a very new concept so please keep coming back and drop me a comment if you can spare a minute.  I might just need some encouragement along the way.