Hi from the UK

[SharonK]

Hi, I am Sharon from the UK. Today I stumbled across this website and purchased my first designs. I haven't stitched them out yet but if they are anything as good as the pictures of them I will be thrilled. I have had my Brother Innovis sewing machine for just over a year and am definately still on a learning curve. I can embroider with it easily but I have so many tools with the machine that I haven't even unwrapped yet!! I am a keen scrapbooker and love my embroidery machine, that I hope to incorporate into my scrapbooking by making my own embellishments. I am never happier than when I am embroidering on paper. I hope to be a regular poster here and enjoy this new forum that I have stumbled across. I look forward to meeting you all:D

[Sew So Happy]

Welcome Sharon! You will love it here. The Simply Stitches designs would be awesome for your embroidery on paper. We are always looking for new ideas!:)

[fun2sew]

Hi Sharon, Glad you found us!
I am happy you bought some designs and hope you can try them out, have fun looking for all the FREE designs Jami has to offer, oh and when you get a project done... we would love to see it! Even try entering the Monthly Contest to win Store Credit for more of these awesome designs!
again... Welcome!
Dawn

[StitchinGrandma]

Welcome Sharon! You'll surely be totally hooked on this site now that you've found it. Glad to see you joining our group here. Can't wait to see what you do with the designs. Which designs did you already buy today? I know it's very hard to pick just one design or just one set.

[Jami Johnson]

Just wanted to add my welcome, Sharon. It's great to have someone from the UK here. I have to ask...what is the latest with Susan Boyle? I guess I could dig around on the internet and find out, but it's always easier to hear it from someone who lives in the same country. ;)

[SharonK]

Hi everybody and thank you for your kind welcome. I purchased the fancy pants flower border and frame. I will add to this set every so often as finances allow, I think it is absolutely amazing. I can see me visiting here often. I am eager to give the designs a trial run but have been so busy decorating my kitchen yesterday and today whilst the kids are at school and dh away fishing for the week, that i haven't had the chance to try them yet.

Susan Boyle, last I heard Opera Winfrey had offered her a recording contract or something. I'm afraid i don't buy a newspaper very often:o and my kids hoard the tv playing xbox and ps3:( so I don't get to see the news very often either!! I read the papers a few days late when somebody gives me a pile to line my chicken house with after I have cleaned them out:D You can just picture it actually, can't you, me sat there with a black bag of straw and chicken poo, rubber gloves on, chickens all around me and me reading days old papers:D

[Juli]

You can just picture it actually, can't you, me sat there with a black bag of straw and chicken poo, rubber gloves on, chickens all around me and me reading days old papers:D

HAHAHA! This made me laugh! Welcome to the board! Jami's designs are wonderful and you won't be disappointed!

[SharonK]

I made me laugh too actually when I posted it:D It makes me sound a bit eccentric but I'm not honest:p Just love my chooks, I have eight, they are all rescued battery hens, bless them they are lovely. I'm thinking of embroidering the flower border onto acetate to make an overlay for a scrapbook page..hmm wonder if this would work. Good job I just brought two new packs of needles for my machine just in case it doesn't work out:rolleyes:

[idesign]

Just read your post, and had a Wallace and Grommet picture of you and your chickens all reading the paper together in my mind. Made me laugh!

Carol

[SharonK]

Well, I had a wallace and grommit moment yesterday thatsfor sure!! I was in the middle of painting my kitchen and was getting really fed up with trying to voer the awful blue that the previous owners painted the kitchen with to white. As you can imagine it has taken alot of coats of white to cover it. Whilst on one of my moments of despait I decided to go and check the hens for eggs. Wel, we use a sheet of wood to cover the entrance to the garden from the hens free range area and as I stepped over it one of my feet caught the wood and I fell very, very heavily on my right knee. It hurt so much and I couldn't get up for about 5 minutes, I just laid there and cried:o When I finally got myself up and hobbled back indoors where I sat crying for about 30 minutes with the pain, I notcied my knee was swelling fast. Today it is still hurting alot but I am swollen and bruised but I think i will live:p Needless to say I now have a kitchen half finished and I still haven't had a chance to try out my newly urchasd embroidery designs:mad:

[Granny313]

I am so sorry about your accident. Please make sure that you did not break something. I have fell like that before and laid there just like you did and cried. Put some ice on it to help the swelling. STAY OFF OF IT and don't get too smart too soon!!!!! Get well soon!

[StitchinGrandma]

OUCH Sharon! That makes me just cringe thinking of that fall onto your knee. I hope that it is feeling a bit better by now. I also hope you were able to get to see the doctor about the knee. You don't want anything bad to happen from a fall like that which affects the rest of your life. Living with knee pain the rest of your life is something not to be wished on anyone. I know this all too well as I do this daily myself.

[SharonK]

Hi, thank you for your kind words. My knee is almost better now, just a bit painful walking up and down stairs, but okay to walk on flat surfaces. The wood we used is now gone and we have a trellis gate to stop the chickens venturing out into the garden:D My husband helped me finish the painting off when he came back from fishing unexpectedly on the day I hurt my knee:rolleyes: I lost a chicken on Tuesday, she just disapeared never to be seen again:eek: I also have a poorly hen that is going to the vet tomorrow, aoart from that...life is great:D but still haven't had a chance to try the design out. I have a problem with my machine. I have been using it today and I can't get the auto threader to work:confused: The machine is sewing great but as you can imagine, trying to thread a needle for all the colour changes is getting a bit tiresome!! I am sure i have installed the needle correctly, I have changed loads of needles over the time I have owned the machine but still cannot get it to thread the needle. I think i will have a browse on the Brother site and see if I can shed any light onto the problem.

[Granny313]

I am glad you are feeling a little better. Hearing you talk about your chickens makes me form all these visions in my head! Good visions at that - it all seems so country and laid back. I am envious......
I understand about threading the needle on each color change - it does get a little tiring....but for those of us that don't have multi-needle machines that's just a way of life when we embroider! Hope you find your chicken!!!!

[SharonK]

Perhaps I am not telling it as it is with the hens:D Lots and lots of poo picking:eek: I am afraid we don't live in the country, how I wish we did. Country life is very expensive in the UK. We live 1 mile from the sea which I love, although I would never swim in the English Channel it is far too cold:eek: I have wanted to keep chickens for ages, so when I looked into it and found that you could adopt battery hens...this was it for me. They are in such a bad condition you just wouldn't believe it, it is a terrible business battery farming:mad: Anyway I will climb down off my soap box now:D

I didn't realise there were embroidery machines without the auto threader:confused: I thought it was something they all had.

[katiedoodles]

Sharon,

Any time that I could not get my auto-threader to work properly, it was because I did not have the needle in all the way. The machine would still stitch items out beautifully, but the needle needed to be higher in the shaft (probably less than 1/16 if an inch). Hope you knee is healing well:)

[Lisaa]

Hi Sharon!

My husband is from the UK, too. :D I'm glad you've joined the board - it's full of lots of great information and wonderful ladies!

Lisa

[SharonK]

Granny313 I just re-readyour post and realised I totally misunderstood what you wrote, sorry. You were referringto machines that had more than one needle? I have never seen one of these but I am just about to google them as my mind is boggling!! I did say I was a total novice at this embroidery stuff:D

Lisaa, where abouts is your husband from in the UK? I was born in Winchester in Hampshire but now live in Hastings which is in East Sussex just a mile from the sea:cool:

[Lisaa]

Granny313 I just re-readyour post and realised I totally misunderstood what you wrote, sorry. You were referringto machines that had more than one needle? I have never seen one of these but I am just about to google them as my mind is boggling!! I did say I was a total novice at this embroidery stuff:D

Lisaa, where abouts is your husband from in the UK? I was born in Winchester in Hampshire but now live in Hastings which is in East Sussex just a mile from the sea:cool:

He's from Ashtead, Surrey. I haven't been to England for few years since we're raising our small children in the U.S. and I don't relish the thought of traveling on a plane for many hours with little ones, but my husband is taking our six year old over this summer. My son is so excited! He's been twice as a baby but this will be his first "real" trip there. My in-laws are in England and visit us at least once a year and they bring us a stock of PG Tips, Cadbury Buttons, Bird's Custard, etc. :D

[SharonK]

I've never heard of Ashtead but my husband comes from Surrey too:D He was born in Guildford but brought up in Farnacombe. I personally don't know Surrey at all as it is a place for some reason I have only been to a few times in my life:confused: The only times I did go there it was with my husband and he showed me where he used to live and go to school etc etc.

Does your husband get homesick? I know alot of Americans go mad on some of the food suplies we can get over here...Cadburys always at the top of the list:D Marmite is too normally, do your kids like this? I have one that eats it every single day in his sandwiches and one that absolutely hates the sruff. Me I love it. Birds custard, yum really creamy that is, in our house that is the favourite brand also. PG Tips....well I am drinking a cup of it now lol

[Lisaa]

LOL, I'm drinking a cup of PG Tips, too! Yes, my husband definitely gets homesick, the poor guy. My kids have never tried Marmite since I don't care for it.

[StitchinGrandma]

:eek: PG Tips? This is very confusing for my brain considering to me "PG" means pregnancy. :D

[Lisaa]

It's a brand of tea, Vicki! Just about everyone in the UK drinks it, right, Sharon?! And the Brits that live in American pay through the nose for it since nothing here compares.

[StitchinGrandma]

OH I know but I still had to tease you guys. :p

[SharonK]

:D Are Oxo cubes on your list you get brought over too Lisaa? I can't imagine life without Oxo cubes, especially the vegetable ones.

[Jami Johnson]

Needless to say, I haven't been following this thread super close and I came in to check on things before hitting the sack. I clicked on the post to see what was new and it immediately took me to Susan's post about oxo cubes. Huh? What? For a split second I wasn't sure I was even on the right message board. I had to double check the web address. Too funny. I love reading about all the good things from the UK. I personally haven't heard of any of them, but sure sounds like I need to ask my neighbor about them...he's from England and would probably enjoy talking about it. :)

Lisaa, I didn't know your dh was from there as well. That's cool. I got all excited to hear that your little guy gets to go visit this summer. Lucky duck!

[Lisaa]

Yes, Jamie, my dh is British. His name is Simon (doesn't get much more British than that, lol!) He has a great accent and a wonderful sense of humor!!

Sharon, we do get Oxo cubes. And Bovril. I LOVE Bovril - Simon makes the best gravy in America with it! He'll come home this summer loaded up with English groceries. And maybe a couple of pieces of Portmeirion for my collection if I'm lucky!

[Granny313]

Needless to say, I haven't been following this thread super close and I came in to check on things before hitting the sack. I clicked on the post to see what was new and it immediately took me to Susan's post about oxo cubes. Huh? What? For a split second I wasn't sure I was even on the right message board. I had to double check the web address. Too funny. I love reading about all the good things from the UK. I personally haven't heard of any of them, but sure sounds like I need to ask my neighbor about them...he's from England and would probably enjoy talking about it. :)

Lisaa, I didn't know your dh was from there as well. That's cool. I got all excited to hear that your little guy gets to go visit this summer. Lucky duck!

:confused: I am glad that someone else had no idea what they were talking about!(LOL) PG also stands out in my mind as pregnant and Oxo cubes sounds like OxiClean deetergent.(LOL) You can tell that I have never traveled very far or that I didn't pay that much attention in school!! Hope you both are very healthy!:D

[SharonK]

Whoops sorry ladies, I should explain that Oxo are stock cubes we use to add to gravy granuals:) Talking of abbreviations I can never make out where you all live as you just put two letters:confused: I'm aware of NY and PA and VA but haven't a clue where some of you live. I have visited Pittsburgh in PA and have relatives in Springfield VA although I have never visited them in VA. I went to Pittsburgh to stay with a Great Aunt in April 1982 and it didn't stop snowing the whole time. It was the biggest snowflakes I had ever seen:eek: I stitched out my first design from the site yesterday it is gorgeous. This one is simply going to be framed for my kitchen. It is the Fancy pants flower border. I tried it on card as I was hoping to use it for scrapbooking but the stitches are too dense for any kind of paper, Looks amazing on white felt though:biggrin:

[StitchinGrandma]

I lost a post to this thread a few days ago so I thought I'd repost now. We used to be able to buy OXO cubes here years ago. I can remember my Mom having them in her kitchen.

I can't say that I buy any cubes at all any longer however since I took a cooking class a number of years ago and that woman sold a wonderful stock product and told us how to choose the right kind to produce a better flavor in your cooking. The first ingredient in the product is the key because the majority of them will have some type of flour or most likely, salt as the first ingredient. She said with stock/broth products you want the first ingredient to be the product you are buying such as, beef, chicken, pork, etc. Sadly, I can't buy from her anymore but I found a very similar product at Penzey's Spices and SO much more from that store. I haven't bought anything since because this stuff is awesome. This is what I buy now (http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyssoupbase.html) and yes, it's expensive but that's because the meat is the first ingredient. I love that I can buy ham and pork soup base now because you can't buy that as a boullion cube here. We buy a lot of their spices and mixes and can't eat tacos made with anything now except their taco mix. :D

Anyway, I don't know why we can't buy OXO brand here now unless once the Campbell's company bought that company they decided to focus overseas more since there is already a popular cube product being sold here in the US.

[Granny313]

Thanks Vicki - you gave me a little education there!!!!!(LOL) I will definitely have to try your products.

and Sharon - GA stands for Georgia - you know way down South!!!!Where the red necks and hillbillies are!(LOL)

[SharonK]

That is interesting about the stock cube ingredients. I don't have a box handy as I tip mine into an oxo cube tin that I got from oxo years ago (limited edition I might add:D)but without a doubt I would say the first ingredient would be salt. They all have a salty taste to them. Because I hate cooking I find it a massive chore LOL, I tend do go for whatever is easiest much to the disgust of my family! They all love my omelettes though made with our own hens eggs:D I have the knack for making them rise to be huge!!! Probably the only thing connected with cooking that I can blow my own trumpet for!!

Georgia....does that mean you talk with that real drawl type accent? The strangest US accent (to me) I ever heard was years ago in a film, Sondra somebody, I think she was married to Clint Eastwood if I remember rightly. I live way down south too in the UK in a seaside town that is on the freezing cold English Channel coastline :D Worlds apart for us I think :D Are you on the coast too?? Must have a look at a map!!

[StitchinGrandma]

Thanks Vicki - you gave me a little education there!!!!!(LOL) I will definitely have to try your products.

You're welcome. She taught us about that because it was a low-fat/low-cholesterol cooking class she taught called "Cooking for Life". She did the class as well as a few others through our local college but she got too big and stopped doing those once she published her first cookbook. lol If you're bored and wanna read about her click here (http://www.businessrockford.com/bizpeople/faceofbusiness/x1438205629)and about her classes here this will take you to a pdf link to read about her (http://www.kikibs.com/Culinary_Coach.pdf). She is now a Culinary Coach. Hmmm I wonder if I can justify spending that much now for another class to get new recipes from her. :D Anyway, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I arrived at her home for the first class. Her kitchen rivals any of those like Paula Deen etc you see on the Food Channel. I think I continued to drool the entire night. LOL

OK that kinda got long. oops. Anyway, Penzey's has THE best spices. Super powerful Cinnamon too if you want a really good tasting one for recipes especially near the holidays. I get alot of my stuff from them and love the Pork Sausage seasoning. I buy fresh ground pork and then use that stuff to make my own pork sausage. YUM!

That is interesting about the stock cube ingredients. I don't have a box handy as I tip mine into an oxo cube tin that I got from oxo years ago (limited edition I might add:D)but without a doubt I would say the first ingredient would be salt. They all have a salty taste to them. Because I hate cooking I find it a massive chore LOL, I tend do go for whatever is easiest much to the disgust of my family! They all love my omelettes though made with our own hens eggs:D I have the knack for making them rise to be huge!!! Probably the only thing connected with cooking that I can blow my own trumpet for!!

I did find the OXO nutritional ingredient list online and if I recall the first ingredient in theirs was wheat flour but the second was salt. Your secret in those omelettes is that you are using fresh eggs. Until someone has had a fried egg fresh off a farm and tasted that next to one fried from store bought eggs they do not realize what a HUGE difference there is. I used to have a farm that I got fresh duck eggs from weekly but they aren't there any longer. I'd LOVE to find someone like that again because fresh duck eggs are excellent. Gosh I'm getting hungry now.

[Granny313]

You are exactly right about fresh eggs!! My grandparents ran a dairy farm when I was little. I would stay at their house or about a month during the summer. There was a huge feather bed that I slept on or rather sank down in. We slept with the windows open and always got cold during the night. Early in the morning, right at daylight, my grandmother would be cooking breakfast and it smelled SO GOOD! She would go to the smoke house and cut off country ham to fix and she would have the cheese with the orange rind around it that you had to cut off before eating. They would gather eggs and our breakfast would consist of country ham/homemade sausage, eggs, grits, homemade biscuits and red-eyed gravy. Fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden and a big glass of iced sweet tea or coffee! MAN-OH-MAN!!! She would churn her own butter and everything! Some Good Cooking and Some Good eating! If I was fixing meals like that for my famiy everyday, we would all weigh 300 lbs.(LOL) Ya'll would have to roll me to my embroidery machine.......
:)

[SharonK]

LOL but even so WOW, to be able to live that type of life...it's a hard life though with farms isn't it. The man that built my chicken coop used to keep farm animals just as pets and he was telling me all about it, how the cow had to be milked before he went off for work, back home in his lunch break to do it again and again in the evening when he finished his office job!!! The best I can do in living off the land is eggs, lettuce and tomatoes lol. I haven't eaten chickens since the day I got mine I'm afraid. Having them as pets has put me off chicken for life I think. Mainly because of the whole slaughter process in this country. If I was at a farm and they humanly killed a chicken that has been free range and had a good life I would be okay eating it I think. But in the UK the food labelling in supermarkets is vague!! Free range can mean 50,000 chickens crammed in a barn, never going outside. Free range to me is chickens in fields all day. It must be great to enjoy cooking in a gorgeous big kitchen, in the Uk, unless you are mega rich we have small kitchens! I'd love one with an island work surface in the middle...sigh

[StitchinGrandma]

You are exactly right about fresh eggs!! My grandparents ran a dairy farm when I was little. I would stay at their house or about a month during the summer. There was a huge feather bed that I slept on or rather sank down in. We slept with the windows open and always got cold during the night. Early in the morning, right at daylight, my grandmother would be cooking breakfast and it smelled SO GOOD! She would go to the smoke house and cut off country ham to fix and she would have the cheese with the orange rind around it that you had to cut off before eating. They would gather eggs and our breakfast would consist of country ham/homemade sausage, eggs, grits, homemade biscuits and red-eyed gravy. Fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden and a big glass of iced sweet tea or coffee! MAN-OH-MAN!!! She would churn her own butter and everything! Some Good Cooking and Some Good eating! If I was fixing meals like that for my famiy everyday, we would all weigh 300 lbs.(LOL) Ya'll would have to roll me to my embroidery machine.......
:)

http://terpstra.us/images/vickiljt/Gifs/Attitudes/drool.gif Oh man! You are SO lucky hubby surprised me and came back with breakfast for me after he had already left for work. Reading that made me hungry again. Thankfully I'm too full now or I'd be out looking for something to eat. LOL

LOL but even so WOW, to be able to live that type of life...it's a hard life though with farms isn't it. The man that built my chicken coop used to keep farm animals just as pets and he was telling me all about it, how the cow had to be milked before he went off for work, back home in his lunch break to do it again and again in the evening when he finished his office job!!! The best I can do in living off the land is eggs, lettuce and tomatoes lol. I haven't eaten chickens since the day I got mine I'm afraid. Having them as pets has put me off chicken for life I think. Mainly because of the whole slaughter process in this country. If I was at a farm and they humanly killed a chicken that has been free range and had a good life I would be okay eating it I think. But in the UK the food labelling in supermarkets is vague!! Free range can mean 50,000 chickens crammed in a barn, never going outside. Free range to me is chickens in fields all day. It must be great to enjoy cooking in a gorgeous big kitchen, in the Uk, unless you are mega rich we have small kitchens! I'd love one with an island work surface in the middle...sigh

I think my family would die if I refused to cook chicken. It's by far the best thing to buy here for your food budget. I don't know what I'd do if we removed chicken out of that. We have more chicken than anything else most weeks.

Don't feel too bad because those huge gorgeous kitchens you see on tv are the same ones most of us here would LOVE to have also. I know I would, but then, I love cooking so I'd kill for a kitchen that huge and full of the best appliances. I don't know how those who live in the bigger cities in the US can cook in their apartments. Many of those living in New York, for example, have entire apartments which are equal to the size of my living room alone. I would go crazy in such a tiny place to live since their kitchens are not much more than a tiny stove/oven and kitchen sink with a few cupboards. Because of that though, I can deal with my kitchen because while it's not even close to huge, it's fairly large but I think we all want more than what we have with certain things. Mine would be a larger kitchen on my list of wanting more than what I have. :D

[camah3]

Sharon I think what you are doing with the hens is wonderful. I would like to do something like that with cats but planning and zoning would never go for it where I live. They are very picky.
Do hope your knee is doing better and take it easy on it. That type of injury can come back and haunt you for a long time.

Carol

[SharonK]

Thank you for your kind words Carol. You are not the only person to say things along those lines about knee injuries coming back to haunt you later in life:eek: Alot of people where I live have said the same thing. Just hope I have got away with it. It's fine for walking on now just can't kneel on it.

The hen thing is great but can be a bit worrying at times as unless you are an experienced poultry keeper it can be a bit daunting when the hens look unwell.:eek: I now have two hens that are not looking too well:eek: Hopefully I will do okay for them though.

My family still eat chicken, I just tend not to, they laugh at me:( Still, it's my choice. Free range chicken here is very expensive but I would rather not have it than buy the two for £3 bargains. The bargain chickens are horrifically reared which is why if I cannot afford a £7 free range chicken my family have to have something different...just me I'm afraid:D Although I do realise that there are people on much tighter budgets than me that cannot afford this luxury of choice in how the hens are reared.
I have just recently found out that my next door neighbour rescues guinea pigs, she has seven!! BTW I'm a big cat lover too, I have three:D

[Lisaa]

Vicki,
a
I love Penzey's! We took the kids up to CT to see my Dad on their spring break and there's a Penzey's in my Dad's hometown. I stocked up on my favorites and considered buying some of their soup base but I was already over budget so I skipped it. Based on your recommendation, I called my stepmom and she's going to run by Penzey's and buy some soup bases to ship down to me. Yay!

Lisa

[StitchinGrandma]

Lisa you can order online from them too. We have a few stores I can drive to but they are either one hour or another which is thier main store an hour and a half away BUT, ordering online means no gas money so I figure at the price gas is paying for shipping is probably cheaper than driving. Of course, it's more fun driving there since it means a day out and a nice lunch in the bigger city. :D Anyway, when you order online you sometimes get surprises in your box when you open it. I've gotten the small sized jars of different things like sandwich seasoning and the chili seasoning they just started selling etc. I think that's kinda nice they give you little surprises like that to offset the shipping costs.

[camah3]

Speaking of chickens I follow a blog called Front Porch Indiana. This lady raises chickens and she has the greatest sense of humor. If you want a giggle hop over and read about her adventures. I hope it is ok to put a link to her blog here. If not please remove.

http://frontporchindiana.blogspot.com/

Scroll down on the left side to where it says Barnyard Animals. It starts with her current post so you have to go to "older posts" at the bottom of page for about 4 or 5 pages to where her story begins.

Carol

[SharonK]

Thanks for that Carol. I have bookmarked the blog to read later when I finished all my housework and sorted my own chickens out:D I had a quick read and it looks great. I too have a blog with my ramblings on which I normally put in my signature on the two other forums I use (one chicken forum and one scrapbooking forum)but I don't think you are allowed to on this board arre you?

[Cherry Bakewell]

Hi Sharon

Just thought id say hello as a fellow brit! been on this site just over a year now sorry ladies I know I dont ever really post I love looking at all the lovely things you all make especially when I fall out of love with my machine I come on here and get all excited again and off I go. Love this website though hadnt actually realised that not alot of peeps from UK here I take no notice think I would seeing as I pay for the designs in dollars oh dear I am a bit slow arent I ! dont answer that anyway was just coming here to say hello
x

[StitchinGrandma]

Hi Sharon

Just thought id say hello as a fellow brit! been on this site just over a year now sorry ladies I know I dont ever really post I love looking at all the lovely things you all make especially when I fall out of love with my machine I come on here and get all excited again and off I go. Love this website though hadnt actually realised that not alot of peeps from UK here I take no notice think I would seeing as I pay for the designs in dollars oh dear I am a bit slow arent I ! dont answer that anyway was just coming here to say hello
x

Hello ~Very happy to see you breaking down and saying hi to all of us! You need to come out of hiding more often so we can say hi. We'd love to see the things you've done with some of the Embroidables designs because it may just give some of us ideas for new projects too.

[SharonK]

Hi Cherry Bakewell, I love your name:D What part of the UK are you from?

[Jami Johnson]

Thanks for that Carol. I have bookmarked the blog to read later when I finished all my housework and sorted my own chickens out:D I had a quick read and it looks great. I too have a blog with my ramblings on which I normally put in my signature on the two other forums I use (one chicken forum and one scrapbooking forum)but I don't think you are allowed to on this board arre you?

As long as they are about chickens and scrapbooking and don't link to other embroidery designs, you are welcome to post them, Sharon.

[SharonK]

Thanks Jami but I actually meant I normally put the link to my blog in my signature but this board doesn't accept the BB URL code.

Here is a link to my blog if anyone wants a read, but I haven't updated it for 15 days!!! I will do it today and post my latest embroidery projects on it which just happen to be for my Dad. He was 70 last week and is away with my Mum in Spain for two weeks. They arrive home tomorrow and he is blissfully totally unware there is a surprise 70th birthday party planned for him on Saturday:D I have already given him his present but these two that I will post on my blog later when I have put the finishing touches to them are to give him on Saturday. He loves birds and gardening...all will fall into place once you see the projects:D
http://sharonscraftymusings.blogspot.com/

Edited to add: If you go to February and March posts you will see my hens when we first got them and what a state they looked after coming out the cages.

[Cherry Bakewell]

Hi

Im from Bristol. Cherry Bakewells are my favourite at the moment hence the name. Sounds like you have your hans full with those chickens sounds like fun Id love to have a couple but with two cats and a new baby have my hands full at the moment.

Sorry Stichin Grandma your right I have been in hiding I shall certainly post some pics soon im working on my first quilt at the moment for my lil boy but i get terribly sidetracked in between and go off and make something else just not enough time in the day!

x

[SharonK]

Hi Cherry, we are a long way apart then. I just had a thought, I don't know if you have seen my post about making tablemats and sourcing the vinyl that I want to encase them in. But do you have ideas where I might find this clear vinyl please. C&H Fabrics and Fabric Warehouse are the only two I can think of and neither of them are in Hastings!! There is a C&H Fabrics that i could check out next week with the kids off school, its in Eastbourne which is about 10 miles away. What do you think? Does any shops in the UK ring any bells with you?:confused:

[Cherry Bakewell]

Hi Sharon

John Lewis in the furnishing fabrics section? not sure if you have a JL near you or you could try cheapfabrics.co.uk have quite a big range and as the title suggests cheap too other than that i think youd have to source the web I tend to get alot of fabric from fabric land but dont recall seeing anything like that in there more dress fabrics only

good luck ill keep eye out

x

[SharonK]

I found it in C&H Fabrics in Eastbourne, East Sussex, well happy.

[janetlinda56]

Hi, Sharon, found you, just been trying to find my way around this site.

[SharonK]

Hi Janet, so glad you made it over here :shakehands: I expect you have been checking out the designs by now:D I told you they were nice:p