Happy birthday DH!!!

On the 23th of September hubby had his BD. His pub was finished in time, costed me a lot of sweat, but the result was there. It was my gift for him, I hope he can enjoy it for a long time.

I invited family and friends and we had a big party. Members of his band (he played for 25 years in the Belgian Red Hackle Pipe Band) came to give him a serenade. It was a very good day for him, he enjoyed it so much.

He was in hospital quite a bit lately, not much done in stitching and blogging. Going between hospital and working in the pub took up almost all of my time.

At the moment he is almost pain free, but gets loads of morphine. I'm glad he is back home and hope it will be so for a while, we feared the worst a couple of times during the last weeks, but it seems to have stabilized now.

Next time some stitching piccies!

RR and Regenboogkussen square

I stitched this little bear in a snowball fight on the hottest days of the year. It brought no cooling though. It is for Nadia, she chose winter as a theme for her RR. Next month the last one, I believe it is puppies then.

The Lily of the Valley square is for the Regenboogkussens. The theme was flowers for several cushioncovers for the families of the people who died as a remembrance. Next we will stitch cushioncovers for the wounded people. I will stitch a rainbow for one of them, not sure if I will have the time for more.

DH was in the daycare center for palliative people yesterday. He was so happy, he was pampered all day, got a lovely bubble bath, a nice lunch and lovely companionship. He was full of stories when he came back home and slept like an angel. Next week he will go again.

And I got some time for my own. I've decided to go back to quilting. I made some placemats in a long forgotten past, but still have a stash of fabric. See if I still got the skill for it and make something small in the near future.

BD cards and Margaret Sherry sketchbook

Since my last post, some BD cards have arrived with the BD girls of the Yahoo group.

There was Brigitta who wanted celtic, art deco or butterflies. I stitched this celtic knot and put it in a tartan card.

Greet wanted frogs, this colourful chap found its way to her place.

Wendy let us free choice, so I made Snoopy for her and you can see he's happy to celebrate.

Winny loved mouses, so I stitched her Tom Mouse, my favourite Country Companions character.
Margaret Sherry had another sketchbook design, the love bugs. I stitched it on fabric with a pink touch. It's hanging on my easel next to the duck, don't really know what to make of them. maybe tuck pillows is a good idea.

DH was in hospital for a few days to work on the paintherapy. He is doing very well now, morfine is given now epidural and he has a container for a week, no fuss 3 times a day with injections anymore. On Thursday his boss came over to fetch him for a tour around the factory labs where he worked. He was thrilled!

The weather is hot here so we sit on our terras very much, it is a cool area with a touch of breeze, lovely!

Whiskymap

This is a UFO that has become an urgent project. I purchased the kit a couple of years ago and started it, but it became forgotten (like so many others I'm afraid).

I will finish it now as soon as possible, so that DH can see it finished and framed and hanging near his whisky collection, in his own private pub in the back of our garden. My family is doing the finishing of it as DH hasn't got the possibilities anymore for it. I will publish some pictures of it as soon as the work is done. At the moment they are making the counter.
It has a lot of French knots, not my favourite part of a design, but until now, they are fairly good, I think.

Today we were at hospital again for his pain medication, the dose has increased once more and if this doesn't help, he will be admitted in hospital to see what else can be done to be comfortable. I contacted an organisation who helps people who want to stay in their own house until the end. They are a hughe support and help with whatever they can, they are the cream of our society I think. I hope I can do some volunteerwork in the future for them.

Lightning Mc Queen

I stitched Lightning Mc Queen for Regenboogkussens. It is for a little boy who is fond of the cartoon Cars. It was searching for a while for a chart with the right dimensions, but one of the members of the group sent a good one to me.

We had a couple of warm sunny days, so when Jelle, our youngest grandson was at our place, I filled a tub of water and he was enjoying it very mucht, as you can see. Kids and water and sand go very well together. No sand though at our terras.

Our good friend Jean-Yves came from Germany for some days. He cleaned up the garden and took us to the seaside for a day. It was very nice weather and we could sit for a while with a nice Belgian Beer and one of our national dishes Tomato with shrimps. Yummie! Zeebrugge is the place where we took the ferry to Hull in a previous life to go on holidays to Scotland. So lots of happy memories came back while sitting there. And some healthy air is always good.

Hubby is doing rather well, yesterday a kind of infiltation thing was installed and nurses come every day to fill it with morphine to kill the pain. Next week we will go to the pain clinic again to see if the amount they put in it, is enough. I'm reliefed that he is being more comfortable.

Bad bad news

The therapy for DH has stopped, nothing what doctors have done has helped. The main thing is now paintherapy, so he can live his remaining days in peace. Friday we will have a long talk with the oncologist about the things to come. Now we are in tears, our brains know what will happen, our hearts are stil in denieal. It hurts so much and there is no cure...

Michael Powell and other finishes

The blue themed card arrived with its BDgirl, so I can show it. I used variegated thread to stitch the carroussel horse and I think it came out very nice.

Summer SAL had his 4th part send out and I stitched it on immediately, so no thinking about that anymore.

I promised to stitch on my UFO's, I know, instead I took a new project. I stitched the Misty Hill Town mini of Michael Powell in 7 days. For the first time I was short of threads, never happened before in the kits I stitched already. I've taken a picture of the minis I stitched until now. i don't have a clue yet what I'm going to do with them. The lighthouse is not a mini, he has 3 of them in the mini range, which are in my stash.

Next project are two for the Regenboogkussens. One is a flower from the Ellen Maurer Stroh freebies. The tragedy in Apeldoorn has left 8 families with a member who lost his life. For each family there will be a cushioncover with a rainbow and 4 different flowers. Each cushion has a colourtheme. After that we will stitch cushioncovers for the wounded too.

The next is for a boy and his theme is Cars. I will stitch Lightning McQueen. I will put on the DVD while I stitch, to be in the mood.

And there are the BD cards, one is for my eldest grandson Stein who will be 10 on the 30th, still have to search for a design. He is a hughe dinosaur lover, so charts enough to go through.

Today DH has to go to hospital to find out if the chemotherapy has worked so far. My stomach is hurting for a couple of days already and I had some sleepless nights. This blog entry is one of the things I do to pass the time until it's time to go this afternoon.