Extreme Knitting Redhead: Overlay Crochet Cushion & more excitement

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Overlay Crochet Cushion & more excitement

So here's the beautiful overlay cushion by Melody MacDuffee I mentioned before. Isn't it stunning?!

I have chosen my own colours as I want it to co-ordinate with my curtains so here they are:

I've swapped the oranges and rusts for pinks and reds.

They are a mixture of embroidery cotton and cotton perle as I like the idea of having different textures -

smooth and twisted.

It may take me some time to do as it uses a 1.75mm hook and I haven't used one that small for years as my eyesight isn't that good!

Is it a heart or a bottom?

When I was checking over the plum trees I spotted these 2 plums that had fused together. Being an old romantic I immediately saw a heart shape................

........Mike saw a bottom!

A fantastic find

I've been searching for a terracotta chicken or duck for months. Why? Because I want to adorn it with shells! I saw an example in an old book of handicrafts and thought it looked amazing.

I don't often write about my obsession with shells but I have an enormous collection and I love making pictures with them. Last time I posted about them was my seahorse frame.

The other day we were pottering around the Charity shops in a local village when a lady was bringing in a whole load of boxes that had belonged to her late father. There were boxes and boxes of sheet music so Mike had a good old rummage for any interesting piano music and then I spotted this -

It isn't a duck or even a chicken but the shape enthralled me. It's a beautiful swan designed as a planter.

The lady said it's very old and the store manager thought it was Staffordshire pottery. There were bits of damage on it but that really didn't matter to me. It's about 15" high so quite substantial.

I absolutely love the shape of the neck and head and those feathers will be a delight to cover with shells. I can't wait but I think I might save it as a Christmas project. We always have a project that we each devote all our attention to during the Christmas holidays and I can spend the next couple of months thinking about how I'll decorate it.

What a wonderful find!

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.