A gay day in York

As promised, Michael and I headed off to York to do a little 21st birthday present shopping.  His wallet was bulging with birthday money - but who needs that when Mummy has her handy piece of plastic.  Needing to recover from no sleep at all on the Saturday night he rose quite late but at least we missed the rain but then it felt like a sauna in York.  Almost too hot to shop...

almost.... 

we had a little Love Actually moment in Reiss as the very nice young man lovingly wrapped a t-shirt in tissue, drawers were opened and stickers brandished with a flourish, a bag produced with apologies for it being the old design, more stickers adorned the bag and then the receipt also got the treatment (no lavender though) - Michael and I were both thinking the same thing  "tis but the work of a moment" - oh, the joys of such little shared moments ....

all that for a sale t-shirt!

We went for a very nice lunch and headed home happy and content with our little foray.

Whilst Michael was sleeping I managed to finish the quilt - my tennis elbows were protesting pointedly by the end of the machine quilting (and one broken needle) session later.  The wadding was very thick and the backing was a brushed cotton duvet cover I was recycling so all in all quite a weighty project what with all the denim too.

Happily, Michael was suitably pleased .... his three favourite squares being his initial

(don't look too closely at my wonky sewing - now I know why it's best to use all the same weight fabric!)

the Liberty lawn 

and the cheeky little owl - him being a wise old owl lover.

I amused myself with a little nod to Janet Bolton and little touches from the shirt cuff I used on one of the squares.

One happy Mum and son

So, what's next?  I was going to crochet some flowers for my Mum's cotton crochet bag she's made but she rather liked this one I prepared earlier in true Blue Peter fashion so she adopted it.

However, two of Michael's friends want to learn to crochet so there will be a teach in on Thursday evening.  Should be a nice girlie evening as the boys have been despatched to their Dad's today - always a sad time for me but it does mean lots of free evenings..... and I've a yen to tackle a bit of clothes making - having purchased a couple of tops from White Stuff which look like they might be within the realms of my expertise (ie not requiring much at all!)