In the post this week ...

GIFTS in COATS Mercer-Crochet - a vintage pattern book won on e-bay (oh dear how easy is it to buy things on e-bay? I'm a newcomer but managed to win 2 items within 5 minutes!).

From the introductory page:

"Eveyone loves to receive a gift - and to have the satisfaction of being remembered at such times as birthdays and anniveraries. In this day and age of factory produced articles, you can makes goft so much more personal by sending something you have made from Mercer-Crochet - it will be appreciated."

So I had to look at the date of publication - 1959!!!! If they thought that was the age of factory produced articles what hope do we have!

Patchwork and Applique/Golden Hands - the other item won on e-bay!

I saw this book the other week over at my mum's and it is great! Unfortunately my mum wasn't quite ready to part with it so when I saw it going for 99p on e-bay I thought I'd better bid - and I won. It's really inspired to me to do some patchwork again. As a child I used to do traditional handsewn hexagonal patchwork - I don't think I would have the patience at the moment but anything I could try with the machine would be great. So I'll add some items to my fast growing list of things to make!

I had never heard of Country Living until I went to the Flower Show and saw some on the book stall for 10p each. I bought all four of them and love it! By chance, I then saw an offered post on freecycle for 3 year's worth of them - of course I replied very politely that I would love them! I was lucky and the lady offered them to me. So a very big thank you to Sarah for the supply and also for the fact that she dropped them into our house on a very wet and cold afternoon. I also received a latch hook kit from a fellow freecycler and he again dropped it into us. It restores your faith in human nature. A big thank you!