My Canadian/British hubby

It's been a busy week. First things first, on Wednesday my patriotic Canadian DH became part British and gained citizenship to Britain. He had to go to a citizenship ceremony, meet the provost (the guy in the picture) and affirm allegiance to the Queen. This is what he had to say:
I (name) do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that on becoming a British citizen, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors, according to law.
Pledge
I will give my loyalty to the United Kingdom and respect its rights and freedoms. I will uphold its democratic values. I will observe its laws faithfully and fulfil my duties and obligations as a British citizen.

It's not as easy thing for a patriotic Canadian to do! I think i'd find it hard if i had to do this in Canada (no offence meant to any Canadians obviously). I must say in this day and age i think it's pretty dumb to have to affirm your allegiance to the Queen. I think i would have an issue having to do that and i am British; born and bred. Don't get me wrong, im proud to be British but i think royalty doesn't hold the place that it used to in this country (which doesn't bother me) and this kind of allegiance pledge is so irrelevant. I think the funniest thing about the above picture is that there is supposed to be a picture of the Queen in the background but the guy behind Matthew is blocking out her head LOL.

Last night i went to my first quilting class with my mum. There were 12 ladies there and i couldn't believe it when i met my neighbour in there. She's my age and i see her quite often and never even knew we shared this interest! She even has a sewing machine! I was so glad to have someone my age there at the class, my friend was supposed to be coming but she had to pull out. Anyway, last night was a general introduction to quilting. Rita (the class leader) showed us what we will be making over the next 10 weeks. We're going to be making a tablerunner for Christmas and the design she has chosen will incorporate all the basic techniques we will need for quilting. I can't remember all the technical names yet though! So, we had to pick out and buy our fabric last night. Here's what i chose

The red starry piece will be the big main border. The stripey piece will be the inner border and then i have 3 fat quarters for all the squares/triangles/strips etc that will be in the middle. It took us all ages to choose our fabric. Im happy with my selection anyway!

So, quiltorstitch I may just be coming your way for advice in the near future!

Im not looking forward to my weekend ahead as i have to go away for work again. I hate going away overnight for work. This time, one of the young people i work with is taking part in some training. She has a 3 year old and doesn't want to go alone with her (which is fair enough). So as im her support worker, im going too. It's going to be hard work looking after her 3 year old all weekend. We leave this afternoon and will be there until Sunday. Wish me luck!

Thank-you Donna!

The lovely Donna sent me a gift certificate for Mary Kathryn's online store. The stash i ordered arrived last week.

Snappy Sampler - Bent Creek
The Bookshelf - LHN
My Beloved - CCN
32 Ct Bo Peep Pink Belfast Linen

Thank-you so much Donna! You are great!

Im afraid i have no stitching to show, in fact, im not sure when i will! Im busy stitching but can't show any of it. Im stitching for the Specific Designer Exchange (LHN) on the SBEBB and ive also started my Fair and Square piece - i got Donna as my partner!! Im trying to get those done (or at least underway) before the next RR arrives in October.

Thursday evening is the start of the quilting class. I'm looking forward to it. Apparently we will be starting with making a tabletop runner for Christmas. Today is a local holiday in Glasgow -woohoo!! Im going swimming this morning with my mum and then we're going for lunch afterwards.

I was just thinking the other day...I love stitching/blogging about stitching and have met some great friends through this. The one thing i don't like about blogging is when people just go missing. I find it distressing! I totally understand that things happen in people's lives and blogging becomes totally insignificant. However, i wish sometimes people would just log on and write one sentence, even to say bye or just say i won't be around for a while. That's understandable. I find it distressing when people just disappear...recently one blog i visited a lot was suddenly deleted. Please don't think im annoyed or anything by this...im not, it's just concerning when friends just go missing, not to be heard from again. The worst could happen and you'd never know. Guess that's just part and parcel of blogging/internet world.

Right, im off to get ready for some much needed exercise. Have a good week!

Big ship comes to (our) town!

Im back from my work conference. It's been a long and tiring week. I was dreading it, especially spending all that time with my boss, but it wasn't too bad. I still hate going away for work though and unfortunately have to go away again next weekend (no boss this time!) We were in a gorgeous hotel in a place called Aviemore. I managed to get to the pool on Monday night for a swim which was great. The rest of the time was too busy unfortunately. One thing i will say is that the Scottish Highlands are amazing! The drive up was long (5hours) but wow, the views were stunning. I forgot my camera but found these pictures of some of the sites we seen on route! I definitely want to go back up there sometime for a holiday.Tonight the QE2 sailed right past our town! It was cool! The QE2 was built and then launched on the River Clyde 40 years ago and hasn't been back since so this was it making its farewell tour before it is becomes a floating hotel in Dubai next year. It was quite a big event; roads were blocked and loads of people were down at the river waiting for it to sail past. It sailed past our town about 7.30pm tonight.
Im way behind on reading all your blogs but hope to catch up over the weekend. Im off now until Tuesday! Woo hoo!!

Amitie

I finished stitching Amitie last week. It was stitched with DMC 115, one of my favourites. I love redwork!I decided to finish it as a pillow for my mum's birthday. This is the first time i've ever made a pillow like this and i really enjoyed making it. I followed Dani's instructions from the Focus on Finishing blog and they were so easy to follow. I used to hate finishing but these days i cant wait to finish the stitching to make it into something, it's so satisfying!!I used the fabric i've shown in a previous entry. It matched perfectly with this piece.
I'm very proud of my pillow. I don't think i could've given it away to anyone else LOL At least i know i'll see it a lot as it's currently on display in my parent's living room. It took me a while to make as it is all hand sewn. Must've been at least 6 hours work anyway. I enjoyed making it so much!!

Good mail day

I received my Fair and Square Exchange today from Peg. Thanks Peg it's lovely! I was so excited when i received a comment on my last post from Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks!! Diane if you happen to read my blog again, i love your designs and thank-you so much for leaving a comment, it made my day!!

Today i received this....Yes, i know it's last years edition but in the past ive always just used internet freebies for Christmas ornaments. I was never sure where i could buy single issues of this magazine over here but recently Andrea gave me this link to a place that sells them in the UK. Yeah! There's quite a few designs in here i will be stitching for Christmas!

Next week i have to go away to a conference for 3 days. I really hate going away for work. Im going with my boss and was hoping to travel seperately but no, we are going together. A 4 hour car journey. Im dreading it already. It's just far too much boss-time for my liking. Not only that but it's 3 days of small talk and it's not like your working day finishes at 5pm as there are social things we have to attend in the evenings. Im going to hate it, i know because i had to go last year as well :( The one positive of the whole experience is that the hotel we are going to looks amazing!!

Donna's RR finished!

I finished my square on Donna's RR. Donna i hope you like it. Its an adapted version of LHN's "The Counting House."and here's what Donna's RR looks like overall.For anyone that loves LHN you should visit our Heartfelt Friends Round Robin blog. I am way ahead on the RR (the deadline isn't until October) but i just wanted to work on this until it was finished to get it off my mind as i have a few deadlines before the end of the year (as you can see in my sidebar) and i would like to do some Christmasy Stitching for myself and my family at some point too.

I received this gorgeous biscornu for Hazel on saturday morning as i was a winner in her blog competition! Isn't it gorgeous? This is my first ever biscornu! Hazel, i love it! Your stitching and finishing is just beautiful. Thank-you so much!In other stitching news i received my exchange partners name for the Specific Designers Exchange on the SBEBB and im excited about that! I have already decided what to stitch. This will be my first exchange on this board. Speaking of exchanges, remember the nightmare i was having with my Fair and Square exchange (if not, read about it here)? Well, the squares arrived back to me (they were marked return to sender) and i have now posted them off again to my partner's new address. Im so glad they were returned to me! Im going to do round 3 but i hope it will be less stressful this time round :)

Gifts to me and from me!

Thank-you for all the anniversary wishes! We had a lovely Indian meal after work and my DH bought me a bouquet of all my favourite flowers! I received a gift in the post during the week from Jenn. Jenn has just stitched LHN's Gourmet Garden and knew that i liked it so sent it on to me! Jenn your gift was a great surprise and made my day. Thank-you so much, that was really kind of you. Stitching blogger friends are great eh?! Im gonna stitch this one for my kitchen one day!

Speaking of gifts. Remember the competition i had on here to decide a new name for my blog? Well, i had so many great entries but i chose "Clydeside Stitching" as i overlook the river Clyde from my place. Lesley suggested that and her prize was a wee stitched gift from me. I made Lesley a pincushion. Merci is a freebie from this siteand this was the backing fabric (not a great picture-sorry!) which also had french on itLesley, i hope you liked it and thanks again for naming my blog!

Our Anniversary!

Today is our 4 year wedding anniversary. Time has flown by! You can see more wedding pictures by clicking here

Yummy Fabric

I can't believe it's September already. Summer has been pretty non-existant here this year, its so depressing! I keep thinking it might still come but when you see the leaves changing colour you know that's wishful thinking.

On saturday i went fabric shopping. My mum told me about a material shop in town that i never knew existed. I think i'll be in there quite a lot from now on :) Check out all this yummy fabric i bought

The next picture shows my favourite fabric purchase! It was quite pricey but i loved it so had to get it! Im going to use the red piece for Amitie once it's stitched, i think it'll be perfect for it. This weekend I have again been so touched by the kindness of my blogging friends. Regular readers will remember the story of the most expensive rr ever. Well today i got an email from Donna with a gift certificate for Mary Kathryn's online store!! Ive already emailed Donna but i'll just say again - Donna, thank-you so much!! That was just so kind of you. Im completely overwhelmed by your generosity, you are such a lovely, kind friend :)

Speaking of Donna, here's her RR update. You can see ive been making good progress on this one.

It's been a lucky weekend - Hazel emailed me to say i came 2nd in her competition!! Can't wait to see what gift i win! Thanks so much Hazel, it was so great of you to offer up all those prizes on your blog and im excited to be a winner :)

So ive got a busy week ahead. As well as the usual work each day, i have a post-camp evaluation meeting tomorrow night, my friends birthday meal on Wednesday night, a baptism to go to on Friday night and a busy day next saturday too! Hope i get some time to stitch ;)