Wait Till You See What My Mum's Given Me!

You all know that I've just been over to Scotland to drop Flicky off at the University of St Andrews, crikey this is my third blog post today so I'm thinking you might all be very well aware of that by now!  What I haven't shared with you yet is that while we were there Simon and I drove down to St Helens, England to spend 5 days with my Mum.

please excuse phone camera/instagram quality but I so love this pic of us both :)

We laughed and cried, ate and drank far too much and slept too little while we were together but we just had the best time.

It's strange to visit and Dad's not home, I think because I live so far away it's easy to imagine he is still there and visiting makes the truth all too real.

Just look at this next photo, Mum wearing the birthday apron I made for her and holding Dad's Memory Quilt made from his shirts which I sent to her last Christmas.  It was wonderful to finally see her with them, I know she loves her apron and wears it every day (she'd want me to be sure and tell you that it washes beautifully) but I hadn't like to ask her about the quilt, I wondered if maybe it upset her to use it as it had never been mentioned since she unwrapped it last Christmas.

Turns out I couldn't be more wrong.  Mum keeps the quilt on the back of Dad's chair, which she has taken to sitting in to watch television and when she's chilly she wraps herself in it.  When I say Dad's chair - I mean Dad's chair - that chair was bought when they got married 56 years ago, it's been reupholstered several times but through all the years no-one but Dad sat in it.

Mum also tells me that in the last couple of weeks her brother has also been wrapped in the quilt while watching football in Dad's chair.  I love that not only is the chair being well used but, through the quilt, Dad's shirts are still sitting in the chair - probably sounds very strange but there's something very comforting for me in that!  The quilt has had a couple of trips out to be shown to friends and has even been to the hairdressers - now it wouldn't be wrong to say that that quilt's getting out and socialising more than Dad did but maybe it's not keen to go either and Mum's just making it ;)

Now on to my best news - just look what my Mum gave me

This is Mum's sewing machine - bought for her by her Mum when she was just 19.  Grandma, a trained confectioner, hoped that Mum would develop a creative flair but she was to be disappointed, the machine wasn't used until I started to 'play' with it when I was young and then made clothes and bedding on it as a teenager.

It's a 1954 Singer 99K

I particularly love that it says 'made in Great Britain' around the base

It needs some loving care - Mum has had it in her garage for so many years now and wasn't actually sure if it was still there or had previously been disposed of.  It was there though and it is just how I remember it.  There's some rust - but I think it's pretty superficial and the veneer on the back of the wooden base is peeling away but amazingly it still works - so fingers crossed I just need to sort myself out with a US power cable and a new bulb and I'm away.  I'm so excited I just can't tell you.

Bringing the machine back to the US with us was lots of fun too - we put the wooden case in our suitcases to go in the plane hold and carried the metal machine section in our hand luggage.  After scanning the bag with the machine in, as expected the bag warranted a physical search and we engaged in some very pleasant conversation with the security staff about the origins of the sewing machine and how wonderful it is that it is being passed down through the generations.  That was well and good until our BA flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow was delayed so we would miss our connecting flight back to Newark so we were moved on to Virgin flights instead (I have to say here that the BA and Virgin staff were simply excellent throughout).  Unfortunately this meant we had to leave the departure lounge and collect our cases (already in the BA plane hold) which were returned to us at the arrivals' luggage carousels.  Then we had to start from scratch at the Virgin departures desk and go through security again.  So at security for a second time the sewing machine was pulled again for a physical search - this time the conversation was along the lines of how can something so small be so heavy - a point really worthy of note as you wouldn't want to drop this little beauty on your foot!

That all said she's safely home with us now and I couldn't be happier - thanks Mum, I love you xxx

Related Posts:

In Memory Of Dad
Happy Birthday Mum
Beyond The Edge Of Nowhere 

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