My hobbies

Cross-stitch
Several years ago, whilst on holiday at Primrose Valley Holiday Village, Filey in the NE of England, I completed my first ever, small cross-stitch project.  Bob was pursuing his hobby of flying model aircraft, and we were attending a special 'modelling week' at the holiday village where all aspects of modelling were catered for.  Various craft classes were laid on for us 'modellers widows' which I went to if the weather was bad, and it was at one of these that I was introduced to cross-stitch.  Since then I have been hooked!  I have now completed numerous projects ranging in size from small fairly simple cards provided free with magazines to larger and more complex pieces of work.

So far I have stuck with pre-done patterns and not yet had any great success at designing my own!  However, my latest project is the nearest I have come to not following someone else's pattern, mainly because all I had to go off was a printed colour picture!  This is the logo of the Air Warrior Krait Squadron (see Air Warrior section) of which myself and husband and son are members.  I approached the CO of the squad as the Copyright holder and he gave me permission to reproduce it in cross-stitch.  At first I tried to scan it into a computer design program, but did not have a lot of success, so then tried the idea of laying a grid over the picture and simply stitching whatever colour appeared in each square on the grid onto the fabric.  As the grid was a smaller scale than the HPI (Holes Per Inch) of the fabric, this also had the effect of enlarging the picture.  This was completed in September 1998 and the finished, framed product can be seen here.

Other large projects I have completed in the past have included a Golden Wedding Anniversary sampler for an aunt and uncle, a Wedding sampler for my sister and brother-in-law, a 10th Wedding Anniversary sampler for my brother and sister-in-law, a clock/picture for my mother's 70th Birthday and a clock for my father-in-law's 80th Birthday.  I have also completed a few other large projects, and have several others on the go, working on whatever takes my fancy at the time (whilst fitting in numerous Birthday cards and Anniversary cards in between them!).  Here are some photos of various other projects.

Wild Flowers (click to enlarge)

More to follow soon....

Amateur Radio
Although presently taking a bit of a 'back seat' at the moment, another of my interests is Amateur Radio.  When I first met Bob way back in 1973 (!) he was already a licensed Radio Amateur (callsign G4BDE).  I started going to the local amateur radio club with him every week (for a long time being the only female there! <bg>) and eventually kept being asked when I was going to take the RAE (Radio Amateur's Exam).  I finally took (and passed!) the RAE in May 1975, gaining the callsign G8KPQ.  This gave me limited access to the amateur radio bands, resulting in mainly 'local' contacts.  However, I started to study Morse Code and approximately one year later took the Post Office Morse Test at 12 wpm and passed that, enabling me to obtain a 'full' Class A license with the callsign G4FHA and having the ability to use any of the designated bands to contact people all over the world! (Now we have the Internet, this does not seem so impressive!  Though achieving this purely using radio waves, of course, is what makes it so special!).

Meanwhile, on 10 August 1974, Bob and I got married and during the Reception I suddenly realised he was missing!  I searched all over the hotel panicking that something had gone terribly wrong and perhaps he had left me already!  Then someone told me they had seen him outside - I went out to investigate, and found him sitting in another radio amateur's car, talking on the radio!  At least it was a relief to find he hadn't abandoned me!  As if this wasn't all, the following day, after spending the night in another hotel, we ended up going to an Amateur Radio Rally held at Derby on the first day of our Honeymoon!  A photographer for an amateur radio magazine, who we had often met before, spotted us and we ended up with a photo in his magazine a couple of months later!

We later became involved in 'packet radio' which, in a way, is similar to the internet, but messages are carried by radio waves rather than over telephone lines.  Bob ran a Bulletin Board Service on packet for over 8 years, which meant we had a computer and radios running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in order to provide the service to a wide catchment area.  Many people relied on the BBS as their only link to the outside world in a lot of cases (elderly, disabled, etc), so it was important that down-time was kept to a minimum.  However, after 8 years he decided it was time to pass the BBS on to someone else, and have a well-earned rest!  It was a great responsibility, and we were loathe to leave home for long in case anything went wrong while we were away, so it was a great relief to pass it on!

Thimble Collecting
This interest started unexpectedly when I was given a thimble by an aunt as a present.  At first I thought it was a mistake and intended for my sister who I knew collected them, but she said no, it was definitely for me!  I then started noticing other thimbles on my travels and started buying odd ones to add to the slowly growing collection.  Over the last few years, the collection has built up and now I have nearly 300!  These include a collection of 42 Royal Worcester thimbles, which all have very beautiful and intricate patterns on them and are displayed on their own special rack.  Another set I have are advertising thimbles, bought from The Thimble Guild (Scotland Direct) in Scotland, and these too have their own display rack.  Other thimbles vary from cheap 'gift shop' ones bought at various tourist destinations, to more expensive silver ones bought at antiques fairs and shops.  Here are some photographs of my collection.

	Advertising thimbles (click to enlarge)
	A dome case full of thimbles (click to enlarge)
	Royal Worcester collection (click to enlarge)
	The rest of the collection (click to enlarge)