Armistice Day stitching.

I wanted to do a special piece of stitching to mark the 90th Anniversary of the end of the 1st World War but only started on Sunday. But it is something I have aimed to do for a while and will continue stitching on it over the next few weeks along with all my other stuff. It was out of last months World of Cross Stitching magazine. Here is my progress so far:-

As with most families we have ancestors who died during the 1st world war, as I love "Family History" research too I have tried to find out as much as I can about one relative - Sydney George Thornton. He was on my mom's side of the family and was my grandad's eldest brother. He was born in 1899 and during the war he joined the Lancashire Fusiliers possibly before he was old enough to! He fought in the trenches in France and his final battle (I believe) was the battle for Cambrai, they advanced on and captured the small village of Awoingt just outside Cambrai on the 10th October 1918. But on the 11th the battalion suffered heavy casualties and I believe Sydney was mortally wounded then. He died on the 21st October 1918 of his wounds and is buried in the Awoingt British Cemetary. He was 19 years old and just 21 days later the war ended. We have no photos of him and my grandad was born in 1912 so had no memories of him as far as I can recall. It is all very sad and I want to stitch this and add Sydney's name to it instead of the small poppy motif on the right. I also plan to visit his grave at some point in the future as I don't think anyone in the family ever has.

On a more lighter note I have made a small start also on my 3D cottage. Here is just the first gable end showing the front door. I want to say a big thank you to Angela who after reading my blog offered to send me some plastic canvas she had spare to build the walls and roof. It arrived in the post today and it is just great, thank you.

I still intend to do my Family Tree this week but have put off the last Christmas gift for another week so I can continiue to work on "Lest we forget" too.

I have also been tagged by Becca and I know a few other stitching friends tagged me a few weeks ago and I forgot all about it! I am not going to pass on the "tagging" as I don't know who to pick but to end my post tonight I will leave you with a few quirky facts about myself.

1. I hate flying and even get nervous seeing planes in the sky. Consequently I have flown only once to and from Spain when I was 17!
2. I also have a fear of mice, again I can't even look at them on the TV. Yet I love hamsters and have had several as pets over the years.
3. When I am food shopping if I want something but there is only one of that item left on the shelf I tend to leave it, because I feel bad that there won't be one left for someone else if I have it! (yeah I know this is really odd!)
4. I have weetabix (or similar store's own brand!) for breakfast every morning....... nothing else fills me up enough!!
5. I am a fully qualified primary school teacher and specialist "Reading Recovery" teacher but left the profession 8 years ago due to ill health and stress! I now work in an office!
6. I feel the cold especially my feet and nearly always have socks on!!!!

That'll do for now......

Ginnie x