Hello From Manchester England
 

Hello
I'm Laura and I'm in Manchester, England (UK)
I'm a 36 yr old, Married, Mum of 2 (Daughter Alex aged 12 and Son Beren aged 10). Both are on the Autistic Spectrum at the high functioning end. (Aspergers).
I'm a stay at home mum but not through choice lol. We had planned for Hubby to stay at home with the kids and for me to work but my spine decided that best made plans and all that...... and I ended up at home with house full of dogs and decided it would be good to have something that would talk back. So I ended up with 2 amazing kids who happen to talk a lot more than most people can cope with but they are full of ideas and passion for learning that they truly make me proud.
I have been sewing since I was a child but only really full on since the kids started school at 4 and I got a small amount of time back. I mainly started with making costumes for Hubby but son ended up making all manner of things. Even Leather Horse Armour.
But with having my 2 and wanting to be able to leave them something special each that they can pass on to their children and so forth. My daughter has already developed a love for vintage items and so far I have collected a number of woollen Blankets (Scottish Tartan, Welsh, English ranging from 1940's onwards) and have been very lucky in finding a number a jumble sales for 25 Pence Each! She hoards them in huge stacks at the end of her bed and uses them often over the recent winters in preference to duvets which I can't blame her for.

So it brought me towards Patchworking and Quilting.
I've done various forms of quilting over the years, not really knowing what I was doing other than it seemed right. I must have seen it somewhere and stored the images for later use :) But over the last year I have been researching online, Buying a large amount of Patchworking and Quilting Books. Ooooing over amazing work done by others and looking at historic quilts.
I have the most stupidly large fabric stash. Can't say that it is all what would be any use for quilting tho as I have such varied sewing passions and flit about doing whatever I end up being tasked to do (Mainly Cosplay Costumes or home furnishing. But I do have large amounts of Cotton Fabrics, some which I bought whole Bolts of because I was at the Wholesalers and could only buy it by the bolt (and some 20 bolts in the sales end up being cheaper than a couple of metres from a shop and I am a bit of a bargain hunter) but Hubby was spoiling me or because it was something rather special at the Fabric Warehouse that is a mere 5mins walk to bottom of my Road. They deal mainly with Furnishing Fabrics and a lot of Fabrics for office use but they deal with a small range of plain cottons and the odd cotton prints and 1 rare time when I found a roll of Liberty Linen Union at £2.20 a Metre when it's £60 a metre direct from Liberty's and Hubby and his mum bought me all 39 metes of it. It's the Hebe 'Peacock' tail pattern in dark blue.

OOOOO I didn't mention, I'm Autistic Aspergers and By Science I can flippin Talk :o. Was something we only found out through all the things we have dealt with over our children. I was always seen as sometimes being odd, stand-offish, far too trusting or always got on well with people much older than myself as talked about more interesting things.
So, I am very lucky in having a husband who indulges my need to hold on to fabric for future projects. Even if it means that our front room is currently fabric storage until I can get proper shelving put in so I can sort it into sections. But then we are both Comic Nerds so we work very well together.

Due to being a bit broken and on silly amounts of pain killers I don't sew as much as I would like to. Some days I can do a few hours and be great. Others, I can't even stitch small projects. But I know, that given time, I can work towards making something that they would both be proud of.
I want to make them both a traditional style quilt and a more new style 8-bit Gaming or Dr Who inspired.

I chose Pimperella as my handle as I have been using it since I started back modelling after I had my son. It was because a close friend said I was like a modern day Cinders. In wellies and covered in animal muck most of the time, but I scrubbed up well in my charity shop bought, customised 'Pimped' up clothing.

Well, think that's more than enough waffling on from me.
Apart from on Comics. I'm Marvel & Hubby is DC and our kids like them both. :p

Welcome from Texas

Welcome from the upstate of South Carolina.

It sounds as though you have built a wonderful life in spite of the barriers that were placed before you. I think we all face our own challenges, I know I have, but my family loves me and that is all that matters, right? Welcome from Colorado USA.

Welcome from sunny Southern California.

Hello Laura, welcome from Nevada!

Welcome from NC and NY!

I like to think my kids are happy. They say they are as I always feel I am in some way holding them back from being able to do certain things but we are quite close and we have always allowed them to have a voice within our household. We chat often and they always tell me that they love what they have in life and know that we try hard to make sure they have the right things in life. We have yet another fight very soon with getting our son into High School. He is ready for mainstream. He is far too clever to go to the special needs high school (which is a lovely school) but he wouldn't be able to do ANY GCSE's there and with that no A-Levels and No Uni. He wants to go into AstroPhysics or Astral Engineering. We have fought for him before on this and won. It just seems at times that we are always made to fight to get the right things for him in life but I will do so till my last breath. That's children for you tho. He has said he's not going to leave home. He wants to work and help look after me when his dad and me get old. Not sure yet whether that's a good thing yet lol

Lots of love in this home tho. I make sure I tell them on a daily basis that I love them both. :)

What a special family you have. It sounds so beautiful. You could be a model for other families.

OH, and welcome to the Quilting Board from sunny Nevada, USA!

I lived in England for over a year, and still have friends in Manchester. It's a wonderful city!

Welcome from Michigan!:)

Hi from Sweden.

I've been to Manchester a couple of times. Well, actually Macclesfield but I landed in Manchester. It was a wonderful landscape.
Love the UK in general, go to London almost once a year!

Welcome from S CA!

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

Hello and welcome to the board, from a town near Manchester, New Hampshire.

Welcome from not many miles from you in the UK. You sound as though you have your hands full one way or another, particularly with you health problems but you certainly sound cheerful. There are lots of people here on the Board who are more than willing to help with any queries you may have. Good luck.

Welcome from Dallas ........ enjoy quilting.. great for those of us who are homebound. My hubby cannot be left alone so I quilt and do a lot of machine embroidery.. you can get loads of FREE patterns from the internet and there are tons of FREE youtube videos to learn different designs...

Welcome from Newcastle, England. Hope you enjoy QB you will get lots of help it's a lovely community. I think all children bring their joys and challenges and as parents we need to ensure they know we love them.

Hello Laura, welcome from northern California!

Hi from Ohio!

Huge Thank you for your Welcomes. I've been washing loads of plain colour cottons since last night lol. Making sure that any colour runs are done before I start working with them. Kids are rather excited that I'm making a start after so much time planning.
I love Manchester. We live in a place just outside of Manchester called Middleton. We have a lot of Medieval history round here, Some fantastic old buildings. It's just on the edge before a lot of farm land and canals. Lovely places to go for walks ~(when it's not raining, been rather horrid Autumn and start of Winter has been just as wet :( )
My inlaws live on the Isle of Wight now and we are have been talking about maybe, when hubby retires, that we might sell up and move down there and have a craft shop.

Welcome from Adrian, MI

Hello from a chilly Scotland :)

Welcome from North Dakota. Today we are going further into the deep freeze. wind chills to -60 below zero. I am pretty sure that my car will not start today, so I am not going out to work. Hope it warms up some to be able to head to Minot ND as I need to be on a plane bound for Dallas Tx on Tuesday morning. Enjoy your kids they sound amazing as do you with your health issues. We will do our best to answer any questions you might have. We have an awesome group and we all are "family". Amy

:) welcome from se Texas

Only a little bit broken will be perfect for us AND you already have your fabric stash. Sounds like you have found home.

Perhaps you could make your daughter a patchwork top and use one of her special blankets as the back. She could still have her blanket and your could use some of your fabrics and start on a journey that you could share.

Welcome from Victoria Australia.

Welcome from southern California!

My sentiments exactly! A very warm welcome (it's over 100 degrees here today) from Perth, Western Australia. I'm originally from Devon....so a transplanted Aussie:). There are quite a few vintage enthusiasts here, and quilters and fabric lovers of all ages and styles....So consider yourself at home and be warned....we LOVE pictures!

Welcome from OHIO!

Hello and welcome from Florida.

Welcome Laura. This is a wonderful board. Everyone is so helpful. Welcome from Illinois.