A Very personal 'About me"

A lot has happened since my last post, if you ever read my "About me" probably there will have been mention of my Dad!

"I grew up on a stud farm on the Ards Peninsula in Northern Ireland. My father had a hardware store providing essentials for locals and as a young girl I was taught the importance of making customers happy. "

The closing down sale of my Dad's shop.

You may be wondering why the name "McKee's" well that was my grandmother's name on my Dad's side. Some of you may remember it in High Street, Bangor. From a young age he had to work hard and care for his Mum & Dad. His Dad had Parkinson's disease and died before I was born. His Mum I associate with Jaffa cake biscuits and she sadly also died before I really got to know her. However we were brought up on a farm on my Dad's side. 

When Mum and him meet he raced motor bikes, he even did the Isle of Man TT. All around our house were trophies that he won. But as the family grew Mum made him give up the motorbikes and they turned their attention to ponies. 

I was born into this crazy family, I'm probably best known for hating having my photograph taken so this is one of very few. It was taken on the day of my Aunt's wedding in the Crawsfordsburn Inn while I'm sitting on the piano! One of four girls my Dad brought us up to be self reliant, a trait we all need in these times. Being  inventive and creative were also characteristics he pasted on. He built us our very own horse box and invented a hoover to clean the horses!

Ponies were our life line as kids, we went everywhere with them and meet loads of people the places we went with them. From Cork to Coleraine we travelled the country, from Ireland to Poland my Dad took us by then with the horses.

Do you ever stop to think about the influence your circumstances and environment make on your life?

"My Great Aunts were keen patchwork quilters and my Grand Mother had seen a lot of the world and had brought back many inspiring pieces of everything from jewellery to clothes."

This sampler was worked by a relative on my Mum's side. Note the date, it was the time of the Irish Famine when a million people died!! Makes us realise that weird things have happened in our country and our relatives survived. Let's hope this corvid-19 makes us stop and rethink how best to live our lives.

I want to inspire other's to sew. I thought that this time would let me do so but then my father fell and went into hospital and somehow time has just elapsed. 

I made this patchwork quilt maybe  twenty years ago or more and still use it on my bed today, hopefully this will inspire you to have a go as it's like a family heirloom and has last years.

With the present circumstances I have found it weird to think of my wedding dresses, we don't have a clue when people will be allowed to gather to celebrate wedding days. My shop is so strange and quiet these days. When I first moved here my dad had a heart attack!  I remember going to the man that owned it and apologising for not having turned up the day we were meant to because of my Dad's illness. Then much as today the NHS came to our rescue and did a triple bypass on him which meant that he was well enough to watch my progress over the years.