Shining Stars Quilt

 Happy new week dear readers......this week i am showing you this bright starry quilt which has been finished for a little while but waiting for its big reveal moment.....i showed you some of the making of this quilt last year when i began sewing scrappy english paper pieced diamonds together....

 ..............the bright colours of the scraps inspired me to use bright kona cotton to join the resulting stars to form hexagons...........

 ............and i added a little appliqued circle to the centre of each star, partly to differentiate from all the whirling and swirling diamond shapes..........there are some secondary patterns happening here too, like the tumbling blocks.........

 ..............it was backed with a beautiful liberty floral fabric in a contrasting deep blue..........

 .............and longarm quilted for me by the talented debbie holland in a wonderful star pattern....

 ..............the quilt was originally inspired by the star quilt in my book *modern vintage gifts* and it uses the same templates.....changing the joining pieces from hexagons to diamonds and making it bright and scrappy gives a whole different look..........

 ..........lots of different fabrics went into this quilt......i even chopped up some charm packs i'd been hoarding for ages...

 ..............i think the grandchildren will enjoy snuggling under this one now the autumn days have arrived.....

 ..........last week i worked on a new quilt for autumn and look forward to showing some of that soon too......also cross stitching and embroidering...and loving the floral snippets from the garden.....mr p is now working on the little paths in our cottage garden......hope to bring you a pretty update very soon :)..........

 ............colourful window sill at the weekend when it was so grey and rainy we needed our flowers and bright quilts so much......

 .............today is much brighter and the cough and cold i suffered from all last week has almost gone............our littlest grandson turned one last week and was such a happy little chap enjoying his birthday.....i really think he is the most beaming baby ever xxx

...............thank you for visiting me here lovely readers....it is such a pleasure to hear from you too and to read your sweet comments..........wishing you a wonderful week ahead with sunshine and happy crafty times.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Autumn Brights

 Happy new week dear readers.....i hope it's a bright one for you.....

 ...........we've had some lovely autumn days here over the past week......perfect for finishing off the picket fence and even doing a little planting......

 ..........and some mushroom collecting......

 ..........love this cute pattern by vechernie posidelki...such quirky little mushrooms.... i want to make lots....

 ............gathering together some autumn decorations and a few flowers and berries....

 ...............choosing some quilts in autumn colours too.....

 .............the picket fence is finished, the little gate installed and painted...a big thank you to my lovely mr p for doing this for me (i did help by doing the painting but the construction was the main thing)..........and thank you to my lovely blog readers who gave me suggestions for flowers to plant in my new cottage garden....they will all be on my list and the ordering is about to begin......looking forward to a lot of pretty flowers next year.....

 ..........i went shopping with my elder daughter on friday and we had a quick look in m & s for snowberries but they didn't have any more.....

 .........then at the weekend in the garden centre i found this pretty checker berry plant......

 ............after enjoying it in the house for a while i'll plant it outside.........such pretty berries.....

 .............almost finished quilting the heartstrings quilt..........nearly up to the dotty border now which i plan to quilt some hearts in.....am using a hera marker instead of my usual quilting tape..........

..............i have a dear friend coming today and there is some butternut squash soup simmering in the aga ready for our lunch......we have a lot of catching up to do...........i also have a lot of catching up to with my blog friends and this will be the week now the fence painting is done!......thank you to everyone who visits me here and for all your kind comments .......wishing you all a wonderful week ahead with flowers and sunshine, and time to do the things you love...........back soon xxxxxxxxxx
 

Home and Garden

 Happy October to all my lovely blog friends.......hoping it is a good month for you all....here is a little collage of my september pictures....such a lovely month with lots of crafty, cosy home and sunny garden times....

 ..........i was taking a picture of this new shabby chic little shutter mirror to show my daughter and caught this view of the sitting room with the quilt cupboard and a bit of my heartstrings quilt too....

 .............and here's another quilt from a while ago.....taken in the garden and giving a sneak peek of our soon to be cottage garden with its white picket fence made for me by kind mr p.... the things we do for love ;) xxx.....

 ............the fence isn't finished yet but i planted a few things anyway.....

 ......the layout followed the one that was already there, with a small ornamental tree in a centre circle surrounded by four flowerbeds separated by small grass paths...we are going to change to gravel paths and i've dug out all the old plants and woody roots ready to fill the beds with cottage garden flowers (let me know if you have any favourites or suggestions!)..........

 .............here is a finished corner...........

 ...........and a big pot of lobelia..........in spring there will be bright tulips growing here (hopefully!)...

 .............i am enjoying reading the garden catalogues for autumn planting and have taken a lot of cuttings to grow in the greenhouse.....a friend gave me some physalis or groundcherry plants she'd grown  and this morning she dropped off some of the fruits from her own plant for me to try...so pretty......

 ..............choosing cosy cushions and quilts for the new season......

 ..............and of course busy crafting as usual...i love it as you know......and i love finishing things like this little daisy dot pincushion made from a spare block....

 .............the carousel quilt below is a pleasure to make (from the everyday quilts pattern).....it has pretty borders one of which has yo yos appliqued on to it so i've been making a few of those.....

 ..............and now october is here there will be more pumpkins of course......

............thank you for your visits dear readers and your kind comments......wishing you all happy autumn (or spring) days and lots of crafty inspirations................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Autumn Fruits

 I love this time of year especially for the natural treasures to be found in the woods and gardens, orchards and hedgerows round about...........there are berry stems in the shops too and the snowberries in the jug above were a gift from my daughter......... i've so enjoyed taking pictures of them, they look so pretty with their pale pink blush....

 ..............a fabric apple in a pretty pink and white bowl in the september sunshine..........

 ............i made a couple of apples using the pretty red and white little sweetheart fabric from andover fabrics.........the green leaves were scraps from my stash..........

 .............and for the first time after a lifetime of baking apple crumble every autumn i tried making apple crisp....it was delicious :)..........there is a recipe here and i am sure my lovely readers across the pond will have their own favourite recipe :)

 ...........it differs from our usual apple crumble by having oats, nutmeg and cinnamon among the ingredients and a bit more butter...

 ............always on the hunt for interesting autumn specimens of the berry and mushroom kind......

 ..........these berries and rosehips were all from our garden and i made the cute little mushroom from a sweet pattern by vechernie posidelki here...........

 ..........i finished the new mushroom pillow and added some surface stitchery this time and some tiny buttons to the original applique and patchwork design...you can find the pattern for this in my book modern vintage gifts..............

 .............more berry inspiration....drawing them onto cream fabric ready for some embroidery....

 ...............last week we had a huge storm here and the gales blew so many leaves and fruits off the trees......below is a picture of the path to my favourite cottage round here (would love to live in it one day) showing all the windfall apples and pears the next day.........

 .............our own garden was covered in leaves and bits of twig and bark from the trees......but the flowerbed near the house was unaffected and my little hollyhocks are flowering!.......i got the seeds for these dwarf hollyhocks last christmas and grew them in the greenhouse....so happy that they are healthy plants and growing well now.....

 ............another autumn gift below.....this is one of our garden side doors...the one we don't use much...and it is adorned with nature's leaf garlands this week.........so pretty and colourful.....

.............thank you for visiting me here dear readers and sharing these little moments of mine........it is lovely to hear from you and so kind of you to take the time to leave me a comment, but also just lovely to know that you are reading along too..............wishing you happy autumn days...or spring ones if you are on the other side of the world (i do enjoy getting a spring flower fix by visiting my lovely blog friends on the other side of the world!).............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx