Fabric Love

 Happy new week dear readers..........we are enjoying some special fabric love this week.....

 ..........this is a huge log cabin block in progress featuring some of my pretty lecien flower sugar stash.....

 .............and here is the blue flower pots quilt top which is now complete and soon to be quilted.....

 ...........people often ask where i get my fabrics from.....i buy them mainly from various different online shops and i will include a list of some of my current favourites at the end of this post....

 ...........just like bricks and mortar shops the stock of fabrics in online shops is always changing, updating or selling out...so if i see a fabric i like i buy it at once.....

 ............sometimes i have been gifted fabric from designers or manufacturers and luckily they are always ones i love so i'm delighted to use them in my work.....

 ....... mostly i just pick fat quarters of  new fabrics or even a charm pack and then choose my favourites to buy yardage......i love to have lots of stripes and dots to mix with florals......

 ..........this is my new little plums quilt.....it's a companion quilt to the little apples quilt and also uses tilda fabrics.......you can find the patterns for them both in my etsy shop............(link in sidebar)

 ............using a mix of different fabric collections is usually how i work.......these little quilts are the exception to my normally happy scrappy selection.....it's always fun to find how different collections look together and some lovely fabric combinations often happen purely by serendipity....

 .............below is a work in progress.....the little cherries quilt is now being hand quilted......

 .........some favourite online stores where i find my fabrics are:
fat quarter shop, wool warehouse, the homemakery, sew and quilt, my fabrics, plush addict.......i am often asked about finding fabrics and i hope this helps :)............

.............we are enjoying a lovely sunny autumn week here...perfect for gardening and country walks....and gathering autumn inspiration for making and crafting things........thank you for dropping in to see me here dear readers and for the kind comments you leave which i always enjoy so much......wishing you a wonderful week ahead with plenty of seasonal inspiration wherever in the world you are...........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Apples (and other Fruits)

 Happy new week dear readers....and happy september too.....above is my august collage...such a lovely month of busy activities, seaside days, quilts, flowers and fun times.....

 ...........here is a little zipper pouch i made recently with some lovely lecien orchard fabric.....

 ............i sewed the red zipper in place so you could see it and the colour is part of the design....

 ............i just wanted a pretty zipper pull for it......and i found just the right one at the festival of quilts....this shiny red apple charm was perfect......

 .........this was me choosing cherry charms as well as apple ones and about to have the pleasure of meeting the talented designer atsuko matsuyama in person too.....it was very inspiring.......

 ............the beautiful applique of berries and leaves here is a detail from one of the baltimore quilts displayed at the festival of quilts....one of many exquisite applique designs that i photographed for future inspiration.......

 .............apples growing in our garden.........love all the red and green.....

 .............soon be making pies and crumbles again......

 .............and this week i will begin hand quilting my newest fruit inspired quilt...the little cherries quilt..........autumn always begins for me by making a few new pumpkins with some of my latest favourite fabrics....

 .............this time i'm adding ribbon with words on and also tiny flowers to decorate my new pumpkins......

 ..............inspired by tilda fabrics and white linen........and softly fading hydrangea flowers.....

...........my grandchildren are going back to school this week....their new uniforms are ready and my daughters have both been busy sewing on all the name tapes......my oldest grandson is going to high school and my second to youngest grandson is starting school for the very first time......time moves on so fast doesn't it........i love these september days though and the special light and atmosphere so i'm going to enjoy each moment......thanks for dropping by lovely readers and wishing you a wonderful week ahead.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brocante

 Hello dear readers..........happy new week....it feels like monday here after the bank holiday but of course i have to keep remembering it's tuesday.... last week my elder daughter and i had a lovely day out at a local brocante fair............amongst the treasures i found to bring home were a little milking stool....

 ..........and a white enamel coffee pot and blue and white pastille tin fresh from france....

 ............love all the soft timeworn colours at the brocante...........the old buttons and textiles.....

 .............lots of my vintage sewing things came from my family and my husband's family...but i still like to collect more......

 ..........here is a new log cabin block in soft shades ready for a new quilt.......

 ..........pretty quilts around the house always make me happy.....in this picture there are three...the st ives quilt, the heartstrings quilt, and an older one of mine called the floating four patch....

 ............always love an old book too especially on a needlework theme......

 ............and a new/old lace trimmed victorian nightie.....

 ...........here is our old front door.....it doesn't have roses round it but huge hydrangeas......some of these flower heads are enormous.............

 .............we have had some very hot sunny days over the past week ............

 ..............and some complete deluges of rain too......here are the bulbs that hang across our patio dotted with raindrops......

...........leaving you with a little bunny picture and wishing you all a very happy week ahead.....thank you to everyone who leaves me a kind comment and to everyone who pops in here........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cottage by the Sea

 Hello again lovely blog friends............here i am back again from a lovely trip to beaumaris on the isle of angelsey..........just getting back to normal and catching up with things here after feeling very relaxed.....

 ....we stayed this time in quirky little apple tree cottage built in 1770 .....lots of nooks and crannies and interesting details......

 ............as regular readers know i always take a quilt or two away with me and this time it was the turn of two blue and white ones......they suited the cottage very well and i had fun photographing them in the different rooms....

 ...........i loved all the nauticalia in the rooms and the wonderful little sliding windows dating way back....behind the cottage was a garden winding up the hill with a summer house at the top.....hope to share some pics of that too later....

 ............we were staying here so my hubby could sail in the menai straits regatta which he really enjoyed.......

 ..........my elder daughter and two older grandchildren came to stay for a couple of days and we had some fun times......

 ...........crabbing on the pier, having fish and chips and ice creams....pottering round the shops....watching the boats and looking out for grandpa's boat especially.......and enjoying the blue sky.........and not minding a bit of rain now and then.......

 ...............love a blustery walk along the pier and the fresh sea air.......

 .............watching the boats......and shopping in this stunning new home shop recently opened by the lovely janet bell........

 ............here's a peek inside......loved the sweetpeas growing round the door......lots of wonderful things and you can buy from their website too here.........

 ............a last view of the menai straits for this year............such a peaceful place........

..............thanks for dropping by to see me here dear readers it's always lovely to have your visits and to read your kind comments........wishing you a wonderful week ahead..... back soon xxxxxxxxxxxx

Quilts and Gardens

 Happy new week lovely readers...and happy august too....it's been a busy week for me with lots going on...above is one of my 'quilts in the garden pictures' with my flower market quilt.....it has cherries appliqued on it and so has my new little quilt below.....

 .........this is actually called the little cherries quilt and is the third in my series...little apples is already in my etsy shop and little plums is finished and nearly written up.....

 .............i used lots of tilda scraps in this quilt combined with a beautiful soft and subtle lecien fabric...a very peaceful project with lots of hand stitching which i did in the garden.....

 ............we had a very inspiring day at the amazing festival of quilts at the nec, birmingham....it has been described as the ultimate patchwork and quilting experience...and that is so true.....there are quilt galleries filled with historic and modern quilts, stunning competition quilts and art quilts....and there are shops filled with gorgeous fabrics and notions, patterns and kits......and there are workshops and demos and wonderful designers from all over the world to meet..............

............this little historic quilt is the bloomfield coverlet 1850 now in the quilters guild collection....it is pieced and appliqued in a beautiful and unusual way and has cross stitched quotes in squares which really appealed to me......this quilt inspired a series of new quilts by members of the quilter's guild which were also on display.....beautiful and so inspiring............

 ...........one day last week was world embroidery day so i had to photograph some of mine....above is an applique and embroidered flower pot which will be part of a new project....and below is one of my red and white samplers stitched years ago on a holiday in france......

 ............i designed the sampler, printed the chart and packed the linen, needle and thread so i had my own kit and stitched lots of happy holiday memories into it......this one has never been published so i might make it into a chart for my etsy shop soon...........

 ...........the cottage garden is frothy with cosmos at the moment..........

 ...........i picked all the sweetpeas last week and now a new crop has grown...love how sweetpeas do that ....

 .........this has become a hot border............the heleniums love it here...........

 .............and here is the flower market quilt in the garden again on my lovely white picket fence..... still enjoy having this little fence and gate that hubby put up for me last autumn.....and i'm sure i always will...so much potential to hang little signs on and style up with quilts and flowers.....

...........thank you for dropping by to see me here dear readers and for the kind comments you leave...it's so lovely to hear from you.....next week i'll be taking a blog break as i'll be away on the sunny isle of angelsey...........you can still find me on instagram or see you back here after my trip.....wishing you happy times and sunshine till then.......xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx