Homely

 Happy new week to all my lovely blog readers....hope it has begun well for you.......here i have not only been sorting out my studio but moving stuff about in the kitchen and having a little sort out there too......

 ............we are putting up some new shelves which will give me lots of new storage and look pretty too..........more about that soon............

 ...............and the studio sorting is gradually getting done but i'm still finding the 'throw or keep' decisions difficult and have put some stuff in boxes on the top floor for now ;) ....just until i decide for sure....

 ...........this is the desk in my studio where the ink, glue and paper crafting work takes place....it's a bit tidier now......

 .............as for my other love ...patchwork....well here is a new mini quilt made of bow tie blocks....

 ............i love these blocks and can't wait to make another......

 ...............also finished is my true blues feedsack fabrics star pillow.....more pics of this coming soon....

 ............cosy candlelight and the mini hearts quilt..........can you tell i'm in a cosy homely mood this week?......

 ...........in the greenhouse are bulbs ready to plant, and lots of seeds to sow for next spring....

 ...........molly and i planted lots of bulbs in the cottage garden this afternoon.....she thought my garden kneeler was a perfect little dog seat........

 ..........i love all the seasons, even winter...but i am looking forward to spring and seeing my new cottage garden filled with flowers......

.................i shall leave you today with some roses (from a flower shop) and some twinkly lights and candles to keep the homely feeling............thanks for visiting me here dear readers and for your sweet comments.... hope you have a happy week ahead with cosy crafty times.........back soon.................xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

First Frost

 The days are shorter, the nights are drawing in and we have had our first frost here.....we began the week with halloween and pumpkins and ended it with fireworks and a lovely family bonfire party....

 ............and now i am beginning a big studio sort out..........with pixie girl here to help.....

 ...........and sweet molly to keep us company too.............so much to sort and discard....the junk certainly mounts up and with art stuff you can never be sure if you just might need it one day which makes the re organising even harder............

 ............there has been a crafty touch of christmas here the last couple of months.....a cross stitch design in the last issue of crafts beautiful..........and below my patchwork trees project in the new crafts beautiful christmas issue here.............these are fun to make and i loved adding the little stitches, buttons and bows to the finished patchwork..........

 .............below is a beautiful little snowy painting by my dear friend anne mackinnon...... the picture is now available as a set of christmas cards from the friends of the whitworth ......think i'll pop this in a frame for my studio wall.............

 ...............several of my quilty projects are nearly finished and i've done quite a lot of work on the carousel quilt...........sewing diamonds for one of the pretty borders..........

 .............joining the carousel wheels to the dotty background............and making yo yos for another of the borders..........the pattern is by everyday quilts and is a pleasure to sew............

 .............pretty flowers from my elder daughter to brighten up the studio during the sorting .........

 ..............and here is a quick photo of the shutter mirror this week reflecting our sitting room, red hydrangea drying in a jug and a few quilts there too.............

 ...............now we've had the first frost i moved the geraniums into the greenhouse, and the olive tree as well...........lots of bulbs have arrived for the cottage garden....just got to plant them all now ;).........

 ..............more little pixies here to help............back to my sorting out in a moment.........

...............thank you so much for dropping by to my little blog space dear readers and for your kind comments..........hope your november has begun well and wishing you warm and cosy times in the coming week................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

October Times

 Happy new week everyone..........today we have some pretty pink roses and matching pumpkins.....and some pictures from our weekend too..........

 ...........driving along the cheshire lanes to see our younger daughter and her family i just had to snap some in-car pictures..........it was a beautiful day filled with chilly sunlight and all the shades of autumn in the landscape.....always love our visits here and seeing my sweet littlest grandsons......

 ...........in the afternoon we had a little outing to treacle market............

 ..........held on the last sunday of the month in the little historic town of macclesfield......

 ............such an interesting mixture of stalls and i always find something to add to my vintage collection..........

 ............lots of autumn inspiration too this time.........

 ..........and pretty old toys and house wares...........

 .............below is my french vintage coffee pot found on my favourite stall and photographed at home today (on a bright and frosty morning).............

 ...............crafty-wise i have been working on a magazine commission and on a new quilt.....and i finished sewing a little piece of redwork embroidery.....

 .............and made it into a little pin cushion using some sweet scraps of liberty and some wonderful eclectic elements fabrics by tim holtz...........

 ........another in-car pic of a cheshire lane in autumn complete with verges full of russet fallen leaves..........so much beauty to enjoy..........

...........i hope you are enjoying these last october days dear readers................thank you for dropping in to visit me here and for leaving such kind comments...........wishing you all happy sunny crafty times..............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

These Autumn Days

 These autumn days are beautiful............with a magical golden light softening everything..........

 ...........we have some pumpkins...............and we have a pumpkin quilt too......

 ..............inspired by my pumpkin pillow, i've wanted to make a pumpkin patchwork for quite a while.........i chose soft tilda fabrics in ginger and yellow for the pumpkins, lots of creamy yellows and other pretty shades from my stash for the patchwork, cream kona cotton to applique the pumpkins onto, and liberty betsy for bright cornerstones between the sashing and for the binding.......

 .................i couldn't resist taking some pictures while we were gardening at the weekend.....the little cobbled paths are all done now.....

 .............and the first clematis has been planted.............

 .............with lots of other plants on order ready for the cottage gardening to really begin..........

 ............some tiny rosehips below on the kiftsgate rose which grows over the arbour..........

 ..............when i was out and about with my elder daughter at the weekend i took a few pictures around our little town.....

 .............gorgeous michaelmas daisies in a little park..........

 ..............and a pretty victorian porch filled with flowers............

 ..................buying the clematis at the garden centre i took this picture...although i go for pastel colours i know orange can be beautiful too :)..........

............loving these golden days as october rushes by.........thank you for dropping in to share them with me dear readers............wishing you a wonderful week ahead with happy sunny days and lots of crafty inspirations........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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