Spring Stitching

It's been very sunny at our house a lot of the last week....and we actually had a sunny bank holiday too, a rare thing here.......we spent a lot of time outdoors, enjoying the blossom, birds and even a barbecue..........

............besides gardening a lot and trying to get ahead of the weeds, we have all enjoyed seeing the tulip cutting patch grow and some of my friends, both in blog land and in real life are going to plant one next year .....the lure of cutting your own tulips and planting varieties you love is very strong......

...........and my stitching was tulip inspired again too, as you can see i made a little hand quilted potholder in pinks, greens and white...........the simple tulip shape is one i've often used in my design work, painted with watercolours for greetings cards, and stitched into cross stitch samplers many times.........the already almost stylized shape of the tulip is ideal for applique too..........

 ..........i took a big white bucket of colourful tulips into the house at the weekend.............

 .............in the warmth the flowers opened up and some were HuGe........someone described them as looking like lampshades they were so large :)...........the smaller ones with fine lines on them which looked just like hand painted brush strokes were amongst everyone's favourites.............they all looked beautiful as the petals opened out and they took on such un-tulip like shapes......

                         .................here are some pictures of my sewing in progress..........

 .................some tulips and the potholder in the potting shed in the bright sunshine.............

 ...................i love to add some buttons and other little details to my projects........the selvedge strips were from a pam kitty morning fabric....love how the colour dots are printed as little hearts......the rose button is from just another button company................

 ...............and the tulip quilt i showed you last time is almost finished...........i decided to hand quilt some tulip shapes in some of the big rectangles with red thread,  so have been busy sewing them over the last week....

 .............it's been a pleasure making this quilt, i love all the hand quilting in it..........

 ...............today I sewed the binding on (in my lunch break from making autumn things for work commissions)............and tonight i hope to slipstitch the binding down....after making dinner and maybe a bit more weeding.................

.............spring is such a busy time in the garden..............having such a delayed spring this year is making us appreciate it even more..........this old bench under the cedar tree needs a coat of paint and so do the composter beehives which have weathered a bit too much............lots to do ;)..................
............thank you for visiting me here and for all your kind comments...........thank you to those who suggested the birds might have been responsible for taking my seed markers.......we do have lots of birds, especially blackbirds, in our garden and i think that solves the mystery :)........thank you too to everyone who emailed me this week, my inbox was quite stuffed with messages and if i haven't replied to you yet i hope to do so very soon ........................
 ..............i wish you all a wonderful, sunny, happy and crafty week.....................back soon xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxx