Crafty Days

 I have some crochet to share with you today.........i finished the spring flowers blanket last week and here it is hanging on the back of a chair in front of my newly (re) painted white dresser...........

 ...........i LoVeD making this granny stripe blanket and will be beginning another one very soon.......

 ..........the colour pallette was inspired by the spring flowers that have been brightening up my window sill over the last few wintry months.........the various shades together in nature work so beautifully...

..and in yarn combinations too........i made a very simple border for this blanket, after all those stripes i decided to just do a plain pink border, very simple indeed but it pulls the whole thing together ..........

 ........here is gorgeous little grandbaby Daisy having a peek at the new blanket and the yarn stash....she is already showing a lot of crafty interest, will play for ages with a basket of ribbons, can remove all the bands off a whole heap of embroidery thread skeins in the wink of an eye and squeals with delight if she discovers a new bunny in my studio.....we have a lot of crafty fun together.......

 ..........my next crochet project is using up the rest of the yarn from the spring flowers blanket to make a cushion....this is the beginning of it and i'm having a bit of a craze on it so hope to have it finished soon....

         .....before i go i must show you my little patchwork project in this month's Crafts Beautiful magazine......

 ......a close up of the selvedge ribbons i made to decorate the top....for more crafty ideas look here......

.......thank you so much for visiting me here in my little bit of blogland and thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway in the last post.....it was wonderful to hear from so many of you and i look forward to visiting lots of lovely new (to me) blogs in the next few days :-)....thank you for dropping by......
.....the giveaway is open until March 21 so there is still time for you to put your name in the hat if you'd like to.....
i am off to do some more crochet now.....i hope you are having a happy crafty week too.....back soon xxxxxxx

Sew Pretty

I have loved these flower sugar print fabrics ever since I first set eyes on them and I know lots of other crafters and stitchers love them too. I made a hexagon pincushion with my paper pieced hexies which I showed you on my blog around easter time....but I had to wait until the magazine came out to show the finished object....and now here it is...

 I often fall in love with fabrics and they inspire my crafting in many ways, but it's rare to fall in love with a whole range..usually I pick and choose from lots of different ranges and mix them together....

....but I loved all of these and I loved all of these together...so I bought lots and made them into a nine patch quilt!!! Only the top is done so far, and I've just sandwiched it together ready for some nice peaceful hand quilting during those movie watching times.... 

 ...I discovered the use of basting pins instead of basting stitches a few years ago (from my two sisters who went to a Canadian lady's quilt class!) and I much prefer the pinning method now...

....and on the back of the quilt I have used more flower sugar fabric in this delicious shade of yellow with rosy sprays scattered all over it...this is a very bright and cheerful quilt and a bit of a new style for me by being so bold, but the fabrics inspired it really.... 

                                                       ...just a few more sweet things...

The weekend is almost here again and I hope it brings the sunshine with it as there are lots of things to do in the garden, flowers to tend and grass to cut, weeds to pull and things to plant... Thank you for popping in to see me here and for your sweet comments which I so enjoy! I hope you have a happy weekend...see you next week xxxxxx

A Little Bit of Sewing

These are the fabrics I chose this week for a new litttle bit of sewing - one of the tiniest quilts I've ever made in fact...

 It is a tiny doll's quilt, to fit a small red painted wooden pram that is for a little girl's birthday....

 When I measured the pram I realised just how small the quilt needed to be...and how quick to make too!

 I used a blue flowery Trefle fabric alternating with plain white cotton squares and then appliqued red CK floral hearts, which I've just begun to stitch around in red cotton...

... this is a lovely little project, and easy to hand sew, i made it watching a dvd one evening....during the day i've been working on magazine projects....

... this is my project for this month's Crafts Beautiful (June issue) - a sewing notebook, combining my love of sewing, stitching, paper crafts and collage - I loved making this sooo much....

...it's strawberry time again here...i think the colours are influencing my work this week too...we've had some lovely sunny days, despite the weather breaking and lots of much needed rain too which has freshened up the garden and brought out lots of new flowers...i hope you are having a wonderful week, with sunny days, spring showers (only at night!) and lots of sweet flowers and strawberries ....thank you so much for visiting me here and for your lovely comments......i'll be back soon with lots of flowers xxxx

Lavender Love

There are a few varieties of lavender growing in our garden. I like to add to the collection when I can, and I have to replace some of the bushes every few years when they get too woody.

During the summer flowering I harvest some of the flower spikes and hang them up in the linen cupboard to dry, then use the lavender for making little bags to give as gifts.

The lavender bag shown here is part of a project I did for Crafts Beautiful magazine. (It's in the September Issue, new in the shops now). I made the lavender project using a variety of techniques including sewing, cross stitch, rubber stamping and paper crafts.

The little bags are lovely to hang in the wardrobe or tuck into a drawer - a lovely old fashioned way to make things sweetly scented.

Do you love lavender too?

Saving the Selvedge

For years I used to trim the selvedge off my cotton fabrics and regretfully throw it away, thinking that it looked really pretty but not knowing there was any way of using it. I liked the look of the multi coloured dots, numbers and decorative lettering. Then one day I saw a pretty bag made from recycled selvedge strips which looked a bit like ribbon when applied to a backing. I gathered as much selvedge as I could from the fabrics I had in stock and made a cushion and it worked well. I then made a pin cushion, shaped like a needle roll, which I use all the time in my studio.

I work regularly for the inspirational Crafts Beautiful magazine, and for one of their projects I had an idea for a selvedge cushion, incorporating bands of cross stitch flowers to make it more personal. I also made ribbon ties for the top from strips of selvedge.

This picture of my selvedge project is from the June 2010 Issue of Crafts Beautiful.

One of my friends told her sister I was using selvedge in this way and she kindly asked her quilt group to save theirs for me - so I have plenty now to make the quilt I'm planning: I'm thinking of a series of square blocks made up of strips of selvedge, divided by plain white sashing. So if you don't already save your selvedge, next time you trim your fabric, think twice before throwing it away - you might just want to upcycle it!

Seaside

I really do like to be beside the seaside - the old song could have been written for me. I love the sound of the waves, the blue blue blueness of the sea and sky, the little harbours with hand painted signs about ice cream and boat trips, shops filled with brightly coloured beach toys, and beaches filled with shells waiting to be discovered (by me).

This little cross stitch boat was part of a project for Crafts Beautiful magazine who I work for regularly. I design all kinds of projects, using some cross stitch and a variety of other media like paper crafts and fabrics. I loved using bright colours in this design and finding pretty dotty papers to match the little boat.