Make Do And Mend

 Many months ago, when planning this year's commissions with the lovely magazine editors i work with, i realised that the red white and blue colour way (one of my absolute favourites) was going to be BiG this year, what with the jubilee and the olympics too.....and i  also found that there were lots of lovely products on an old blighty shabby chic theme to be bought in the crafts shops.....crafty heaven :-) .....so, this is my project for this month's crafts beautiful, in the shops now.........i've been looking forward to showing it on my blog and to actually hanging the hanger up in my studio .............

 .........and to using the make do and mend notebook for recording sewing tips, plans and ideas, snippets, pictures, sketches and cuttings all on a stitchy fabric-y theme......i used portobello road embellishments from papermania and haberdashery rubber stamps by tim holz on this book cover....you can read all about it in the magazine and find lots of other crafty inspiration on the crafts beautiful website here........

.........the letters in this picture are real old letters that we were sorting out last weekend...they belonged to my late mother in law, and were sent to her when her son ( my mr p) was born...they are such lovely letters from her sisters in law and other family and friends, and tell such a story of a past time and a different world...very moving too.....

 ..........little collage, showing the cover of cb with my project peeking out (even after all these years it's still nice to see my designs appear, especially on a cover) the magazine has a lovely (free) vintage rubber stamp and lots of papers too which i will be putting to good use......the first bluebells picked this spring (from our garden, not the bluebell woods we walked in on sunday)..........the bluebells have only just begun to open here, so the carpeting effect hasn't happened yet...maybe next weekend, if the sun shines a bit more.......

....................red white and blue pincushion and vintage birdie tin filled with red white and blue buttons all ready for sewing onto lots more projects..........

 .........and my new crochet blanket which i mentioned in my last post is also fitting in with this year's theme....i've begun making a granny stripe jubilee blanket........i love it already, and it will be perfect for seaside picnics (even matching the red and white spotty picnic cool bag)......if i hurry up it might be ready to take to the jubilee party too........i think my love of this colour way really stems from the nautical things i grew up with........living in a sailing resort, surrounded by boats and flags and lots of objects painted in these colours.........

 ..........we love living on the coast and i love being near the sea.....i can see it from our house, and walk down to it in a few minutes......i used to take it for granted when i was young, until i lived inland for a few years and missed it so much...........

.......some granny squares have quickly been hooked up too, while watching a film at the weekend.....these are for a jubilee cushion to go with the blanket for perfect picnics this summer......so that's my making and doing for this week...and i have even done a little bit of mending too....i sewed up a hole in a jumper and the hem on a skirt :-0
Thank you for dropping by to my little bit of blogland, it's so lovely to see you.........wishing you a wonderful week and i hope the sun shines for you...........back soon xxxxxxxx

Happy Days

The sun  is shining, we have bright spring flowers, there are blackbirds singing outside my studio window.....happy spring days are here.....and before i tell you more about the last few crafty days i would like to announce the winner of my springtime giveaway........a big thank you to everyone who took part i wish you could all be winners but there is only one today, and that is......birdie blue.......a sweet blog that i love to visit! congratulations to you molly...i will be in touch x...........  i've been thinking up more giveaway ideas so will be having another one soon............. so good luck everyone in the next one...............

 .......recently i mentioned that i was making some granny squares with the yarn left over from my spring flowers granny stripe blanket.....i crocheted them together with spring green yarn and then i added.....some flowers...

                                            ............so it became the primrose patch pillow..........

 .............i love making crochet flowers....and on mother's day i was delighted to discover i wasn't the only one in our family making them..........my daughter sarah learnt to crochet a few weeks ago, and i knew she was busy making a gorgeous stripy blanket.....but i didn't know that she was also looking on the internet and learning to make flowers to make me a sweet mother's day brooch...!

 ........happy days....seeing my dearies....having sweet gifts like these......wonderful pip studio jug picked specially for me by rosie ...eton fudge shop deliciousness......pretty cards and flowers........

 ....a delightful mother's day block which my daughter secretly ordered from fee..........and CaKe of course (not made by me).......yummy lemon drizzle cake with vanilla sugar lemon topping.....and there were scrumptious chocolate buns too but i didn't manage to take a picture of those..........the children were very keen on munching those up and daisy loved the squishiness of them and the exciting potential for chocolate-y decorating on everyone and everything ;-)

 .....you can tell it's spring because a little chick flew into my studio last week....master willow is cheeping happily here thanks to jooles.....i missed out on the little robins that jooles made at christmas so i got my order in quickly this time for a spring chick........i was a bit spoilt for choice as there were so many cute little chicks to choose from.....

....this week i am sorting out seeds to plant.....i am planning to have my usual sweet pea wigwam and next to it the beans wigwam, and then a few salad vegetables.......and a little bit of spare ground is going to be a cutting patch (i hope!)....so maybe this year will be the floweriest year ever in our garden...?  
Thank you for visiting me here in my little flower patch of blogland....i love your visits and it's been fun reading your comments on my giveaway and meeting so many lovely new (to me) bloggers....wishing you all sunshine and happy days..........back soon xxxxxxxxxx

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

Crochet Colour

Today it is grey and rainy here so i decided it was the perfect day to show some colourful crochet projects....the bliss of crochet for me is the way you can use LoTs of colour in one project, often the more the better in fact....i showed you the project below a while ago when i'd just begun....i was learning to crochet the granny squares together instead of sewing them together, which i now much prefer......i loved the cornish blue wool and thought it worked well with the squares which had a red or pink flower in the centre and a row of white surrounding it....

 ....i finished it, apart from an edging,  a while ago and then had to work out how to do a picot edge as that's what i really wanted it to have so that held it up for a bit longer, and then i made some cushions as presents which held it up even longer....but finally it was all finished and here it is......

 .......if my first blanket was a BiG one then my second is a small one, but still very cosy and nice to snuggle under.....and i do like this edge too and will use it again on another one i think......

 .....and then the next plan was to make a granny stripe after all those granny squares.....i had seen so many beautiful ones made by so many of you that i was really looking forward to beginning this.....except i didn't actually know how to begin.....but i found an excellent tutorial by Lucy at Attic 24 and soon i could crochet a granny stripe too :-).......

                                                     ......the colours make me think of spring......

                                                      .......lots of fresh floral shades........

 ....i used some of the yarn i already had and ordered a few more shades that took my fancy.......the colours remind me of spring bulbs and pots of primroses, a real colour fix on a grey day like today.......

 ....i shall be doing a bit of my granny stripe this evening and maybe making a block for my quilt too....

......but now it's back to working on sewing top secret projects....with a nice cup of tea i think too....
Thank you for popping in here, it's always lovely to see you ......wishing you a wonderful, happy, colourful and cosy weekend....back soon xxxxxxx

Crafty New Year

 The winter hearts here are some i made to add to gifts this christmas....scented with pot pourri or dotted with a fragrant winter scented oil, they are a sweet little extra to put inside a package, or hide in the pocket of a bag or other gift.....

                                                 ......or to hang on the outside of a gift bag......

 One of the best crafty things in 2011 for me was finally learning to crochet......and i have been making granny squares in my spare moments ever since that hot sunny day when i first began.......

 ........i made this cushion as a present  for one of my dearies who just loves pastel shades......

 ......and a bright one, below being wrapped up on my desk......having enjoyed the granny square for quite a few projects, i have now decided to move on to a granny stripe so will be back to show you that in the new year.........

 ......there is a big pile of fabric waiting in my studio for a whole host of exciting new projects....this year i will be working on my next book, well i already am, but it takes a while ;-) .......i love the thought of so much crafty creativity stretching ahead over the coming months....the feeling is one of real happiness......

 ....i wish you the same feeling of joy and happiness in your creative world this year too.......

Thank you for reading my blog during 2011 and for your very sweet comments and emails.....blogging is so much more than i realised when i began and i love to visit all of you around the world and share a little of your creative lives too....wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a wonderful, inspired and creative year ahead....back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Cosy Kitchen

 As the days are drawing in and becoming darker, I find I'm spending more time in my cosy kitchen, making warming wintry meals like soups and casseroles, and baking things to put in the freezer, just because it's so cosy in there...........this week I had a nice surprise when the lovely Al McCavery contacted me and asked if I'd like to choose two tea towels to review from his website All Tea Towels....(yes, please)......

 .....the website is a cornucopia of designer tea towels made from the finest quality linen, cotton or linen union and I was really spoilt for choice....I eventually decided to choose the Enchanted Forest Tea Towel because its red and white design chimes in perfectly with my Christmas themes and I love all the woodland creatures and sweet folk art style decoration......

 ....and the Union Jack Tea Towel because I also love the Brit chic look (and am currently working on a magazine commission for next year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations) so this design is perfect to be drying my dishes with right now........

 The All Tea Towels site is a lovely one to browse for gift ideas (shipping is fast and worldwide), and there is a charming page on the History of Tea Towels (and Dish Towels too)!

 One more thing to show you for my cosy kitchen this week.......at last I have made a granny cushion for my cane chair (where I sit and stitch, knit or crochet sometimes while waiting for a cake to bake or dinner to cook)......yes, the Bright and Flowery granny cushion  has had it's final flower sewn on, and a border crocheted round it ............

                                             ..........and now it is in place my cosy kitchen ..........

             I hope you like it..... it was inspired by many of you and the wonderful crochet you create!

Thank you for dropping in to see me today, and for those who leave such sweet comments a big thank you ....I read each and every one and enjoy them all. Wishing you all a happy cosy week. Back soon xxxx