Hearts for Spring

With the sunshine beaming down, the garden filled with birdsong and the scent of flowers and cut grass....it is very hard to stay in and draw templates and write up projects which is what i've been doing this week....i have made a lot of patchwork projects lately but can't show them until they are published....but i can show these little hearts made from scraps and decorated with chick patches and flower buttons.......

 There are signs of easter appearing now too.....some chickens and some little eggs here and there....

 .....at the weekend we were outdoors all the time enjoying the sun...so hot and unbelievable for march......

 ....we even had to water the plants.....and i planted some seeds and ordered some sweet peas (more about those later).....i had a couple of lucky duck moments again over the last week.....one was winning this sweet fabric in Tricia's giveaway......perfect little prints to make some small projects, perhaps a doll's quilt.......Tricia makes beautiful things, i love her quilts,  her sewing and her crochet...you can find her here and her etsy shop is here..

                      ...........thank you Tricia for your generous sharing of sweet fabrics with me :-)........

 .....one more lucky find was this thrifted embroidered tablecloth, perfect for afternoon tea in the summery garden...............

...............each corner is beautifully stitched in pretty coloured flowers and each one is different  too............

...........back to work now.....drawing and painting illustrations today....might pop out to the garden though in my lunch hour ;-) .........thank you for dropping in to see me, i do love your visits....... i hope you are having a sweet and sunny week wherever you are and enjoying good times...........back soon xxxxxxxxxx

Patchwork and Pottering

 Two of my favourite things...patchwork and pottering in the garden....and i did some of both last weekend.....

 ...we were able to garden properly for the first time this season....i weeded and mulched one of the borders (mulching sounds quite professional don't you think?) and Mr P did lots of his favourite kind of gardening... that is, pruning things ;-).....we were both very contented and it was lovely to sit outside and have a cup of tea again in a sheltered bit of the garden, with the sun shining and the birds singing (and some homemade tea bread from the Mary Berry Baking Book).........

....and then a bit of pottering in the potting shed for me....with some new spring plants to either pot on and enjoy indoors or to decide where to plant outside......

 ....weekend breakfasts.... i just love that leisurely feel to a weekend morning....are you noticing  lot of CK things appearing here?......there is a reason for it which i will show you in a moment.....

 ...........a quilt i made a while ago, inspired by CK fabrics, especially the gorgeous blue strawberry one, my regular breakfast cereal bowl...... and a cute little CK badge on a gift that arrived this week.......

....lady luck has smiled on me again this week and i won the Cath Kidston Patch book  in the giveaway at the gorgeous Mary Jane's Tearoom....so exciting...(here it is being pictured with my Strawberry Hearts quilt..)

 ...a big huge thank you to Susan for this wonderful giveaway ...Mary Jane's Tearoom is one of my favourite blogs....not only do i love all the delicious colours and pictures, but i love to see Susan's original designs for her knitted mice and bunnies, they are so delightful....if you don't already know this blog do go and visit, you're in for a real treat.....

 ....it was lovely to be back in the potting shed again, i have swept it all out, tidied it up and found my gardening things again....it really feels like spring is here once i start to garden once more.....

 .....a bit more patchwork....this is a peek at a new quilt i've been slowly working on over the last few months...it will have more applique and some colourful quilting....i will be back with another update on it soon i hope, as well as another farmer's wife block......yesterday i taught my elder daughter how to begin to crochet a granny stripe blanket...i think she's hooked.... she rang up today to say she's now on to the third stripe :-).....

......i love my crafty things, they make me sooo happy....and it's always wonderful to hear that it makes others happy too.....thanks for popping in to visit me here today, it's a pleasure to see you.....enjoy your week, i hope you find lots of happy crafty moments, and the sun shines for you too......back soon xxxxx

Hearts and Flowers

I expect lots of hearts will be being made and bought as valentine's day fast approaches ...of course i am making some too....but then i am always making hearts here for one reason or another ;-).....................

 .....this blue flowery one is a sewing themed one for someone who *hearts* sewing just as much as me....

....and as well as hearts we have some flowers today .....this week i was given some beautiful tulips by my elder daughter which were chosen specially for me by my little grandson Charlie :-)) ..... they have really brightened up the house which was rather grey on one or two days and absolutely freezing cold....or sunny and still  absolutely freezing cold....but while the rest of the uk is now out playing in the snow we haven't got any at all!! .....not a single flake...

 ....i eyed the sledges in the cellar today rather disappointedly :-( ......but never mind the good news is that here the temperatures have gone back up and i can remove at least one layer of rowan felted tweed cardigans and one woolly scarf........

 .....do you remember this little yellow home sweet home heart i showed here last year? i am going on a stitched heart hunt around the house (and potting shed) to collect them all together and hang them up for valentine's day.......

 ....the baby bunny heart here is my project in this month's Crafts Beautiful magazine...read more about it here.......the name Ruby is one i really like, it is also the nickname of one of my younger sisters x.....

 ......naming things is something i always enjoy, and i love the names of the quilt blocks in the Farmer's Wife Quilt book....here are two new ones i've made called Spool and Old Windmill..........

....and here is a quick picture of my cosy Spring Flowers blanket, still striping merrily along and keeping me cosy at the same time....it's always a good idea to hand sew a quilt or crochet a blanket when the weather is chilly isn't it?
Thank you for dropping by today, it's so lovely to see you.....i hope you are keeping warm if you live in the colder parts of the world...(or just right if in the warmer ones).....and that you have a wonderful, happy flowery week....back soon xxxxxxx

Fresh and New

 A fresh new year, and a fresh new start....i love the sense of new beginnings that this time brings.... and the tidying away of the xmas decorations and arranging of new things that i received from my dearies is always a new year pleasure......the blossom in the sweet new greengate jug above is from a tree in our front garden that blooms almost all year round...

                          ....some new sewing pretties came my way and will be put to good use ......

 

 .....and some delightful new pip china ......there is a jolly little robin in the garden today too, just like this one...i love the vivid colours and the textures of this design, and the stripes and the clever mix of new and vintage style...

 ........soon there will be more baking.... once the recent feasting has been recovered from.... and this sweet book will be inspiring me.......

 ..........i've been working hard since yesterday when Mr P went back to work and so did i.....my studio has been de-christmassed and some new bulbs have been brought in (yet to open, but almost there).....

 ....the light changes all the time, from a bright sunny spell first thing to grey and silvery and then to deep dark cloud......

 ....i have lots of illustrations to do, and my new book projects to make and write about, and my new stripy crochet blanket is growing amazingly fast, as many of you predicted, i love doing the stripes too :-))....will take a picture of it very soon.....

......wishing you all a happy first week of January...thanks so much for dropping in to see me and for everyone who follows and comments a big ThAnK YoU.....keep cosy and have a wonderful week....i'll be back soon xxxxxxxx

Flowers and Fabrics

 All the flowers in this little jug were picked from the garden today.... unusual November flowers for our garden which is normally rather flowerless by now, but today i found some cornflowers... some cosmos....some lavender.......white geranium....cranesbill.....fuschia.........

some nasturtiums... scabious.... daisies....and some purple flowers that i can't remember the name of....
i went out to put some vegetable peelings in the beehive composter this morning and saw a hyacinth flowering in one of the borders, which made me then go and investigate the rest of the garden to see what the flowers were up to, and that's how i found all these....most unusual but a pretty surprise.....

 This week has been a bit of a fabric fest here as i've been working on some big fabric-y projects......

 ....more about these lovely Liberty fabrics in a future post....how delicious they are......

 and so is this lovely tilda fabric which i've used to back my christmas quilt, and then made a quick pincushion with some of the left over fabric....i can never have too many pincushions and love lots of them around the house....

 ... as you can see this little bundle of squares has the cute name of flurry and though we haven't had any snow flurries here yet, it's been a flurry of fabric and projects in my studio this week.....these squares might become a cushion but i haven't quite decided yet.......

....and yes, there has been a bit of christmas crafting going on too....a few teeny things hidden away as surprises for family and friends....and i am making some little labels to add to my christmas quilt using rubber stamped words...i've been washing them to test for colourfastness and they seem fine, and i thought i might add some of these red and green dotty buttons too....
Thank you very much for dropping by to see me and for your very kind comments....i hope you are all having a wonderful weekend......i'll be back soon with a giveaway!! xxxxx

Happy Weekend

 This week seems to have gone by exceptionally quickly, with lots to do....but still time to make this little doily cone and fill it with snippets of flowers, leaves and berries......

 ....some little bits from the garden and some tiny heads of cut flowers......you can put a tiny jar with water inside the doily cone and the flowers last quite a few days........
I think the week went by so fast for me because a rather cute and interesting little design project came my way (which i look forward to sharing with you soon) so i was quite engrossed doing that as well as my planned commissions... ...you know how time flies when you are busy making things .....and now i am looking forward to the weekend and spending time with the family......

              .......as well as looking for some buttons to finish off my cornflower cardi........

           ..........and looking for a nice one of these ready to make our pumpkin lantern next week......

 ..........and maybe sorting out these lovely old mending thread cards someone gave me....not sure if i'll sew with them, but i love the cards themselves, speaking of bygone days when everything was neatly darned and mended .......

........and i'll also be sewing just a little too as i finally finish off the great autumn mushroom craze i've been having........what will you be doing this weekend, i wonder?........thanks for popping in to see me here....i wish you all a sunny and happy weekend....Back soon xxxxxx

Crafty Things

 Now i'm feeling settled in to the newly organised studio because i've actually done some work in it...until i produce something creative in my new room (or new house if we move) it always feels a bit unfamiliar...

 ....new  crafty projects this week included some delicious ribbons and some shiny alpha beads....

 and a very exciting new crafty aquisition has come my way from across the pond....when i saw the gorgeous dotty crochet hook made by the lovely Robin at my nest of yarn and buttons i just had to order one...

 ...and it arrived with an extra treat...this lovely little drawstring project bag and sewing up needle...what a lovely surprise and such a great idea to include with the crochet hook...you can order them from Robin's new etsy shop called Robin's Nest here.....

 ....i'm doing lots of my crochet blanket at the moment during the evenings....in the day i'm in my studio most of the time despite the glorious weather as i have some projects to finish for a deadline...

 ...these little bears are keeping me company as they appeared from the bottom of  a cardboard box after the grand sort out...they were book and magazine project bears from a few years ago....

...some autumn flowers to draw, picked from my very summery autumn garden this week...i love to paint a few fresh flowers and berries when the seasons change each year...this is the best Indian summer i can remember, and how wonderful to go for walks and see the trees changing colour and the berries glowing in such warm and sunny blue sky conditions....marvellous!
Hope you're having a great week wherever you are. Thank you so much for dropping in to see me and for the very sweet comments on my last post about my studio. I've got lots more crafty things coming up to show you....back soon. xxxxx