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

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

Hearts, Flowers and Holidays

A few more hearts for you today...this one is a gardener's heart.... if you would like to use the same blue forget me not flower you can find it here... 

 And this little heart was inspired when I saw the adorable postcard-y fabric....I thought a little heart for a leaving gift would be nice - and the words could be whatever you chose of course, but I liked the idea of it being linked to the postal service in some way rather than the newer forms of communication.......

                                       All the fabrics in this post came from Fancy Moon here..

Here are the flowers promised in my post title....a little collection of some of my favourites, there are so many to choose from at the moment aren't there....This week it was so windy here I brought the big tulip pots inside to stop the leaves being shredded! I'll be showing the tulip pictures in a later post for a real tulip-fest (I hope!).......

And a holiday? Yes, tomorrow we are heading off to the countryside for a week's r and r. We'll be staying in a little cottage among the sheep dotted rolling green hills of the beautiful Lake District - a bit like the picture above by Beatrix Potter -  though we are hoping for better weather than this..... I've been gathering together all the things we take on our country holidays - knitting, patchwork, books, kindle, flapjacks, quilt.....oh and walking boots, wellies and waterproofs too....

We love our Lakeland holidays - the first time we ever went there together was in our teens when Mr P had his first car and we went for the day...quite an adventure then...

So I'll be a bit quiet this week and that is why! You can imagine me taking photos of the sheep and the daffodils and looking out for Peter Rabbit!

Thank you to everyone who has recently become a follower, and to everyone who visits me here in my little bit of blogland, and for all the sweet comments. I hope you all have a wonderful week, with sunshine, spring flowers, blue skies and lots of crafty times. Back in a few days! xxxxxxx

Hearts and Hexies

I've been having a lovely week so far, filled with hearts, hexies, fab fabrics, some delicious flowers from the garden to enjoy inside (while it was raining!) all topped off with a few scoops of mini eggs a day!

This little heart was made for someone special and I loved making it - choosing some of my favourite fabrics and adding embellishments. I actually made the heart a little while ago, but finished it off this week with the embroidery, felt flower, button and little stamped message.....

I bought the felt flower ready made - one of my online crafty purchases. It was just the right shade of blue that I wanted to use here....The other heart I finished this week is for a magazine so I can't show it yet, but I loved making that one too and will put it on here as soon as I can....

And my other love this week is making hexies - I'm using lots of pretty fabrics, and cutting lots of papers from old charts and  printed text from past projects that I keep for scrap paper and recycle in various ways. Last year at the Quilt Exhibition in London there was a very old patchwork quilt with all the papers still in the back - wonderful bits of old letters. My first ever quilt - made in the 70's (shhh) was a hexagon one, and although colourwise it's not really my taste now it's a fascinating archive of Laura Ashley and Liberty fabrics of the time, and the strange thing is when I look at it now I remember all the dresses they came from, and the friends who donated pieces of their left over dress fabric too.....I rather wish I'd left those papers in the back too......

It has been raining for part of today which was probably a good thing as I got on with the work I needed to do. Nearly all done now....and time to play with some more fabric. I received a new order of really yummy ones this week - I'm sure the postie loves calling here he gets such a delighted reception as he hands over the parcels to me!! The sight of really inspiring new colourful fabric designs really takes my breath away sometimes, and I'm glad when it does too - there's nothing worse than being un inspired by the things you want to create with is there?!

These spring flowers are looking very cheerful on my kitchen windowsill today - I began by picking the hyacinths as the rain made them lie down on the soil! then I snipped a few primroses, scillas, grape hyacinths, pulmonaria and forget me nots so I had a proper little spring posy. The hyacinths scent is gorgeous too, of course, and it's lovely to have some of it floating around the house again.... Hope you're having a lovely week too. Thank you for visiting me here in my little space....Back soon xxxxx

Roses Are Red

 Roses are red...violets are blue....there are two winners....and one might be you!! (If you entered my Sweet Hearts giveaway last week that is!) But first of all I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day!

I won't keep you wondering any longer... Last night we put all of the giveaway entries names in a hat (well, a blue spotty bowl actually) - and two names were drawn out....and the winners are:

Claire of Paint Drops Keep Falling

                                                  Robin of My Nest of Yarn and Buttons 

 Congratulations to both of you!! If you would like to email me your postal addresses I'll send your dotty hearts to you asap. (My email address is on the side bar there.) ThAnK yOu to everyone who entered my giveaway - it was lovely to have so many people leave a comment to win and I found some lovely new blogs too. I wish I could send a heart to all of you! But never mind if you didn't win this time, as I'm planning to do another giveaway soon - it was fun!

I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day, whether you're a true romantic or more of a funny valentine person I hope your day is filled with sunshine, happiness and flowers and maybe a few chocolate-y treats too. Back soon xxx

Sweet Hearts Giveaway!

Welcome to my blog today - and to my first giveaway!! I wanted to thank  all my sweet readers for taking time to visit my little bit of blogland, to read, to comment, to share and be a part of it...... so here is a chance to win a little gift - in fact a chance for two winners to win a heart each!

Both the hearts are hand made by me, with applique patches, a little cross stitch embroidery, and of course a few buttons....They can be hung almost anywhere you like.....

 ...or used as a pincushion - pretty to have around and small enough to tuck into your work basket....

 ....and on the back of each heart I've stitched my initials with one strand of cotton over one thread of linen - and added another button apiece too...

If you would like to be put in the draw to win one of these sweet hearts, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post!! So easy! The giveaway will be open until next Sunday, and I will announce the two winners on Monday February 14 - Valentine's Day!!

I'll be back here before then, of course...I hope you are having a lovely weekend - it's rather windy here but the sun is just peeking out and we're off for a walk soon. Enjoy your day! And good luck in the sweet heart giveaway!! xx

Merry Hearts

 Hello! I hope you like the title of my post today! Here are some of my merry felt hearts. I made these quite a few years ago, inspired by the shaker shop which had some wonderful decorations that year. I made a set for our tree, and then I liked making them so much I kept on making them and gave them as an extra with most presents, tucked inside as a surprise. I even gave one to an acquaintance who probably wondered what it was!!

 I loved stitching and embroidering the felt, and some day I will do lots of things made from it when I have more time. The little feather trees were made with a tiny applique fabric pot. It was one of the most fun decorations I've made! The next picture shows one heart hanging on the kitchen cupboard, but soon I'll show you them all hanging on our tree!

 Today I got a lot done - some designing, some thinking about designing (which also counts as work of course, in my job), some cleaning and tidying, and some present wrapping and not just tiny easy ones too! I would show you the growing pile but it's too dark now, so maybe tomorrow? And here are a few more quick and easy gift tags made from scraps - I love it when nothing goes to waste and you get some little handmade extras too...

So I have a very merry heart today and I do hope you do too! It may be freezing outside, but it's lovely to be cosy indoors and busy crafting. I've also been knitting a bit today and sewing a sweet cuddly creature which I will be showing you very soon... Keep warm and snug, and thank you for popping by and for your sweet comments.Back soon. xx

A Crafty Heart

My little shabby chic heart returned yesterday from its recent photoshoot for Sew Magazine which I design projects for sometimes.

This heart was a treat to make because I could play around with some favourite fabrics, patchwork, applique, a bit of cross stitch, embroidery, ribbons and buttons - all things I love to create with.



I decided to hang it on the bed post in the refurbished and newly painted spare bedroom. So now our home has another heart.

Also yesterday a fabric and buttons order arrived from the wonderful Sew and So and I just had to take a picture of these buttons from Just Another Button Company - birdhouses and hearts....Lovely.

P.S. To those who kindly enquired about my knitting in the last post - I will be showing pictures of my two latest knits and giving pattern information very soon. Have a happy weekend! x