Keeping Calm and Making Things

After a very looong wait this year, it will soon be Easter at last and here are the little treat bags I've been making with the pretty fabrics I showed you a while ago. I got them at a local village quilt show, on a little stall, as a pack of fat quarters....I love the daisy one best.... I've made something else too but will save it for another post soon...

                       And why do I need to keep calm especially this week? Because of this.....

...our house is completely surrounded by scaffolding  because our old leaky roof is finally being replaced. It's sheltered this house for nearly 140 years but now it's past repairing, too many gales have caused too much damage and while the new tiles wait stacked up outside, the old ones are being noisily removed....

...sometimes I avoid the flying tiles and retreat to the bottom of the garden, to spend a bit of time in the peaceful potting shed...with some new garden treats from my daughter Sarah....and potting up new little geraniums I bought last week in Ambleside.....

.......enjoying all the flowers that have bloomed while we were away, too like this bowl planted with two shades of grape hyacinths and lots of violas....

...the workmen kindly moved all my pots away from the house to prevent them being damaged, and it's quite nice to see them in different parts of the garden for a change....

...this is my inspiring picture, made specially for me by my daughter Rosie...I've put it in the studio and I do believe it's working! Back to some designing now ( yes, for the shhh xmas projects for well prepared magazine editors, but don't worry I won't be revealing them for many months yet!!) ... I will also be sewing some more little Easter bags and working on two new quilts and knitting something new with some BIG wool...... Hope your week is sunny and happy. Back soon xxxx

This Old House

Our house is old - built in the 1870's - and has had many renovations over its lifetime, including some by us. People before us saved it from falling into complete dilapidation by sorting out the basics for which we're very grateful.

Some of the features have been left as they were originally and I like that sense of history you get when you can imagine people from maybe a hundred years ago moving around this space, running their hand down the banisters or opening a door in the dark cellar using that very same latch.

Most of the ceiling mouldings here are quite restrained, for the Victorian era, but there are two rather decorative ones tucked away on a turn in the stairs where hardly anyone notices them.

Old doors, old key holes, long lost keys somewhere.

Well, it wouldn't be a Victorian house without one of these, would it?! It's really quite a hard worn floor now and it doesn't usually gleam like this but the tiles are still damp from a recent mopping!

So, those are just a few pictures of the some of the old bits of this old house, and I'll post a few more another time.

Hope you're having a great weekend. x