In the Mail

There have been some treats in the mail over the last few days..... making a very nice change from bills and unwanted catalogues and suchlike ;-).....i was the very lucky winner in the lovely Katie's giveaway over at her crafty blog Booty-licious.....

.....there were lots of lovely gifts all sweetly wrapped in this lovely union jack paper....the toadstool and the keep calm card holder in the top picture were amongst the lovely surprises, and there were chocolates (now gone) and ribbons which i will show in another post....and a set of miniature postcards......

 .....i picked out some romantic couples today as it's valentine's week, but there are lots of others too........so a big ThAnK YoU to Katie for your gorgeous giveaway ................i will enjoy using these treats vey much.....

                                      ........ i love the postmark stamps on these sweet Greengate egg cups.......
  

....another delightful parcel arrived too this week ....my valentine/anniversary present is this sweet teapot..........i can just imagine using it for afternoon tea in the summer garden, surrounded by real flowers............

 .....not too long to wait.......the weather is definitely more spring like today, with sun peeking through, and spring flowers popping their heads up by the day........i even went into the potting shed yesterday for a little potter about......and it felt almost warm with the sun shining in there too......

....my latest farmer's wife quilt block is sooo appropriately named for this post.......because it's called postage stamp :-) i loved making this one even though the squares are exceedingly tiny.....it would mke a nice little mouse quilt.....
thank you so much for dropping in to see me here today.....i love your visits......i hope you are having  a happy week, with sunshine and things you love...and maybe some treats in the mail......back soon xxxxxx

Sweet Valentine

 We will be having some sweet treats here this weekend.......celebrating a little, partly because it's so close to Valentine's Day..... and partly because tomorrow is the anniversary of the day that Mr P and i first met ( a gazzillion years ago) at a schoolfriend's party.................

...........so reason enough to bake and decorate some pretty cakes to share with my dearies...........

 .......and time to use this sweet cake bunting which was made by the lovely Jooles at Sew Sweet Violet here....

....i love all the things that Jooles makes, they are so perfect and pretty....romantic, stylish and contemporary...

 ......love this little sign too.....i will be using this bunting for other special occasions besides Valentine's Day...

........a new romantic chopping board...too pretty to put to use in the kitchen just yet, so i am enjoying just looking at it in my sewing room for now........the sun has been shining in through the sewing room windows this week and making all the fabrics look so bright and cheery....even though the temperatures have been very low and my clothes layering is back in full force.......

            ......i had to show you this Farmer's Wife quilt block today because it's called Bouquet.....

.......and some little valentine tags, as part of my small tag set begun in the last post........i'm looking forward to making more post mark-y things very soon.......
....thank you for dropping into my little bit of blogland today, it's a real treat to see you....I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, with sunshine and sweet things coming your way......back soon xxxxxxxxxxx

Sew Sunny

 The last few days have been amazingly sunny and bright, and we have had beautiful blue skies and white frost...

 ....besides getting out and about for lovely walks beside the sea and to our favourite gardens, i have been reading and sewing....one inspired by the other......the two books above arrived here last week....one of those reading trails where one thing leads to another....i had read The Diary of a Farmer's Wife years ago and loved it but didn't have my own copy till now and am so enjoying re reading it......

 ....below is a detail from a quilt i made when i was in my folk art craze...it shows the farmer's wife feeding her hens, beneath a very sunny blue sky......

 ....the second book is also wonderful ....The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book contains letters from 1920's farm wives and the 111 blocks they inspired....it is just the book i  have been wanting as it has a delightful range of quite small blocks, with templates, that you can paper piece or machine sew.....and i do love paper piecing and small projects that add up to a bigger one...slowly and enjoyably.....

                                                    text from diary of a farmer's wife 1796-1797  


 .....so far i have made three blocks.... called Homeward Bound, Practical Orchard and Bow Tie...I love the names of the blocks and the homely associations and choosing which one to do next.......

.....they are fun to do and very varied.....they have captured many people's imaginations and i know there are lots of lovely quilt alongs going on across the pond  where people make a set number of blocks per week or month....

 .......a lovely project to be involved in and i know i will enjoy quietly working on a block for this quilt whenever i get a moment away from all the top secret projects i'm busily producing at the moment in my studio and sewing room......i will leave you with a picture of the incredibly blue sky taken yesterday when we had our seaside walk....i added this picture to the lovely Annie's delightful new Sky 365 project on flickr...pop over to knitsofacto to find out all about it and how to join in.....

...thank you for dropping in to see me and for the lovely comments and emails which i sooo enjoy, it's so good to hear from you.....wishing you a happy week with lots of sunny crafty times...back soon xxxxxxx

Merry Wishes Quilt

 Since my last post it has been real quilt weather here....with icy cold winds blowing every day....so lucky that i finished my merry wishes quilt in time for the wintry weather and festive season i think....

.....it was just a quick and easy little quilt, made of simple squares of fabrics in mostly reds and greens, using up lots of my stash that had been around for a while and needed to make room for new fabrics.....

 .......i added labels here and there with xmas themes and cheery wishes....and then i remembered a baby quilt i made a few years ago that i added a pocket to, with a little stuffed teddy in it.....so i decided that the merry wishes quilt should have a pocket on the back too.......

 ....with a little stuffed heart in it, scented with delicious winter pot pourri, and with a little festive message stamped on the selvedge ribbon at the top.....i love making little fiddly things like this, especially when i should be doing something else really......

 ....i'm hoping that this quilt will be part of many merry memories this christmas and in the future .....

....a few more red and green things from this week.....a present for a friend who has a birthday next week and some delicious red currant jelly she made for us, my new red and green jingle bell wreath which jingled merrily in the back of the car all the way home when we bought it last week.....and bright and christmassy  flowers my lovely daughter and son in law gave me at the weekend....
It is still very cold here at the moment, and still very windy....lots of woolly layers are needed and i have begun knitting a new woolly scarf which i hope to show you soon.....hope you are keeping cosy (or pleasantly warm if you are over on the other side of the world).....

Thank you for visiting me and for the lovely comments.....tomorrow is the closing day for my giveaway and we will do the draw ready for me to reveal the winner next time......i hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week...back soon xxxxxxxxxx

November Studio

Today i thought you might like a little look at my studio, now in a slightly less tidy state than when i showed you last time after the big sort out, but not too bad (yet).....i brought the lovely little rose hips in from the garden yesterday after Mr P pruned one of the rambling roses and i was finally able to reach them......and here are some more berries in the form of one of Vanessa's sweet holly brooches, such a treat.....

 ....i love Vanessa's blog and work and these little brooches are like tiny sculptures, made from a mix of paper mache, crochet, fabric and embroidery and so cleverly constructed that you can move each berry and leaf as they are wired individually...i tried the brooch on my conrflower cardi...lovely....and the colours reminded me rather of the mille colori yarn i bought this time last year at the knitting and stitching show.....i used the yarn for this corkscrew scarf......

 ......the pattern and yarn can be found here.....the holly brooch looks lovely decorating my studio this week, but i know it will also be perfect on my winter coats......

 ....and here is a card featuring one of Vanessa's delightful sculptures...Sir Henry Brambles is on my mantlepiece this week... you can find Vanessa's sculptures, cards, paintings and prints here.....

 ......and now it's nearly time for me to go back to my crafty work, helped of course by a nice cup of tea...this week i am making some top secret projects....i am also making something for a giveaway which i'll tell you about very soon.......

 .....i bought some new felt supplies at a big craft store at the weekend, you can always tell it's November in my studio when i start cutting things out of festive felt......

........and here is a sneak peek of what i'm stitching in the evenings, cosy by the fire, making a new quilt to brighten up the xmas sofa....i'm so enjoying quilting this simple design, and loving all the fabrics in it, some of which i've had a long time......thanks for popping in to my bit of blogland and for all your lovely comments.....hope you have a wonderful, cosy, crafty week.....back soon. xxx  

Sew Busy

 Autumn flower snippets picked today in the blustery sunshine, between the showers.....between being very busy.....

 ....and the flower sugar nine patch quilt, finally finished over the weekend....I sewed on the binding partly by machine (between a shopping trip and our evening meal) and then slipstitched it down while watching a movie that evening....that's how I work, fitting my crafty projects in with my domestic life like jigsaw pieces...just like most women do.....

                                                       ...here's the new quilt hanging up.....

 and here it is spread out on the table in my almost cleared out studio....that's the main reason why I'm so busy this week.......

 ....clearing out years of papers, art materials, boxes of ephemera, stacks of magazines, folders of artwork, books and more books....everything has to be taken out and the furniture then removed so the new flooring can go in....

 ...I knew it would be a lot of work...but I knew I'd just have to do it and it will be worth it....

 ...in the picture below you can see the empty bookshelves behind the folded quilt...it took a long time to move everything off those shelves....but now everything is out...and the rest of the rooms on that floor are now messed up with the contents of the studio, but gradually I'm sorting out the stuff to keep and the stuff to go....and in a week or two I'm hoping all will be orderly again and much nicer than before....

 ....my crafts materials will be sorted and only the books I really want will be on the shelves (the rest will be in the little book room up on the top floor where I keep masses of reference books).......

....and all will be calm and tidy just as I like it.....but in the meantime I have to be sooo busy sorting and making decisions about keeping or not keeping old letters, scraps of paper, old sketchbooks of ideas....old cards from loved ones, old work documents, and things that might come in handy some day....sooo much stuff.....I hope to get it done quite soon though and look forward to getting all the rooms back to normal...

Wishing you all a happy week with lots of sunshine and sweet flowers wherever you are...thank you for dropping in to see me here and for the lovely comments...back to the tidying now...and back here again soon too  xxxxxxx

Sailing By

Hello!! I'm quickly sailing by today with a short post from our regatta week away...I feel as if I've been away ages this time and have so many blogs to catch up with...the pictures above were taken at Red Wharf Bay , Beaumaris and Caernarvon when we did a bit of exploring before the sailing began...

 ...here is the start of one race, with Mr P's boat in there too...I love watching them sail, and the Menai Straits is a great place to see the racing going on...

...some pictures of Beaumaris and the pretty pastel buildings...it is a very old town with a medieval castle, steeped in history and has a wonderful unspoilt atmosphere...each time I stay here I especially love to visit the Janet Bell Gallery where the mix of Janet's paintings and a variety of other artists work is always vibrant and exciting...you can visit them online here too... 

 We bought a gorgeous new print to add to our collection ...this is Penmon Pebbles by Janet Bell...

...and did I do lots of crafting while I was away you may be wondering? well, not nearly as much as I expected, what with the meeting up with friends and the sight seeing and the popping into the shops and watching the boats...I did some of my nine patch quilt, stitching in the ditch and in diagonal lines across the squares, and a teeny bit of crochet, learning to make flowers which I will show you in another post...and I did some work but not enough...so have lots to catch up with..

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post (seems like ages ago doesn't it?) about my first crochet blanket, it was so nice to read them all! Thanks for dropping by today too, I love your visits..I am going now to do all the chores that a week away seems to provide...Hope you are all having a great weekend! Back very soon xxxxx