Easter Time

 Spring time...easter time....flowers, blossom, sunshine, speckled eggs, pretty coloured easter decorations....no wonder it's one of my favourite times of the year.....i do love to get out the box of easter treasures and arrange them each year, and maybe add a new one or two......

 ....this time i have been a bit late getting the house decorated....but gradually the eggs are appearing....

 ....and some chicks and bunnies have hopped into place too.....as i mentioned before, i have been busy painting and drawing book illustrations,  and though i can't show them until they are published, i can show you this little watercolour i did of two of my favourite bunnies, flora and little maisie..........

 ............we often get together with family over easter and this year my sister ruby is having a  party on easter day   :-).........we also love to garden of course and have already had a visit to a beautiful garden centre today and bought some new plants...........i picked a few flowers for this tin in the potting shed......

 ....just need the weather to warm up and the sun to peek out a bit more and we'll be happily planting seeds...

 ....below are some of my beautiful new blocks from fee at chipper nelly....i really love these birds' egg ones, and they decorate my studio so well especially combined with lots of things i've collected, like the tiny hen in the chipped flower pot nest i've had for years....these blocks are so pretty i love finding different ways of displaying them......

 .....the sweet gingham ribbon has arrived for my easter hearts and i have almost finished making them now...

              ..........sewing on the last buttons before wrapping them up in coloured tissue paper..........

....last view of the flowery, speckled egg wreath on the potting shed door......before i go i just want to say a big thank you to everyone who contacted me about my little broken bottle with suggestions of where i could buy a replacement....i'll keep you posted...it's looking good so far ;-)
........i'm looking forward to the weekend to come and i hope you are too....thank you for popping in here to see me, i love your visits.......wishing you a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Easter.....back soon xxxxxxxxxx

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

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

Trudie

 Here is Trudie....a new bunny coming to join us as winter is creeping in....her outfit has rather an alpine influence............

 .....i was longing to applique some toadstools on her little dress when i made her a while ago and i love using felt with a little embroidery on it, especially for wintry projects.....

                                .........the fabrics i had chosen were what really inspired this look..........

 ...........and a nice big button order arrived this week to be used for lots of commissions, so i picked out the red, white and aqua ones for a quick picture......buttons are so inspiring  too don't you think???

 ....the little alpine sampler is my project in this year's Crafts Beautiful Christmas Special....i enjoyed designing this sampler and it will be nice having it in our house for the coming festive season.........

 .............Trudie and the mushrooms......still making them, with plans for xmas decorating too.....

 ......i found these cute toadstool cupcake cases the other day, just what i needed......i will be making some hummingbird bakery cupcakes in them for a family birthday at the end of the month.........

 .........and yummy new fabrics with that fresh look i so enjoy.....i can hardly bring myself to chop them up though when they are arranged in such neat little bundles........

 ........Trudie sitting on a special little bunny chair, brought back by a friend from Spain especially for the bunnies, how very kind and thoughtful, and how useful this little chair is already......

Before i go i must just say that Jenny Arnott is having a wonderful giveaway over at her blog here, so do pop over and visit her and put your name in the draw to win some gorgeous treats.......

....it's almost the weekend again, and we will be helping at Charlie's birthday party to be held at a nearby farm so we are all looking forward to that very much.....i hope you have a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the beginning of November...thanks for dropping in to see me and your sweet comments....back soon 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

Time for Tea

 Weekend walks followed by afternoon tea are a favourite of mine, and this weekend the weather was so beautiful it was wonderful to be out walking in the fresh autumn air and bright sunshine.....

....and then home to tea with scones, rock buns and cupcakes.....and my new tea cosy which was commissioned a while ago and is my project in this month's Crafts Beautiful magazine, in the shops now ;-)...

......i am not an adventurous cook though sometimes i try something new, like this delicious vanilla frosting from the  Humming Bird Bakery....

 There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James

......i have collected a lot of quotations about homely things over the years to use in my stitching, and there are quite a number about tea and the taking of it......

                       ....a little close up of the CB teacosy, with its ribbon and button on top.......

 ............and its decorative ribbon bow at the side......i enjoyed making this commission, and in the magazine there is a cupcake card to accompany it, if it's to be made as a gift.........

 ....some pictures of the colourful flowers and berries we saw on our walk yesterday afternoon at our favourite nearby gardens....it was stunning to see how just many things were still in flower there and to enjoy the sight of so many beautiful shrubs full of berries or rosehips......

             The mere chink of cups and saucers turns the mind to happy repose. George Gissing

There are still some mushrooms being made here, and i found some to photograph on our walks too, but they will have to wait for another post.....Thank you for dropping in to tea today in my little bit of blogland it was lovely to see you, thanks for your sweet comments and emails...and a big hellooo to my new followers. Wishing you a wonderful week with plenty of moments of happy repose....back soon xxxxxx