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

Block Party

 These are some of my new farmer's wife quilt blocks spread out on the table.....i am still having fun making these, especially choosing the next one to do.....

.....and slowly but surely there will eventually be a pretty quilt filled with varied blocks at the end of the sewing ....maybe not for quite a while though ;-)......and there are some other (different but lovely) blocks here this week.....i was a bit late to this particular block party, having only just discovered Fee at Chipper Nelly....but i'm making up for lost time now......

              .....the set of wooden ABC nursery blocks is just delightful, i love them as little works of art........

 ....i looked (without success) in vintage shops for years to find some just like these to use in pictures and to simply look at and enjoy......

......i think they are gorgeous, and the bunnies like them too ....i found Fee's blocks through Annie at Knitsofacto who is having a giveaway over on her lovely blog which happens to include a special block from Chipper Nelly...so pop over there and put your name in the draw if you haven't already.......it is open until March 9........

.....this pretty tin is where i keep the farmer's wife quilt templates.......last week i made one of the blocks for a second time....the one called Bouquet (you can't have too many bouquets though can you?)......

....and the one in the front here is called Flock.......(also in this picture is the  LOL bracelet i picked up while shopping with Sarah and Daisy last week).....i liked the colours of the beads here with the fabrics and i always  love things with letters on.....(the other bracelet's word choice was totes amaze)
It's like the first day of spring here today...warm, sunny, blue sky, birds singing, flower petals opening, trees blossoming....a day for a stripy tee shirt and no woolly cardi....a day to drive with the window down and listen to old songs....wonderful springtime....
Thank you for visiting me here in my little space on this beautiful day....i hope you have a wonderful weekend and that it is full of the joys of spring.....i think it's about time i organised a spring giveaway don't you?....i'll be back with one very soon xxxxxxxxxxxx

Sweet Spring

The sky is blue, the sun is shining and spring has really sprung here! I have been dividing my time between the garden, design work, family and friends over the last few days....and this afternoon have been pottering with the plants a bit too long and must get down to some serious  work stuff this evening. But it's hard when the birds are singing out there and the blossom is blooming, and the flowers are so pretty...best to make the most of it on a beautiful day....

Something else sweet came my way last week. I was given this award  by the lovely Carol at Naturally Carol. It's the Irresistably Sweet Blog Award -( how delicious it looks too)....... Do go and visit Carol's blog - it is always so happy and cheerful and filled with fabric-y goodness..... Thank you very much for the award, Carol.

In return for the award I am supposed to tell you four guilty pleasures...well, here they are:
one:  chocolate - you probably already know that one...  two:  working from home and never having that Monday morning feeling....  three: internet shopping - for books, fabric, yarn, pretty things, clothes, shoes.... four: gardening instead of working at the computer...feeling quite a lot of guilty pleasure today then!

Sewing in the garden - a non guilty pleasure is something I love to do whenever possible. I used to stitch cross stitch samplers in the garden all summer as the light was so wonderful to see stitching on fine linen. Now I'm doing a bit of patchwork for a magazine project, in some lovely flowery colours.
Thank you to everyone who visits me here and for your lovely comments. Have a wonderful week, filled with the joys of spring! Back soon. xxxxx

Spring Gardening

 Hello - I hope you've all had a great weekend! I've enjoyed many happy moments  of mine outdoors, gardening, pottering and enjoying the spring....Saturday wasn't sunny here so I did more potting - and pottering - in the potting shed. Lots of spring plants to divide and grow on, and to give away or swap with friends and relatives....and a few new anemones to add to my spring border...

The potting shed is much nicer to work in now that it's been painted inside - much lighter for a start. I'm still choosing the colour for the outside - I keep changing my mind...should I do it grey, or blue, or blue green...all the pale shades are lovely so I will pick one next week and get painting very soon, now the weather is warming up...The little Bees Seeds post card was one I found recently at a nearby garden shop - the seed company originally began not far from here....

I love the delicate anemone blanda flowers - I think they look lovely with other spring flowers and bulbs, just so pretty and colourful... and here they are on Sunday when it was very SUNNY indeed.....Mr P and I worked very hard clearing the beds, borders and paths of leaves, cutting back and generally tidying...

This is the spring border, right next to the terrace where we can sit and enjoy our cups of tea and look at the flowers in the bright spring sunshine...such bliss to be warm enough to do that again....

And when I wasn't gardening this weekend I was knitting....on Friday this beautiful kid mohair yarn arrived and I couldn't wait to begin knitting it up - it's absolutely gorgeous, so soft and warm but light, and not too fluffy! The yarn came from the Honorwood Flocks here.

And for a pattern I have to thank the lovely Vivienne at Green Rabbit Designs who sent me lots of mohair patterns when I mentioned that I'd lost mine from the 80's! Isn't that kind?! Vivienne crochets and knits gorgeous scarves, bags and corsages from wonderful yarn, such a clever lady.

So, I'm off now to knit some more of my lovely yarn. Thank you for visiting me here and for your sweet comments.I wish you all a wonderful week with sunny days and blue skies and sweet spring flowers. xx



Sew Purple

 I'm so loving all the purple spring flowers around at the moment - in so many shades  from deepest blue purple to palest pinky purple or mauve. The local flower shop has buckets filled with bright jewel coloured anemones, and some hyacinths added in for scent as well as colour... I treated myself to a small bunch at the weekend...

 Some of the dotty lilac shades of fabric seemed perfect for this new project...a  little purple pincushion..

Big applique flowers with button centres, a four-patch patchwork square, and some little labels...

Lots of people kindly asked about the labels I used on another project I showed recently...I made them by printing words onto strips of cotton fabric using alphabet rubber stamps and an indelible ink pad. You can back the labels with bondaweb, or just fold and stitch them - they can also look nice with frayed edges in some projects...it's an easy way to add a greeting to a hand knitted or stitched gift too...

We saw these beautiful crocuses at the weekend - there was a vast area of them beneath some trees and on first sight they really were breath taking! So much colour about at last, and lots more to look forward to. Thank you for all your lovely comments about the bunnies in my last post, I enjoyed reading every one. Have a great weekend, wishing you sunshine, blue skies and masses of spring flowers. Back soon xxx

Spring Things

What a lovely spring-y week we've been having, and I hope you have too! Thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post - I so enjoyed reading them. I've been having a very busy week as well as a spring-y one....

I had a lovely day out with my elder daughter Sarah, for a bit of city centre shopping and browsing. I like to think that it's part of my job to see what's in the shops! I bought some pretty little trinkets that I might use in designs - imexpensive jewellery in pretty colours can be used to decorate collages and toys....

I've spent the rest of the week working on a new magazine project and as it's got to be top secret for now I thought I'd show you a new bunny currently under construction...I love the Lecien Flower Sugar fabrics and have bought a few more recently in lots of colours...

A cardi for the new bunny - designed around her own unique shape...the little moss stitch peplum idea came from a cardi I made myself using a Kim Hargreaves pattern called Dolly - not sure yet if the bunny one will work out....

All the shops were full of Easter things already. For me, mini chocolate eggs are not just for Easter...

Some new fabrics I'm looking forward to making up ready for when it really is Easter! I hope you have a wonderful weekend and the spring sunshine is warming up your days as it is mine...I can hardly keep working in my studio when the weather is so lovely, I keep popping out to the garden with a cup of tea to absorb the fresh air and listen to the newly singing birds. Enjoy your spring things too! xxxxx

Spring Bunnies

           I've been making some new bunnies lately, maybe it's the time of year... this is Flora.....

                                                                And this one is Primrose....

                                                                Here they are together...

I've been trying to work out the best pattern for the head shapes, one that looks sweet not scary! I think Flora is the closest I've got so far...I'm very fond of the bunnies! Hope you like seeing them too.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend with sunshine and springtime and flowers. Thanks for popping by to visit and for your sweet comments. xxxxx

Sunshine

 Today may have been cold, grey and rainy here...but just a few days ago we had the most beautiful warm and sunny day, which was so enjoyable and uplifting...(The postcard here was one I picked up recently at an art gallery. I stood it up to have a look at it now and then as I passed by, and then I saw it illuminated by the sunlight streaming in, and the shadows echoing those in the picture...)

So on the special sunny day, which luckily was a Saturday, we made the very most of it by spending it outdoors...it was bliss to be able to potter in the garden and feel warm for a change...clearing away some of the dead wood that had fallen in the gales, cutting back, clearing leaves...and then planting fresh new primroses...the day felt full of spring!

 This bright little cushion is my project in this month's delightfully sunny Crafts Beautiful magazine...

 ...and this little spring tag is part of the project too, tied onto the little white birdcage and surrounded by the fresh and pretty new primroses that I'm loving soooo much at the moment....

And then I made some of these delicious Sunshine Bars - they are packed with healthy goodness and very easy to make - you don't even have to bake them - all that's required is a bit of measuring, some melting, a bit of mixing and pressing into a tin, then waiting a little while - and they are scrumptious! The recipe is here. Perfect to eat in the garden with a cup of tea on the first real day of spring!

I hope you are having some sunny times too - maybe not every day - but now and then! I'm looking forward to the next one right now! Thanks for visiting me here and for your sweet and sunny comments which brighten up my day. xxx

Sew Flowery

 Hello and welcome to everyone dropping in here to see me today! What a bright and sunny day it's been here - an amazing amount of sunshine has been flooding in and I realised how little we've had lately because it seemed so bright, I'm not used to it...We're looking at a little sewing theme pincushion here - I was just experimenting with the idea and may yet add more to it. It's already in use, though. I just love pincushions, can't have too many, and I have to have them in almost every room...

The cute little scissors are actually a button from Duttons For Buttons, the wonderful button emporium in York (no website, so I can't link to it) - I could have spent hours and hours selecting from the hundreds of brown boxes of amazing buttons they had in stock and did spend quite a bit of time choosing just a few.

These are the brightest flowers I've ever put in the little blackboard planter, I think! Quite dazzling too in the spring sunshine. I love the way that primulas often look as if they've had a white outline painted round the edges of each petal - so pretty. I love all the colours, but at the moment the bright pink are my favourites.

And speaking of favourites: I was very thrilled this week to receive this sweet little award from the lovely Mia at HandmadebyMia. Thank you so much, dear Mia!!!

This award is to encourage visitors to crafty blogs with less than 300 followers, who sell their work online, to spread the word and get their name known more widely. I am intending to pass it on, but so far each blog I was about to mention has just received it from another blog friend!! So I will have to think a little bit longer before I choose who to give it to...I'll do so soon!!!
I hope you are all enjoying your week and that you have a bright and beautiful weekend. Thanks for visiting me and for your sweet comments - I love to read them all!! Back soon. xxx