Seaside

It's the start of the sailing season where we live, and I love to walk along the prom in the sea breeze and see the white sails against the blue ....most of my life I've lived on the coast, and I missed it when I lived further inland for a few years. The sea side has always been a big influence on my designing....

I've often stitched the words of sea poems into my samplers for books and magazines, and special ones for family and friends too - we know lots of people who love the sea and the seaside as much as us...

I find it hard to resist any seaside fabrics too - like the cushion above from CK - and her gorgeous boats print which I made a bag from last year shown in earlier posts...the red white and blue colourway is one of my favourites...

When I saw Julia Crossland's Harbour print I was immediately smitten and had to buy it at once...It's at the framers now and I'll collect it tomorrow and enjoy it on my wall...I love Julia's style and her paintings, like this seaside one really appeal to me...Julia is bringing out some new cards soon which I can't wait to see...

Seaside bunting...little embroidered beach huts, boats and flying gulls to bring the seaside even closer...

 The bunny and the bunting are both from my book Simple Sewn Gifts which has now been translated into French....

 My copy of the translated book came this week and I was tres excited to see it too...I read bits out in my schoolgirl French to my daughter on the phone and we both wondered why things sound so much more romantic when translated into French....charmante....merveilleux....lovely words...

This is my seasidey plant this week - at least red geraniums against white wood always make me think of seaside holidays in France and Italy and good old Blighty too....I love geraniums, even though they go in and out of gardening fashion I always like to have a few each summer, on the window sill or brightening up a corner...Thank you for visiting me here and for the wonderful comments you leave..I do enjoy them so much. Have a lovely weekend everyone, sending you lots of sunshine, sea breezes, flowers and happy times..Back soon xxxxxx

Pottering and Planting

The garden is enjoying the rain today, and I can't complain either because the plants needed lots to drink after the last few weeks...but here are some sunny garden pictures from a few days ago...I planted a new clematis beside the potting shed (I hope it likes it there..)

 ...picked some flowers in shades of blue and purple, lots of lavender for scent as well as colour...

...the last bluebells, some periwinkle and some gorgeous purple columbines or aquiligias (or dancing dollies as some are known to call them)...the pictures below are images I took while pottering around...or working quite hard, however you care to look at it....the beehive composter is one I planned to repaint at the weekend but didn't as it rained....

 One of the things I love about gardening is the way things plant themselves...I found a foxglove growing in the front garden, under the cherry tree which would not be a good place for it to stay...too squashed... but I let it grow bigger for a while (to make sure it really was a foxglove and not one of those weeds I often mix it up with)....and then I transplanted it to a nice place for it in the back garden...

 ..here it is on its way between the front and back garden, pausing for a picture in front of the tiny old shed which has been there since victorian days, very dark and gloomy inside, but quite rustic outside especially with ivy growing round it...

 ...here is the transplanted foxglove in its new home...I'm looking forward to it flowering there next to the box edging which I trimmed soon after I took this picture...

It's such a lovely time of year in the garden whatever the weather, there's always something to enjoy and something new to see. I'm loving all the flower and garden pictures on other people's blogs too. Thank you for visiting mine and for leaving such lovely comments. (Also thank to all those who have emailed me, I'll try to reply as soon as I can.) Have a wonderful week and see you soon! xxxx

Home Sweet Home

 Hello to everyone after yesterday's blogger blip when strange things happened and treasured comments disappeared...all seems to be back to normal again now....and things are also getting back to normal in my own home sweet home too after all the weeks of having builders here, replacing the roof and doing a few other repairs while the scaffolding was up...the work is finished and next week the scaffolding will come down....home will seem truly sweet again....

 I'll be able to potter about in my usual way without encountering 'the men' here and there all the time...go picking flowers, painting the beehive composter and even sit on the terrace with a cup of tea...now that would be nice....

 Home is where my heart is - it's always been a part of my work too, as the things I explore in design work I try out in my home and vice versa, it's where my studio and office are, where I craft, draw, sew and write, and the house itself has often inspired my design ideas. I like to think of the people who used to live here..we did a bit of house history research when we first moved in - my favourite previous occupant must surely be Lucy Moon who lived here in the early 1900's with her husband, three little boys and - according to the census - 'three resident servants'.....I love to imagine her swishing about in her long skirts, the lovely Lucy Moon.....

I stitched this little sampler here a few years ago for my Home Sweet Home cross stitch book...the flowers were picked last week, I just loved the pink and lime green colour combinations....

...and this is the latest wool for my next cardigan...I love the colour so much I had to have it....

.....currently on the needles is this little pink cardi for Daisy Dot....

 I'm loving the summer colours and the newly opening summer flowers...looking forward to lots of gardening this weekend, potting, planting, painting the beehive composters and enjoying a bbq with the family...

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, enjoying your time whatever you are doing...wishing you flowers, sunshine and the happiest of days....thank you for visiting me me here in my (hopefully blip free) bit of blogland, and thank you for the sweet comments, they make me smile...back soon xxxxxx

A Little Bit of Sewing

These are the fabrics I chose this week for a new litttle bit of sewing - one of the tiniest quilts I've ever made in fact...

 It is a tiny doll's quilt, to fit a small red painted wooden pram that is for a little girl's birthday....

 When I measured the pram I realised just how small the quilt needed to be...and how quick to make too!

 I used a blue flowery Trefle fabric alternating with plain white cotton squares and then appliqued red CK floral hearts, which I've just begun to stitch around in red cotton...

... this is a lovely little project, and easy to hand sew, i made it watching a dvd one evening....during the day i've been working on magazine projects....

... this is my project for this month's Crafts Beautiful (June issue) - a sewing notebook, combining my love of sewing, stitching, paper crafts and collage - I loved making this sooo much....

...it's strawberry time again here...i think the colours are influencing my work this week too...we've had some lovely sunny days, despite the weather breaking and lots of much needed rain too which has freshened up the garden and brought out lots of new flowers...i hope you are having a wonderful week, with sunny days, spring showers (only at night!) and lots of sweet flowers and strawberries ....thank you so much for visiting me here and for your lovely comments......i'll be back soon with lots of flowers xxxx

Vintage Roses

This is the Vintage Rose bag, stitched and embroidered a few years ago for my book, Cross Stitch Keepsakes.... 

I love roses, as you probably know (doesn't everyone?!) and at this time of year I just love picking posies of them to have around the house so everyone can enjoy the sweet scent and perfect shape and colour....

Does anyone else carry roses round in a colander? It always seems the first thing to come to hand when I go out flower cutting....also the little spiders and insects hiding in the flowers can make their escape more easily before I take them inside... 

       A deep magenta rose in a Pip Studio mug...I do love putting pretty flowers in pretty containers....

.... three different kinds of rose in it this time....the white ones are suffering from a lack of rain and going over too quickly this year...they are all old fashioned and highly scented varieties....

    Here is the pale pink one which I also showed in my previous (pink) post, growing in the garden...

 Here's a close up....

Gathering roses...what could be nicer on a May day? I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and your days are full of roses...thank you so much for visiting me here in my little bit of blogland, and for your sweet comments which i love to read.... back again soon. xxxx

In The Pink

Hello! I am feeling in the pink today - and I do hope that you are too. The post title is really a chance for me to indulge in some delicious shades of pink that I spied around the house and garden .... The pot of dianthus or carnations is one of several I bought to have around me.....I love the colour and especially the scent which reminds me of childhood and my grandmother and her garden, and the 'pinks' she used to have sometimes in a vase in the cool hallway of her victorian house....

The sugar pink rose is newly flowering this week, it's an old rose that was already here when we moved in, I don't know the name but it's very pretty and sweetly scented and doesn't last very long....

 ...some stitched pink hearts and flowers for a border on a white towel, a project for a book a while ago...

...this yummy pink and white dotted towel, strewn with pink roses and buds is from the delightfully decorative Pip Studio....

...and a little bit of pink sewing going on too, using up some of my long time favourite pink and white candy striped cotton fabric, so crisp and summery especially mixed with white...I've used this candy stripe in lots of projects and it always works so well....

...choosing pink shades of DMC thread for a new design commission...when I create a chart on the computer I check the shade with the DMC stranded cotton shade card, though I know most of them very well and it's like a paint box for me to work with....

 ..I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment, and have been held up by so many bank holidays - even though I don't have official holidays, being self employed, I do tend to join in with everyone else's! So now I have loads of work to catch up with this month, plus things I want to make for gifts and for fun....so better get busy then...!

I hope you are having a wonderful week enjoying May flowers blooming all around, and the sun still shining (but maybe a little shower during the night for the dry gardens or is that tempting fate too much?)  Thanks for dropping in to see me, I love to read your comments, they make me smile. Back soon xxxxxx

First of May

My favourite month has arrived! Although I love all the seasons for their different qualities and atmospheres, the month of May is the one I love the best...The joyous celebrations of the royal wedding were such a great start to this beautiful time of year, and the sunshine and flowers everywhere makes it all seem perfect...

We had an outing to a lovely garden....Erdigg in North Wales...where you can picnic in the orchard, wander round beautiful grounds and gardens and have afternoon tea surrounded by wisteria outside the little tea room....the old beehive here is one of  several surrounded by buzzing bees....

           .....the garden is a mixture of formal and informal, and charming pastoral views...

 I love the bluebells still flowering - not for much longer though...and the pots and watering cans and lovely old greenhouses always fascinate me...

My project in the May issue of Crafts Beautiful is this bright felt bag, decorated with  a stitched beehive..

Off to do a bit of gardening now - the ground elder is also loving the month of May and needs to be weeded right now...I hope you have had a lovely weekend so far and are enjoying the new month. Thank you for visiting me and for the sweet comments. Back soon xxxxx