Crafty Summer

It's a very crafty summer here at my house, with an extra injection of bright colour from all the new crochet that has been going on.....and almost to my surprise, the very first blanket I began is finished!!!!! I realised last week that I had now accumulated rather a lot of grannie squares, making them whenever I had a spare moment,  when we were away, in a traffic jam on the motorway, watching movies and old (not yet watched by us) seasons of Mad Men, chatting to friends and family....and when I put them all together I had enough for my blanket....

 ...so I sewed them together, and then began to crochet a border using a few colours from the collection...round and round, I really loved that bit....wasn't quite sure when to stop.....

 ...some crafty colours with the grandbabies...they love my art and craft materials and I have to race around moving dangerous things like paint, scissors, pins, needles and so on when they come over to my house...Daisy really loves the wool, like a little kitten she gets all tangled up in it... and they both loved the tactile feel of the grannie squares both before and after they were sewn together....

 ...a close up of some of the squares, randomly made and randomly sewn together - apart from not actually placing two the same colour together that's about as intentional as this creation was...

 ....the partly completed border....I added some stronger green and blue to finish off the edge after this round of rose pink....

 .....everyone loves the blankie! Everyone wants one too....and some want to learn to crochet one themselves......and I want to keep crocheting now I've discovered it so another project is about to begin....

 I am making this post a bit longer than usual to make up for the fact that I'll be away again next week...Each year Mr P sails in the Menai Straits Regatta and we go to stay in the pretty seaside town of Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey. We meet up with friends there, some who sail, some who don't, and all have a good time...I'm happy being at the seaside and pottering about while Mr P is sailing...I'm also taking some of my design work to do and this year I will be taking some crochet too...Above is a detail of my Regatta Quilt, made a few years ago and inspired by watching the fleet of boats against the blue sea, sailing round Puffin Island....

 ...I made two little collages of  some of this season's crafty makes, just a random selection...the pinwheel patchwork cushion, Daisy's sampler, a bit of Daisy's quilt, the flower pot embroidery....

...the sailor bunny, the home sweet home heart, the with love heart (I gave this one to my lovely mum for mother's day), and the finished little doll quilt with matching pillow...I do love this crafty life very much as you can see...

 And a big thank you to all of you who crochet and show pictures of your beautiful makes on your blogs to inspire crochet beginners to give it a go...I'm so glad I did!!

Thank you for popping in to visit me here and for your sweet comments, always sooo appreciated and enjoyed. I hope the sun shines, the flowers bloom and you enjoy a crafty summer week while I'm away. Back soon xxxxx

Floral

 One way or another my life has been constantly influenced by flowers ever since I first began to notice them as a child, and especially when I went to art college and began to draw them as part of our design training. I have loved them in my garden ever since I had my own garden, and tried very hard to grow all different kinds ....with varying success...

 I always enjoy floral commissions...for embroidery, illustration, applique, patchwork or anything I'm always happy  to create something new whenever the word floral is mentioned ...this is a quick mood board for a future commission that I'm slowly and happily going to work on, around my other work and commissions....

 ...I love making these scrapbooky boards, sitting on the floor with a big pile of clippings and magazines and my trusty scissors, snipping away and seeing how it looks .... does it capture what I have in my head for someone else to get what I mean?? .....usually the answer is yes...

 ...in my actual garden things are not looking quite so rosy this summer, it has to be said...the pots are fine...

...the sweet peas growing up their wigwam are fine (thnaks to Mr P remembering to water both them and the beans each night)....but the rest of the garden is looking more green than flowery and very parched...I think we are paying the price for our hot and sunny weeks now...but at least the pots look pretty and colourful and provide lots of snippets to make posies with, and further down the garden things like mallow, cosmos and daisies give us some colour.... 

 ...these are a set of thrifted coffee cups...sooo cheap and how I love the rosebuds....

...So, I'm going to have a little look through these garden books tonight, and get some more floral inspiration...and also get on with my grannie blanket which is GrOwInG quite fast, as some of you so kindly predicted!! I hope your flowers are growing happily and they and you have just enough rain but not too much, and you have a lovely week....thanks for dropping in to see me here....back soon xxxxx

Lots of Dots

 It's a sunny, dotty week here so far.....dotty fabrics are being sewn for exciting new projects to be published in the future, and I thought I would show you this dotty pinwheel patchwork cushion today. I found the pinwheel blocks in one of my patchwork storage baskets and as I'm trying to use up everything and waste nothing this year I decided to make the blocks into a summery cushion....

...looking around me I spied lots of dots on different things, many of which I've had for years as I've always collected dotty china and have some very old pieces as well as recent finds... 

 ....a friend gave me the dotty retro doileys which I think is what really made me think about dots this week...I made the cakes in dotty cases and added dots to the icing with my Tala icing pen, then put them on a red dotty doiley...

 .... summer has returned here and it's been sunny and warm enough to take a tea tray out to the garden...

 ...to sew some work projects sitting in the dappled shade and enjoying the flowers and the buzzing of the bees... 

I hope you are having a lovely sunny week too wherever you are. Thanks for popping in to see me here, I do enjoy your visits and comments very much. Back soon xxxxx

Sew Pretty

I have loved these flower sugar print fabrics ever since I first set eyes on them and I know lots of other crafters and stitchers love them too. I made a hexagon pincushion with my paper pieced hexies which I showed you on my blog around easter time....but I had to wait until the magazine came out to show the finished object....and now here it is...

 I often fall in love with fabrics and they inspire my crafting in many ways, but it's rare to fall in love with a whole range..usually I pick and choose from lots of different ranges and mix them together....

....but I loved all of these and I loved all of these together...so I bought lots and made them into a nine patch quilt!!! Only the top is done so far, and I've just sandwiched it together ready for some nice peaceful hand quilting during those movie watching times.... 

 ...I discovered the use of basting pins instead of basting stitches a few years ago (from my two sisters who went to a Canadian lady's quilt class!) and I much prefer the pinning method now...

....and on the back of the quilt I have used more flower sugar fabric in this delicious shade of yellow with rosy sprays scattered all over it...this is a very bright and cheerful quilt and a bit of a new style for me by being so bold, but the fabrics inspired it really.... 

                                                       ...just a few more sweet things...

The weekend is almost here again and I hope it brings the sunshine with it as there are lots of things to do in the garden, flowers to tend and grass to cut, weeds to pull and things to plant... Thank you for popping in to see me here and for your sweet comments which I so enjoy! I hope you have a happy weekend...see you next week xxxxxx

Lovely Lavender

 When we were away last week we made a special trip one day to see the lavender here, which someone had told us about - even though it was tucked away in the countryside miles away from where we were staying....It was a gorgeous day and well worth the driving to see soooo much delicious lavender.....

Lots of different shades and types, surrounded by white gravel to really show off the pretty colours, and there were David Austin roses planted there too - a gorgeous combination....the tea room served delicious lavender scones with lavender and strawberry conserve, the shop sold all kinds of lavender aromatherapy products and the nursery sold lavender and roses ....it was bliss!

 The sky looks washed out for some reason in my photo - it was blue really.....

 ....there were also hens at the farm, and their newly laid big brown eggs were for sale...they came in a lavender coloured egg box....

 I bought some dried lavender and some lavender oil...this picture shows some of the lavender bags I've made in the past for book and magazine projects...I like to keep lavender sachets in among the linen shelves...(the linen cupboard in this house was one of the things I really wanted it for when I first saw it)..

 I also bought a couple of lavender plants to add to our collection...it would be nice to sit in this seat looking out over the field of lavender to the rolling Devon countryside beyond...very relaxing....

Since we came back it has mostly been raining here and also blowing a gale and feeling autumnal....what strange unsettled weather we have here, no wonder we're always talking about it! It's perfect weather to stay in and sew anyway which is what I'm doing...thank you for visiting me here...I hope you are having a very happy week. I'll be back soon with some sewing pictures xxxxx

Seaside Postcards

 Hello!...I'm back again...after a few lovely days of sea air and sunshine, I have tipped the seashells out of my bag and shaken the sand from my shoes ready to begin normal life again....hello to all my regular blog readers and hello to the new followers who joined me here just as I was about to go away for a few days, I look forward to visiting you all very soon.....

 We went to some of our very favourite coves, cliffs, beaches and villages on the south west coast......

 ....places we've enjoyed visiting all our lives and this time we had the added pleasure of lots and lots of sunshine and blue sky....

 ...I had quite a lazy few days, did a bit of sketching for some new illustration work and thinking about a new book plan...but lazy hooky time on the shingly or sandy beaches was my main crafty activity and the pile of grannie squares has grown a lot more.....we walked miles, visited gardens and craft fairs and had more than one Devon cream tea...

 ....we also sampled a few of these...as a small child I was surprised at the relative size of the cornets I received compared to the ones on display outside the shop and I have a fondness for the oversized retro advertising icecreams to this day...

                   Some seaside crochet...inspired by the colours of bright stripy seaside rock.....

I hope you have been enjoying sunny summer days too, and I can't wait to catch up with all your blogs now. Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post and for your good wishes for my little break. It's good to be back in blogland again!! I hope you all have a happy weekend and see you again soon xxxxx

Sew Stripy

I love all the summer stripes around at the moment - from bright deck chairs and striped bunting, to my own favourite stripy tops, I love the summery brightness and freshness of StRiPeS sooo much! I took pictures this week of some of the stripy sewing I've done, both a while ago and more recently. I've been working on a  commission which involves stripes too which is why I've been loving them more than ever......

 ...I love the red and white patch in this little quilt - it makes me think of punch and judy shows on the sands..

....a stripy summer heart for a rose lover, on a piece of birthday wrapping paper combining florals and stripes

....and some more little summery hearts - another winning combination for me has always been this chalky blue and white stripe it always makes me think of beach huts and the seaside.....

 ...I have been finishing up some summer projects this week, which involves lots of paperwork as in writing instructions, checking charts and templates, making out invoices and so on at my computer, rather than sewing in  the garden which is the bit I like best....lots of cups of tea helps, especially in a stripy mug...

 ...I am packing my bags today (with plenty of stripy tee shirts) as we are heading off on a short trip - partly business (a design meeting) and then for a relaxing few days away...so I will be taking a blog break...

I have already packed my camera and my wool....In the meantime, thank you for dropping by to see me here in my little bit of blogland, and  I hope you enjoy lots of happy, lazy hazy days of summer until I return. Back in a little while xxxxx

A Lovely Day

 First I want to say a big thank you for all your wonderful birthday wishes on my last post, I was so happy to receive them all! I did have a lovely day, spending much of it in some beautiful gardens with my elder daughter Sarah and her two chickadees.....

 ...this was the potager, filled with wonderful vegetables and scented with masses of lavender and sweetpeas.

 And there were ponds filled with water lilies and tadpoles (Charlie's favourite bit) and lots of sparkly blue dragonflies skimming the surface and landing among the leaves....

 The wildflower meadow was just beautiful, I've never seen one looking so perfect and took rather a lot of photos....Daisy was magnetised to the daisies....

 After a lovely long afternoon among the flowers we had delicious afternoon tea.... and in the evening, when Mr P and my son in law got home from work they cooked a barbecue for us all and the children stayed up late..

I am very lucky and had some lovely presents, many of the decorative kind which will be popping up in my blog post photos....and I also received a beautiful hand knitted gift from one of my friends which I will write about in a special knitting post soon....

Back to work today, and lots designing to get on with...Thank you for dropping in to see me and for your delightful comments...Also thank you to those who have emailed me, I will try and reply to you all very soon. I hope you are having a wonderful week whatever you are doing and that the sun keeps shining (despite the weather forecast) Back soon xxxxx