Hidden Gardens

First of all today i want to say a big thank you to all the lovely readers who have already entered my giveaway on the previous post....so lovely to read all your sweet comments :)....if you'd still like to enter the giveaway you can as it is open until september 9...just scroll down to join in :)...........

 ........these pictures were taken at the hidden gardens at plas cadnant which we visited while at the menai straits regatta.....these gardens have been recently restored, in fact they are still under restoration, and are absolutely beautiful......you can read more about them on the website here...........

.......i loved the mixture of formal and informal, and the sheer exuberance of borders like this with apple trees laden with bright red fruit surrounded by colourful flowers............

........there is a newly opened tea room too with delicious baking.... and here is a peek inside it at the lovely blue grey lloyd loom chairs .....hydrangeas are growing everywhere in the most lovely shades..........

........in our own garden now....the bottom part of the garden is so over lush with all the summer rain we've had, it's easy to hide a little daisy in amongst the cranesbill and mallow growing there at the moment.....the little lemon tea card shown here is part of my tea and coffee cards project for this month's crafts beautiful magazine....see more crafts beautiful things here..........

.........a few weeks ago a friend invited me for afternoon tea in her lovely garden.....she hasn't lived in the house long yet has already made the garden her own style.........i spent a happy afternoon there with my friend and her family, plus small woolly dog and parrot in a cage :)........the garden had so many lovely features, it was very inspiring....i especially like the idea of using little rose trees and borage plants as a screen along a path edge.........and of course i loved the bunting too :)

..........a blue potting shed....and a potting table out in the sunshine too......and an old garden lawn roller with a new look....... i just love visiting other people's gardens, it must count as one of my favourite things..

........some crafty news now....this is the farmer's wife quilt block called peaceful hours, included today because of all those peaceful hours i've spent in gardens this spring and summer, and because it is the fiftieth block i've made....so i am going to put all the blocks together now and make the lap quilt......

.........just have to decide what colour to use for the sashing now :).......the kona solids roll of 200 colours should help me to choose which would look best...........but it may take some time to make up my mind...........

..........this is my flower garden crochet blanket being made, in soft pinks and greens, with the added zing of a bit of magenta in some of the flowers......will show you more of it soon..........don't forget to visit my last post for the giveaway which is open until september 9...........thank you so much for visiting me here today...........i wish you all a wonderful weekend.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giveaway!

 As i have mentiond a few times lately, i've been busy making some gifts for a giveaway to say thank you to all my lovely blog readers .............i have made four gifts so there will be four winners this time......

........inspired by my rosy lavender quilt, i used some of the left over fabrics to make some pretty little sewing notions....the first giveaway gift is the needlebook above...............

............the second gift is a big pincushion ......and some little extra surprises too............

...........the third gift is a scissor keep and this sweet pair of lavender blue handled scissors too.....

 .........and the fourth gift is a small pincushion and a card of cath kidston buttons...............

...........to enter this giveaway all you have to do is to leave me a comment on this post :)....the giveaway is open to everyone, even if you don't have a blog, anywhere in the world................just make sure there is a way for me to get in touch with you if you win and don't have a blog  :) .............each gift will have a hand made tag with it too like the ones below.........you could give your gift away to a crafty friend or keep it for yourself...............

......................i picked these rosy lavender coloured flowers from the garden yesterday................

..............my favourite flower this week is the gorgeous japanese anemone, both the pink and the white ones are flowering really well here at the moment, and i must remember to put more plants in for next year because they look so lovely and are obviously happy with the location so are worth adding to............

 .........the sweetpeas are still gorgeous too, and we are having a sunny bank holiday weekend  (though not too sure it will last for monday!) .............my younger daughter and her boyfriend are staying with us this weekend which is always fun ..............i am just going to make some afternoon tea now :)

.............i hope you have a happy week ahead, with bright flowers, crafty times and sunny days...........good luck in the giveaway............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Seaside

                                             Just back from a lovely time at the seaside.......

..................we went to the isle of anglesey as mr p was sailing his boat in the annual menai straits regatta.....we stayed as usual in the pretty little seaside town of beaumaris where we met up with sailing friends for parties, drinks and meals  and it was fun...........and the family came and stayed with us which was fun too........

.....i love the little houses and shops painted in ice cream colours , and i loved the new signs outside the gorgeous janet bell gallery (as well as the things inside it )........

.........a tranquil postcard showing puffin island and penmon lighthouse......the puffin island race is mr p's favourite one of all..................

.............i just had to show you these adorable seaside blocks that fee of chipper nelly made for me, they have several different 'looks' depending which sides you show which is very clever.....you can find chipper nelly here....we had some lovely making memories times with charlie and daisy..........

.........going crab reeling, playing on the beach with buckets and spades, paddling, collecting shells, eating ice creams..i will always remember daisy running off along the newly refurbished pier, her little two year old legs going amazingly fast..........

....and charlie opening the shutters in our bedroom first thing in the morning and announcing happily 'blue sky'....obviously very important to check when you are at the english seaside ;)...........

...........some crafty things to show you.....here are two new farmer's wife blocks on the left is whirlpool and on the right storm signal.........i asked mr p if there were any whirlpools in the straits and he said yes, one of the boats in the regatta got caught in one and went round in circle for half an hour before sailing out of it......and though it was very windy sometimes luckily there was no storm signal..............

.....i did a little bit of crochet while away and my daughter brought hers so we managed a little bit of crafting one evening...........this is a new cushion i made recently, inspired by the white border crochet blanket that i'm still making..............

...........this is the back of it......i loved making the great big granny square...........now i'm home to lots of new work, an order of lovely fabrics and lots of inspiration...........and my giveaway gifts are almost finished so look out for it sooooon................thanks for visiting here.......have a lovely week.....back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flower Patches

We're having a sunny garden inspired week here......so i thought i'd show you this little flower patch pincushion, complete with bee button ..........and i also wanted to show some pictures of my real flower patch ...........

 .............i finally grew some hollyhocks :) and the snails have only nibbled the leaves a bit......i love the daisies and cornflowers together, with some poppies growing behind, a nice bit of red, white and blue...

 ............there are some very orange gazanias which was a surprise but they do add a bit of zing to the pretty planting.....everything has been flowering since the sun began to shine, and lots of things have self seeded, such a bonus.......

 ...........the beehive is a composter, not a real beehive.......the victorian cloche was a present form mr p....such a lovely one too......the tangle of sweetpeas below became much more flowery since that picture was taken, as you can see in the lower photo......

 .............i sooo love sweetpeas, these are my cheap and cheerful ones producing masses of blooms.......

 ...........a little garden scrapbook made ages ago and found again recently.....it's so interesting to keep these and look back at your garden and all the changes over the years.......though blogs do that too :)

                                          .........a posy from my very own cutting patch............

..........and now in a pretty jug indoors........this week i had the pleasure of spending a sunny afternoon in the delightful garden of some lovely friends......when i have sorted out the pictures i look forward to sharing them too....other people's gardens are so inspiring, aren't they??

.....thank you for visiting me here in my little bit of blogland.....i so enjoy your visits......i will be taking a short blog break as we are off to the seaside in a couple of days time but i will be visiting you before i go :)........wishing you happy sunny days.....back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Counting the Blocks

Time for a little look at the farmer's wife quilt blocks i've been making, i think.....every now and then i make some and put them in the little white basket where i keep them....but this week i decided it was time to count them and see how many i'd got now.......and with perfect timing and serendipity two beautiful flower blocks arrived from lovely fee at chipper nelly......the strawberry and rose one  shown here was my heart's desire :) .......

...............these quilt blocks are called basket weave and homeward bound and are two of my favourites.......

...................fee's chipper nelly blocks came wrapped in dotty cellophane and tied with sweet matching ribbon and a vintage button.....they are as delicious as chocolates to open :) ...........

..........the rosy strawberry one looks so pretty on my dresser with the rosy china, as well as with the patchwork quilt blocks made with rose and strawberry fabrics...........

.......so i counted my blocks so far....here is the little pile.......i have made forty three........the lap size quilt needs fifty!!! .....but i'm so enjoying this project and the slow pace of it that i think i'll maybe carry on a bit longer and make it bigger than that......we shall see :)

..........this one is the strawberry basket......some of my old cath kidston fabrics came in nicely for this one....

 ...........these two blocks are also favorites, they are evening star and snowball.......using lecien flower sugar and pam kitty morning fabric.......

 ............my second beautiful block from chipper nelly is this richly decorative floral one shown here with a bit of  lecien yellow paisley fabric and some adorable rosy pink pkm.......

                                           ..........this one is called duck and ducklings................

 ............and here is my latest wip.....the small triangles are all ready to sew together to make up the block called windblown square..........i'll be sewing this watching the olympics tonight .......since i started using the patterns from the farmer's wife quilt book i have improved my traingle making a lot ;) ....they are much more precise now and i have stopped accidentally chopping the points off :)

..........it's been a busy week here this week, filled with friends, children, grandchildren, working on my book's first pages, doing magazine work, and being held up sometimes by an on/off internet connection.....life certainly is BuSy...hope you are having a happy week and enjoying some sweet summer days .........back soon xxxxxxx