Easter Week and a Giveaway

Here are some pictures of our easter garden........i'm glad to say that luckily the sun came out and we were able to have the much looked forward to egg hunt................

 ...............i loved the beatrix potter egg hunt signs as soon as i saw them.... and it was fun planting them in the garden amongst the trees and flowers, next to the victorian glass cloche and the potting shed........

 .............the children thought it was fun too :)..............the eggs were dotted about all over the garden, the shiny foil they were wrapped in catching the sunlight..........the children had little tin easter buckets to collect them in.............

 ................the finale was them finding chocolate rabbits in the potting shed...................

 ..........i had some chocolate too ;) .....the picture top right shows some of my delicious truffles from my parents............and also a little garden inspired gift tag i made for the april issue of crafts beautiful magazine here.................

 ............ruby, the big bunny, had an egg too and also a brand new spring green dress for easter and some stripy grey and white leggings.............(she is much beloved and played with which is why she needed a new dress)............(the pattern for ruby is in my previous book, *simple sewn gifts* and i enlarged it to make this big bunny version)..............

 ...............she had a new hat too............this actually belonged to another toy but when we found it fitted ruby we just had to customise it for her with some ribbon, fabric flowers and buttons..............

.............being easter week, the three sugar bunnies also popped out for a while to join in........they are shown here with the hearts and flowers cushion, and all are featured in my new book, *pretty patchwork gifts*...........

............i have a signed copy of the book to give away and i thought it would also be a nice idea to give away a package of crafty trims and notions like some of those i used in the book .........

 ............things like the scissor charm, bird button, ribbons and embroidery thread and a fat quarter of my much treasured lecien flower sugar fabric............if you would like to enter this giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment on this post........if you are a follower and leave a second comment to let me know you will be entered twice :)........the giveaway will be open until april 15...................

.................thank you so much for dropping by to visit me here, it's always lovely to see you :)........i hope you have a good week and enjoy lots of happy crafty times............and plenty of sunshine too.......good luck in the giveaway................this week i am finishing my latest quilt so will be back to show you that as well as my new crochet.......................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sweet and Simple

 A while ago some of you may remember i showed you a little doll's quilt top made from some of my favourite simple life fabrics by tasha noel from riley blake..........and here is the finished little quilt, keeping winter winnie cosy.........

...........the fabrics are perfect to make children's projects like this little quilt, the small images are so appealing and a good size for cutting patchwork shapes too..........and i love the colours:)............

 .........................this tiny quilt was made specially for a lovely little girl's birthday..............

 .........it is now rolled up and tucked away ready and waiting..........i've also used some of these fabrics for a cushion using the economy block which was one of my favourites from the farmer's wife quilt book.....

 ..........i alternated the economy blocks with plain ones and placed the little girl hanging washing illustration in the centre, with some red stitching around it and an applique red heart too.............

 .............the pastel pink and blue florals from this collection are real favourites of mine.......

 ...........i love the bunting print too and have used it in two different colourways on the back as an envelope style opening, secured with various coloured buttons................

 ............i was planning to put the simple life cushion in one of the bedrooms, but am liking it in my sewing room at the moment...............the light looks quite white and chill in the pictures this week because there was a garden full of snow outside............the grandchildren and i spent some time clearing snow off the terrace where it had fallen off the roof and frozen............i had a shovel, charlie had a small garden spade and daisy had a flowery trowel............we did quite a good job and charlie enjoyed it especially.........i had planned to be potting things up in the potting shed with the children this week, not shovelling snow ;).......such a surprise.......we did some easter crafting too and made chocolate crispy cake nests....and i made a new recipe from the donna hay book that i was lucky to win in carly's recent giveaway......

 .......................this is chocolate crunch slice..............very rich, chocolatey and delicious...............

 ...........more little pastel eggs, being collected to look pretty round our easter house.........we are still planning to go ahead with the garden easter egg hunt unless it's pouring with rain.............

.............thank you for visiting me here in my bit of blogland, i love to see you and it's always lovely to hear from you too :)...........i am planning a giveaway very soon so look out for that after easter.....................wishing you all a wonderful week............ i hope the sun shines, the flowers grow, the birds sing and the spring returns quickly..................have a very happy easter ...........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Easter Decorating

 Decorating the house for easter is something i always enjoy.........i had a heap of little fabric birds waiting to make into a beaded string for sarah and decided to add some to this speckled egg flowery wreath to see how they looked.........

 ...............the pastel egg wreath looks lovely both plain and with birds so now i can't decided which to have :)......

 ..........the birds also look cute when added to a pretty primrose with a plant stick........

...........i made a little flowery house to put on the dresser among the china.................

                                                 ...........then i made another one............

...........and then i made just one more.....and used rubber stamps to number the doors.............i make the little houses with whatever fabric i currently love....it's a great way to enjoy your favourites and to have them dotted around the house .....i love buying charm packs of fabric lines for patchworking and charm packs are also perfect for making little sets of houses like these...... visit the delightful and inspiring clover and violet blog here to read about the *charm madness blog hop*............ the birdhouse bunting pattern (below) and the little houses pattern are in my book here...........

             ..........i hung the teeny coloured decorated eggs on the little white tree..............

               .............and hung the birdhouse bunting at the top of the white dresser............

 ............gathering lots of pretty coloured eggs ready for the easter egg hunt  in the garden on easter weekend ....weather permitting of course ;)................................

 ..........putting the last hyacinths from my mother's day bouquet into a glass vase to enjoy in my studio while i work on writing project instructions on the computer..............

                .........a little twist of white cotton lace makes it look extra pretty i think..............

............here is a picture of my hard working sewing machine in my easter decorated sewing room......i am working on two quilts at once, as well as summer projects, a gift or two and i have a whole lot of new ideas that i am longing to make too......maybe it's the springtime, and all the flowers beginning to grow but i do find this is an inspiring time...........i hope to get out into the garden this weekend too, now that so much is growing it makes me want to tend it more carefully......there is a wood pigeon cooing outside my window as i type this as if calling me out there :)............

............thank you for dropping in to my little bit of blogland, it's a real pleasure to have your visit....thank you for your sweet comments and a big warm hello to all the new followers who have joined just recently...........i wish you all a wonderful week, with sunny creative days and lots of happy times.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Spring

 The sun is shining....the birds are singing......we have daffodils blooming, and tulip bulbs growing taller each day............despite the low temperatures it must be spring..........it feels like it in my house anyway that's for sure...........here is my spring inspiration board...........and here is pansy, the sugar bunny, all dressed in spring-like yellow.......

 ..........i keep this board to tape inspiring images to all year round......when i began my last book i created a mood board on here to show the publishers what i had in mind for the 'feel ' of the book, and the little fabric garland is left over from that......since then i have removed those images and added a whole lot of spring inspiration, as you can see.........

 ...........i love all the birds and bunnies, the nests and eggs, the flowers and bulbs.......

                           ..........and most of all the fresh and pretty colours of spring........

 .............i have been hunting out all the easter decorations this week, finding the painted eggs and straightening out the little easter tree ready to add the teeny eggs to its branches (pics next time).....

           ..........and making some easter packets to send to friends in plenty of time..............

 ...........i am very fond of the three sugar bunnies that i made for my new book * pretty patchwork gifts* and love their little patchy dresses.......i will be featuring the other two bunnies in future posts but this time it is pansy's turn......

 ..................some bright yellow fabrics have come out of the cupboard this week ready to make a special project......and some daffodlis have come in from the garden.......these are the tiny tete a tete ones which seem to flower first in our garden......most of the big daffies are still in bud.............

 ..........besides something in yellow (for a commission), i am also sewing something with a seaside theme which i am so loving making, but will have to keep secret till summer time :)...........

 ...............................lady luck smiled on me again recently when i won a lovely giveaway over at crafted by carly.....this delicious book by donna hay, and one of carly's own gorgeous makes, this sweet rosette brooch......i loved the brown paper package tied up with string too and the chocolate coloured button :)..........

 ............we had a very happy mother's day weekend, and i was so lucky to be able to see my own lovely mum and my two sweet daughters to celebrate it.......i was spoilt with some wonderful crafty gifts and gorgeous flowers............(and cake)...............i hope you all had a very happy time too............

..........now i am going to sew my seaside design, and enjoy the sunshine in my sewing room.........thank you so much for your sweet comments on my last post......and a special thank you  to those of you who remembered those long strings of birdies had a bell on the end....my next version for my daughter will definitely have a bell too :)...............wishing you all a wonderful week with sunny days and happy crafting...........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooxxxxxxx

Birds and Beads

As it has been so spring-like here for the last few days, and the bird song has been filling our garden and the woods and hedgerows round about i decided it was time to show you some of the fabric birds i've made......

........this little bird is from my book *pretty patchwork gifts* and is part of a  hanging decoration which has a stuffed birdhouse and a flower too.............i loved making the projects for this book and also painting the little watercolour illustrations to decorate the page corners...............

 .............all the photographs in the book were taken by the wonderful interiors and lifestyle photographer simon whitmore............below is a picture i snapped at the weekend of the birdie hanger in the potting shed ....it was sunny and warm enough to spend a bit of time pottering there at last.....

 ...........i have also been making simpler little fabric birds to make a very loooong string....

 ...........years ago i bought a similar very long string of fabric birds from a hippie shop and i decided to make a new version with lots of bright fresh fabrics.........it took quite a while to make enough birdies.....

                                         ............and to sew on all their beady eyes.............

............to string the birds together i used baker's twine and put lots of gorgeous beads between each bird.......there were beautiful lampwork beads and some cheap and cheerful bright pink ones too.......

 ...........i am really enjoying having this little flock brightening up the sewing room.........

............my daughter sarah loves them so i'm making another string for her now....maybe not as long as the original one though so she will get it sooner............

.............we did lots of gardening at the weekend, clearing old leaves and cutting down dead plants ready for all the new growth.....  the garden has really come to life with buds and blossoms just beginning to open, lots of crocus and snowdrops looking pretty....and a robin and a family of blackbirds singing above us in the trees.............a wonderful time of year :)............thank you for visiting here, it is always a pleasure to see you and to read your lovely comments............wishing you all a happy sunny crafty week.....back soon xxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxx