Back to the Potting Shed

Here i am back again from our little trip to the lovely cotswolds...........so green and pleasant and flowery...........we stayed in a very tiny cottage, picture postcard style, with windows peeping out through the thatched roof.........the kindly owners had left a bunch of yellow tulips to welcome us and a delicious cake with the label written on........it was called 'blossom cake'..........

 .............it was such a sweet time to visit there.......apple blossom time, and i have never seen so many flower decked apple orchards all in one place before....and all such small, old,  pretty trees.....

 ...........there were flowers everywhere, wild flowers like cow parsley frothing in the hedgerows, spring flowers in the gardens, lilacs in bloom, clematis and wisteria climbing across the honey coloured stone houses, and masses of stylish pots and planters in the little towns..............

 ............we visited lots of gardens, but i haven't had time to sort out all the pictures yet as we have just got back, so here are just a few from my favourite garden...hidcote manor....so beautiful....

 ...........we visited it twice, once on a hot sunny day and once on a rainy afternoon.......it was gorgeous both times..................a dream garden for dreaming in.................

 ...........i loved seeing the potting shed and the kitchen garden as well as the flowers........

                                      .............and I always love a bit of topiary too :)..............

..............on our first day we walked into the little town near our cottage, and there was a man on the village green selling old keys so here is the one i had to buy....he gave me a ribbon too, to hang it from, and a page from an old book 'just because'............i love things happening like this...........

 ...............my garden journal is filling up with notes and ephemera............lots of inspiring garden ideas to remember for the future.............we visited some of the old manor houses as well as the gardens and saw some beautiful textiles, samplers, tapestries, tiny embroidered pin cushions and vintage toys....including some very old rabbits..................no pictures though (not allowed).......

 ................when we got home the first thing to do was check our own garden............

 .............all the columbines were flowering............so pretty...........the grass had grown a LOT..........the first rose was out...........lots of weeds had grown too...........

..............this is just a quick post to catch up, and i will be back to my usual routine this week, with lots of crafty things to show you............thank you for your lovely comments on my tulip quilt and bunnies in my last post, i so enjoyed hearing from you.......i have lots of emails to answer now i'm back and will do that in the next couple of days.........and i look forward to catching up with all your blogs now too..............wishing you happy sunny crafty days..........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Petunias, Bluebells and a Tulip Quilt

I bought two trays of pink petunias last week, one for me and one for my mum.......and the flowers reminded me that now might be a good time to show the second and third sugar bunnies, (bluebell and petunia)........above is petunia with the postcard box filled with some of her namesake flowers..........more about the bunnies later in this post, as next i would like to show you the finished tulip quilt............

 ..........i have been showing bits of this quilt as a wip for a little while now...............

 .............i used lots of fabrics from my stash, in soft pinky shades and lots of grey too.............

..........i added applique birds, hearts and of course those tulips with lots of red quilted tulips too.....

 ............and i used a red gingham for the binding............ i thought it looked nice next to the patchwork.....................

                                         .............worked well with the red applique hearts................

 ..............and i especially liked it next to the grey and white checked backing, a pam kitty love fabric that i bought from the wonderful sew and quilt here..............

 ..............someone asked me recently if i labelled my quilts....well, i do now ;)....though for years i didn't, so am working my way backwards :).............i designed a cross stitch label for the tulip quilt as you can see here, and added some lace around it.............

 ...............we still have some beautiful apple blossom on the trees here and i wanted to capture it before it's over.............the garden looks so pretty at the moment, with the fresh green leaves, the pale pink and white blossom..............

.................and lots and lots of bluebells................here is *bluebell* the last sugar bunny too......

 ..............the sugar bunnies are from my latest book *pretty patchwork gifts*...... and one of the nicest things recently has been seeing so many versions of these bunnies being made....each person's is unique and special, and i have seen so many lovely pictures, so thank you to those who have sent me photos of their own sugar bunnies, and thank you to those who have shown them on their blogs as well.....since i began blogging i have been amazed at all the creative and talented folk out there :)...

 .............some of our garden bluebells growing under the old ash tree, along with solomon's seal, a few dandelions and a lot of ground elder :0..............lovely to pick a big bunch of bluebells and enjoy the wonderful spring scent in the house too......................

...............i have so enjoyed making these bunnies........and now i am designing some different toys which i hope to show you soon............i am also planning on sewing some new kitchen items, a home sweet home applique wall hanging and i have an idea for a new quilt....but will have to wait to start that as i will be away next week on a little holiday............we are going to the cotswolds to stay in a thatched cottage and visit some beautiful gardens......i am so looking forward to it..........i have packed my garden journal, the national trust book, some art materials, some embroidery things, and will of course be taking my ripple blanket which i might even finish while we are away..................my post next week will be a couple of days late because of being away but i will take lots of pictures to share when i get back......................thank you so much for visiting me here and for your sweet comments......it's so great to share a creative connection with so many others around the world........wishing you a wonderful week, with happy, sunny, crafty times...............back soon xxxxxx

Secret Garden

 I wanted to make myself a new garden notebook for this summer, so i bought a book with handy pockets and lots of pages, (meant for recipes) and decorated the front cover with scrapbook papers and rubber stamps......many were from my stash but i also found some beautiful new ones in the *secret garden* range from graphic 45............as soon as i saw these papers and the lovely artwork they reminded me of the first garden i ever knew and loved................

............when i was a small child we lived in a victorian house with a walled garden at the back.....i have wonderful memories of the atmosphere there...a fig tree growing against a warm brick wall, apple trees, roses and a vegetable patch, mulberries, radishes, daisies and crab apples, and in the spring time bluebells and lily of the valley......i think of that garden often and always, looking back, it was sunny :)...........when i grew older and read *the secret garden* by frances hodgson burnett, i thought it was rather like my garden too...............

 ..............the new garden notebook is a work in progress as i decorate the inside and i'll be showing you more pages of it soon...............

 ...........here is the front of the book being decorated, with bits being added and taken away :)..........

 ...............we are planning lots of lovely garden visits soon, so i will be writing in this book, and storing postcards, leaflets and garden ephemera in the pockets...........can you see my latest crochet crush in this picture too?..................

 .................making sweet and colourful flowers from various youtube videos..........

 ............i'm still loving crocheting the ripple blanket too, and it's about half finished now and a joy to work on........but somehow i got a little yen to try these multi layered flowers and to see how they work.......always a pleasure to find out the way something is constructed :)...............

 ............I've made quite a few now......couldn't stop really...........and am not sure what i'm going to do with them yet but i just know they will be lovely for something soon..............

 ...............i thought i'd pop a picture of some real flowers in here too............i love these bellis daisies.......i didn't manage to get a picture of the cherry blossom here before it suddenly all got dashed off the tree by the high winds...........it was like confetti over the grass and the tree had turned back to green after being so white and flowery the day before....................the apple blossom is still holding on and looking lovely though so i will take some pictures of that next.....................

.............by the way, the secret garden papers and stamps are available in many places but i got mine here.........thank you so much for dropping in here today it is always wonderful to see you and to hear from you too............wishing you a happy, sunny, flowery and crafty week.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Spring Stitching

It's been very sunny at our house a lot of the last week....and we actually had a sunny bank holiday too, a rare thing here.......we spent a lot of time outdoors, enjoying the blossom, birds and even a barbecue..........

............besides gardening a lot and trying to get ahead of the weeds, we have all enjoyed seeing the tulip cutting patch grow and some of my friends, both in blog land and in real life are going to plant one next year .....the lure of cutting your own tulips and planting varieties you love is very strong......

...........and my stitching was tulip inspired again too, as you can see i made a little hand quilted potholder in pinks, greens and white...........the simple tulip shape is one i've often used in my design work, painted with watercolours for greetings cards, and stitched into cross stitch samplers many times.........the already almost stylized shape of the tulip is ideal for applique too..........

 ..........i took a big white bucket of colourful tulips into the house at the weekend.............

 .............in the warmth the flowers opened up and some were HuGe........someone described them as looking like lampshades they were so large :)...........the smaller ones with fine lines on them which looked just like hand painted brush strokes were amongst everyone's favourites.............they all looked beautiful as the petals opened out and they took on such un-tulip like shapes......

                         .................here are some pictures of my sewing in progress..........

 .................some tulips and the potholder in the potting shed in the bright sunshine.............

 ...................i love to add some buttons and other little details to my projects........the selvedge strips were from a pam kitty morning fabric....love how the colour dots are printed as little hearts......the rose button is from just another button company................

 ...............and the tulip quilt i showed you last time is almost finished...........i decided to hand quilt some tulip shapes in some of the big rectangles with red thread,  so have been busy sewing them over the last week....

 .............it's been a pleasure making this quilt, i love all the hand quilting in it..........

 ...............today I sewed the binding on (in my lunch break from making autumn things for work commissions)............and tonight i hope to slipstitch the binding down....after making dinner and maybe a bit more weeding.................

.............spring is such a busy time in the garden..............having such a delayed spring this year is making us appreciate it even more..........this old bench under the cedar tree needs a coat of paint and so do the composter beehives which have weathered a bit too much............lots to do ;)..................
............thank you for visiting me here and for all your kind comments...........thank you to those who suggested the birds might have been responsible for taking my seed markers.......we do have lots of birds, especially blackbirds, in our garden and i think that solves the mystery :)........thank you too to everyone who emailed me this week, my inbox was quite stuffed with messages and if i haven't replied to you yet i hope to do so very soon ........................
 ..............i wish you all a wonderful, sunny, happy and crafty week.....................back soon xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tulip Patch

 As you can probably tell by the title of today's post we are having a flowery theme this time.......

 .......... and mainly a tulip theme, as after the long cold winter and long cold spring at last the tulip cutting patch i planted last autumn is flowering...............I am soooo excited about this, you would think I had never planted a bulb before in my life ;)................

 ................i have allowed myself to cut a few of the gorgeous flowers now, as that is why i planted the tulip patch..........here are a few shots of them in the sunny potting shed, in  a big glass jar before i took them into the house..............

.............i planted a few rows of each kind (about eight different sorts)........i carefully wrote the name of each on a white seed marker and stuck it in the soil at the end of the row so i would know which was which when they flowered.......somehow all the markers have now disappeared........i've no idea where or how....strong gales? grandbabies taking them to play with?....who knows.......but i don't really need to be scientific about it..............i just love tulips and i love all these :)...............

 ..............and it must have been the influence of my tulip mania this last week or two that led me to pull out lots of sweet little prints from my stash and begin chopping rectangles of pinks, white and grey prints and sewing them together in long strips to begin a new quilt................

 .....with red dotty tulips appliqued onto it..........there are birds and hearts as well.......a real folk art style quilt which i am so enjoying sewing.............i'm  still loving crocheting the ripple blanket  too, and doing some sweet autumn designs for magazine projects.....in fact i'm loving them all and know i'm so lucky to have my job :)......

 ...........making big rectangles has used up a lot of my stash too.......always a good thing to do....

 .............here is my project for this month's crafts beautiful issue...............a sweet vintage rose cushion and little paper crafted tag to match............the cushion has a cross stitch rose on one of the patches........

 ................this is the project in the magazine.........I love how they styled it............you can download lots of charts and projects from the crafts beautiful website here..................

 ..............a week or two ago a beautiful package arrived here, decorated with sweet pink florals and silky pink ribbons...........it was a complete surprise and I was so delighted when I opened it to find....

...............these two sweeties, beautifully hand made by the lovely paula and sent all the way from across the pond specially for me....look at the sweet embroidery and the adorable little shoes ......many of you already know paula and her pretty blog sugar sweet and pink.......and if you do you will know just how kind she is ............i have already been in touch but just wanted to say thank you again, dear paula, they are sitting in my sewing room right now and i love them :).................

.............there is so much pleasure to be had from hand making and crafting and more and more people are discovering that which i think is a wonderful thing............i am off to do some hand quilting on the tulip patch quilt right now and hope to show you the finished project very soon....thank you for dropping into my little bit of blog land today..........it's always a delight to see you and to hear from you too :) ......wishing you a wonderful week with sunshine and flowers and lots of happy times.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx