Quilt Inspiration

 I've recently been showing you sneaky peeks of some english paper pieced squares.......and this is what they were for............a trip around the world quilt in soft vintage shades..............

 ..................the top is now completed and ready to be hand quilted............just waiting for the backing fabric to arrive..........i love how just simple squares slowly stitched together can create a big pattern across the whole quilt............

 ...............lots of pictures of the quilt top in progress..........and i am sure i will take plenty more when it is quilted :)...........

 ...............most of these pretty fabrics are from tilda's recent ranges, a little bit is from the candy bloom collection that i was given for the blog hop not long ago....

 .............i used some white kona cotton solid to give a bit of contrast too.............

 ................do you remember the little bear from my book modern vintage gifts?........here is another version of him made from an alphabet fabric...............

 ...............and below is my newest fabric acquisition....a gorgeous jellyroll of miss scarlet fabric......

 .............. i have been inspired by antique quilts recently..........when i went to the wonderful quilt exhibition at the V & A in 2010 i brought the book home with me and have been re reading it lately, along with the fascinating old swedish quilts.............

 .............i have always loved the look of antique quilts and over the years they have often inspired my work from greetings cards to china designs as well as actual quilts.............

 ................sweet roses from the garden.......late flowering and with a delicate scent they look pretty with the white japanese anemones which are also flowering prolifically at the moment.......

 .............above is my trip around the world quilt being ironed for its next step of 'making the quilt sandwich'........below is the spare room bed with a different quilt on it this week (making the most of not having ironing baskets in the way any more).............this is of course the red and white checkerboard quilt, always one of my favourites...............

..................thank you for dropping by dear readers and for your sweet comments............i will be taking a little trip myself next week....not around the world but to one of our very favourite places......we will be in cornwall where we spent so many happy childhood holidays......so looking forward to seeing it all again...............x wishing you all happy sunny days and plenty of crafty inspirations......................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quilt Love

 Happy September everyone............time for a new season and a fresh start for many with the new school year beginning......my own fresh start is that i am trying to sort out my house and be more organised.....

 ...............this room is a spare bedroom and i have kept a lot of children's toys in here for my grandchildren to play with..........i also do the ironing in here (though sometimes i don't actually do the ironing but let it remain in baskets waiting to be done)......

 ..............last week i began a bit of a tidy up and cleared lots of clutter, did the ironing, and hung up all the clothes......

 ...............then i spread out the farmer's wife quilt on the bed and arranged some white pillows and some pretty cushions..............

 ...............this sampler quilt is one of my favourites and i am part way through making blocks for another one.....

 ..............i have also been very busy recently making quilts for future magazine projects which is very exciting and a pleasure to do....but they have to stay secret for now, until publication next year when i will be sure to share them a lot..........

 .............some quilts piled up....and an old sampler of mine, the one called *thomas tusser* from my very first book..............

 .................sweet posy from the garden with a little bit of the recent dimity quilt..........

 ...............choosing softly coloured fabrics for a new applique quilt..........love choosing the fabrics from my stash or adding a few new ones by browsing online..............

 ................below is a pile of my old and new quilts............

 ..........i love to use them, display them and pile them up as part of my home decoration...........

 ..............there can never be enough quilts for me and i am always wanting to begin another.....below is the beginning of the last block of a new quilt that i hope to show very soon.....

.................thank you for dropping in to see me here dear readers and thank you so much to those of you who leave me a kind comment, it is such a pleasure to hear from you................wishing you a wonderful week ahead with happy crafty times and plenty of inspiration..........back soon xxxxxxx

Late Summer

 Today has been a gorgeously sunny bank holiday here......we had a lovely walk this morning along our own stretch of coastline and saw blackberries ripening in the hedgerows, butterflies and damselflies and lots of seabirds............last week a kind friend and neighbour brought me these plums, as she does every year and this weekend we had our first late summer (nearly autumn) crumble...........

 ..........i made this little garland of birds with scraps left from my blue and white quilt.....the pattern is the rainbow birds one from my book modern vintage gifts........

 .............and here is the new quilt being quilted..........as i usually do, i pinned all the layers together with curved basting pins which normally works really well.........but this time the layers felt rather slippery so i went up to the attic and dug out a big embroidery hoop to use and that seems to be working much better.....

 ..........a bit of quilting in the sunny garden..........

 .................the sweet japanese anemones are flowering here now.....love them in this beautiful ken eardley jug (purchased from the janet bell gallery here).............

 ................blue hydrangeas below from my daughter's garden.............x

 ..............and tomatoes grown by mr p in our greenhouse...............they are delicious......x

 ..................here they are growing well (this is worthy of note as we have had some serious tomato  fails in the past!).................

 .................so bright and shiny.......and tasty too..........

 ................below is one of my projects in this month's crafts beautiful magazine (there are two this time, the other is a christmas one)........this one is a project featuring apples and pears in cross stitch and applique.............you can find out more here...........

 .............soon i will be heading out to the garden again for a bit more crafting, enjoying the late summer sunshine while i can......

 ...................one more view of the little blue birds...........

...............thank you for your visits here dear readers, it is so nice to see you and such a joy to read your kind comments......wishing you a very happy late summer week with sunny days and crafty inspirations....................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flowers and Sewing

 Here is my rosy patchwork all finished and up in my sewing room....this is the trip around the world mini quilt that i showed you back in june when i paper pieced together the squares of pink and green fabrics from pam kitty garden, lecien and lakehouse studio.............

 ............i really like the trip around the world pattern and am working on a two other versions at the moment............my work in progress list is rather long just now and includes work projects, ones for fun and exploring new ideas and ones that have been started a while ago and get added to now and then which makes them hang around a long time.......but with crafting the joy is in the journey not just the finished projects i do believe :) ........

 ................i found some bellis daisies this morning at the garden centre and had to bring them home....such favourites that i always get them when i see them and they have inspired many a design.....

 ...............the rosy trip around the world as a finished block above and below when machine quilted in a gentle wave pattern..................

 ..........my longarm quilter lady is wonderful at transforming my quilt tops for me.......

 ................below is the beginning of a new applique quilt block for a new quilt that i have had in mind for a long time and now i am rather excited that it has begun.....

 .........inspired by flowers, by history and by antique quilts, this will be a lovely one to make and eventually i hope to share the pattern with you............

 ................more applique flowers below...........as well as real ones from the cutting patch.....

 ...............this design is appliqued using fusible web and blanket stitched round the edges.......

 ...............a sewing room picture from the weekend.......delicious scented and colourful sweetpeas, such a pleasure to have nearby while stitching busily.............

 ................below are the sweetpea and runner bean canes in our garden, with the plants growing well and twining happily upwards.....

 ...........and below is a picture of the cutting garden with its surprising number of orange flowers...........another surprise is the plants that did not come up or simply disappeared.........where did the hollyhocks go i wonder?.......probably the slugs and snails had them for dinner........

 ...............below is not my garden but a national trust garden with a gorgeous display of hollyhocks...sigh.....maybe next year........off to stitch some more flowers now and enjoy the sunshine which has peeked out again after a morning of rain............

..................thank you for dropping by dear readers and for leaving me such kind comments......it is always a pleasure to see you........wishing you a happy crafty week with lots of flowers to enjoy.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx