Flowers and Fabrics

 Although it's been freezing cold here with a bitterly cold wind blowing all weekend, the flowers around me and the pretty fabrics i am working with have made it feel quite spring like :).............. above is my project in the april issue of crafts beautiful magazine.........

 ...........and here are some of the blocks for my new star quilt made with diamonds, scrappy fabric, fussy cut fabric and kona solids...all english paper pieced........

 .............some of my beautiful mother's day flowers and a stack of some kona solids in flower colours....

 ...........i am loving the mix of prints and solids..........the lecien florals are wonderful for fussy cutting....

 ..............and here are some very sweet new fabrics .......designed by the talented kristyne of the blog pretty by hand ............i have always loved kristyne's beautiful work, her sweet colour and pattern choices and perfect sewing are an inspiration.........i was so pleased to see her new fabric collection first romance by moda and will love stitching with these gorgeous prints......more soon x.......

 ..............more of my flowers below....i am a lucky mum and wife..........

 ..............the scent of the hyacinths is so delicious too.........and i love the double tulips........

 ..........there are quilts all around the house, their bright colours cheer up the winter days......

 ..........here is the flower pots pillow...inspiration for the flower pots quilt...........

 ..............one idea leads to another and there is always a long to do list pinned on my notice board....

 .............today a dear friend is coming to see me and we will have a nice catch up....we have known each other many years and always have a lot to talk about...i might do a bit of patchwork too....

...............thanks so much for dropping by dear readers and for the sweet comments......hope you all have a lovely week with sunshine, flowers and a whole lot of crafty inspiration......back soon xxxxxxx

Flower Pots Quilt

 We are having a very floral week here on my blog.............this is my flower pots quilt ....

 .............it is featured in the gorgeous australian patchwork and quilting magazine's latest issue...(vol 27 no 12) (you can subscribe online here)............it was fun to make this quilt and used up lots of tiny scraps of favourite fabrics..........

 ............each block was made by appliqueing the pot and the flowers onto a background square and embroidering round them........then the squares were joined together in rows....above is the work in progress..........

 ............the finished quilt in the potting shed with some flower pots............

 ..............and below is the bright and happy styled shot from the magazine feature......

 ...........i enjoy looking at quilts every day and love having quilts all around the house.........

 ............the quilt was long arm quilted for me by the talented debbie holland....we chose a stipple pattern to decorate the background...........

 ...........i found a bright and colourful floral for the backing...........and the borders were strips from a kona solids jelly roll............

 .............last week's flowers here were bright tulips and daffodils, echoing my quilted flowers........

 ............and of course the pots of primroses which have been waiting in the greenhouse........

 .............flowers make me happy whatever form they take............

 ...............this week it is feeling a bit warmer and more spring like though rather rainy............yesterday i had a lovely mother's day being spoiled by my dearies......and soon it will be easter and the family easter egg hunt to arrange..........lovely spring days and plans to look forward to...................

..............thank you for dropping by lovely readers and for your kind comments.........it is always a pleasure to hear from you and i do appreciate you taking time to leave a comment..........wishing you a wonderful week ahead with sunshine and flowers wherever you may be............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quilts in the Snow

 One day last week we woke up to a perfect snow day......a thick layer of crisp dry clean white snow lay over everything making it all look magical.........it made me want to grab my camera and a quilt or two and take some pictures......so i did :)............

 ..............we very rarely have much snow here, living on the coast we seem to miss it when other places have a lot...........so it was quite a novelty for the local children (including my bigger grandchildren, charlie and daisy)...and for me too............

 ...........while i was in the garden taking my snowy quilt pictures the children at the local school were allowed to go out and build snowmen and snow dogs before settling down to their lessons.......i was so happy to hear this when i collected charlie and daisy later in the afternoon, and think their teachers are very understanding.......the children will have special memories of their snowy school day.........

 ............it was a grey and white morning at first and later the sky became blue, and the sun came out and sparkled on the pure white snow..........

 ...........this is my shoofly quilt, one of the traditional red and white designs i am making for my own collection...........

 ........the fabrics are kona cottons in white and tomato..........the backing is a lovely bonnie and camille print that echoes the patchwork pattern..........

 ............snowy trees through the window.........every branch had its own coating of snow....

 ...........next i took some pictures of my blue and white checkerboard quilt too.............the tree i hung the quilts on is in the middle of the lawn and is an eleagnus which has a lovely perfume when in flower and attracts butterflies and bees..........charlie and daisy have always loved to climb in it too....

 .............more quilt shots............below is the potting shed with its door open for the first time in a while......

 ..............i brought the old blue painted chair out of the potting shed for a quick picture too....

 ............it was an amazing day and very beautiful..........but for those who have had enough snow here are some flowers to remind us that spring will soon be here...........

 .............we potted up these sweet primroses a couple of weeks ago when we thought winter was nearly gone ;)..............

.............thank you for visiting me here dear readers and for the lovely comments you take the time to leave....i always love to hear from you..........wishing you a happy week ahead and plenty of cosy crafty times..............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tilda Lemon Tree Blog Hop

 Welcome to my stop on the tilda lemon tree blog hop today...........here is miss lemon wearing her pretty dress made in the lemonade print fabric (and her ear linings are the flowerfield print).......

 ...........i was delighted when sew and so asked me to take part in this blog hop and loved the fat quarters of lemon tree fabric they sent me.....the bright fresh colours and mix of bold and tiny florals have a modern vintage feel and are great for all kinds of projects............

 ..............at the moment i am designing a modern patchwork quilt using squares and half square triangles in various ways.....so i used one of the blocks for a cushion in lemon tree fabrics.....

 .............then i made a drawstring project bag from the lemon tree fabrics in reds and blues colour ways, adding in some older tilda spots and stripes too.....these fabrics work beautifully with earlier tilda ranges and also look gorgeous with solids in matching shades.....

 ............the bag drawstring is decorated with a little heart in flowerfield fabric..........

 ............and i sewed some decorative felt bobbles to the bottom of the bag.....

 ............here's miss lemon again with the patchwork pillow which looks lovely in our sunny kitchen..

 ..............and here is the next project..... linen tea towels with dresden plate appliques........

 ..............they make nice gifts too............here are two hanging on the aga......the button centres could be replaced with fabric circles or yo yos if you preferred that..........

............in my book modern vintage gifts there is a pattern for a cherry pot holder which i used to make this project in lemon tree fabrics....and of course i had to change the cherries to lemons for this one.....

 ..........i am looking forward to ordering some yardage and making a quilt now that i have had a nice play with these pretty fabrics on my little projects............

 .............i hope you've enjoyed my stop on the blog hop today :)...........to see more about the tilda ranges and the blog hop please visit sew and sew ideas here.............

..............thank you for dropping by dear readers and for the kind comments you leave.......(you can also visit me on instagram and facebook too in between blog posts)..........wishing you a wonderful week filled with crafty inspiration.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx