Summer

 Summer days......summer sunshine......gardens and cool drinks and stitching in the shade....washing all the things because every day is a good drying day.............and perfect for visiting beautiful places like the lavender fields below.....

 ...........this was taken at snowshill lavender..........so lovely to wander the fields and enjoy the scent and colour on a sunny day...........

 ..............admiring the delphiniums at snowshill.....wishing i could grow them here but they are devoured by slugs and snails the moment i plant them and none of the recommended tricks deter them :(......

 ..............i loved this board at hidcote...such a good idea for those who see flowers they love in the gardens there and want to buy the same.....

 ................one of the highlights of our cotswold trip was seeing the peonies at kiftsgate.....they were huge and gorgeous....the roses there are amazing too.....

 ..............summer view across the fields from the cottage window where we stayed...........

 .............and a bit of summer antique hunting at station mill antique centre at chipping norton.....so many lovely things and i wished we had room in our car to put in some of the larger items......

 ...................summer days and strawberries............to eat and to stitch they are always sweet....

 .................we enjoyed a lovely outdoor party at the weekend with dearest family and friends....

 .............each of us was given a posy to take home with us.......

 ...............this is mine :) ........my daughter sarah made these sweet posies.......

...............and here is my shady spot in our garden, under the eleagnus tree...perfect for stitching, reading and dreaming on these beautiful summer days......this summer is now being likened to the summer of 1976......that summer i was drawing and painting surface pattern designs for an upcoming exhibition .... the hot weather then brought lots of ladybirds and i painted one somewhere in each of my floral designs.......

..............thank you for visiting me here in my bit of blogland dear readers and thank you so much for the kind comments you leave me i love to read them......wishing you happy days and crafty inspirations.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Week in the Country

 Hello lovely readers here i am back again after a relaxing break and a week in the beautiful cotswold countryside....

 .............we stayed in this beautiful historic thatched cottage which dates back to the 1500's.....

 ...........it was comfortable and quirky....lots of fascinating details like the ancient windows and the arrow shaped handles.....the garden was so peaceful with sheep bleating on the hills above, wood pigeons cooing....there was a small pond with water lilies and newts.....and a tiny herb garden, a huge apple tree and a plum tree filled with ripening fruit.........i could have lived there :).....

 .............a jug of garden flowers and a bit of english paper piecing for the evening made it feel even more homely....

 ..............the bedroom window looking over the fields..............

 .................the back garden and back view of the cottage...lovely lavender round the door and you can just see molly in the shade of the table.....

 ..............we wanted to visit some of the gorgeous gardens in this lovely area which is one of the reasons we chose to go there now.......all the roses were in bloom and the scents were heavenly...

 ................and this is my new floral crush....astrantia....i am planting some in our own garden.....

 ..............the borders at hidcote gardens were breathtakingly beautiful in the hot sun.....

 ..............(when we got home to our own garden we replanted a pot bound everlasting sweet pea into the ground after seeing this beautiful one blooming at hidcote)............

 ..............as always with my posts, just tap on any image to see them larger........

 ...........up the lane....quite a steep climb on a hot day and we were grateful for the shade....then at the top we found a glorious wildflower meadow........and masses of butterflies.....and as we walked back down via the fields i took this picture of the cottage from the front.....

 .............we visited lots of pretty places and i'll be sharing a few more pictures in future posts.....the wildflowers below were at snowshill gardens.....lovely to see that so many places now set aside areas for these lovely wild plants as well as the traditional beautiful gardens.............

............thank you for visiting me here dear readers and for the kind comments you leave me....i will be visiting my blog friends too this week and look forward to catching up again....wishing you a happy new week with sunshine and flowers.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the Garden

 Happy new week everyone......here is my latest english paper pieced project inspired by a wonderful lucy boston quilt....i am loving making these blocks and love how portable this project is too......great to stitch in the garden or to travel with....

 .............cornflower blue is such a wonderful colour it just popped into my current block .....

 ............the past week has been all about the garden......designing in the garden, sewing in the garden, eating in the garden......weeding, watering and potting on seedlings in the garden :)............

 ............such gorgeous weather and day after day of sunshine is something to make the most of here...

 .............sitting in the arbour with the new squishy patchwork seat cushion....nautical bunting ......

 .............and being photographed in the potting shed is a beehive applique cushion, my project in the july issue of crafts beautiful magazine out now....below is the accompanying cross stitch beehive tag...........

 ..............besides having garden days i have been out and about elsewhere too.....this was a trip to treacle market with my youngest daughter....do you see that blue vintage enamel bucket in the middle of the stall? it came home with me......just what i need to store cut flowers....or maybe to plant red geraniums in.....

 ..........lots of flowers to enjoy now....i try to grow my favourites to photograph and to draw...

 ...........the foxgloves were self seeded...love it when they do that.....

 ..............and the rambling roses are beginning to flower.....the one below is covered in rosebuds...

 ..............down the garden path.....and next week we will be wandering down lots of other garden paths too....we're going on one of our beloved little country breaks and will be staying in a thatched cottage and visiting some beautiful british gardens.............i will take lots of pictures to share when i get back, but will be taking a blog and facebook break next week....you can still find me on instagram though in the meantime......

.............thank you so much for visiting me here and for your lovely comments dear readers...wishing you sunny days and lots of happy crafty times....back soon   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Garden Sewing

 Hello lovely readers...it's good to be back here after an unexpected week away from the internet..... we had a huge thunderstorm here when lightning struck our neighbourhood and our computer network router was damaged.......

 .....we felt lucky that's all it was.....and i spent a lot of time in the garden, sewing projects for work and for me.....including making this squishy tied quilt seat cushion for the wrought iron bench....

 ..........i cut the squares out using my accuquilt cutter and strip pieced them on the machine....then i backed the patchwork with some pretty striped fabric, placed the wadding inside and sewed up the end......and then used some lovely powder pink petra thread from dmc to tie the quilt in each of the squares corners....

 .........it was lovely to spend time in the sunshine with flowers all around and the beautiful sound of birdsong.....but every now and then i had an impulse to look up something on the internet, or to order something, download a book, do my food shop, look at friends blogs.......i was worried about the work emails i'd be getting and wasn't able to answer...... so not quite such a blissful break!.....

 ..............the first roses opened and many more were in bloom by the end of the week when our new router arrived and was installed.............

 ................ just a few lilacs are left now...almost over for another year....

 ...........here is little molly dog under the eleagnus tree where she has been resting in the shade.....her knee injury is improving with rest (mostly in her crate) and she has been so good and patient about it......

 ..........the rosy pillow is in use again here...i designed this for crafts beautiful a while ago and you can download the pattern for free on their website now....

 ..........pinning the squares together for another seat cushion, this time for the arbour seat....

 ...............and doing a little bit of watercolour painting for a floral illustration.....this is the concise british flora in colour...a book i've loved since my student days and still use to identify wildflowers now.......so many different white lacy fluffy flowers in our hedgerows at the moment.....

 ............and our pretty sweetheart roses blooming against the bluest of blue skies.....hubby has been carefully nurturing all the old roses in our garden and it shows......and as may ends and june begins the garden is my favourite place to be.....

........thank you so much for dropping by dear readers and for the kind comments you leave me.....i am glad to be back here again after my enforced break........wishing you all a wonderful june with sunny happy crafty times.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx