Summer Crafting

 Time for some summer crafting, outdoors and indoors, beside the newly spruced up potting shed amongst the flowers and at other peoples' houses too....my wool has been coming with me everywhere this week...

 ....and i have a little pile of granny squares growing....

 ....and growing.....

 ...and growing....i just love making them, and choosing which colour to crochet with next reminds me of picking out a delicious chocolate from a beautiful  box...you know you like them all but which one first??

 ....one day i will have created enough for a blanket, though i expect that day is far in the future and in some ways i don't really mind because i'm so enjoying the making.....

 Thank you for your lovely comments on my last few posts, and for those of you who kindly enquired about what was in the tiny saucer crackers...well, the box says they contain 'an entertaining scroll to raise a smile or create a friendly debate. Each entertaining scroll contains a joke, trivia and talk topic'...i must try them out this weekend .....when i mentioned the early birthday lunch with my daughter last weekend, i didn't tell you that actually it was to celebrate both our birthdays, as Rosie's is the day before mine! Mine is on Monday, but i'll be celebrating all weekend i expect.....

Thank you so much for dropping in to see me here. Wishing you a happy weekend ...enjoy your crafty times, family times, garden days and summer sunshine.  Back soon with some cake! xxxxx

Sweet Garden Flowers

 Yesterday we had the most perfect summer morning here, and I drank my coffee outside enjoying the blue sky, sunshine, flowers and birdsong in the fresh but warm air...I decided I should write a flowery post to celebrate....The flowers above were already planted in the white container by a clever lady at a local nursery who puts together really sweet little plantings each summer and I always love to go and see what she has created.

 I picked lots of mixed garden flowers..I love them in a big colourful bunch together like this..

Placed in a wide necked glass vase they look so simple and colourful, my favourite kind of flower arranging

At the weekend we went to Manchester for an early birthday celebration lunch with my younger daughter and her boyfriend...we had a really lovely time, and gave some gifts (kept some for the day) and after a delicious lunch Rosie and had a peek in some of the quirky little shops in West Didsbury...Rosie lives a few streets away from where I lived as a student at MMU years ago and I love to go back and visit the place....in one shop we found these tiny rosy flowered saucer crackers...I think they are super cute....

                                  Just have to decide which cups they look best with.....flowery ones....

                                                  ...or plain ones....which do you think?....

 After a happy time walking the city streets and enjoying the cafe culture, it was back home to some serious gardening on Sunday...too many weeds have been popping up in our garden and a lot of hard work is needed, plus cutting back and dead heading....I love the actual gardening but don't have enough time, what with the designing and the sewing and now the crochet....and playing with the tiny grandchildren too....

Thank you for visiting me here on this summery day and for your lovely comments...I enjoy reading them so much. Sending you flowery sunshiny days and a happy week. I'll be stitching and crocheting and tidying up the potting shed...and pulling out a few more weeds too.  Back soon. xxxxx

Colour Me Happy

 Come rain or shine it's been a colourful week here at my house as you can see....I found the cheapie little brightly coloured plastic baskets in the local hardware store, always worth a look around as they often have things I didn't know I wanted till I saw them...and the wool stash is growing daily ready for the start of...

 ....my very own granny blanket....I can't believe that I can (hopefully) actually make one myself now after admiring them on so many blogs for so long and wishing I could crochet too...I'm looking forward to beginning this project and taking as long as it needs, enjoying the new making experience....

I spent quite a while just admiring the wool I have so far accumulated, some from the baskets and drawers where my left over knitting wool is stashed, and some freshly purchased...new and beautiful and so far untouched...and then I spent a while playing with the colour combinations and just marvelling at the joy that colour can bring to the creative soul....

This picture shows my sewing box, featured in this month's Sew Magazine which is in the shops right now, packed with ideas and projects ... .and I finished the little applique flower pot I showed you on the previous post by adding butterflies and a little more stitching....I liked it with the red hoop surrounding it so decided to applique it like a badge onto this little red flowery bag....

 ...a little blanket stitch round the edge, sitting in the sunny sewing room...we still seem to be having more sunshine than anywhere else in the country and I'm not complaining...and I expect we'll pay for it soon...

 ...a little closer...I love butterflies at the moment and find I am adding them to all sorts of projects...

a last shot of colour and yarn-y loveliness before I pop off and do some work...or maybe just play with some wool...or maybe even start my granny blanket?? Thank you so much for dropping in to visit me and my little blog world, and for your sweet comments ...I hope you have enjoyed the colours today especially if it's grey or rainy where you are...wishing you a happy (nearly) weekend and sending blue skies and sunshine your way. Back soon. xxxxx

Handmade

 Handmade - I love that word so much, and I love making things by hand and always have...the tactile feel of fabrics and threads, the pleasure of combining textures and colours, the sewing of stitches and beads and buttons, smoothing down and stitching  ribbons in place...something that has always given me such enjoyment and made me forever grateful that I chose to go to art college and become a designer and maker all those years ago...I would have made things anyhow but I know I'm extremely lucky to be able to call it work too..

 Whilst looking for something in my studio the other day I found these applique projects that I made quite a while ago. I'm about to work on some applique pictures for a commission so it was useful to have these to hand again rather then nestling at the bottom of a big basket with lots of other projects....

 I love the immediacy of hand embroidery, how everyone does it slightly differently, and the special individual pieces are often quirky...hand stitched pieces by children are very sweet and it's a good way for them to begin sewing....I always use fusible web to iron on my shapes and then stitch round them with different coloured embroidery threads, sometimes in blanket stitch, sometimes running stitch....

 If I make a little picture I back it with wadding and cotton fabric and bind it with colourful binding, then add a few quilt stitches or French knots here and there....it's such a free and easy way to work...

 I also found this little unfinished embroidery which I'd forgotten about, probably abandoned when more pressing projects took over, and this week I'm hoping to find time to finish it off and make it into something..

 The red plastic embroidery hoop came free with a magazine ....I don't always use them and never do for cross stitch, but sometimes embroidery is easier with the fabric stretched tight...

Flowers in pots are on my mind at the moment, nurturing the ones in my garden each day...we haven't had nearly as much rain here as everyone else in the country seems to have had...though we did get caught in a huge downpour visiting a garden on Saturday...such heavy rain everything was soaked in a moment. Thank you for popping in here to see me, I love your visits and your sweet comments. Have a happy sunny week and enjoy your handmade moments. Back soon. xxxxx

Being Creative

 Today I want to share some things from my crafty week....the kind of week I love so much, when I have time for lots of creative things...and to my delight yesterday I received the Kreativ Blogger award from Bluebell of At Home in the Country....do go and visit her lovely blog if you don't already know it as you will love it...I know the award means I should tell you ten things about me...so I thought how about ten crafty things I did this week?

 one...I planted some flowers including this pot of bright, papery poppies...and two I took photos of them...

 three...yes, you've guessed it...I did lots of crochet, even managed some sunny hooky time in the garden once or twice which was blissful... crochet is my new favourite hobby....

 four...I planted up this old metal bucket with some culinary herbs.....and five I cooked a meal with some of them in....

 six...I designed a cross stitch chart for a magazine for the festive season ...seven ...and I sewed a project for another magazine...but as I can't yet reveal those here is my project in this month's  bright and summery Crafts Beautiful...on a theme dear to my heart...the seaside, and lots of red, white and blue, one of my favourite summertime colourways...

 eight...I picked some flowers from the garden and arranged them...here is one of the little jars, I did several and put them arround the house to scent the air and look pretty. I love the mock orange blossom which is out now, its scent always reminds me of the time my younger daughter was born....and nine...I made some cakes (but have no pictures of those as they soon disappeared)...

 and ten...I did some of my quilt, which is progressing a little more slowly than usual because the hooky has got it's hook into me and is taking over a little at the moment....the quilt will have it's own post soon though..

so that's my list and I would like to say a big thank you to Bluebell for giving me the award, it is much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who visits me here in my little crafty space. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with lots of creative happy times. Back soon. xxxxxx

A Little Crochet....and a Winner!

There has been a little bit of crochet going on around here, which is a new thing for me....I'll tell you all about it in a moment as first I need to tell you who won the Crafty Giveaway from last week.........the winner is...
Sarah, at Homemade Gorgeous! Congratulations Sarah and if you'd like to email me your address I'll send you the lucky dip crafty bag asap.
Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway - it was fun to meet so many crafty bloggers, and I'll do another giveaway soon.

Since I became involved in the blogging community a year ago I realised something was missing from my crafty life..I had knitting, sewing, quilting, patchwork, cross stitch, embroidery, drawing, painting, scrapbooking, papercrafts and cardmaking ....but no crochet!! and seeing the pleasure and enjoyment so many people derive from crochet I just had to have a try. So I ordered the Happy Hooker to read and inform me...and I asked a friend who I knew could crochet to help me start off....

 ...she kindly invited me round to her house for a crochet lesson in her studio, followed by a wander in her flowery and exuberant garden....

 ...and tea and  delicious cakes with gorgeous rosy cups and saucers and a vintage embroidered tea cosy....what a delightful afternoon....

 ...I made my first granny square, with a lot of help... like learning which hand to actually hold the yarn in... and by the end of it I knew how to crochet at last! Over the weekend I practised some more using yarn from my knitting stash...

 ...now I can do a square fairly neatly so with a bit more practice I'll be ready to start my first granny blanket!! I need to order the wool and am not sure what to get or which yarn has the best colour range - feel free to advise me if you'd like to, I know many of you produce wonderful crochet and lots of your blogs have inspired me to try it..thank you all so much!

So, I'd better get a little bit of work done now and then I can hook another square in my coffee break! Thank you  for visiting me here, I love reading your comments and I hope you are all having a happy week. Back soon. xxxxx

Busy Bees

 First of all today I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who left me such heartwarming blog birthday wishes on my last post! THANK YOU soooo much, and the giveaway is still open if anyone still wishes to put their name in the hat....

Today's post is a small celebration of beehive images....I just love them...they make me think of old kitchen gardens, of cottage gardens filled with flowers and fruit...I think both the wooden hives and the wicker bee skeps are beautiful images to include in embroidery....like my little beehive here which was a cross stitch design I produced years ago and found in a box recently...I thought I'd turn it into a cushion surrounded by a flower garden patchwork....

I have shown our garden beehive shaped composters on my blog before...they have both recently been repainted as they were looking very shabby - not in a chic way - so this one was painted using the blue green f and b paint left over from the bench in the potting shed....

.... and this one was painted with the white f and b paint left over from the potting shed itself...I love both the shades, and they look best surrounded by flowers I think...

 ...one more stitched beehive...this time a fabric applique design on a quilt filled with storybook houses and gardens....

 The adorable little silver beehive below is my new treasure...I saw it on Emma's blog at silverpebble a little while ago and loved it so much I commissioned one as an early birthday present... Many of you will already know Emma and her lovely work - she is a jeweller and a participating member of the Cambridge Open Studios...her website is here and her etsy shop is here....do go and have a look at Emma's beautiful designs.

Besides enjoying my new little beehive,necklace, my stitched beehives and my painted garden ones...I'm also enjoying lots of real bees buzzing happily around our flowers, especially the roses and foxgloves....

I hope you are enjoying your week too. Don't forget the crafty giveaway is still open on my last post until Monday, so if you haven't yet left a comment there is still time...Wishing you happy sunny days till next time. Back soon xxxxxxx