Mushrooms

 The autumn days are warm and sunny here again at the moment and everywhere is looking colourful and beautiful...........as part of my autumn decorating i have hung up some little mushrooms....

 ...........i made these decorative mushrooms for my book pretty patchwork gifts here.........

 .........and here they are in the book.......there are full instructions for making them and a choice of templates......once i have designed a template, i often enlarge or reduce it in a photocopier to make different sized versions so now i have made mushrooms ranging from huge to tiny............

 ..........you can also use the templates for applique shapes like the mushroom cushion below................

..........i made this one with a mix of fabrics which i decided needed either to have spots in the design or to feature the colour red :).............. i backed the patchwork front with fusible wadding and quilted round each patch, adding red stitching round the mushroom ........and a red and white spotty button..

 ............some close ups of the project.........some cute buttons on a sewing theme too.......

 ............for the back of the cushion i used a fabric printed with tiny mushrooms.......i bought it in several colour ways and used the pink version for my toadstool cushion in last month's crafts beautiful magazine........

 ............i love the little prints and will be making some more patchwork gifts using them soon.....

 ............my elder daughter sarah and i went on a lovely big city centre shopping trip a couple of weekends ago, as she had birthday money to spend........ and i went foraging for mushrooms in cath kidston, as you can see..........love my new tea towels :)...........

...........i have now cut into my lovely old new 30's fabrics from sew and quilt and made a sixteen patch block..........i love these pretty florals so much..........not sure yet if this will be for a cushion or a whole quilt, as i think a set of cushions in these fabrics would be lovely for our spare bedroom....

 .........................the roses on blue reminded me of some of my china collection.............

 .............i've been busy finishing off some design projects and magazine work this week, as we are going on a little trip away to the countryside first thing tomorrow for a mid week break...............

 i've been packing my little case and selecting a quilt or two to take.......looking forward to long autumn walks in the country, staying in a cute little cottage, lighting log fires in the evening and having a nice rest for a few days.........and doing some crochet and quilting of course :)..................

.............i will leave you with some pretty hydrangeas from our garden........they have grown enormously this year, it must have been the perfect weather for them :).............thank you for visiting me here, lovely readers, and for your sweet comments and emails............i hope you have a happy sunny creative week..........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxx

Autumn Things

 These are the flowers i picked from the autumn garden last week............an interesting mix of summer and autumn flowers and big bunches of red rowan berries..........behind the flowers in the top picture is an ordinary brown envelope that i printed with secret garden stamps to brighten it up before adding the contents.............

............making some rubber stamped tags is something else i love to do both for work and just because too............here are the two spice bunnies now completed............cinnamon (on the right) and clove...

..............just like the first spice bunny, nutmeg, who was made as a gift, these bunnies are dressed in soft autumn colours and they have little crochet sweaters with buttons on the shoulders............

 ............cinnamon with some cinnamon sticks............ i love using cinnamon and cloves with autumn fruits like plums and apples....delicious...........we had both victoria plums and cooking apples kindly given to us this week :)............

............you might have spied the little fabric pumpkins with the bunnies above..........i don't usually have pumpkins around until october, but these were here for work purposes as this is my project in the new-look and rather gorgeous latest issue of crafts beautiful magazine in the shops now and online here..................

.............i love how the magazine styled the photos........you can of course use the pumpkins as pincushions :)................

                     ................here are a few more that i made for my fall decorating.................

.........i love the smaller pumpkins and am looking forward to buying some real ones soon.............

 .............a little bit of crochet has been going on here........these bright flowers are for a project that i hope to show you soon..............

..............i made a whole lot in reds and yellows and then made some blue ones for a bit of contrast...............

 ............before i go today i wanted to mention that my lovely, generous blog friend fee of the inspiring blog chipper nelly is holding a macmillan coffee morning and raffle on friday september 27..........even if you can't go to the coffee morning there is still time to send something crafty to include in the raffle......and you can buy tickets for it and also donate online.....see all the details here.............good luck, fee..............

...............thank you to all the lovely readers who have dropped in to see me here, and for your lovely comments too, it is always a pleasure to see you and i do enjoy your visits :)..............wishing you a happy crafty week with some warm september sunshine and lots of sweet autumn flowers.................back soon xxxxxxxxxx 

Sewing and Painting

 Sewing and painting sums up most of what i've been doing over the last week though there are lots of other things too, but a lot of my time was spent on those two activities........and here are a few pictures of the results..........the dresser here is one i have loved ever since we bought it over twenty years ago........it was then stripped pine but would have been painted originally...........

..........i painted it with annie sloan old white, then distressed the already knocked about bits and waxed the whole thing............i love using annie sloan paint for old furniture, so you work with each piece and use its already distressed features as part of the 'design'..........

...........putting things on the top of the new dresser.....the shaker horse has been kept on there a long time.....i added a new lamp and some flowers......and a little fabric heart hanging on the handle............

 .........i know i am renowned (amongst family and friends) for painting things white, but this time i painted something grey :0..........this shade is called french linen and it is just like the colour of the cashel raw linen fabric that i have sewn many a sampler on and even made a bunny or two from as well.............

 ............i used the grey to paint an old twirly round desk chair that belonged to mr p's granddad....mr p used the chair at a desk in his boyhood room too, studying for exams............now it is in one of the rooms on the very top floor of our tall old house, next to the billy bookshelves from ikea.............

...........and this is some of the sewing i mentioned ..........i made a scrappy cushion with bits of fabric from my scrap basket and some nice text printed fabric too (i think the print is called how to make  pillowcase)..............it was fun to make this, i do love patchworking with squares and trying different combinations...........and i thought this would look nice on the book room chair...........

 ...........making it a bit more comfortable while we browse and dip in for a read here and there, sitting in the twirly chair..............

 ..............i added a small heart to the front and a loop of sew mama sew text fabric to the side seam, and luckily found some dear john letter print for the backing in my stash.....

............also this week i have been sewing things for magazine projects, adding lots more hexies to my seaside flowers quilt....... and i have had some lovely treats in the post......this pretty crochet doily was a delightful surprise gift sent to me by my kind blog friend tammy at t's daily treasures........tammy also sent me a pot holder which i will show you soon, in my kitchen - though it is much too nice to hold pots with! .............handmade gifts are so special, thank you tammy :)...............

...........sorting out the quilt cupboard, getting a few quilts ready for the chillier evenings now arriving and putting in some newer ones made recently......

..........today felt very autumnal, with the wind blowing the golden leaves about, and a chill in the air after so much warmth......i'm glad we had  nice hot summer here in the uk though, it doesn't seem so bad moving into autumn after having our fill of hot sunshine for once :)...........thank you for popping in to see me here, i always enjoy your visits and thank you for your sweet comments.............wishing you a wonderful crafty week........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nutmeg

 This is nutmeg, a little bunny i made specially for a dear friend's birthday at the beginning of august.......i chose the colours with her in mind and took some photos before nutmeg went to her new home..............

 ...........the beautiful birdhouse was painted for me years ago by my sweet sister............

 ............and here is nutmeg with the adorable little toffee lakeland terrier from northfield primitives....

..........real bunnies too today, pictures taken of charlie and daisy with the baby bunnies in the bunny barn at the farm we visited......they wanted to bring them home.....so did i..........

......... nutmeg's warm autumn colours have inspired two more spice bunnies now.....cinnamon and clove will be here soon, they are just waiting for their claws to be sewn on....................

                      ........here is my project in the september issue of crafts beautiful............

                                   ..............i love stitching mushrooms and toadstools..............

                              .............there will be more mushrooms to show you soon...................

 ..........this week i have been having a big painting crush...........both my daughters have been busy home making and painting furniture and interiors and it doesn't take much to inspire me to start painting things again :)............

 ...............i will do a bit more today and then show you some pictures..........i am also working on my seaside hexie quilt and really looking forward to the quilting part as autumn evenings are drawing in........and some gorgeous new fabrics have arrived here recently...............

 ................these lecien old new 30's fabrics are from sew and quilt here..............i can't wait to start sewing with them........maybe later in the week......

.......i love these autumn days when the light is golden, the sky is bright blue and there are red berries on the rowan trees............time to pick blackberries, gather apples and make crumbles........to plant bulbs for next spring..................and i am happily sowing poppy seeds this week too, kindly sent to me by debbie at the beautiful blog serendipity patch...............
.................happy september, lovely readers, and thank you for your visits here and sweet comments................wishing you wonderful sunny crafty times this week................back soon xxxxxxxx