Spring Making

 It may be wintry outside.....but in my sewing room it's spring........i am so enjoying sewing with flowery fabrics this week, in particular these from the new pam kitty picnic collection........

 .......i made some small drawstring bags as part of my tidying up plans......i realised last week that as i kept losing crafty things it was probably time for a sort out and re organise of my crafty space......it is something i am doing in small steps as it takes so long and is not so much fun as making things........

                            .............the little bags can be labelled to show the contents.............

 ...........and they fit nicely together in a box or basket and take up less room than bigger bulky containers..........rather like the idea of feedsacks in the old days that replaced big barrels :)...........

 ...........i have some new flowers for my sewing room this week.......i love these primulas and bought two, one for my daughter................

 ..........the flowers look like little paintings, and when i was working as an illustrator i used to paint them for greetings cards every year...........i had a look in the garden and, as happens each january, got a nice surprise to find these tiny iris flowering..............

                                       ...........something has been nibbling the petals......

 .............playing with floral fabrics and having spring flowers around me has been very cheery during this week of cold winds, rain, hail and often gloomy light, though we have had a few blue skies and some sunshine, which is when we go out for a walk or do a bit of gardening........

 ............i am cutting out floral patches for an applique idea which i hope to show soon, as well as my picnic quilt, charmed star quilt, sampler quilt and ripple blanket......i do love lots of wips.....

 ..................after i made the floral bags i made another, this time from the blue recipe fabric which i really love............

..............it makes a sweet storage bag for cookie cutters.........and i know some people who keep lots of their kitchen dry goods in fabric bags though i haven't tried that yet.............

 ...........i am planning to bake something later today........so many of your blogs showing delicious cakes and bakes have inspired me to get baking again :)......................

 ..............but before that i have a few more piles of crafty things to sort out........i know that as soon as i send something off for recycling i will most likely need it though.......

............thank you for dropping in here, lovely readers, and for your sweet comments on my last post.....i do love to read them and to visit your blogs too..............wishing you a happy week with time to make things, bake things, enjoy some flowers and keep cosy..............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pretty Patchworks

 I have rather a lot of works in progress (wips) at the moment, many of which are patchworks in progress (pips), and i must say i like it that way :).......i can decide what i feel like working on today....apart from actual work projects which are decided more sensibly by deadlines of course.......

.........i am loving making stars for my charmed stars quilt..........each star will be made from a different fabric, like charm quilts are made, and i do love choosing the next one to be sewn....

 ............as you can see they are joined together with a large white hexagon which i made specially to use for joining the six point stars (they are the same english paper pieced ones i used for my starry patchwork cushions before christmas, the papers can be re used many times)............

 .............i am working my way through my stash, picking out old favourites and new ones too.....

.............while i was having a big hunt for my crochet flowers i found my little houses from my pretty patchwork gifts book and decided to take a few photos of them................

 .................they could be pixie houses or they could be beach huts.................

 ............i think i might make a few more in some of the exciting new fabrics i've recently been given.......i quite like the idea of a long window sill with a long row of them, or maybe a small set of wall shelves filled with several rows of sweet little homes made from gorgeous fabrics.....

 .............a surprise parcel arrived here last week from my publishers......it contained copies of the new german translation of my pretty patchwork gifts book......

                                    ..............and copies of the italian translation too.............

 .............i have always loved books and it is still a real pleasure to me to write them too.....

 .............despite finding lots of things on my hunt for the crochet flowers i still haven't found the double flowers i wanted (where can they be?) and now i have lost a little cross stitch motif that i made for a work project, so more hunting is required today before i start sewing......i am glad to hear from your lovely comments that i am not the only one that this happens to......

 ............the beautiful anemones in my sewing room have opened up into huge flowers........

 ................i love seeeing the shapes they form from different angles and the soft green texture of the frilly foliage.................i have cross stitched some anemones too..............

 ..............this is part of my project in this month's spring inspired crafts beautiful magazine......

...................now i am going to make a cup of tea, have a little look around for my lost cross stitch design, and get to work again.............thank you for visiting me here in my little blog space, lovely readers, it is such a pleasure to see you and reading your sweet comments is the icing on the cake :).....wishing you a happy week and to those in the uk.....keep cosy...........back soon xxxxxxxx

Flowers in Winter

 After a big search through baskets, boxes, tins and other containers in my studio cupboard....i found some of my lost crochet flowers.........a little stash of these single flowers, rather like primroses, was discovered, though the collection of double flowers i made last spring is still missing, and i'll keep looking for those..........in the meantime i finished hooking up a few more granny squares ...........

              ...........the flowers needed the ends sewing in, which took a bit of time...............

 ..............usually now i sew them in as i go so i don't have to do too many at once.............

 ...............when i learnt to crochet i knew it would give me the chance to play with lots of colour and texture and it has......the lovely flowery pam kitty picnic fabrics here have been made into some new blocks for two on going quilts.............pictures coming soon :)...................

 ...........i just love the colour effects of simple crochet stitches placed next to each other......

 ..........the back is a big bright granny square with one pink flower framed in the centre..............

 ...............inspiring me this week have been these gorgeous bright anemones from my favourite florist in our little town............i put them in the sunny sewing room to help them open up a bit.............

 .............though we haven't had much sunshine here this week......sunday was a particularly grey and bleak day, cold, damp, dull and gloomy.........we wrapped up and went for a long walk, along the edge of the muddy woods and through the town down to the coast where we inspected the storm damage to the garden walls along the promenade.........whole walls of brick and stone had fallen with the power of the waves during the recent storms and high tides..............we came home to hot cups of tea and the last of the christmas cake...........

 ............i love cosy times like these wintry days, working and crafting and reading new books......

 .............this week i have begun reading virginia woolf's garden by caroline zoob..........we visited monk's house a few years ago, and loved both the house and the garden, so it will be fascinating to read the history of it.................

 ..............pots of primulas are cheering up the kitchen window sill again, and a bright pink one is on the table next to where i work.............

..........the little chair in these pictures was sarah's chair when she was a small child........then it became rosie's chair, and many years later charlie's chair.......for now, it is daisy's chair and fits her perfectly..........in between i've used it in book photoshoots, blog photoshoots and have painted it with annie sloan chalk paint :)..............thak you for visiting me here, lovely readers, and thank you so much for your kind comments.........i hope you have a happy week, with some sunshine and flowers and some crafty times too.................back soon xxxxxxxooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Making Things

 It's cold and chilly here with gale force winds blowing the sea onto our promenade almost every day.........the perfect time to be indoors and making things...........i have been very busy over the past week working on magazine commissions which have to be kept secret for a little while yet.......but here is something i made earlier...........a birdie flower wreath decoration............

 ..........i made this last summer (here it is in the potting shed) when i made the long string of birds but haven't shown the pictures till now..........i was inspired to make it when i saw some similar decorations in a local shop...........you can find wire circles at many florist's shops, cover with fabric or ribbon, glue on embellishments like buttons and flowers with a glue gun and add a little stuffed fabric bird on a beaded string to hang in the middle..............

 ..........it is a cheery and colourful addition to my dresser now that the xmas decorations have come down.........i miss the twinkly little fairy lights and candle bridges and the lights in the tree in our front garden.........as well as sewing with my pam kitty picnic fabrics for work purposes, i have used lots of little scraps to sew two tiny patchy pincushions............this one has beads sewn in the four corners...

 ...........and applique hearts...........and a couple of buttons.......the other is simply made with postage stamp patches...........working with colourful fabrics, like working with colourful paint, is  wonderfully uplifting during dark wintry days............

 ...........i've been reading a lot lately too, lots of lovely new books came my way at christmas.......

 .............the picture below is a double page spread from *the world of cross stitching* magazine, showing the sampler i designed for issue 212 which is out right now in the shops or online here....

 ................this sampler includes some lovely new little charms and lots of homely, pretty motifs.....

 ...........i love the cupcake charm..........and tea and tea pots are a big part of my day :)........

 ...........so are bulbs at this time of year, i love these sweet hyacinths just opening now...........

............i looked in the garden for something for my special vase and found: daisies, a tiny bud of an anemone, some little pink flowers in a pot from last summer, and some huge hydrangea heads bobbing about in the wind...........not much else at the moment, but lots of green shoots and buds and promise of plenty to come in the next few weeks.............

 ...........here is my new ripple blanket which is such a pleasure to work on, i am loving the stripes and i am sure working on something with lots of colours speeds up the crochet...........

 ..........i also want to make something with the crochet flowers i made last spring, but have to find them first....put away in a tidying up session, they have vanished into my studio somewhere......

.............thank you, lovely readers, for your very kind comments and new year wishes.......it is so lovely to have your visits here and to 'meet' you through the blogosphere............i hope you are keeping cosy in all the bad weather (unless you live in warmer, summery places, of course :))........and enjoy some making and crafting to brighten up the chilly days...............back soon xxxxooxxxxxxxxx