Happy New Year

 After a long and lovely and rather luxurious christmas break, here i am back again in my little blog space on the very last day of the year........i hope you have had a lovely christmas and holiday time?...

 ......we had a wonderful christmas day at my elder daughter and son in law's home, a day filled with warmth, twinkly lights, fire light, delicious food and happy family times....so lovely to see our little grandchildren's happy smiling rosy faces :)........ heartwarming and peaceful........on boxing day evening we went to a little party at some neighbours' and came out later to a winter wonderland of snow......... as the big flakes fell in the lamplight onto our victorian houses it made everywhere seem timeless and magical...........

 ........just before christmas i was saddened to hear of the death of one of my favourite bloggers, vanessa cabban of do you mind if i knit?....lovely vanessa, with her wonderful sense of colour and pattern, knitting and crocheting so inspiringly and creating beautiful paintings, book illustrations and sculptures........i have some of her work around me all the time.....the painting above is one of my favourites and the card framed below stands on my studio mantelpiece.....vanessa was such a talented, inspiring and creative person who was also modest and sweet....we used to correspond sometimes, both working at home as freelancers we had a lot in common.......

 ...........i doubt if vanessa herself realised what an inspiration her blog was to so many and simply what pleasure her blog gave, always delightful, colourful and filled with beautiful pictures.......vanessa will be so much missed............may she rest in peace..............

 .....i had some quiet sewing time now and then this past week and i decided to work on my evening star quilt again.......it is made with english paper pieced blocks and i made three more to add to the quilt......they are so nice to sew while watching movies and chatting to family and friends........

 ...........below you can see last year's little sugar mice who are tucked up in their new pram......

 .......they both just fitted in there and they had a new red and white crochet pram cover too.....

 .............now i am thinking of projects for later in the year.........here is this month's project for crafts beautiful magazine........a spring birdhouse with a selvedge roof and a spring inspired card to match....

 ............in the picture below you can just see some new paper pieces i have begun to make for a big happy scrappy quilt....more on that very soon.......

 ..........and now it is time to celebrate another new year, and for me that means lots of flowers and bulbs around the house, bringing the promise of new life, of hope and of spring to look forward to....

 ..........a few weeks of being cosy at home is always a pleasure to me at this time, i like cosy winter days, time for contemplation and the peace of winter crafting, quiet and gentle times........

............thank you so much for your visits to me here, dear readers, and for all your kind comments on my posts.......sending love and warm wishes to you all for a very happy new year................i hope it brings you love, peace, health and happiness..............i shall be back (very) soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Merry Christmas

 After a lovely and very busy weekend visiting friends and family i am at home today.........

 ............finding some quiet time to wrap the last gifts.............keeping it sweet and simple this year......

 .................helped by the fact that my elder daughter and her hb are cooking christmas dinner for us all at their home this year :)............this is so lucky for me especially as our big table has almost vanished under projects for my next book..............i have been working very hard on it and on magazine commissions whose deadlines seem to suddenly creep forward unexpectedly at the moment.....

 .................we are enjoying delicious (waitrose) mince pies this week, cosy fire light and all the twinkling fairy lights as well as the candle light, and some gorgeous scented wreaths and pomanders.... some of my favourite things............

 ...............opening christmas cards, picking greenery and berries from the garden.......

 .................finding a cute little angel to hang on the white tree.......(from gisela graham)......

.............a few toys getting settled for christmas ..........a bunny snuggled up under a cosy quilt, listening for the sleigh bells and waiting for santa................

 ...........daisy asked if she could play with the sleigh ride rabbits and did so very carefully, talking to them all the time.........at the end they each had their folded cuffs turned down and had swapped scarves :)............

 ...............i have one or two more jobs to do, and then it will be nice to relax for a couple of days.....

 ............i will still be crafting over the holiday of course, doing some crochet, knitting and a bit of new and colourful paper pieced patchwork which i will show you next time.......

..............a big thank you to everyone who visits me here in my crafty blogspace throughout the year............it is always wonderful to see you and a real treat to enjoy your sweet comments.......wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays...........sending love to you all.................back soon xxxxxxxxooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Little Trees

 The countdown to christmas is really speeding along here and i have a lot to do still........but a little sewing of decorations was needed for a crafty interlude, something just for fun.............

 ..........these little trees were originally featured in my book pretty patchwork gifts, and the pattern itself can now be downloaded from the stitch craft create site here...........

 .............i loved making the original green trees and this year i decided to make some different ones....

 .............some with a bit of a scandinavian look to chime in with my favourite red and white décor...

 ................a bit of fabric choosing, a bit of drawing round a template and a bit of sewing....

 ............and after stuffing the little trees there was the fun bit of adding ribbons and buttons, like adding the baubles to a real tree............each one is different and the trees can be hung along a mantelpiece, or on a door or cupboard, or added to a gift, perhaps to hang on the side of a parcel or gift bag..........i also like to add some drops of winter scented oil so they smell gorgeous.............

 ..............we went christmas shopping in the historic city of chester at the weekend and i found this box filled with lovely little baubles..........they look so pretty in the box we are thinking it would be a shame to take them out of their little compartments...................

 .............chester city holds lots of memories for us both...........we often go there just to walk by the river, to sit in a cafe and drink tea and people watch, and to wander along the historic rows.......this time we enjoyed seeing these lovely decorations in the grosvenor shopping centre.......

 ............there was a lovely big bauble covered silver tree too but the pictures of it were not good due to too many shoppers obscuring much of it :(................i loved the colours of these decorations..........

 ..............we bought some gifts and sipped tea in a café, just as we always do...........

 ..............above is one of my favourite festive shop windows.........inspired by red and white.....

 .............more red and white inspiration here too............below is a new decoration i am trying this year.......i found this sturdy branch on one of our walks and brought it home with some kind of hanging decoration plan in mind.......i added some spray snow and some little fabric trees, ball of wool and buttons baubles (how i love these of course ) and tags and berries......this is a work in progress and you might be seeing it again...............

...............thank you for all the lovely comments on my sleigh ride rabbits, dear readers, and for visiting me here in my festive bit of blogland..........i wish you a wonderful week as we count down to christmas......to my lovely readers on the other side of the world, enjoy your warm and sunny days, i will think of you all as i put on my down-filled coat and wind my scarf snugly round :)........and to every one else keep cosy ;)...........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooxxxxxxxxx

Sleigh Ride Rabbits

 One of the projects on my sewing table over the past couple of months was a pair of bunnies made from cotton fabric, and with striped ears reminding me of candy canes......they were meant for part of my christmas decorating this year and i made them slowly around other projects like book and magazine commissions (the bunny pattern can be found in my book pretty patchwork gifts here).......i crocheted them little jumpers and knitted them stripy scarves at night while watching movies.............

 ..............one day at the garden centre, buying bulb fibre to plant my spring bulbs, i spied this little sleigh and imagined it filled with tiny hand sewn rabbits...........and then i just had to buy it :)......

 ...............here is berry the first christmas bunny to be finished...............

                                                ..............closely followed by holly..............

 ..................when they fitted so nicely into the sleigh i thought of the famous song.....the verse below seemed especially appropriate for the two little rabbits......

 ............'our cheeks are nice and rosy,
and comfy cozy are we
we're snuggled up together like two
birds of a feather would be..............'  lyrics from the sleigh ride song..............

 ...............but there was a bit more room in the sleigh, and there was lolly rabbit sitting all by herself.....

 ............so she donned a nice red woolly scarf and jumped into  the sleigh too........just right ....

 ............beside playing with the toy rabbits (and molly the real sewing room dog) this week, i have been busy working on new designs, cutting out a new quilt and crocheting a new blanket, all of which i will show you soon......i have finished making wrist warmers (for now) and have wrapped some up as gifts........i am hoping my dearies will like these......

 ............the house is adorned with lights, decorations and the trees are up and twinkling merrily.....

 ...........the heating is cranked back up as it has turned really cold here and we sit in cosy firelight in the evenings............i will take some more photos of the decorations to share next time.......these little birdhouses are new ones, on the sitting room mantelpiece.........

 ...........we don't have any snow here so won't be going for any sleigh rides ourselves though it feels cold enough some days......maybe later in the winter we will have snowy days..........

..........thank you for your visit, dear readers, and for your sweet comments.........and thank you to everyone who follows my blog too.......wishing you happy crafty times in the countdown to christmas and keep cosy................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooxxxxxxxxx