Lavender Sugar

 Here is the little hexagon quilt i was sewing together a few weeks ago.........the colours remind me of sugared almonds..............the mini quilt can be used for display, or as a table mat..........

 ................or as a doll's bed quilt............this little thrifted bed was given to me and i was happy to add a pink bed to the toy collection :)............

 ...............just needed a bunny to try it out..........and here is lavender bunny..............

 .............the fabrics are from lakehouse dry goods and are a lovely mix of florals and text prints....

 ..............here is the quilt back, featuring one of my most favourite fabrics which i have quite possibly shown you here before ;).................

 ............last month, on our little holiday, we visited cotswold lavender at broadway, and had a lovely walk through the beautiful lavender fields.........there is a pretty café and shop there too, filled with lavender products...............i bought a few gifts there...........

 ...............including some lavender sugar............i use this to sprinkle on fruit and to bake in scones.....do you use lavender sugar in any of your cooking?..............

 ..............i found these little jars on a shopping trip with my daughter a while ago.....they are lovely to store dried lavender in, as well as the lavender sugar....the little scoop is perfect to use........they make nice presents too, and you can be creative with labels and tags..................

 ...............below is some of the lavender i dried last summer.........at the moment our garden is soaking wet after a day of almost constant rain so it will be a while before i will be harvesting this year's lavender......there is a slight lightening of the sky now and a possible gleam of sunlight at last.....

 .............i had a lovely surprise last week when i won a 'secret' giveaway on my friend vivienne's blog......(a random comment is chosen from the comments section to be a winner without the readers knowing there is a giveaway)....such a fun idea.......and i was the lucky winner of these beautiful treats below.......i really love them all, especially the gorgeous flower made by vivienne, whose crochet is so skilful and beautiful........do go and visit her blog, green rabbit designs and see for yourself, if you haven't already, you will love it.............thank you so much, dear vivienne x.......

 ...............here are some sweet peas on a sunny afternoon before the rain came......

 ..............here is lavender, the sugar bunny, with her own jar of lavender to enjoy......the bunny pattern can be found in my pretty patchwork gifts book here...............

 ............and here is a little garden view also taken before it became rain drenched........but things are improving and there is definitely a ray of sunshine coming through my studio window now as i type this............

..................thank you for visiting my little blog space, dear readers, and for taking the time to leave me such lovely comments, it is always a pleasure to see you here and to hear from you too..........wishing you a happy week, with lots of crafty inspirations and plenty of sunny days.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Summer Brights

 With all the sunshine we have been having and the flowers and fruits we are enjoying at the moment, i have been inspired by bright summery colours this week.......

 ..................i began to crochet a small summer throw using a mix of bright fresh colours.......

 .............all warm shades like summer fruits, with a few shades of green for contrast......

 ..............i have picked lots of flowers to have on my work table, on my desk and in fact dotted all round the house...........lots of sweet peas which are finally flowering beautifully after a very slow start........still lots of small palest pink roses too and of course big white daisies............

 ...............besides crocheting this week, i finished off a little project using some of my lovely lecien fabrics.............a mix of flower sugar and modern basics..........

 ...............i made some paper pieced shapes for a chrysanthemum.............

 ................this time, instead of applying it to a piece of fabric as i did with the recent cushion i showed you, i stitched a fabric backing to the chrysanthemum shape,  turned it right side out, took out the paper pieces and stuffed it with polyester toy filling, then closed the final side and there it was, a 3d flowery pincushion.....

 ..............i found a nice spotty green fabric covered button to sew in the centre...........

 .................it is always fun to make a quick project to finish while you are sewing and crocheting some larger ones............

 .................i bought the usual mixed pots of sweetpea plants for our garden again this year, and even they have turned out to be brighter than usual...............

 .............i never tire of their delicious scent and their gorgeous colourful petals...........

 ............i have planted some in the ground and some in a big terracotta pot.......

 .............some other news to tell you is that i have (at long last) got a facebook page........if you are on facebook too it would be wonderful if you would pop over and like it :).....the link is the pink fb badge on my sidebar...............i look forward to discovering lots of you on fb now too :)............of course i  really LoVe blogging and the blog community over here and will still be here as usual...............

.............off to do a bit more of my crochet throw now, and have a nice cup of tea.........thank you for visiting me here, dear readers, and for all your kind and interesting comments too.........wishing you a bright and happy summer week with lots of crafty inspirations........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Strawberry Season

 We have had a lot of sunny, summery days over the past week or two, when i took these photos.....

 ..........this morning it was cool and grey and rainy, but that is how the garden likes it sometimes, and i know the sunny days will be back soon........we have been enjoying strawberry season here.....

 ..............picking them, and eating them.......daisy prefers eating strawberries and other fruits to eating sweets........i like to put them in this pretty vintage bowl that we found in grannie's attic...............

 ...............as well as real strawberries being much enjoyed, i have been working very hard at every spare moment on my strawberry stars quilt top...........when the end is in sight with a big project like this i begin to speed up with the piecing and the sewing.......

 .............i always feel inspired when the quilt top begins to drape when i put it down, and take on the feel and look of a quilt...........so many different effects as the fabrics fall randomly next to each other........

 ..............last week i just needed to make a few more pink patterned stars and sew them on, then add a few joining hexagons......this week i am adding the side joining pieces and the small border, and then it will be time to choose the backing and binding fabric and get it quilted.....i made the strawberry stars quilt from the star quilt pattern which is in my new book, due to be published in october......the templates for the quilt and the pieces which straighten and join the edges are all included and the good news is that all the templates in this book are full size so no need to enlarge them :)........

 ...............here is a peek at the pretty cover............i believe that the book is available for pre order now on amazon.....

 ............i will tell you more about *modern vintage gifts* and show some projects when i receive my   advance copy....... the pages are looking so pretty, thanks to the wonderful design team at david and charles publishers.............the whole process of making a book is very exciting to me :).....

 ..............out into the flowery garden now, to see my favourite roses in bloom...........

 ..............this bush is growing big and rambling now and is and ready for a bit of a trim, which i will do when it has finished flowering..............the roses here are under planted with cranesbill....i love the combination.............and so do the bees and butterflies.................

 .............below are some of my birthday flowers............beautiful peonies with lots of other pretty pinks and purple flowers, including some gorgeous clematis, and alchemilla mollis foliage.......mister p is a good flower chooser ;).................

 ............one afternoon each week i collect my sweet grandchildren charlie and daisy from school and they come home with me for tea and to play...........if the weather is nice we sit out at the garden table for drinks and a snack and talk about our day...........i love having this time with them as they are growing so fast and the same is true for their little cousin, baby rhys.......we saw him the past two weekends, and he can 'talk' a lot now, and eat pureed vegetables and fruit from a tiny spoon..........he is so cute with his chubby little limbs, beaming smiles and peachy, downy head..............

.................this week as well as doing my quilt i am working on a design for 2016......yes, that far off, it sounds like a date waaaay into the future..........i am also making a project for another magazine feature a little closer in time......so, keeping busy, but still enjoying the hazy days of summer......i hope you are too, dear readers, and want to say thank you for visiting me, following me and for taking the time to leave such kind comments..........wishing you all a wonderful week................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Patchwork and Painting

 In my last post i showed you the english paper pieced pentagons i was using to make...........

 ..................these soft patchwork pentagon balls............for babies to play with of course, but older children like to throw them too :D................and they could be used as a pin cushion as well ;-)..........

 .............they are easy to make and it is fun to choose the different fabrics for the patches.........they are made in two halves, like small bowls, and then joined together..............

 .............they are best when stuffed very firmly to keep a nice rounded shape..............

 ..............here are the pretty pastel ones i was sewing when we were away..................

 ............i have had a bit of a painting crush lately, and decided to paint these very old shelves with some annie sloan chalk paint...........the shelves were in the cellar when we moved into this old house.............

 ...............they are made from an old soap box.........we could tell this as the lettering is still on the back.............. it says 'tyson & co dirt shifter soap'...............they are very rustic and i liked them a lot when i first found them ......... they have been painted several times over the years.............

 ...............so i gave them a couple of coats of chalk paint in pure, and then did a bit of distressing here and there and then waxed them...........now it is fun to arrange things on them and i am thinking they might become my 'seasonal shelves' where i can create a special little arrangement of objects as each new season arrives...............

 ...............recently my lovely blog friend jessie of sew and quilt sent me some of their own fabulous new pre cut paper pieces to play with.........they also have lovely little kits too..........such a great idea to give as gifts, to try new shapes already made for you or to learn how to do english paper piecing if you have never tried it before (it is addictive!).............

 .................my project in this month's  bright and summery issue of crafts beautiful magazine is a doll's quilt with a nautical theme...................

 ................it was fun to make this little quilt, with its cross stitched boats and applique stars...........

 ..............this weekend i celebrated my birthday........... every fourth of july seems to come around faster and faster now :)..............we had a great weekend with both daughters and their families....lots of fun........ and luckily it was still sunny and we could drink pimms in the garden and cook and eat outdoors too...............i received some lovely flowers and presents which i will show soon.......

..................thank you for visiting me here in my little blog space, dear readers, and for taking the time to leave such kind comments....................wishing you a wonderful summery week with sunshine, inspirations and time to indulge some crafty crushes..........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx