Autumn Days

 The autumn days are getting cooler here...in fact very chilly sometimes......and perfect for crafting, especially making my cosy big granny square blanket.....now that i am joining the squares together it keeps me warm while i work.......

 ..............i received this pretty bunch of roses from a sweet friend and they lasted all week on my work table........

 ..............my lovely sister gave me a big bag of apples from her trees and we are still enjoying apple crumble (with custard) each weekend :).............

 ..............am loving sewing with these gorgeous fog city kitty fabrics from lakehouse dry goods...........

 ..............love them all, especially the new grey ones.......they are perfect for my chrysanthemum quilt blocks, of which i now have five......i will need fifteen for this quilt...........

 ..................more flowers, in the garden this time.........i planted two trays of violas and one of bellis daisies in one big pot, helped by our own little daisy (our small grand daughter)..........she was very happy to be planting daisies :)..........

 ..............all this floweriness may not look very autumnal but these violas are winter flowering and supposed to continue blooming whatever the weather....in past years i have seen them peeking though the snow :)..........below is the start of my autumn decorating..........

 ...............the october houses that i made a few years ago are here again, along with some (real) pumpkins (both orange and white ones), some fabric pumpkins, some berries, toadstools and bright red apples............

 ..............now it is time to announce the winners of last week's book giveaway............thank you so much to everyone who took part and for your truly kind comments...........................the winners are teje of nero's post and patch and jennifer of thistlebear..............congratulations to you both.......please email me your postal addresses and i will send your books to you.............thank you again to everyone who entered the giveaway....i hope to have another one soon.........x

 .............*modern vintage gifts* will actually be published on october 30 so not long now!......

..............thank you for visiting me here in my little crafty space, dear readers, and for taking the time to leave your kind comments, it is always a pleasure to hear from you...........wishing you a happy cosy week with plenty of crafty inspirations...............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxx

Modern Vintage Gifts: Book Giveaway

 It's giveaway time here today....i have two copies of my new book *modern vintage gifts* to giveaway to two of my lovely readers........the book will be published on 30 october and can be pre ordered now from all good book stores, from amazon and also online here............. in a moment i will tell you how to enter the giveaway, but first here is a picture post of some of the projects you can find in the book...

 ................ first of all, one of my own favourites ....the strawberry wreath........

                                                   ................spring bird hearts............

                                                    .................big button quilt..............

 ....................tumbler patchwork pillow....seen here at the weekend in my studio, with the fire lit and a nice cup of tea to sip while i took some pictures for this post..............

 ...............this is the tumbler flower pot pillow and the mini red, white and blue star quilt...i plan to put this mini quilt up on the wall in my sewing room soon.............

 ..............the christmas angel and one of the illustrations i did for the book....the lower right picture is one i took of my desk when i was actually painting the illustration last january......

                            .............here is sweet doll underneath the candy doll quilt............

 ................and here is little bear also with the candy doll quilt..............

 ..............little bear with the little dog doll quilt and one of the illustrations of him................

 ...............i made lots of button houses.....these are addictive to make and you can use up tiny bits of favourite scrap fabrics too............i made a set of coloured ones and a set of red and white ones......

 ................the star quilt which i have shown here before and which is still inspiring me to make other star quilt versions............

 ................here is a page from the book showing the strawberry pincushion and scissor keep.....the book has been beautifully designed and photographed by the team at david and charles publishers....and all the templates are full size :)...................

 ..............and now it is time to tell you how to enter the giveaway.....all you have to do is to leave me a comment on this post (and if you become a follower or already are one you can have two entries)......the giveaway is open to everyone worldwide....if you do not have a blog please make sure you let me know how to contact you if you are a winner.......the giveaway will close on sunday october 25.......

................thank you for visiting me here lovely readers, and sharing this crafty little space...it is always a pleasure to see you and to hear from you too.............wishing you all a happy crafty week and good luck in the giveaway................xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooxxxxxxx

Autumn Flowers

 Here is the beginning of a new quilt.......the first block for my new chrysanthemum quilt.......

 .............the flowers will be mainly in these colours and then i am planning to add grey sashing between the blocks....(there are some lovely lakehouse fabrics in grey which i think would look pretty)....

 ............the english paper pieces are soon sewn neatly together to make the flower which is then appliqued onto a square of white kona cotton...............i am adding a red stitching line round the outside of the flower..........

 .............below is the second block in progress...........i am not sure how long this project will take but i plan to regularly make a couple of blocks to add to the pile.....

 ...............keeping the project bits and pieces together in a wooden trug (found in a lovely little shop in the cotswolds)...............

 ............some real flowers to show you now....at the weekend we visited our favourite botanic gardens and there were these wonderful flowery displays grown from mixed seed..........they looked so colourful and were a surprise for this time of year when so much has finished flowering and begun to die back and look rather crispy.............

 ...........this is how i would like my cutting garden to look........maybe next year ;)............

 ..............i do have a few flowers still adding colour to the garden though and i picked some for my favourite jug............

 ...............lots of white anemones....but where did the pink ones go?.............lots of bright fuschias....

 ...............this week i received a copy of the bright fresh *pretty patches* magazine and was thrilled to have my mini star quilt project included in it, as well as an author interview with me........you can find out more about the magazine here...............

 ..............time for some cosy crochet now......i have begun to join together the big granny squares using the join as you go method and stylecraft special dk in magenta............this blanket is growing fast as the granny squares are so large :)..................

.............thank you for dropping in to see me here in my crafty little blog space dear readers, and for taking time to leaves me such kind comments too........i wish you a happy autumn week with some pretty flowers to enjoy and  cosy crafty times..................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sewing Stars

 There is a finished quilt to show you here today.....the strawberry stars quilt is now quilted and bound and ready to use............i've been sewing english paper pieced six point diamond stars for lots of projects over the past couple of years and this pink and white quilt is the latest one..........

 .............i used a variety of scrappy fabrics from my stash for the stars, and one of my favourite rosy florals on white from the pam kitty garden collection for the joining hexagons and border.........

 ............the backing is a tanya whelan polka dot in pink on blue and the binding is a michael miller stripe.....i quilted this by hand and it was a pleasure to sew on the cool autumn evenings............

 .........a few more pictures showing the backing and binding............the simple star layout.....

                                               ...........and my new wooden horse :).......

 ..............the cushion above is one of the first projects i made with the six point diamond star...it is such a versatile pattern and can produce so many different effects........

 ..............i made this quilt from the star quilt pattern in my new book...............

 ...........modern vintage gifts will be published at the end of october ..........

 ...........it can be pre ordered now on amazon, in shops and online.......one more shot of the strawberry stars quilt now...and we just had to have a rolled up one showing the lovely striped binding......

 ..............here are some pictures of my sewing room this week.......there is a huge fabric sort out taking place, and a lot of ironing, folding, stacking, choosing....and even some recycling going on ;)

 ............i am keeping the fabrics i love but moving the ones that i never seem to use (though maybe only as far as the attic for now)...........i'm also sorting out the scraps and selvedges and have a new storage plan for these which i will show you soon :).......it will all take some time ........

...............thank you for visiting me here in my little blog space dear readers, it is a pleasure to see you and to hear from you too.....wishing you all a wonderful week with cosy autumn days and lots of crafty inspirations ................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx