Spring Garden

 The sun is shining here and the sky is blue............spring has arrived in our garden.........

 ............it has been a lovely weekend to potter in the greenhouse.............

 ..............i am so enjoying growing lots of future flowers from seed in here............

 ................the tulips we planted in the autumn are all coming into flower now..........

 ..............it is lovely to see them growing taller and brighter each day, mingling with the violets and primroses, daisies and anemones.............

 .............crafty-wise this week i am busy working on some secret projects but here is something i can show you right now....a new block for my sampler quilt............this one is called bride..........

 .................i love this little bouquet effect block and it is a perfect one to add to the new quilt......the one below is called april.............these blocks are so pretty i think............

 ..............they are both from the newest farmer's wife quilt book..........a few years ago i made a version of the original farmer's wife quilt which some of my regular readers may remember......lots of us were inspired by the blocks (you can see my quilt on my sidebar)..........so lovely to have another book filled with pretty blocks to try..............*the farmer's wife 1930's sampler quilt* is by laurie aaron hird and is available on amazon and at many good book stores................

 .............besides a little block sewing i had time at the weekend for a little crochet too......

 .............making maybelle flowers in lots of pretty colours............( i found the maybelle pattern here on the lovely my rose valley blog......)

 .................this is our new picnic basket all ready for our first days out...coming soon......but in the meantime i have filled it with bright yarn for my flower making...............

 ..................here is the cutting garden with some of the tulips partly open............

 .............in the greenhouse is bea the garden bunny surrounded by cosmos seedlings and sweet scented carnations or pinks as i like to call them.......below you can see the tulips fully open in all their cheery brightness................

..................thank you for dropping in to my little blog space dear readers, and for leaving such sweet comments........it is a treat to hear from you and i am looking forward to doing lots of blog visiting myself this week (and email answering too!).................have a wonderful week with sunny days, sweet flowers and plenty of crafty inspiration too..................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxx

Nice and Bright

 A little while ago i chose some new bright fabrics to work with on a magazine project.....

 ..............these are from the backyard circus collection and i got them from the fat quarter shop.......

 .............i  sewed a little patchwork cushion (with felt pom poms added in the corners) for a child's chair and i made a little cross stitched bear card to accompany the gift.......

 ..............you can find this project in the may issue of crafts beautiful magazine out now......and you can read more about the magazine here.............

 ...............do you like circuses and circus themes?.............i certainly love the backyard circus fabrics with their sweet bright and colourful motifs and patterns..................

 ................another sewing project that is nice and bright is this one........

 .................using the colourful hexagon cheater fabric from sunrise studio by lakehouse..........

 ...............i have made a quilted cushion for molly with this fabric and have just a little bit more of it to sew before she models it for us............a few years ago i was asked to make a kitty cushion for the battersea dogs home to help to promote their animal charity........this doggy cushion is made in the same way, but a larger version................i have lots more of this lovely hexagon fabric to add to a quilt too...........

 ............and i have made another block for my sampler quilt :)...........this is the bow tie block.............

 ...............i will write a post all about the sampler quilt and it's inspiration soon and there are more blocks being made for it at the moment....very fiddly ones, unlike this bold and simple bow tie.....

 .............maybe a whole quilt of this one would be fun today especially in nice bright colours......

 ...............the past two weeks have been spring break here and some of the time my grand children have been at my house busy drawing with their new felt pens and playing games together.....

 ...........we have also been pottering in the greenhouse together and they have helped with the watering............my seeds are growing well and i am looking forward to writing a garden post soon.....

..............thank you so much lovely readers for your kind comments on my last post......and for all your emails and good wishes......... i will pass them on to the newlyweds when i see them in a couple of weeks............wishing you all a happy week with nice bright sunny days and lots of crafty inspiration..................back soon xxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wedding Stars

 I mentioned last week that i have been sewing some new quilt blocks...these are for a new sampler quilt and the first ones i've made have a wedding theme..............

 .............and that is because this weekend our dear youngest daughter married her fiancée.....and we couldn't be happier :) ............their wedding has been planned for a couple of years and finally all the organising they did came together in a magical wedding day............

 .......'once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life......love gives us a fairytale..........'

.......the wedding venue was a mellow 17th century country house in the heart of the cheshire countryside and the day could not have been more perfect............i was totally caught up with it all and left the photography to others but hope to borrow a few pics later...............

 .............this is the little liberty tana lawn drawstring bag i made to hold the wedding rings before the ceremony......my girl was a beautiful bride and she and her handsome husband made such a lovely couple.....the attendants were two lovely grown up bridesmaids, one adorable small bridesmaid/flower girl, one very responsible page boy who took care of the rings until they were needed and a baby in a matching bow tie who was not especially keen on the ceremony but loved the meal afterwards ;)..............my son in law had two best men and they were both so nice....

 ...............this is the wedding ring block for my quilt..........i love english paper piecing these intricate little blocks and now i am piecing wonderful memories into them as i sew.......memories of  the dear newly weds and all the loving family and friends who shared this wonderful day and made it so special...... there was so much love, support, kindness and laughter...............x

 ............below is the single wedding star block...........

 ...........the speeches were both moving and funny..........well done to my mr p, my new son in law and the two best men (and i have to say i was glad the mother of the bride didn't have to make one).....

 .............we stayed over at the country house as it had rooms for the bride and groom's parents as well as the lovely bridal suite for them........

 ........and now we will settle down again and get on with our work and resume our normal life .....but spend a little time dreaming too this week...........

 ..........'happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry'...................tom mullen

 ...............'now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts'........... william shakespeare

............thank you dear readers for dropping in to my little blog space and for all the kind comments you leave me...........it is always a pleasure to hear from you............wishing you a happy new week with flowers and sunshine, crafty inspiration and a bit of magic too.........back soon xxxxxxxx

Little Butterfly

 Although i love making quilts, i also love making smaller patchwork projects too........a lot of the work i do for books and magazines involves creating smaller makes like this little pincushion......

 ..............this little butterfly pincushion was inspired by two projects from my latest book called  *modern vintage gifts*...........the strawberry pincushion is shown below........

 ..........and the butterfly gift tag set, one of which is shown here...........

 .............i paper pieced the shoofly block for the front of the pincushion using sweet pam kitty garden and lecien fabrics from my scraps, as well as some kona cotton in white............

 ...............have i told you before that i just LoVe english paper piecing?.....i really do!........

 ...........using a very pale grey cotton to sew the patches together seems to make a neat look to the seams.......

 ..............for the back of my new pincushion i fussy cut this pretty butterfly from one of my favourite lakehouse fabrics............

 ...............the applique butterfly uses bondaweb to secure the two sides so it can look pretty when flapping its wings...........i pinned the butterfly in place to check it looked just right before attaching it securely with a dab of glue...........

 ...............the butterfly applique shape is inspiring me now to make something else too....another project will be coming soon :)..........this week's little cakes have these flowery flags decorating them.......

 ...............these were inexpensive paper flags from a home shop.........

 ................i also found some colourful sprinkles in a supermarket which were not inexpensive but i just loved the mixture of colours.............

................thank you for visiting me here in my little crafty place dear readers....it is always a pleasure to see you and to read your lovely comments too............wishing you a wonderful week with happy crafty sunshiny days..................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx