Crafty Catch Up

 It's a beautiful sunny bank holiday monday here.....and i am having a crafty catch up.........

 .............this is the v stitch crochet baby blanket i've been making recently..........

 .............i wanted to try a new crochet stitch and discovered that i really LoVe this one :) .....

 ............so easy to do and i love crocheting trebles....and using lots of scrappy yarns from my stash with a row of white in between made for a fresh and summery colour scheme............

 ................this little blanket was soon finished and next i am going to make a bigger one for myself  so that i can keep on working those pretty zig zags for a lot longer......

 ..............the yarns are mainly from the stylecraft special dk range, with a few extras from my travels around that i haven't made a note of.....now that stylecraft have brought out a few new colours though their collection pretty much covers any i might have found elsewhere............

 ................i photographed the baby blanket on the cot we have at our house for visiting grandchildren....i got it over eight years ago when charlie was born and below is his little ck boat print teddy from that time too.....we keep it here in case baby rhys wants to cuddle it......

 ..............and here is baby rhys himself helping model the stripy baby blanket on this sunny day....

 .............besides doing crochet i have been sewing up a lot of patchwork and am so inspired at the moment that my to do list is just growing longer and longer :) .......

 ................i also spend some of my crafty time designing cross stitch, often for magazines and often i just create the charts on my computer and then the magazines get them stitched......above is a little peek at the chart for the summer sampler that world of cross stitching magazine are offering specially to subscribers............one of a set of the four seasons..........

 .................cross stitch and patchwork combine in this summery project that i made for this month's issue of crafts beautiful magazine..........this little sewing set is called raspberry keepsakes...........

 and below is a sneak peek at some adorable new fabric that has come all the way across the world from lovely jodie of vintage ricrac in australia............this is her delicious new bunny trails fabric and very soon i will show you what i have been making with it.......

................finally i must tell you who is the winner of the candy bloom button houses giveaway.......thank you to everyone who took part.............the winner is peta cowan........please email me your postal address, peta, and i will send your little houses to you :)................there will be more giveaways coming soon......... thanks for dropping by and for all your kind comments........wishing you all a happy, sunny, crafty week ahead.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Spring Sewing

 I have been doing so much sewing here :).... spring inspiration and lovely fabrics are making me keep adding to my 'to make' list everyday.............

 ...............when i was tidying up my sewing room and my studio, looking for various mislaid items, I found some unfinished objects including this little lollipop flowers block.........

 .............and also these pretty little french flower cards..........i might pin these up in my studio for a bit of spring decoration....maybe peg them to a little line of baker's twine........

 ................the lollipop flowers block was inspired by the picture of the same name in my last but one book pretty patchwork gifts...........i added a butterfly to the block and finished sewing the blanket stitch round the applique............then i sewed on some borders of this delicious pam kitty garden fabric.........

 .............i added a backing and turned it into a spring / summertime cushion........it will actually be used with my other summer patchwork cushions on the garden bench........hopefully quite soon........

 .............i never tire of seeing patchwork with other patchwork.......it is the often unexpected interplay of fabric and colours that i always enjoy seeing and find fascinating.......

 ................i am planning to make a quilt of lollipop flowers....it is on my to do list.....

 ................as are more summery cushions..........

 ..............these pretty fabrics arrived here last week and they were so beautifully wrapped i could hardly bear to undo the ribbon and take them out of their neat little package.............these are strawberry biscuit fabrics designed by the talented elea lutz for penny rose fabrics.............i got mine from the fat quarter shop........

 ...............they are a lovely mix of prints and colours which work so well together........i will be making lots more projects with them very soon but to start with (and to get over the actual cutting into of this sweet new collection) i decided to make another block for my sampler quilt......this one is called sarah (like my eldest daughter).............

 ...............love the tiny prints with little dogs, song birds and flowers tied with bows........

 ..............much more sewing to do and much more to show you next time........here is the cutting garden beginning to fill out with plants that i sowed in the greenhouse..........looking forward to masses of flowers here very soon :).........

...............thank you for visiting here dear readers and a big hello to everyone new who has visited me here this week :).............thanks to those who left a comment last time on the candy bloom post to win my little giveaway houses......you can still enter the draw for these until may 28 ........... wishing you all a wonderful and creative week.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tilda Candy Bloom Blog Hop and Giveaway

 Welcome to my stop on the candy bloom blog hop today.....you can imagine how pleased i was to be invited to take part by the team at stitch craft create a little while ago......the limited edition candy bloom fabrics are just as lovely as tilda fabrics always are........featuring folklore inspired motifs and using rich shades of red, blue and cream which work so well together and with previous tilda fabric collections too..............

 ............i decided to make some projects from my book modern vintage gifts........and began with the tumbler flowerpot pillow which uses patchwork and applique and this time i added some quilting with little circles to echo the flowers in some of the prints..............

 ...............i used bondaweb to fuse the leaf shapes to the background and then stitched around them with blanket stitch........

 ...............the cushion is made in my favourite envelope style and i used the beautiful tree fabric for the backing and some vintage buttons..........

 .............next i made some button houses which are always fun to sew and it is always a pleasure to make them out of different fabrics........

 ..............these button houses are specially for my giveaway........if you'd like to win this set just leave me a comment on this post ............(more details of the giveaways at the end).......

 ..............you can hang the button houses as a garland or use them individually dotted here and there.......or hang them on a decorative tree...........

 ..............my star pincushion is a lovely paper pieced project and i made a two sided one .....

 ................here is the red side.............

 ...............and here is the blue side.............

 ..............even a half finished sugar bunny that was lying on my work table when the parcel of fabric arrived was finished off with candy bloom ear linings and a candy bloom dress..........the flower motifs remind me of my favourite bellis daisies, so pretty.................

 ..........so if you would like to win a bundle of fat quarters of the gorgeous candy bloom fabrics you can enter the competition here.........and to visit the rest of the blog hop the link is here........

 ..............if you would like to win my set of button houses all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (if you don't have a blog please leave an email address so i can contact you if you win)........the giveaway will be open until may 28..............

..............thank you so much for dropping by and good luck in the giveaways.........wishing you all a happy sunny week filled with crafty inspirations ................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bloom and Grow

 The past week has been all about flowers........the glorious sunshine and warmth combined to make everything in the garden begin to bloom and grow.............

 .............we had jugs of tulips from the cutting patch brightening up the house........

 ..............the ones we grew from the bulbs we planted in the autumn are so large, strong and colourful, they are a pleasure to see..........

 .................they might even have influenced my crochet colours a bit this week.....

 ...........the potting shed has been tidied up and some pots of flowers and little signs added .......

 ............this little potting shed sign and mug wrap are my projects in this month's issue of crafts beautiful magazine which you can read more about here...........

 ...............the garden themed mug wrap is a nice little project and i will be making more as gifts for gardening friends...........i already like using mine.........

 ............so many flowers are opening each day and the world is becoming a colourful place again....

 ...............below is my grand daughter daisy's sweet bedroom.....her windows look out onto a cherry tree filled with blossom............

 ..........i leaned out of the window above and looking up took the blossom and blue sky picture shown here......one of my favourite things each spring..........

 .............our own garden has many more bluebells this year, popping up individually all over the place as well as growing at the bottom of the garden like a real bluebell wood............

 ...........can you tell i just love this time of year?!..........below is my latest block for my sampler quilt...this one is called viola and it was fun to make with its minute checkerboard piecing......

 ...........this week we are planning to plant some of the seedlings out......and to enjoy all the new blooms and sweet springtime.........i will do some sewing in the garden and some crochet too....

............thank you for dropping in to my little bit of blog land dear readers and sharing my springtime crafting.......and thank you so much for the kind comments you leave me too x.....i hope you all have a happy sunny week with plenty of flowers and crafty inspirations to enjoy.........back soon xxxxxxxx