Summer Brights

 Here is a post filled with summer colour today......both indoors and out we are surrounded by summer brights..........

 ....i've been making lots of english paper pieced diamonds inspired by my star quilt (on the cover of my book below) and using the same templates but with a few tweaks for a different effect......

 ............using old fabrics, new fabrics ....exploring my fabric stash anew and even snipping bits off long hoarded favourites i am making a huge scrappy diamond collection..........

 ...............and then turning them into scrappy stars.....and then hexie blocks with some solid fabrics....

 .............and a little applique circle in the middle, a bit like a dresden or a flower.....

 ................having a lot of fun with all the pattern and colour...........

 ..............and still in between times working on our garden........lots of flowers and colour inspiration there like these daisies......

 ..............and the border becoming even more lush after the torrential rain we had last week.....

 ..............and look....we have a hollyhock.....it has grown to a wonderful height (and has only a tiny bit of snail and slug damage to the lower leaves!)......so happy we grew a hollyhock and now we'll get more......

 .............here's a close up...........it looks so beautiful with all those petals though i love the simpler kinds too............love these flowers...they look like pom poms.....

 .................a quick picture from the greenhouse below with busy lizzies and geraniums flowering in the heat..............

 ..............and now here we are already at the end of july....it has gone so fast my star-spangled birthday month.........looking forward to august though with lots of time with our little grandchildren....seaside....gardens......outings....friends............lots of crafting and sewing.....

.................thank you so much for dropping by dear readers and for the lovely comments you leave me..............wishing you all a very happy august wherever you may be with lots of sunshine and plenty of crafty inspirations........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

House and Flowers

 Here is a new little house pincushion ......it is my project in the latest issue of crafts beautiful magazine and i loved making this from felt and adding flowers, buttons and embroidery.........

..............there is also a paper crafted tag to accompany the little house as a gift for a stitching friend...

 ................it's been a busy week here with gardens to grow and tend, sewing to sew and design and now school is out for summer more time spent with my little grandchildren too..........

 ...........i put some bright flowers in this vintage jam jar on the kitchen windowsill......

 ..............here is the newly planted flower bed next to the new arbour.....the flowers are growing up very well..........we have lots of lavender, mallow, nasturtiums, snapdragons, daisies, honeysuckle and euphorbia.............

 ................there are pots too filled with bright petunias and other summer flowers.....

 ............and some beautiful...but fleeting.....pink poppies which i planted from seed just a few weeks ago into the spot where they flowered....so pretty......the hollyhock is almost flowering now too which i am very pleased about....:)

 ............some sweetpeas to bring indoors..............these were in my studio for a few days....such a gorgeous scent to work with.....

 ...............i did a bit of baking and made some scones....... i sewed this little cloth to fold around them in a little white basket......blue gingham fabric bound in red gingham readymade binding......

 .............new fabrics have arrived from the wonderful pretty fabrics and trims....these are arbor blossom by ellis and higgs for riley blake...........such a pretty collection...........new sewing is on it's way right now :).......

 ...............this week i plan to cut some lavender for drying.....do some exciting new magazine work...and begin a new english paper pieced project for the evenings.... i find can't just watch tv any more i have to sew, knit or crochet at the same time.....

...........thank you for dropping by to see me here dear readers and for your lovely comments.....wishing you a wonderful week with happy crafty times wherever you may be....and some flowers and sunshine to enjoy too................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Trip Around the World Quilt

 Hello again lovely readers.....here i am (a little later than planned this week due to computer issues) with my big trip around the world quilt freshly quilted in a pattern called sticky buns :)......

 ............i have shown this quilt as a work in progress here before........it was a challenge to choose fabrics for each round so there was plenty of contrast but so it still looked pretty to me.....i love making traditional patterns in fresh colours..........

 ...........i pinned it up on the wall in my sewing room to try and show the whole quilt in one shot....it is not easy to photograph quilts sometimes....lots of climbing about can be involved :)............

 ...........here's a random shot where you can see the spotted border fabric in navy and white and the spotted backing fabric in red and white as well as the binding............

 ...............on the wall again behind my sewing table.........

 .............the squares measure 2 inches and this quilt was sewn by hand during lots of peaceful evenings...........it was longarm machine quilted for me by the wonderful debbie holland at longarm-quilting.com............

 .............for a few of the rows i fussy cut the patches...........two flowery rows and the row of little elephants on red (from jodie carleton's backyard circus collection) ...........many of the fabrics are from the beautiful pam kitty morning ranges......lots of my favourites are in this quilt..........there is also a row of turquoise fabric that i got at the v and a quilt show a few years ago, specially printed for the show by liberty..............

 ..............i love the swirly quilting pattern and how it contrasts with the squares.........

 ............and here's the quilt below on the spare bed..........

 ...............and neatly folded with a bunny on top (this is lettuce)............

 ...............besides taking quilt pictures, having computer stresses, and lovely visits to and from sweet friends over the last few days i've also been spending lots of time in the garden....weeding mainly, listening to the bees and birds and watching the butterflies and dragonflies....looking up at the blue sky and enjoying these summer days.........i cut some of our plentiful hydrangeas to bring in for instant colour...........

................thank you for visiting me here dear readers and for your kind and lovely comments.......i hope you are having a wonderful week and enjoying your summer (or winter) days wherever you may be................have a happy time filled with crafty inspirations.............back soon xxxxxxxxxx

Summer Daisies

 Every summer we buy a big pot of daisies to have on the patio....some of the plants are planted in the borders later and carry on growing.............this year we found these daisies in such soft and unusual colours we had to have them........

 ..................i love the mix of shades within the single plant...............

 ................and realised the colours reminded me of my little stash of tilda bumblebee fabrics......

 ............so warm and soft and so pretty together........i got them all out for a little look and decided to make something new......

 .................i also took some pictures of the tumbler patchwork pillow i've already made....

 ...............here it is with the little bear i found in a modern vintage shop....his arm was falling off but i knew it would be easy to fix it.......

 ............when your flowers match your fabrics.......perfect summery pillow.......

 .....(the pattern for the tumbler patchwork pillow is in my book modern vintage gifts btw).....

 ............the garden notebook cover below also has a similar colour palette....it was for last month's crafts beautiful magazine project............

 ...........more of the beautiful daisies.........they are enjoying a nice drink of rainwater out there today....

 ............i have lots of sewing to do this week...some on a christmas theme ....some incorporating my current red white and blue crush and of course some with these soft and golden shades.........

 .............i hope you are enjoying a crafty week and some beautiful colours too......

...............thank you so much for dropping by to my little blog space....it is always so lovely to see you and to read your sweet comments...........wishing you a wonderful week everyone....back soon xxxxxx