Winter Berries

 Here is a holly berry inspired potholder with a festive feel......it was made using the cherry potholder pattern in my book *modern vintage gifts* and was quick and fun to make................

 ...........i love lots of pretty red and white textiles around especially at this time of year....

 .............the fabrics are from the tilda cottage collection and also the long time favourite tilda red and white stripe, with kona solid in white for the backing and a bonnie and camille stripe for the binding....i used green gingham for the holly leaves and a red pin dot for the berries (i think these are lecien fabrics, they were scraps from my scrap basket)..............

 ..............i love seeing red berries against a blue sky especially......but i just love winter berries anyway and think they look so decorative and beautiful just simply arranged in the house in garlands or in white jugs............below is our rowan tree....i took this picture earlier....the berries have mostly been eaten by the birds now.....

 .............as well as photographing berries and sewing and stitching berries i also like to paint them sometimes too......

 .............painting a sheet of different winter berries here.....and later will paint some berry gift tags.....

 .............we have a holly tree in our front garden but the berries are too high for me to reach so i shall be buying (or begging) some for my xmas decorating soon...............

 ..............this little sprig was from my favourite florist's shop in our little town......

 ..............still making little houses..............here are two more frosty blue ones............

 ...............love these colours and am looking forward to getting the xmas decorations down in a couple of days and making the house bright and festive.............

 ............one more berry laden shrub from our garden...........

 ...............and in my studio the lovely maileg girl pixie is back to keep me company again.......

.............my younger daughter and her husband visited here this weekend and i had a lovely looooong cuddle of new baby louis..........we are all planning a simple joyful family christmas this year and looking forward to it very much............off to do a bit more festive sewing now :)...........wishing you a happy week ahead with plenty of crafty inspirations..........thank you for dropping by and for your sweet comments dear readers.......................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

November Stitching

Happy new week everyone................here are some of my november makes......(though some of my latest makes are for future magazine publication so they have to be top secret for now! )......the ones here are made for our home....

 ..............besides using some of my favourites from previous tilda collections for my cushions, there are some gorgeous new tilda cottage fabrics in my sewing room this week too.......and i am making some little houses from the pattern in my book 'pretty patchwork gifts'..............

 .........so pretty and the colours are just right for a festive feel..............

 ............lovely little charm pack which will make lots of little houses and christmas decorations.......you can find the new tilda fabrics at sew and so.......

 ...............the one below is one of my favourites............

 ............love the reds and blues..........

 ................this is the first little house i made...........the white pom poms were just what i needed for the wintry festive trim.......

 ...........here's another little house, made from the smaller pattern...........there are more in progress....

 ..........i've also been busy knitting, making little hats for sweet new baby louis......i can't believe it is ten years since our first grandbaby charlie was born and i was knitting little hats for him......he had his tenth birthday at the end of october........such a lovely boy... i really enjoy spending time with him.....

 ............although i am thinking about christmas i'm not putting up any decorations until december arrives...it is my husband's birthday at the end of november and it doesn't feel right to start focussing on christmas things until after that.....but i am gathering things together....

 .................one more picture of the latest cushion as a work in progress with a favourite cup of tea....

 ..............and in my cosy studio with the fire lit............

............thank you for dropping in here to my crafty blog space dear readers......thank you for the lovely comments you leave.........wishing you a wonderful week ahead with cosy times and crafty inspirations..................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cosy Times

 One of my latest cosy makes is this squashy quilted cushion, made with some of my favourite scraps and some of my treasured tilda yardage too..............i love these soft warm shades.........

 .............the cushion looks nice with the cabbages and roses duvet cover and pillows......

 ..............and with ruby rabbit too :)..............

 .............ruby is here again wearing her winter woollies and keeping cosy............

 ...........some of the last flowers in our garden....this is a bunch of cosmos that i grew from seed and they have flowered wonderfully for months but are finally getting near the end now......

 ..............now is the time to cosy up and sew some gifts like this little bear who is in my book *modern vintage gifts*................

 ...............i love making these quilted cushions and have another one being worked on now with even more embellishment and quilting....lovely to sew on cosy evenings..........

 ..............a mug of lemon and ginger tea to accompany a bit of sewing........

 ..............red and white stripes......one of my favourite things :)...........

 ............along with red berries against a blue sky...........most weekends mr p and i have a nice walk or two with molly the dog........i am looking for berries to photograph at the moment, they look so pretty...

 ..................this was the sea view near our house yesterday.............it was sunny but there was a very chilly breeze.....we need our winter woollies on now.......

 .................one more view of ruby and the little bear.......and one more view of the cosy bedroom....time to get on with my new work projects now.....i had a bit of a break from designing commissions last month when i helped with looking after our grandchildren and doing other family things....but now i am back in my workroom and getting on with projects for 2018 (!)...........

...............thank you so much for dropping by dear readers and for your sweet comments......it is lovely to hear from you and i do appreciate you taking time to write a little note to me...i know some of you had difficulty leaving comments last week so i hope the comment box works ok this time :).......wishing you a wonderful week with cosy happy crafty times....back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nordic Stitches

 As we move into november and the days become more wintry here i am happy to be doing some festive sewing and working on a new quilt...........

 .............as soon as i saw the nordic stitches fabrics designed by wenche wolff hatling of northern quilts for moda fabrics i knew i had to have some.....i bought the charm pack above and a charm pack of kona solids white too and arranged them in a simple checkerboard pattern.....

 ..............i love the designs of reindeer, hearts, snowflakes, knitting stitches and small traditional patterns in red, white and shades of blue......

 .............and i decided to make some applique reindeer to add to the quilt......

 .............it's so cosy sewing these while watching movies and enjoying the firelight of these dark and chilly evenings..........

 .............i hope to finish this quilt in time to use it this christmas so must get sewing this week.....

 ............i love buying a charm pack and then picking my favourites from it and ordering yardage...

 ................the print below is for the backing of my nordic stitches quilt............

 ...............also keeping to my autumn 'finishing up the wips' rule, here is my work in progress ripple blanket, long neglected but now being worked on again..........it was so long since i worked on this one i'd almost forgotten how to do the ripple stitch...but now i am back with it and enjoying it very much again.....

 ...............below are the blue and white bootees i made last week for beautiful new baby louis.......

 .............i gifted them to him at the weekend when we visited and had some lovely new baby cuddles....

 .............we had a lovely walk last week with our dog molly and my elder daughter's puppy betsy.......it's been a beautiful autumn here and there is still plenty of colour and beauty to enjoy in the woods and on the common.....

..............thank you for dropping by dear readers and for your sweet comments.......i love to hear from you............wishing you all a very happy crafty week with lots of sunny days and cosy nights......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx