October Times

 Happy new week everyone..........today we have some pretty pink roses and matching pumpkins.....and some pictures from our weekend too..........

 ...........driving along the cheshire lanes to see our younger daughter and her family i just had to snap some in-car pictures..........it was a beautiful day filled with chilly sunlight and all the shades of autumn in the landscape.....always love our visits here and seeing my sweet littlest grandsons......

 ...........in the afternoon we had a little outing to treacle market............

 ..........held on the last sunday of the month in the little historic town of macclesfield......

 ............such an interesting mixture of stalls and i always find something to add to my vintage collection..........

 ............lots of autumn inspiration too this time.........

 ..........and pretty old toys and house wares...........

 .............below is my french vintage coffee pot found on my favourite stall and photographed at home today (on a bright and frosty morning).............

 ...............crafty-wise i have been working on a magazine commission and on a new quilt.....and i finished sewing a little piece of redwork embroidery.....

 .............and made it into a little pin cushion using some sweet scraps of liberty and some wonderful eclectic elements fabrics by tim holtz...........

 ........another in-car pic of a cheshire lane in autumn complete with verges full of russet fallen leaves..........so much beauty to enjoy..........

...........i hope you are enjoying these last october days dear readers................thank you for dropping in to visit me here and for leaving such kind comments...........wishing you all happy sunny crafty times..............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

These Autumn Days

 These autumn days are beautiful............with a magical golden light softening everything..........

 ...........we have some pumpkins...............and we have a pumpkin quilt too......

 ..............inspired by my pumpkin pillow, i've wanted to make a pumpkin patchwork for quite a while.........i chose soft tilda fabrics in ginger and yellow for the pumpkins, lots of creamy yellows and other pretty shades from my stash for the patchwork, cream kona cotton to applique the pumpkins onto, and liberty betsy for bright cornerstones between the sashing and for the binding.......

 .................i couldn't resist taking some pictures while we were gardening at the weekend.....the little cobbled paths are all done now.....

 .............and the first clematis has been planted.............

 .............with lots of other plants on order ready for the cottage gardening to really begin..........

 ............some tiny rosehips below on the kiftsgate rose which grows over the arbour..........

 ..............when i was out and about with my elder daughter at the weekend i took a few pictures around our little town.....

 .............gorgeous michaelmas daisies in a little park..........

 ..............and a pretty victorian porch filled with flowers............

 ..................buying the clematis at the garden centre i took this picture...although i go for pastel colours i know orange can be beautiful too :)..........

............loving these golden days as october rushes by.........thank you for dropping in to share them with me dear readers............wishing you a wonderful week ahead with happy sunny days and lots of crafty inspirations........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shining Stars Quilt

 Happy new week dear readers......this week i am showing you this bright starry quilt which has been finished for a little while but waiting for its big reveal moment.....i showed you some of the making of this quilt last year when i began sewing scrappy english paper pieced diamonds together....

 ..............the bright colours of the scraps inspired me to use bright kona cotton to join the resulting stars to form hexagons...........

 ............and i added a little appliqued circle to the centre of each star, partly to differentiate from all the whirling and swirling diamond shapes..........there are some secondary patterns happening here too, like the tumbling blocks.........

 ..............it was backed with a beautiful liberty floral fabric in a contrasting deep blue..........

 .............and longarm quilted for me by the talented debbie holland in a wonderful star pattern....

 ..............the quilt was originally inspired by the star quilt in my book *modern vintage gifts* and it uses the same templates.....changing the joining pieces from hexagons to diamonds and making it bright and scrappy gives a whole different look..........

 ..........lots of different fabrics went into this quilt......i even chopped up some charm packs i'd been hoarding for ages...

 ..............i think the grandchildren will enjoy snuggling under this one now the autumn days have arrived.....

 ..........last week i worked on a new quilt for autumn and look forward to showing some of that soon too......also cross stitching and embroidering...and loving the floral snippets from the garden.....mr p is now working on the little paths in our cottage garden......hope to bring you a pretty update very soon :)..........

 ............colourful window sill at the weekend when it was so grey and rainy we needed our flowers and bright quilts so much......

 .............today is much brighter and the cough and cold i suffered from all last week has almost gone............our littlest grandson turned one last week and was such a happy little chap enjoying his birthday.....i really think he is the most beaming baby ever xxx

...............thank you for visiting me here lovely readers....it is such a pleasure to hear from you too and to read your sweet comments..........wishing you a wonderful week ahead with sunshine and happy crafty times.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Autumn Brights

 Happy new week dear readers.....i hope it's a bright one for you.....

 ...........we've had some lovely autumn days here over the past week......perfect for finishing off the picket fence and even doing a little planting......

 ..........and some mushroom collecting......

 ..........love this cute pattern by vechernie posidelki...such quirky little mushrooms.... i want to make lots....

 ............gathering together some autumn decorations and a few flowers and berries....

 ...............choosing some quilts in autumn colours too.....

 .............the picket fence is finished, the little gate installed and painted...a big thank you to my lovely mr p for doing this for me (i did help by doing the painting but the construction was the main thing)..........and thank you to my lovely blog readers who gave me suggestions for flowers to plant in my new cottage garden....they will all be on my list and the ordering is about to begin......looking forward to a lot of pretty flowers next year.....

 ..........i went shopping with my elder daughter on friday and we had a quick look in m & s for snowberries but they didn't have any more.....

 .........then at the weekend in the garden centre i found this pretty checker berry plant......

 ............after enjoying it in the house for a while i'll plant it outside.........such pretty berries.....

 .............almost finished quilting the heartstrings quilt..........nearly up to the dotty border now which i plan to quilt some hearts in.....am using a hera marker instead of my usual quilting tape..........

..............i have a dear friend coming today and there is some butternut squash soup simmering in the aga ready for our lunch......we have a lot of catching up to do...........i also have a lot of catching up to with my blog friends and this will be the week now the fence painting is done!......thank you to everyone who visits me here and for all your kind comments .......wishing you all a wonderful week ahead with flowers and sunshine, and time to do the things you love...........back soon xxxxxxxxxx
 

Home and Garden

 Happy October to all my lovely blog friends.......hoping it is a good month for you all....here is a little collage of my september pictures....such a lovely month with lots of crafty, cosy home and sunny garden times....

 ..........i was taking a picture of this new shabby chic little shutter mirror to show my daughter and caught this view of the sitting room with the quilt cupboard and a bit of my heartstrings quilt too....

 .............and here's another quilt from a while ago.....taken in the garden and giving a sneak peek of our soon to be cottage garden with its white picket fence made for me by kind mr p.... the things we do for love ;) xxx.....

 ............the fence isn't finished yet but i planted a few things anyway.....

 ......the layout followed the one that was already there, with a small ornamental tree in a centre circle surrounded by four flowerbeds separated by small grass paths...we are going to change to gravel paths and i've dug out all the old plants and woody roots ready to fill the beds with cottage garden flowers (let me know if you have any favourites or suggestions!)..........

 .............here is a finished corner...........

 ...........and a big pot of lobelia..........in spring there will be bright tulips growing here (hopefully!)...

 .............i am enjoying reading the garden catalogues for autumn planting and have taken a lot of cuttings to grow in the greenhouse.....a friend gave me some physalis or groundcherry plants she'd grown  and this morning she dropped off some of the fruits from her own plant for me to try...so pretty......

 ..............choosing cosy cushions and quilts for the new season......

 ..............and of course busy crafting as usual...i love it as you know......and i love finishing things like this little daisy dot pincushion made from a spare block....

 .............the carousel quilt below is a pleasure to make (from the everyday quilts pattern).....it has pretty borders one of which has yo yos appliqued on to it so i've been making a few of those.....

 ..............and now october is here there will be more pumpkins of course......

............thank you for your visits dear readers and your kind comments......wishing you all happy autumn (or spring) days and lots of crafty inspirations................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx