May Flowers

 Happy new week dear readers......we're enjoying our long bank holiday weekend here....i picked a bunch of flowers to put in this big crackle pot in my sewing room......the flowers you can just see through the window are window boxes full of petunias (planted by mr p)......

 ............. lots of gardening and general floral enjoyment going on here.........many of these flowers were self seeded from the original plants....i love the aquilegia and how they pop up all over the place....

 ..............lots of posies too..............here is my new quilt with little applique plums.....

 ..............made with tilda lazy days fabrics and some polka dots and stripes from my stash.....

 .............i am so enjoying mixing these colours and seeing how the patterns blend together....

 ...........just as colours blend in nature..........here's a peek at the cottage garden....

 .........looking forward to the roses opening and lots of alliums too..........

 ................the bees are busy in the foxgloves......can you see the buzzing bee here?.....

 .........and despite mixed weather the pelargoniums i grew as cuttings have now come out of the greenhouse and are in a big pot ready to enjoy their summer outdoors.....

 ..............always inspired by gardens and flowers....here is my project in this month's issue of crafts beautiful magazine here........a little bit of vintage seed packet inspiration and cute radishes.......

 ............it will soon be time for afternoon tea here and we will be having it in a sheltered part of the garden (it's quite breezy in some places today)...........hope you are having a good start to the week everyone......thank you so much for visiting me here and a special thank you to those who take the time to leave me a comment....it's so nice to hear from you and i really do appreciate it.......wishing you sunshine and flowers and lots of crafty inspirations................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flowers and Fishes

 Happy new week dear readers.......here is a picture of my work table taken the other day when i was making some heart blocks for a new pink version of my heartstrings quilt...........

 ...........there are lots of pretty fabrics here already of course but i had to treat myself to just a few new ones as well....work wise i'm very busy at the moment as i've just signed up to do a new book which is very exciting............

 ...........in the garden the sweetheart rose (cecile brunner) is now flowering and twining amongst the wisteria...........

 ..............it's even more like a waterfall this week.......and so deliciously scented.....

 ............the greenhouse was full of cuttings and seedlings and i finally got round to planting some out....

 ..............pelargonium cuttings from one of my favourites.......

 .............lots of seedlings............below is the seed tray i showed here a few weeks ago.....now these cosmos are bigger still and planted out in the cottage garden....i grew millions of seeds this year...or it felt like it when i was planting them all anyway ;).....

 .............and now my latest little fabric fishes...........made from the pattern in my etsy shop......

 .............i found some cute tins which inspired a little more fish stitching......

 ..............the dotty fabric is from lecien's flower sugar rose kiss collection which i'm really enjoying sewing with at the moment.......

 ..............more fishes....some i made last year.....

 ............in fact there is now a whole crateful..............and i am pretty sure there will be more.....

............thank you so much for dropping by to my little crafty space here and sharing my flowers and sewing...........it's always such a treat to read your kind comments too..........wishing everyone a happy week with flowers and crafting......and a thought for those who are maybe not having such a happy time.............sending love to you and wishing you well..............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sewing Little Things

 Happy new week dear readers..................i've been sewing some little things this week...and also some bigger things which have to remain a secret for now.....

 ............i unrolled the beautiful lecien fabrics sushi roll and began to make some little things with it....like these tiny hearts, each one a celebration of the pretty flower sugar prints.............

 .............i love my collection of vintage spools, all of which came from my mother and my mother in law.............i love the names given to the different colours and just having them around reminds me of childhood and my mum always sewing lovely things for us................

 .............they are good for styling photos too.......

 ...............here are some in a glass jar and below echoing the colours in a small project.....

 ................inspired this week by the colours of our flowering wisteria and by the lovely lilac fabrics in my sushi roll (see last post for pics of both) i made another log cabin block for my collection....

 ................such pretty and inspiring fabrics...........more of these soon......

 .............in the garden now.............daisies flowering in a grey pot outside the potting shed....

 ............and here's an old table that i painted years ago when i was into stencilling.....i thought i might gather some plant pots on it for some garden table photos......

 ...........and the may blossom is out all across the fields and hedgerows on all our walks.....so beautiful to see and such perfect little flowers................

 ............from green leafy clumps we suddenly have french lavender in flower......so much happening in the garden at the moment every day brings something new......i have planted some new flowers today....self seeded or volunteer plants that grew in the gravel paths have been carefully dug up and planted in the cottage garden......must go and water them in now......

...............thanks for stopping by to see me here lovely readers and thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave a sweet comment...so nice to hear from you and so much appreciated :).......wishing you a wonderful week ahead with sunshine and flowers and happy crafty times......back soon xxxxxx

May Time

 Here we are after a lovely lazy long weekend....sunny though chilly....and with some pretty new lecien fabrics to enjoy in the sewing room............

 .............the pattern for my new gather the flowers quilt is now in my etsy shop.........and here it is in my cottage garden where the new season's flowers are growing happily.....

 ...........the quilt is soft and romantic with flowers appliqued in the centre using the fusible web method which i love....there are patchwork flying geese and then more applique flowers dotted around the wide striped final border...........i hand quilted it all and it was a pleasure to make......

 .............the fabrics were mainly scraps of lecien, pam kitty morning, moda, tilda, liberty.....

 .............i have an idea for a new quilt now and also some other exciting new work to do.......

 ..............the cottage garden is a pleasure to tend as it is small and compact and all the small dormant plants i put in during those quiet autumn days are now beginning to grow and bloom.....

 ...............like this beautiful columbine..........

 .............through my sewing room window i can admire the wisteria.....

 ............it is like a huge waterfall of scented lilac coloured blossoms...........quite hard to capture its beauty in photographs though.....

 .............thank you to everyone who entered the draw to win tickets to the fantastic festival of quilts 2019......the winners have all been notified now but you can still use my discount code of HELEN19 to order tickets in advance online here or by calling: 0844 581 1319.........

 .............off to do some work now....lots of pretty fabrics arriving is the best inspiration...lettuce thinks so too...........

.............thanks for dropping by to see me here dear readers.....it is always such a pleasure to hear from you......hope you are enjoying the first days of may with sunshine and flowers and lots of crafty inspiration...................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx