Scrappy Happy Hearts

 Happy new week everyone.........we are having a happy scrappy week here..........

 .............stitching happy hearts as valentine day is just around the corner.......though i am known for stitching hearts all year round and as often as possible of course....hearts are one of my favourite motifs for applique and for cross stitch too...........

 ..............these patchwork squares with applique hearts are for a mini quilt..........

 ..............lots of you kindly asked about my method for using fusible web (known also as bondaweb or wonder under, depending on where you live)..............below is a little collage showing the first steps of this easy method..........bondaweb has two adhesive sides so you first cut your shape to fit the shape of your patch, then peel off the backing paper and iron the bondaweb on..........draw round the heart template onto the paper backing of the second side of bondaweb and then cut out the heart shape.....

 .............arrange your project so you are happy with the design, then peel off the second layer of paper and iron the hearts onto the background patches............

 .............and then, choosing a matching shade of thread sew neat blanket stitch round the outer edge of the applique heart shapes...............

 .............when the applique hearts were all neatly sewn in place and the rows of patches joined together,  i checked out my stash for something pretty to back the little quilt.......i found this pretty pam kitty morning fabric which has sweet little red tulips in the design.....

 .............now i am at the quilting stage and i hope to finish this little project in the next couple of evenings during my relaxing hand sewing time...........more pictures soon x

 .................we have lots of quilts in use here at the moment as it has been very cold over the last week........we have finally had some sunny days too luckily..........

 .................and the bulbs flowering indoors are such a cheerful reminder of spring........

 .............as we are having a bit of a heart theme here today i thought i would show you this sampler which hangs in my hall..........i designed and stitched the kind hearts cross stitch sampler years ago and it is one of my favourites.....and the words are still a good positive reminder just as antique sampler sayings often were........

 ..............in my kitchen there are hyacinths flowering merrily (supported by some of my old knitting needles here) and the pretty grape hyacinths are out too and producing a second flush of flowers as well.............there are some tiny daffodils in bud which will be flowering by the end of the week .....

.............now it is time to tell you the winner of my tilda bumblebee bloghop giveaway............thank you to everyone who entered and left such lovely comments......

.........the winner is lee of the blog lee's cornwall, cards and crochet............congratulations lee and if you would please email me your postal address i will send you your giveaway gifts..............

.............i think giveaways are a lot of fun and i am planning to do lots more this coming year so keep looking out for the next one everyone :)....................

.............thank you for visiting me here in my little blog space dear readers........it is a treat to have your visits and comments, and to share my crafty enthusiasms with so many like minded blog friends..................wishing you all a wonderful week ahead with sunny happy crafty times.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flower Wreath: A Quilt in Progress

 We have had such bleak and blustery days this past week......dreary and drizzly with very low light levels most of the day.....we missed out on the bright snowy days some parts of the uk had.......

 ............so it was wonderful to be able to play with bright fabrics and to make some more blocks for my work in progress......the flower wreath quilt...........some of you may remember this as i showed some of it last year when i began it.......each block features a simple circle with flowers and leaves appliqued using fusible web...........each block is different though as the arrangement varies slightly and the fabrics are different in each too......

 ................when the shapes have been ironed in place i sew round them with blanket stitch and matching embroidery thread........i love this type of applique and it is good to do while watching movies (or chatting) ............

 .............gradually each block is stitched and added to the growing pile......

 ............i often fit a project like this around others, especially (secret for now) work commitments and i stitch a little now and then while waiting for dinner to cook or a cake to bake.....

 ..............there are bulbs to enjoy here this week.....pretty hyacinths opening and scenting the room....

 ................these hyacinths have quite delicate flowers and are such a soft pink.....

 ..............below is my thread box, lots of dmc stranded cotton that i use for cross stitch and also for applique and other simple embroidery.............

 ................the flower wreath quilt was inspired by historic quilts and when the blocks are joined together i am planning a  floral twining border like many early quilts would have had.............

 ...............still a few more blocks to create first before that exciting moment though.....

 ...............and as i had a bunch of beautiful red and pink tulips to brighten my sewing room this week i thought i would show you the little tulip applique pillow too...........

 ..................this was made for a magazine quite a while ago and now is just the right time for it to be in use ........the tulips i planted in my tulip patch in the autumn are now just showing their green shoots above the ground but it will be quite a while before they are in flower..........

................thank you for visiting me here in my little bit of blog land, dear readers.......and thank you for all your lovely comments on my previous post, i so enjoyed reading them....you can still enter the tilda bumblebee giveaway on that post until sunday january 22................in the meantime i wish you all a wonderful week with plenty of happy crafty times.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tilda Bumblebee Blog Hop and Giveaway

 Welcome to my stop on the tilda bumblebee blog hop today!........i was so happy to be asked to help showcase this beautiful new fabric :).............

 ......the bumblebee collection is so soft and pretty with a light and airy feel.....there are sweet flowers, delicious colours and lovely little bees buzzing about...just perfect for spring...................

 ................i decided to make some flowers for a garland ....the picture above shows them in progress.......i love the effect of the different prints next to one another.......

 ..............the flowers are easy to make (there is a pattern in my book *pretty patchwork gifts*) and it is fun choosing buttons for the centres.....i used some vintage ones...........

 .............the next project i made was this tumbler patchwork pillow............

 .............the soft and pretty prints look so beautiful set against white........

 .............this pretty pillow will be part of my spring interior design this year..........

 ..............every new collection from tilda is inspiring and fresh, yet works with the previous collections too.......below is a hexagon patchwork drawstring bag...............

 ...............perfect to store all kinds of things including small toys..............(the little hexagon bag and the tumbler patchwork pillow are both projects from my book *modern vintage gifts* if you would like to make them)....................

 ..............i used hexagons again in the pincushion below.............this has a little applique beehive in the centre as you can see, and i added one of my favourite bee buttons (by just another button company available at sew and so)............bees and beehives are favourite images of mine for drawing and designing..................i used a technique called tie quilting to quilt this pincushion and it is a very tactile little project.......

 ................last week i found some pretty tulips in the local greengrocer's shop........i thought they were perfect to complement my tilda bumblebee makes, especially arranged in this vintage vase................

 ................visit sew and so here to see all the other great blogs taking part in the bumblebee blog hop and to order this gorgeous fabric...............

 .................i have some patchwork pieces of the bumblebee collection to give away and some pieces of the previous collection (called candy bloom) too..........also included in my giveaway is a little hand stitched scissor keep and a pair of pretty dotty scissors.....to enter the giveaway just leave me a comment on this post........there will be one winner and it is open to everyone everywhere and you can enter it until sunday 22 january.........

............thank you for visiting me here dear readers and for all your kind new year wishes ..........wishing you all a happy week ahead with lots of crafty inspirations..........back soon xxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Happy New Year

 Happy New Year to you all...........i love the start of a new year, the turn of the page on the old year and lots of fresh plans and new experiences to look forward to................

 ..............(the little stitched signs shown here are part of my project in the january crafts beautiful magazine)............i hope you had a wonderful christmas time and happy holidays.......

 ...............we had a happy and loving family christmas....my eldest daughter and her husband hosted christmas day (this is their gorgeous house above....i loved the little chair back wreaths my daughter made with snippets of greenery from the garden) and on boxing day they all came to our house........it was such a joy to see christmas through the excited eyes of the little grandchildren and to watch the little cousins playing together....so nice to have my youngest daughter and her family staying with us too and have time for lots of chatting and laughter...........

 .............after a couple of days i just had to start a bit of crafting, even though i had packed my work away temporarily........i found a basket of pretty scraps and some diamond english paper pieces.....

 ............these are quite tiny ones..........i made some little scrappy stars which was fun to do watching tv or chatting..........

 ...............i began to join the stars with white diamonds.........loving the fresh flowery colours of this patchwork and the way you can include so many different fabric scraps...........

 ...............now that christmas is over i like to tidy it all away, clean and dust and then have lots of fresh flowers and bulbs around me.....

 ............flowers are the most cheerful sight in a room i think and even better if they are scented....

 .............i am already looking forward to the planting season and browsing garden catalogues....i am also looking forward to lots of reading in the coming year and have some new books ready to enjoy......one of my xmas surprises was a pair of little maileg pixies, one from each of my girls......

 ..............besides stitching i have been knitting with this beautiful rico bamboo yarn.....this will be a shawl.......it is fun to knit and very relaxing...........

 ...........our first outing on new year's day was a walk on the local beach with our little dog molly.....the day began cloudy and grey but later in the morning the cloud lifted and the sun came out......we had such a lovely walk and saw lots of seabirds out on the estuary...peaceful and beautiful..

 ...............thank you for visiting me here all through the year, dear readers, and for your kind comments and emails.......i look forward to visiting your blogs too and catching up with you all.....

..............i wish you all a very happy, loving and peaceful 2017 filled with joy, inspiration and creativity...................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxx