Spring Time

 It's been a chilly spring so far this year here...but we have had a few really lovely days lately with warm sunshine, birdsong and the smell of cut grass and spring flowers in the air.....

 .............i love all the seasons for their different qualities....but spring is special.....we have been gardening, clearing up, weeding, planting, mowing and sometimes just sitting and enjoying the sun and the birds and the new buds and blossoms......

 .............besides lots of garden activities over the past week i have finished this little cot quilt top....

 ...........lots of little random scrappy squares stitched together........and some little appliques added....a bunny......

 ............a star...........

 ...........and a heart or two...........now i am beginning to hand quilt this design and looking forward to it......

 ..........my new pincushion made with some of the tiny white floral prints from the first romance collection...just so pretty............

 ...........i've enjoyed reading this book very much....

 ................here is grandma's chair which i painted and had recovered a few years ago...it is very comfortable for reading, sewing and cuddling babies............i remember it when it was in the bay window of my husband's grandma's home, next to a pretty octagonal table which we also have here.....so nice to have things from the past with happy memories.....the book above 'the sewing machine' by natalie fergie explores these themes so well and made me feel very nostalgic..........

 ...........i have some of my favourite bellis daisies.........i love their cheery little button flowers..........

 .........another picture from our garden.....the tulips shown here are some we got at dunham massey gardens last year....the gardeners were lifting the finished bulbs and encouraged visitors to take some for their own gardens and to give a donation to charity.....so here is our own little bit of dunham massey .........

.............thank you for visiting me here dear readers and for those of you who leave me kind comments an extra special thank you ..........next week i am taking a blog and facebook break as we will be on a little holiday......so i will be back the week after that.......wishing everyone happy sunny crafty days in the meantime...............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bright Stars: A Quilt in Progress

 Here is the bright stars quilt top..........i've been working on this (at the same time as many other projects) for quite a while........it is hand stitched using english paper pieced diamonds...........

 ..............the six point stars are turned into hexagons using the same diamond shape........the stars are made from many scrappy fabrics and the hexagons are created using bright shades of kona cotton solids............

 ............some of the stars were fussy cut like this one using gorgeous lecien fabric....

 ...............this star is one of the first i made for the quilt and i photographed it at the time with some of my sweetpeas from the garden............

 ..........the colours are exciting now that the hexagon blocks are pieced together.....

 ...........as you can see i also appliqued little circles in the star centres..........

 ............it's been a pleasure making this and i do love slow sewing and epp......so i am just beginning a new epp project now :).....more about that one soon....

 ............i also love to stitch my cross stitch designs too and recently worked on another secret stitch along with sew and so....this time it is a right royal stitchalong ....here are some little sneak peeks....

 ............if you sign up to the stitchalong here you will receive all the materials needed and then each week for six weeks you will be sent a piece of the chart to stitch and can watch your regal design take shape....

 ...........love this little chippy corgi which belonged to my mother in law who always had a (real) corgi.....

 ...............we had some very cold and grey weather last week and then a couple of lovely sunny days which we made the most of...we visited gardens and worked in our own too...........spring really is here now and here is a blossom against blue sky picture...my favourite thing :) ............

............thanks for dropping by dear readers and for the kind comments you leave me......it is always nice to hear from my lovely blog friends around the world xx..............wishing you a happy sunny week with plenty of crafty inspiration.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Easter Time

 We have had such a lovely easter weekend with all our dearies here...........

 ..........we had time to play with the little ones, cuddle the baby (a lot) and eat plenty of chocolate...

 ...............even though the weather was not at all spring like most of the time we could still see the spring flowers braving the cold............

............and enjoy the colourful easter decorations......as a designer spring colours have always appealed to me and easter decorations are probably my favourite to create....... my goosey pattern is in the latest issue of crafts beautiful magazine......

 ................lolly the bunny put on her easter dress again............

 .............and posed next to the pretty daffodils on easter day.............

 ..............the teeny tiny bunny was tucked up in a seed tray beneath a teeny tiny postage stamp quilt which was made from first romance fabrics from moda  designed by my blog friend kristyne of the blog pretty by hand.........people often ask about the very tiny bunny pattern....it is the same sugar bunny pattern as the one in my book pretty patchwork gifts, just without enlarging the pattern....you can enlarge or reduce the pattern in a photocopier and make bunnies of any size you like............

 ............the rain held off for our egg hunt and it was so much fun to see the children searching for them after my daughters hid them all around the garden..........

 ...........lots of chocolate was then consumed, and a buffet tea for us all......

 ..........with homemade cakes and easter bunny toppers of course......love my little vintage easter mug below which was such a sweet gift x.............

..............thank you for dropping in to my little blog space dear readers and thank you so much for the kind comments you leave......wishing you a wonderful week ahead.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lovely Labels and Easter Eggs

 Here are my new labels from the dutch label shop............. a small business that offers custom labels.....you can easily create your own label design and choose from logo labels, clothing labels, woven labels, care labels, hang tags and stock labels.............

 ...............the dutch label shop kindly offered me a voucher to create some labels from their site.....i chose these and love them :)..... and i've had fun adding them to lots of my handmade designs this week......

 ...............the woven labels can be sewn onto quilts and cushions............

 .............and into drawstring bags like this one...........

 ..............the hang tags are great to add to gifts like a crochet blanket.........or to bunnies (see top picture).......you can find the dutch label shop here......

 ...........this weekend i sewed some fabric easter eggs..........

 .............i used some of my lovely new first romance  moda fabrics and some pretty scraps of lecien fabrics for a colourful mixture.........

 .............then i found a suitable basket in the potting shed and filled it with raffia......

 ..............and added the eggs..........

 ..........and a few flowers, speckled eggs and mini eggs...........

 ...........and a little bird made last spring..........

 ...........lots of decorating going on here now as the easter holiday weekend approaches.....

..........thank you for dropping by dear readers and thank you for all your kind comments.......wishing you all a very happy easter and plenty of sunny crafty days.................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flowers and Fabrics

 Although it's been freezing cold here with a bitterly cold wind blowing all weekend, the flowers around me and the pretty fabrics i am working with have made it feel quite spring like :).............. above is my project in the april issue of crafts beautiful magazine.........

 ...........and here are some of the blocks for my new star quilt made with diamonds, scrappy fabric, fussy cut fabric and kona solids...all english paper pieced........

 .............some of my beautiful mother's day flowers and a stack of some kona solids in flower colours....

 ...........i am loving the mix of prints and solids..........the lecien florals are wonderful for fussy cutting....

 ..............and here are some very sweet new fabrics .......designed by the talented kristyne of the blog pretty by hand ............i have always loved kristyne's beautiful work, her sweet colour and pattern choices and perfect sewing are an inspiration.........i was so pleased to see her new fabric collection first romance by moda and will love stitching with these gorgeous prints......more soon x.......

 ..............more of my flowers below....i am a lucky mum and wife..........

 ..............the scent of the hyacinths is so delicious too.........and i love the double tulips........

 ..........there are quilts all around the house, their bright colours cheer up the winter days......

 ..........here is the flower pots pillow...inspiration for the flower pots quilt...........

 ..............one idea leads to another and there is always a long to do list pinned on my notice board....

 .............today a dear friend is coming to see me and we will have a nice catch up....we have known each other many years and always have a lot to talk about...i might do a bit of patchwork too....

...............thanks so much for dropping by dear readers and for the sweet comments......hope you all have a lovely week with sunshine, flowers and a whole lot of crafty inspiration......back soon xxxxxxx