Secret Garden

 I wanted to make myself a new garden notebook for this summer, so i bought a book with handy pockets and lots of pages, (meant for recipes) and decorated the front cover with scrapbook papers and rubber stamps......many were from my stash but i also found some beautiful new ones in the *secret garden* range from graphic 45............as soon as i saw these papers and the lovely artwork they reminded me of the first garden i ever knew and loved................

............when i was a small child we lived in a victorian house with a walled garden at the back.....i have wonderful memories of the atmosphere there...a fig tree growing against a warm brick wall, apple trees, roses and a vegetable patch, mulberries, radishes, daisies and crab apples, and in the spring time bluebells and lily of the valley......i think of that garden often and always, looking back, it was sunny :)...........when i grew older and read *the secret garden* by frances hodgson burnett, i thought it was rather like my garden too...............

 ..............the new garden notebook is a work in progress as i decorate the inside and i'll be showing you more pages of it soon...............

 ...........here is the front of the book being decorated, with bits being added and taken away :)..........

 ...............we are planning lots of lovely garden visits soon, so i will be writing in this book, and storing postcards, leaflets and garden ephemera in the pockets...........can you see my latest crochet crush in this picture too?..................

 .................making sweet and colourful flowers from various youtube videos..........

 ............i'm still loving crocheting the ripple blanket too, and it's about half finished now and a joy to work on........but somehow i got a little yen to try these multi layered flowers and to see how they work.......always a pleasure to find out the way something is constructed :)...............

 ............I've made quite a few now......couldn't stop really...........and am not sure what i'm going to do with them yet but i just know they will be lovely for something soon..............

 ...............i thought i'd pop a picture of some real flowers in here too............i love these bellis daisies.......i didn't manage to get a picture of the cherry blossom here before it suddenly all got dashed off the tree by the high winds...........it was like confetti over the grass and the tree had turned back to green after being so white and flowery the day before....................the apple blossom is still holding on and looking lovely though so i will take some pictures of that next.....................

.............by the way, the secret garden papers and stamps are available in many places but i got mine here.........thank you so much for dropping in here today it is always wonderful to see you and to hear from you too............wishing you a happy, sunny, flowery and crafty week.............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Spring Stitching

It's been very sunny at our house a lot of the last week....and we actually had a sunny bank holiday too, a rare thing here.......we spent a lot of time outdoors, enjoying the blossom, birds and even a barbecue..........

............besides gardening a lot and trying to get ahead of the weeds, we have all enjoyed seeing the tulip cutting patch grow and some of my friends, both in blog land and in real life are going to plant one next year .....the lure of cutting your own tulips and planting varieties you love is very strong......

...........and my stitching was tulip inspired again too, as you can see i made a little hand quilted potholder in pinks, greens and white...........the simple tulip shape is one i've often used in my design work, painted with watercolours for greetings cards, and stitched into cross stitch samplers many times.........the already almost stylized shape of the tulip is ideal for applique too..........

 ..........i took a big white bucket of colourful tulips into the house at the weekend.............

 .............in the warmth the flowers opened up and some were HuGe........someone described them as looking like lampshades they were so large :)...........the smaller ones with fine lines on them which looked just like hand painted brush strokes were amongst everyone's favourites.............they all looked beautiful as the petals opened out and they took on such un-tulip like shapes......

                         .................here are some pictures of my sewing in progress..........

 .................some tulips and the potholder in the potting shed in the bright sunshine.............

 ...................i love to add some buttons and other little details to my projects........the selvedge strips were from a pam kitty morning fabric....love how the colour dots are printed as little hearts......the rose button is from just another button company................

 ...............and the tulip quilt i showed you last time is almost finished...........i decided to hand quilt some tulip shapes in some of the big rectangles with red thread,  so have been busy sewing them over the last week....

 .............it's been a pleasure making this quilt, i love all the hand quilting in it..........

 ...............today I sewed the binding on (in my lunch break from making autumn things for work commissions)............and tonight i hope to slipstitch the binding down....after making dinner and maybe a bit more weeding.................

.............spring is such a busy time in the garden..............having such a delayed spring this year is making us appreciate it even more..........this old bench under the cedar tree needs a coat of paint and so do the composter beehives which have weathered a bit too much............lots to do ;)..................
............thank you for visiting me here and for all your kind comments...........thank you to those who suggested the birds might have been responsible for taking my seed markers.......we do have lots of birds, especially blackbirds, in our garden and i think that solves the mystery :)........thank you too to everyone who emailed me this week, my inbox was quite stuffed with messages and if i haven't replied to you yet i hope to do so very soon ........................
 ..............i wish you all a wonderful, sunny, happy and crafty week.....................back soon xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tulip Patch

 As you can probably tell by the title of today's post we are having a flowery theme this time.......

 .......... and mainly a tulip theme, as after the long cold winter and long cold spring at last the tulip cutting patch i planted last autumn is flowering...............I am soooo excited about this, you would think I had never planted a bulb before in my life ;)................

 ................i have allowed myself to cut a few of the gorgeous flowers now, as that is why i planted the tulip patch..........here are a few shots of them in the sunny potting shed, in  a big glass jar before i took them into the house..............

.............i planted a few rows of each kind (about eight different sorts)........i carefully wrote the name of each on a white seed marker and stuck it in the soil at the end of the row so i would know which was which when they flowered.......somehow all the markers have now disappeared........i've no idea where or how....strong gales? grandbabies taking them to play with?....who knows.......but i don't really need to be scientific about it..............i just love tulips and i love all these :)...............

 ..............and it must have been the influence of my tulip mania this last week or two that led me to pull out lots of sweet little prints from my stash and begin chopping rectangles of pinks, white and grey prints and sewing them together in long strips to begin a new quilt................

 .....with red dotty tulips appliqued onto it..........there are birds and hearts as well.......a real folk art style quilt which i am so enjoying sewing.............i'm  still loving crocheting the ripple blanket  too, and doing some sweet autumn designs for magazine projects.....in fact i'm loving them all and know i'm so lucky to have my job :)......

 ...........making big rectangles has used up a lot of my stash too.......always a good thing to do....

 .............here is my project for this month's crafts beautiful issue...............a sweet vintage rose cushion and little paper crafted tag to match............the cushion has a cross stitch rose on one of the patches........

 ................this is the project in the magazine.........I love how they styled it............you can download lots of charts and projects from the crafts beautiful website here..................

 ..............a week or two ago a beautiful package arrived here, decorated with sweet pink florals and silky pink ribbons...........it was a complete surprise and I was so delighted when I opened it to find....

...............these two sweeties, beautifully hand made by the lovely paula and sent all the way from across the pond specially for me....look at the sweet embroidery and the adorable little shoes ......many of you already know paula and her pretty blog sugar sweet and pink.......and if you do you will know just how kind she is ............i have already been in touch but just wanted to say thank you again, dear paula, they are sitting in my sewing room right now and i love them :).................

.............there is so much pleasure to be had from hand making and crafting and more and more people are discovering that which i think is a wonderful thing............i am off to do some hand quilting on the tulip patch quilt right now and hope to show you the finished project very soon....thank you for dropping into my little bit of blog land today..........it's always a delight to see you and to hear from you too :) ......wishing you a wonderful week with sunshine and flowers and lots of happy times.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sowing Season

At last the spring we've been waiting for has arrived here and we can do some proper gardening again.....sowing, planting, watching the blossom open and the trees turn green............the cute little pins shown here were a gift from the easter bunny...........he knows i like crafty things as well as chocolate.............

 ............the pins have their own little pincushion which i made from a mix of flowery and veggie fabrics, some from a beatrix potter fabric line left over from a previous book project.......

 ............somehow once i saw the carrot pins it inspired me to make some fabric carrots too..........

                                         .............i like them as much as real carrots............

                                                     .............and so does ruby.................

 ................she is a very quiet and peaceful rabbit to have around the sewing room................

...............more sowing and planting was going on in the cutting patch this week, though first we had a day and night of sudden gale force winds which were very destructive to lots of trees and plants, though thankfully not here.............

                          ............ i brought these plants inside late at night to protect them......

 ...........i often keep flowering plants on a little table outside the back door in spring and summer...this is the first time they have ended up in the kitchen overnight......

 ..........they looked very happy to be out of the wild winds, and i have to admit that this time our kitchen really did look like a garden centre................................

..........i have had soooo many questions and emails about the ripple blanket i showed last time that i decided to answer everyone here :)...........first, the pattern is lovely lucy's from attic 24........her tutorial is so clear and easy to follow, it is a lot of people's favourite and now it's my favourite too :)...........secondly, the yarn i chose is all stylecraft special dk and the colours for the stripes are used in the following order: bluebell, cloud blue, citron, lemon, wisteria, clematis, shrimp, apricot, aspen, sherbet, magenta, clematis (used twice), pomegranate, fondant, candy floss...then repeat again ............you can buy the yarn online here............

 ............i was very lucky recently and won a treat in jane's giveaway....this sweet busy bee bag charm arrived and i love it............jane is a longtime blogging friend, and she also made me one of her special personalised cards, with patchwork hexagons forming the background....what a nice idea for a patchworker, thank you jane :).....you can find more of jane's lovely cards and beautiful jewellery in her etsy shop here..................

                           ..............jane's special card on my dresser, matching the daffodils :)..............

.............one last picture today............i bought this issue of prima spring makes because i loved the cover..........it is shown here with my latest granny squares.....(more of those another time).........and when i began reading the mag i discovered there was a nice review of my book, *pretty patchwork gifts* in it too ..........there are lots of lovely ideas in here...........don't you just love springtime crafting??...........thank you to everyone who has sent me an email this week.......i will be answering you very sooon :)..........and thank you to you all for dropping in and reading this, i love to see you......wishing you a wonderful week.................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooxxxxxxxx