Autumn Inspiration

 The past week has been filled with activities.....it was half term here and i spent some wonderfully happy autumn afternoons with charlie and daisy...... with magic painting books, colouring books, spying tiny yellow mushrooms in the lawn, collecting leaves and acorns, playing, reading, having fun...........charlie has just turned six and had a football party at the weekend..........after the party charlie went to choose his main present, a hamster.........my daughter rang me up to tell me he'd chosen a two colour hamster, (grey and white farrow and ball shades apparently) and the hamster's name is....... patchy :).....love it............

 .............i also had two magazine deadlines to meet this week, with projects to finish, steps to write up and templates to draw................but i still found time for a bit of crochet too.................

 ..........working on my autumn blanket by the fire, and making a little pincushion from the same yarn, like the spring one i made earlier in the year................

 ............the picture below is of the rosehips at hilltop, beatrix potter's garden, that i took a few weeks ago on our lake district trip...........

 ...........the constant bright sunshine of that week, the blue sky, brightest of bright red berries and golden orange berries as well as the still green leaves really inspired me to pick out the colours for this blanket...............

 ............it's going to be a big blanket so i'm taking my time making it......though the join as you go method does seem to speed it along rather well..........the lovely friend who taught me to crochet is also a wonderful knitter and in the summer she surprised me with this adorable strawberries and cream tea cosy...........it is perfect to use now for our fireside afternoon tea and scones with strawberry jam.....................

 ..............the weather here has been bright and rainy alternately, with blustery days and some high winds but nothing damaging.......i am so sorry for those who have been affected by the huge storms.......

 ..............some pretty leaves being strung together with sewing cotton to make a sweet garland.............

............my project in this month's crafts beautiful magazine...........christmas has well and truly arrived for makers and crafters now......it is time to begin making gifts and creating christmas cards ready for the festive season...it's not that far away.... little crochet pincushions make nice little gifts..............

........here are some more of the sweet gifts i received from judy's giveaway recently......the prize was actually a voucher to spend in judy's lovely etsy shop 20 north ora, so i was able to pick the sweet little trees that i so admired ........they are made using old spools and beautifully decorated.........they will be treasured christmas decorations here from now on :)...................

 ..........the children are excited about halloween, and straight after that it is bonfire night.........with a small family firework party followed later in the week by a neighbourhood bonfire and potluck party.........

............i do love autumn days, even the grey gloomy ones, but the colours this year have been amazing.......time to wrap up though, get out the padded coats and woolly scarves and the soft warm shawl another sweet friend made for my birthday in the summer.......time to cosy up and enjoy peaceful time at home beside the fire...........thank you for visiting me here in my little blog space, lovely readers, and for your sweet comments too........i hope you have a happy autumn week wherever in the world you may be, with cheerful crafty days and cosy evenings.........back soon xxxxx

Seaside Flower Garden

 The seaside flower hexagons have finally all been sewn together and made into this little quilt........

 .........i enjoyed making these so much  (even the many plain white hexies) and am thinking of making another hexagon flower garden quilt soon, with lots and lots of scraps..................the backing is a pale blue spot from tanya whelan and the binding just had to be a red gingham............................

 ..............i've been reading an old quilt book which says that hexagon flower quilts were sometimes called *martha washington's flower garden quilt* in colonial times, such a lovely name...............

 ...............my seaside flower garden quilt reminds me of times over the summer when i was sewing it, and the blue sea and sky, buckets and spades, boats and lighthouse of our seaside week.....................

 .............here is the quilt on the middle landing banister...........taking quilty pictures means following the light all around the house.................

.............more quilty snaps with a sweet seaside block and a little toadstool pincushion......

 ........and while we are talking about patchwork and quilting, here is the new issue of the fabulous *love patchwork and quilting* magazine, now to be published every 4 weeks and with a free cover gift with every issue :)...........i am very thrilled to be working on a project for this gorgeous new publication at the moment..............you can subscribe online here...............

 ...............besides my red white and blue quilt i have something else to show you in those colours..............this beautiful pillow made by lovely judy of 20 north ora.........i recently won judy's generous giveaway and a parcel of treats arrived here from across the pond last week............

 ...........the pillow looks so at home here in my house.......and there were some other lovely handmade treasures in the parcel too but i want to show those to you next time.........thank you so much judy.......please check out her lovely shop here .....................

 ...........since i last wrote we have been on another little trip...........on friday we drove down to surrey, to stay at this beautiful hotel about 25 miles from london, where we were guests at a lovely wedding.......... the bride's parents are dear friends of ours, and it was a pleasure to share their special day.........so many sweet details, like the wedding favours and little place cards in the top right picture............love and romance in the air and the sun even came out for the garden photos :).........

............thank you so much for visiting me here today, lovely readers..........it is always a pleasure to see you, and i wish you a wonderful week with sunny crafty days...................back soon xxxxxxxxxx

Crafty Corners

The past week has been very busy, busier than usual, and i have been as busy as a bee......lots of new designs are in the works here at my house :)........i thought you might like to see some of the crafty corners of my home today...........my house changes all the time and crafty things move about and are even packed into boxes and sent off to publishers sometimes for photography...............

 ...........little piles of things seem to arrange themselves here and there, like these cushions..............

 .............there is always a crafty decoration of some kind hanging on my fabric cupboard door.....this time it is the sewing heart from my pretty patchwork gifts book...........please note the folded fabric on the shelves....i have been inspired by other tidy crafters lately and have tidied up my sewing room (a bit).......there is a big pile of unfolded fabric too, though, just out of shot..............

 ............besides making fabric things for commissions this week i have been doing some paper crafting too for future magazine projects..........i've also been adding things to my garden journal......one sunny breezy afternoon last week i planted up next year's tulip patch...........

 ...........this time i put all the little name tickets from the bulbs into a pocket in my garden journal, not on a stick in the garden that the birds can steal as they did last year :).............we bought heaps of bulbs from a garden centre in the lake district..............

 .............i love how that small ordinary looking little object holds so much colour, beauty and promise for next spring...............i mixed all the bulbs up this time before planting them.......

 .............here is a pot plant that looks nicely autumnal, i think, gracing another corner with a birdie plant stick and some real and some fabric pumpkins..............

 ...........lots of patchwork quilts and crochet things are piling up here to be used for keeping us cosy......the weather has been chilly this past week and we have lit the fire in the evenings and had to put the heating on sometimes too..............

 ..........i am so glad i learned to crochet, it has been such a fun and relaxing addition to my crafty making enjoyment........i remember when i longed to be able to crochet a granny square and was so delighted when i finally could :).................

 ..................i loved doing granny stripes and the ripple pattern too............

 ...............but as you can see the joy of making granny squares hasn't worn off yet for me.....

 .............in the bag is the new autumn granny square blanket i showed you recently.......

 ...........and here is a bit of it again with the real pumpkin i acquired this week...........

.............pumpkin filled shelves are part of my autumn decorating........it is a lovely time of year and the grandchildren are so excited about halloween and dressing up....in fact they have already begun ..............thank you so much for visiting me here and for your sweet comments, it is a pleasure to see you, lovely readers :)....... wishing you a happy crafty autumn week and a wonderful weekend when it arrives......back soon xxxxxxxx
 

A Bear and Some Blocks

I have a little bear to show you today.......he was made recently and is really a prototype needing a few tweaks to the pattern...........but we rather like him.....

...........we're calling him bertie...........he has jointed arms and legs, rosy cheeks, a couple of patches sewn on here and there, a cute little snout (which may well require a bit of extra stuffing in the next version).............and a big rusty bell at his neck, tied on with a lovely red gingham bow............

 ................i think the ribbon was saved from a previous parcel from my lovely blog friend fee.......

 ...........and it was fee who made me this gorgeous set of rupert bear blocks recently...........

...........i think they are adorable.........i have quite a few rupert  annuals found in thrift shops and i thought the little square illustrations would make lovely blocks, so i asked fee from chipper nelly if she had time to make me some and luckily she had :)...............not only do i love the blocks themselves.....

 ................but i always love the way they are packaged, and how fee always creates some beautiful little touches with ribbons and buttons that relate to the design of the blocks.................

 .............some more of my fabric autumn pumpkins........... thank you to everyone who asked about the fabric pumpkins in my previous post.....i made lots of these a few years ago from a magazine pattern (it might have been a martha stewart pattern) but you can find similar patterns online by googling fabric pumpkins......... they are so easy to make and i just changed them a bit by adding the rolled felt stems.........now i'm making a few more in newer fabrics to add to the autumn decorating collection............(and i designed the smaller, flatter pumpkins that i showed you last month for crafts beautiful)........

 ...............there are some more blocks to show you today besides the lovely chipper nelly ones.....this time some patchwork fabric ones................

                            ............another sixteen patch and a new big dipper patch too.................

 .........i'm planning to make lots of these big dipper blocks using lights, whites and brights for a fresh looking airy quilt........the plain fabric is from my kona jelly roll, and i put in a bit of pretty pam kitty morning and lecien fabric too........this was one of my favourite blocks when i made the farmer's wife quilt..........

................meanwhile, little bertie is sitting here in my sewing room and keeping me company as i enjoy making things......for fun, for work, for books, for magazines, for gifts,................. and just because i love making things.......and i know many of you do too :)..........thank you for visiting me here today, lovely readers, and for your very sweet comments.............wishing you a wonderful week, sunny days and time to enjoy making things too.........back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooxxxxx 

Sweet Autumn

 We have just come back from a wonderful trip to the lake district where all was mellow, bright and sunny..........the indian summer had arrived and we went walking each day to make the most of it......

                         ..........we stayed in a little stone cottage that was built in 1850.................

 ............all the windows had beautiful views, like the one below................

 .............on our walks i gathered bits and pieces from nature, as i have always done, to draw and paint and photograph and put in my scrapbooky sketchpad..............

 ...........we went to see beatrix potter's garden and here is the front door at hilltop.............

 ..............there were lots of autumn flowers and berries growing in beatrix potter's garden and a pumpkin patch too :)...............the golden sunlight made everywhere look amazing, and the lit up hills looked almost unreal...........there were no lambs in the field at hilltop this time, but we did see some bunnies hopping about, in fact there were lots of bunnies hopping about in grasmere too, and nibbling the grass in st oswald's churchyard.................

 ............we came home feeling refreshed after our break and rather surprised and lucky that we didn't need the waterproofs this time.............my autumn decorating is now underway and i have put some more fabric pumpkins around the house.............

 ..........a bright granny square join-as-you-go blanket was my crochet project of choice this week to work on in the evenings when we lit the log fire..........once the sun went down and the evenings drew in it felt very autumnal and cosy..............

 ..............when we arrived back i found a very sweet parcel waiting for me.............

 ............it was from the lovely heather at vintage grey, and contained the adorable embroidered potholder that i won recently in heather's giveaway........and also a set of gorgeous maple leaf coasters which i love.........thank you heather for such generous gifts :)..........the little pom poms and pretty handmade tags on all heather's packaging make her gifts extra special.......you can find heather's gorgeous makes in the vintage grey shoppe here..................

 .............finally today here is a quick picture of my hexie quilt now pinned together and being hand quilted....it is a real pleasure to sew and i hope to have it finished very soon.............

...........thank you for visiting here today lovely readers, and for your sweet comments and emails too.......it's always a joy to hear from you and if i haven't replied to some of your emails i will very soon.................we had no internet connection in the lakes, so i am looking forward to catching up now with everyone's blogs :).................wishing you a sweet autumn week and a very happy october............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx