Late Summer

 Today has been a gorgeously sunny bank holiday here......we had a lovely walk this morning along our own stretch of coastline and saw blackberries ripening in the hedgerows, butterflies and damselflies and lots of seabirds............last week a kind friend and neighbour brought me these plums, as she does every year and this weekend we had our first late summer (nearly autumn) crumble...........

 ..........i made this little garland of birds with scraps left from my blue and white quilt.....the pattern is the rainbow birds one from my book modern vintage gifts........

 .............and here is the new quilt being quilted..........as i usually do, i pinned all the layers together with curved basting pins which normally works really well.........but this time the layers felt rather slippery so i went up to the attic and dug out a big embroidery hoop to use and that seems to be working much better.....

 ..........a bit of quilting in the sunny garden..........

 .................the sweet japanese anemones are flowering here now.....love them in this beautiful ken eardley jug (purchased from the janet bell gallery here).............

 ................blue hydrangeas below from my daughter's garden.............x

 ..............and tomatoes grown by mr p in our greenhouse...............they are delicious......x

 ..................here they are growing well (this is worthy of note as we have had some serious tomato  fails in the past!).................

 .................so bright and shiny.......and tasty too..........

 ................below is one of my projects in this month's crafts beautiful magazine (there are two this time, the other is a christmas one)........this one is a project featuring apples and pears in cross stitch and applique.............you can find out more here...........

 .............soon i will be heading out to the garden again for a bit more crafting, enjoying the late summer sunshine while i can......

 ...................one more view of the little blue birds...........

...............thank you for your visits here dear readers, it is so nice to see you and such a joy to read your kind comments......wishing you a very happy late summer week with sunny days and crafty inspirations....................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flowers and Sewing

 Here is my rosy patchwork all finished and up in my sewing room....this is the trip around the world mini quilt that i showed you back in june when i paper pieced together the squares of pink and green fabrics from pam kitty garden, lecien and lakehouse studio.............

 ............i really like the trip around the world pattern and am working on a two other versions at the moment............my work in progress list is rather long just now and includes work projects, ones for fun and exploring new ideas and ones that have been started a while ago and get added to now and then which makes them hang around a long time.......but with crafting the joy is in the journey not just the finished projects i do believe :) ........

 ................i found some bellis daisies this morning at the garden centre and had to bring them home....such favourites that i always get them when i see them and they have inspired many a design.....

 ...............the rosy trip around the world as a finished block above and below when machine quilted in a gentle wave pattern..................

 ..........my longarm quilter lady is wonderful at transforming my quilt tops for me.......

 ................below is the beginning of a new applique quilt block for a new quilt that i have had in mind for a long time and now i am rather excited that it has begun.....

 .........inspired by flowers, by history and by antique quilts, this will be a lovely one to make and eventually i hope to share the pattern with you............

 ................more applique flowers below...........as well as real ones from the cutting patch.....

 ...............this design is appliqued using fusible web and blanket stitched round the edges.......

 ...............a sewing room picture from the weekend.......delicious scented and colourful sweetpeas, such a pleasure to have nearby while stitching busily.............

 ................below are the sweetpea and runner bean canes in our garden, with the plants growing well and twining happily upwards.....

 ...........and below is a picture of the cutting garden with its surprising number of orange flowers...........another surprise is the plants that did not come up or simply disappeared.........where did the hollyhocks go i wonder?.......probably the slugs and snails had them for dinner........

 ...............below is not my garden but a national trust garden with a gorgeous display of hollyhocks...sigh.....maybe next year........off to stitch some more flowers now and enjoy the sunshine which has peeked out again after a morning of rain............

..................thank you for dropping by dear readers and for leaving me such kind comments......it is always a pleasure to see you........wishing you a happy crafty week with lots of flowers to enjoy.......back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At the Seaside

 Here i am again...home from the seaside and feeling very refreshed :) ........

 .............we spent a lovely week with family and friends on the sunny isle of angelsey.....

 .............my husband sailed in the regatta and we watched the boats set off into the blue waters of the straits each day...or sometimes the grey waters....but always lovely to watch......the scenery in the background, on the other side of the straits is beautiful snowdonia..........

 .............this is the lucky dip quilt that i began this time last year.......it has been finished for ages and was longarm quilted for me quite a while ago too......it was the perfect quilt to use at the seaside, with its gorgeous daysail fabrics by bonnie and camille...............

 .............i really love the boats on white for the backing fabric..............the central panel is made up of snowball blocks and the wide border is ta dot in ocean by michael miller.......

 ..............this year we stayed in a different house in beaumaris....a tall old house overlooking the straits...........it was amazing to wake up to this view each day and we were all mesmerised watching the boats and the seabirds through the large windows...........

 ..............below is a view through our bedroom window at low tide................

 ..............as always when we visit beaumaris we love to see the janet bell gallery......and this year it was twice as good as there are now two janet bell galleries :).............below is the brand new one through the archway, light and bright and filled with janet's paintings..... it has such an uplifting atmosphere...............

 ..............the earlier gallery is filled with treasures too....stocked with the work of 60 other artists, designers and makers.............below is one of the stylish windows freshly painted with gorgeous grey......you might be able to see some blue striped mugs in there and i might have bought those......

 ...............below is a detail from a new painting by janet bell called beaumaris bay.......we loved this especially as it shows a fleet of boats sailing out to puffin island.....i bought this painting for mr p (and me!)...............i had some other treats from the galleries too which i will show you soon....and when the painting is hung in its new place i'll show that too.................janet was very busy painting in her studio but took a little time out to come and have a coffee with me.....x

 ..............there are lots of flowers blooming on the island, both in gardens and growing wild along the coast.......i found this little jug below in a charity shop in beaumaris, just waiting for me to put some daisies in it..............

 .................it was a happy week being with the grandchildren too.....seeing them enjoy the seaside in the same way as we did as children.............we had a lovely afternoon here at penmon, rock pooling and finding tiny pebbles to paint on when we get home next week.............

 .................and now i am home again and looking forward to getting back into my sewing room.....i have some exciting new designs to do including some quilts to make and some sweet appliques to sew and i have ordered the backing fabric for my blue checkerboard quilt so will soon be hand quilting that...........

................thank you for dropping by dear readers and for all your kind comments.............it is always such a pleasure to see you........wishing you a happy sunny crafty week.....................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Into the Blue

 Maybe this post should be called still into the blue..........when my blue and white checkerboard quilt top was finished i had a few squares left over so i thought i would make them into a cushion.....

 ..............it also meant that i could try out some hand quilting patterns on a small project to see what would look nice on the actual quilt...........i fancied  quilting some circles using indigo thread........

 .............and i liked the effect a lot.....also liked how it echoes the sarah jane children at play fabric used on the alternate squares..............i drew the circles on my patchwork in a rather rudimentary way, using  big and small greengate cups and a water soluble marker pen......as this didn't show up on the very dark blue squares i used a little piece of tailor's chalk to draw those parts......

 ..............now i know i really like this pattern and want to use it on my quilt i might make a proper template and buy a chalk pencil to mark the darker areas with......

 ........it is quite a quick one to stitch and i'm looking forward to getting the backing fabric and beginning this quilting..........meanwhile i have a new little summery blue cushion to enjoy......

 ..........i do love blue, even though i usually use a lot of pink and other bright warm colours in my sewing....... i have a lot of blue dresses ;)......

 ...........i added some seasidey pale blue stripes to the cushion for a simple border......

 ..............below is a posy from the cutting garden this week.....

 ..............also this week we celebrated the anniversary of 150 years since the birth of beatrix potter.....regular readers of this blog know how much i admire beatrix potter, beloved author, illustrator, scientist and conservationist.....i have loved visiting her house at hill top every so often since i was in my teens, have read her little books to my children and grandchildren countless times over the years, and have enjoyed her collected letters and the biographies of her too..........

 ............it's that time of year again when we begin to pack our bags and head off for the seaside.....

 ............i will be taking a little blog break next week and having a nice change of scene......watching my husband and others sailing in the regatta and spending fun times with family and friends...........above is a janet bell painting of beaumaris (on the sunny isle of angelsey)  that i've had a long time and which i love...........and we shall be there soon :)..........

 ............we are packing our stripy tops....and lots of books and crafty things of course......

............and just in case you are wondering if i am now totally obsessed with blue...no, still into pink too and here are some sugar pink hydrangeas from our garden specially for you :).......thank you for visiting me here dear readers and for leaving such kind comments..........it is a pleasure to hear from you or just to have you drop by........wishing you a cheery sunny start to august and plenty of  happy crafty times...............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxx