A day of sewing

Two LOVE cushions finished for a regular customer.

New doorstops which will be in my shops any time soon!

Love this green Tricia Guild print and wow what a great colour!

New purses in my etsy shop I have been having fun with the inside as well as the outside.

I must make one of these for me! Perfect for storing crochet hooks perhaps?

Spring is springing!

I have filled the mantlepiece with spring this week

Sweet little pots of tete a tete daffodils

The first of my hellebores opened!

and the snowdrops, cover the garden.

The snowdrops remind me of my grandfather as they were his favourite flower and it is only recently that I discovered the possible reason why. He was born on Valentines day ( Louis Valentine Valdemar quite an amazing name don't you think?) and the snowdrop is the traditional Valentines flower rather than the rose! I picked a few in a vase and love the way they spread open their petals in the wamth of the house.

Grannys crochet blanket

Just a quick post this morning to share photos of my Grannys crochet blanket, made from 3 ply wool, love, patience and pleasure.

Oh I do love to be beside the seaside!

We spent a blissful weekend by the sea on the Hampshire coast visiting my Mum and recovering from the Hollywood themed birthday party we held for my daughter and her friend who were born just 3 hours apart 15 years ago.

The pink ferry

River Hamble at low tide

Nature reserve early Sunday morning.

The first boat out Sunday morning!

We will be back very soon we so didn't want to come home.

Beanbag cover

I've been holed up indoors fighting a cold today and have got lots done, including finishing a new cover for the beanbag. I've made it into more of a pouffe shape, rather than the classic beanbag blob shape and pieced the sides together from a fabric scrap pack I purchased from namolio
over on etsy. The top and base are from my own stock of stone spot fabric. I did manage to do the static snow trick transferring the polystyrene beads from the old bag to the new, even though they were in an inner bag.

Snapdragons garden

I received this in the post this week! A basket of gardening goodies that I won in a blog giveaway from Snapdragon's Garden The prize was a real bumper one and included a beautiful wire basket with spotty handles,a kneeler, soap, topiary shears, a weeder, and this beautiful handmade brooch, and a mug with one of her fantastic applique designs to remind me to take a break.

Jane is truly a lady of many talents, as well as sewing, she grows cut flowers which she then uses in her own creations as she is also a florist.

Thankyou Jane, I'm off for a break!

more snow?

For the 4th day this week we have woken to deep snow, and the schools are closed again. We took these photos early this morning .....poor squirrel!

We've been out and built another snowman 5'6 tall! and now we are staying in the warm with soup and fresh baked bread for comfort.

Crochet and post

I have finally settled on the square for my crochet blanket the design is from the Rowan Crochet Workshop I have finally got the hang of it and don't need to constantly refer to the book and I'm loving the combinations of colours it is just what I wanted. The green bowl that they are sitting in is felted crochet using Twilleys Freedom yarn which is a loosely spun pure wool which is designed for felting. I felted it in the washing machine in a pillowcase and I love the effect being a fan of felting too!

This red one was felted at a higher temperature and resulted in a tighter finish. But it still has an interesting nubbly texture. My daughter Laura felted some by hand for some GCSE coursework and the results were equally good and much more controlled. She has to make a knitted bag
but decided to felt it to give it more strength.

If I'm allowed I will post some photos of the finished piece when it is done.

and last but so most definitely not least a parcel of loveliness from Kirsty at Paperfish
over on Folksy. In the name of New Years organising I bought a beautiful needlecase so that I can find my needles and have somewhere better to put them than 'down' and then couldn't resist some buttons......no I didn't really need them but who am I to ignore them when they call to me?

The packaging is equally delightful and adds to the wonderful fun of buying handmade. Thankyou Kirsty x

My camera has been playing up for the last few days hence no blogging

and no decent snowy pictures despite the schools being closed here because of the excess snow and lack of salt. However camera is now ok and I will hopefully get some decent piccies of the white stuff tomorrow! As I write Laura is on her way home from France luckily the motorway is clear between Portsmouth and home and I hope for some snow tonight so she can enjoy it too!