27 February 2014

Hello Sunshine





The sun has indeed been shining this week and for a brief moment you could be forgiven for thinking Spring is on its way.  The farmer has been making the most in the break in the weather and has been busy in the back fields, watched closely by a flock of gulls.  In the main this week (apart from looking out the window!)  I've been doing lots of behind the scenes work on our website.

The new Tilda Spring collections finally arrived, we've been waiting an age!!  Here's some of my favourites from the 'All that is Spring' collection.....it includes a gorgeous the new shade of brown, which is smidge lighter than grey brown from the previous collections and sand, which is a really pretty grey/taupe shade.


I am in love with the new Birds design, .....I've snaffled some of the Pink along with a mini piece of  Sally Brown...oh I do love Pink and Brown together.... I am going to make a bitty bloom brooch as a present for Poppy to take to a Birthday party this weekend.....


The other new collection is called The Summer Fair and combines Blue and Pink, it's shabby chic at its best.  As always the new collections blend with all the previous Tilda collections a treat!




and we've had notification today that more 1930's prints and the new Country Girls fabrics should be with us very soon....

I've finally made a start on the QAL and I've managed to stitch a couple more Farmers Wife blocks (photo's next time, pinky promise), but I have started a little project. .....I'm making Poppy a small bag that she can carry her ballet pumps or tap shoes to dance lessons.  I though it would be pretty to have a little dancing fairy stitched on the front.......


I've been stitching her, rather slowly, in the evenings.....



Finally, just to say a huge thank you for all your lovely comments on my 'You are so Loved' embroidery, I really appreciate each and everyone.  The embroidery is now available here and here.  I've been thinking recently about your sweet comments and how best to  reply to them..... I would love to hear your opinions on how you reply to comments on your own blogs or how you prefer to receive a reply, when you've left a comment?  Thanks so much!!


Anyway, I had best get stitching, there's a little fairy needing some attention.

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20 February 2014

Something new......



Having so enjoyed stitching the embroidery details on my hexi wall hanging, it was inevitable that I would have do some more.  Out came the sketch book and inspired by my popular felt kit, I doodled a new embroidery design.  As I mentioned last time, I am loving oranges and coral shades at the moment and when mixed with a splash of cool blue, chocolate, rich aubergine and olive green, I do believe I have found my most favourite embroidery colour scheme to date (until next time that is!!)


I kept to my own personal favourite collection of stitches, french knots, back stitch, satin stitch and lazy daisies.....

The white fabric, was cut from a vintage sheet......

which then formed the centre of a dresden plate, made from tana lawns from my Liberty of London stash.  I appliqued the dresden plate on to Natural Linen and then added some simple hand quilting, before finishing of with a hand stitched binding.


The design would of course look lovely simply framed in an embroidery hoop......

With it being half term, I haven't had chance to prepare the pattern, but I'll do my very best over the next few days and will of course let you know as soon as it is good to go!

Thank you as always for your lovely comments on my last post, I love reading them all!

:: Edited 23rd February....Linking up with Chrissie



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15 February 2014

A Ta Dah.....





My little mini quilt is finished.  Each one of the 61 hand sewn Hexagons are all in a different fabric from my much loved Lecien and Atsuko Matsuyama stash (she says bowing head in slight embarrassment that I actually have that many different fabrics!)  As the hexi's are hand sewn it seemed right to hand quilt and I was having embroidery withdrawal symptoms, so I couldn't resist adding the little flowers and french knot details.  My only slight disappointment is the wadding I used, it was a piece left over from my brick quilt and slightly to think for a mini quilt......I do not think I am ever 100% satisfied with something I sew, am I alone in that?


Talking of embroidery, I've started a new pattern...I am really loving coral and orange shades at the moment.....



I hope that you have a lovely crafty weekend and thank you as always for visiting and taking the time to leave a comment, I do so enjoy reading them. 
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6 February 2014

Better late than never....

First off, can I just say thank you so much for your very kind comments and message that I've received on my last post. It's certainly been very strange without Biscuit around, but we're all slowly getting use to it. When you're feeling sad, I'm great believer in keeping busy, so this is what I've been up too.....

   


can you tell what it is yet?



Yes it's true I am now officially a Farmers Wife!!  Now I know I am around two years behind the blogging community, but for me the time is now right and having been terribly indecisive I finally decided to give it a go. 

I'm making my blocks 6" square and at the moment I'm planning to make the lap size quilt which takes 50 blocks.  I'm going to try and use fabrics from my scrap stash and unused bunting triangles and the key criteria is that they must be really, really pretty, as for colours I'm thinking a mix of candy shades...... pink, yellow, blue, aqua, green and mint, with touches of orange, red and brown.

Here's what I've made so far...

Block No 2 ~ Autumn Tints
Block No 4 ~ Basket Weave
Block No 16 ~ Calico Puzzle



Block No 9 ~ Box

Block No 11 ~ Broken Dishes

Block No 12 ~ Broken Sugar Bowl
The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that so far I've stuck to blocks with Squares or Half Square Triangles.  To be honest, I wanted to get a good head start and these are by the far the easiest to calculate the fabric pieces for rotary cutting.  In the main I am happy with them, although now looking back at the photo's I think I'm going to have to redo No 12, that far right column has definitely gone array...mind you, when you're snuggled underneath it, do you think you'll notice!!!

My plan is to make 2 blocks a week, I think that's achievable.......but I want to enjoy this, so I'm not going to put myself under too much pressure if I fall a little behind.   Wish me luck!






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2 February 2014

A finished project and some sad news.....



As I walked in to our conservatory this week, I realised that I hadn't shared the heart table runner I made over the Christmas holidays.  I love having all the Christmas decorations up and I always think it looks so dreadfully bare when you take them all down (a minimalist I am not!).  With this in mind I decided it would be nice to have some sort of decoration on my table all year round, which I could change to celebrate special holidays (Valentines, Easter, Halloween etc) and the seasons......  so out came the graph paper and I started playing with some ideas.....


I then created a full size pattern using Freezer Paper.....


cut out all the pieces.......


and then ironed them on to my fabric.  Freezer paper is fantastic as you can use it again and again.


After adding accurate 1/4" seam allowances, I used my rotary cutter to cut out each piece....and using my original drawing as a guide, pieced them together.   The hearts were joined together with some sashing and the scrappy border is a mass of 1" squares pieced together at random.  I quilted it using the outline of the hearts and borders as a guide.  In hindsight I wish I hadn't added quite so much quilting, but overall I'm rather happy.  Next up will be a Spring runner and I've also got an idea for an Easter special....


On the home front, we've had a rather sad week, hence my lack of posts.  On Wednesday, we made the very difficult decision to say goodbye to our much loved pet cat Biscuit.  I adopted her when she was approximately 1 year old and she had been with us for 14 years.  We all miss her very much, but I am happy in the thought that she lived a joyful, content and healthy life..... 



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