All is well

Yesterday I was feeling the effects of a full day of gardening on Sunday but today I have recovered  .

I have been sitting in my conservatory watching four male Blackbirds sorting out their territory ,chasing around , to me they are a joy to watch . I love their antics , no females around ,they must be sitting on the nest .

 

I also think it's lovely when you find plants in the garden growing from seed the birds must have dropped .

 

The Sparrows always seem too busy at the bird table and swinging on the feeders just flitting back and forth .

 

I'm going to have a lazy day after I have done a little ironing , when I say lazy I mean indulging in sewing . I have my June postcard to sew . The theme for the month is embroidery .

I'm doing a big bed quilt with intensive quilting on that I sit at in between other things . I'm wanting to make a Kim Mclean quilt featured in a Kaffe Fassett book called Quilt Romance . Lot's of people show their Kim quilts , the patterns are expensive . I have left enquires on blogs asking do the patterns come through the post or are they PDF . Sadly I never get an answer to my question .

Spring is springing

This beautiful blossom is one of my crab apple trees , My other tree is also loaded with blossom so all being well I shall be well stocked with crab apple jelly this year . Last year , nothing the weather was so bad .

stuff is looking good considering the weather is still dodgy

It was such a good day yesterday for being in the garden . I got lots sorted .

This is one of the troughs planted . It has trailing plants in so when established it is what I will look out onto from my kitchen window .

The front is looking good . I will soon be able to show you as I do every year my magnificent rock roses and a little later my lavender hedge that is usually a show stopper . passing people actually stop to look .

Off for a cuppa .Bye .

My Week

This table runner I made out of scraps earlier in the week . I'm fond of this duck egg blue in my furnishings . I fits just right on a white table just inside the sitting room door .

Bluebell and myself made our trip to the Malvern Quilt Show last Thursday . This quilt is made of tiny hexes about the same size that we like to use . It really is stunning.

This is a close up . Truly a quilt to treasure.

This quilt also took my eye . I think it's beautiful.

This is my purchases. A 12 1/2 inch 60deg,. ruler.

Several packs of hand dyed batiks .

3 small jelly rolls.

2 packs or 6 fat quarters .

10 Bernina bobbins .

I also picked up a B,O,M leaflet that I'm still mulling over . It's for a row by row Christmas quilt in prim shades .

This is another quilt from the show that I liked .

We had a wonderful day as usual

Yesterday Silver Sewer came for lunch with me . Lot's of gossiping . lovely .

Then bluebell rang to say she was off to the garden centre , and how many bags of potting soil did I need . 4 please and a stake for a new apple tree .

Today I have been planting up containers and moving stuff around . Another friend popped in this afternoon , we had magnum  ice cream lollies with our catch up .

Now off for a shower then my evening meal , after that perhaps a bit of sewing.    Ah! bliss .

postcard swap

This is my postcard swap for May. the theme was Fungi .

When I told bluebell she said

You could have done Fun guy . such sharp wit , clever girl .

This week I made rhubarb and ginger jam . I added strawberries to give it extra sweetness and colour . The useful thing about this jam is it is also o,k to have with cold meet . I shall make strawberry jam when the fruit is a bit cheaper . I don't care for commercial strawberry jam .

I just could not resist the flowers at my local shop this week , Stargazer lilies and stocks . This is the ones I bought for my sitting room .

This is the bunch for the hall , the colour orange is much deeper than in the picture .They are such large flowers and stunning to look at. I don't grow lilies in my garden anymore ,lily beatles are a nuisance ,I don't like picking them off the plants

It's a very unsettled day weather wise so my scrap box has come out again . The scraps of fabric never seem to get less no matter how often this box gets rifled . I cannot bear to throw the stuff away.

Missing photo

This is the photo that is missing from the previous blog just published.

Playmats

Out of my scrap stash I have made 2 play mats for the twins . They are 8 months old now .These will be fine to put on the floor . I finished he blue one yesterday and also finished sewing the binding on the second one.

This is the reverse of the blue one . Perhaps wine bottles not entirely suitable but the fabric was £2 a yard so the price suited even if the design didn't . It was good quality fabric .

This is the second quilt .and the backing . A bit more subdued .

When using Picasa it used t come up with browse I could then open the file and choose my photo,s . Browse has disappeared so I don't always get what I'm looking for . If I go back looking I shall lose the blog ,so . after pressing publish I shall go back to Picasa and show you the complete second quilt .

Angela from Tracing Rainbows popped into our sewing group yesterday . Nice to catch up with you again Angela .

Lots to do today but I will make time for sewing , life cannot be all work and no play .