Another productive May is over ....

I have been busy sewing again this month, so the cold Spring here in the UK has it's advantages as I can sit at my sewing machine in my studio without that nagging feeling of guilt - maybe I should be gardening?!  In this cold wet weather - no way!  But on this, the last day of May, the sun is shining and there is a feeling of warmth in the air down here in Devon - fabulous!  Maybe it is time to start planting those geraniums!
Earlier this month I discovered these beautiful blue and white fabrics:

And this is the end result:

I have to say that I am totally "in love" with this quilt!  Just the border to finish and then off for long-arm quilting:  it is 90 ins square, so really big.
My friend Joy was kind enough to quilt my sampler lap quilt, and I am just so thrilled with how it has turned out:

I have also cross-stitched yet another wedding sampler, and finished my "Noah's Ark":  that is now at the framers and I will show you the finished framed result next week when I have collected it.

It was actually my birthday last week, and I had some amazing gifts:

you may be able to spot a wonderful new Scarlet Letter sampler among my goody pile:  my fingers are itching to start this glorious piece, and as soon as I have finished the current WIP I will begin "Country Life".  These birthdays just come along too fast!  But so many friends remembered, and the children spoilt me too so altogether a lovely day - I just wish I could go backwards in age!
Yesterday was such a glorious sunny warm day (at last!) - so my dear friend Lyn and I had a wonderful trip out:  we drove over to Dartmouth and visited two interesting National Trust properties:  "Greenacre" - the holiday home of Agatha Christie overlooking the River Dart:

and Coleton Fishacre which was built for the D'Oyly Carte family back in the 1920's:

Both houses were really interesting although totally different:  and the gardens and views were glorious.  We certainly picked the right day to visit.  I have just re-joined the National Trust and am determined to visit as many places as possible down here in the West Country and when I go on my travels up to Nottingham and or Surrey.  We are so fortunate here in the UK to have such a wealth of historic buildings and beautiful gardens.
Well it is June tomorrow, so lots to look forward to.  I am having a trip down to Cornwall to visit a friend, and then up to Nottingham to spend some time with my dear old Mum, and then the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the end of the month - always a wonderful fortnight.
And of course it is the 60th anniversary of our Queen's coronation this weekend.  This historic day is my first childhood memory.  I can still picture myself sitting with my parents watching this amazing event on a TINY black and white television:  and many of my parents friends coming to watch with us.  What a wonderful day.

And now as the day is sunny and warm I am off to plant up some pots.

Thank you for visiting my Blog - your comments are so much appreciated and I wish you all a wonderful happy and hopefully sunny weekend.

Happiness is............

Happiness is:   a sampler themed lap quilt finished and ready for quilting:

When I was re-organising my Sewing Studio last month I had to empty my fabric cupboard as it needed moving - fabric is heavy!  And I found the kit for this lap quilt hidden at the back of one of the shelves.  I was so pleased, I had totally forgotten that I had ever bought it - and the price was in dollars, so that means it was 5+ years ago now.  it has turned out well - though quite a battle here and there getting the samplers square.  But now it is done it looks great - I love the colours.
Happiness is:  starting a new cross-stitch sampler.  I am sewing along with Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year Challenge, but I really fancied something different:  so another Noah's Ark floated down the River towards me!

This is so much fun, and I am really enjoying sewing this.
Happiness also is:  giving my sister Helena her 60th birthday present, and her really loving it! (this is a  Scarlet Letter Sampler):

and spending some time with my wonderful 93 year old Mum in Nottingham this week:  here is Mum examining the sampler, with Helena:

 Happiness is a beautiful sunny day - with Ward Cottage looking particularly good and welcoming on a Saturday afternoon:

and at last the apple blossom is out:

and our Goldie Ben enjoying the sun on a newly mown lawn:

Happiness is:  a glass of cider on the porch:

overlooking the River Tamar whilst boats enjoy this glorious weather - there have been very few sunny days these past weeks!:

And last but definitely NOT least:  happiness is knowing that all three of my adult children are happy and enjoying their lives in London.  I miss seeing them regularly, but knowing that they are doing what they want where they want gives me peace of mind.  The love just has to stretch further!

I hope you are all having a Weekend full of Happiness!

Happy Wedding Quilt finish

I am so delighted with how this has eventually turned out:  I had quite a lot of "tweaking" to do but well worth the effort as those red squares all meet up neatly, and I made a "piano keys" border which also looks lovely, hope you can see enough from this photo:

This will now go over to "Butterfly" for long-arm quilting.
I also collected this little sampler from the framers and dropped off the finished Bird Sampler (SL Challenge):

I am off up to Nottingham next weekend to spend some time with my dear old mum - I will be seeing my sister so I can hand over the finished and framed Bird Sampler.  She can open an early birthday gift!

This weekend I hope to get out in the garden - the weather is so much better at last - and there is much which needs attention.  There is still very little blossom on our fruit trees but hopefully if this sunny weather continues it will start to appear.  I shall not start a new patchwork project until I have done some weeding - famous last words!  I am now giving my sewing studio a HUGE tidy, I am amazed at how messy I can be when being creative - not good!  I have however started a new cross-stitch piece:  I am sewing a Noah's Ark - again - and will Blog my progress next time.  My followers will know that I can never resist an Ark!!
I hope everyone has a wonderful May Day weekend!

Not enough hours in the stitching day ...!

Every day I seem to run out of time before I reach my target of achievement!  However progress is being made on my Scarlet Letter challenge piece - I am currently sewing The Bird Sampler, which sadly is not on the current chart list, but I have had this chart tucked away for many years - it is so lovely:

I have personalised this with my sister's initials (HJL) and this will be part of her 60th birthday gift in June - hope she likes!
I am also currently well into making a king size wedding quilt for my recently married God-daughter Annie - I have chosen yet again to sew the wonderful Anne Baxter design "Seeds of Time" - Annie said she loved pale blues/pinks/greens etc. so I am hoping this will hit the mark:

I hope you can see from this not very good photo how it is coming along.
A friend of mine recently quilted a small Sampler throw which I had made:  it looks fabulous and I am so grateful to Joy for doing such a great job:

Two weeks ago I went up to Cobham in Surrey with my friend Lyn and we had a couple of days with Lise:  it was such fun.  I saw my three children who came from London for Sunday lunch:

Here are Fran and Angelo:

and Dot and Marteen:

I also want to show you this wonderful Amish quilt which Lise has made and recently had longarm quilted:  it is absolutely stunning, she is so clever:

She made this at her patchwork class:  a block of the month course run by Di Turner in Godalming.  She is justifiably very thrilled with the end result.
It is a lovely sunny day here in Devon, although the wind is bitter.  However there has been some activity on the River Tamar so people are out and about on their boats.  I just wish it would warm up a bit, the trees are still so bare:

Rod has just been cutting the grass, but says enough is now enough - time to light the fire and watch the Snooker - and I will get back to putting a quilt together in my Studio.  Sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon ....!
I can hardly believe it is May next week - surely Spring will arrive soon!
I hope everyone has a great weekend - happy sewing!

Framed and hung......and bindings sewn........

I have just collected my Scarlet Letter "Log Cabin" from the framers, and I am so thrilled with the end result:  it is now hung among some of my other samplers and looks wonderful - though I say it myself!:  I am really pleased with the rustic frame I chose, it is perfectly in  keeping with a Log Cabin:

I have also been busy sewing bindings onto baby quilts and then getting them into the mail, or wrapped ready for the visiting recipient:
Here is 9 month old Emily admiring her gift along with mum Lucy and 4 year old Milly:

Here are some of the others also showing their backs:

I decided to try something totally different - and more grown-up! - so I delved into my fabric pile and came out with these gorgeous fabrics and have made this small throw with a "sampler" theme:

I just loved making this - and it always good to do something without any pressure.  This will be for a sampler loving friend when it is quilted and finished - and I hope she will be surprised - and delighted!

I am off up to Surrey for a long weekend to stay with my dear friend Lise and see friends - and my three wonderful children are driving out from London on Sunday for lunch - I am so excited - I feel the real need to see them and catch up with what is going on in their busy lives.  We are too far away for impromptu Sunday lunches so I will make the most of this one.

How I wish Spring would actually make an appearance:  I am so sick of this cold grey damp weather - I just long to feel some warmth in the sun and to be able to get out into the garden and enjoy the beautiful countryside that surrounds us here in Devon.

Meanwhile thank goodness for our wonderful hobbies - they keep me sane (I think!).
I hope everyone is keeping well and busy.  I do enjoy reading the many Blogs I follow - it is a good start to every day catching up with everyone's progress on their various projects - lots of inspiration and encouragement!
Have a good week.........

Patchwork heaven....

As the weather has been so cold and miserable down here in Devon, it was decided that a day out would cheer us up so my good friend Lyn and I headed off into Cornwall and as luck would have it the sky was a pale blue and the sun was actually shining - a rare occurrence lately!  I wanted to see Cowslip at Easter, always a delight at any time of year but with the daffodils out and some yellow winter jasmine it looked particularly welcoming.

And the shop was full as always of wonderful fabrics and much inspiration: here is Lyn admiring this beautiful quilt:

Every corner is stuffed with quilts - I want to make them all!:

There was a wonderful Exhibition on in the barn with work by Sue Spooner and Helen Keenan:

We then drove on to Kilkhampton as Carole of Butterfly Quilters had worked express magic and managed to long-arm quilt my 5 baby quilts plus a double bed quilt in record time:  she is such a star, and here she is beside her wonderful quilting frame with my pile of "done" goodies!:

Of course I have been cross-stitching away every evening too, and have just finished another Scarlet Letter sampler - I have made it very personal by adding all our family initials, and it is sewn on a larger count of fabric than SL suggest, but it is sweet and once framed will find a home somewhere here at Ward Cottage as it is not as large as some of my recent samplers:

My followers will recall that we were off to my God-daughter's wedding last Saturday:  oh it was so so cold and bleak, such a shame - but it was a wonderful occasion and a good time was had by all once we had warmed up at the reception:  Annie looked beautiful and it was a day to remember:  here she is with her younger sister Lucy:

and with new husband Barney cutting the cake:

So now I have bindings to sew onto those quilts - that should keep me quiet over the Easter weekend. We are off to a party to celebrate Lyn and Bob's 40th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday, but apart from that a quiet few days so I hope to get the opportunity to sew plenty of patchwork and cross-stitch.
Happy Easter to all my followers - and let's hope that British Summertime brings us some warmer weather SOON - I am so tired of the cold and rain and grey skies, seeing a bit of blue sky and sun today, even for just a sort while, made such a difference.

Getting ready for Easter....

I have been busy these past two weeks sewing Easter runners - I love these, they are a Danish design on a big count, so they grow quickly and are easy to sew - and I think the end result is effective and just right for this time of year.  And it is fun to sew something light-hearted and different.

I have hung some Eggs from the kitchen light, and put a fun bright cloth on the table.  So whatever the weather outside is doing we have the beginnings of Spring in our kitchen:

I have been on a "quilts for new babies" run:  so carrying on from the two I have showed you on recent posts  I have now made 4 more:

 Now all the new babies (that I know about) are catered for - so once they are quilted they will be off to their new nurseries!

I took my Scarlet Letter "Log Cabin" to be framed, and collected the wedding sampler which is for my God-daughter Annie who is marrying Barnaby this coming Saturday:  I hope the weather warms up for them:

 I am really pleased with this - I took little bits from several different patterns and it has ended up so pretty.  All I have to do now is make them a wedding quilt...!

I am continuing with Nicola's wonderful SL Challenge, and sewing a small alphabet sampler:  the pattern states it should be sewn "over 1" on 40 count linen:  well sadly my eyes, fingers and brain cannot deal with that, so I am afraid I am cheating:  I am sewing "over 2" on 35 count linen!  I am a great believer in that there is no point in struggling and not enjoying the project ... that is my argument and I am sticking to it!  It will still be lovely.

My youngest daughter Dot and her friend Holly are driving down from London tonight to spend 3 days with us, I am so excited!  So now I am off to banish the spiders from their bedrooms and make the house neat and tidy - and warm.

Thank you all for your lovely comments of encouragement.