Birdy quilt off to its new owner!

At last I finished this quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap and it's in the mail heading off to its new owner. It was very difficult letting go of this one as it has taken many hours to make. It's been great fun to do but as I was making it I began to wonder whether it was rather a complicated design to do as a swap quilt. I wondered whether I must be mad to put all this work into something I am sending to a stranger, but I suppose that's the nature of doing these swaps. I am rather proud of it as I think it has turned out really well. I hope my partner likes it. I'm waiting for mine to arrive now.

The photo's don't look as good as they do on my computer. Does anyone else find that the quality of their photos diminish when they're loaded onto blogger?

I took these two pictures of Alchemilla Mollis in my graden with the morning dew drops sitting on the leaves. Don't the droplets of water look amazing?

Off to the gym now! Bye for now, Maria.

Spring swap parcels received.

We have just returned from spending time with friends in the beautiful Peak District of England and on my return I was excited to discover that my Spring Swap parcel was waiting for me. I had been lucky to have been partnered with Tami from bearypatch. She made me a beautiful project bag and needle case. I love the fabrics she has chosen. The bag comes complete with pockets all round the outside which are decorated with some exquisite blanket stitch applique butterflies and yoyo flowers with buttons in the middle. I have some new display shelves in my sewing room and the bag will take pride of place there when it's not in use.

Tami must have known that I need a needle case as I'm always loosing my needles. This is also decorated with yoyo flowers. I was also lucky to receive some pretty fat quarters which I'm sure will be used soon. Tami also sent some yummy chocolate. Huge thanks Tami for everything.

Many thanks to Linda for organising the swap, it's been great fun.

I can now show one of the items I made for the swap as my partner has received them. I say one of the items as I didn't take pictures of the others - woops!

My partner was Bonnie from Calamity Jane's Cottage. I made Bonnie her very own cottage (wall hanging!) with roses growing over it as I know she likes the cottagey style. I embroidered her blog name on it as it seemed to very appropriate. Bonnie has done a lovely blog post here about her gifts.

Bye for now, Maria

A new quilt and some gardening.

Have you ever had that feeling of excitement when you see something you'd like to make and decide that you just HAVE to do it NOW? Well I did the other day. I saw this tutorial for a fantastic value quilt by Katie who has a fabulous blog. As I have loads of fabric scraps I thought it would be the ideal quilt to make without buying any fabric.



It was one of thoses awful days when one minute the sun was out and the next it was blowing a gale and pouring with rain, I think there was even some hale too. I was feeling fed up as I had been planning a shopping trip to look for some little extras to put in with my spring swap. A spot of spontaneous quilt starting was just what I needed!


Here is the enoromous pile of fabrics I selected.


Here is the finished quilt. I quilted most of it using invisible thread in the ditch and then stitched a line through the dark sections in variagated thread. I didn't feel that in needed a border so just bound it in purple.



With the onset of spring I always feel hugely inspired to do some gardening. We've lived in this house for just over 2 years and you certainly wouldn't call the previous owner a keen gardener so we've been given an almost blank canvas to work with.

This picture is taken last year, it is an area at the bottom of the garden which I planned to make into a sitting area with a large raised bed at the back.




This is the same area, also last year after some work. Don't you just love the old wheel in the background!




Here it is again complete with the raised bed that my clever husband made this weekend. It looks rather large but I'm sure it will be fine when it's full of plants. The fun part now begins - filling it with plants. As you can see I've planted a few.




I recently discovered this beautiful gardening magazine which is full of absolutley stunning photographs of truely amazing gardens which are so inspiring. That sounds really gushing but I LOVE this magazine.






Bye for now, Maria