Plant of t'week

Check out these amazing poppies.

The foliage is exactly the same as that of the Opium Poppy, but I've never seen one with a pink and purple flower before (and look at all that fringing on the petals), so I'm guessing it must be a cultivar.

So beautiful, and the bees were just loving them.

Papaver somniferum is the Opium Poppy's botanical name.  It means "sleep-bringing poppy", which refers to it's sedative properties. I would've been boiling the seed-heads up for a foul-tasting poppy brew at one time, but I'm better behaved nowadays.

On the up

The gift cushion is complete.

I backed it in an upholstery-weight fabric from Ikea.  I like how the grey looks with the pinks on the front.

I'll see my friend tomorrow, so I hope she likes it.  Like me, she's into pink, and like me, she's a fan of the natural world, so I think it's a pretty safe bet.

This is the backing fabric I chose for my sampler quilt.  It's nothing fancy, - cheap cotton from Fabric Land in Brighton.  It's been through the washer twice now, so I'm going to start sandwiching my blocks very soon.

I nipped into Quilty Pleasures at lunch time to get my wadding.  Liz has been busy building up her haberdashery dept. so I was also tempted by these other bit and pieces.

I'm chuffed with my latest block; EricaBobSquarePants.  I followed Terri's lead with this one, who has also made this block for her sampler & pointed me in the direction of Lily's Quilts for the tutorial.  I think this has taken over from the Card Trick as my favourite block.

Other good news is that the dreaded root canal was done yesterday. I'm still on baby food, but the comfort-ability is definitley improving.  Phew. x

A little bit of punk rock

Remember this?  Loving how this has turned out.

I like to think the safety pin fabric added a little extra punk rock to go with the bad attitude.

It felt like an apt project to be working on after last week's dramas.  All good today though, the antibiotics have weighed me in the last few days but they finish tonight.  Also it was so hot here today that I had a swim in the sea after work.  Bliss (bit seaweedy, but hey, you can't have it all).

Plant of the week & present-making

In between dodging rain showers, I had a bit of time yesterday afternoon to start making this cushion.  I wanted to make a little something for the friend who really helped me out this week by lending me her car to use for work when my van was broken down.  A true savior that deserves a hand-made gift.

I love the fabrics in this so much that I'm tempted to make one almost identical for myself.  I guess it's a good sign that I usually end up wanting to keep the gifts I make.

What with my dental drama & the rain showers, work in the garden has been somewhat sporadic this week.  I'm going to reserve the Plant of the Week spot for this Osteospurmum.

Osteospurmum (Cape Daisy)

This one is very hardy and will flower all summer long.  Cuttings are super-easy and quick, as it'll put out roots wherever the stems touch the earth, so you can usually grab a bit of cutting material with roots already on. 

Gorgeous.  Now I'm off to Lewes to return the car, wonder if I'll be able to resist the fabric shop while I'm there?

Sometimes life sucks.

That's what a friend said earlier when I was whining to/at her.

So this is what today looks like.

It's not really been my week.  Between unsuccessful dental work (and this time I did cry, -sobbed in fact-), a broken-down van, and a big dollop of PMT, I'll be glad when this week is over.  But that is 3 things and tomorrow is when I count the end of the bad week.

It's not all bad though (and I'm blogging this to remind myself), my friend gave me this sweet little posy of flowers from her garden.

I also got an exciting parcel from the US of A, full of goodies from Jolly Goode Gal.

How excited was I when I sliced open the box to be greeted by all that pink, -it matches my kitchen knife perfectly eh!

And before being struck down by tooth infection, I've been quietly sashing my sampler blocks.

Saturday I'm going to shop for some cheapish backing fabric, so looking forward to my mouth & hormones being better for that (& van issues are sorted now).   Really, I have nothing to moan about. x

The hump

Apologies for my silence.  I've got the hump.  Blogger is driving me slowly insane. . . not being able to leave comments, struggling to get my photos uploaded so they appear the right way around.  This has been going on a while & I just give up in the end.  Now apparently there's "an error occurring while saving".  Bah.

On the plus side, the sun is out down here and the south coast gardens are blooming.

Brighton sea front

Nymphaea (Water Lily)

Oenothera (Evening Primrose)

If I have to type my gmail address into that login box many more times I'm not sure I'll be able to control my actions! x