A spot of sewing

We had rain this afternoon, so I had some time to do a bit of sewing.

I'd already popped into Quilty Pleasures to choose some fabric.

I adore the soft feel of these Moda dots.

And it's really pepped up the look of this quilt top. 

British Summer Time

Even though I felt tired out this morning, I love it when the clocks go forward.

It usually takes me a week or so to adjust, especially in the mornings, but the extended daylight in the evenings is something I really look forward to. 

. . .And most of all, I love that we have the whole summer just stretched ahead of us.

New Project

I've been cutting these strips of fabric today to turn into cushion covers.  I bought this fabric quite a while ago not knowing what I might use it for.

It's a little bit of a secret project, as the cushions will be given as gifts for my parents summer house.

This is one I made for myself a little while ago.  I'm going to try something a bit different with these new ones.

This evening I'm all settled indoors with an enormous bowl of pick & mix and a film I've been wanting to see for ages.  Scoff scoff.

Friday Plant of the Week

This Flowering Red Currant (Ribes sanguineum) is, in my opinion, at it's very best right now.  The leaves are still quite sparse, the flowering pendulums are yet to fully open, but I like this stage best, - it's full of potential. 

Later, after flowering rather spectacularly, the Ribes will just turn into a boring old bush (Sorry Mr Ribes!), so I'm enjoying it's flowering pinkness while it lasts.

 

I just looked up the meaning of it's Latin name.  Apparently "Ribes" means acid-tasting (fruit) and "sanguineum" comes from the Latin word sanguineus, which means blood-red.  Makes sense.

Glorious Sunshine

It really does feel like Spring has officially sprung this week (not just me desperately trying to convince myself it has because I'm so ready for it after this harsh, harsh Winter we've had).  We've had sunshine all week and I'm loving it.

This is the sunlight hitting the bark of a Silver Birch.  Love the contrast of the smooth silver against that deep & rough texture that surrounds it.

I've been working on hedges all day. In this photo this yew hedge looks great; all green & majestic.

Look a little closer though & you see the Brambles & Ivy lurking beneath the surface, threatening to slowly, but surely, strangle this lovely hedge. 

One draw back to T-shirt weather when doing a job like this; my arms are so scratched up, I look like I've been in battle with an angry cat or something.  Not a great look, but a small price to pay I figure. 

Finishing touches

I've finished making the label for my Lily & Will baby quilt this evening.

I really like how it looks.  It was so scary putting that Bubble-Jet-treated fabric through the printer!

It's now all safely sewn onto the back corner of the quilt so I can now declare this quilt... finished! 



I love Brighton

I love living in Brighton.  There's always something going on; something to see and do, interesting people; strange people.

 

I'm not from here & I've lived in quite a few different places.  I decided to put roots down here because I love it & now it feels like home.

There's loads of these "Cassette Lord" decorated telephone exchange boxes (at least that's what I think they are) around town.  Definitely spruces up those dull green metal boxes.

Wandering up Church Street this afternoon I stumbled across this:

A community garden on a piece of waste land right in the center of town.  Apparently this piece of land has sat empty for 14 years!

These raised beds made out of actual beds are genius!

There's been a huge amount of work and positive energy put into turning this waste/dumping ground into a community space.

Why I don't bake

I don't really bake.  I'm not good at it.  Occasionally I'll have an out of character moment though & decide I'm going to do something a bit creative in the kitchen.  I have a couple of parties to attend tonight & both are of the "bring a dish" variety.  So I thought I'd make quiches. Nice & simple eh?

I even made my own pastry.  I followed a Delia recipe online, but my pastry was not great to roll out.  The first batch of mini-quiches turned out ok.  Not the prettiest in the world but ok.

I don't know if it was over confidence, slippery hands or what, but this is what happened to the next (full size) quiche as it was about to enter the oven:

Not happy.  Next Saturday I'm sticking to sewing & shop-bought.

Deep in the woods

I love being in the woods; the cooler temperature as I step below the tree canopy; the soft, crunchy texture of the ground beneath my feet & that raw earthy smell.

This photo was taken today from inside a gigantic Rhododendron, I really like all this twisty gnarliness.

Always being one for a bit of variety, yesterday I was in a very different environment; Ikea, Croydon.  I spotted these great hexagon mirrors, I'm a bit of a sucker for a hexagon since I made that first quilt. . .

Heads up

Loving this Robert Kaufman fabric! For a chance to win a charm pack of this before it hits the shops & a quilt pattern, head over to Jaybird Quilts:  http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/ 

 

Split Lip

Exciting!  This is the first frog spawn I've seen this year. 

It's been a lovely sunny day today, full of promise of the warmer weather I'm feeling impatient for.

All's good outdoors.  Indoors however, I've had a bit of a run in with my ironing board.  I think I've mentioned before that I'm not the most careful of people & can be somewhat slap-dash in my approach to things.  Anyway I ended up with the ironing board falling out of the cupboard onto my face. . . So I now have a cut, swollen lip & yet another tale of idiocy to add my vast collection!

Just so my injury hasn't been in vain, I'm planning on ironing all these seams flat tonight.  Bah!

Play time.

It was great to have some time to get a few fun things done yesterday.  I finished binding the Lily & Will baby quilt so started preparing the fabric to print the label on to.

I soaked the fabric in the Bubble Jet Set 2000 (I really dislike that name; it sounds ridiculous) for 5 minutes. I then left it to dry & this is as far as I got.  The next stage is to iron an A4 sized sheet of Freezer Paper to the fabric ready to put it through the printer. 

I laid out and started sewing these blocks together.  The fabric is a bit of a mish-mash, but I'm really liking the way it looks so far.

I also had a little play around with the lovely Amy Butler fabrics on the Kona Snow.  Mmmm, I love this fabric.

A little something new.

I couldn't resist buying this Charm Pack of the latest Amy Butler range at Brighton Sewing Centre yesterday. 
 http://www.brightonsewingcentre.co.uk/  

I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do with it yet.  I quite like the idea of combining it with the Kona Snow I bought in the sale to really make all those bright colours pop.

I made my first ever quilt from Amy Butler's last range of fabric.  I love this quilt so much & it has pride of place on my bed.

Here's a detail of the quilted circles

And this is before those super-sized hexagons got sewn together.

I've been so busy this week that there's been a craft famine on.  I do have a little bit of time this afternoon though so I'm going to try & get the Lily & Will baby quilt finished.  It's so nearly done, which is probably why it's been sat on top of my printer gathering dust for almost a fortnight. . . x