Flowers more flowers and a bit of sewing thrown in

Once again not much sewing going on in this house, but some things have sprung forth.  I was beginning to think that none of the summer flowers were going to come to anything, but nature has a way of beating the elements.  Just look at these....

The Bearded Iris have been a picture, and I have even been picking some to bring indoors.... the reason for that is we have been threatened with heavy rain and storms for the last couple of days.  I decided that they may be smashed to the ground so why not enjoy them inside.

I will never get tired of these

 The Foxgloves are just showing their bells, and I wonder if Mrs TiggyWinkle will visit them?

I want these all over the garden 

Last year I decided that I had to give this Weigela a good prune and after having such a cold spring I thought I might get it to regrow but was not sure about flowers....... Just look at it...words fail me

Its called Strawberries and Cream

 I have been wondering whether the peony buds would beat the rain, and today this cerise coloured one has burst forth.  Problem with these big blousey flowers is once the rain falls into that mass of petals it weighs the heads down and that's the finish of them.  So, do I go out and pick them or chance another day????

I don't know the name of the flower on the left below (sure someone out there could tell me) but   I think is part of the Allium family, and last year we had quite a few but this year we only have this lone one. and goodness knows where this Iris came from.... just saw it peeking through the holly tree.

 I have done some sewing.  My sister-in-law and her hubby have just bought a caravan and I am hoping its going to be a cosy caravan rather than a designer one, the reason, I have made them a (not quite tackky) cushion.  They have both made us laugh in the past with stories of campers and caravanners so this is pay back time.

Had to use some of these

Don't need all of these.

 but did get the idea of the flowers from Helen last weekend.

It says - 'time to stop and smell the flowers'

 most of  us have embroidery stitches on our machines that we never use, but look at the cute car towing a caravan....just had to use it somewhere.

this is where it gets a bit tackky, but it makes me laugh

 Finished and ready to give to them.

So lets just hope its not a designer van, cos this certainly wont fit one of those posh looks. :)

Busy doing nothing!!

I have had a weird week.  I can't seem to set my mind to doing anything really.  Think I must have lost my Umph! (or 'mojo' as I have heard it called).  It may be because I have finished all of my cushions that I had so much fun making and can't think of anything that I want to make.

We did have a trip to Ikea and I did buy some fabric to recover my dining room chairs.  We bought this furniture in 1991, and when we chose the chairs the manufacturer said we could choose the fabric for the cushion seats.  I couldn't find anything that I loved at the time, so I just chose some cotton fabric that 'would do' until I found the perfect fabric.  As you may have gathered I have never found that perfect fabric, and the temporary fabric has worked very well for us, but after 21 years the chairs needed a bit of a freshen up.  Once again I have chosen cotton, and as you will see it is very similar to my old temp. fabric but a lot cleaner and fresher.

Before

and

after.  Much cleaner

As there is no sewing to show you, I thought I would take a wander around the garden and show you some of the wonders of nature.  I just love Aquilegia, the way the petals fold and curl, they are just beautiful.

If I look at the one on the left, I can  see four pink flamingoes dancing around in a circle

My Bearded Iris are making a great show, so glad I was patient with them and didn't dig them out for not performing - just wish the cream one had survived.
  

Three flowers on this stem and more to come.

When we first moved back to England we lived in Cumbria, and my 90 year old neighbour Annie had some sweet flowers growing in between the cobbles in her yard.  I don't think I had ever seen them before, but she assured me Nigella (love in the mist) would grow anywhere and everywhere. Dear Annie was so right.  I brought some seeds with me when we moved and scattered them in this garden and each year this little flower appears and brings happy memories of Annie back to visit me.

The flowers popping through the thread like foilage.

My local quilt shop is having a  'shop hop' with some interesting demonstrations.  I was able to pop over on Saturday where Helen Coverley was demonstrating 'yo yo's'.  You guessed it..... I bought yet another size yo yo, and pattern for a cushion (didn't really need the pattern but it did have a couple of cute bumble bee buttons attached!), so I might have a play with that during the week.

Happy sewing.  

Doing my own thing!

Yep, I have been doing my own thing this week, altering patterns, making it up as I go along and trying my best to get things to work for me.

You may remember last time I showed you the smocked bauble..... well I have altered the pattern to make it smaller and in my opinion fit better on a Christmas tree... but of course as many of you said it could just hang around all year.

I have also made a crochet / sewing wallet.  This pattern is one of the  Moda Bake shop free patterns and I added a bit of smocking on it.  I think this one will work better for me than the roll type that I tested last time.

Bit of smocking 

I sewed the slots for crochet hooks, but you could just leave that section and have another large pocket.

Lastly, although I love the new phone wallet that I made, I decided I wanted  a pocket for some small change and a few more card holders, so 'making it up as I went' this is my finished phone wallet. 

Bit of fussy cutting to get the bird

Phone, paper money, lots of cards, and some small change

So all in all I was quite pleased with the changes I made this week.

Our gardens are beginning to blossom at last..  my Lilac tree has been a picture.

Such perfect little florets 

 and my Bearded Iris has decided to bloom again this year (remember I waited 6 years for the first flower) and there seems to be a lot more of these ready to burst forward.... just beautiful!

Photos never do justice 

Hope you have had a productive week......

Some things new

Well when I last wrote, I said I might have something different to show you and here it is...

Smocked ball

Yes, I am back to smocking.  This ball was a pattern in one Australian Smocking and Embroidery magazine  and uses a 3" diameter ball.  Although it is very pretty I think I might make another, but will alter the pattern and use a smaller ball. That way I think it will look better as a Christmas decoration on a tree.  I had seen some nice sewing related fabric at my LQS so decided, while the pleater was out, that I might just pleat up some fabric and make a rollup sewing companion.  This was also inspired from the Australian smocking mags.

Has a zip pocket which could be handy.

 I am not sure I like this design much, so I might play around with the pattern and see where it takes me.  You will of course be the first to see it if it ever gets off the drawing board, but for now you can see the one 'I made earlier'.

I have now finished the last of my cushions, not sure what is going to keep me busy in the next few weeks but I am sure I will find something.

Last but not least.

 Just a bit of a parade of the finished cushions made over the past few weeks

and here they are all on my newly recovered sofa 

The cushions don't all live on this sofa ...but I like the look

My friend has had problems with her mobile phone, and she thinks it might be the protective case that is causing the problems.  As I have the same phone,  I decided to ditch my case and buy or make a new one.  My daughter had previously offered me a case for my phone from her stock (blossom creations), but at the time I didn't need it, so a quick skype call and with all the measurements taken I had to make my own.  There is room for  cards and some spare money so I think it might work for me  

would be nice if I could have found lime green elastic 

neat and tidy

We have just had a long weekend (Bank Holiday) and believe it or not we have also had sunshine.... let me tell you that doesn't often happen on Bank Holidays in U.K. so the garden has been tidied a little and is looking good.  I hope you all had a sunny weekend.
.

Great Weekend

We had friends visit over the weekend, so a bit more cooking was called for.  Mr D had found a recipe for a Rhubarb and Orange cake that he fancied and as Rhubarb is in season I thought I would have a go.  I must say I did think it was going to be a bit of a stodgy cake as Rhubarb can hold lots of moisture and you use all the juice from one Orange along with three eggs, so quite a lot of  liquid, but it turned out really great and it will be on my list of favourites to make in future.  What I also liked about this cake was when you cut it you could see the wonderful colour of the Rhubarb so not only did it taste nice it looked pretty too.

Half eaten but look at that colour.

On Sunday morning we decided to go for a walk, and look what we found.....

So sweet

then around the next tree we found more

beautiful Bluebells

When we left home there was still a chill in the air, so we wrapped up nice and cosy.

from left to right.. Mr R, me, Mrs V.

By the end of the walk the sun was out and it turned into a nice warm day, so we spent the rest of the day in the garden lapping up some vitamin D.  Would you believe we even ate outside....great day.

This is another cushion that I have just finished....bet you will all be glad when these are finished and I go onto something new.  

Maybe next time I might have something completely different to show you...

Whoop! Whoop!

Guess what I have been doing this week......... you won't ever guess because I don't think even I  would have thought that, after our guests had left us, I would recover a sofa...... but Yep! I have done it.

For years we have had cream 'bull denim' covers on our sofas and I loved the fact that they could all be taken off, thrown in the washing machine and put back on and... the sofa still looks as good as new. One of the sofas had got to the point of really needing everything renewing so we invested in a new one.  I could't get a cream sofa that suited us, but we finally found a sofa that was OK for comfort but I didn't like the colour.  We have had it for about a year now but this week it was time for sudden change!!  I was fortunate that my sister had given me some of her curtains (almost new, but not needed any longer) so I decided to 'have a go' at upholstery and because I was using fabric that was no longer needed I really couldn't lose even if I did mess up.
I started with making the seating cushions in the bull denim from the old covers as I thought they would get the worse of wear and the fabric would be stronger than the curtain fabric.  Next were the arms as they needed template patterns, they worked out so well in fabric so I went "hell for leather" on the rest of it.
This is the sofa before I got my hands on it.

Dull Dull Dull, but very practical if you have children..

Arms getting their covers and checking the amount of fabric  .....loads left

All in pieces ready to go

Phew!  almost done.... now where did I put those nuts and bolts?

All covered 

Tah Dah!

Come on tell the truth, it does look better in cream

No Chocolate allowed here>

Recycle  -  Oh yes ..... this new look sofa cost me zero pounds and I have managed to use all that fabric - and all in one day!!    Yeah!!  

I am off tomorrow to make another 'scatter' cushion so watch this space.

Cooking, sewing and unpicking, that's my Saturday

Cushion number 6 is finished, and I am getting to like this new look more and more.  I only have a few more to make, and already I am having withdrawal symptoms at the thought of finishing.

From the magazine Quiltmakers 100 blocks

I spent most of Saturday cooking as we are expecting friends from South Africa on Monday.  They arrived in the country on the 2 May, and are busy visiting family and friends but have us on the list for Monday and I am so excited as the last time we saw them was in 2006.  

I had a couple of hours late afternoon, so decided to make a start on cushion No. 7.  A friend had pinned this block on Pinterest as she thought I would like it....... she knows me so well!!  Its another paper pieced block, and I was getting on so well but just had to do that extra bit.  Well, you  know where that leads don't you....... yes mistakes,  I spent probably about another hour unpicking, just couldn't get those 1/4" seams correct.  Why do we do this to ourselves?????

Can you see how tiny those stitches were that I had to unpick

Unpicked, pressed and now I am ready to start again the next time I have a few hours to spare.,