Strawberries on a String

I know I've posted about strawberries before, but these are slightly different. Only slightly!

The weather's been very dark and gloomy here recently, and it's been impossible to take photos unless there was a bright day, but bright days have been few and far between. I've been running to get my camera every time a tiny bit of weak sunlight appears.
I've also been doing some tidying up in my sewing room, reorganised it a bit and now it all feels much more ordered.

I saw a garland of plain fabric strawberries pictured in a magazine ad a few weeks ago, and couldn't wait to make my own version. It was my daughter's 24th birthday this month, so I decided they would be for her.
I used velvet, felt, wool and cotton fabrics and made a dozen strawberries all different. I tried to use a wide range of pinks and reds. Some have got beads for seeds, others have stitched seeds.
The bee pincushion is one I made a few years ago, and is a Pat Sloan design from an old Quilting Ideas magazine.


I strung the strawberies together with some green beads for stems, put some silk ribbon bows at the ends, and added a couple of tiny white strawberry flowers.
I left the threads at either end so they could be tied into loops for hanging as required.

It could be hung vertically, or from both ends a s a swag, or just arranged along the front of a shelf. It's a do-what-you-like thing:)

Ready for Christmas

What a difference a bright day makes! It's been so dark this week it's been impossible to take photos until this morning.

Our Christmas tree is up and decorated. Some of the tree ornaments belonged to my grandparents, and I can remember seeing them on their tree when I was little.

My snowmen and trees themed mantel.

The tiny tree at the extreme right was made by one of my daughters when she was younger.

I did get the pink and navy quilt finished. I thought the blue-grey borders might tone down the stronger colours a bit.
I used a Little Quilts pattern for the layout, but made my version smaller.

The pink and navy crocheted pansy is from an old Leisure Arts pattern. I glued a magnet on the back, so now I can have a flower on my fridge.


Here's where I take an end-of-year blogging break. I hope you have a very happy Christmas!

One Finished, Another Started

Here's my finished red and blue doll quilt. I had to wait for a bright day to take the photos.

Any machine quilting is so much easier on a small size quilt.

Like these colours?

From red and blue I've moved on to pink and navy. I thought I might just have time to get one more small project finished before Christmas preparations take over. Presents to wrap, mince pies to bake!

These blocks will be 2 inches finished. They look so neat because I make them a bit bigger than I want them, then trim them down, lol!

It's been cold here this week, and actually frosty in the mornings, but it's sunny as well. Cold, calm and bright is my kind of weather.

We'll be getting our Christmas tree this weekend. Hope there's some left!

Busy, Busy

I don't seem to have had much free time lately, mainly because Ive been trying to get some Christmas shopping done. My problem is that I trail around the shops looking, but end up not buying anything, so I've spent the time but I've nothing to show for it! Add to that the usual mundane tasks around the house and the lack of light, and where's the day gone?
I have done some Christmas shopping online though, mainly books.
I've managed to get some sewing done, but it's taking me longer than usual. I've made some progress, but not much, on quilting the doll quilt from my last post.
One of the things I like about machine quilting is that it forces you to slow down and think what you're doing. I've got all the straight lines in and I'm doing hearts on the off-white squares.

Are you sick of crochet pictures? This is just a bit of fun. I like baskets as a design motif and I'm finding myself increasingly drawn to all things old-fashioned and retro looking. The pattern was in my book of crochet potholders and I just couldn't help myself:) It was very quick to make. The leaves were my own addition. I'm loving the look and texture of crochet.
I'm not sure I can bring myself to actually use it for getting things out of the oven. My utility room has red as an accent colour, so I might just hang it up in there, where I can look at it whenever I load the washing machine.

Crochet Bits and Bobs

It seems to have been a busy week this week, but I can't keep away from that cotton yarn;)
The sunflower pattern is from an old Kindred Spirits book. Remember how they used to include patterns for small crochet items in their books? I've been digging them all out.


This is from another Kindred Spirits pattern. It's basically two straightforward rectangles crocheted together. I can think of several colour schemes that would be nice for this pattern. It measures about 3 1/2 x 6 inches including the button fringe, but I think it could also work well on a larger scale.
Of course one of the best things about making this was choosing the buttons:)

Now, can you believe this? Recently on television I saw a scene with a couple sitting together on a sofa. The woman was working on a partly-made crocheted blanket - with KNITTING NEEDLES! What a glaring mistake!

Crocheted and Patched

I haven't posted about crochet for a while, but I'm still doing it.
I've never really seen myself as a doily person though. In fact, doilies always seemed a bit "little old lady" to me, but since I took up crocheting I've realised there are lots of patterns out there that have potential. And well, they are something to crochet!


This one is done in 4-ply cotton, which I think is similar in thickness to size 10 crochet thread, but feels nice and soft. It's thick enough to work with comfortably - not too fine.
The pattern is from a book I found on ebay. I think ebay can be a really useful resource for out-of-print patterns of all kinds. There's a lot of rubbish out there, but there is some good stuff as well.

Since I made those dolls a couple of weeks ago I've been on planet red and blue. I've just finished this doll-sized quilt top which measures about 20 x 25 inches.

It's a Little Quilts pattern from Bunnies by the Bay Meets Little Quilts, not a new book but a nice one. There are several patterns for small quilts in the book, plus other small projects. (The Garden Fence quilt with yo-yos I made last May was from the same book.)

This was fun to put together, because I pulled out lots of old prints from my stash, some of them going back years, together with some much newer ones. I like mixing a wide variety of fabrics. I'm looking forward to machine quilting it now!

25 Years

It was our 25th wedding anniversary last week.
Where did the time go? It's hard to realise that a quarter of a century has gone by since that day in 1982.
The photo is the small quilt I made to mark the occasion.

We had a very nice few days away visiting Bath, Salisbury and Bristol. We were very lucky with the weather, and did lots of walking and took plenty of photos.
There's a lot of wrought and cast iron in Bath.

I hope whoever lives here didn't mind me taking a picture.

A Victorian post box. Can you see "VR" on the front?

The famous Royal Crescent in Bath.

Mr. Knot Garden is interested in the work of Brunel, so when we were in Bristol we walked out to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, to walk across it and take some photos.

It was nice to get away and have a change of scene.

The icing on the cake was calling at the Autumn Quilt Festival at Malvern on the way home, where I took the opportunity to add to my stash.


Now I'm catching up on reading all the blog posts I missed while I was away!

"What's the earth with all its art, verse, music, worth - compared with love, found, gained, and kept?"

- Robert Browning