Wednesday 27 April 2011

Bluebells in the garden


They are already past their best, but there are plenty more flowers just waiting to bust into bloom.

Remember the clematis ? Well, here it is now:




Floating flowers


A friend of mine took this picture in Sri Lanka.

Botanical cowl - tide pool !


Pattern by Megan Goodacre (Vanouver Island, Canada)
Yarn by Ring-a-Rosie (Whitley Bay, UK)

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Philip Treacy style Hitchhiker


And now I'm working on another!

The next one is a little more subtle - so we'll have to adapt the styling accordingly.

Pure white bleeding heart

Magnolia magic

My mother planted this magnolia tree when we first moved into the house.
That year it had fewer than 10 flowers - now it must have nearly 100.


Saturday 9 April 2011

Another hitchhiker!


This time in the fabulous Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, which is much softer than it looks (and that's before washing).

Friday 8 April 2011

Tiny owl swap day !

Today we received our swap package and so did our swapee.
Great timing! Great goodies!

Thank you CarolinapurlGirl.






Wednesday 6 April 2011

Evening glow

I think this is a type of japonica (also here when we bought the house) - this time lit up by evening sun.

Another of mum's quilting projects

beautiful fine detail!


Mum's white chocolate quilt

Here' s my Mum's latest quilt - I think it's impressive both for its size
 (that's my Dad holding it up on the right) and its subtle beauty.


Cheery glow

It was supposed to be "Cherry glow", but cheery works too.

As the morning sun hits the tree, it appears to light up.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

100 red tulips!

A friend arrived from the Netherlands last night and brought me 100 tulips !! They were wrapped in brown paper - which is how they sell them in the Netherlands - and looked good all clustered together, but since I opened them just seem to keep expanding, spreading their colour and soft scent everywhere.

What a lovely surprise! 




             

Sunday 3 April 2011

Sunday's great spent sewing - but then we're biased.



Today I helped Lyn set up her new machine and start making more blocks.

Then I came home and my daughter and I made this dress for her - it's made of light blue linen, cut on the bias and trimmed with bias binding (so we're sticking with the biased theme).




Friday 1 April 2011

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day...

I don't think the song was written for yarn, but hey.... (it's not the month of May either)

I discovered a new yarn shop not too far from my house and they will be renovating soon so they had 20% off Noro - and a great range of colours!

The top colour is really like sunshine.

Pompom bush - kerria japonica


You were right it is kerria japonica,
but there is also a Lady Banks connection.

The hardy deciduous shrub was named for William Kerr, British horticulturist from the 1800s, who also introduced the Lady Banks rose and nandina to our gardens.

With flowers as golden as a sunrise, Kerria japonica brings sunbeams to the shadiest spots of a garden.
Interestingly, this used to be a shady spot in the garden, but the neighbour's tree fell in a storm last year so now it gets a lot more light, but it still seems to be happy.

Read more at Suite101: Kerria Japonica: Shade-loving Shrub For The Garden http://www.suite101.com/content/kerria-japonica-a110464#ixzz1IGGuyfFT

Tulips


It suits Dad, but guess who's wearing it...