A Li'l Bit of Happy

Hello all you lovely lovelies♥ 'Tis Sunday again. The day when I take it a little easier....the day of rest (well it is at least for me)..... the day for a little slow hand stitching. This week I have been enjoying a li'l bit of happy stitching. More fabric baskets and handles, which I chatted about here, have been stitched together. More playing with bright and happy reproduction prints.....and of course more playing with flowers cut from the garden.

More tiny circles of pretty fabric have been coaxed into flower buds and appliqued onto the baskets. I must say these little buds and leaves are the easiest to applique.....much easier than the flowers on my flower garden quilt.

If I am not careful my fingers will forget how to fashion flowers for my flower garden quilt. My fingers will forget the deft touch needed to shape those sometimes complex flowers. Funnily enough, if you leave appliqueing the more ambitious flowers even for a little while, you easily forget all those little tricks you discovered and learnt along the way. It is so easy to consign into oblivion those little things that make forming fabric flowers more facile, those little tricks that prevent you from going a little loopy after you have just formed what seems a gazillion tiny petals and having taken all day to fashion them. If I am not careful those helpful tidbits I have gleaned as I dawdle along the flower applique path, enabling a more pleasurable stroll.........well......they will slip from my memory. Aah yes....that memory of mine.....mmmm!!  Note to myself.....Must, Must fashion Cosmos so they can bloom on  my Flower Quilt, this week......if only to reprogram my brainpan and kick start the memory; to enable all the encodings in the nerve endings of my needle-pricked fingers to start computing again! 'Tis amazing the process of  flower applique....isn't it. =)

Another row of scrappylicious flower buds sitting in baskets...soooo much fun to stitch. This quilt is going to be queen size so there is a ways to go yet. As it is Sunday I am going to steal some moments  of a li'l bit of happy.......a li'l bit of hand stitching. Ain't Sundays grand??

Once again, the calendars all around the world show us that Valentine's Day is nigh. The day that comes but once a year, when sweet-faced cherubs with swathes of gossamer-like fabrics covering their modesty, appear with their chubby little arms laden with flowers and chocolates, gifting them to those whom believe. May a sweet little cherub find his way to you at your lovely place, this Valentine's Day. Sending you all a little beauty and LOVE this blue sky, sunshine-filled kinda day.

Until the next time..........

Linking up this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.
                                       Judy's Design Wall Monday

Much Ado About Spring

There is always much ado about Spring, isn't there, and quite rightly so. It is a season that holds so much promise as each day a new floralicious pretty, unfurls. It is a season that shoos away Ol' Man Winter's icy stranglehold and gently warms the landscape, and as if by  magic sprinkling it with a delicious piquancy of both perfumes and colour. Each day rolls slowly by gently leading one to a wonderful expectation of lazy Summer days.

As you may have guessed by now, Spring is celebrated with a feverish excitement here in my humble abode. I walk most days in the garden with my trusty spaniel shadowing my steps, and when time allows it sit awhile before the pond either with needle and thread in hand slowly stitching some pretty, perhaps reading one of  those "can't put it down" kinda books, sharing morning or afternoon tea with my husband who enjoys a brief respite after tending the garden, or indeed just sitting, reflecting on most anything.

I cannot believe the season of Spring is almost over and is strolling towards Summer. Once again the garden has gifted me with the most delicious of  floral delights. It never fails to extend it's hand and present me with the most beautiful of bouquets daily. Bouquets overspilling with Daffodils, Bluebells, Pansies, Irises, Ixias, Foxgloves, Orange Blossoms, Lilacs, Clematis, Forget-Me-Nots, Granny Bonnets, Wisteria, Love-In-The-Mist.......(don't you love this name.....it evokes many thoughts of all manner of amorous goings on deep within the steamy mist. =D ), Roses....the floral parade marches on and on.

Spring is not only a season celebrated by me, all the critters seem to feverishly celebrate the song of Spring. The chubby bumble bees, the lady bugs, the dragon flies, the fish in the pond, the sweet little birdies......all are frenetically darting from flower to flower doing their Spring thing.

As the days slip into Summer let me share with you just a few (well perhaps more than a few) delights from the garden with which Spring has filled my basket.

My trusty Spaniel, she rather loves flowers too. Isn't she the sweetest pup??

Of course when Maisie is not inspecting the beauty of each flower she is off chasing the ducks in the early mornings.

There has not been much 'ado-ing' concerning my garden quilt. Very little stitching of it has been enjoyed of late so this week I decided to plant some Foxgloves......well one to be exact. My goodness this little flower took ages to manipulate each petal, each leaf.....some twenty six hours....but whose counting....I AM! I suppose I will 'plant' a few more of these pretties, though I am not looking forward to this as they are so very fiddly to fashion.

Around these parts Foxgloves are usually seen everywhere but this year they haven't appeared. I believe the powers that be have deemed them to be weeds so have eradicated them......but what do they know. If they are considered to be weeds then they can take over my garden anytime. I love to see these pretty, tubular bell-shaped blooms pop up in the garden each Spring.

Slowly, slowly do the flowers on my quilt grow.

Why, as it is Sunday afternoon me thinks I will enjoy a little slow stitching right here in my sewing room and watch the black and white roving kaleidoscope, spectacle that is outside my window. I have auditioned some pansies tickling their toes in the water, so perhaps I will begin to stitch these pretties. A little stitching, then me thinks a spot of afternoon tea on the swing seat beside the pond. Sounds like a most excellent idea if you ask me. Aah.....don't you just love lazy Sunday afternoons?? I know I do.

Later this week both my daughters are flying in and we are all off for a little holiday in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. I am so very excited.  With one daughter living in the USofA and one daughter living in another state way up north,  it is always a joyous occasion when we are all together. It is a rare occurrence these days for us all to catch up. I will be away from my little place for a little while but will visit all your lovely places when I return to my little place.

Before I scurry away for a little stitching let me say thank you to all you lovelies for your sweet comments re my last post. Each one of you bless my days. May your week be blessed with sprinkles of beauty.♥

Until the next time...........

Linking up this week to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,