Pie In The Sky♡

 

Good Morning, lovely lovelies♡ 'Tis early Sunday morning here at my little place. Sunday....the day where a little hand stitching is enjoyed topping it off by visiting Kathy's place much later this evening to join the slow hand stitching party♡ Slow hand stitching; one of my very favourite ways to enjoy many moments♡ I must confess I can sit for many, many hours in a comfy chair, cup of tea beside me and become unaware of time as I hand stitch a pretty. Oh, I get up every now and then to refill my pretty fine bone china teacup with Melbourne Breakfast tea. =)

What have I been up to this week?? Well.....I bought some lovely fabrics. I didn't mean to, but then I never do. I visited my favourite patchwork shop to purchase some glue pens for my hexies and a quilt marking pen so I could start to quilt Crazy Flowers. But upon crossing over the threshold of the shop my eyes immediately fell upon a shelf of Tilda new fabrics, Pie in The Sky. With names in the collection such as Willy Nilly Pink, Cloud Pie Grape, Confetti Pine etc etc, this collection causes me to think of fanciful notions, of dreams of fantastical pretties yet to be fashioned. Such fun names exuding whimsy. So often when skipping down the creative path what I imagine is 'willy nilly' and indeed 'pie in the sky' imaginations that, if I thought my ideas through, I perhaps would never begin; but of course, that is not how I roll. I am a live-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl when it comes to designing and stitching.  These fabrics are a sweet and colourful collection of doodle-like florals. They evoke a vintage vibe which is always so pleasing to me. So, so pretty. Love, these sweet, dimity prints. And....this collection blends fabulously with the Tilda Chic Escape fabrics which I purchased last year. Combining the two collections will make for some lovely quilts, me thinks.

Of course, there was the cutting of many flowers to arrange into vases. Roses, gladdies, sweet peas, hydrangeas and dahlias were the flowers which starred this week. I have to make the most of my flowers because  summer is hurrying by and soon all I will be gathering is autumn leaves. And, of course, a vase or two of flowers can all of a sudden put the extraordinary into the ordinary of ones day; don't you think??

The new prompt for my Down The Garden Path slow stitching project is a veggie garden. A great prompt, but alas, I haven't started mine as yet. There has been much contemplation of my belly button about what I will design and stitch. There a few thoughts, so hopefully this coming week I will begin planting carrots, beans, tomatoes and whatever other veggies fall upon the fertile soil.......but then I want to begin to quilt my Crazy Flowers quilt. Decisions.....decisions??!!

I have stitched a few more flower hexies for my hexie flower meadow quilt. Of course, with the accumulation of more fabrics, I will fashion a few hexies from these new Tilda pretties.

Oh....and I have spent quite a bit of my moments capturing happy snaps of my pretty new fabrics sashaying with vases of flowers and, believe it or not, a string of flowery lights. The floralicious pretties sprinkle a touch of pastel loveliness in my sewing room. So an explosion of colour to add to your day. After all, of late, I suppose for most of you it is white, white and then some that you are seeing. =)

Thank you for popping by this Sunday morning to see what pretties I have showcased today. Pretty flowers, pretty fabrics, pretty, flowery lights; and a pretty happy snap or two. Pretty, pretty, pretty......that's how I like it. =) Oh, how I love to sprinkle a little beauty.....a little pretty into my day♡ May your day be sprinkled with a little beauty, too♡ I'm off to my pretty sewing room, with my first cup of tea of the morning in hand, to watch the sleepy sun slowly rise, ricocheting warm and happy sunbeams everywhere.......and stitch a few hexies♡ Basking in the early morning sunshine in my sewing room, is the epitome of joy♡

This coming week, may your light shine brightly in your little corner of the world♡

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

There's no place like home.............

Good morning to you!! We are back home again (the royal 'we' being my husband and I), and I must say I am loving being  back in our quirky li'l ole 'Home Sweet Home'. Cliche I know, but there really is no place like home, is there. I am delighted that I have been able to unpack everything after our little city sojourn, kick off our wintry boots and just enjoy our home......though we will be back in the city next week for my husband's operation. But for now, with the Winter of our discontent behind us and just a hint that Springtime is peeking around the corner of our country road, I am enjoying being at home and just 'being'.

With the rugged radiation therapy behind him, my husband is feeling well at the moment (as well as one can be living with a cancerous tumour) and has regained his proverbial horse appetite once again. His thinness aside, one wouldn't know he is 'unwell'. There is nothing quite like being back home surrounded by God-inspired  vistas to help one begin to heal......and of course the first signs of this sweet earth waking up with pretty daffodils, helps a little as well.

It is wonderful to sink deep down in our 'oh so comfy' bed  and soak in a bath tub again (the little cottage in town only has a shower), a shower I might add, where one has to walk under for an inordinate length of time to get wet. I am a gal that luxuriates in a bath. Even as a little girl a hot bath was always my preferred form of bathing. Living here in this far rural outpost, the word bathing brings a whole new different connotation to the meaning of the word. Being situated smack in the middle of farmland means we live on irrigation water. At the point of sale of our humble abode, I didn't for one moment, think to ask  the real estate agent if there was clean, the type that overcomes one and knocks one out by the fumes of chlorinated, kinda water. Coming from Sydney, and considering clean water to be a given, my naively put question to the agent was "is there plenty of water?". At the time of leaving Sydney, Sydney was in drought mode and as my husband loves gardening, a regular drop of good ole H2O was of utmost importance. I didn't think to ask....."and is it sparkling clean?"!!!! These days, when this girl bathes, it is with never knowing what amphibious creature, in the minutiae, will gleefully escape from the faucet!! But not to worry, the water is piping hot and besides, frothy, sweet-smelling bubbles tends to lull one into a false sense of security as to what is lurking beneath!! Aaaah yes......the bathing experience is not quite what it used to be........but I digress.

Though I have stitched a few pretties, it really hasn't been my usual frenetic pace. I have for the last couple of weeks been buried deep in the environs of my sewing room, reorganising everything. I bought a new work table, and a 'little worse for wear' cupboard, which of course demanded everything in my sewing room be tipped out, sorted, stored in some new box or hat box...... and put back again in a new home, making my sewing room function a little better.

It is only a small room so organisation is of importance. I find it annoyingly bothersome searching for yonks, for some pretty or some paraphernalia needed for the job on hand, that I know is somewhere but can't get to it quickly.

So, I arranged fabrics to happily cohabitate beside each other, in all their glorious colour and pattern behind glass doors. Eeeks.......perhaps it would be wise not to purchase any fabric for a while.....there is simply no room left. Note to self.......under no circumstance whatsoever must I acquire any more fabric!! But then......I don't really ever listen to myself.  I do confess, this 'armoire' is not the only one stored with textiles.......I fear there are several throughout our abode wholly devoted to this purpose. I am doing my darndest to lessen the high rise pile of pretty cloth.

I arranged pretty trims, ribbons; a little bit of this and a little bit of that in fun polka dotted, lidded jars. Ten glass jars sitting on a wonderfully aged shelf......if one glass jar should accidentally fall...............oh dear, perish the thought!

My new work desk. Love, love, love this trestle table!! Love the shelves below for extra storage.

I unearthed this really cool, rusty plant stand from the garden and found a new purpose for it. Love how it creates so much storage for more crap.......stuff of paramount importance!!

My cute as cute Bernina looks perfectly at home.

I added a new light to join my light that I tarted up and wrote about here. One can never have too much lighting in a sewing room,  can one!!

My 'new' cupboard that I happened upon in an op shop. Of course I gave it a lick of paint and roughed it up a bit. I have a propensity for peeling paint, scuffed furniture and the odd bit of rust. I don't know why I subsist happier surrounded by pieces of furniture that have seen better days.....I can only put it down to a deviant gene. My darling mum didn't possess the 'it's gotta be old and scruffy look'.......the lovely vintage look, gene.....no, no, no....she would always roll her eyes heavenwards when I dragged a relic with a previous life home with me. The shelves are great for storing boxes and of course one can store hat boxes, beauty cases etc etc. I love the clean lines and behind the sliding glass doors is more pretty fabric.......and of course behind the wooden doors, more fabrics sit.

There is oodles of space on the shelves to store pretty boxes all individually labelled with little serviettes just in case my muddly brainpan forgets where everything is.

I gave the door of this cupboard a coat of blackboard paint. It is great for writing notes to myself, writing a quote or making a list of what project the kiddos are stitching. My brain pan is a wee bit muddly of late and I never seem to be able  to remember which kiddo is what making what pretty.

I also finished stitching my patchwork curtains that I made from the gob smackingly beautiful, Trish Guild fabric samples that a  friend gifted me a li'l while ago. I wrote about these too die for fabrics eons ago here. I had stitched curtains for one window but now the other window is dressed with some new pretty coverings.

Another task ticked off my list. I must say I am rather partial to the random prints and colours. Somehow they just all go together like Gable and Lombard, Bogey and Bacall, Rogers and Astaire.........or peculiarly, for those of you who live in the USofA......peanut butter and jelly.

The new curtains.

A new comfy sewing chair was needed..........a lovely white one, of course.

I love this beautiful rug. It's lovely and soft with the funkiest of designs. I spend a lot of time on the floor of my sewing room these days. More time than I probably should as I just can't seem to get up again....'dem poor ole knees'!!

Reorganising my sewing room has been fun. If for no other reason than discovering some pretty that I had forgotten about and delighting in it's loveliness all over again. 'Tis rather akin to finding lost treasure. I love the new spacious look. I love there is a big space in the middle of the room for me to make more creative mess!! And......it is much more spacious when sewing lessons commence with my kiddos again. I am always on the lookout for some lovely suitcases in which to store more pretties, but for now my little sewing room will just have to do....not that I am complaining.

For now though, I will enjoy my home a little more before we return to town for the 'big day'. I might even lock myself up in my sewing room never to enter the real world again. My sewing room is such a happy place.

I feel it has been rather a long time since I last wrote. Paradoxically there has been much to say, but then.......nothing at all to say. My words seem to have been lying dormant of late, hiding within the depths of me, with no rhythm, with no periodicity. Perhaps they will come gurgling out in the not too distant future. But enough of deep ponderous thoughts. For those of you who have sent me lovely emails to inquire as to what has been happening in my li'l neck of the woods....thank you.

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

Enjoy the little things in life.

Linking up with the lovely Stephanie's 'Roses of Inspiration' at The Enchanting Rose.