Blossom trees made by hand

I am beginning to think about the spring blossom, that isn't so far away now. Tiny buds are showing on my two ornamental cherry trees. I found some fabric scraps that spoke to me of blossom, springtime, and perhaps a little snow,

and made a hand pieced little tree. The colours are not what I usually go for, but I really like the effect, and made it into a greetings card.

And here's another, much more busy and utterly uncharacteristic, but again, I really like it!

Here's the card, elegant on its tiny easel,

and I am loving making rather girly trees! They're in my shop,  etsy.me/1eCltUZ
Happy Spring!

Keeping warm with Log Cabin sewing. Quilting. Loving it.

Setting up the sewing machine in my study. What a pleasure! After a break of about 10 years, I have had the strong desire to start sewing again for a while, and the time between Christmas and New Year has given me a chance to try it.

I have never been a traditional quilt maker, but I do like the strip piecing method that gives a block called log cabin. I have used it a lot, but in my own way! The square blocks should be half one colour and half another. Mine don't quite do that.

 I couldn't quite believe how much I had forgotten about sewing strips of fabric into squares, and also how much I loved doing it. I must buy an unpicker however, which will speed up the correcting of mistakes. But the virtue of the method is that the quilt top grows quickly.

I love the way a busy pattern on a fabric becomes so intricate when cut up and pieced, and the shapes formed by the solid colours. This is a lap quilt, or I suppose a wall hanging. Life is too short to make full bed quilts. I rather like the finished quilt top, photographed on my bed earlier.

Not a brilliant photo, but it gives an idea of the three broken diagonal stripes made of strong coloured dupion silk. I need wadding and a backing fabric, and then to try and remember how to hand sew the quilting.

Here's one I sold a long time ago.  A friend spotted it in a house he was visiting, and photographed it for me.

Lots more planned! What a lovely start to 2014.