Spring lambs

In the last week I have been making a farmyard quilt for Marie to give to baby Dylan. The quilt is red and green colours and  has lots of animals and of course a tractor or two. I love making these quilts, just the right size for lots of uses, in the cot, on the floor to play on, in the car or pushchair.... I really hope they used and loved throughout babyhood. Here it is:

Marie reminded me it is nine years since she had her own baby and in fact also nearly nine years since Green Star Quilts was started. The time has whizzed by! It reminded me that I have made many other farmyard quilts, farmyards are a thing close to my heart... this was one of the first...

Then there was this one and this is giving me a lovely chance to revisit my photos of quilts made over several years....

It feels so like spring is just around the corner and I am cheering it on with inspections of the state of my daffodil flowers, nearly out now, everyday. Today My sewing room robin had a fright. A very competitive blue tit with beak full of moss clearly thought the hanging willow heart would be a good place to nest and was outraged that 1) the window was in the way and 2) the fabric robin was there first. There was a lot of flapping at the glass, loud tweeting through a beak of moss and a huge grumpiness from a very tiny person with a yellow feather covered tummy. How could such a small bird be so cross??

Not far from the borders of south Lincolnshire is a beautiful village of Easton on the Hill. This is the field beside the church on a January Sunday and I took the photo because the scene looked calm and very English indeed... and the pub lunch was great too...

And now in Lincolnshire we have the first lambs arriving. Our own very special sheep are the Lincolnshire Longwools. Historically, our county fortunes were based on the wool and meat from these sheep.They have the most spectacular fleece, an all over perm from head to knee that would cost a fortune at the hairdressers... and they gaze through their extravagant curls with a mild and calm expression, knowing they are very beautiful sheep indeed. Louise who owns the  Risby Grange Longwool flock has kindly loaned this photo:

Is there anything more sweet than a new lamb, well maybe two new lambs with terry towelling legs?

At Riseholme the lambs last year were a huge success on Lambing Sunday when visitors were welcome. They were such fun to watch as they got in the feed troughs, on the hay bales, muddled up with the wrong families, but still were able to recognise a baaaa from mum...

Here is the farmyard quilt which I made for our little one for her second birthday. 

And now I have my own flock.... of ladybirds.... which every year holiday over the winter in the cracks of the window frames in daughter's bedroom. This year there are hundreds, families and friends snuggled up cosily in the corners, trotting off for a walk occasionally before settling down for a snooze in the sun, red with black spots, black with red spots and even yellow with black spots....

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my farmyard quilts and will have have a chance to visit lambs near you this spring, also that your daffodils will be in flower this week, thanks for dropping in,

Sue

Tulips and a spring coloured quilt

Here in Lincolnshire we grow a lot of tulips. In the south of the county, on the flat land are the bulb fields. Spalding has a history of an annual tulip festival. The colours are amazing, blocks of bright pink, yellows, mauves stand out against the fenland skies. 

I bought some tulips especially for the photos of my latest spring coloured quilt. The soft muted shades are a delight in a month of low light levels and gloom, they cheer me up so much.

Here they are :

This quilt was inspired by a beauty that I saw in Edinburgh at Jo Avery's quilt shop in Morningside. You can read about her here 

I can't remember the name of the maker sadly, but the block is a sashed thimble shape made of random width strips from my enormous scrap bag.... 

On a cold grey day I made husband stand outside as a living quilt stand....so you can see my tulip quilt against our very wet garden, not a permanent lake, just flooded from ground water...

Theses are photos taken with my new camera and I am trying to be more creative with the backgrounds, so off we go around the house and garden....

These are the two best photos, the fish eye effect made the  quilt draped over the bed shot very odd, so I won't show you that! I also tried the draped over the bathroom door with a poor effect... And lastly, because I want to show you a less than tidy sewing room because life isn't perfect... and there's the next quilt on the design wall too...

Thank you for calling in to Quilting the Green Star,

 Hope you have a good week,

Sue

PS. Jo from My Bear Paw has contacted me to say that if fact she made the quilt I saw in her shop, so thank you Jo for the inspiration! 

St Valentine hearts

Tomorrow is THAT day.... over many years not one of those days has been forgotten.... Husband has blushed and flowers, a poem or a card has appeared. Every time. So I hope tomorrow will be no exception.... Hearts can be found on lots of my quilts:

In the garden...

On a chicken...

A gate at Ironbridge....

With pearly buttons...

On a bucket given to me by Jenny...

and now on a hanging in the window... and this is how I made it:

Get 6 long bendy stems of willow and tie together with string

divide into 2 bunches of 3 stems and plait each bunch, plaiting in the sticky out bits too

use those clip things for freezer bags to hold the ends

clip both plait ends together

bend the ends down into the middle to form the heart, twisting them together.

Secure the ends to the bottom of the heart with string and snip off the bits which hang over. Your willow heart is finished!

Add a ribbon hanging loop and hang in a window. Here you can see mine with  an added  robin given to me by Jo. It was made by Sharron in Cambridge. You can see her things here 

Happy St Valentine's day to you all and thanks for dropping in. Do say hello and tell me what you are making this week..

Scary moments

Living in rural Lincolnshire, we have lots of wildlife. Some families live in the garden, hedgehogs, blackbirds, frogs, toads, and some are frequent visitors, squirrels, pheasants, deer, ducks. But some visitors are not so welcome, big rodents on holiday from the common, many more grey squirrels who steal nuts without conscience, large and raucous families of jackdaws.... fun to watch but who terrorize smaller birds.....  I send husband out to chase away anyone who I am not at home to... bigger rodents...hmmmm! But a few nights ago he came into the kitchen looking rather pale. It was dark outside. He had been to lock up the garage. And there appeared to be someone inside. Someone very big! Two large eyes looked straight into his and looked mean too!

Could this be the biggest scary rodent yet? Was he brave enough to go out and look again? 
In daylight, all was explained....

Our little one's personal transport, put away until her next visit!

I make a lot of transport quilts and here is one I made for Jenny to give as a present at the Christening service of Joseph:

This week I am making a memory quilt and I will show you in the next post. I hope you enjoy reading about the funny moments in my day. Do leave a message and tell me what you are making too.

January mornings

I woke up this morning to a clear blue Lincolnshire sky and deep frost in the garden. Winter green sparkled with diamonds, seed heads were transformed into the most expensive jewellery designs...

In the vegetable garden my untidy ways, the not cutting back seed heads of majoram in the autumn made a lovely picture against the terracotta forcing pots which protect the rhubarb crowns...

Under the Bramley apple tree something magical had grown overnight,

a fairy ring of toadstools... wish those fairies would pop in and do some dusting as well as making beautiful installations in the garden...

There was an amazing scent from the mahonia bush, tiny little yellow bells for flowers, and in one corner a very brave and chilly looking primrose, the very first, made a pale wave towards spring. 

The pale spring coloured quilt is finished too, just waiting for it's new owner to arrive to delight his family. Here it is:

It is always lovely to hear what you have been making too, do join me and leave a message....

New beginnings and gratefulness

I have just moved my blog from my website to Blogger. It has been a sharp lesson in tidiness. Finding the old photos has been a long process as I hadn't filed them properly....or tidily....or in any order at all. But it has been fun. Reading old blogs, remembering happy times with Barney the dog, at last I can look at photos of him with a smile rather than tears. Here he was emptying my waste paper basket when he was bored...

 I remember when I first started my business Green Star Quilts, you can read about it here I had just stopped work as a community nurse and thought I would like to start making quilts for children. Now I have lots of returning customers who have become firm friends too. I know about their children and rejoice over new babies with them too. There is a lot to be grateful for and I am looking forward to 2014 and its quilting challenges. Here is the first quilt of the year, nearly finished:

I will show you the whole quilt when it is finished. In the garden the blackbirds are still eating the fallen apples, we are all apple crumbled out! 

Those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, I hope you enjoy it, do leave me a message, I will be adding buttons and lists when I have learnt how to do it!  

Happy New Year

Now all the commissions have been made, everything has been posted and has arrived safely in time for Christmas. This week I have been cooking and I don't want to sound smug, but my freezer is full. We have a minimalist Christmas here, a £10 limit on presents which can be supplemented with things homemade.... lots of biscuits, jam and scurrying about in the garage by husband who makes tablemats from corks. They are very fine and very much desired by friends, I can't think where he gets all the corks... And then there is The Cake.... a winter spice cake made with star anise and white chocolate. As for the decorations, well everybody deserves a chance, so Snow White  meets Bambi and Father Christmas amid holly leaf candles! So Happy Christmas everyone and thank you so much for all your support, your lovely generous and kind e mails, your encouragement and enjoyment of my designs and many repeat orders. I hope you all have a lovely holiday and a peaceful 2014 too.