Blue and Green World

And here is the other finished project - my braided rug. I have to stress again that it is much much brighter than this in real life - bright batik colours. It was so much fun to do and as with the quilt, I found working with circles/spirals incredibly relaxing and soothing somehow. I have been having second thoughts about having it in the kitchen as I hate the thought of it getting stained or even used! I wince when anyone stands on it, lol! It’s currently in my main room in front of the fire, taking abuse from my cat who loves to screw it up into a ball and then cuddle up next to it……….. (wince!)

Lately I’ve been focusing on finishing off some projects so that I can use them. Here is my new quilt finished. The idea with this one was to make a really quick and easy quilt, so it is simple stripes rather than a complicated design. When it was put together it seemed a bit too harsh and geometric so I decided to use a big spiral design to quilt it. It’s quite a rough spiral as I drew it freehand which was a bit hit and miss on a 250cm square quilt with nowhere I could get it down completely flat! But I’m pleased with it now that it’s finished and it’s lovely and very snuggly!

Here is the finished block for March. I was really impatient with this one and couldn’t put it down as I really enjoyed doing it. It’s such a cute and quirky block and being so colourful spurred me on somehow as well. I’m really enjoying seeing how the blocks come together and am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt (only 9 months to go!).

I wasn’t really planning on doing anything at my garden this year as I have so much still to do inside the flat. But a friend offered to help with it and I am loving seeing it transform! I am not the most dedicated or eager gardener but I do love the idea of growing my own fruit and veg and herbs and attracting wildlife. So I’m aiming on (long-term!) growing fruit and herbs in my front garden and then digging some borders in the back garden and growing plants there to attract wildlife. I do feed the birds and I also love to attract butterflies and bees (I really love bees, I hope to keep them someday). So with all that in mind I have been buying things! I now have a thornless blackberry, 2 blackcurrant bushes and 3 raspberry canes all for the front garden, a yellow (good for attracting bees) buddleia for the back garden, and seeds to grow borage (beautiful flowers and another bee plant), peppers and aubergine. I’m hoping to grow the peppers and aubergine on my kitchen and bedroom windowsills - providing my cat will let me! But I have to say a HUGE thanks to Arianwen and my mum for all their hard work in the garden, I really appreciate it.

I decided to do an update on my tapestries. I think they are going to take a while so it will hopefully be good to have a record of their progress. Also I thought it might help encourage (shame!) me into getting on with them. I tend to go in phases with things and I haven’t really done anything much with them for a few weeks.

Well… so much for my aim of blogging regularly. I’m tending to be either too busy or too tired to blog, so then when I do I have lots of little posts ready at the same time. I wish I was better at spacing them and blogging regularly but anyway here goes….