Oh how the garden grows...

I enjoy getting out in the fresh air and spending a time in our sunken courtyard garden. Here's our little shady space...this is taken looking at our basement flat.

You can see our containers and pots...plus some trailing plants on the old walls. You can just see one of the arches on the right above my new little greenhouse.

Here's how our little space is shaping up as things start to come back to life.

There are new buds forming on our weeping willow...

The mint that I thought was dead has sprung into life again and has some new bright green leaves...

Out of nowhere these lillies have suddenly grown. I can't wait to see their pretty pink flowers again for the third year in a row...

The hyacinths are still in flower too...

and this hosta has started to make an appearance after dying back over the winter...

Over the past week or so I've noticed, what we think is a type of clematis, ready to flower again. Every year during April buds appear and by the end of April or early May we are lucky to see a fabulous display of white flowers hanging into our courtyard.

Stepping out of the flat I look up to the tall walls surrounding our sunken garden and can see so many buds waiting to pop open.

The buds look so delicate and elegant...

I can't wait to see these in bloom...

There's quite a bit of garden activity happening at the moment following the warm spell of weather, some sunshine and April showers. I'll keep you posted on how things are looking over the next few weeks.

Quilted Sewing Machine Cover

On Friday I managed to get stuck in and complete a quilting project that I had started at the beginning of March. The project I had in mind was small to help me gain a bit of confidence and try out some basic quilting techniques. Since buying my own sewing machine I knew that it wasn't long before I needed to pass my Mum’s Frister Rossmann sewing machine back to her. With my parents visiting over Easter I had a deadline to meet. I knew I wanted to get the machine serviced before giving it back but also I wanted to make a special thank you present using my new machine. I decided to make a new sewing machine cover as the current soft cover for the sewing machine was starting to fall to bits.

In a post I wrote in March, Quilting and patchwork update, you may have spotted that I had started to put together some 9 square patches using blue fabrics, these were going to be the basis of the cover and I had ambitions of elaborately quilting it! Well time got the better of me and I managed to add a few more patchwork pieces to the collection so I had enough to complete the cover. On Friday I pieced the patchwork squares together with a blue border, or sashing using the technical term! I tried to square off the sections of fabric as I went to make sure all the edges were neat. I added in the blue backing (the same as the sashing) and cut a piece of wadding to to fit.

In the end as I didn't have lots of time to practice some different quilting techniques so I just did a simple 'quilt in the ditch' of the four rectangular sections. I was quite shocked at what I had managed to achieve for my first attempt! Here it is laid out in full, I just used a rectangle shape that would match the height (to cover both sides of the sewing machine) and length of the sewing machine.

You can see a bit of the 'in the ditch' quilting I did and see the pink piggy in the fabric I used. Plus some lovely blue ribbon to secure the cover onto the sewing machine.

Here is the front of the cover....when you put the wrong sides together and tie the bows it almost looks like a cushion cover...

Here is the cover on the machine from the front.

and a side view too...can you see the pink piggy?

To make it a bit of a surprise I packaged up the cover in brown paper and ribbon and gave it to my Mum.

A simple parcel that contained my first quilting project!

I pleased to say that my Mum was overjoyed at the surprise present and impressed with my first attempt at quilting.

I was really proud of what I had managed in a short time frame and I enjoyed seeing the project come together. With a bit of careful planning, and a lot more practice, I hope that I can one day make a larger scale quilt project. But for now maybe I'll try the basics and make sampler quilt pieces so I can practice different quilting styles.

Little achievements and inspirations

You may have noticed that I’ve had a few weeks where I haven’t posted on my blog. Outside of blog land I’ve been super busy with my day job...For 8 months I’ve been working on a variety of projects to help the team that I’m part of deliver a better job and improve what we do day to day. The final stages of the projects have been particularly tough as each project interlinked. We have had some big highs, as things worked, and huge lows when things weren't going to plan…However seeing the pieces of a huge puzzle fitting together and each day for the past few weeks making little achievements was really satisfying.

Many months of planning and decision making came to a head last week when we launched the projects. I’m very pleased, relieved and so very proud of what our project team have achieved and I hope that our hard work will make a difference. I work with some incredibly talented and creative people who have been a real inspiration to me and they've kept me going during one of the hardest and biggest projects I’ve ever been part of. At the end of our busy launch week I was greeted with this fantastic sunset on my walk home, it made me smile...the calm after the storm...

The projects at work have been a key focus of my time, especially for the past few weeks, and this has meant that I haven't felt like doing any projects of my own. My weekends have been precious, using the time to catch up with friends and to relax. I found myself documenting things that have inspired me or made me smile while I've been out and about...

I’ve enjoyed being outside on a super sunny Saturday sitting next to the river eating a yummy ploughmans lunch with my amazing man, Mr C, and seeing our fab friends.

I caught up with a very special friend from uni who lives nearby and had some fantastic home-made ice cream from Swinky Sweets we then sat in the park soaking up the sun, enjoying spring and chatting for hours…

I laughed so hard at a comedy night I went to this week that my cheeks and jaw ached!

…I met a friend in London who very kindly treated me to a coffee and delicious cake while we caught up on news and talked about how life is changing...

...I celebrated with friends who are expecting the arrival of a little bundle in a few weeks time...we ate yummy cupcakes and sipped champagne…

I love taking photos and capturing the little details...whether it's food I'd like to try and make myself, moments that make me happy, or things that have inspired me to think about creating new things...I've felt inspired in many different ways over the past few weeks...I'm looking forward to getting back onto the projects I've had to put to one side...I can't wait to put my energy back into what I really love doing... creating, making, baking, getting inspired and learning new things.

One of the most important things I’ve learnt during the past few months is to enjoy the little achievements and inspirations that happen everyday, they really do count towards an end goal…I hope that for the rest of the year and going forwards I will share with you more of my little achievements and inspirations and get to finish some projects of my own...What little achievements have you made this week? What has inspired you to do something new?