A Mind of its Own

Dear Blog,

        I know I haven't posted in a while. Thank you for the reminder yesterday. It seems that you can't wait for me any longer and have decided to post all by yourself. I would be thrilled but I doubt our subscribers wish to read a re-post from August 2015. As much as I appreciate the extra help, please allow me to do the posting from now on. I promise to visit you more often! I have not forgotten about you.

Yours truly,

Laurraine

The longest creativity slump of my life has finally come to an end. This Summer I played a lot in the garden, baked, went about the normal routine of keeping house & having friends over tea. However, when I opened my sketchbook or sat in front of my sewing machine my mind drew a blank.

n  o  t  h  i  n  g  .  .  .

Last month, the simple act of sewing some plaid elbow patches to my teenager's newly thrifted hoodie was enough to tug those creative strings. I decided to take a photo and share it on instagram even though it wasn't a very exciting project, and was motivated not only by the number of people who liked the elbow patches but by my creative friends who had missed me.

I spent the last couple weeks dabbling with some fusible web appliqué, sketching a few new ideas to add to my giant heap-o-designs, and learning more about instagram. I even had to ask my teenager about hashtags & stories!

I will be posting new stuff as well as a bunch of half-written ancient drafts still sitting in my posts section. I post more frequently on facebook & instagram. Search for patchworkpottery.

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Inspiration

I've been uninspired for so long. I've still been quilting a bit but was frustrated with keeping my three shops, flickr, facebook & my blog up to date. Sometimes it gets in the way of enjoying what you make. I told myself when I began blogging that I would never apologize for my sporadic posting or lengthy absences from the digital craft world, and I'm keeping that promise. Sometimes life takes over and sometimes it throws you new interests. That's Life :o)

I have been gardening lately. I was very involved with it this Spring. My husband built two 4x8 foot garden boxes for Mother's Day (well... I showed him how to build the first one)! I filled it using the Lasagna Gardening method to save money on buying dirt, and planted it using another method called Square Foot Gardening. As soon as it started to grow, I was absolutely inspired! Because the garden is divided up into one foot squares and different things are planted in each square, my garden looked like a quilt!

It has been very wet and rainy... as per usual in Coastal BC! And cold wet weather means mushrooms! Everywhere! In my garden boxes! I thought I took some pictures but I guess I was too busy looking up poisonous mushrooms. I'm pretty sure we're safe. The only poisonous mushrooms I have are the painted metal ones under the persimmon tree. Mushrooms are so inspiring!

Inspiring enough to paint or make a quilt of these magical garden inhabitants! I'm quite excited about my quilt design. I haven't seen a scalloped edge turned into mushroom tops yet! I just have to figure out how to align the stems if the scallops are different sizes...

I also discovered Katie Daisy when I was searching the internet for mushrooms. I love all her whimsical artwork, her lettering, the quotes she uses, and her passion for nature. Thank you for inspiring me, Katie!

Yes... it's time to go play outside!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Gardening on my Mind

I started my seeds in newspaper pots this year so when I saw this fabulous "Seed Tray" paper-piecing block by Amy of During Quiet Time I knew that I had finally found the perfect use for that newspaper fabric in my stash!

These 10.5" x 10.5" blocks are quite challenging but very fun to make. I have purchased the first eight garden patterns from Amy's shop and plan to buy them all as they become available!

I may add some other garden blocks such as the magical Vintage Mason Jar Tea Lanterns block by Sonja of Artisania, and maybe try piecing some of my own so that I will end up with a queen-sized garden masterpiece!

We have had a lot of rain lately which means that my plants are small but on the other hand I haven't had to water my garden much! I whipped up Christie Fowler's "Rain Cloud" mugrug from Zakka Style that I was most recently published in.

Speaking of books, you will be able to find an article on my blog in this month's Russian CrossStitcher magazine! I think it's quite exciting because this is the first time to be published in Russia. I will give you all a peek at the article later :o)

Here are some more leaf potholders that I made for a friend's housewarming present a few months back. She loves purples and blues and celestial as you can probably tell by looking at them because they are not my usual colours to work with. I pieced together the fabrics in straight lines but curve-pieced the centre vein of each leaf. I like them even more than these crazy patch leaves.

And last but not least, after 5 years of using my Teacup Pouch every day I had finally worn all the fabric off the handle. It was time to make myself a new pouch... and of course it had to have something about gardening on it... and linen of course!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Cotton & Thyme

My SpringTime Bag pattern can now be found in the Taiwanese quarterly quilting book: Cotton Life no.5! This one announces that SPRING has finally arrived with all the daffodil and tulip colours and flower prints galore!

Cotton Life is written in Chinese but includes photos for each step of every project so it very easy to follow. All measurements are in centimetres and includes full-size templates. Each issue includes 28-32 projects including accessories, clothing, housewares, bags, quilts and much more!

I was surprised to see my name on the front cover and I love how they designed my page! Take a sneak peek inside before you purchase a copy from my SHOP.

Here is a closer look at all the details. There is a flowerpot pocket on the front of the bag...

and a little birdie on the back...

and the pattern for the Butterfly Keychain is included!

The bag is also fully reversible if you decide that you want to go plain.

I was out in the sunshine all day yesterday preparing the gardens and planting early veggies. All of my window sills are full of herb, veggie & squash seedlings. Did I mention that "my time (thyme) is up"?!?! Enjoy your SpringTime!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Evening Tea Party & a Cozy

I made this french press cozy a while back. It is much simpler than my other designs... floral linen with red plaid binding and ties, and buttons embellishing the centres of quilted flowers! Lately I can seem to resist adding some sort of hand embroidery to each piece so I added little cross-stitches on the ties in the same dusty grey-green as in the linen. I really like how it turned out :o)

I hosted what will no doubt be the last evening tea party in my garden for the year. The weather is getting colder and wetter but I'm not complaining because my craftroom is bright even on a gloomy day. I am so lucky to have two of my high school friends as neighbours since moving to New Westminster. We try to get together every Wednesday evening for tea and sometimes a walk as well. Our visit was lovely! Solar lanterns hung from the wisteria vine, and tea lights in lanterns and jars added sparkle to the evening. The pie was baked with freshly picked blackberries! Yummmm...

For pure eye candy, I will throw in a picture of the cake I made for my husband's birthday in August...

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Tea Cozy & Garden Party

Enjoying ourselves at a local Tea House, my friend mentioned that she needed a tea cozy and was going to buy one from the gift shop. I immediately told her that I would not allow her to purchase one and that I would make her one... enter the deluxe patchwork tea cozy with two different sides!

The quote that I embroidered along the bottom, I borrowed from a vintage cross-stitch that my friend gave to me recently. It reads "Come into my kitchen and chat with me while I prepare a pot of tea." I think it may be my new favourite tea phrase!

It suddenly appeared on her teapot during our Wednesday night tea time... she almost cried :o)

As my family and I were entering a cafe, I spotted this license plate! I jumped up and down pointing at it. My hubby thought I was insane but I managed to get him to sneak a photo for me!

I turned 37 on June 13th. I made my own birthday cake this year which was polished off in minutes near the end of my small garden party :o) I usually don't like to make layer cakes because of the mess it makes when you try to cut the layers. This time I baked thin layers that looked like giant cookies. No cutting, no crumbs, no mess! PERFECT... especially with fresh strawberries and whipped cream!

I had a lovely afternoon enjoying my friends and my garden. Many thanks for all the birthday wishes I received via e-mail, flickr , and facebook too!!!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)