Mothers' day in the Rusty household

Being elder child's birthday last Sunday, this obviously took precedence over the somewhat arbitrary modern custom that is Mothers' Day. The children decided to celebrate a week later instead, so yesterday was my day for tea and toast in bed, my choice of what to do for the day and Sunday roast cooked by teenagers with a little help from their dad.

My choice of activity was an afternoon at the allotment - family weeding you might call it.

A job shared is a job halved, or in this case quartered. We got a lot done, and the weather couldn't have been nicer.

In other news a little crafting has been going on.

Crochet heart bunting for the birthday girl

Instructions from Marie at Marie's Making


Lace trim on some cheap cotton pillowcases, hand sewn in less that an hour, so pleased with this:)

And wherever I am taking pictures, a cat always appears!

Tromboncini

Is my husband's favourite Italian word. And here are the first home grown tromboncini of the year, I inherited them on my allotment, the previous owner had planted them around the compost bin. I rarely pick flowers for inside, they look so lovely in situ, but these will be appreciated much more on my windowsill.

And elsewhere on the allotment, all is very weedy. I know, I know, I've left it very late ( again!) to get on top of the weeds and get planting. But when it comes down to it, I am not an all-weather gardener and that is that. So when the weather tempts me outside it is already too late to get on top of everything. So like last year, and the year before, I will be weeding and planting as I go. Oh well, there are worse crimes...

So I cleared and sowed my first bed of the year. You can just read the label, it says 'carrots'

And a little snapshot of a couple of other beds. Not the worst ones!

Black currants. Just looking at the bushes with their tiny buds makes me remember the juicy berries we had last year.

Asparagus - this will be year 2 for the asparagus, so hopefully we should have some spears to eat this year. It is difficult soil here for this crop, heavy clay, but here's hoping I put enough grit in for the plants to thrive.

And new life, amazing how this has sprouted since I last inspected it, only a week or so ago. Won't be long till we can start picking :)

Finished!

Finally the
Ripple
Is
Done

Well the dog likes it! .....

Got the bag bug

I can't resist a bargain, and I love beautiful material, so as i think I've mentioned before, the off-cuts bin in John Lewis is a source of much of my stash-under-the-bed. I found this last week:

I'm going to make a bag from this material. I never use a pattern, I tend to look at an existing bag and work out how I can make something similar. I've made a few mistakes, but each one has been better than the last, more or less. And some tips from the lovely Lisa at U-Handblog.

So this one is going to be these dimensions:

And here is my sketch

I bought my notions, a decorative button, a magnetic closure and a zip for the internal pocket

Lots of interfacing (VITAL for that professional stand up by itself look.)

I just need to find a few hours to sit and sew it together. I can't wait :)

I also found these tea towels and thought it would make a good groceries bag. Two for the front and back, one for straps and decoration. Should whizz up in 20 minutes I reckon..

And in other news, I found a use for the fabric boxes I mentioned here but didn't photograph.

I've been sorting out packets of seeds, it is that time of year again. These are the ones to plant in the next few weeks.

And here they are in the little box I made

And the pockets hold the labels and pencil perfectly.

And here is the link to the lovely, talented michelle who has kindly posted pictures of the boxes I made for her, and an explanation of how they were made.

Finish it up friday

I've finished a few things these last few weeks, I've been dying to show you -hope it isn't cheating! Linking up to AmandaJean at Crazy Mom Quilts.

First here's the bag I made for my friend, it is a crafting tote for her embroidery course.

Then there is the cushion I have mentioned, at least twice.

The crochet scarf I blogged about yesterday

And.... Oh, that's it, sorry. Just more wip's to show, but that is for another day. Working on a double bed size patchwork quilt and nearly finished the bed sized ripple blanket so they are worth waiting for I reckon.

Purple but not sprouting

At the allotment today I was hoping for broccoli; it was planted last spring and looks lovely and healthy, it has been just about to sprout for weeks and weeks, lots of buds but no shoots. I wonder if it will ever shoot or if I did something wrong. Too much water, too little water, too close together, too cold, too hot... Who knows? It is my third year of trying to grow broccoli and it is my last if this doesn't work.

But boy what it lacked in sprouts, it made up for in colour.

There is something about colour that can just catch me unawares sometimes. Like a certain piece of music it can just make your heart sing, and your soul soar. And when I got home, still buoyed up by the glorious richness of the purple leaves, I realised that I chose that particular purple quite a lot in fact.

What I was wearing for a start...

My new cushion fabric

My ripple blanket (Nearly finished, I've started the border, can you see?)

Definitely purple..

My favourite house plant

I remember reading on someone's blog about how they chose their colours, then ended up with the same ones every time. Soul colours she called them. Well, I guess I found mine.

Been busy

I've been offline, finding it hard to get back into blogging. The longer you leave it the more difficult it gets. (that is such a truism, you can apply it to so many things... tidying, decorating, exercise....)
Anyway I've not been idle. In the craft arena I've crocheted a scarf

Remember the first attempt? Here

Well I frogged that and bought a couple of balls of new blue wool. OH is delighted with it, and I must say I am quite pleased. It was SO quick to make. Two strands of yarn crocheted together, a simple half treble (us half double) and only a few long rows. All done in one evening. What's not to like?

And I made a bag, started a quilt - well actually I've done quite a lot of a quilt :) - and made some fabric boxes for a friend and neighbour. Oh, and I made a cushion out of the remnant I found here. Plenty of stuff to post about. No excuses.