Shortbread buttons

Now I am not a great cook but when I saw a recipe for shortbread button biscuits in the new May edition of Country Living magazine, I just had to give them a try. I was delighted with the finished product.
Suitable for knitters , quilters and tea drinkers in fact anybody who likes needle crafts and biscuits. The only down side was the 3lb bag of rice flour I carried from Fenwick's delicatessen I bought to make them, I now have one arm longer than the other.
and they are absolutely perfect to show off the glass dome I found in a charity shop for £1 last week, a perfect fit for my glass cake stand.

I have been too busy in the garden this weekend to do any sewing or knitting - the sunshine was too good to miss. This lovely shrub has bloomed again I think it is called Brides Bouquet - and it is absolutely laden with blooms.
as is the cherry tree in my front garden. ....and now we can have fancy close up shots with the new camera!!

Happy Quilting xx

Pansies and other gorgeous things

Now I have 2 cameras, I have been experimenting a bit to see if I can improve the images on my blog. So now we can have every photo in close up.........................a bit further away ..............or at a distance....... Which ever way I look at them these pansies have bloomed magnificently with the spring sunshine. I bought them at the beginning of November as winter flowering pansies to brighten up the front of the house. After 3 weeks the snow came and wiped them out. Fortunately I had not got round to tipping the planters into the compost bin and suddenly they have bloomed again.The daffodils are also blooming ... these ones showing off in a jug I bought in a charity shop to put custard in at Christmas. But watch out for that table cloth - when I bought the fabric I wasn't sure what to do with it. But a metre of Amy Butler fabric for only £6 deserved something special.But I think it is more useful as a pinny. I can just about make this pattern with my eyes shut now. A present for a friend who is retiring - I hope she doesn't feel tied to the kitchen sink by the apron strings!! I bought these lovely little tags from Helen at Busy Bees Studios open day last week.And I've been putting them on everything I've made this week. A pair of quilted hotties.And a sweet little make up bag made from a Moda Honey bun which is a tiny jelly roll of 1 1/2 " strips of fabric. They came in a pack of 2 and have been lurking at the bottom of my stash for the last 2 years or so.
I have torn myself away from the sewing table to do a bit of gardening, I bought some new lavender plants, a few primroses and a pretty white flowering perennial called Snow Cap.
And here it is with all the other gorgeous things that I bought from the gorgeous Helen at her gorgeous Busy Bee studio in the gorgeous sunshine last weekend.

Hope you like the photos

Happy Quilting xx