African Violets

I went to visit an elderly Aunt last Saturday  she has moved house since my last visit, her new place is a top floor flat, and she has turned it into a lovely cosy home.  There are so many lovely things surrounding her most of which are gifts from family and friends, a beautiful picture of poppies painted by her niece and a lovely landscape painted by a friend and a hand made picture frame containing a photo of my sons graduation.  I could see that she treasured these gifts as they were all in a place of prominence where her eyes will fall upon them while she sits in her cosy chair.  You can just tell when someone appreciates hand made things. Well it's her birthday next week so I wanted to give her a special gift for her new home so I have made these African Violets I hope that she will like them.   I  love African Violets but they never seem to live that long for me, or they will bloom and then the flowers die and you have to wait so long for them to reappear.  So I think that this is the perfect solution, they are very realistic don't you think.  
It's a June Gilbank design  and as soon as I saw the pattern I had to buy it.  I have never tried making anything like this before so they may not be as perfect as they should be but the pattern is quite simple and easy to follow. I added a few of my own touches like adding the little ladybird and the butterfly.  In fact I liked it so much I made a smaller version for myself :)

The pictures don't really do it justice I have been wanting to show you all these all week but the lighting has been so dull and the photo's turned out very dark, in the end I took the photo's outside on my patio between the showers.

The ladybird and butterfly can be found in the book 75 Birds and Butterfly's

I adapted the ladybird to make it smaller to fit the leaf

Hexagon Love

I just love Hexagons they are my favourite shape a pain to join together but always worth the effort.  I really enjoyed making this Hexagon lap-rug it seems so long ago now and I'm always on the lookout for a new Hexagon that will inspire me to make another. Here are my collection of Hexagons from Beyond the square.  I have made these with Dk cotton and a 3.5mm hook

 

Motif #30

 A lovely motif and a pleasure to make.  It would be easy to use as a blanket motif because it just flows, you could miss the last round to make it even easier and it would still look good.  I will definitely be revisiting this one in the future.

Motif #31

There is a lot of work in this motif but it is such fun to do.  I like the real life version better than the one in the book as it's lovely to feel the texture. 

Motif #32

 I picked this one without realising that it was the reverse of Motif #31, how clever is that a two sided motif, I love it ! I can't decide which side I like the most but I have decided to make some pot holders with it, as others doing this challenge have noted it is ideal for that purpose because of it's thick texture.

Motif #33

 Another pretty little motif ideal for a large project.

Motif #36

 This one is like a little star depending on the colours you use it could be a lovely flower motif  too, nice made up as a shawl or scarf.

Motif #38

 There was quite a bit of work involved with this one, it's one of the larger motifs looking quite regal with it's 6 crowns.

Motif #42

A big lacy flower I just had to show you this one on two colour backgrounds, I think it looks so pretty with the blue background.  it's quite a big motif and I have to say this one does excite me, I can see it in a large project, not quite sure as what yet but inspiration will come I'm sure.

Progress 32 out of 100

Triangles next :)

Spring Flowers

I wait for these flowers to bloom every spring, I love them so much I won't plant them in the garden, I keep them in pots near the window so that I can look at them everyday come rain or shine.  

Bleeding Hearts so pretty with their arching stems one in pink and one in white.

Clematis Pixi, I usually have this growing up a trellis but it looks just as nice cascading over the edge of the pot and can you see my new pot of forget-me-nots so pretty in blue

Grouped all together their beauty makes me smile :)