My garden in February

Last month I said the snowdrops were coming, well this month they arrived. These giant snowdrops are my absolute favourites and I can’t wait for them to take themselves for a wander around the border!

I can spot these from inside the house, and each time I do I’m reminded what a great idea it was to plant them there!

Once again there’s been very little actual gardening activity this month but as well as enjoying peeking on the snowdrops, there’s been some pretty sunsets too. Though isn’t it great that sunset is now past 5pm, and won’t be before 5pm until much later in the year.

The mahonia is doing its thing and looking glorious, I love how the berries have that pink tinge and think it’s a plant that looks very regal with its crown of berries.

Elsewhere in the garden I’ve seen evidence of daffodils, so I’m hoping that they will enjoy the warmer days we’ve had towards the end of the month, and will quite literally march into March. I know that I need to spend some time with all my bulbs in pots after this growing season, but I’m hoping that they’ll give a good show before I refresh their soil and get them ready for flowering next year.

Alongside the mahonia the other star in our garden right now is the creamy green hellebore, isn’t it gorgeous?

The elephants ears we brought with us from London are also in flower and while they could do with a general tidy, they’re doing pretty well contending with that huge weed on the right. I’ve plenty of weeding opportunities too, so as it looks like the weather is going to be good that’s at the top of my list, and to be honest I can’t wait to do some actual gardening, just as long as the weather’s fine!

Fingers crossed for a dry and uplifting spring!

New to my craft room in February

As predicted last month it has been a relatively quieter month for things arriving into my craft space this month, and in better news for my purse they’ve cost little, or nothing.

I’ve recently started going along to a new-to-me crochet group which impressively meets in the nearby village pub every Friday afternoon - all very civilised! But of course I needed a portable crochet project to take with me, for the first session I dug out some wool I had and a hook and at the first session made the granny square in the photo below.

The wool I had would only take me so far I knew, so I stopped off in one of the shops in town selling wool and picked up three matching 100g balls for less than a fiver. I’ve now got three larger than usual granny squares, a new craft group and a new project. My plan is to make eight of these squares and use them to cover one of the many canvas tote bags which are now ubiquitous aren’t they?

The shop selling wool was just along from where I bought some fabulous yellow buttons (pictured in this older post) which is sadly closing at the end of this month (mental note: must make another visit before it closes!). I was hoping to discover some more vintage buttons, and I did leaving with this bundle of buttons and trims for £10.

At my sewing group I was given these small squares and rectangles of fabric, some of which are the same size that I’m using to make my scrappy houses (more on that project another day), so those have gone straight into the scrappy houses biscuit tin. I’m planning to use at least some of the others for small lavender sachets, that’s the plan anyway.

I also nabbed some pretty remnant Liberty fabric from an Instagram destash sale for £4, and then a few days later I added the rather fabulous and completely eccentric ‘Emergency Brooch Kit’ for another £4. I love the idea of carrying it ‘with you at all times’ for ‘those quiet moments or to kill a bit of time’.

I’m still collecting stuff for potential weaving with waste projects, this month adding three plum fruit nets and a further lime fruit net to my stash, along with the length of blue wire cut from our new chandelier when it was installed.

I’ve also finally relinquished some much loved tops from my wardrobe. They’re well past donating to charity, so they’re currently in my craft room waiting for the perfect project to claim them, or until I no longer need to store them - I’m not sure which will come first if I’m honest.

So that’s another month in my craft room, check out my previous updates for earlier additions, and remember to let me know below what you’ve added to your craft supplies this month.

A year of my 'stretch' project

Around this time last year I rather foolishly (with hindsight!) set myself what I said at the time was a ‘potentially crazy project’ as part of my quilt plans for 2025. It was borne out of wanting to make use of the test blocks I was determined to make so that my mystery block of the month quilt would be the best it could be.

The thing about setting myself this challenge, however crazy it seemed, was that it became a thing that I didn’t want to fail at, even though back then, and every month since, I said I wouldn’t know if I could do it unless I tried…

Well I tried, and I succeeded!

Not only have I made the equivalent of a quilt a month for charity, I’ve also improved my sewing skills and sewing confidence too. I hoped that I would also sew through my stash rather more than I have, and while I clearly have shifted a fair bit of fabric, I’m very much of the opinion that scraps of fabric breed when you’re not looking!

Seriously.

But I have a plan for dealing with that in 2026, as you knew I would, but more of that another day.

My ‘stretch’ project quilts

These quilts aren’t the largest quilts, but the are big enough to give a quilt-sized hug to children that need one. They have been/will be donated to Project Linus who provide quilts to children who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, handmade, washable quilts and blankets.

They are:

1. A log cabin log cabin

2. A mostly repurposed vintage star

3. Four pink hearts and a hug

4. The Friendly Bee

5. Pleated Tulips

6. A Raspberry Plus

7. Half the Scraps

8. Blues and greens

9. Marmalade hearts

10. Ohio flower garden

11. My Dresden buttercup

12. Stars and spots
    

PICTURED (FROM BOTTOM): BLUES AND GREENS, MARMALADE HEARTS, OHIO FLOWER GARDEN, MY DRESDEN BUTTERCUP AND STARS AND SPOTS WHICH ARE WAITING TO BE DONATED TO PROJECT LINUS

Lesson learned

I am proud to have finished all of these quilts and to donate them to charity, but I won’t be setting myself any such similar challenges for this year, though I will still continue to make quilts for charity. What I found was that this was the focus of my sewing time, and it meant that I didn’t spend anywhere near as much time as I hoped on the other quilts on my list, or on garment sewing - though of course, I found there’s always time to make a pouch or two!