Henrietta asked in the comments about the plant in my last post. This pot actually contains dozens of bulbs called lachenalia, and they were from my mum's garden. They reproduce readily. and every year there were more and more of them, which she faithfully dug up when the season was over, and then planted again next year. She had thousands of them, but she couldn't bring herself to throw any away, so it took weeks to get them in the ground. Every path and flower bed was lined with their cheerful ranks, and a self seeded tiny white chrysanthemum grew all through them. The effect was dazzling, and I want to try and replicate it in my garden too.

These were fertilised and grew much larger this year than when they were in the garden. When they die down I'll split them up and store them, they are so crowded in this pot there isn't room for any more. Their spotted leaves are quite handsome too.

I have some red ones from my MIL's garden, but they aren't as prolific and easy to grow. I've never seen them available in shops- I think they must be an old type and not as popular as some of the more flashy bulbs. I'll continue to spread them through the flower beds, but I'm not going to dig them up every year as Mum did. They seem to fend for themselves if left in situ, and it's one less gardening job for me.

It's been very spring-like here, and I had a sudden mad urge to stop sewing the brown brown brown Duck's Foot blocks I've been making and delve into my pastel fabrics.

 It wasn't until I viewed the photos that I realised this must be a reaction to the change of the season, all those pretty blossomy, flowery shades together.

I chose a pretty turquoise for the main colour, and cut up a heap of strips and squares for Bonnie's Pineapple Blossom block.

 

I've made the centres for twelve blocks to see if I like the process, and to use the smaller pieces from the scrap drawers. Next I'll have to cut  strips to get some longer lengths, and cut a heap more of the background squares. I'm having so much fun I don't think I'll stop at twelve though, these colours are making me very happy.....

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 I think I underestimated how much sewing there was in these multiple borders, it took hours and hours to cut and sew the strip sets. Then I had to attatch them and mitre the corners, quite an undertaking. The antique quilt I based this on had the blocks sort of 'floating' on the background, and I think mine have the same effect.

Keryn has a tutorial on how we do mitred corners here. I will say that I hand tack the fold in place without moving it from the ironing board instead of sewing it at the machine.( I slip a small cutting mat underneath so the pins and the needle don't catch the ironing board cover) And I will change thread colours as I applique this seam down, I'm a bit picky about things like that. I love this method of doing mitres, I've never had one that didn't work out perfectly.

Oh dear, Spring Fever has struck and I'm elbow deep in potting mix and seed sowing and garden clearing. I have a happy knack of being able to ignore the weeds and mess in the garden and just concentrate on the flowers, the colours, the joy of seeing things grow. I don't have time to maintain a spick and span garden, so I just enjoy what I've got.

But I think I might have gone a bit overboard on the roses this year. My brother dug up all his old ones and I rescued five of them and then I bought about ten new ones over the last two months. I'm crazy, but I can't seem to resist them. Now they're all shooting happily and a few have little buds appearing- I can hardly wait until the new ones flower and I can see whether they are as beautiful as the labels say.

When I'm watering this many pots in January I won't be quite so delirious, but that's months away....

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