Welcome to the ninth in my Three Questions series, where I ask makers about their creative practices. I’ve known Rachael since 2016, when I wrote an article about her and her quilts for Quilters Companion magazine. I’m so pleased to be able to feature her work here. Rachaeldaisy is a quilt maker with a playful […]
Two steps forward, one step back
You guessed it – after a couple of hot days, the showers came back with the added bonus of summer storms. Still, life went on. Monday 31 JanuaryMy Monday mornings always start by reading Grace Alexander’s email newsletter. Grace is a gardener in the UK and her thoughts are always valuable to me, though the […]
The week the sun came out
The clouds cleared and the sun gave us warmth this week. The showers didn’t completely disappear, of course, but there was enough sunshine to encourage dahlia blooms to open for the first time this season. I was even able to cut dahlias for indoors. It was a week to be happy in the garden. Monday […]
Fabric dithering
I don’t need to start a new quilt project. There are plenty of unfinished ones already on my shelves so why don’t I work on them instead? As usual, it’s because of the lure of different fabrics. In this case, a pile of Liberty lawns that I’ve been collecting for years. As every quilter knows, […]
Journalling my week
I thought I’d add a new type of post to these pages, to record the small things and the passing of days. You may find it interesting, or you may not but please leave a comment either way. I’d love your feedback. Monday 17 January My birthday was celebrated by the sun emerging after a […]
Ups and downs quilt
As soon as I saw a photograph of Sarah Fielke’s Ups and Downs quilt, I knew I wanted to make my own version. It looked simple to piece by machine and I immediately knew I wanted to hand quilt it. Then I remembered that Sarah makes ENORMOUS quilts and I don’t. How she does it, […]
Welcome to the summer solstice
I was asleep at 2.58 am this morning, when the Earth’s tilt placed us closest to the Sun. Funny how natural events like these don’t take any notice of what we insignificant humans are doing at the time, isn’t it? Celebrated by pagans as Litha, the summer solstice is a day to contemplate light and […]
Listening to my quilts
The challenge was to make a quilt that measured 50 inches square. Sounds straightforward, right? No such luck – my quilt had other ideas. It simply did not want to be that size and fought me all the way. Spoiler: the quilt won. It has always been difficult for me to make a quilt to […]
Indigo Tiles
When I make a quilt, I rarely have a firm idea of how the design will turn out. For pieced quilts, I usually start with a block that attracts me or fabric I want to use. For my Indigo Tiles quilt, I wanted to use some of the vast collection of blue prints in my […]
Recycled rainbows
Scrap quilts are often the most interesting to make. This small quilt (24cm x 29cm) was fun to stitch. As usual, there’s a story behind it. For many years, my friend Lisa Walton has been selling her hand-dyed fabrics, both in separate pieces and in kits. She often has scraps left over from cutting these […]