We rarely have snow in Shropshire, but this month it arrived right on cue as I joined the Moda Bakeshop chefs in their Countdown to Christmas. Each day in the run up to Christmas we have been posting a fun festive block, to be used together in a sampler quilt or individually in smaller projects. Sort of like an advent calendar without chocolate...which is slightly disappointing but it does involve fabric, so that’s OK then ;-) My design was inspired by a sprig of Holly and I

EDIT: You can now buy this pattern as a PDF here or as a Paper Pattern here. My subscription copy of Today's Quilter arrived last week and I was looking forward to opening it even more than usual, because this month I'm a contributor *insert much dancing around the kitchen* and my Festive Table Linen project has been included in the latest issue. I met editor Jenny Fox-Proverbs when I attended one of her classes at a quilt retreat in London a few years ago and she was as love

Welcome to my first Petit Four tutorial: finishing instructions for your Spellbound Sampler blocks. My directions are aimed at those of you making all nine blocks, but there are also notes, at the bottom of the post, for adapting the setting to make a table runner with just three blocks. And next week I'll be posting a tutorial for a cushion which uses just one. When I designed the quilt I knew that some blocks would need light backgrounds and some would need a dark contrast,

There has been lots of thoughtful discussion on Instagram recently about making what YOU really love, combining projects and fabrics in your own unique way. Singing your own song. Following your own creative path. As a designer it has given me enormous joy to see my patterns come to life in another’s hands. Whether it’s the fabric that’s been used or its placement within a block, individual choices can completely change the look of a quilt, letting the maker's personality shi

I was lucky enough to post another Moda Bakeshop recipe last month. A pretty Charm-Pack-friendly quilt I called 'Woodruff' (you can find it here). I made a similar quilt as a gift for my Mum, not long after I started quilting, which repeated the same block throughout the quilt to give a sort of plaid effect. I pieced that version with Charm Packs too, cutting all the little squares individually. So I was immediately drawn to this quilt, found on Pinterest... A very well-loved

My most recent finish, Pennine Star, has an interesting history. The design was created a century ago by Northumberland quilter Elizabeth Sanderson (1861-1934). It was extremely popular and examples can be found in the Quilters' Guild Collection, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the collection of the Beamish Museum in County Durham. A 'Sanderson Star' quilt, in the most delicious shade of primrose yellow, was included in 'Quilts 1700-2010 Hidden Histories, Untold Stories',

It's just over two (short) months until the Festival of Quilts. I've been sewing like a mad thing and managed to leave piles of fabric in most rooms of the house. Quilts on loan to quilt shops have winged their way home and new samples have been made. Props have been auditioned and the printers are on standby. If you are thinking of getting a ticket to the Festival I have a discount code for £2.50 off the price of advance tickets - so that's £12.50 instead of £15.00 - just us

I was catching up with Edyta Sitar's fabulous YouTube channel, Quilting Window, the other day. Firstly, a little about Edyta: she's a prolific quilter, designer, author, product innovator and teacher. That last word is very important, because her ability to explain challenging techniques with clarity and warmth makes her one of my favourites. I've taken all of her Craftsy classes and watched the series of brilliant tutorials she made for The Fat Quarter Shop. The latter are c

Our prompt for #igquiltfest today was books. I love books. Really LOVE them. They've been a life-long passion and, luckily, one that my husband shares. I daren't count how many we have between us: if it was too big a number I'd be worried about buying more...and that would be awful. Every brief flirtation with a new hobby is accompanied by a frenzy of inspirational book buying (and some serious eye-rolling by my Mum) and as quilting seems to have 'stuck' my shelves are groani

Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing Onward the sailors cry Carry the lad that's born to be King Over the sea to Skye... My goddaughter was named after the beautiful Scottish island of Skye and when I made a quilt for her birthday I wanted to include elements that would remind her, and her parents, of that magical place. The iconic croft house was my starting point. Built low to protect their inhabitants from Atlantic gales, they were heated by peat fires and often

I wrote this post last September and I hope you'll bear with me reposting it, because it has a happy ending. And we all need a few happy endings... Sep 2, 2016 Sometimes things just don't go to plan do they? So, of course, that must also apply when you're designing a quilt. Most of my designs start as a very quick sketch in my beloved sketchbook. I take it everywhere: my favourite is a plain A5 soft-cover Moleskine, with a mechanical pencil tucked inside. It might be a single

I suspect you may not be all that familiar with early landscape drawings, but I love them: the plans and elevations are often eccentrically combined together, without any regard to proportion or perspective. The example below, by Robert Skyring (c.1750), is of the magical garden at Levens Hall in the Lake District. The formal vistas, hedges and parterres were laid out at the end of the C17th and preserved by the happy accident of being passed down through less wealthy branche

I'm quite keen on the cake stand quilt block, you might have noticed ;-) They are one of the large family of basket blocks that started to appear in mid-C19th American quilts. Inspired by and named after household objects, many of them were made by the women of pioneer families who migrated west after the Homestead Act of 1862. These enterprising ladies might have spent up to a year preparing for their journey, preserving food, packing up their homes and making additional war

I have a real soft spot for Homely Joys. I originally drafted the house block to make some Christmas gifts for my nieces. They live in a beautiful Victorian vicarage, which has been painstakingly restored by their parents, and I had the pleasure of helping to design the gardens which the girls now play in. The block is my interpretation of the front elevation of their home. I dipped into my considerable collection of Tilda fabrics to make cushions for their bedrooms, as the t

If you've ever been curious about the design process, I hope you'll find this new occasional series interesting. I'm starting with my newest pattern, Make Sail, but I hope to revisit a few older designs over the next few months... The first element I designed in this quilt was - of course - the little Dinghy. A new film version of Arthur Ransome's Swallows & Amazons was released last year and there were some lovely stills from the filming in the press. The graphic shape of t

The lovely people at the Moda Bakeshop have let me post another tutorial - it's called Stepping Stones, you can find it here - and I thought it would be fun to share a little more about my inspiration for this quilt. Stepping Stones was inspired by a beautiful, hand-pieced Tumbling Block quilt-top in the Gawthorpe Textile Collection, made between 1875-1900. I first saw it in Gail Marsh's wonderful book 19th Century Embroidery Techniques - I bought mine here - which details it

Sometimes things just don't go to plan do they? So, of course, that must also apply when you're designing a quilt. Most of my designs start as a very quick sketch in my beloved sketchbook. I take it everywhere: my favourite is a plain A5 soft-cover Moleskine, with a mechanical pencil tucked inside. It might be a single block or a whole quilt-top, but that's where it starts. And then I draw it over and over again until the proportions look just right. One evening - no doubt I

So how on earth do you choose just the right fabric for a project when there are so many - endless - possibilities? If you read my last post you'll know that it was an internet search for fabric that lead me to start quilting in the first place. I wanted something that combined pale duck-egg blues & greens for a new Garden Room we were building and, on that occasion, the answer was to make it myself. And that's often how I start: with a specific room or piece of fabric in min