Next week is the final week in our Make Time British Sew-along. Forgive me for posting a few days early - we're off to the Lake District for a few days - but before I share our tips for assembling the quilt, let me remind you of our autumn sewing schedule: - 18th August  - Make Time  block with Jo Westfoot  - explore foundation paper piecing. 25th August  - Tulips, Clouds, Let's Chat, Get Snippy and Book Club blocks with Lou Orth  - explore curved piecing, snowball corners

Welcome to week seven of the Make Time British Sew-along. Before I show you a fun variation of the A Good Yarn block, let me remind you...

Welcome to week six of the Make Time British Sew-along. Before I introduce you to my blocks, let me remind you of our autumn sewing...

EDIT: The Dawn Chorus blocks - along with the Chorus Line bonus project - are now available as a printed pattern booklet here. Welcome to...

Welcome to week one of the British Sew-a-row. Before I introduce you to my row, Raining Cats & Dogs , let me remind you of our summer sewing schedule: 16th May - Raining Cats and Dogs with...me - Machine Piecing and Dresden Blocks 30th May - Conversation Starter with Lou Orth - Foundation Paper Piecing 13th June - Royal Row with Yasmeen K Branton - Needle turn hand applique 27th June - Afternoon Tea with Jo Westfoot - Foundation Paper Piecing 11th July - London, Ba

...the bird is on the wing. Or busy nesting by now, I should think! If you're doing a little nesting yourself, or making a quilt for...

Cobweb The Garden Spider builds her delicate web - often over twelve inches in diameter - every single day and although we may be squeamish about it’s builder, no one can deny the beauty of her work. You can find the block here . EDIT: Although the sew-along has finished, you can still use the weekly posts as a guide and sew with a group of friends. You can find the Spellbound Sampler pattern book here and on Amazon, or the PDF Pattern Bundle here . CUTTING... Follow step

Wise Owl Is there anything quite as eerily atmospheric as the call of an owl? But the t’wit t’woo of the Tawny is, in fact, a duet...

The Raven The subject of Edgar Allen Poe’s Gothic poem and revered, often feared, in folklore, the Raven is one of our most intelligent, long-lived and loyal birds, mating for life. Young Ravens leave their parents in Autumn to find new territory and a mate of their own. Our abandoned garden will be perfect. This week we will be using a new technique: bias strip applique, which is a simple and effective way of adding fine detail to our blocks. In this case, the Raven's leg

Moonlit Bat No Gothic garden would be complete without a resident Bat, circling through the darkening trees at dusk before retreating to the Gatehouse attic to wait out the winter. You can find the block here . We will be using techniques that we've explored in previous blocks - snowballed corners , dresden fans and simple embroidery - but this block does differ in one respect: it's constructed asymmetrically to accommodate the wings, so some of the units will look slight

Merveille du Jour When I started drafting a bat block for the Spellbound Sampler - we’ll be meeting him next week - I realised what wonderful wings I could make with traditional dresden fans. And then, of course, I tried to think what else I could use them for: birds’ wings and cobwebs, yes, but surely not butterflies or moths? Although most British butterflies and moths are hibernating or migrating by the end of October, there is whole family of moths who emerge in the dy

Toadstools Beloved of childrens’ book authors, the Toadstool has long been imagined as the home of various pixies, fairies and elves. The...

Moon & Star Our enchanted garden is lit by a waning crescent moon. Far away from the constant glow of streetlights, moonlight makes the...

Pumpkin A familiar symbol of autumn abundance, the Pumpkin is an essential part of Thanksgiving feasts in Canada and the United States. The seeds were taken back to Europe by explorers and by the end of the C17th it had found it's way into our fairy-tales, as Cinderella's magical carriage. The pumpkin block from my first sampler EDIT: Although the sew-along has finished, you can still use the weekly posts as a guide and sew with a group of friends. You can find the Spe

Gothic Gatehouse When designing the blocks for the Spellbound sampler I pictured an abandoned garden at dusk in late Autumn. As nature...

The next tutorial I want to share with you uses just one Petit Four block and is based on the cushions I made for my Festival of Quilts...

Edit: All of the posts & tutorials from 2018's Spellbound Sew-along can be found here. Welcome to my first Petit Four tutorial: finishing...

I had an email from one of my lovely customers, Jessica, this morning. She's been making my To Skye quilt and was having a few problems...

A warm welcome if you've joined me from the marvellous Moda Bakeshop . Here, as promised, are my favourite tips for those of you considering hand quilting your Woodruff Quilt. Or any quilt, for that matter. I love hand-quilting and find it very relaxing. I particularly enjoy the transformation of three separate layers of fabric - feeling their weight draped over my palm - to one continuous piece of quilted fabric, which somehow takes on a life of its own, feeling lighter i

I was catching up with Edyta Sitar's fabulous YouTube channel, Quilting Window, the other day. Firstly, a little about Edyta: she's a...