British Sew-a-Row 2025: choosing fabrics

In a busy world where our lives are full of work commitments, family responsibilities and the distractions of social media, we're reminded of the importance of making time for the things that nourish our souls, make us happy, and force us to slow down and reconnect with what’s really important.

For our new quilt, my British Sew along friends, Jo, Lou and Victoria, have all designed blocks that reconnect us to our creativity, to the natural world, to our friends and to the importance of self-care. We had a wonderful time launching Make Time at the Festival of Quilts and we're excited for our sewalong to start on the 18th of August, when each designer will take a two-week turn to introduce you to their blocks and share their top tips for making them. Here's the 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 and foundation paper piecing

8th September - Sunrise, Sewing Machine, Friendship Heart and Kitty Cat blocks with Victoria Peat - explore piecing dresden fans and foundation paper piecing

22nd September - Friendship Star, Smell the Roses, A Good Yarn & Bubble Bath blocks, here with me - explore machine piecing, partial seams, strip piecing & simple embroidery

6th October - Time for a Cuppa, Thread Spools, Music Soothes the Soul & Walk in Nature blocks with Jo Westfoot - explore foundation paper piecing and turned edge applique

20th October - join me here again for my tips on assembling the quilt

In the meantime, you have a week or so to gather your supplies and take advantage of a fab 20% Earlybird Discount {ends 17th of August} when you purchase the pattern.

This year we decided to make our quilt with a selection of bright and beautiful Kona Solids, but you are the queen of your own quilt, so we wanted to inspire you to create a colour palette that makes YOU happy.

I've been playing with a soft, romantic colour palette using Tilda Solids, along with a couple of blenders for good measure. I used rosewood, lupine, blue sage, soft teal, dove and dusty rose Solids, plus Tiny Star in grey and Sophie in sand. I also substituted more dove for the bright pink and dusty rose for the gold.

You can also pop over to a wonderful site called Quilt Ink, sign up for a free account and start 'colouring in'. You can find inspiring examples of Make Time on the Wall, search for the quilt in Patterns and find plenty of tips on colour theory in the Quilt Colour Hub.

This quilt is also a wonderful way to gobble up all those precious scraps you've been hoarding and we'll be sharing plenty of inspiration during the sewalong for using individual blocks as smaller projects. I've just made mine and I can't wait to share!!

Until then, make time to do what makes you happy,

Nicola xx

#britishsewarow #maketimesewalong