From my Sketchbook: Royal Posies

Curtseys at the ready, because I have some rather regal projects to share with you today. Designed to celebrate the launch of Liberty's new Palace Gardens collection, let me formally introduce you to the Royal Posies quilt and it's charming companion, Garden Party Bunting.

Liberty commissioned the quilt to introduce their Palace Garden collection at the H&H Americas trade show last spring and they asked me to base my design on motifs from the Royal Posies print in the collection, which combines sprigs of flowers and leaves with tiny crowns. The blocks showcase two of the colourways - the blues and greens - set off with by a dramatic navy York Fern background.

The quilt was finished with a feature wide binding, using fussy cut strips of the Regal Stripe print and I have to give Liberty all the credit for suggesting it. Initially I dithered about doing it: the timeline was tight, I was working with sample fabric and I'd never done anything quite like it before. But after a bit of research - thank you Google and YouTube - I discovered a wonderful tutorial for single-fold wide binding by Carrie Nelson for the Fat Quarter Shop.

I made some test samples with the trimmings from my blocks and managed to work out a way of concealing the joins at the corners so that my lovely bands of roses ran uninterrupted around the quilt. I'm not sure I've ever been quite so nervous about binding a quilt, but I did remember to take lots of photos, which I'll be sharing in my next post.

Pascale at Watson & Thornton quilted it with elegant roses, which perfectly mirrored the roses in the prints. And really, is there anything that sums up a palace garden as well as a rose? While Pascale was busy quilting a rose bed, I made some pretty pieced bunting to decorate the Liberty stand...

My lovely friend Leisa, from US Liberty stockist Morris Textiles, sent me these snaps from the Liberty stand when Royal Posies made its debut at the H&H Americas trade show last May. And you can find the free pattern for the quilt here and the bunting here on the Liberty Fabric website.

I fell in love with Liberty the moment I walked through its doors forty years ago and it's been a dream come true to create this quilt for them.

with love from the studio,