Spring Cottage Sampler: Mary's Cottage
- Nicola
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
With spring on the horizon, I'm delighted to introduce you to my new Petit FOUR pattern, the Spring Cottage Sampler, before its release on the 1st of March.
Last year Andrea - from the Willow Cottage Quilt Company - and I posted parcels of Tilda-filled loveliness to our block of the month participants, with each block taking them on a restoring ramble deep into the heart of the English countryside as we searched for the first signs of spring.
My inspiration for the Spring Cottage Sampler can be found just along the lane where I live: Spring Cottage was the beloved home of Shropshire poet and novelist Mary Webb. She spent many happy hours tucked under her veranda reflecting on the garden she'd created and the ravishing view over the Shropshire Hills.
We're going to start our ramble with my initial inspiration: at Mary's cottage...
Spring Cottage
Mary was born in Shropshire in 1881 and grew up in Much Wenlock, where her school teacher father inspired her love of literature and the local countryside. Developing a thyroid condition at the age of 20 - which affected her appearance and compromised her health - made an already shy and sensitive girl finely attuned to the suffering of others. When she married her husband, Henry, in 1912, she insisted on inviting the elderly residents of the local alms houses to the wedding, as she thought they'd enjoy the day out.
The success of Mary's first novel, The Golden Arrow, allowed the couple to buy a plot of land on Lyth Hill, just to the south of the county town of Shrewsbury, where they built Spring Cottage. Mary spent her happiest years there and went on to write four more novels, including the acclaimed Precious Bane, and a book of poetry which I have dipped into for my pattern book.
March Hare
I'm writing this in February and out in the fields, the breeding season for the mysterious hare has already begun, running from the end of January until August. The hare is nocturnal and spends the day snuggled down in long grass, in fact you could walk right past and never spot it. But as spring approaches you might see a female hare testing her suitors by racing across open ground as the night ends - exceeding speeds of 40 miles an hour - and if he catches her she might still stand on her hind legs and box his ears. So spring is the one time you might, at last, see a hare (or two) and is why we fondly call them Mad March Hares (or Frenzied February Hares, which isn't as catchy). As dawn gets earlier with each passing day, we're less likely to be up and about to see them.
But the hopes - and anxieties - surrounding the birth of a new baby also gave rise to one of the cruellest myths about the hare: the outdated belief that, if a pregnant woman crossed paths with a hare, her child would be born with a cleft lip. The life of the heroine, Prue Sarn, in my favourite Mary Webb novel, Precious Bane, is blighted by prejudice because of her cleft lip. It was something Mary understood all too well, as Grave's Disease affected her own appearance. Courageous and loving, Prue's story is ultimately a happy one, reflecting Mary's own hopeful nature and her joy at creating a beautiful home at Spring Cottage with her husband.
Nature Study
The Nature Study block is my tribute to an artist I've loved since I was a teenager. A contemporary of Mary Webb's, her Nature Notes for 1906 enchanted readers across the world - including me - when they were finally published seventy years later. You may know them better as The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady and her name is Edith Holden.
Edith's handwritten diary recorded her observations of the flora and fauna in the countryside around her Warwickshire home. Notes on the weather, country sayings and poetry were interspersed with her beautifully composed watercolours. I still have the treasured copy of the Country Diary gifted to me and it was a constant source of inspiration as I designed the Spring Cottage blocks.
The Spring Cottage blocks will be released on the 1st of March, both individually and collected together with their leafy setting in a PDF Pattern Book. If you prefer printed Pattern Books, they'll be available on Amazon - for delivery wherever you are - or you can pre-order them here.
In my next post I'll be sharing the blocks inspired by Mary's tea table. At least, as I like to imagine it...
with love from the studio,
