It’s the same every month – a mad rush up to magazine publication day. The week beforehand is filled with editorial tasks, then comes the moment of converting from my publishing package to a pdf file – and onwards to the final, heart-in-my-mouth moment – uploading to the website. I say heart in my mouth, though this isn’t quite true now as there are rarely issues. But I remember back in the early days (the magazine began in 2011), uploading could be problematic, sometimes taking several hours to complete before the arrival of faster broadband in our little village.
Today the magazine is packed with beautiful photography and lots of diagrams and templates for the patterns too, and I’m very grateful for superfast broadband – back in those early days I’m sure that my connection simply couldn’t have coped. Below is a taster taken from the current (March) edition which shows you a little of what I mean about its content….
But now that super-busy week is behind me, and I can relax and do a little of what I enjoy best – creating and stitching. I am most definitely not a minimalist, and was delighted when colour seemed to come back into fashion for interiors – my embroidered quilt project is definitely colourful….
I’m up to 20 blocks now and still have a stack of completed samples to include. Minimalist it most certainly isn’t. Fun, definitely – and it also brings back so many memories of when I sat to stitch these pieces – the daisies in the centre were an early piece, worked in my summer house in Coombe Leigh in Devon, whilst the reindeer are right up to date, featuring in the magazine last autumn. It’s fun burrowing down to the end of my scrap box too, I do love that you can reuse fabric almost indefinitely… the pink gingham at the top was originally part of my kitchen blinds in Coombe Leigh, then a blind in my workroom in my cottage in Oakhill and now this little scrap has found its way into my embroidered quilt!
Above is the inside of my little blue shed – I think I need to have a bit of a tidy up, all this rummaging for samples and scraps has caused a bit of a mess. But I thought I’d show you Flora – still working hard looking after my pins and needles and looking good after six or seven years’ service. I gave away her pattern back in 2017, and here’s the link to that post if you’d like to make your own Flora. The fabric I used was a vintage 1930’s chinz but Sanderson do lots of great floral fabrics, while vintage samples and fabric pieces can easily be found on eBay.
And finally .. all this patchwork has given me an idea…
I have been working hard (with the enthusiastic assistance of two of my canine companions seen snoozing above haha) on the third in my series of spring bulbs in containers. The first two were snowdrops and daffodils….
Which, together with the tulips above, and a fourth design of hyacinths, will be incorporated into a patchwork centre piece perfect for your Easter decorations. I’m really excited to work on this as it’s a long time since I’ve attempted any piecing. Mine will be very simple – I’m thinking log cabin with the embroidery at its centre – I will keep you posted on progress!
2 Comments
Jo Smith
Helen
This is going to look absolutely stunning cannot wait to see the end result
Helen
This is going to look absolutely stunning cannot wait to see the end result
Helen
Your quilting is going to look stunning
Cannot wait to see the end result
You give me so many ideas