Snug as a bug

I have just returned from a lovely weekend in Cambridge spent with some of my very favourite people. We have a yearly meet up as a group - it is lovely to hear what everyone has been up to and to return to the familiar dynamic within our little gaggle. We hid from the rain in the cinema and then basked in the sun, when it appeared; eating cakes by the river and watching the punts laden with cheery tourists make their brinky way downstream. There were preening ducks and weeping willows to remind you of a 'Wind in the Willows' scene. I feel revived, despite the sleepover slumber deprivation.

Now I am back in London town I am thinking about what project to embark upon this week. I have a fun evening planned for tomorrow that I will tell you more about when I have photos to show for it.

In the menatime here is a project I finished a couple of weeks ago. One of my dear friends in America who I used to work with in London town had a beautiful baby girl at the end of August. The baby was born over a month early - so this project ended up being a race against the clock in a way which I had not intended! 

I wanted the quilt to be bold and fun and rather than all the pastel shades normally associated with baby stuff  I went for bright colours with a mix of prints.

 I included some Cath Kidston cowboy print and red and white stars, as I wanted it to have an American slant, and complemented those with patches of florals, spots and Cath Kidston 'Stanley' fabric. I used tied quilting in red pearle cotton in each of the patch corners. 

I included a matching lavender bag in the parcle and also a selection on my favourite children's books in fairly indestructable board book format. it is never to young to start hearing stories! Here they are all wrapped and ready to go. It was very satisfying to think of the package arriving all those thousands of miles away.

Home Improvements

Hello, I hope you are all having a good week. As promised, here is an update about some room alterations!

Since moving into my London flat, about five months ago, I have been contemplating some changes to my room. It is a small space - and used to be an office so if full of fitted furniture - shelves and desks; nice and useful as a sewing HQ but impractial as a bedroom. Due to the fixed units it is impossible to fit a double bed in there, and the single bed that came in the room has no headboard, so my pillows fall off the bed in the night and I can't sit in bed and read etc. So, I pushed the head of the bed up against the wardrobe - which meant I had to move the bed every time I wanted to put clothes in or out. A bit or a chore. I have therefore got a lovely new bed from Ikea, it arrived today....

I can store things in my wardrobe - and my bed can act as a comfy sofa in the daytime. This is good. The cushion designs come from the Cath Kidston 'Sew' book - I made them during my Easter break in the Lake District.

Speaking of the Lakes do you like my Herdwick sheep wool blanket? I love Herdwicks - you can get these blankets here: www.cumbrianwool.co.uk

I am also pretty keen on my new-to-me eiderdown, from Donna Flower.

I will hopefully soon finish this quilt I am working on and be able to bring that up to London too for cosy winter times.

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date...

Hello there, so I went home to Sussex at the weekend and didn’t look at a computer once, it was a nice change to the daily screen-staring of work. It does however mean that I neglected to write anything on the blog. The computer seems to eat hours of time if I’m not careful, so I am determined at weekends to try and make the most of the remaining summer-y days.








The village where I grew up, and which I still think of very much as home, is pretty small. There is no shop, no pub, no tourist hot spot. Everyone knows everyone and there is still a genuine sense of community. On Sunday we had a village ‘tree walk’ with a tree warden and a South Downs National Park Ranger. The aim of the walk was to get us villagers better acquainted with the signs of disease that affect trees in our area, particularly Dutch Elm disease, so that we can act to stop the spread of the disease and prevent trees from dying. Thankfully the sun came out for our very slow trail through the wood!








After the walk my family gaggle returned home for a delectable autumnal delight – damson crème brulee. Highly recommended – damsons have gone up in my estimations as a result. Then whilst the rest of the gang got on with making damson gin I set to some frenzied patchworking.








Last Christmas I was given a sewing machine by my parents and have since developed a habit for collecting fabric and daydreaming that I have a whole house of my own to fill with homemade cushions!












The enjoyment of sewing, making things and appreciating handmade textiles was long established before the arrival of this gift. My Gran made many quilts including a beautiful pink and blue one for me that is one of my most treasured possessions, despite it being a little threadbare nowadays.


Feeling a little bit unsure of where to start on my patchworking mission I went with my lovely cousin in law to a beginners quilt course in my local town, Lewes, run by Annabel Groom at the Patchwork Dog and Basket shop. Since then there have been a number of projects over the summer, and if you’ll indulge me here are a couple of snaps of some of them.


Patchwork star blocks:








A birthday present for a gardener:


















Holiday stitching by the pool:


















And lavender bags stuffed with lavender from the garden:














I must now go to sleep. But I will update later in the week when certain exciting arrivals will have taken place in my London flat room!

Take One

Post number one. I think this will be a bit of trial and error as I get used to understanding how this all works, so I'll start short and sweet. Here is a snapshot in photo form of the sort of things I hope to be talking about on this blog in the future, so please pop back!