I have her Gentle Art of Domesticity which I loved (I’m sure she is living the life I should have had!) So I had to have this one.

Once again it is beautifully presented. It contains 15 quilts and a description of in the inspiration behind each quilt. What Ms Brocket does really well is to take away the paralysing effect of perfection – it’s all about having a go and making something usable (and beautiful).  Most of the pieces are squares or strips (much easier to cut and sew) and the wow factor is produced by the fabric selections. Who would have thought squares on point could be so spectacular (see the cover image above).

Here are three of my favourites …

Beach Hut (Ice Cream)

Amarylis

Purple Rain

Don’t let my dodgy photography put you off. I think this book is designed for quilters of all levels.

I finally finished this quilt for Miss P.

I free-motion quilted the borders and sashing, stitched in the ditch around each block and did straight line quilting on the diagonals of each block (skipping the applique).

I managed to make this quilt entirely from my stash – I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not (at least it’s getting smaller).

I’m now looking around for a new project and I have a few ideas – one involves this fabric …

I’m quilting my alphabet quilt – it’s almost done. The above is a bit of the free motion quilting I’ve been doing in the sashing and borders.My new sewing machine is lovely… I have lots of new projects in mind.

While quilting I have been listening to Vilette (a novel by Charlotte Bronte) on my Ipod – I have to say it does make the whole process a bit easier.

I made each of the grand mothers quilted coasters from Last Minute Patchwork Gifts (and here is her blog). They were  easy to do and are a good way to use up fabric and wadding scraps.

I did slightly alter the instructions. First I ironed a hem on the two shorter sides of the rectangle (just 6mm). Second I folded it right-sides together and placed the wadding on the outside (wrong side) and then when I stitched the sides together the wadding was (just) caught in the stitches (see below). This made it easier to get the wadding nice and flat when I turned it the right-side out,

I then turned it right-side out and quilted it.

I’ve started quilting the alphabet quilt. I’ve decided to ‘stitch in the ditch’ around the blocks and free-motion the sashing and borders. I think it will be quite a while before I get this finished.

I finished the Alphabet Quilt top. In one of those bizarre quilting incidences it is bigger than I expected (bizarre because I know how big each individual bit is so I shouldn’t be surprised by the size of the top!).

I’m piecing the backing and I think I’m even going to piece the batting (this way I will not have bought anything for the this quilt).

I finished the Pre-Primary quilt. It was a lot of work, but I think it will lovely reminder of her class.

I was also amazed at how much I could achieve in one week (not much else got done).

Miss P’s pre-primary teacher is having a baby and consequently leaving at the end of term. We’ve decided to make her a quilt as a memento. We used fabric paint to get each child’s hand print.

All of my spare time in the last week has been used to quilt it.

I’ve started cutting the sashing strips for my quilt. I don’t want to cut too many strips in case I run out of fabric for the borders.

 At first I tried to use my rotary cutter, but that was a bit of a failure. Now I draw around the shape with a disappearing pen and then cut it out using scissors.