Poppy's Quilt

Another baby quilt for a special little girl x

Peachy Princesses and the Pea

A peachy princess quilt, made with a mixture of gauze and quilting cotton which was really hard to work with, but worth it for my perennial favourite Heather Ross prints. The blocks were designed to show off the print of the princess perched atop her huge bed of quilts. Kind of how my kids were starting to look!

For Queen and Country Quilt

I made this quilt quickly and with tears for my brother to take to Afghanistan. He had two tiny kids, one a  newborn, and a, thankfully, strong wife. The news was full of terrible statistics, we all worried every moment of that 6 months. The quilt, and He, came home in one piece. We felt lucky.

Little Town Quilt

I made this quilt by improv piecing each little house based on pictures my kids made of a town.

They included factories and little thatched cottages and so much more detail than I might have conjured up for myself. This quilt was inspired by one I saw that year at the Festival of Quilts.

Hope Valley Baskets Quilt

Oh how I loved making this quilt and it remains one of my all time favourites today, as does this fabric line by Denyse Schmidt. Made using the baskets pattern in Quilts!Quilts!!Quilts!!! book ( a well thumbed book by now!) I loved the colours and the process involved in this quilt. I consider this quilt the beginning of my style now.

Feedsack Butterfly Quilt

A quilt for my eldest daughter. pretty hand appliquéd butterflies with buttons for antennae, lots of piok and gingham.

Sew Hip! AlphaDots Baby Quilt

 A magazine called Sew Hip ask me to design a simple baby quilt for them based on my circular design. This quilt gets published.

Max's Robot Quilt

A fun, bright boys quilt for a friends baby. A fab kokka print of little robots. I'm getting braver at playing with colour.

Raspberry and Lime Wheels Quilt

I can't find another picture of this quilt finished, but I know I have one somewhere so this will have to do for now until it turns up. It was made using Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett dots in this gorgeous raspberry, paired with an oakshot solid colour, which has a kind of shimmer to it as it's a shot cotton. I made this using a rotary cutting template for the circles, but even so they were sooo fiddly to piece on the sewing machine. I threw in a few lime wedges just to add a kick. It ended up rather smaller than I had planned as fabric and patience ran out and I don't think i revisit pieced curves for a year or two!

Heather Ross Baby Big Bed Quilt

This remains one of my all time favourite quilts. Scrappy rectangles with fussy cut panels of precious Heather Ross Munki Munki fabric sourced all over ebay and etsy online. Matched with fabrics from my stash. I adore it. My little girl loved ( and continues to love) it. Its been washed a million times and still looks so vibrant. Pillow to match, appliqued circles stuffed from behind to give a 3D look.

Swirly Whirly Quilt

An experimental quilt using bias binding. Fun!

Flutterby Quilt

A fun baby quilt, hand appliquéd using the butterflies from Charlie and Lola as an inspiration.

Ducks In a Row Quilt

 More baby quilts. At this stage I'm obsessed with the circular hand quilting motif. Usuing graphic linear piecing but then softening it all down using the circular hand quilting.

Lime ChurnDash Quilt

Loving the idea of taking classic quilt blocks, using modern fabric and playing with scale. This quilt was a lot of fun to make and a shot of colour in the dead of winter.

Two Sisters Tilda Quilts

Simple practical matching baby quilts for my cousins little girls, made from wonderful Tilda fabric.

Peaches and Cream Quilt

A quick and simple baby quilt, time was a bit short with 3 kids under 5!

Autumn Wreaths Quilt

A quilt to my own design, hand appliquéd for autumn.

Butterflies Quilt

Another hand appliqué quilt for my big Daughter ( not to be upstaged by Baby Daughter, of course!).

Boys and Girls Quilt

The little paper cut out people here were hand pieced based on the templates in the Quilts, Quilts Quilts book. This quilt was little and intricate and lots of work. Perfect for whiling away the time watching a newborn sleep.

It's a Girl Quilt

My Baby Girl was born and I knitted this little blanket to coordinate with another dots and spots quilt.

Quilted Halloween Panel

Quilted items start busting out everywhere!

Boats for my Boy Quilt

This quilt has pieced boats, I scaled down the pattern in Joelle Hoversons book to make this for my boy.

My Street Baby Quilt

A gender neutral baby quilt, I've given up guessing what this baby will be. This quilt uses Moda wovens and felt. I'm trying out new fabrics, I'm streamlining my appliqué technique, I'm loving making quilts.

Lily & Pink Baby Quilt

I now have a dangerous transatlantic fabric habit as my husband travels to the US on business and comes home laden with impossible-to-get-in-the-UK modern quilt prints.

Marthas Wrens Baby Quilt

Everything is inspiration. The birdies came traced from the pockets of my best friends little girl.

Maxi Dresden Plate Baby Quilt

Suddenly I'm on the cusp of a new modern quilting revolution. Moda launch their now famous Momo Wonderland fabric line and we all go mad for it. Modern quilts have been made and blogged about on the internet for a year or so, suddenly this is filtering through into books. I buy my first quilt book that has pictures in that I actually like! I'm no longer just looking at quilts and trying to filter out the fabric choices of the maker and insert my own imaginary fabric. The now classic Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts is published and PurlSoho in New York is selling the kind of quality modern fabric and old fashioned quality tools that I have been craving. Bye bye rubbishy UK market stall haberdashery for me. I finally feel like my quilts 'fit' in somewhere.

This quilt was drafted using Brio train track, the wedge ruler was still an unknown to me. I draw around a circular brio traintrack onto wall paper then subdivide the paper polo, no mean feat when 8 months pregnant Oh how I loved this quilt.

Ship Ahoy Baby Quilt

Strip piecing and appliqué. Still thinking it's a baby boy...

The Sundance Kid Quilt

Cath Kidston fabric starts being available everywhere. I love this cowboy print. I have the courage to start going wonky. Quilt blogs are starting to pop up on the internet, my head is full of ideas I want to try. Baby quilts are the perfect small cheap canvas for trying everything. I'm loving using colour.

Maybe It's a Boy Quilt

humm - I start thinking that maybe this baby is a boy. Creative applique circles with hand quilting to match is a lot of fun to make.

Log Cabin Baby Playmat

My favourite Log Cabin comes out again, this time in Picture Frames format. I made this mat 3D, the centres of the flowers are padded or felt for texture, the pockets contain a little bird and mouse that rattle and squeek. I sewed texture zigzags and fringes of felt into the boarders for a baby to play with. Although heavily pregnant and with two toddlers on the go all day I can't stop sewing.

The Bundling Board Quilt

I make another Primitive Pieces quilt from a pattern. I just love these modern interpretation of old patterns. Again I will return to this style in the future. This quilt was made in brushed cottons with a wool wadding. I still love it.

New Baby Hearts Quilt

I'm expecting my third child. A fun appliqué quilt made in linen for a new baby. A new kick of inspiration is about to spur me on. My quilt making is about to get prolific!

Log Cabin - Girl

I make a matching one for my daughter. Still learning about colour value, adding the appliqué flowers to break up the unexpected expanse of green. I thought it was going to be a pink quilt with a splash of green, my inexperience with the pattern and colour meant the green was more dominant.  I'm learning all the time.

Log Cabin - Boy

I learn to love Log Cabin. This simple pattern is a love of mine. I made this quilt for my son whilst literally living out of a suitcase as our house was renovated. It's a simple pattern, little measuring or drawing. I had just purchased my first ruler and rotary cutter - its a revelation!

Stars Quilt

I start to experiment, using blocks I am learning in my sampler. Ideas start tumbling out wanting to be made. This is the first quilt I draft and plan myself, I improvise the scrappy border, no more patterns.

I Teach Myself - The Original Simple Sampler

My original sampler. I decide to return to first principles. I buy the classic Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! book by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. I methodically work my way through it chapter by chapter making each block. I discover a real life shop selling quilting cottons. I start to find a palette of colours I love. Looking back at this quilt it's a style I have returned to again and again. The background green is a polka dot, the green/pink combo a favourite. I was so proud of this quilt, I had two small babies so sewing was a guilty pleasure. Another whole year passes on this quilt.

Black Eyed Susan Quilt

I tried another pattern/kit. It was less successful. Curved seams, machine pieced, was a steep learning curve that I didn't enjoy. A little bit of creativity started to creep in - I couldn't help embellishing with little appliquéd bumble bees around the edges. I knew there was a quilter within - I just didn't have the skills to get it out!

Follow a Pattern - American Harvest Quilt

This quilt was made from an eye wateringly expensive mail order kit from an American patchwork magazine. I started to learn how to properly hand quilt. I learnt how to play with colour and I leant that I hated fusible appliqué - so much. It was a steep learning curve but I'd finally made something I loved. It took 9 months to do. The internet was just opening up. Suddenly I could look at other quilts. I still had never met a real quilter in the flesh.

My First Pieced Quilt - Sludgy Pink Pinwheels Quilt

Oh dear - it didn't go well. Based on a pattern in a magazine I tried to slavishly copy the colours but I still hadn't really found a proper quilt shop where I could get real advice. Sludgy colours, no contrast, bias stretchy borders. I almost gave up quilting all together.

In The Beginning - The Vintage Butterflies Quilt

Where it all began. An antique quilt top purchased on eBay in USA which I learnt to hand quilt. I drove to Devon to find a specialist quilt shop to buy wadding. I had no other instruction. I just knew I loved it and I wanted to try and finish it for the woman who had begun it so long ago.