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Don’t you just love what we do as patch workers! You start off with a couple of fabrics and use a rotary cutter to cut accurate squares and rectangles. (The measurements in this instance are 3½” and 1½”.) It’s just a pile of shapes. 

 

                                              Cut shapes

And when these shapes are sewn together with an accurate ¼” seam, blocks are prepared.

 

                                            Blocks 

Ironing plays an important role in preparing the blocks. The rule is to iron from light to dark.

 

 

                                         Seams

And then you join the blocks together to make rows. With the seam allowances ironed in opposite directions, the seams butt up to produce a smooth join.
 

                                              Rows

And before you know it, you’ve made a simple quilt! My niece is having a Christmas baby so I am smugly ahead of the game here.
 

 

                                               Quilt

…. And it’s that time of the year again. I have just been away to the Southern Lake District to visit my 97 year old mother, to deliver cards and presents and to collect a few as well. And because everyone else appears to have dressed their houses ready for Christmas, I reckon that it’s about time I got on with it too. I just love it all, from the Nativity, to the over-indulging, to the silly cracker jokes, right down to the last bauble. So we enter the spirit of it by stripping the house of its usual decorative stuff and replacing it with seasonal red and green. And this is how it starts …. With boxes and bags!    
 

 

                                      Boxes and bags

We have made some progress and here’s how it looks so far. The folded quilt on the cat’s rocking chair is an applique heart block in an attic window setting. It’s actually an advent calendar pocket quilt and will be used when the granddaughters get older.

                                    Dresser and rocker

Here’s the fireplace with cross stitch stockings and crazy patchwork Christmas trees.

 

                                           Fireplace

The kitchen step is a good place to show off some soft toys that have been made for me as gifts.
 

 

                                         Kitchen steps

I have a treasured Christmas box which was made by special friends. They used to make bespoke boxes as gifts for people, for any occasion, and actually found time to make a Christmas one for me. I adore the detail of it and it usually stays out a lot longer than the rest of the decorations.
 

 

                        Christmas box

 

 

                          Detail

Even the sun room gets a cracker quilt, tree and cushions. Not much of a view from N Wales today though; normally, on a clear day, we can see landmarks beyond the Wirral, Runcorn and Liverpool.
 

 

                                            Sun room